ft':--5-
LESSON AND RESULT OF
THE BATTLESHIP CRUISE.
Scientific American.
In view of the
with which
bitter criticism
it was assailed, when
the DroDosal to send a fleet of sixteen
from the Allan t'c to the
Pacific coast the first made public,
4h a TPfnm of this same .fleet to
Hampton Roads after a 42,000-mile
cruise around the world, witn every
cfim in first-ekss shaDe. and the
-"f
morale of officers and men greatly
improved, is a tribute to the far
sighted sagacity which projected the
voyage.
It must be admitted, even by the
most conservative, that the spectacle
of this most imposing array of first
class fighting ships, streaming in
Dfcrfect order and on schedule time
from port to port across the seven
seas, Las had the effect of raisiug the
prestige of our navy in every quar
ter of the world. JLo those ot us wao
keep in close touch with the devel
opment of na el construction, and are
jamiliar with the pages bt naval an
amis, the numbers and qualitiy of
the fighting ships of our navy and
its relative strength, would be pret
ty well known, even if no opportu
nity were given to look at the ships
themselves. But for the great world
it large, diagrams and tabular com
parisous give, after all, only a vague
idea of what a fleet of modern bat
tleships actually means. And,
therefore, the presence of our ships
in the leading ports of the world
lias afforded an object lesson as to
appearance, quality, and power of
the figutiug material of the Ameri
cas navy, which could have been
obtained in no other .way.
One of the most gratifying re
sults of the cruise has been the en
Ihutiastic and unmistakably friend
ly rectption which was accorded at
tvery port where the ships let go
T A
anchor. It any American imagined
that the rapidly increasing power
and wealth of this country was re
garded with suspicion, distrust, or
active envy, surely the whole-hearted
cordiality with which this con
crete expression of our strength was
everywhere received will effectually
Vanish the idea from his mind. Our
national policy of friendly isolation;
of careful detach meut from the en
tanglements of foreign alliances; has
nut been misinterpreted. It is sig
nificant, moreover, thai ihe nios:
splendid rev ptious of all weie those
accorded by the couutries over
which fly the Bntish and Japanese
flags; a fact tnat proves surely, it it
proves anything at all, that keeu na
val and commercial rivalry need
place no necessary embargo upon
internatioual amity and good will.
The aet that the fleet covered
42,000 miles without a bie kdown
of any consequice, and this, in
spite ot the tact that some very
h avy gules of wiud were encount
ered, should bet at rest any cbubt
as to the quality of the machinery
a point upou which many fears
were expressed at the outset of the
cruise. Furthermore, the success
ful navigation of the fleet is a fiue
tribute to the ability of our officers
to haudle thf largest ships iu fleet
formation, take them into and out
of harbors of widely different char
acter, and navigate them through
seas and siraits that require profes
sional skill of the highest order
irhen, as in this case, many -ships
are sailing the same course iu close
groximity to one another Not a
single ship has grounded or been in
collision throughout the whole four
teen months of voyaging
T&e ill-timed criticism made at
the commencement' of the cruise, to
the effect that the time would be
W-uted and that the ships had much
better be employed in regular prac
tice cruises, maneuvers, and target
practice, is shown to have been ill
ju Iged by the fact that, during the
trip, the ships were coustantly eii
gaed in maneuvers aud had lengh-
ty target practice, and that during
the latter, records were obtained
wmcn snow me mixing powei' 01 our
ships to be greater than at any per
iod i their history. And just here
it is fitting to say a word in praise
&f the enlisted men. Admiral Ev-
sn3, iu his recent autobiography,
makes no effort to conceal his un
bounded admiration for the Ameri
can sailor; and he has repeatedly,
during the last two or three years,
stated his belief that man for man,
our enlisted men are the equals, and
in some respects the superiors, of
any afloat. Lhat his estimate is not
too high is proved, surely, by the
many tributes as to the fine appear
ance and behavior of our men,
which have been freely given by
government ofScials - and : the pres
in general at the Various ports visit
ed, -yIri physique, education, intel
ligence, self-respect, and patriotism.
the enlisted men of today stand at a
higher, level than ever before in the
history of the American navy.
There is one fact brought out Ty
the., cruise, however, which must go
far to offset the general satisfaction
which must be felt at its successful
completion. We refer to our great
shortage of colliers, and to the fact
that, bad it not been for the foreign
bottoms in which coal was shipped
to the fleet at the various points of
rendezvous, it would have been im
possible tor this voyage to have
been made. It is not stretching a
point too far to say that here we
find the most important lesson of
the whole cruise. Had war flamed
out at the shortest notice, when our
fleet was, let us say, on the coast of
Australia, or at Suez, it would have
been as helpless, and even more so
a 5 a neet oi aismanueu inguujs iu
the davs of sail power and the
. - .
s nooth-bore. With coal declared
a co itraband of war; with no coll
iers of our own available to carry
the necessary fuel; our sixteen bat
tleships, for all their tremendous
fighting power, would have been as
useless, as far as active operations
on the high seas are concerned, as
so many anchored, floating batter
ies. Undoubtedly, the greatest
need of the navv today is a fleet of
large and fat colliers, built express
ly for naval purposes
Finally, the successful comple
tion of the cruise must be consider
ed as a sharp rebuke to those critics
of our navy who, at the very hour
that it was starting out from Hamp
ton Road;, endeavored to persuade
he people of America that these
selfsame ships were poorlg designed
and defectively armored, and that
nything of a seaway the most im
portant of their guns would be com
pletely drowned out by the heavy
water that would come aboard.
None of these predicted troubles
occurred. That the windward broad
ide batteries on the main deck
would be washed with .pray under
certain conditions, such as did ac
tually occur duriug the cruise, was
fully expected; but this is a condi
tion that obtains in the ships of ev
Vry navy that carry broadside bat
teries on this deck. With this ex
ception, our vessels have lived fully
up to their designation as seagoing
battleships; and the people of the
United States may rest satisfied lhi.t
ship for ship, guu for gun, they are
the equals of any vessels of the same
size and date in the navies of the
world.
Building on Solid,: Ground
From the Springfield Republican. . ;
v Now the . . opportunity: .: is ' ' being
presented to start more nearly from
the ground, and it must ; according
ly be said thath the situation is today
more favorable for solid, and large
improvement in business affairs than
it was a week ago. .The stock mar
ket had reached an artificially high
level in harmony with the artificial
ly high position which has been
maintained in the basic steel and
various other industries. If this
was not actually known to be the
case as the stock -market appeared
week after week to be 'pegged" to
the high post-election level, it was
felt by most observers to be the
case, and the event proves the ac
curacy of this intuitive judgment.
Prices in steel and copper; and so
in stocks, are now where people can
build upon them for the future with
a large degree of assurance. No
matter what may be done with the
tariff, the very worst is being large
ly discounted in the present slump.
The opportunity is now being offer
ed to start from the bottom instead
of from near tlie top. Natural in
place of artificial conditions are
more prevalent.
The country is not going to the
dogs, but is being more squarely
headed in the right direction than
it was before. The continued ex
traordinary gold production pre
vents the possibility of so extensive
and persistent a fall in commodity
prices as followed the panic of 1893.
General crop failure is practically
out of the question, as long exper
ience has shown for a country, of so
wide extent, so large an assortment
of climate and so great a variety of
farm production.
Tbe Road to Success
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Bitters is the greatest health builder
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Are Mogul Engines Too Heavy.
New York World.
The.repor? that the managers of
the Pennsylvania Railroad are con
sidering the reducing of traiuloads
and the weight of its engiues
for a faster freight service opens
one of the most interesting problems
iu the fascinating field ot railroad
ing. Has tbe mogul treighfengine
reallv become too heavy?
Heretofore it has been the const
ant tendency to employ heavier
engines, with cars of larger capacity
aud to handle greater Lads. Ameri
can engineers have made a joke of
the five, eight and tennou freisrht
cars of European railroads, which
carry a pretty heavy traffic after all,
aud of the little engines that draw
them; but there m.ty easily be a
limit of economy in bigness. And
the limit may now have been reach
ed, at least until Mr. Harriman's
sound but immenselv costly idea of
widening the guage can be under
taken. ' There is much the retical econo
my in the heavy engine aud the long
train. On single track railroads
where side tracks are placed at in
tervals of from five to twenty miles,
managers are often compelled to
lengthen their freight trains rather
than multiply them. Loug trains
take more time and coal to stop and
start and to handle in cutting out
cars at statious jf they are of mis
cellaneous character. Heavy engines
wear the track and roadbed faster,
require heavier bridges and cost
more money all along the .line.
Much of their apparent operation
economy has thus been eaten up by
the maintenance expense.
Go Vi itn ,aKasn;-pfj
The demand for that - wonderful
Stomach Eiver and r Kidney cure,
Dr. King's New Life Pills--is ;; as-1
tounding, says Freeman v Drug peo- j
pie, they say; vtheynever , saw4he j
like -Its-because 'they-tJevetail
to cure Sour : Stomach, v Constipa- (
Tnwraafinn' RiHnilsm'SfLv.IflUn- V
fclUU, .a.uv.g.?vw. , '
dice, Chills and Malaria;' Only 25o.
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e. l. Rowland,
Typewriters For Sale.
I have several Second Hand
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guarantee them. Come be
fore they are picked over
B. E. Teague.
-TH&
Baltimore American
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The Daily American
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