Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-09
Groundwork Under Way to
Carry Out New S30,000,o00
Economy Program.
PERSONNEL TO BE CUT.
TO TOTAL OF 1920 MEN
Estimated Saving of $4,000, 900
by June 80, 1882, Expected
Under Plan.

Naval officials today were laying the
groundwork for putting into effect as
soon as possible far-reaching program
of reorganization of aircraft and part Of
the forces afloat, curtailment OF recruit
ing and decommissioning of a number
of ships, in line with President Hooyer's
s3000o,0C0 economy program for the
Navy. The enlisted personnel will be
cut 1890.
While Admiral William v. Pratt, chief
of naval operations. explained that 1.-The
basic organization of the feet has not
been changed at all, and that the Asiatic
Fleet is left intact, it is estimated that
saving Of nearly $12,O00,00o will be
effected by June 80 1892, and reduction
in tonnage in commission in the feet Is
placed at 10000 tons. The enlisted
strength of the service, after the reduc-
ton program will be about 79,200, and
several moves looking to compliance
with the London naval treaty are to be
made.
Pratt's Plans Approved.
Secretary Adams had this to say about
the new operating plan:
Admiral Pratt, the new chief of
naval operations. has developed a new
plan of operation. which has been ap-
proved by the various chiefs of BIZ
reaus in the department and which
would seem to be more efficient and,
incidentally, save some money
The plan will go into effect as soon
as practicable"
Admiral Pratt stated:
1t is question of looking over the
material that you have on hand and
seeing whether any changes can be
made, any adjustments which would
tend to make the fleet more ef1cient.
The purpose of the feet which we
maintain now is naturally one for train
ing. Nobody expects to have all the
ships In peace which he will want in
time OF war, but what we need is a
nucleus of a fleet sufficiently large. SO
1t can adequately train a number of
men to perform all the tactical exer-
cises required to keep the feet up in
shape
with that in view, we have over
hauled all our floating material, in
Guiding equipment at the yards. The
basic organization of the fleet has not
been changed at all. Some of the num-
bers in the Organization have been cut
and some of them have been changed.
We have left the Asiatic feet, except
for an eventual change of flagship, ex-
actly as it was.
VIII Scrap Submarines.
'The formation of a training squad
ron in the Atlantic means that the
scouting fleet will be able to put all its
activities into actual continuous battle
~ c1iINV Il,
Will result in some submarines being
withdrawn, so that they may be grad
ually strapped, thus bringing us down
to the tonnage allowed by the London
treaty.
THE reduction in the numbers Of de-
stroyers in a division will give us better
tactical units, as we'll as providing some
destroyers for the training squadron and
for aircraft-carrier plane guards
Our deStroyerS are beginning to get
old and shopworn. There is a ire
mendous hump in the replacement
schedule for destroyers, and if we can
not take care of that hump by new
appropriations we are going to prolong
the lives of the destroyers we have as
much as we can. In laying up some
of our destroyers, therefore, we are
keeping them in good shape.
1.-The new plan will cut the enlisted
personnel about 1900"
The present authorized strength Of
the Nays enlisted personnel is $4,000
and the war-designed fleet of destroy
ers is slated to become obsolete in 1884,
1885, 1896, 1887 and 1888. based on
the date of completion. Some of the
destroyers were completed as far back
as 1914 and the last of them was
finished in 1922.
TwO Training Ships.
The training squadron, to be estab-
lished, is the outgrowth of recon-
mendation made by Admiral Pratt
when he was commander in chief of
the United States fleet. which post he
recently. relinquished to become chief
of naval operations. The u. S. S.
Arkansas and wyoming will be the two
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