Show THE OMAHA V The inspection which Secretary Whitney j Whit-ney has just made of the Omaha is not such as to flatter the country that the Ii American navy can defend our sea coast j much less rule the waves The Omaha is an old wooden vessel that I belongs to the naval architecture of the days before the invention of ironclads I and her model and I structure are alike i I inconsistent with tinning her into a I firstclass modern manofwar When I I she fhall be fully overhauled i and repaired she will still bean j be-an old vessel and not worth what V it will have cost to repair hell rep r Ericcsons I Monitor levolutionized naval V architecture i I archi-tecture and a flag ship of the days of i Nelson would be uj much out of place in j i a modern naval engagement as the Spanish galleons of early colonial times would have been at Trafalgar i Rodman with inserted guns rifling are not the equals of the Krupp gun or the Armstrong gun of the same weight and calibre and the reason is that they are old guns remodelled And it is more the case with old vessels The Administration should abandon the theory that the old vessels can be successfully remodelled and made as good as the modern menof j j war and uso its influence and endeavors I to have Congress construct entirely new I menofwar on the most improved plans I and make them the successful rivals of i the great menofwar of England and i Italy 1 and to cease trying to make new I V J 1 I = ai V k V T ironclads out of old wooden sides The I but it needs a Country heeds a navy I modern navy V |