Arizona republican., 1921-09-06
Nauy Air Program
 Calls For Big Fund
, (Continued from Page One)

 was absurd. But MT. Hull repeated his statement. Likewise he called attention to the fact that $10.000, 000,- 900 was not the total desired by the board of officers who had in mind the establishment of really efficient air force That was only the money needed in the first 10 years. So that the report Of the Pershing Bombing Test Board is to be read with fear and awe by the taxpayer. Reduced to it's simplest terms its meaning may again be defined in these words.
 "Eighty-four cents out of each tax dollar is not enough to spend for war. To be really efficient as war ma chine we may have to ask for 90. IT. the Pershing report an improper emphasis was placed upon the state ment that "the battleship remains the 1 back bone of our naval defense" That l has never been questioned by any 1 naval or air authority. The conten- ton of the officers who have been | convinced of the value of the new arm has always been limited to a declaration that the airplane can sink any battleship as at present con- structed. Therefore, they have said, either battleships must be constructed with a view to resisting the new
 
 must be placed in the air arm. Both contentious are specifically conceded 1 by the Pershing board. General MitchelIs victory is as sweeping and complete as even this enthusiast could desire. The Pershing board said.
 Airships Can Sink Any Ship
 "Airships can sink or seriously damage any naval vessel as at pres ent constructed. Furthermore it will be difficult if not impossible to build any type of vessel of sufficient strength to withstand the destructive force" etc.
 l Whether taxpayers will permit 90 or more cents to be taken from each | tax-raised dollar to provide against future war is obviously a matter which only the taxpayer can decide. But it is important to call attention to the fact that in it's insistence that the battleship is the backbone of our naval defense' the Pershing Bombing Test Board obviously con templates naval defense which may operate at a distance from our shores - a naval defense. in other words, which, might be called upon to defend our shores on the other side of the Atlantic or the Pacific. In this the board is at variance with innumerable naval authorities. The weight of present-day opinion is that no warship fleet will ever again dare to cross a sea to attack a foe pos sessed of anything like equal power. Admiral Sims recent statement may be taken as a digest of tbe opinions Iof other eminent naval men. He Isaid:
 A fleet coming to attack you must have an advance base, because it lcannot operate at a distance of 5000 miles (from its home base). If there were an island 100 miles from our coast, and it had port in which Great Britain could put her whole fleet, she could not occupy it at all. It would be bombed every night" Pershins Board Disasrees l The Pershing board does not agree with these naval authorities-with Sims. Fisher, Won Tirpitz. Kerr-who insist that long distance fleet opera ton is thing of the past. The Per- shing board states that:
 Without an effective navy in time of war a nation must submit to an economic blockade fatal to its trade." etc, etc.
 The PershIng boards theory, then, is that if the United States were to go to war tomorrow with a European Il enemy that Toe cOuld cross 3,UUu miles of sea and blockade a coast line Ithat stretches from Canada to Mexi- co, unless our navy were strong enough to go to sea and destroy the invading fleet. But our battle fleet cannot be strong enough to go to sea and destroy unless it has air planes and airplane carriers, for the reasons previously given. And if our i battleship fleet is to have airplanes and carriers on the scale necessary to protect our 1916 model battleships now under construction. and which will be launched in 1922 or 1923. and , which, according to the Pershing , board, can be sunk or seriously in- } jured by airplane attack II Then that S4 cents war cost which is now subtracted from each tax raised dollar will be swelled into 90 | cents at least. The airplane carrier } the general board has adopted in theory will carry 80 airplanes and is a 35,O00-ton boat. The most moder- ate upto date estimate of the cost of such a boat is SIT, 100000, and if it is to be as speedy as the Japanese 7 and British airplane carriers 1t must : cost more. The general board only