The Syracuse Journal, Volume 4, Number 30, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 23 November 1911 — Page 2

UNCLE

4 fHOW much am 1 offered for this fine steel cruiser Detroit—built In 1880, cost me $1,233,039, almost as good as new, only a bit shop-worn, and I’m sacrificing my old naval stock so as to make room for a couple of 30,-000-ton battleships I’ve just asked congress for. How much for the Detroit? Do 1 hear |50,000? Well, 125,000, then. No? Why, gentlemen, you couldn’t buy a tug boat at that figure, $20,000? Twenty I am offered. Is that all? Going, going—gone at $20,000!" The auctioneer was Uncle Sam, and the occasion was one of his little naval rummage sales, held at the navy yard last January. ,Uncle Sam has from $140,000,000 to $150,000,000 worth of battleships, cruisers, monitors, gunboats and other miscellaneous ex-fighting craft piled up in his naval junk-shop. That is to say. tiie discards/ obsolete or obsolescent types, cripples, back numbers and total wrecks at present on his hands cost him the tidy sum indicated for construction alone, not counting guns and equipment. These latter represent a more or less perishable value, too, but that’s another story. ft was doubtless owing to L’nqle Sam’s reputation for unsentlmentallty in regard to superannuated war vessels that general credence was given to a recent rumor that Turkey proposed to purchase from the United States the four armored cruisers Olympic, Saratoga, Brooklyn and Raleigh. This rumor was promptly denied from Washington. Uncle Sam has no authority in law to dispose of naval vessels to any foreign government. Otherwise the idea was not so very far removed from possibility. ” Three of the four cruisers named are at navy yards, or the Naval Academy, the fourth one, the New York (or the Saratoga, as she is called now), being with the Asiatic squadron. The vessels are oil of obsolete type, but each has contributed to maval history. The Saratoga was Rear Admiral Sampson’s flagship at Santiago, the Brooklyn was Rear Admiral Schley’s flagship in the same bat-

ML / ' of IL \>? / ' z :< 4 - 1W- B \ / /' . 1/ WB; ..i/j. .. .Jo*

tie, the Olympia was Admiral Dewey’s flagship «t Manila Bay, and the Raleigh, also of the Manti a squadron, was under command of Capt. Jo«eph B. Coghlan of "Hoch der Kaiser” tame. The Olympia !s at the Naval Academy, the Brooklyn «t the Philadelphia yard and the Raleigh at Mare Island. The armored cruiser Brooklyn, built at Philadelphia in 1895-96, Is the largest of the vessels named. She is of 9,215 tons’ displacement, and was completed at a cost of 53,067,915. The next largest of the four vessels is the Saratoga (exNew York), an armored cruiser of 8,200 tons displacement, built at Philadelphia in 1891 and costing almost as much as the Brooklyn. The Olympia is a second-class cruiser, built at San Francisco in 1892-95. The Raleigh is a third-class cruiser, built at Norfolk at about the same time. Both are of the protected type. Some of the big armorclads are but recently ©ut of commission, or “In reserve”—that means headed for Davy Jones’s locker, though as yet the marked-down price tag has not been attached. Others —for instance the 520,000.000 Job lot of monitors —would probably be unsalable at any price as floatable or fighting vessels. Admiral Jack Philip’s old battleship Texas, which bore the brunt of the fighting at Santiago, was rechristened the San Marcos, so that her state name might be given to one of the new dreadnoughts. Then, last spring, the venerable war-horse was towed out into Chesapeake Bay and set up as a target for the New Hampshire’s big guns and dynamite shells to batter into scrap Iron. What a come-down from twenty-five years ago, when the Texas, constructed at a cost of (4,202,121, was a beauty of the new squadron! Sampson’s old flagship is now the Saratoga—having surrendered her name to the newer New York. She has been rebuilt at a cost of more than halt a million dollars, and is now in the Philippines—the only one of the Santiago fighters tn actual commission today. Schley’s famous Brooklyn, in her declining days, reposes peacefully in the League Island navy yard, Philadelphia. The lowa, “Fighting Bob” Evans* ship, is in reserve, as are also the Massachusetts, the Indiana and the Oregon—the gallant battleship that Captain Clark brought halfay around the world in record time, without a break. These and other good old-timers are not yet “all in” by any means. Still they couldn’t hold their own in the fighting line with such husky youngsters as, say, the Connecticut or the North Dakota, today, much less with the super-dread-nowghts of the Florida type of tomorrow. Therefore. according to up-to-date standards they are to the obsolete class. When a vessel once gets there, as a rule, the rest is silence. Even the proud Atlantic fleet battleships of

VW f ? ■ ■ — \\ r». / iX u W■ '/ I ' vM W - i \\ \\ V J. ' s ' 1 . j'9 a f I Xl‘ ■ I 11 ■ I'-lT I ■ lix I I Kt ’ I i -\

Bey — are O ut of the front line now. Some of them participated in the recent theoretical coast maneuvers against New York and Boston, but they were technically “sunk” by the submarines and torpedo boats. For an example of rapid tobogganing into desuetude, look at the three stately protected cruisers St. Louis, Charleston and Milwaukee, which cost about 53,800,000 apiece when they were built in 1902. Even then, certain Dick Deadeye's of the navy declared that this type was obsolete before the cruiser triplets went into commission. Be that as it may, at the present day these 511,000,000 worth of cruiers are generally regarded as three white elephants which the navy is bothered to know what to do with. The monitors stand for a- picturesque but expensive fad, dating from the infancy days of ironclads in the Civil war of fifty years ago, when Ericsson’s small “cheesebox on a raft” in Hampton Roads put the Confederate Merrimac out of business and saved the nation. If it were not for “past performances” prestige there would not be ten million dollars* worth of monitors rusting in the rivers today. Four of these curios, which have been within a decade reomdeled into singleturret coast defenders, are the Cheyenne, once the Wyoming, the Ozark, formerly the Arkansas, and the Tallahasse and the Tonopah, which used to be respectively the Florida and the Nevada. When a special class craft is tried out, such, for example, as the Vesuvius dynamite gunboat of nearly twenty years ago, she soon either goes to the lumber attic herself or else puts some other type in the obsolete class. In either case, Uncle Sam’s scrap-heap grows larger and more miscellaneous. Such is the universal law of naval evolution. England, France and Germany are in this same naval junk business on a vast scale, and Italy in a smaller way. The excuse is the general one of modern militarism —that competitive war preparation is the price of peace. From the financial viewpoint of the taxpayer the high cost of peace is about the same as that of active hostilities. At any rate, the most recent practical lessons of war are applied with marvelous results of progress to the world’s navies, and in no country is this more strikingly exemplified than in the United States. Walter S. Meriwether, the well-known naval authority, has shown in illustration of the development of gunnery since the Spanish war tuat in the target practice of United States warships today the percentage of misses is actually smaller than the percentage of hits was at Santiago. According to the same authority, the idea of the modern dreadnought or all-blg-gun battleship originated in our own navy. Years before the

' ’ - 4~ • »/ . I * 'SIL > -x * v ■ 'Xjr\ < < X.. s I "y HF z x / .. y S I

1907, that In December of that year sailed out of Hampton Roads on the famous around-the-world cruise — the Alabama, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Ohio, Kearsarge, Kentucky, Wisconsin and New Jer-

first English dreadnought was put in commission American-drawn plans for two such vessels, tenta tlvely called the Feasible and the Possible, reposed in dusty plgeonhqtes in the navy department at Washington, wey were resurrected later in the light of developments abroad. Thirty-five sea-going battleships and dreadnoughts—beginning with the Indiana, Massachusetts and Oregon group, laid down in 1891, and including the new 58,000,009 dreadnoughts New York and unborn —may be said to constitute the main line of Uncle Sam’s sea fighters. The other battleship groups and types, in chronological succession are 2, Iowa; 3, Kearsarge and Kentucky; 4, Alabama, Illinois, Wisconsin, Maine, Missouri and Ohio; 5, Virginia, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Georgia, Nebraska, Kansas, Connecticut, Louisiana, Vermont, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Mississippi and Idaho. After these, beginning in 1905-6 with the neardreadnoughts South Carolina and Michigan, come the present dreadnought series: North Dakota, Delaware, Florida, Utah, Wyoming, Arkansas, Texas and New York. In the meantime, as demonstrated in the mimic “Battle of Block Island” this summer, the submarines have practically proved the battleships vulnerable, therefore outclassed and obsolescent These maneuvers may be said to have borne out the prediction of a plank in the “Proposed Platform for the American Party, published in 1907: “We desire that the American navy shall be the most powerful and efllclent in the world; but we consider that new inventions have displaced or are about to displace the battleship, cruiser, torpedo-boat and monitor, and therefore hesitate to make further appropriations for these types of fighting craft.” Conservative statesmen in the United States senate have denounced the vast appropriations for armored ships—sums estimated in the aggregate at more than 110,000,090 —as a bad investment. They have stigmatized the United States navy as “a lot of old tubs, more dangerous to those on the inside ♦han to those without.” Even in England the day of the dreadnought is beginning to decline, while the submarine —to say nothing of the war aeroplane—is yet in infancy. At this rate, ere long, our congress may hear the cry of the armed-peace advocates changing to “Millions for development of the diving-boat; not one cent more for dreadnoughts!” The naval men themselves are not slow to read the signs of coming change. It may be only a question of a very few years when the general adoption of a 14-inch gun capable of shooting with accuracy at a distance of fifteen miles will revolutionize naval warfare. Such a gun is now in process of trying-out, and if it proves a success it will make all the coast defenses of today practically useless. “There is no doubt,” deciares Rear Admiral Francis T. Bowles, U. S. N., retired, “that a fleet equipped with the new 14-inch gun of the latest type could raze New York or any other seaport in less than an hour. It seems to me that the answer to this problem of coast defense is made by the submarine. I believe that the submarine is going to be taken more seriously every year by naval experts. It is the most deadly enemy of the battleship.’’

PUTNAM FADELESS DYES Color more goods brighter and faster colors than any other dye. One 10c package colors all fibers. They dj ein cold water better than any other dye. You can dye any garment without ripping apart. Write for free booklet —How to Dye, Bleach and Mix Colors. MONROE DRUG COMPANY, Quincy. HL

DANGEROUS VARIETY. L ‘ r Caroliner-She may be a gossip, but I believe she tells the truth. Pauline—My dear, the\ truth is frequently the worst form of gossip imaginable. i Insulted. A strapping German with big beads of perspiration streaming down his face was darting in and out of the aisles of $ Philadelphia department store. His excited actions attracted the attention of all salespersons, and they hardly know what to make of it A hustling young man of the clothing department walked up to him and asked, “Are you looking for something in men’s clothing?” “No!” he roared; “not men’s clothing; vlmen’s clothing. I can’t find my wife! ’’—Lippincott’s. How Fido Lost Out. b “My girl used to think a lot of her pug dog, but I’ve managed to get the edge on him since we married.’ “How did you work it?” “Fido wouldn’t eat her cooking, and I did.” The Humor of It. Stella—i Were you shopping today? Bella —Yes, I got some things to exchange.

We Get a Slap

The big coSee trust, made up of Brazilian growers and American importers, has been trying various tactics to boost the price of coffee and get more money from the people. Always the man who is trying to dig extra | money out of the public pocket, on a combination, hates the man who blocks the game. Now comes a plaintive bleat from the ‘‘exasperated” ones. The Journal of Commerce lately said: “A stirring circular has just been issued to the coffee trade.” The article further says: “The coffee world is discussing what is to be the future of coffee as a result of the campaign of miseducation carried on by the cereal coffee people. We have before us a letter from one of the largest roasters in the South asking what can be done to counteract the work of the enemies , of coffee. ° i ■ ‘[The matter should have jbeen taken up by the Brazilian Gov’t when they were completing their beautiful’ valorization scheme.”

Then the article proceeds to denounce Postum and works into a fine frenzy, because we have published facts regarding the effect of coffee on some people. The harrowing tale goes on. “Where a few years ago everybody drank coffee, several cups a day, now we find in every walk in life people who imagine they cannot prink it (The underscoring is ours.) Burly blacksmiths, carpenters, laborers and athletes have discontinued or cut down the use of coffee; as there is not a person who reads this and will not be able to find the same conditions existing among his own circle of acquaintances, is it not well for the Brazilians to sit up and take notice?” Isn’t it curious these “burly” strong men should pick out cos- , fee to “imagine” about? Why not “imagine” that regular doses of whiskey are harmful, or daily slugs of morphine? If “Imagination” makes the caffeine in coffee clog the liver, depress the heart, and steadily tear down the nervous system, bringing on one or more of the dozens of types of diseases which follow broken-down nervous systems, many people don’t know it. But it remained for the man who has coffee, morphine or whiskey to sell, to have the supreme nerve to say: “You only Imagine your disorders. Keep on buying from me.”

JUST BEFORE THE TROUBLE How Could the Listener Know What His Friend Was Trying to Say? If any man ever admired his wife, that man was Howler. And when the Fitzboodles asked Mrs. Howler to get up and sing, “There is a Garden in My Face,” the husband glowed with pride. No matter that she had a face like a hippopotamus and a voice like an elephant, he sat beaming as she sang, and could not refrain from bending over to his neighbor and whispering: “Don’t you think my wife’s got a fine voice?” “What?” said his neighbor, who was a little deaf. “Don’t you think my wife’s got a fine voice?” repeated Howler. “What?” “Don’t you think my wife’s got a fine voice?” roared Howler. “Sorry!” returned the neighbor, shaking his head. “Can’t hear a word you say. That awful woman * over there is making such a frightful row singing.” Tree Destroyers. Porcupines are good climbers, and when unable to get enough apples wind-blown to the ground, swarm a tree and cut down the finest bearing limbs as quickly and neatly as a beaver can sever the trunk of a young hemlock. Besides that,, when other food is scarce they nibble the bark off young apple trees, and can destroy a newly planted orchard in a short time. They also are a great enemy to the young spruce, but why they cut them is a mystery, as it is not found that .they eVen eat the tenderest shoots. o No Jury. “Didn’t you give that man a jury trial?” “Look here,” replied Broncho Bob; “there ain’t a big lot o’ men in this settlement. We couldn’t possibly git 12 of ’em together without startin’ a fatal argument about somethin’ that had nothin’ whatever to do with the case.”

J* \ \ V \ Xw x' Grower

Let us continue to quote from his article. “Notwithstanding the enormous increase in population during the past three years, coffee shows an appalling decrease in consumption." • e • • • Then follows a tiresome lot of statistics which wind up by showing a decrease of consumption in two years of, in round figures, two hundred million pounds. Here we see the cause for the attacks on us and the Brazilian sneers at Americans who prefer to use a healthful, home-made breakfast drink and Incidentally keep the money in America, rather than send the millions to Brazil and pay for an article that chemists class among the drugs and not among the foods. Will the reader please remember, we never announce that coffee “hurts all people.” Some persons seem to have excess vitality enough to use coffee, tobacco and whiskey for years and apparently be none the worse, but i the number is small, and when a sensible man or woman finds an article acts harmfully they exercise some degree of Intelligence by dropping it We quote again from the article: “These figures are paralyzing but correct, being taken from Leech’s statistics, recognized as the most reliable." * • « • •

THE REASON. J .Z±U Little Wallace —Pa, why does popcorn pop? His Pa—Because, my son, like men, ft doesn’t know any better. Proved. “There’s no question about It," said Scribblelgh. “England is the place for an author to live in who wishes to write perfect English. We become merely the expression of our environment, after all, and I wish to do my work in an atmospnre in which the language I use for the expression of my ideas is spoken in all its prestlne purity.. Do you not agree with me. Lord Miggleton?" “By Jowve, you’re bally right, old top!” replied his lordship.—Harper’s Weekly. A Word of Wisdom. “No, me dear,” said Mrs. Maloney to the charity worker when the topio ’ had turned upon the question of married women taking upon themselves the support of the family when the husband is out of work. “Don’t yeei ever begin annyt’ing of thot koind if so hap yeez should one day have a husband av your own. In the evint av that happening an’ he should come home an’ fall to cryin’ because he was out av a job, do yeez sit down an’ cry until he foinds it again. Moind thot. now.”—Woman’s World.

This is one of the highest compliments ever paid to the level-head-ed, common sense of Americans who cut off about two hundred -million pounds of coffee when they found by actual experiment (In the majority of cases) that the subtle drug caffeine, In coffee, worked discomfort and varying forms of disease. Some people haven’t the character to stop a habit when they know It Is killing them, but it is easy to shift from coffee to Postum. for, when made according to directions, it comes to table a cup of beverage, seal brown color, which turns to rich golden brown when cream is added, and the taste Is very like the milder grades of Old Gov’t’Java. Postum is a veritable food-drink and highly nourishing, containing all the parts of wheat carefully prepared to which Is added about ten per cent of New Orleans molasses, and that is absolutely all that Postum is made of. Thousands of visitors to the pure food factories see the ingredients and how prepared. Every nook and corner Is open for every visitor to carefully inspect Crowds come dally and seem to enjoy it “There’s a Reason” Postum Cereal Company, Limited Battle Creek. Michigan