The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-02-09

Prof. William l.. Cathcart, naval engineer of Philadelphia, recently read a paper before the American So- ciety of Mechanical Engineers on .sThe Development of Our Fleet and Naval Stations" has delivered an ad- dition to that adress before the Schenectady Section of the American Institute of Mechanical Engineers, in which he laid particular stress upon the unpreparedness of the United States in the Pacific Ocean.
 Rear-Admiral John R. Edwards said of it: r
 Tt is one of the strongest papers that I have heard in the last decade. I don't know of a greater paper on naval policy" .sf ? e. eses
 In his adress, which is given in full, Professor Cathcart emphasized what he had to say about the import ance of Guam and Hawaii by point ing to a large map showing the strategic importance of those Ameri- can owned islands.
 Long ago, The said, William H. Seward told the Senate of the United States that the commerce, politics, thought and activities of Europe would ultimately sink in importance, while the Pacific, Ocean, its shores. it's islands, and the vast regions beyond, will become the chief theatre of events in the worlds great hereafter
 Tn later years that master analyst of world politics and strategy, Ad- miral Mahan, echoed these words when he said: Men have not yet ad- justed their thought to the new con- .dition that the Pacific, rather than the Atlantic, holds the problem of the near future.' And, but recently a leading naval authority wrote: The cards are now being shuffled for a mighty play as to who is to control the Pacific Ocean,
 eff this be so-and all indications point to it's truth-this unprepared republic, with more at stake than any other nation, will sit in at that great game of empire with a very weak hand. We can hold our own in it only by prodigious bluff. based on futures'-on what we are likely to be in military strength, not what we are now.
 "Do you realize what we have to lose in that distant ocean? Our out lying possessions there-Aiaska Guam Hawaii and the Philippines have an aggregate area which is more than one-fourth that of the United States proper and more thar one-fifth that of the whole continent of Europe. These possessions are in their extent. potential wealth and commanding position the lands of ar empire.
 Alaska is thirteen times the size of the state of Pennsylvania. It: original cost was about seven mil lion dollars; it's yield during the las fiscal year was sixty-Eeven millions And it's vast resources have been bu scratched. Besides it's minerals, it: furs and it's immense salmon catch>S i has great forests of fir, cedar an6 pine and large tracts of coal lands Agriculture is spreading also, for i is a land of the midnight sun. From Arctic ice foes to Antarctic glaciers there is no outlying possession in ths Pacific which is such a world prize al Alaska.
 ''The aggregate area of the Philip pines is more than ten times that o, Belgium, and the population is abou the same-eight millions. While the. islands are mainly agriculture territory, they have more than forty thousand square miles of virgin for ests of hardwoods, gums and dye woods. Tn their probable develop ment, their trade and industrial pos abilities and their bearing on oul economic relations with the whole of the Far East there is enough te make far-seeing statesmen condemn the intermittent political agitation ir Washington for hauling down oul flag and setting the Philippine: adrift.
 Let us now consider the milittry relations of our Pacific possessions Napoleon said. War is a business of possessions'-and positions ol military value the United States ha. in plenty in this northern ocean. IT the first place, we own, on the shore: from Panama to Kiska, in the Aleu tan Islands, every important strategit point except three-the Galapago: