Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1888 — THE REPUBLICANS AND THE NAVY. [ARTICLE]

THE REPUBLICANS AND THE NAVY.

St. Louis Republic. Mr. James W- McClean of Colorado Springs, Colo., writes the Republic under date of July 18th, asking information on a point of current interest ‘Your i aper is sold on our streets and is good at statistics. 1 therefore come to you for facts. I made the statement Jhis morning in one of our hotels that the Republican party had spent over $400,000,000 on our navy during 19 years. I certainly read this and hope you can help me produce the authority for it. Please answer through The Republic.’ There is no difficulty about producing the authority. Thereports of the Secretaries of the Navy from 1866 to 1884 shewing the appropriations made by Congress for naval purposes and the expenditures made by the navy department prove that these expenditures reached the enormous total of $401,730,000. The figures for the 19 years are as follows: 1866 $ 43,285,000 1867 31,034,000 1868 26,775,000 1869 20,000,000 1870.... 21,780,000 1871 19,431,000 1872 21,249,000 1873 23,526,000 1874 30,932,000 1875 21,497,000 1876 18,963,000 877 14,955,000 1878 17,366,000 1879 15,125,000 1880 13,536,000 1881 15,686,000 1882 15,032,000 1883 15,283,000 1884 17,292,000 Total $401,730,000

In 1866 the government had a navy of 115 vessels in active service With thiß foundation the Republicans began “building a navy” in 1869 under Robeson and kept it up until driven from power in 1884. The result was no navy, and in fexplaining it, Secretary Chandler, under whose administration the frauds became more notorious than eycr, said in his report that “the real explanation of the disproportion between the expenditures and the results” was “the policy o/ attempting to rehabilitate worn out structures under the name of repairs.” “It appears,” he added, that “instead of maintaining our yards for the benefit of our ships, the ships have dragged cut a protracted existence for the benefit of our yards.” Chandler, of course made this remarkable confe >sion of Republican wastefulness and imbecility in the interest of John Roacb, for whosA benefit *nd for the benefit of the Republican campaign fnnd, the policy of turning over the construction of the navy to private contractors and disusing the navy yards was inaugurated. Under Grant’s administration five iron clads were ordered rebuilt. By 1883 over $8,000,000 had been spent on these five ships—the Puritan, Miantonomoh, the Monadnock, the Amphitrite and the Terror—and $6,000,000 more was asked te complete the “repairs and reconstruction’” They were originally old ships which had been useful in the war, and the jobbery began under the nretence that “they were somewhat damaged and needed repair. They were thus ordered into private yards and kept there year after year, while million after million was appropriated for them. After eight years the only one of them that was prono traced “rebuilt” had to be hauled into the government navy yard at Washington with her turrets off, “no more fit to go to sea than a mud turtle,” as w-’s explained in the Senate when more money was asked for repairs, During this period of private contract and jobbery, of which the work on these five vessels is only a sample, the Government was maintaining navy yards at Ports-

mouth, New York, Boston, Norfolk, Washington, League Island, Pensacola, and at Mare Island with a naval station at New London, Conn., and was spending on them over $4,000,000 a year, with nothing to dhow for it. All work done m repairing ships under private . contract was done as a part of th% Republican plan of holding the government by using the appropriations for campaign purposes. The history of the Puritan is the history of the navy uider Republican rule. She was built by the celebrated John Ericsson, and when the Republicans began repairing her was one of the most formidable navy vessels in the

world. She was accepted by the Government at a cost of $2,000,000. before completion, and Rowland, the Brooklyn ship builder, offer« 4 to comDlete her for $353,000. Af~ ;er the close of the war several foreign governments made large iffers for her, but they were re :used, as the ship was too valuable » part with. When “repairs” ou ler began, she waß turned over to John Roach, and the Secretary of the Navy under his authority to order repairs, authorized Roach to legin operations. He began by breaking the vessel up—actually charging $14,000 for destroying a a new $2,000,000 ship, and then he repairo i her bv beginning a new ship around the old name. Three special naval commissions reported against his work, the Isherwood commission declaring that, asilustrated in the Puritan, it was “a lagrant exhibition of gross igno - rance and culpable carelessness.” After nineteen years’ and be expenditure of $400, 000,000, the Republican party had little or nothing to show as results, except ;his “gross ignorance and culpable carelessness: ”