Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1897 — FACTS ABOUT THE NAVY. [ARTICLE]

FACTS ABOUT THE NAVY.

Secretary Long Gives to the Public His Annual Report. Secretary of the Navy Long, in his report to the President, declares that the prime need of the naval service is not new ships, but new docks, wharves, munitions, men and facilities. He says in part: “Hitherto for more than a decade the increase of the navy has very properly been in the line of new ships, and wisely so, as this has hitherto been the vital need. In the opinion of the department the time has now come when that increase should be on adjunctory lines in order to bring our naval facilities up to the same line of advance. The principal need of to-day is that of sufficient docks, of which there is a deplorable lack; of adequate supplies of the munitions of war, which should never be at the hand-to-mouth stage; of an equipment of our navy yards equal to the demand upon them of the increased number of our ships, and of an enlarged corps of officers and men to do the work. “Additions to our fleet may be hereafter necessary to bring it iu ease of an emergency to an extent commensurate with the growing necessities of the country, especially in view of the development of Alaska, which is a continent in itself, and of the possible annexation of islands in the Pacific. On the other hand, it is a (mistake not to recognize that our naval ■power has more than doubled within the last few years; that the case of any emergency beyond our present resources is the ivery rare ease; that until it comes ships will be gradually taken out of commission -and put into reserve in order to reduce [running expenses, and that a due regard is necessary to the relation of the national [expenditures to the national revenues. 1 “The department therefore recommends that the authorization of new ships by the 'coming Congress be limited to one battlefship for the Pacific coast, where, after the tive now under construction are completed, there will be only two, while on the j Atlantic const theTe wilt be seven; and ialso to a few torpedo boats and torpedoboat destroyers, both of which are comparatively of little cost, and more of which are desirable in order to bring this swift, mobile and handily effective arm of the service up to its place in the general ischeme for coast defense.

. “The present effective fighting force of the navy consists of four battleships of (the first class, two battleships of the second class, two armored cruisers, sixteen cruisers, fifteen gunboats, six double tur.reted monitors, one ram, one dynamite 'gunboat, one dispatch boat, one transport steamer and five torpedo boats. There are under construction five battleships of the first class, sixteen torpedo boats and one submarine boat. There are sixty-four other naval vessels, including those used as training, receiving and naval-reserve ships, tugs, disused single turreted monitors and some unserviceable craft. “There is, further, the auxiliary fleet. This consists, first, of more than twenty subsidized steamers which comply with the requirements of the postal act of March 3, 1891, with regard to their adaptability to naval service, and to on armament of main and secondary batteries: second, of a very much greater number of large merchant marine steamers, which can be availed of at any time of need. These auxiliaries, ranging from 2,000 to 12,000 tons, will, if occasion require, form a powerful fleet of ocean cruisers, capable of swift and formidable attack upon an enemy’s commerce. Their great coal capacity will also enable them to remain a Jong time at sea in search of the whereabouts of hostile vessels. “The country is to be congratulated upon the results obtained in the rebuilding of the navy. While its ships are not as many—and it is not necessary they should be —as those of some other great powers, they are, class for class, in power, speed, workmanship and offensive and defensive qualities the equal of vessels built anywhere else in the world..” The Secretary recommends that naval officers who were discharged under the act of 1882 be restored to the service after examinations, and that the complement of enlisted men be largely increased to man the new ships. The departmental appropriation was $16,984,251, of which $927,407 remains as a balance.

The State Bank of Holstein, a small town of Adam* County, Neb., is in the of Bank Examiner Wilson. The bank’s statement of Sept. 8 shows that tire institution had loans and discounts Amounting to $15,459.88 and $16,103.82 In deposits. Unknown men made an unsuccessful attempt to wreck a freight train on the Erie road near Bloatsburg, N. Y. Peter Curtis, a young farmer of Nebraska City, Neb., was robbed and fatalb beaten by highwaymen.