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Show REAR ADMIRAL BRADLEY BRAD-LEY A. FISKE, who urged the defenselessness of America before the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 1 ? f X . - . ' 1 ' ' H DEFENSElfSSNESS OF COIMIRY DISCUSSED Dire Catastrophe Predicted by Retired Admirals if Coast Is Neglected. NEW YORK, Dec. S. The lack of adequate naval stations as a weakness in the naval establishment of the United States was discussed here today by Rear Admirals Bradley A. Fiske and John R. Edwardsj both retired, before the American Amer-ican Society of Mechanical Engineers. They spoke after the reading of a paper by Professor W. L. Oathcart, a naval consulting engineer of Philadelphia, Philadel-phia, dealing1 with the deficiencies of the land end of the country's naval affairs.'' Both the rear admirals indorsed what Professor Cathcart paid; Rear Admiral Edwards declaring that if there were no other way Ao get money to build up the shore stations he "would cut out one capital ship from the appropriations" appropria-tions" in order to do so. "South of I-Iatteras you haven't a crane that will lift a gun out of a turret tur-ret of a .battleship," he said. "And it ia a fact that there is not a place along the coast south of that cape where a battleship could go for repairs. re-pairs. Charleston, S. C, would make' a splendid base. We need a base at Charleston and one in the gulf to protect pro-tect the Panama canal. The great menace men-ace to this country is the condition of our shore stations. A base at Charles-, ton would make an enemy extend his line of operations 500 or 000 miles, which would take adozen more capital ships." Hear Admiral Fiske said that the! "American people do not realize their danger anv more than does a baby on a' railroad track." He said it was thej duty of the mechanical engineers to 1 point out to their fellow citizens "what! our country must do or perish." j |