The Washington herald., 1917-03-14
Army and Navy News
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gress has authorized is to be carried out.
the men of the country must do their
part toward making an adequate and
efficient personnel possible. according to
Rear Admiral Bradley A. Fiske. In q
recent interview in New York he Is quot
| ed as saying:
IT am asked what I think will be the
relative position Of the United States
navy after vessels now authorized by
Congress shall have been added to the
active feet. 1t 10 impossible to form any
estimate at this time. The various ves-
sells. aircraft, drydocks. shipbuildinE
ways. and even the number Of officers
and men who will be required in the
utilization OF this force, comprise what
we call logistics. 1t 10 simply number
OF tools given to the administration Of
time Of peace, and when diplomacy shall
have failed to carry out the policy Of
the government by force.
THE various items Of material which
the Congress has authorized may be
likened to the parts OF an automobile.
II you should tell me that some other
automobile manufacturer Is going to con-
struct a machine with a cylinder of GER
tain dimensions. a steering gear of a GER
tain kind. a chassis of a certain type
tires of a certain make. etc, and then
y
such parts would compare with an auto
mobile which some other company is 60
ing to get out. but of which you do not
know the details OF construction. l would
be equally at loss to answer
Don't Know Our Material.
"In the frst place" the rear admiral
continued, I'VE do not know how the va
rious parts are going to fit together TO
make the naval fighting machine that we
want. We do not know which parts Will
he completed long before other parts W.
do not know whether the various paris.
by which I mean other cruisers. scouts
dpstroyers. submarines and aircraft nave
been decided on in the proper proper
tions.
"I am OF the opinion. for instance. that
the aeronautical part OF the machine is
too weak. As to some OF the other parts.
especially battle cruisers. It looks as u
we must wait for them so long that pe-
fore they are constructed and before IN"
crews can be trained to handle them the
aspect of naval warfare may undergo
considerable change.
For US to come in at this stage OF the
game and try to jump into this rapidly
moving procession seems difhcult.
stated before the Congressional commit
tee on December II. 1914. that In the
summer OF 1918 the German feet had car
ried out maneuvers which showed
grasp of naval warfare far beyond any
thing We had ever shown. We have no
6irigibles, hardly a dozen airplanes and
no battle cruisers. The German feet has
an advantage over us of about four years
already. and 1t will probably be 1870 be-
fore we can do what Germany was able
to do in 1913
Men Unknown Quantity.
Another unknown quantity is the offi-
GERS and men to man the navy, and We
are so far behind in both that our fleet
is already undermanned and underom-
cered. while the vessels in reserve have
ina rdlv enough men to keep them in goo1
material condition. 1t Is impossible to
guess, and 7 use the word advisedly. how
long 1t would take, even II the necessary
number Of men enlisted. to get the YES
sells of active and reserve fleets manned
in such a way that they could be fought
with anything like the proper effective
ness The crew OF the battleship Lou
isiana, now in reserve. for instance.
would number about 800 men. Now the
Louisiana could not engage in fight
with a highly trained German ship OF
the same size on anything like equal
terms inside of a year after going into
commission unless she had In her crew
large proportion OF trained men at
the start. and that she has not.
The Louisiana could be got ready to
90 out and fight tomorrow, but II she
should have to 1ght highly trained Ger
man ship Of the same type she would
probably he sunk within an hour. This
is not q wild statement. Remember that
the Cumberland was sunk IN much less
time after she engaged the Merrtmac in
1852. and also remember that the United
States frigate Chesapeake was captured
and nearly half Of her officers and men
killed or wounded In a battle of less than
fifteen minutes with the British frigate
Shannon, despite the fact that the Shan
non was about identical in size.
Enlistments Coming slowly.
Now. in a suppositious fight tomorrow
between the Minnesota and a German
battleship, the Minnesota would not have
one-half the number of men on board as
the German would. so 1t is not far under
the truth to say that she would be sunk
in an hour. In this connection. let us re-
member that the actual battle OF Manila
was decided in less than two hours, and
so was the battle OF Tsushima between
the Russian and Japanese fleets, which
was the greatest naval battle ever fought
up to that time and which is still the
greatest IL we leave out the battle OF
Jutland in the present war. In point of
decisiveness. of course. the battle of
Tsushima was greater
Now, as to our navy. we do not know
when we are going to get enough enlisted
men to man the ships. Enlistments have
been coming in very slowly and probably
will continue so. The young men of this
country don't take kindly to the hard
ships and dangers of naval life, because
mainly throughout their lives they have
Leen trained to make money and have an
easy time. 1t is hard to see how mem