ARMY & NAVY: Third Rate”

ARMY & NAVY

The Director of the Budget (Herbert M. Lord) is worried because expenditures are heavy on the National purse. The Navy Department is worried because the U. S. is falling behind in naval strength. Each is worried because of the other. The Navy Department estimated that it could not provide a good naval defense without $346 million next year. Director of the Budget Lord promptly sliced off $56 million of this amount.

“Impossible!” the Navy ejaculated. “One of our first-line ships, the Florida, is out of commission because there are no funds to repair her boilers. We have no funds to convert our old coal-burners to modern oil-burners. For economy’s sake we have been obliged to concentrate all our fast oil-burners in the Pacific, leaving only our slow coal-burners in the Atlantic where oil is more expensive. The Naval Air Service is inadequate; yet the Director of the Budget has amputated 60% of our requests for next year. We were refused $30 million to modernize our obsolete vessels; but the upstart Coast Guard service was granted $20 million for Prohibition enforcement by the last Congress. We pare our requests to the bone and you cut 16% more. And the President also forbids the elevation of guns. We will sink to a third-rate power instead of standing with a first-rate navy as the naval treaties entitle us.”

The Director of the Budget only sighs and shrugs. Meanwhile, the Navy plans to carry its request to the President and, if necessary, to Congress.