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Show TWO VERSUS TOUR. The House rejoinder to the President's Presi-dent's demand for four new, up-to-date battleships is that it will vote but two. This appears to be tho result, in Bcune degree at least, of resentment on tho part of members of the House at what is said to be va threat that the President Presi-dent made to veto the public buildings bill if his demand for four battleships wore not conceded. Wc think that the House is making a bad mistake in its small-minded policy towards the navy. Tho United Statos has now a pplendid opportunity to atop to the front of Iho nations in sea power by building tho four now ships on tho moBt modern and expansive models. mod-els. No nations should ho allowed to excol tho United States in class of ships nor in real ability for naval defense. A good many of our battleships arc old; they havo almost served out their time. Py reason of tho conservatism of tho Senate, some of the newer battleships are of inferior tonnage aud strength. American fighting ships havo always boon noted for their heavy nrmamcnls and the weight' of their gun fire, proportioned pro-portioned to the displacement of tho ships; in this our ships being the superior su-perior of those of any other nation. But the other nations are proceeding to build ships of a higher powor and grcator effective force thau any that wc possess. We should not. be left' bo-hind bo-hind in this construction; for if wc are not able to protect ourselves, nobody is going to go to the troublo and cost of protecting us. Tho salient points in tho President 's message recommending the construction of four battleships are absolutely unanswerable. It is childish folly to say. as one Representative is reported to havo said, that Our protection in our prestige pres-tige and in our position. Hut prestige and position amount to nothing unless we aro ablo to maintain that prestige, and unless our position is made impregnable. impreg-nable. Tt is for the very purpose of sustaining that, prestige and to maintain main-tain the strength of this position that these battleships arc asked. The Representative Rep-resentative who made this declaration simply begged tho whole question, because be-cause if his view wore allowed to prevail pre-vail it. would not be long before we would have neither prestige nor position posi-tion worth speaking about. , Another Representative said that we aro not to bo compared with China; that wo aro not in the same class. Well, why? This Representative- appears ap-pears anxious fo put us iu the same class as China, and to put iis quite" in line of comparison with that defenseless defense-less booby of the nations. The very arguments or exclamations indulged in by the Representatives should huvc confounded tho ones uttering them; be- ! cause a moment's reflection shows that j tho same things they brought forward j as existing in this country will not con- tinue to exist unless we take the steps ) to maintain the standing which was j cited as the reason why we should take-no take-no steps io maintain it. H is the smallest kind of patriotism, the. meanest mean-est sort of, polil'u-s, tli" most reckless kind of quarreling, to oppose the President Presi-dent in this matter; not, because' it is opposition to tho President, but because it is opposition to the best interests 1 of the country. It is unpatriotic and j dangerous. There is uo question in the world but that if we degenerate into 1 a defenseless nati.on there will lie plen- ly to take advantage of our defense- j lessness and to encroach upon and flay , us. ' i Tt appears to be true,, from what j Representative llobson, a friend of the j President's recommendation in this matter, snye, that tho President did threaten to veto the public buildings bill in ease bin demand for four battleships battle-ships wns disregarded. Hut, as Mr. nobson explained, the threat was made in self-defense and upon great provocation. provoca-tion. It is a curious kind of threat to make, too. One more to tho pnrpotjo would havo been to threaten to leave all the battleships that aro now on our west coast, in Pacific waters, and not bring them" any more to the Atlautic. That would moot what in fact is the real need of tho times; for that fleet can nowhere else bo as serviceable to the Nation as at ports on the Pacific's shores. This would also be good .and wise statesmanship, ft would at the same time wake up a lot of those lethargic Representatives of the Eastern East-ern States and show them where thoy are at. Tf the President should threaten threat-en to retain all of the battleships which havo recently made Iho wonderful voyage voy-age to San Diogo, in Pacific watorh, requiring that if a grcator navy is needed in the Atlantic than is left there it would have to bo built on the cast coast, thoT'asferu Representatives would wake up. Tt is a great oppor tunity for the President to deliver a stroke of patriotic genius, and one thai would forever resound to his honor and credit and to the prestige and glory of his country, to retain in the Pacific all of tho battleships now there and move for the building of a like 'navy in tho Atlantic. That would bo the real business, and it would also show the Representatives from J-'astern constituencies con-stituencies how small-minded and minute min-ute arc their perceptions of the interests inter-ests of a great and glorious country like ours. Salmon Trout This week at Marriott's, JSc per lb. |