Show dr snow witnesses witnessed Wit nesse S launching chestnut st philadelphia pa january 21 24 1929 editor park record park paris city utah I 1 was an invited guest of the new york shipbuilding company at camden N J on january 23 1929 at the launching of the new n U S S scout cruiser salt lake city tile the boat Is slightly less than feet long and has a displacement of tons costing GO 00 it Is the fastest cruiser in the 0 8 N navy a VY it Is marvelous marve loua how bow easily and accurately this enormous ship was let down the ways into the deleware river promptly at 1245 p m the whistles blew and the big steam hammers drove out the blocks and let the salt lake city slip down her tracks as miss mims aldge broke the bottle and repeated the words ot of christening several thousand people witnessed the launching A special platform was constructed lor for the guests which included many TJ S senators congressmen secretary ot of the navy wilbur mayor bowman of salt lake city and many other utahna now in the east the shipbuilding company which by the way Is the largest la in the world entertained the guests at a luncheon they handled several hundred with ease and comfort mayor bowman of salt lake delivered a line fine speech on the history of salt lake city and its present importance he Is a splendid orator and did himself and the state justice he was followed by senator reed need smoot and by secretary wllbur wilbur the last two speakers dealt with the naval matters and advocated the building of more cruisers to adequately protect our possessions and our commerce they predicted an early passage of the cruiser bul bill now before congress their arguments were certainly very convincing with public sentiment apparently favorable I 1 am enclosing a clipping from one of our philadelphia papers the ceremony of christening a scout cruiser Is a delightful affair especially to a native utahn witnessing the scene lor for the first time the entire program gave me quite a t thrill respectfully LAWRENCE C SNOW |