Show THE NAVY It has been the fashion ever since the war to lay the blame for the condition of This has the navy to the Democrats been done on the ground that the Democrats Demo-crats most of the time have been in the majority in the House and have refused II to pass the appropriations necessary to put the navy in a condition worthy I of the wealth and greatness of I the United States It was alleged that they did this because I they merely desired to block the Executive II Execu-tive who until the present time has been Republican The Democrats denied the i 1 charge and claimed that the appropriations appropria-tions which had been made had been I squandered in jobs by favored rings A letter published in the Chicago Herald of Sunday last shows the true inwardness in-wardness of the various schemes for improving the navy According to this letter the five great Robeson monitors moni-tors represent the destruction of nineteen war ship which cost 15000000 upon which there has been a cash expenditure of 7000000 and to finish which it will require 6000000 more As the Herald J5ays If they are ever completed they will have cost the Government 28000 000 and will be without exception the I five costliest menofwar in the world I Whether they will be the five best men ofwar in the world is quite another question ques-tion In disposing of old navy vessels the bids for them were not public pub-lic and were sold without being subjected S sub-jected to a survey offered for sale at auction The case looks as though all the fault did not lay with the Democrats Demo-crats These things were mainly done in the days of the great rings rings that thought they had a right to plunder the I Government and who found very efficient effi-cient aid in the assistance rendered by high officials Robeson was the prince of those fellows although exSecretary Chandler was not particularly slow in following the same methods Much of the corruption came from the fact that in the days immediately succeeding the war he was thought to be the greatest patrIot pat-riot who most loudly protested his love of country and boldly presented his claims It was a condition of things almost al-most inseparable from a great war but when things had settled down to their normal state and all things were being conducted in peace such matters as the state of the navy should have been enquired en-quired into and when abuses were discovered dis-covered they should have been stopped It will be the duty of Secretary AVhitney to discover these abuses and stop them and it will also be his duty to see that other abuses do not take the place of the old ones Abuses chiefly arise from a sense of security and irresponsibility and in time attach themselves to all parties |