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Show THE NAVY'S NEEDS. It Is said that some Middle West Congressmen recoil before Che great appropriation asked for by the Secretary of the Navy. They want to reduce the number of ships to he built and to atop the perfecting of the Annapolis Naval Academy. Some men never learn anything; others forget what they once knew. JP Had five more sh the Oregon been In M our navy in 1898, there. , "avo been no war M with Spain. Those ship Ji their armament jH would have cost perhaps 5,000,000. M When Congres declared war, the President M asked for $50,000,000 to be used as h'e thought M best and it wad promptly voted him. And that was 'M only a beginning. M One George Washington who -in his day was H accounted as about the clearest-brained man on H this round world, left an Injunction to the Amer- "M fean people which was "In time of peace prepare jH for war." jH That was not half as pertinent a remark in fl Washington's time as It is now. The older na- jH tlons were a long way off. Our shipbuilders could H almost build a lleet while a foreign fieet would be ' 'fl coming to our shores. M Now Europe has been pushed by steam up jH within seven days of our coast; those great pow- fl ers, while ostensibly very friendly, are at the fl same tfmo both jealous and apprehensive of the H increasing power of tho Great Republic More- H over, tho Spanish-American States owe to Europe H a vast .sum, going into the billions, and "there "will 9 be an insistance on settlement one of these days. S Then something is going on just across the Pacific S from our West Coast that may Involvo this coun- H try in trouble before It is over, and nothing is so I tempting to a hungry powor as to know that the power it wants to pick a quarrel with is in great j measure defenseless. It takes a good while to build a battleship; it takes still moro time to train fighting men for work at sea. The great training school should be made just as nearly absolutely perfect as human Invention, investigation and study can make it, and with it ships should be supplied just as rap-Idly rap-Idly as it is possible to build -them, -until we reach the point when no nation on earth would covet a j clash at sea with the United States. A'single' Incident, In-cident, sprung in a night by a few reckless and blood-thirsty men, mado the war with Spain an absolute ab-solute necessity. A nation, no moro than an Individual, Indi-vidual, knows when trouble Is coming. The only safe way is to bo prepared to meet It when it does come. For thirty years after the Civil War closed, our navy was kop't in a condition to invite attack. It was a criminal disregard of duty on tho part of ' Congress that it was so. Even when the war with i Spain came, had Corvora known tho condition of our Atlantic coast defenses; he could have directed his three swiftest ships to tho north and laid New I York and Boston under contribution. There were , not a dozen rounds of ammunition for the sea coast guns, no smokeless powder, and so weak was the navy on tho Atlantic that the Oregon had to be rushed from Seattle on her 13,000-mile trip, to take her place in the fleet off Havana. When the people last November gave Theodore Roosevelt a plurality of 2,500,000 votes, by that act they declared their desire that this nation ,j should "walk softly" but at the same time should 'carry a big stick." They utterly repudiated" the ' peace without honor of Judge Faa?)iar, and the whole company that tried to scare the country into the belief that an alert and aggressive President was dangerous to this Republic. They shared est- i actly the President's desire for peace, but to be ready, if need be, for war. Mr. Taggart, at the banquet on Tuesday nifht, K , ; , gave some reasons why the Democracy was beaten !' fji1 ast year, but he did not give the real one, which i If was that the people utterly repudiated the ex-j ex-j pressed desire of the Democratic leaders who, last I II , year, sought to limit tlie powers and recall, at least I in part, the proptigjg of native land and her flag. ' I The Congressmen who wouM stop the building of f ; a navy and curtail tlie epclency of the Naval HI i Academy, should make a note of that fact and try HI $ to take on the real spirit of the American people. B H |
