New-York tribune., 1921-11-20
An Opposing Vie,o

One Of the few expressions of op-
position to the disarmament program
was made to a Tribune representative
by Charles Mcknight, prominent steel
man and banker, of this city, who de-
clared he was Thoroughly opposed to
this plan in every phase" Mr.. Nc.
knlght holds executive positions with
several large, steel companies. He is
president and director of the Carbon
Steel Company. which makes specially
treated deck plates for the United
States Navy; director of the Midland
Steel Company, president and director
OF the Pittsburgh Iron and Steel
Foundries Company. director of the
Union Switch and Signal Company and
dlrector of the Westinghouse Air
Brake Company. Mr.. Mcknight, in
further discussing the proposed ten
year naval holiday, said:
In the first place, I believe it to be
an entirely theoretical effort which
cannot be carried out in practice. Ger
many and the Central European ma
tlons are not in this disarmament
movement, nor will they join it. nor
Will they be allowed to Join it. The
result will be that such plan will
build up again, in my opinion, a large
nation associated by blood which in a
lew years will be able to build and
make ships and other instruments of
war. Inc only way to stop it will be
I 70 crush 1t to the ground, and how it
can be crushed without proper arms of
other nations it is impossible for me- to
| judge. ''i '"o W
In the second place, there Is no
money saved under disarmament to the
United States. People seem to have an
idea that the spending of monev on a a
snip is throwing it away. They forget
that every cent that is spent in the
building OF battleships-in the steel.
machinery, its electrical organization
ana It's gas and oil appliances-is
spent IN the United States, and the
money received therefrom goes again
to the taxpayer, SO called.
Nothing for Sacrifice
GALL the money used in our bst+Ya-
ships is spent in the United States
and the work which is already under
way will mean tremendous losses to
the citizens of the United States. And.
IN my opinion, we get nothing for it.,
because, after making this tremendous
loss, we have also lost our feet: we
have lost our protection; we have lost
those things which are necessary for
US to have In case Of invasion, and,
should we be invaded by any foreign
power and should it be necessary for
US to go to war again to protect
france or other foreign nations or
allies, it will be necessary for US to
duplicate the work that we did at the
tremendous expense we had during the
last war, and at the same time we
would not be prepared.
AN army cannot protect country.
Had England not had its feet she
would have been overrun early In the
war, for, as I understand It. she onlv
had about 10000 trained men at that
time. Frances whole coastline would
have been attacked by the Germans. SO
that 1T would have been impossible for
US to land our troops, and the war
would have been lost, If France and
England had not been able to protect
their ports with the assistance Of the
United States navy.
/ I'm regard to scrapping the ships
already built and under way. l would
say that this would be q tremendous
loss to the citizens Of the United
States and an entirely-unnecessa sary
one. The plates and machinery used
in these battleships cannot be utilized
in any way and therefore can only be
sold for small proportion of the
amount which we paid for them origi-
nally. All the plates will have to be
rerolled and the machinery will not
be good for any other vessels. The
peculiar attributes Of a warship will
be wasted entirely and as scrap will
be worth not a good scrap price, but
the lowest possible price that would
ever be given for any scrap material.
loss to Workers
AIN addition to this, there will be a
tremendous loss to the men in the
navy yards. In good times the Brook
lyn navy yard, as / understand it,