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Show B BkIB Wo wonder if tllG Congress of the United B ' IBBBJ 'States will ever wake up to the need of a great B JBBB' merchant marine for this country and provide the fll wB 'means to secure it. We suspect that the only BB ' IBB way to get t wil1 1)e by a rePetition of what was B I'iwBB tlone in 1884. At that time our navy was so weak B ffiffi tiiat Spain and little Chili insulted us with iB'iiK '! impunity. A most competent man was the Secretary of the Navy, but the Democrats in Congress stood like a stone wall against any appropriation for effective now Bhips. The best tnat could be obtained ob-tained was permission to build three little cruisers and one dispatch boat. But with Mr. Cleveland's election and the appointment or Mr. Whitney as Secretary of the Navy the recalcitrants in Congress Con-gress retreated and a foundation for a new navy was laid. "We suspect a Democratic President will have to be elected, before the Democrats in Congress will consent to do anything that will result in a United States Merchant Marine. "We are reminded of this by a statement in Bradstreet's that the countries around the Mediterranean and beyond as far as the Straits settlements purchase of foreign products annually $1,600,000,000, of which our country supplies only $100,000. |