The Washington times., 1921-06-27

|
John T.. Russell, South Shore
Drive. At this, msstipg $500
was pledged for attSrrsys fsss
and the frst step viii be tov -
cure an injunction to rsstrsan I
!, Tate and Hsyworth from ersct-
ing q prospective dsnes hall On {
the beach ct Seventy 1hfths street !.
and the lake, yon the site Of Sold
Manhattan beach. - 2 Ah~r' ,
Congress is about to do ne~--to re
fuse to carry proper inaursnfs.
these estimates the, question was re-
psatedlys asksd 40 to the esxtsnt OF
naval appropriations being made By
other nations in our class. It 10
question net easy to answer without
giving offensc. Indeed II isaa quss-
tion not easy to anSwsr at all. for
such q nation as 'Frahes concentrates
all its expenditures upon its army.
recognising that its danger OF attack
from sea- 10 remote. ~ , .
| GREAT SHIP FOR BRITAIN.
"As . matter Of fact, Great Byitsin
ana Japan are the only powers whose
situation permits Of comparison; AID
II the comparison 10 made It, should
lbs with, the distinct dtSapprovA OF
fany purpose to class either a. DO
tential enemy. .' =,
'It has been said that Great Brit
ain had abandoned construction Of
capital ships. That was temporarily
news of her completion Of the plans
for tho construction Of four colossal
ships, dwarfinE anything that we
have In the United states Navy.
Longer than the Leviathan, with
a tonnage OF $1,000 tons. and mount
ing 20-inch guns. these vessels
eclipse anything, yet dreamed Of BY
naval designers. And while their
ksels are not yet laid. tho British a.
miralty has been far from inactive.
building secondary vessels to round
out the navy as a coherent whole.
SPENDS MORE THAN U. g..
Japan, q far smaller and poorer
nation than tho United States. 10
spending more money today. meas
ured by It's results. on naval csn-
struction than 10 the United States.
When the purchasing power Of the
yen in the japanese supply and labor
market Is taken into. consideration,
the japanese naval appropriations ex-
coed ours in results attainabls by
nearly 50 per cent. '''i.' .
"The latest japanese dFeadnaught
to be put in commission exceeds in
weight of metal and in speed any
American man-of-war ahoat. The
latest naval information credits Jaytn
with having on the stocks six battle
ships and four battle cruissrA bestdSs
having seven battleships. and three
cruisers authorized. When the popu-
lation and wealth Of Japan are put
into the comparison. II 10 evident that
this is q provision of seapowsr ipor-
dinately and mysteriously large a.
compared with that of the United
States. f.'
"But set aside what our friends
and rivals may be doing. As mere
matter of taking care of our stock.
are Wholesale reductions In thu
wise economy %. ..''
NOT WISE ECONOMY.
1--WE have about 12O. 900 men in ou-
navy now. The House bill, sought. 20
reduce this number to 100. 900.
100000. But that means nearly 1900
blue jackets are to be turned out
You don't make a trained man-o'-
wars man In q month. He 10 not q
| product Of correspondence schools
One would think that the millions
OF people who saw the great training
schools at Pelham Bay and the
Great Lakes would understand the
value OF the output Of those institu-
| tions.
But now, after all the expense
Of training, we are going to turn IA
600 of these young men out Of the
service. That does not look to me
like wise economy. Should an emer-
Gsncy arise some may come back.
| but in the main all the cost and de-
lay OF training will have to be gone
| through again.
Take also our ships. The sue
cess Of the Senate confsrees in
getting an additional 3S,0o0.Ooo above
the appropriation provided In the
House bill will avert the necessity
of laying up any of our first line
ships, but some second line bsttleshipo \
and many cruisers and destroyers and
submarines will have to 30 out Of COM
mission. b.
Now naval authorities all agree
that ships out Of commission dets-
riorate with startling rapidity. Pro-
tect them as you will, they yield
rapidly to tho lack of constant daily
care which the navy ship In COM
mission receives.
DEPLoREs MAIN MISSION.
The result. as proved by repeat
ed experiences. 10 that when the
time comes to recall these ships to
the active list the cost Of renting
and repairs often equals the cost
OF maintaining full crews during
the time they were out OF service.
This again seems to me to be q
system that falls short Of wise econ
omy. Had the naval bill prevailed.
fully 400 destroyers would have
been laid up.
one phase of the bill, As II comes
from the compromise committee, |
which 1 especially dsplore, 10 the
! omission Of the provision for the de-
velopment Of naval base on the
Island OF Guam regard this a.
vital to our safety in tho Pacific, and
/ regard the Pacific a. the region
III which II 10 most important that we
should have complete preparation.