Evening star., 1940-01-19
Dangerous Economy

III congress over the admtntStra.
tion's fleet expansion program.
Chairman Carl Vinson Of the House
Naval Affairs Committee, who is
author Of Navy Department-ap-
proved bill for twenty-five per
cent increase in naval tonnage, has
proposed drastic cut in the pro-
gram through elimination Of a pro-
vision for thirty-four new destroyers,
to cost half billion dollars. This
reduction would leave in the bill
three aircraft carriers, totaling about
$4,000 tons; an unspecified number
OF cruisers aggregating 10000 tons
and thirty-four submarines with a
total tonnage of $4,000. The pro-
posed expansion thus would amount
to $4,000 tons instead of 100000.
Chairman Vinson described the
dropping of the destroyer part of the
program as common sense ap-
proach" to naval construction, as
serting that the Navy could not ham
die efficiently a larger number of
shipbuilding projects, anyway. If
conditions are the same next year."
he said, I'VE will just go ahead with
the balance of the program" Mr..
Wilson'S decision to slash his bill
follows closely criticism of the Navy's
program by several members of Con-
gress, including Senator David I.
Walsh of Massachusetts,, chairman
OF the Senate Naval Affairs Com
mittee. There have been demands
for construction of bigger battle
ships, for larger cruisers to match
the pocket battleship" development,
for eighteen or twenty inch guns.
There have been inquiries as to the
reason for the lag in construction of
ships already authorized. And there
have been indications that defense
appropriations will receive the clos
est sort of scrutiny from a Congress
which is giving evidence of being
unusually economy minded.
~ The proposed reduction in the
naval building program probably is
the result largely of the agitation
for bigger warships and of the move
ment for less spending. Mr.. Vinson
expressed the opinion at a hearing
that the Navy is running wild" with
small ships of the destroyer class.
Other members of the committee
have expressed their preference for
super-cruisers of perhaps 27,50O tons,
and super-battleships of $4,000 tons
or more. Admiral Harold R. Stark,
chief of naval operations, has told
the House committee that naval ex-
perts are studying larger ships and
he indicated that capital ships of
about $4,000 tons might be recon-
mended later.
But the urgent need now, he and
other high naval officers have
stressed, is for ships of smaller cate
gories-for aircraft carriers to ex-
pand the aerial scouting power of
the fleet, for fast cruisers capable OF
hit-and-run service of the type per-
formed by the British cruisers
against the heavier Graf Spec in the
recent naval battle off Uruguay, for
the lighter and speedier destroyers
needed to combat submarines and
for submarines themselves. The i'm
portance of destroyers for subma-
rine protection has been amply DEM
onstrated in the current European
conflict.
The general trend toward econ
omy in the present Congress is COM
mendable, but economy at the ex-
pense of so vital part of the Navy is
hard to comprehend. And while it
may well be that facilities for imme-
diate construction of additional de-
stroyers are inadequate, there GER
tainly can be no harm in authorizing
such construction at this time-so
that designs may be studied carefully
and plans may be ready when appro-
priations and facilities become avail
able. National emergencies can de-
velop within a short span of hours
or days, but preparations to meet
them require methodical planning
long in advance of any threat to
national security.