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Show WOULD ESTABLISH LI OF CRUISERS SENATOR WEEKS INTRODUCES RESOLUTION WHICH AWAK-! AWAK-! ENS MUCH INTEREST. Would Have Secretary of Navy Pre pare Plans for Establishing a Line cf Naval Cruisers to Carry Pas-senrjeis. Pas-senrjeis. Fre.ght and Mail. Wa-M' -on.--With a view to devel cl-- ,-. "i-r:iication between tad Limed j-'tat, and S.uth America. -uator vwa.f. -publican oi Ma..t-,.Mi.-tt m Thursday introduced a i r..SuU.... re.iu, sting the secretary o. ! the naiv to prtpare a plan lor estab-i estab-i lining a line i I naval cruisers to car-I car-I ry pass-.'vrs. freight and mail '-'(" ! tween NVw York. New Orleans and Valparaiso, i hile. and intermediate ports. 'ilie resolution designates as the ships to be utilized for such service ser-vice the cruisers Columbia and Minneapolis Min-neapolis and the scout cruisers Salem, Sa-lem, Chester and Birmingliam. "At present South American mails ' are sent at long and sometimes at n- regular intervals and all American mails south of the equator are carried car-ried in vesse.s sailing under a foreign for-eign flag." said Senator Weeks, ex-plaining ex-plaining his resolution. "The service is slow and this, it may be easily assumed, militates against the development of our trade with South America. If, later on, private pri-vate capital undertakes a line over this route, I should be Inclined to withdraw the government line. "We are In the position of having spent $400,000,000 in the building of a canal, one of the reasons for doing so being that it would aid in the extension ex-tension of our foreign trade, but as far as I know there are no American Ameri-can steamers prepared to undertake this service." Senator Weeks' proposal interested many southern and Pacific coast senators sena-tors and there was animated discussion discus-sion in which no opposition appeared. |