Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1916 — HOUSE BODY O.K.'S FORTIFICATIONS BILL [ARTICLE]

HOUSE BODY O.K.'S FORTIFICATIONS BILL

$34,297,050 for Defense Sought in Measure. PROVIDES MORE AMMUNITION Bill Also Asks Adoption of Antiali* craft Guns and Huge Cannon to Guard New York and Other Places. Washington. April 7. —The fortifications bill—second of the big preparedness measures—was reported favor ably to the house. It carries direct appropriations of 121,997,060 and authorises the war department to enter Into contracts amounting to $12,300,000. a total of $34,297,060, by far the largest bill of this sort ever brought before congress. Last year the bill carried about $6,000,000. The outstanding features of the bill are these: Huge Increases in reserve ammunition for field, seacoaat and siege cannon, based on European standarda The adoption of anti-aircraft guns. Acquirement of the exclusive rights and Installation of the Hammond radio-controlled torpedo. Fortification of New York and Chesapeake bays with 16-inch guns. Fortification of Boston, Ban Francisco. Hawaii, and the Philippines with 12-lnch guns, having a range of SO,OOO yards. Completion of the fortifications of Los Angeles and San Diego. Appropriation of $1,000,000 to equip private plants with tools and machinery necessary to manufacture standard munitions for the army. Provision that government arsenals shall be operated at their full economic capacity. To Change Gun Mounts. Changes in gun mounts, to give existing coast defense cannon greater range and accuracy. The secret hearings of the committee disclosed that the European war has convinced army officers that the ammunition reserve, good for only two hours, was hopelessly inadequate. The bill provides $10,700,000 for the purchase of shells for field and seacoast guns for the regular army. Last year this Item was $1,360,000. The new scheme of fortifying the country and the Insular possessions was disclosed In the report The plan provides for an eventual expenditure of $22,064,667 for continental United States and the insular possessions, and $13,996,000 for the Panama canal and does not take Into account fort# fylng Alaska, Guam and Guantanamo. It recommends that future direct-fire coast artillery guns should be at least 16-inch rifles, and that seacoast mortars installed in the future should be of the same caliber. Provision Is made for the construction of an experimental 16-lncb mobile mortar, and one 14-lnch direct-fire gun mounted on a railroad car for the defense of unfortified harbors. Sixty-four anti-aircraft guns are provided, ten of them for Installation in Hawaii and the Philippines. The bill appropriates $760,000 for acquiring the exclusive rights to the radio-con-trolled torpedo perfected by John Hays Hammond, Jr., and installation of one unit, preferably at Fishers Island. N. Y. On its own Initiative, the committee included In the bill $1,000,000 to equip private munition plaota with Jigs, dies, tools and machinery necessary for the manufacture of American standard guns and munition Vote for Volunteer Army. An effort to force tbe senate to eliminate section 60 of the Chamberlain. army bill, providing let a volun*

teer army, failed when by a vote of 36 to 34 it rejected the motion of Senator Lee of Maryland to strike the paragraph from the measure. The vote came after three days' wrangling over the National Guard, during which Senator Chamberlain, chairman of the military committee, announced that he was ready to wipe the guard out of existence if it did not cease its political activities.