The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-10-20
Washington Merry-Go-Ro
British
 
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U. S. NaVy.
 The drastic shakeup in the en- gineering bureaus of the Navy De- partment followed quite @ little soul-searching as to whether some of the new U. s. naval vessels are worth all the millions lavished upon them.
 The old clique which has don- mated the Bureau of Engineering and the Bureau of Construction and repair has finally been swept out. However, 1t took Roosevelt himself to move them. For months, others in the Navy had been worried over U. s. warship design and urging the White House to act.
 Finally, realization that the Bri- tish Navy was by no means invin- cible and that the Germans had concocted some new torpedoes which could even sink battleships, helped to produce action.
 CRACKED SHIPS
 It has long been no secret that there were serious defects in the new U. s. 10000 cruisers of the Indianapolis class. Five of them suffered a cracked sternpost, which B one of the most important parts of any vessel, for on 1t hangs the rudder. These posts had to be repalced at @ cost of $30,000 each.
 This type of cruiser also suf-' fered from rolling, but when roll- ing tanks were placed in their holds, with bilge keels along their bottoms, they rolled just as badly.
 Then 1t was found that the very latest type of cruiser shim- mied. And so far the naval ex- perts have not been able to elim- mate the shimmy.
 On ton of all this the crack
 new destroyers of the Anderson
 class were built with too much
 weight above the waterline, so
 that they are inclined to be top-
 heavy. This was discovered
 only recently and 1t was too
 much for Roosevelt. He finally
 decided 10 clean house.
 New executive in charge of the vital Bureau of Construction and Repair is Rear Admiral Alexan- der H. Van Keuren, who served as expert at the London Naval Con- ference of 1880 when the Admirals staged 8 knock-down drag-out fight over limiting cruiser con- struction.
 It was the theory of Secre- tary of State Stimson that cruis- CTS should be built more slowly, giving time to test them out and ascertain defects. Admiral IIil- ary Jones disagreed with this 50 vigorously that he withdrew from the delegation. Some Navy men agreed with Stimson, however, one of them being Admiral Van Keu- ren, the new chief of construc- ton.
 MERRY-GO-ROUND
 More than 100000 copies of the speech of Bishop Bernard Shell endorsing the neutrality bill and denouncing Father Cougnlin have been sent out by members of congress Senator Hiram Johnson has been selected by the Solationists to make the concluding speech for their side. =. 7. Export-1mport Bank will grant no credits to Mexico until the oil appropriation controversy IS cleared up. Bolivia is black listed for the same reason, though less stringently Arms Con- trol Ofice in State Department mas been working so hard enforce ing the embargo that they but in SIS hours of overtime in Septem- Der alone. FSlH FOR PRESIDENT
 It's not supposed to leak out, put Congressman Ham Fish was all set to have himself launched as Republican presidential can- aioate last week, and the iaunch- ing was to have occurred in Dit chess County, New York. the nome of F. D. Roosevelt. W
 The boom had been prepared with elaborate care. Ham Fish IS the Presidents vigorous critic. but also his own Congressman And 1t was purposely arranged that the boom begin in Poueh- keepsie, N. Y., just a few miles rom Hyde Park. It was even 70 be held in the Nelson hotel. which is used as the White House summer office.
 The occasion was a dinner staged by Duchess County Re- publicans. Tn advance of the dinner. Representative Fish called In neWzpapefmeu and gave them