Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1916-03-17
DOUBTS ABOUT NAVY
OPINIONS DIFFER AS TO THE
TYPE OF VESSELS THAT
is MOST NEEDED.
MARS LESSONS UNCERTAIN
Battle Cruisers Are Strongly Urged by
Some Naval Experts and Congress
men-comparative Values of Dread
naughts and Submarines in Debate.
By GEORGE CLINTON.

Washington.-Cn of the difficult
ties confronting congress in framing
preparedness legislation lies in the diff
ference of opinion as to what tyne O,
vessels shall be built in order that
tn best naval protective service may
be secured for the country.
1t may be that the ship building pro-
gram will be attacked not because it
is too ambitious, but because the YES
sells provided for do not meet, as some
senators, representative and navy men
view it, the requirements of the case.
It is held that the present war has not
produced conclusive proof that one
type of ship must be done away with
and another type substituted. Some
of the navy men urge, and some con-
gressmen hold the same view, that the
+ tile cruiser is an imperative neces-
sity, but while this is so, they say. it
is not necessary to supplant other
classes of Ships
The battle cruiser is fast steam
ing, fighting ship. It is the peer of
the battleship in armament and in Of
any battleship af1oat.
Dreadnaunhts Versus Submarines.
In the senate there is a controversy
over the comparative values of dread
naughts and submarines. Most of the
members of the senate committee on
naval affairs seem to think that big
battleships are more necessary than
ever, while the belief is that the
chairman of the committee thinks sub
marines have made the lives of bat
tleships precarious and that therefore
chief attention should be paid to the
construction for the American navy
of plenty of under-the-sea boats.
All these differences of opinion must
be threshed out and the chances are
that in the final outcome it will be
found that the Judgment of the ma
jority of the naval experts has been
taken. 1t is fact, however, that the
naval students of the present warfare
abroad are at variance in their views
as to just what kinds of ships will be
best adapted to meet conditions of
the future.
A difference of opinion some years
old has been renewed because of the
resul of the first fight between the
Germans in southern waters and the
English ship Good Hope and the
smaller vessels which were with it.
The Germans sank the Good Hope
and either destroyed or drove away
the smaller ships. American naval
experts say that it is now known def
nitely that the Good Hope was unable
to use it's heavier guns effectively
because a high sea was running and
the bounding ship made accuracy of
IRE impossible.
Fighting in Heavy Seas.
Eight years ago an article was writ
ten by naval expert in which he
said that under certain conditions of
weather some of our ships woul be
useless in a fight. He singled out one
of our cruisers and said that if it
were compelled to engage in battle
while anything more than a moderate
sea was running it could not use it's
big guns The argument was That the
vessels of this type were built along
wrong lines It is limited today that
in the American navy there ere sew
eral ships which would meet the fate
of the Good Hope if they were COM
PEELED to fight while high sea was
running, and, Of course, if their an
tagonists were more stable than they
in rough water.
It seems likely that the question of
stability of certain types of ships in
all kinds of weather will enter into the
debates in congress.
Conditions in British Army.
Within a day or two in Washington
there have been issued as an article
of information" some facts concerning
the condition of the British forces of
all kinds at the outbreak of the pres
ent war. Unquestionably the object of
this article is to help the propaganda
for an increased regular force in this
country as opposed to a plan which
would place main dependence upon
bodies of partially trained men like the
militia and continental army of re-
serves The article, however, has
muCl interest DIS SuOWInS actually IAO
conditions which existed in the ranks
of the English territorials and the
forces known as the special reserves
at the time of the outbreak of the war.
When your correspondent was IN
England some months ago he had an
opportunity to visit the training camps
He saw enough to know that England,
even when the war had been in prog
ress for more than half year, was
largely in the same condition with re-
gard to trained soldiers that the Uni
ted States is today. He noted the
sharp differences between the men OF
the British regular army, of the terri
torials and of the special reserves.
There was also in England a force
known as the army reserve. This army
reserve, as the article just given out in
Washington and written by Frederick