OCR Text |
Show GETTING BIGGER AND BIGGER. Tho battleship1 Utah when launched was in advance of nlfc the ships of the United States nnvy. Her two so-called sister ships, the Delaware and tho North Dakota, aro,slightly her inferiors in displacement, dis-placement, and all three of them arc a distinct advance on the so-called "Dreadnought "Dread-nought battleship class of Great Britain. Brit-ain. But. the supremacy of the Utah, is destined Id .be short-lived. At the last regular session of Congress the construction construc-tion of two battleships of 26.000 tons each .was authorized. A member of. tho House Committee on Naval Affairs is pressing to have tho present Congress authorize, the building of ono .'10,000 tou ship. Tho Italian Minister of Marine Ma-rine has givon-dircctions to a naval designer de-signer to study up tho practicability of a 32,000 'ton ship to carry 36-inch guns. Two English ships were recently contracted con-tracted with a displacement of 26,350 tons each. And so it goes .throughout the world. Uach nation is desirous of having the biggest, the strongest, and the best. And no great nation is content for any length of time to be inferior to any other great nion. So that, wc shall havo to expect an increase to the very bounds of practicability and to the limits lim-its of the depths and commodiousucss of harbors. A 32,000 ton ship such as the Italians aro proposing would certainly cer-tainly be a monster, and armed with 16-inch 16-inch guns thero would bo no one ship in (he world, perhaps not even a moderate moder-ate sized fleet, that could slaud before it. |