| Show WE ARE ABB TO HAVES HAVE A NAVY passage so soon after its introduction and with so little discussion of senator 17 fales bill providing for the construction of heavy steel clad ships carrying powerful guns for coast defense purposes is indicative of nothing so much as that frame of mind which induces mankind to have something about that will do to take hold of la in an emergency and which the stolid and unthinking might term fear perhaps fear 11 is not the proper pe term to use in this connection t orin bair buir but if it is it only shows that that passion has its uses as potent and sometimes as efficient as those of any aay other member of its family carai ly I 1 but it will be asked what is the united states afraid of why need it fear or stand in dread of any power or any possible combination of powers it is not at all probable for a nation situated so 80 many thousands of miles from the theatre of the prospective strife to be drawn into the european complications now so rapidly maturing or to be greatly affected except favo favorably Y by any trouble however great that may occur across the water it is not a satisfactory answer that some will give that we ought tu to have hava a navy anyway and there must be a heg beginning gln to all things that we are the lau laugh h ing batione to lo tar lar as coastwise and far reaching marine service are concerned that we must assume the same importance and power on the sea that already characterize our possession of the land and thus we are going to have a light and heavy naval service that will be at once the envy and the dread of the wo world ald a cordon of craft whose existence and effectiveness will place us Ls on a naval footing nearly equaling atiat of england edgland very Vry good but that was not the actual immediate reason the same arguments have been dinned dinnee into the ears of our national solons for or decades past not desultorily but continuously and vociferously and ami what good did it do all at once a grave and reverend senator arises in nis als place in the chamber throws aside his big toga and his dignity also rolls up his sleeves looks ugly and whips england as roundly as adoue one man can do such a thins thing at a distance of three thousand miles because one of En glands family woo happens to be our nearest neighbor h bor wont let our fishing smacks ae sell I 1 their products in her household the lashing howe however er so far from abashing or antim intimidating id at V g he be said neighbor only caused h her e r to pre prepare pareto to light lahl and in fact to act as though she were prepared to take the offensive and to make matters worse the old matron showed that she was ready to assist her off offspring and then came the calculation as to how long it would take a british fleet to reduce new york brooklyn boston Obar charleston leston san francisco and some genie other ather points to masses of charred and shouldering ing ruins and that while penetration inland would be impracticable the loss that would thus result before effectual resistance could be offered would be utterly irretrievable trie vable and then the fear that something might be dobe before we had a chance to initiate it hurried through the bill tor for a navy almost before the echoes of ingalls eloquence had bad ceased rinsing ringing in the galleries |
