Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-03
The Issue Is Drawn.

President Hoover's readiness TO take
the question of naval expansion to the
country has thrust it into the forefront
of public discussion. Congress, rather
than the country, will be the arena In
which the contest will be fought out,
bat Capitol Hill, reacting 10 popular
sentiment, will, of course, reflect the
Nations will. Senator Hale and Rep
resentative Britten, chairmen, respec-
lively, of Senate and House Commit
tees on Naval Affairs, have agreed upon
a legislative program which defines the
issue now clearly drawn between the
administration and those who believe
in the maximum Of permitted American
national defense at sea.
The President proposes an immediate
cut of SOL 100000 in the next naval
budget and an indefinite holiday in
new construction. Messrs. Hale and
Britten are completing plans to ask
Congress to authorize building expendl-
ture of $3.50 0o0000, spread over the
years between now and 1886, in order
Navy may be expanded to London
treaty strength. Between the executive
and legislative ends of Pennsylvania
avenue the battle lines are thus clearly
drawn. The country must omit no
opportunity to acquaint itself thoroughly
with the rival viewpoints involved. All
signs indicate that the Navy is the
pivot around which the congressional
controversy of the year will revolve.
Serious as is the prospect that the
United States-if tie Presidents pur-
pose is achieved-will make no move
toward that balanced feet" for which
it so tenaciouSly contended last year
in London, the even graver because
more imminent. consequence of the
administration program is the danger
that a full fifth of our existing naval
strength will be laid up" If the
proposed SCI 900 900 slash in the 1882
80 budget is not to affect current con-
struction, as Mr.. Hoover says it will
not do, the money must be saved in
other directions It will have to be
taken from maintenance charges. 1t
can only be cheesepared from cost
of upkcep-of retaining ships in COM
mission.
To provide fer it, vessel after vessel
will have to be de-commissioned and
their crews dismissed. 1T is a very
serious thing for us to cut to this ex-
tent" says Secretary of the Navy Adams.
So it is 1t is serious not only from the
standpoint of fundamental defensive
needs, but, in such times as these, even
more disturbing because of the inevi-
table addition of anywhere from four to
ten thousand men to the Nations army
of unemployed. At a moment when
people are being urged to buy, as an
important means Of minimizing COM
mercial depression, Uncle Sam, it is
projected, shall deprive a huge group
of ship hands of the wherewithal of
livelihood.
The desire for the maximum of Fed
eral economy is UNIVERSAL, the neces-
Sity for it indisputable. 1t Is the bust
ness Of craftsmanship to determine in
which directions economy is wise. and
in which, conversely, it is injudiciouS
The Navy is Uncle Sans principal life
insurance policy. 1t has just been CAL
culated that it now costs him in the
ncighborhood of $75o,000 a day-the
overwhelming bulk of it for wages
which automatically find their way
back into public hands through the
spending of the men who earn them
If the United States proceeds to lay
down the treaty Navy, the daily main
tenance cost, including the carrying on
of new obstruction, might run to a
million and a half dollars a day or
more. That money, too, would flow
back into the pockets of the people.
IN 1917 and 1913, when the country
was at war. more than that was spent
by the Government every hour of every
day. Is not guarantee of peace for
the American people under a policy
costing an annual premium OF half a
billion dollars the cheapest national
life insurance conceivable?
Thus enyisaged, naval expenditure
can by no stretch of the Imagination
be pilloried as extravaganza. 1t is the
sanest form of economy.
As a man Of Steel Stain looks for
no depression in the Russian steel mar