Evening star., 1926-02-07
A Constitutional Privilege.


when it was "A collection of British
colonies, has always been famous for
shipbuilding. Sometimes it built a lot
of ships, sometimes only few, but
no matter how few, it always built
good ones. American dories have be-
come as famous as American hshlng
schooners: American racing cutters as
desirable as American frigates; Amerl-
can merchantmen as excellent as
American whalerS. American steel
ships, tankers and freighters. are as
good as any and better than most. AS
recently as 1924 the United States oc-
cupied third place in the worlds ship
building activities. Now it has dropped
among the leaders.
At rebuilding, however, we are not
so good. We own what is probably
the second most famous ship In exist
ence. the old frigate Constitution,
second in reputation only to the Brit
ish Victory. She lies ut dock near
Boston and is rotting away, from Keel
to maintruck. Congress passed a Dill
to recondition her for inspirational and
instructive -urposes- 1t was beau
tiful and moving piece of legislation.
There was only one defect in connec-
ton herewith; the appropriation or
$500 900 necessary for the work was
never made. In April, 1925, "a national
20 q
money. OF this sum only s127,4l5 is
in hand.
Dry.rot and ccrrosion work slowly,
but they work faster, 1t seems, than
do the patriotic impulses of Ameri-
cans, and they have good start too.
Many a boy who has learned and re-
cited with genuine feeling Holmes
poem beginning "Ay, tear her tat
tered ensign down." and who has
thrilled over accounts Of this old YES
sells many fights, some OF them
against great odds, has grown into a
man who will not give up five cents in
order that his boy some day may see
the ship.
A wealthy citizen of New Bedford.
Mass, with reverence for the tradi-
tions of that once great whaling port,
has purchased one of the very few
remaining whalers, ship not much
Younger than the Constitution. He
has reconditioned and completely
equipped it at his own expense, so
that in every detail, down to boat
stove In by a sperm whales fiukes and
awaiting the beneficent offices of an
imaginary Chips" the carpenter, 1t
is as 1t was In its earliest voyages He
had it towed to dock, a water-tight
crib built around it. the water pumped
out and concrete poured in. There 1t
is, even with sails set on calm days, q
veritable museum of u once glorious
chapter in American history.
1t would, perhaps, be a splendid
thing II some tOo-rich American would
pay the CONSTITUTIONS bill. But it
would be far better If the money were
forthcoming in small sums from all
over the country. The headquarters
of the national campaign to save the
old fighter have just been moved to
Washington. 1t is hoped that this ap-
propriate transfer will give impetus to
the drive, or, at least, that something
will. II any citizen is firmly convinced
that he Is q creature superior to the
minute animal or bacterium whose
life work is to accomplish that de-
struction which we know as decay"
he can prove it by parting with a
dime for Il few brushfuls of paint;
with twenty-five dollars, which will
buy hundred square feet Of copper
sheathing; with fifty dollars. which
will purchase five fathoms Of hempen
cable, or with five hundred dollars,
which will buy a mizzen topsail, more
glorious, although perhaps less endur-
ing, than any cemetery monument he
and the stonecutter can devise. Mel
sons flagship, by the way, although
considerably more ancient than Old
Ironsides, is today in first-class shape
and likely to remain 50.
The Stillman family quarrels have
been adjusted. So long as this adjust.