Toward Parity

ARMY & NAVY

During the three years Admiral William Veazie Pratt was Chief of Naval Operations and thus No. 1 professional in the service, he had to swallow many a bitter pill. The London Treaty (1930) put the Navy's future into a diplomatic straitjacket. In the name of peace and disarmament, President Hoover whittled away at its appropriation year after year, almost brought its building program to a standstill. It was Admiral Pratt's grim duty to stand by and watch the U. S. fleet (except for capital ships) dwindle from supposed parity with Great Britain to actual inferiority to Japan. Last June Admiral Pratt was retired and Admiral William Harrison Standley succeeded him as Chief of Naval Operations (TIME, May 8). With a President in the White House friendly to the Navy Admiral Standley was a happy man last week because, at least on paper, the U. S. fleet was again headed back to its old position of "second to none."

After President Roosevelt took office, building of warships began on such a scale as the Navy had never before known in peacetime. When Admiral Standley last week marched briskly in upon the House Appropriations Committee he was able to report 54 ships actually under construction, 22 from regular naval appropriations, 32 more from Public Works money--in all 212,000 new tons of fighting machinery or more than twice the tonnage being built by Britain, six times the tonnage being built by Japan. When Admiral Standley walked out of the committee he had won that body's approval of a $286,000,000 Naval appropriation bill which provided not only 2,800 more seamen and 1,000 additional marines for the 16 new ships which will be completed in the next 17 months but also funds for beginning another 8-in. gun cruiser and three more 6-in. gun cruisers. Including PWA money, $442,000,000 will be spent on the Navy in fiscal 1935. When later in the week the House passed the Naval appropriation bill without change, Admiral Standley could boast that the Navy with 58 new ships would at last be brought up to full treaty strength.

It is one thing to bring the Navy up to scratch but another to keep it there. Therefore Admiral Standley last week paid a second visit to the Capitol to advocate the Vinson bill before the Naval Affairs Committee. That measure calls for 102 new ships (95 destroyers and submarines) at a cost of at least $380,000,000 to replace present ships as they pass the useful age limit. Promptly the committee approved the Vinson bill, sent it to the House for passage this week.

With a second great victory to his credit, Admiral Standley promptly proceeded toward a third. He pointed out that aircraft are just as necessary to a fleet as guns or ammunition, for his new ships he would need 1,184 new airplanes. Promptly the committee approved a bill to increase the Navy's air fleet from 1,000 to 2,184 planes.

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