Show THE MOVING OF THE FLEET Unless some unusual accident happens to the fleet when it makes its rendezvous in San Francisco harbor harbor har- har bor or it will consist of eighteen battleships eight armored cruisers and six torpedo boat destroyers It will make a very formidable array of fighting ships I and it will leave but a small fleet on the Atlantic We are arc not well enough posted to talk advisably but mt but our thought would be that it would have been about the fair thing to send seven of these battleships to o join the other two and the armored cruisers in the Pacific The objection to that it seems is that a hostile hostile hos- hos tile ile fleet say that of Japan or Germany German or any other power jower could whip our divided fleet and the answer to o that is that we do not believe it because if an any power jower tried to send a fleet across the Pacific to run up against eight or nine American battleships four armored cruisers and a half dozen torpedo-boat torpedo destroyers destroyers de- de they might lick them but when they got through they would know blow they had had a scrap The fleet will be a good thing for us in the south- south lands ands When Then thc they pull into the harbors of South America c t. cad iid roar their salutes the impression that they hey will give will be that there is such a thing as ashe the he United States and the United States flag Again if f they go around safely as safely as the Oregon made her voyage the other way it will be an exploit that hat will be without a precedent if on the other hand any structural we weaknesses are developed it willbe will willbe wille be e better to know that fact while it can be remedied than han to go on until a crisis comes when we will have I no time to make any changes The fact is there is no cloud loud of war in the sky and there is no prospect of there here being any cloud years to come and we take it that both coasts are reasonably safe without without with- with out ut any ships at all just now nov |