Show rc NATIONAL DEFENSES A valued correspondent writes us deprecating the building of battleships and thinks it would be better to build a ship c canal nal from Toledo to Chicago make a ship canal of the Erie so that the products of i nt could be loaded a thousand miles inland inland inland in- in land on the ships that would take them across the thes' thes s' s sea sea a and insists that the United States needs no navy and no standing arm army That Tha t would woul l be a goo good theory if jf the millennium had come but unfortunately unfortunate unfortunate- ly it has not This correspondent lives but a few hours' hours ride fl from ron om Sail San Francisco Last year Japan at ate least e st a big contingent of the press and some of the high hig-h officers of Japan thou thought ht it was J Japans Japan's apall s 's dut duty to send senda a fleet to our coast to avenge a fancied insult and to exact an indemnity from the United States I Japan is a treacherous nation It began its war upon Russia before any declaration on of war was put out Now suppose it had done the same with the United States It could have put San Francisco and the Puget sound country under tribute in one da day after reaching our coast What would that have havo cost st 1 More fore than would a hundred fleets like that under Admiral Evans E It requires many man years cars to toI I build a fleet fleet and man it efficiently And we have more than miles of coast to defend Had we possessed three or four more battleships the war with Spain would have been avoided What has that war already cost us Y I As to the army armr we do not need a large standing army but we want one large en enough to make a nucleus for volunteers to be he put in training under The The United States has never yet ret provoked a n war and doubtless never will win but we have already had four considerable c wars and ami every time thousands of men have lost their lives solely because of the unprepared- unprepared ness of our country for war And this never should happen again The canals our c correspondent refers to would woul be good There are arc many others that ought to be built and will be after a while when the railroads are arc overworked but through railroads in inthe inthe the Unit United d States carr carry freight at almost canal rates and give employment to hundreds of thousands of men What is needed more than the canals is a merchant merchant mer mer- chant marine marine- for forr our commerce stops at the seashore pea pea- seashore sea sea- shore and is all turned over oer to foreign ships and ami the freight and passenger money paid those foreign countries all goes to swell foreign coffers and the business moreover denies labor to hundreds of thousands of Americans who need it A battleship costs from to but Wh when Il completed completed completed com com- the money has all been paid to American working men and is in our own country would We adjust taxes so that would pay the same ratio of taxes tales that the poor i pay par and then eli would press the needed improvements but first of all would build s sufficient ships to defend both c coasts arid arida rid a merchant marine |