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Show MUCH OPPOSITION 10 BIGWARSHIP Plans of Secretary Meyer Are Not Generally Regarded with Favor. TAWNEY IS CHIEF OBJECTOR Claims Made That It Means Immense Expenditure of Money and Is Merely an Experiment Fight Over Amendment to Interstate Inter-state Commerce Act. Washington. Secretary of the Navy Meyer's plan for a 32,000-ton Dreadnought Dread-nought to be authorized for the American Amer-ican war fleet at the next session or congress is meeting with strong opposition. op-position. The friends of the plan are just 'as energetic as are its enemies, and it is likely that there will be a fight worthy of the traditions of the American navy when the bill for the big ship gets before congress next December. De-cember. Representative Tawney, who Is chairman of the house committee on appropriations, objects to the Dreadnought, Dread-nought, first, on the ground of its cost, and second, on the ground that such a great vessel will be largely experimental and it might not be found really serviceable after it Is built. In the contentions that the ship may not prove all that might be expected, many line officers of the navy have a part. It is maintained by many of the old timers of the service, that the experience expe-rience of the years which have passed since the first modern battleship was built goes to show that there is a limit of efficiency which is marked by a limit of size. There are officers, also, who are opposed to the increase in the caliber of the great guns which are used on warships. Some of them say that the 12-inch gun is just as serviceable as the 14-inch or the 16-inch 16-inch gun, and that any increase of caliber from the 12-inch model is a waste of money and tends in no way to improve the fighting qualities of the ship that carries the big weapons. Roosevelt's Naval Program. It was Theodore Roosevelt's idea that at least two battleships should be added to the navy each year. The former president wanted the United States to keep pace with foreign nations na-tions in the matter of battleship building and tb retain its relative rank in naval strength. In order to insure that two battleships at least would be authorized in one year, Mr. Roosevelt, Roose-velt, asked for four of the ships, knowing know-ing that in all human probability congress con-gress would compromise the matter and give him the two ships that he really wanted. It was said at the time that If Mr. Roosevelt had asked for two ships, he would have been given only one. For some reason or other congress did not give the former president the support sup-port that apparently the country was giving him in his various fields of administrative endearor. When the Panama canal is opened, the voyage from the Atlantic coast of the United States to the Pacific coast will be-a comparatively short one, and therefore there-fore it will not be difficult in cases of emergency to send a huge fleet to the western waters. As things are now, of course, the voyage has to be made around Cape Horn, following the track which the battleship' fleet took two years ago in making the first part of its journey around the world. Some naval officers say that It might be a good plan to build a 32,000-ton 32,000-ton Dreadnought and put into its turrets tur-rets guns of the largest caliber for the purpose of testing the sailing qualities and the fighting efficiency of such a boat. If a Dreadnought of the size planned by the secretary of the navy should be built along the most careful lines and should prove to be inefficient, the lesson taught might be worth the 14 or 15 million dollars that it would cost to construct it, for if it were shown that such a vessel were impracticable, there would be no more experimenting, and all the energies of the department would be exerted to perfect vessels of the size that it was known could be built and operated oper-ated safely and with high offensive efficiency. Dispute Over Elklns Bill. The senate has taken hold in earnest ear-nest of the bill introduced by Senator Sena-tor Elkins and which provides for amendments to the interstate commerce com-merce act. One feature of the bill, as is well known, is that providing for an interstate commerce court, whose duty it shall be to hear cases that are carried car-ried on appeal from the decision of the interstate commerce commission. One of the main reasons advanced for the creation of the interstate commerce com-merce court was that it would expedite expe-dite final decisions in cases in which the great carrier companies of the country were interested. Of course appeals will lie from the interstate commerce court to the supreme court of the United States, but it is urged by friends of the new court plan that parties to litigation will be satisfied j in many instances with the decision of the lower court and that anyway, inasmuch in-asmuch as it has only one class of cases to hear, the new court's work will be dune quickly and that the route to justice will be much shorter than It has been in the past. There is strong opposition to the interstate commerce court amendment among some of the Republicans of the senate I and among a considerable number also in the house of representatives. Senators Sen-ators Cummins and Clapp are fighting the provision for a new court. It is said by the opponents of the plan that there have only been 26 cases taken on appeal from the interstate commerce commission within the time . space of several years, and that there seems to be no immediate chance that the number of cases will increase. They say, therefore, that the" court is not needed. On the other hand, the friends of the court say that because of the long litigation that was sure to be ahead of parties to a suit in the past appeals have not been taken and that injustice, therefore, was done. Provisions Objected To. The new court provision is not the only one to which objection Is made by some of the Republican senators, most of whom are what is known as insurgents. In the main the same men were opposed to many of the provisions of the Payne-Aldrlch tariff law. The charge is made that power is taken away from the interstate commerce commission to pass judgment judg-ment on all traffic agreements between the railroads which are allowed by law. It was one of President Roosevelt's Roose-velt's ideas that these traffic agreements agree-ments should be allowed, but the senators sen-ators who are in opposition say that Mr. Roosevelt intended to give the interstate commerce commission the power to decide on these agreements and to reject them if they were not considered proper and within the spirit of the statutes. The friends of the court provision in the bill say that if the agreements between the railroads are of the kind to fix rates at too high a figure the interstate commerce commission can act just as it always has acted. The opponents of the bill declare, however, how-ever, that agreements may be made which are in effect deadly to competition compe-tition and yet they may not seem to fix extraordinarily high rates. Wants Legislation Pushed. President Taft is beginning to show daily more of the "spurring" qualities of Theodore Roosevelt. He is seemingly seem-ingly dissatisfied with the eompara- ' tively slow progress which the legislation legis-lation that he has recommended is making in congress, and, moreover, he seems to have been somewhat disturbed dis-turbed by the reports that the country coun-try is taking more interest in the matters mat-ters now under investigation by congress con-gress than it is in the progressive policies pol-icies of legislation which-occupied all its attention during the Roosevelt administration. ad-ministration. Recently reports were published to the effect that Mr. Taft had practically practical-ly given over all attempts to induce congress to pass the majority of his legislative recommendations at this session. To his political friends the president was quick to make denial of any such intention. He has let it be known that, he not only wants postal savings banks, changes in the interstate inter-state commerce law, and conservation laws, but an anti-injunction statute and all recommendations that he has made, put through congress in law form before the session closes and the congressional campaign opens. The leaders in house and senate have tried to talk the president out of giving public expression to his desire that a comprehensive legislative program pro-gram shall be put through. The lead- . ers seem to be of the opinion that If three or four bills which have attracted attract-ed public attention and public support ' are enacted into law at this session, it will be enough in the way of accomplishment accom-plishment to satisfy the country. The president Is telling the leaders that the country won't be ' satisfied with three-quarters of a loaf, and that it must be given a whole loaf. Whether or not attention will be given by congress con-gress to what the administration is urging, will not be known for a fortnight, fort-night, probably. The President's Contentions. The advisers of the president say that all through the tariff debate Mr. Taft was firm in his belief that by gentle measures which were in con-, trast to those of his immediate predecessor, pre-decessor, he could get more out of congress con-gress than could be obtained by big 1 stick methods. He professed satisfaction satisfac-tion with the tariff law, but it is said by those who seem to know his inward in-ward feelings that he would have expressed ex-pressed a much stronger and deeper satisfaction if the bill had gone further furth-er than it did in the cutting of customs duties. It has been said many times recently recent-ly that the country seems to be more interested in the Ballinger-Pinchot in- . quiry and in the matter of the high cost of living than it is in the legisla tive program of the president. It ia believed that Mr. Taft holds that the lack of interest in legislation is due to the belief on the part of the country that the organization leaders are not going to do very much with legisla- ' tion, and so naturally the interest to , a considerable extent has subsided. The members of both houses are still getting scores of letters from their constituents weekly, expressing the deepest concern over the high cost of living, and also expressing a fear that the committee on investigation now sitting, is bent on giving Secretary Secre-tary Ballinger a clean bill of health The president is concerned over the feeling that the committee intends to clear the interior department officials and to clear them as a matter ol course and politics. Mr. Taft said at the outset that he wanted the truth and nothing else, and thvit he did not care whom it. hit, provided it was the truth. He is a good enough politician to know that anything that was apparently ap-parently in the nature of a whitewash would do Mr. Ballinger no good, and that if he had acted in a way that he should ot have acted it would be just as well for him to have that fact noted in the report as it would be to have it unnoted, but still perfectly plain to the people at large. GEORGE CLINTON. |