A battery of three-inch caliber
guns is taken on board each battleship for that as the big guns will not
stand continual firing and are only used on special occasions to see if
the gunners have improved. The men are highly pleased with the service
and the majority of them re-enlist. On inquiry I was told that they had
thirty first-class and thirty second-class battleships and that they
kept them always together so that they could strike an enemy with force,
but as they held no people in subjection and had no colonies or outlying
possessions there was at the present time very little danger of war-but
if it should come they were ready to fight and to strike hard. As I left
the navy yard I thought what a pity it was that the people inhabiting
the other countries of the earth were not governed as these people are,
for then there would be no need of battleships and the kindly earth
would slumber lapped in Universal Laws.
CHAPTER IX.
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE.
On inquiring at the Department of Commerce I was informed that it had
charge of all vessels engaged in internal traffic as well as in foreign
trade, and operated lines of steamers running to all ports of the globe,
carrying freight at a rate between home and foreign ports that defied
competition, but they did not carry freight between foreign countries.
Pages:
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65