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Show BUILDING WARSHIPS IS A WASTEFUL CONTEST. Tho excitement In England over the discovery that the Germans have been quietly and secretly laying the foundation founda-tion for a more powerful navy than Is possessed by Great Britain, is a reminder that this country alsoia well along on a campaign of warship construction con-struction and that within tho past seven years there has been expended on our navy no less than three-quarters of a million dollara, with the annual an-nual expenditures now reaching $130,-000.000. $130,-000.000. As late as 1894, the expenditures expendi-tures on tho navy were less than $23,-000,000 $23,-000,000 a year. .This seems a great waste of money when one comen to understand that the war&hips-of "ten' years ago are obsolete and tho battleships of yesterday yes-terday aro not much better since the discover that th Dreadnaughts, with batteries of 14-lnch guns, can sink, them at a dletarJce which would mane their fire Ineffective. , England made a blg mistake In building her first Dreatfnauglit as in that act tho British admiralty virtually vir-tually wiped out the entire British navy as it exists today with its preponderance pre-ponderance of ships and started to build on an equality with rivals like Germany. By 1912, on tho present naval estimates, Germany will hae as many, if not moro, ships or JJu.uuu to. 26,000 tons displacement as Great Britain, and this after Groat Britain has spent Inestimable treasure m maintaining mastery of tho seas. Now It is for some Inventive genius to build a torpedo or airship whioh will destroy the Dreadnaughts, and then once more all nations will start on equal footing In the struggle to outclass oach other In building engines en-gines of destruction. |