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December, 1909 actual average since the first were auth- orized. It must be borne in mind that the figures as to cost ate those indi- cated by departmental reports and with the exception of such as represent con- tracts are not of any real value as to accuracy because, as has been repeatedly stated, departmental figures, which in the case of new ships show cost of arm- ament and equipment, carry no charges for interest, depreciation, taxes, insur- ance. or Salaries, and the real cost is therefore higher than that assumed. It is also assumed that the definition of "firstclass battleship" will not be held to apply to anything smaller than those now building. Sixteen years then would be required to produce what our ex- perts consider to be our prime necessi- ties. If the rate of increase in ton- nage which has obtained in our own- and foreign navies during 15 years, should be maintained, the final ship in 1926 would approximate 50,000 tons, and the cost, even though the price per ton showed no increase, would approxi- mate $25,000,000. Now these figures may be ridiculed by naval experts just as they have ridiculed others before only . to prove their accuracy later, and it is sincerely to be hoped that they are ex- cessive, but in view of the present as- cendency and popularity of the navy, an attempt to carry out this program is not at all unlikely. The average cost of the 48 ships then, would be about $18,000,000, or $864,000,000 for the two fleets which we must have, and this entirely independent of all other con- struction such as cruisers, torpedo boats, submarines, colliers, etc, and exclusive of the maintenance and operation of the department which already amounts to over. $100,000,000 per year. There is nothing whatever sensational or vis- ionary about this estimate, it is only $54,000,000 per year for new battleships. Compare the average of the five years. from 1890 to 1895, when our first bat- 'tleships were built, about $6,000,000, with the $40,000,000 of 1906 and 1907 and judge whether they are overdrawn. Nor is there the slightest ground for belief that the cost per ton will not go higher, because, while for similar de- signs the per ton cost should fall with increase in size, yet each succeeding design calls for more intricate and costly equipment and greater elaboration of de- tail which offsets the gain which would otherwise accrue. Acquisition of Anthracite Fields. 'Let no one think that mere figures will give the naval expert pause. His habit of thought takes no account what- ever of where the money is to come "THE Marine REvIEWw from. The ordinary citizen is here to be guided by him and his kind and do his bidding and look pleasant. you know about naval ships and fight- ing anyway? 'That's what they tell you and without any sugar to it. What they know of the same subject would not take long to tell. mean nothing to them. contention : Mere millions Witness Evans' I believe that the government of the United States should at once possess itself of the entire anthracite field of Pennsylvania and retain it for purposes of national defense. And ak, through accidental discovery, other deposits of this precious mineral are devel- oped, they should be instantly appropriated by thé national government and. reserved for its own uses. Being a _ sailor; of course I mean naval uses, first of all. About eighteen billion dollars would repre- sent, at present values, the available anthra- cite deposits which the United States govern- ment should acquire to possess the entire store of this fuel. The figures are start- ling; but remember that this vast sum is not. necessarily to be disbursed at once. In fact, it may be spent in the course of cen- turies--only, indeed, as the fuel is mined and consumed. It will be for the actuary to cal- culate the compensation which the _ govern- ment shall make to the individual owners of the coal fields; to capitalize their holdings, and provide for a systematic reimbursement. Takes One's Breath Away. Now if anyone thinks I have handlea figures carelessly, let him contemplate that proposition for a few moments. It fairly takes the breath away. All that we have ever spent; all that even the wildest program ever outlined contem- plated, sinks into absolute nothingness beside. this. .People have been restrained of their liberty for advocating schemes a hundred times saner than this crazy idea. Suppose these holdings were capi- 'talized, and bonds issued to cover, even at 3 per cent, the interest alone would be $540,000,000 per year, without pto- viding any sinking fund. Eighteen bil- lion dollars--about three and one-half times the total stock of gold and silver money in the whole world. But; oh, you Bob! You have such a delicious humor withal. "It will be for the actuary." Certainly. What should a naval officer and one with two titles, official and unofficial, to boot, and the massive brain to conceive such a lumin- ous idea, have to do with base figures ? And again: "Being a sailor, I mean naval uses first of all." Again certainly. The heavens and the earth, the sea and all that in them is, were created and exist. for the navy. We are not. sure the navy were not here first. And "being a sailor' too. Every sailor thinks of the navy first of all, though some of the thoughts would not look well in print. 'It is to laugh. Evans needn't wait for the actuary. That's not what he needs. And _ all this for war--waste. All this to provide employment and justify the existence of a few who tell us we don't know what What do- 503 we ate talking about. finish : Picture the fate of a vast hostile fleet as- Listen to his sembled off our Atlantic seaboard, with its colliers and tenders laden with soft coal, belching great clouds of smoke of inky blackness _by day and columns of fire by night, while around them circled our swift scouts and cruisers and torpedo boats and, within convenient signal range, our great battleships, each representative of a sov- ereign state--all well-nigh invisible, but ready to dash in at an opportune moment and deal a vital stroke. And all because of anthracite. Bang!!! Well, wouldn't that jar you? "Picture the fate," "pillars of cloud and pillars of fire,' "our swift scouts and cruisers and great battleships all well nigh invisible and ready to dash_ in," and the other fellow doing nothing all the while and doesn't know we're there and just as soon as the admiral has finished his cigar you may fire when you are ready Gridley and we dash in and--come, roll over, you're sleeping on your back. Well, it was a great dream, anyhow! What Are We Going to Do About It? But what are we going to do about this question? Are we going to be shaken down by the naval crowd when- ever. and however they see fit? What good does it do and what does it lead to? Are these letters justified? Let me quote a few letters which have been handed me by the editor of MARINE ReE- view, from people who know whereof they speak. The first two bear signa- tures of men I know well, prominent ship builders, signatures which are fa- miliar in the navy department attached to contracts for battleships, torpedo boats and other craft, who are at this moment doing business with the de- partment. Says one: I have long wondered if it was possible, as I know it has been, for that close cor- poration, that far-reaching social order, in Washington, called the Army and Navy, the most devilish bureaucracy ever conceived, to continue indefinitely to absorb 70 per _ cent of the entire revenue of this nation, and the people not find it out. What you have pub- lished is all true, though it is not all the truth. You have started the campaign of enlightenment at just the right time. The combination have reached the pinnacle of their success in robbing the treasury. It has made them drunk and careless. "They have gone too far and their power is now on the decline. The people see the handwriling on the wall expressed by that one word "Hhankk- ruptcy'--a condition not impossible for even -- this great country, a condition which has prac- tically been reached in England and Germany. No merchant marine, no money for liglhit- houses or for the improvement of internal waterways, nothing left for the conservation of water power, every drop of which will be required by the generations of the near future for heat, power, light and irrigation. The money spent and wasted in this big war game was not produced by us. It was taken from nature's storehouse and squan- dered by a lot of incompetents, a mortgage put on future posterity with nothing in re- turn. The people seem to be without rea- soning power and without thought for the future welfare of our own flesh and blood. Go on and show the people how the war game must stop; the impossibility of any government' to expand the taxing power +o meet the continuously increasing cost of this great and impossible game of chess. It is child's play and can have only one ending