Show CLOSE TO rO THE PRESIDENT The of the navy which orm form the basis for the investigation now being conducted by the senates com committee committee committee on naval affairs a have been traced very close to the president of or orthe the United States Naval officers who are nearest to the president his aides and others have been practically unan unanimous unanImous unanImous In tn affirming that the armor belts are not set a sufficient distance above the water ater line that the ammu ammunition ammunition hoists are defective that the freeboards are too low 10 and that the other charges of ot Inefficient construction made by a magazine writer in a recent article are well founded On the stand Wednesday Commander Key Ke a former fonner aide to the president went vent certainly as far tar as the maga magazine magazine magazine zine writer went vent ent In tn everything he testified testified fied to and in some instances he went further It is now hardly conceivable that Mr Sir Roosevelt did not know in ad adVance advance Vance ance that the magazine article was to tobe tobe tobe be published Certainly his personal friends in the tho navy who have been ben tes testifying testifying UC lH before the senate committee must have given the writer of ot the first big story stor a good deal leal of his information i tion Hon And just as certainly they did I not lIot give out the information without first consulting the president There seems to be a disposition inI in I some gome quarters to make political capital out of or the matter This should not be bedone bedone bedone done by any ny one The TIle entire nation Is Interested In the navy If It has defects that are remediable defects that would handicap in the tile l prove rove to be a 3 serious event of war the public is 15 entitled to toJ tot tot t 1 t t l J i ii i I the Ute Information to the end that a sentiment sen sentiment n In favor of bringing the navy up to date be created Our sea fighters are the best fighters on earth They have proved that many times in the glorious naval history of or orthe the republic from the time John Paul Jones whipped the down through the victory of or Perry on 0 Lake Erie Farragut in the war between the states the Monitor and the Merrimac Dewey at Manila hay bay and Schley and a d Sampson off oft Santiago There has lias never been a time when our navy na has las not more than measured up to every ee every test and often orten when the forces of ot the enemy seemed immensely Superior Modern training has made our sea seamen seamen seamen men the best marksmen in the world The records of the navies of the great powers prove this to be true In practice 1 practice rac tice ce our men score more hits and fire the big guns more rapidly than Utan the men of any an navy that floats With condi conditions conditions conditions anywhere near equal we believe believes the American nay navy navy could defeat the most powerful fleet sent against It even evenIn evenIn evenin In Its Us present condition But if Improvements can be made they the should be made for tor the American seaman Is entitled to the best weapons modern science can give him |