Show L. L BATTlE C FT BUIll S FOR COW COLD STORAGE I SAYS GARDNER House Naval Committee Is Told Country Is Ne Negligent li- li g gent nt in Manning Ships W S WASHINGTON L Dec IS Represent Represent- Gardner was the principal witness wit wit- I ness today before tho the house na naval al CO com com- I- I 8 lio Ho read a long Ion statement in In of his proposal l for ill investigation a. a r tion of the tho national defenses by a special cial commis commission ion I am hero to ask you to appropriate ate ato to for the full frill num number Jer of n now new w ships t recommended by bJ the tho general nava naval al boar board for this years year's construction he lie hes said Baia s I am nm forry to ta say Ear that Secretary Daniels in his recommendations to 10 congress con con- gress ress has bas cut the tho naval boards board's building build building ing program ram for this year car almost exact exact- exactly ly JY in in In t two o. o If If you gentlemen had permitted me meto meto meto to present as witnesses a few recently retired officers in a l single day the tho country country coun coun- tr try would ouM have learned of our demented policy of building warships for far cold tora storage e. e Out of thirty completed battleships bat bat- ps do you ou Know that twelve tT of them are arc unavailable without a l lon long dclay delay de dc- In lay on ou ac account of our ref refusal refal al to pay the bills for manning maiming them 1 Not Ready Beady to Fight Tight If wo had hone gone ono to war with ith the tilO thorest rest of tho the first Drat class towers powers early carly in AU August do you vou realize that no less cs than nine oi of our our ur battleships would not Dot ha have C been boen ready p to fight Wo We havo have fifteen cruisers two twenty destroyers destroy s ci eighteen eight eight- t. t een cen torpedo boats five e submarines and nod perhaps a dozen miscellaneous fighting ships s 1 in cold storage with the bat bat- Eighty fighting ng vessels of our modest navy are aro not available for I battle in an Un emergency I charge chargo that our navy is men moll short and a n i further shortage e of mon men is in sight The rhe general board Loard which has actually mado our war plans pIon estimates the tho enlisted force o of the navy as between and GO 00 50 short for war If It any attention had been paid to tho the general boards board's emphatic appeals for our national safe safety safetY ty tv instead ad of only twenty battleships battleships bat bat- built and at el building and an au we e should bould now have havo forty sev en built building and authorized instead instead in in- stead or ot of si sixty sixty-ot sixty eight ht destroyers wo we hay hav-ft destroyers If I now 10 we wc heeded the advice ice of oi tb the general board we UC o n a i fleet o of fast scouts to to- day lay How many do 10 you think we wc actually ac ac- actually have havo got goti Just three and those were a authorized authorised a over ten years a ago o. o Criticises Secretary Daniels You know that we have bao f six h x submarines in all allf built and buila building n good good good- good bad and indifferent Now comes comesS S Daniels and in a few fc- soothing soothing sooth sooth- ing words or r recommends commends submarines to to tot t the c paltry number of eight or sowo so wo We have bave just a n dozen aeroplanes in tho navy Last 3 year car the tho aeroplane board recommended an appropriation of 1 1 Instead of of t that at sum sum according accord ing to Captain Bristol wo we let tho the aviation avia- avia tion spend only or Tho general naval ua board in its current report sa says s 's that wo o must spend pena on aircraft secretary Daniels recommends s no DO regular specific appropriation at all an but ho hc o tells us n about bout a 3 volunteer aircraft forc force Caplain Captain Cap Cap- tain lain Bristol says that that volunteer olun teer for force e docs does not amount to Hannah Cook H Rear Admiral Straus tells us that nil battleships in commission now or Which will n be in in commission before tho Nevada ovada and the tle OkJa Oklahoma are com corn completed are arc equipped with witha a n short range which may bo be considered obsolete obsolete lete for the battle fleet flomo ha have havo persons persona o quoted Roar Real Ad Ad- miral Fletcher as saying saving tho the American merican navy ia ranks ahead o ot of that of Germany I have searched tho the admirals admiral's evidence and ind find that he bo Fai said nothing of tho the sort ort I dont don't believe that any well informed man believes s our fleet to be superior to that of Germany A year aj aco ao o Rear Admiral C. C E. E Vreeland testified testified tes tes- that wo we are aro third in the tho raco race and moreover that we wo aro are a pretty bad third for be said that we should still be bo third in 1920 even con if we wo adopted adopt ed tho the building program of tho general board |