Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1885 — THE NAVY. [ARTICLE]

THE NAVY.

Secretary Whitney’s First Report Thereon —He Thinks the Whole System Should Bo Reorganized. Secretary of the Navy Whitney, in his first annual report to the President, says the property of the navy yards, valued at about fifty million dollar?, is reported as falling rapidly into a condition of extreme decay, and it is recommended that improvements be made at once unless it be the desire of Congress to abandon the property to waste and ruin. The Secretary reports that excellent progress is being mode in the manufacture of steel guns for the new ships, and says that five six-inch and two five-inch breech-loading high-power steel guns have been completed and satisfactorily tested. He also says that the forgings for the eight-inch guns have arrived from England after a year's delay. These are the guns for the Chicago and Boston. The estimates for the navy for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1887, amount to $35,104,095, in which sum are embraced estimates for new objects, not those ordinarily for the service, amounting to $10,009,951, leaving for the customary purposes of the service $19,034,744. They embrace for increase of the navy $10,503,770; for the completion and armament of the doubleturreted monitors $4,202,656; and for public works and improvements at the yards and stations $4,208,337. Mr. Whitney says it is the desire of the department to avoid the long delays which have occurred in the construction of the ships now in progress, arising from the making of changes in the plans after tho letting of the work, and continues :

“Upon my accession to office the department had in process of construction, under contract with Mr. John Kooch three modem steel cruisers and one dispatch-boat. They constituted the first attempt of the Navy Department for many years to construct a war vessel up to ’tho" modern requirements. They should bo looked upon and judged as such. As such they will, I trust, be found in the main creditable to those who have been engaged in their creation. They will certainly, if they have been well built, bo no improvement upon the previous work of the department, but it is not profitable to consider them as standards of excellence for future work, nor was it to bo expe'eted that they would be. It is to bo regretted (I think all will now accede to this suggestion) that greater deliberation was not had over the preparation of the plans. The Dolphin, as she now is, should be regarded as a pleasureboat rather than as a dispatch-boat. At the present time it is quite profitless to discuss her characteristics.’’ The Secretary then goes over in detail the circumstances connected with the trial of the Dolphin and the trouble had with her, with which circumstances the public is familiar. The case is still unsettled. He also refers to the Kooch trouble. Mr. Whitney refrains from any discussion of the subject of future appropriations for war material, as Congress has made “a most intelligent effort within the last three years to gather information,” etc. He says it is important that

the navy should be supplied with torpedo-boats. It has none while other nations have many. He says it must be evideut that there is something radically wrong with the department; that the universal dissatisfaction proves this. He thinks the present bureau systems are vicious, and says “at the present moment it must be conceded that we have nothing which deserves to be called a navy." He thinks the United States should pattern after other powerful nations in the matter of naval education and naval improvements—that it is folly to waste time and money patching up wooden hulks. It is his opinion that, as in the English service, and notably in the French and German, the Secretary should be prov ided with a board or boards for consultation, consisting of naval officers and experts, most of them comparatively free from executive duties, whose duty it should be to assist him in solving the technical problems of the department.