Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1920 — PRETENDED FRIENDS OF THE NAVY [ARTICLE]

PRETENDED FRIENDS OF THE NAVY

While a committee of the Republican senate la “Upping" an admiral who at first appeared likely to produce a “scandal” for the purposes of the g. o. p.’s presidential campaign—but at the expense of the navy’s glory and the country’s honor —the Republican congress is incurring the guilt either of neglect or refusal to provide adequate pay and decent conditions for the officers and enlisted men of the navy. Many of the personnel are leaving the service and the morale of the whole institution is suffering. It is growing difficult to induce others to take their places. Even a newspaper like the Washington Post, which has been a champion of many Republican leaders and policies, has condemned the failure of congress to Uke action on the bill to Increase the pay of the enlisted m|en. “Without any desire to be sensational,” says a special writer for the Post, “it is only the solemn truth to state that the navy today is not ready for any sort of emergency, and could not be made ready for many 'months. . . . It is undermanned.” The writer makes it plain that the fault is with congress, which, he says, "must determine to maintain a first-class navy in first-class fighting trim, or it must determine to abolish the navy altogether.” Meantime a committee of senatois is listening attentively nearly every day to the tale of an omniscient admiral, who is modestly admitting that everything that was right and successful in the naval warfare against Germany was original with him, and that everything that was wrong or resultless was of the other fellow’s invention. The Republicans seem to believe that in some fashion this disparagement of the American navy will enhance their chances at the next election. The most solemn and important duty the Republican senate could have performed was that of bringing peace. The senate has made Its action nothing less than a farce. History will depict these senators in the character they have deserved —that is, as politicians entrusted with the work of statesmen.