The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-02-08
FOREIGN MADE SHELLS
FOR AMERICAN NAVY
POLICY OF WILSON ApMiNlsTRA-
TON IS OPPOSITE THAT
OF LINCOLN.

II to destroy the industry of shell
making in the United States and to be
hereafter dependent upon foreign
countries for supply of projectiles
needed by our navy, our coast FORTH
cations and our land artillery were
really the purpose of the free trade
Economist, nothing could be done that
is more directly calculated to bring
about that result than the acceptance
by the secretary of the navy of the bid
of British concern to supply our gov
eminent with 14-ineh and 16-inch ar
NOR piercing shells. The New York
Suns Washington dispatch of January
IT, says:
Foreign Bids Kept Secret.
Secretary Daniels, with the express
sanction Of President Wilson, award
ed today the contract for 14.inch and
16-inch armor piercing shells to Had
fields Limited, of Great Britain, there
by excluding the American steel COM
panies. The action marks a new pol
icy in the navy. II is likely still fur
Their to widen the rift between Mr.
Daniels and the big American manu-
facturers of war materials
7" Hadheld's Limited, was the lowest
bidder, offering the shells at approxi-
mately 5000 each cheaper than its Am
L.. IL, l.. ~.
company promised to make deliveries
in lessthan half the time asked for
by the Americans. The contract calls
for 1900 14-inch projectiles at 1856
each, to be delivered in 10 months,
and 5000 16-inch projectiles at $513
each. to be delivered in 16 months.
At the time the navy department
announced the bids Mr.. Daniels made
mitted by American firms were re-
suit of the fact that he had kept Sc
cret the departments decision to per-
nit foreign firms bid'
Daniels Favors Foreigners.
1t will be noticed that this contract
for the supply of heavy and expensive
projectiles has been awarded to a
British concern with the express
sanction of President Wilson" Such
a policy would be quite certain to re-
ceive the express sanction of the free
trade school master. Presumably he
sanctioned also the palm of Secretary
M 81 tn, a.k
ments decision to invite foreign bids.
knowledge of this fact might have led
TO somewhat lower bids on the part of
the domestic shell makers. One would
would have been glad to receive the
lowest possible proposals from Ameri-
can concerns. Certainly it would seem
no more than fair that they should be
informed that foreign bidders were to
enter the competition. Even though
their bids, owing to the much higher
labor cost, could not have been as low
as the bids of their British rivals,
they were entitled to know in advance
that the contract was open to the
whole world. If Secretary Daniels,
with the express sanction of President
Wilson had planned to give the con-
tract to a foreign bidder and to make
1t impossible for American bidders to
successfully compete, he could not
have hit upon a policy more certain to
produce that result.
Policy of Lincoln.
In marked contrast with the policy
of the administration of Abraham Lin
coin this patronage of foreigners for
supplies to be used by the American
navy stands out conspicuously In
volume III, page s, of "The Industrial
Developments of Nations" by George
B. Curtiss, we read:
Secretary Stanton, discovering that
arms clothing and supplies for the
armies were largely purchased in
Europe. said to Secretary Chase: If
these things were purchased at home
the flow of gold would be stopped and
our factories lifted from depression
Therefore in the famous official Or
der of January 49, 1862, he declared.
-. That no further contracts be
made, by this bureau or any bureau
thereof for any article of foreign man.
lufacture that can be produced in the
United States.
"2. All outstanding orders. agen-
cies, authorities or licenses for the
purchase of arms, clothing or anything
else in foreign countries, or of foreign
manufacture. for the department are
revoked and annulled.'
THE order made of the
United States supporting and
tenfold more expansive, glorious and
powerful nation than it was before.
4. The security and support Civ
en- to domestic industry by the tariff
acts and the policy of the war depart
ment so developed the resources and
increased the wealth of the country
that the loyal states soon became in
( dependent of foreign nations for every
thing necessary to a successful prose-
cution of the war"
America First.
\ If Abraham Lincoln were now pres
ident of the United States and Edwin
NJ. Stanton were now secretary of the
navy. no contract for tho cunnlv re