The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-12-19

the ola teud INSIDE the nav
the six-inch gun admirals.
That two inches In the size OF
O gun could rend the u. 8. navy
literally asunder Is hard for the
average layman to understand.
Yet 1t happened.
It happened In the days from
1922 To 1885 when the size OF
cruisers was limited by interna-
tional treaty. One group OF adj
mirals believed that the United
States should build nothing but
eight-inch gun cruisers, while
another group, headed by Admiral
william v. Pratt, believed the
navy should have O few six-inch
gun cruisers.
The row got so bad that theh
late Admiral Hilary Jones. who
championed the eight-inch guns,
came home In huff from the
London Naval Conference, and
subsequently testified before the
Senate committee that the Ameri-
can delegation to the conference
had sold America short.
BY this time, every admiral In
the navy was lined up on one
side or the other. They belonged
either to the Jones group or the
Pratt group - with only two
inches Of a guns diameter separat-
ing them. But these two Inches
seemed wider than the distance
between heaven and hell.
FAST SIx-sHOOTERs
Admiral Pratt maintained that
q six inch gun cruiser could shoot
faster, and was much more effec-
tive at close range, at night or In
In foggy weather, and that the
American navy should have some
Of them. For holding this view,
some OF his fellow admirals would
hardly speak TO him, members OF
the Senate Foreign Affairs COM
mittee berated him, and the last
days OF his active career were
most uncomfortable.
But In last weeks naval battle
fought off the coast Of South
America, II was the two British
six-inch gun cruisers, Ajax and
Achilles, which chased the Ad-
iniral Graf Spec into Montevi-
dec. The British cruiser Exeter,
carrying eight-inch guns, was put
out OF commission.
The advantage which the SIX
inch gun cruisers had was that
they could fire faster. Their
shells were smaller and the guns
were loaded by hand. On the
other hand, the eight-inch
shells Of the Exeter and the
eleven Inch shells of the Ad-
mirai Spec were so big they
had TO be loaded by crane.
Also the six-inch gun cruiser
were able to maneuver rapidly
behind smoke screens and get
close TO the Admiral Graf Spec,
thus cancelling out Its superior
ity In range.
Admiral Pratt Is now retired,
and sitting by the sea at Belfast,
Maine. But this. ability to shoot
fast and to hide was exactly what
he argued during the cutthroat
war which split the navy for ten
years.
QUACK, QUACK ICKES
Harold Ickes not only can
dish 1t out, but he can take IL.
Toughest skit at the Gridiron
dinner was one aimed at him.
Ickes was represented In the fig
ure of Donald Duck, who an
swered all questions In a hilari-
Gus ten-minute interview with q
noisy "quack, quack, quack." It
was a mur6erous take-off.
Minnesota's young Governor
Harold Stassen, who sat next to
Ickes and was experiencing his
first Gridiron show, was quite
embarrassed. Finally, in an eff
fort to ease the strain, Stassen
remarked, "The boys get kind Of
rough at times, don't they, MIR.
Secretary"
"Quack, quack," shot back Ickes
with a broad grin.
TELEPHONE DIPLOMACY
The State Department. like any
housewife, is struggling to keep
down the phone bill. Despite
economy efforts. however, the bill
keeps soaring.
Trouble is that officials are de-
veloping the habit Of picking UP
the phone and saying. in an off
hand way, 81 want TO talk 10 the
embassy In Havana"
Last (fiscaD years telephone bill
reached the tidy figure Of el0.A00,
hut this year Il climbed to e21 800,