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1900) MARINE REVIEW. 7 MARINE REVIEW Devoted to the Merchant Marine, the Navy, Ship Building, and Kindred Interests. Published every Thursday at No. 418-19 Perry-Payne building, Cleveland, Ohio, by THE MARINE REvIEW PUBLISHING Co. SuBscRIPTION--$3.00 per year in advance; foreign, including postage, $4.50, or 19 shillings. Single copies 10 cents each. Convenient binders sent, post paid, $1.00. Advertising rates on application. Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. The simple little item of ocean surveys in the naval appropriation bill has prolonged the session of congress at least one day. The house of representatives cut down the appropriation for ocean surveys in the naval bill to $10,000 which meant that they were not to be made by the navy department at all. The senate restored the appropriation to $100,000, the original sum asked for by the hydrographic office of the navy. When the subject came up in conference a compromise was effected, appropriat- ing $50,000 for the hydrographic service. Mr. Foss, the chairman of the house conference committee, explained that the senate had absolutely in- sisted upon the provision for ocean surveys. Mr. Cannon, who: has led the fight against ocean surveys 'by the navy department, indignantly de- clared that the house conferees had violated the instructions of the house in the conference agreement. He asked the house to reject the conference report and to dismiss the committee. The fight which was precipitated thereby caused congress to stand over for a day. Cannon carried his point and a new committee was appointed to confer with the senate com- mittee--a committee, by the way, wholly hostile to ocean surveys. All of which is very unfortunate and is due to ill feeling on both «sides. Cannon was enraged at the political influence which the navy de- partment endeavored to exercise to retain the ocean survey appropriation in the naval bill. When the appropriation was reduced by the house, the bureau of equipment, through Commander Todd, chief of the hydro- graphic service, issued a circular letter to chambers of commerce and maritime boards, urging them to petition congress by letter and by tele- gram to restore the original appropriation. This introduction of outside interference was certainly unwarranted and was calculated to provoke anger. 'What the bureau of equipment should have done was to have presented its own argument against the reduction of the appropriation. Surely there are a thousand arguments which it could have advanced through its own bureau. When Cannon brought the matter to the atten- tion of Secretary Long, the secretary denied that any such action had been taken by the navy department. The fact was that Secretary Long had not been informed. When he discovered that he had been deceived by his own department he promptly suspended Commander Todd. We repeat that the situation is unfortunate. The ocean surveys should be made by the navy department. There are no charts in the world like the hydrographic charts. For sixty years the hydrographic office of the: navy department has been making the ocean surveys, and then chronicle everything that the mariner wants to know. Moreover, charts should be made by those who have to follow them in navigating the. waters. It will be a great pity indeed if this feature of the work is taken from the navy department. The situation would never have arisen had a little more diplomacy been exercised. The navy department erred in attempting to dictate to congress, which is in charge of the people's money, and should be left untrammeled. Cannon, too, is inclined to be unreasonable. His: fury has somewhat blinded his better nature. It should be excused as a bit of bad judgment. It is to be hoped that the day will bring a reason- able appropriation to the hydrographic service for ocean surveys. It is to be hoped also that the suspension of Commander Todd, who is an ex- cellent officer, may not be for long. Senator 'M. A. Hanna of Ohio rarely speaks in the United States senate. But when he does he says something. He is not an orator, as Brutus is, but a plain blunt man who speaks his mind. He took the floor in the senate on the armor controversy the other day and when he had done some of the members knew more about the subject of armor plate than they have ever known before. Hanna is in direct contrast to Till- man and Pettigrew. He has none of their exaggerations and none of their injustice of statement. It is clear that he has contempt for the man who merely asserts a thing. What Hanna wants is proof. He told the senate that the manufacture of armor plate was a question of raw ma- terial, of labor and of proper machinery. He showed the members that it would be impossible for the United States to begin the manufacture of armor plate under three years. No steel manufacturer could turn out an armor plate forging press under three years. The government could not then engage in the manufacture of armor plate without employing experts. It could not obtain these experts without engaging them at higher salaries from existing companies which would in itself defeat the end sought-- that of economy. He contended also that it is susceptible of proof that the present price of armor is a reasonable one. The United States gov- ernment is paying less per ton than either England or Russia. It is patent upon its face that it is procuring armor at a less figure than it can manufacture it. : Whatever may be said of Hanna he has a barrel of brain. It is lucid and capacious and it has been trained to see clearly. Extraneous matter does not confuse him. He never loses sight of the main issue. He goes directly to the pith of the matter. His essential characteristic is honesty and he has a firm grip on principles. His conclusions are therefore nearly always correct. There is much misconception regarding him. In- deed it may be said to be general. Many believe him to be coarse and cruel, some believe him to have bristles and a few believe him to have horns. This impression is the legacy of the cartoonist. The real Hanna is vastly different. The real Hanna is calm, well fed and patient, with a polish which comes through constant association with men of distinction. His brusqueness has given way to a gloved firmness. The metamorphosis of the bluff business man into the suave diplomat has been complete. The energy is still there but it is steady and even now, instead of explosive. Hanna is right on the armor plate question. Its manufacture by the government is nonsense. 2 NAVAL WAR COLLEGE. OPENING OF THE REGULAR SUMMER SESSION AT NEWPORT--ADDRESS BY HON. FRANK W. HAOKETT, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE NAVY. The regular summer session of the naval war college was formially opened last week at Newport, R. 1., the Hon. Frank W. Hackett, the assistant secretary of the navy, addressing the class. There was the larg- est gathering that has ever attended an opening session. Not only were the members of the class present, but all the officers who could attend from the various war ships in the harbor were on hand, The opening remarks were made by Capt. C. H. Stockton, the pres-. ident of the college. He said that the course this year would be noted for two features, one that officers from every branch of the United States service would be in attendance, and the other was that the opening ad- dress would be made by a man who had seen service in the navy during the war and later had served on the Geneva arbitration board, which brought the United States and England so closely together. He then introduced the assistant secretary, who was received with great applause. Mr. Hackett said: "Our navy has never been intrenched more firmly in the popular heart than at this very hour. Coast and interior alike pulsate with a thrill of patriotic fervor for glorious achievement. The peaks of the Rockies, as 1t were, catch the spray of inspiration. The average American citizen, though he may be a little mystified at its technique, is proud of the navy. Now that the sphere of our responsibility as a nation has widened, and populations heretofore strange to us rely upon the American flag for an advance of civilization, and for the blessings of a stable government with political freedom, it is plain that new duties are required, and will con- tinue to be required of our commanding officers in distant waters. It behooves us, then, to ponder well the inquiry, How shall the navy officer of the near future best meet the demands that his country has laid upon him? Such is the question you study here to answer. "Tt is curious to note that two branches of the service which have so much in common should differ widely when brought to a definition, Speak of the army, and you call before you a body of men armed and trained. Speak of the navy and we picture to ourselves ships armed and furnished with officers and crews. That is to say, while the former means men, the latter brings up the material instrument with which men work --a ship and her guns, rather than the man himself, But the world has personified a ship, from the days of Homer down. The custom ought not to blind one to the truth that the ship and her armament is, after all, but so much inert matter. It is the man--the brain of man--that is every- thing. That we may have peace you teach war. You hold officers to the one central fact that the navy means organized preparation to crush an enemy. It means that men and material are ready upon the instant. When Napoleon was asked why his first Italian campaign was the most successful of all his campaigns, his reply was: 'Because it was most care- fully studied out beforehand.' All the book learning in the world might fail to create a successful captain; and yet the leader who can profit by the experience of others has the advantage of him who relies alioeethet upon his own intuitions. So here you proclaim that study and hard thinking are in order. A battle on land or water means that somebody has been working out a plan. These various plans in time have evolved rules and maxims, based on certain principles that prove of more or less value as guides for future action. What these rules are, how best to" apply them, when they can be safely violated--these, and such as these, are vital topics with which the war college deals. All that is intellectual in the makeup of the officer responds gladly to the prospect of an ex- ercise thus invigorating and broadening. "Tn war, as in every other struggle, the test of success is that the commander works out the largest results possible with the instrument put into his hands. He that waits that he may have something better to go ahead with never wins a battle. The effective force to be got out of a ship depends on the man who handles her. These, to be sure, are but commonplace observations; but, nevertheless, the idea they embody ought ever to be present to the mind of an officer fit to command. Obviously, the naval profession lies open to very much the same influences that oper- ate in other professions. There can be no lowering of the standard. Matchless as is the record of past'achievement, the captain of the future must subject himself to a test even more rigid. He shall evince more ardor than Paul Jones; more skill than Hull; more daring than Decatur; more firmness than Farragut. First and always he shall be a sailor--shall excel in seamanship. Sails and topgallant masts have, disappeared, but the mystery of the ocean remains. To read wind and current; to have his ship in hand through storm and calm; to keep her staunch and trim, and at her best--this is to be in truth a sailor. "Vour officer is to carry a stout heart--shrink from nothing--take the risk. He must harbor a comprehension of that miracle of human ingenuity beneath his feet, the modern battleship. He must be able to boast some acquaintance with chemistry, electricity, hygiene, some famil- iarity with diplomacy and with the outlines of international law. We -- would have him conversant with human nature under a blue flannel shirt. Let us avoid imposing upon a feng officer a burden of multitudinous details. His talent and energy are pledged to a service infinitely more important. His business is to study deep, and again and again to reflect upon the problem how to perfect himself in the use of that which his country has intrusted to him, wherewith to meet and destroy the enemy. This it is to compass the art of war in a larger aspect, to rise above what is petty, and to deal with what is grand and enduring." A reception was then held in the library in honor of the assistant secretary and in the afternoon Mr. Hackett was taken for a spin on the torpedo boat Porter and shown the workings of such craft, several tor- pedoes being fired for him. Later he visited Fort Adams, where he was peretyed with the customary salute, and a battery drill was given in his onor. Signor Marconi, the wireless telegraphy expert, reached this country last Saturday on the American line steamer St. Paul. Mr. Marconi says he is here on private business. He had a little baggage other than a wire- less telegraph outfit. Some of his assistants experimented with wireless telegraphy during the South African war and were successful in sending messages for over 100 miles from ship to ship, .