Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-06-06
Cruisers and DreadnaughtS.


Though admirable in many respects the Navy
bill passed by the House is fatally deficient in that
it malSes provision for additional dreadnaughts
This dangerous error must be corrected by the
Senate if the American fleet is to be at all equal to
its vast responsibilities.
The one-year building program of the House
bill calls for five battle-cruisers, four scout
cruisers, ten destroyers, fifty submarines and one
hundred and thirty aeroplanes. None of these
items is extravagant; none safely be reduced
Particularly commendable is the provision for bat
te-cruisers, type of vessel which has played a
foremost part in the present war and in which our
navy is wholly lacking. In its recommendations
on this point the House Committee advanced cogent
reasons:
Each of the several foreign navies has the
battle-cruiser, and it therefore becomes an alb
solute necessity for the proper naval defense
of the country that the United States, too,
equip its navy with this kind of vessel Battle
cruisers used to harass the enemyS sup
plies and to act in concert with the battlefield
in a general action by placing the enemy at
tactical disadvantage, as their superior speed
enables them to obtain superior position,
or to prevent the enemy's battle-cruiser d
vision from obtaining a similar tactical al
vantage. If a possible enemy is operGt-
ing vessels whose speed enables them to eludc
a battleship with certainty and which are pow
erful enough not to fear smaller craft the
only method of defense against the battle
cruiser seems to be the battle-cruiser.
1t is noteworthy in this connection that
Great Britain, prior to the recent North Sea fight,
had ten such cruisers the fastest of which had a
speed of twenty-eight knots; Germany had nine;
Japan has four; the United States has none. 1t
is plainly imperative that navy be well sup
Iiad with thaSe swift nd 6PhterS
value, as the Literary Digest observes, has been
tersely summed up in the remark, Nothing else
aaoat that can whip them catch them, and
nothing that they whip can escape them.
The batle-crusers specified in the House bill will
have each a speed of thirty-fve knots-"siX Knots
faster than the fastest of their type in the British
and German navies'-and a displacement and
armament far greater than those of any other YES
sells of the kind.
But battle-cruisers cannot take the place or do
the work of batteships, which are the decisive
factors in great naval combats and the backbone
of sea defense This was demonstrated conclu-
sively in the recent Anglo German encounter in
which an English cruiser squadron struck the
main German fleet. In its earlier stages, at least,
the battle seems to have been mainly between
cruisers and dreadnaughts. Then the English, for
all their courage and SKILL were at woeful dis
advantage. Later, when the main British force, in
the Germans were forced to retire. The lesson is
unmistakable. Battlecruisers, despite their re-
riority for certain tasks and needs, cannot COP
with the greatest battleships.
No preparedness plan that ignores this fact will
be adequate. The Senate by all means should re-
store the two dreadnaughts for which the Admin
istration has asked and at the time it should
leave the batte-cruiser item of the House bill in
tact Such program calls for great expenditures,
but it will be the surest and soundest and most
patriotic investment Congress can make. Senator
Tillman voiced the country's thoughtful judgment
when he recently declared:
''The one essential and most important
thing confronting us, and to which should
bend all the nations energies, is adequate
navy BY that, mean navy second to
except England's, both in number of ships
and their armament. This will cost hundreds of
millions of dollars, but no matter what it COSTS
we must have it and we ought to set about
obtaining it in a hurry, for it takes time to
build batteships and battle-cruisers.'
No nation has greater need of powerful navy
than has the United States with its unequaled ex-
tent of coast line its unequaled number of ex-
posed harbors its outlying possessions in the At
lantic and the racfc, it's obligations under the
Monroe Doctrine its material interests to be de-
Tended, its national ideals to be upheld. 1t is
earnestly to be hoped, therefore, that when the
navy issue comes up for final adjustment in the
Senate every Senator, particularly those of the
Democratic party and of the South will stand for
ample appropriations and for far-sghted pro-
gram that will make the American navy supreme.
f0,,~ H;e4oxA, of TTo~~onoNo dooec