New-York tribune., 1921-11-23
Naual Concentration
The Time at Hand Make the United States Fleet Homo
geneous--Suggested Plan Of Consolidation
To the Editor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: Now that the probabilities
point to the adoption by the five great
maritime nations of the Hughes pro-
gram of limitation of naval armament.
the United States finds itself in most
favorable position to make drastic
change in it's naval policy. We are to
limit our equipment of ships Of the line
to eighteen dreadnoughts, all of which
are at present completed and in full
commission. In addition to these we
shall be allowed to complete and COM
mission our ten fast light cruisers, now
under construction, and at least the
majority of our numerous destroyers.
Since Secretary Meyer lett office in
1913 the United States has never
possessed a real fleet When I say this
l mean elect" in the way strategists
use the word-a feet such as Admiral
Evans commanded in 1907, feet like
Osterhaus's and Schroeders; a homo
geneous block OF battleships divided
into squadrons and divisions operating
together, and tactically a unit Of Of
fensive power; reinforced by destroy
ers and auxilaries, and trained to
fight a possible enemy by means Of
constant maneuvers and practice.
Speed Essential
Many people look upon the aggrega
ton under Admiral Mayo during the
war as q fleet. Wrongly so. The
numerous battleships under his com
mand were just so many units; for
they ranged from the flagship Penn
sylvania, speed 81 knots, down to
the Spanish War Kentucky, whose sea
speed hardly equalled eleven. Speed
is an essential in warfare, and the
speed of feet is no greater than that
of its slowest component part,
Mayo's feet did not have its proper
share Of destroyers-most of the few
the United States owned in 1917-'18
were doing yeoman's work in Euro
pean waters, and again, four or five Of
his best dreadnoughts were with
Admiral Beatty's grand fleet under
Hugh Rodman. Furthermore, our
older battleships and armored cruisers
were constantly being detached from
/ Mayo's command for use as conveys
! to the transports carrying our troops
to France. These statements are not
made in criticism, but merely to
demonstrate that what Mayo had con-
centrated at Base 2 was not in the
military sense Il fleet.
After the armstce we commissioned
a total of six superdreadnoughts-
! New Mexico, Idaho, Mississippi, Ten
nessee, California, and the l6-inch-gun
Maryland-all 2l-knot electrically
driven monsters. They are now under
Admiral Eberle in the Pacific feet. He
has now none but oil-burning ships
under him-ten of them, all but the
Maryland, 14-inch-gun ships. Also
many oilburnng destroyers, fush-deck
35-knotters.
Theoretically this is as it should be
But actually the fleet is not fleet
Tactically, ten vessels of the line do
not compose fleet; and even as q
squadron ten is clumsy number
Neither are the docking and repair
facilities on the Pacific Coast adequat,
for the purpose. In actuality the fee
is crippled by the fact that large
number of its units are constantl,
awaiting their turn at the few avail
able drydocks. OF these there are onl,
four~-one each at Puget Sound, Sar
Francisco, Hawaii and Panama. I'm
agine the time necessary to scatter the
various ships to these distant yard
and to assemble them again!
The result ia that the commander o1