Evening star., 1919-08-31
Army and Navy News

y
: at the arbitrary will of the conven-
ing authority. This principle is.
many officers say. necessary to the
maintenance of discipline; but it is
/ opposed to the principles of justice
on which every judicial system is
| based. Whether the armies of the
| United States can maintain discipline
! in way that will win for them the
| support of the people of the United
! States is a problem that they may
| never have considered. but it is
| worthy of some thought.
e + =
! Bills have been offered in Congress
to make Rear Admiral William S. Ben
son Ga d.
Permanent Rank miral Ben
for Admiral Benson. .u tua ~ " hi.
holding the position of chief of ma
val operations) full admiral in the
Navy. Few men have received this
distinction; and hitherto only officers
who have won fame by high command
| in naval battle have had such an
| honor. No great naval engagements.
such as brought renown to Farragut
and Porter. have fallen to the Ameri
can Navy during this war; but it's
officers have so conducted themselves
and their commands as to reflect glory
upon the service, and recognition is
due the service as well as to the in
dividual.
peerage supported with donations of
enormous wealth to her heroes; all
| our heroes want is simple acknowl-
| edgment of the work well done. That
\ &c hot in hrC
| poses to do; and to the United States
| naval officer it can give no better ac-
| acknowledgement than to declare he is
worthy to enter the class with Farra-
gut.
| While Admiral Benson did not take
! the seas to belch destruction from
, the mouths of ships guns upon an
| enemy fleet, he did organize the fleet
| that fought the submarines, that con-
voyed the transports and supply car
riers to the Army in France and that
| threw a balance of power to the Brit
| ish encircling fleet of the German
! navy.
| He was in charge during these anx-
| ious days of the early war. when the
| question of raising a sufficient per-
| sonne1 was hanging in the balance.
and it was his persistence that helped
to carry on" over that period. 1t
was the Office of operations that bound
the Navy together and kept it at top
! notch of operative efficiency during the
whole of the war. AS the representa-
tive of the Navy. his part in the ad-
! justment of affairs after the signing
of the armistice left nothing to be
desired.
So it is not singular that Congress
should seek to honor him. and with
! him the officers and men who served
| with him by passing the bill that will
make him full admiral.
Admiral Benson's work is neatly
over. The 25th of September brings
the birthday, the sixtyfourth, that
marks his retirement from active serv-
| ice. At most. he can enjoy the honor
of his new office but for a few days,
and then comes the time for him to
haul down the flag of his office. Hon
orable retirement will be his portion,
and a well-earned rest.
x X r
Before the United States Navy en-
tered the war theorists in naval mat
ters were
Battleships Remain ad vocat-
Backbone Of the Navy. con.truc @
tion of submarines and the abandon
ment of the building of battleships.
The argument in favor of this plan
was plausible, and ran substantially
| in this way: The object of a navy"
they said. 'is to defend the coast of
the United States. One submarine can
sink battleship, and therefore a fleet
of submarines equal in number to the
enemy's battleships can destroy the
whole enemy fleet. and accomplish the
object of maintaining navy" OF
course such an argument was un-
sound, but the lessons of the war are
| that. despite many changes and modi-
fications of old plans. battleships re-
, , main the backbone of the fleet; swift
scout cruisers are absolutely neces-
sary, and the United States would
have suffered greatly from not having
the cruisers if great tactical and stra-
tegic movements had been required.
While naval men now believe that
the battle cruiser, with it's power,
speed and long-range guns. are not
indispensable as scouts no other class
. of ship can take their place as oe
, stroyers of enemy commerce or pro-
tectors of their own commerce, if the
enemy has even a few battle cruisers.
This war has brought the greatest
change revolution, in fact-in
methods of communication. At Ira
fa1gar Lord Nelson kept in touch with
the French-Span fleet by means of
swift frigates cruising within signal
ing distance from one another in a