The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-06-24
EIGHT SHIPS URGED
 BY SUBCOMMITTEE Four Super-Dreadnaugh
 and Four Cruisers INCREASE IN JACKIEs
Would Authorize President to Recruit Navy Up to TATTOO Men in Peace Time and S7,OOO Men in War.
 Will Be Reported Wednesday


 Washington. June 23.-Cons-raction of four superdreadnaughts and four battle cruisers in 1917 was deter mined upon today by the Senate naval sub :. committee as an amendment to the House bill. after conference with Secretary Daniels and Rear A,!mirais Taylor and Blue The subcommittee also determined to recommend an in. crease in the enlisted strength of tGe navy immediately to TATTOO men, an ad- dition of 20.7O0.
 The five-year building rogfamn.e recomme ended by the general board Of the navy also will be recommended by thu subcommittee and the president will be authorized to increase the enlisted strength of the navy to S7.0o0 men m time of emergency
 MEETS WILSON'S REQUESTS
 The recommendations will be report e1 to the whole committee next Wednesday.
 The authorization for eight capital ships, which was approved IS part of five-year construction policy similar to that drafted by the navy general board, is understood to be acceptable to the administration as meetiy:t Pres ident Wilson's request for an enlarge nlent of the building programme now carried by the pending naval bill.
 As it passed the House t,e measure no dreadnaughts and contains no au- thorization for d continuing policy.
 The personnel increase arorcved by the House was only 11.0G0, bringing the total enlisted strength to o5,00u In addition to providing for q peace strength of TATTOO. the Senate srbcom mittee decided. on the the recommenda- tion of Secretary Daniels. to insert in the bill a section under which the President could recruit the>navy up to S7,000 in an emergency.
 AMENDMENTS AGREED ON
 Other amendments agreed on include appropriate of $60O.000 for construc- tion of a floating crane at the Mare Island navy yard and $1,0S5,000 to ex- tend the dry dock in the Charleston, $. C., navy yard for accommodation of deep draught vessels a provision un- der which officers of the line above the rank of captain would be chosen on the basis of selection instead or seniority; and a stipulation that ths total number of commissioned officers exclusive of warrant officers shall be per cent of the total enlisted strength of the active list authorized by Jaw. Yesterday the subcommittee, cont posed of Senators Tillman. Swanson and Lodge, agreed tentatively orr three superdreadnaughts for 1917 and added another on the advice given today by l Secretary Daniels and the naval chiefs of construction and navigation. The part played by dreadnaughts in the re- cent naval battle off JLtland IS said /, to have been cited by the ldepa.tmeE; officials to support their positi. n. 1 Provision also will be made in the
 subcommittee report, which e;ll be
 submitted to the full committee Wednesday for an increase in the ma | rine corps to keep it on the basis of 20 per cent of the enlisted strength l of the navy. This would enlarge the corps from the present 5000 to approx imately 15.000 and in an emergency to ', IT 900 mon.
 The House appropriations of $3.50O.- I 00G for aeronautics and $6.0QQ.G00 fo, construction of building ways in navy ] yards are retained, as IS the Ilous, provision for bonuses to builders for prompt construction. The house appro- priation of $11.245,925 for ammunition
 Is increased to $1S.S73.500.