instances after leaving school enter the National Guard as officers, and thus contribute to the morale and discipline of our citizen soldiers. I renew my recommendation that the law be so amended as to extend the opportunities for military instruction by officers of the Army to high schools of cities and normal schools of States having a requisite number of pupils. SEACOAST DEFENSES. In your annual message transmitted to Congress in December, 1886, attention was directed to the urgent necessity for seacoast defense in these words: "The defenseless condition of our seacoast and lake frontier is perfectly palpable; the examinations made must convince us all that certain of our cities should be fortified and that work on the most important of these fortifications should be commenced at once. The absolute necessity, judged by all standards of prudence and foresight, of our preparation for an effectual resistance against the armored ships and steel guns and mortars of modern construction which may threaten the cities on our coasts is so apparent that I hope effective steps will be taken in that direction immediately." Since that time the condition of these defenses has been under grave consideration by the people and by this Department. Its inadequacy and impotency have been so evident that the intelligence of the country long since ceased to discuss that humiliating phase of the subject, but has addressed itself to the more practical undertaking of urging more rapid progress in the execution of the plan of defense devised by the Endicott Board in 1886, with subsequent slight modifications. That plan contemplated a system of fortifications at 27 ports (to which Puget Sound was subsequently added), requiring 677 guns and 824 mortars of modern construction, at a cost of $97,782,800, excluding $28,595,000 for floating batteries. By an immediate appropriation at that time of $21,500,000 and an annual appropriation of $9,000,000 thereafter, as then recommended, the system of land defenses could have been completed in 1895. The original plan contemplated an expenditure of $97,782,800 by the end of the present year. The actual expenditures and appropriations for armament and emplacements have, however, been but $10,631,000. The first appropriation for guns was made only seven years ago and the first appropriation for emplacements was made only five years ago. The average annual appropriations for these two objects has been less than $1,500,000. The work has therefore been conducted at about one-seventh the rate proposed. If future appropriations for the manufacture of guns, mortars, and carriages be no larger than the average authorized for the purpose since 1888, it will require twenty-two years more to supply the armament of the eighteen important ports for which complete projects are approved. If the appropriations for the engineer work are to continue at the rate of the annual appropriations since 1890, it will require seventy years to complete the emplacements and platforms for this armament for the ports referred to. Thus the various factors in the scheme of defense have now been so accurately determined that for the first time it is possible to forecast from what has been accomplished the time and expense required to complete the project with existing facilities. We have established and equipped a gun factory able to turn out yearly 35 guns of the types required, or enough to arm the 18 ports enumerated within ten years. It is complete except as to the provisions for finishing and assembling 16-inch guns, the expediency of which is still questioned. We have, moreover, by contract contributed toward the establishment of a private plant for the manufacture of guns, which in time will be able to meet any unusual demand that could not be supplied by the Watervliet gun factory. We have established a plant for the manufacture of gun carriages which, with the aid of private establishments, can supply the carriages required as rapidly as emplacements for guns and mortars are completed. The development of a satisfactory type of 12-inch disappearing gun carriage is alone lacking in the mechanism of coast defense, and without doubt American ingenuity will soon supply that desired feature. But at only three of the eighteen ports under consideration have completed features of defense been established. New York has two 12-inch guns and sixteen 12-inch mortars, San Francisco has one 12-inch gun and sixteen 12-inch mortars, and Boston has sixteen 12-inch mortars in position. Besides the three 12-inch guns in position, there were finished and ready for mounting on July 1, 1895, eleven 12-inch, thirty-three 10-inch, and fifty-one 8-inch guns. By next July fifteen 12-inch, twelve 10-inch, and twelve 8-inch guns will be added, making a total of 134 guns ready to be mounted. The gun carriages now completed or building for these guns comprise ten 12-inch carriages, thirty-five 10-inch carriages, and fourteen 8-inch carriages; in all, 59 carriages for 134 guns. Eighty mortars are completed, of which 48 are mounted at New York, San Francisco, and Boston; 6 more are building and 38 additional mortar carriages are built or building, so that the supply of mortars can be mounted as soon as emplacements are prepared. Turning to the engineering phases of seacoast defense, there are completed 10 emplacements for guns and 64 emplacements for mortars, on which 3 guns and 48 mortars are already mounted. Six guns and 16 mortars are soon to be mounted on the remaining emplacements. Besides these there are 32 gun emplacements under construction, of which it is possible that 14 may be completed by the close of the current fiscal year with money now available. Thus partial provision has been made for 42 gun emplacements out of 448 needed for the approved projects, and for 64 mortar emplacements out of 952 required. By about July next the condition of the completed components of our new defenses will be as follows: 12-inch. 10-inch. 8-inch. 12-inch. 10-inch. 8-inch. 12-inch. 10-inch. 8-inch. 12-inch. 12-inch. 12-inch. For guns and mortars completed or building Congress has appropriated $7,110,000, and for emplacements completed or building Congress has appropriated $3,521,000, in all, $10,631,000. Beyond this sum it has contracted to pay the Bethlehem Iron Works $3,521,000 for 100 guns to be delivered before 1903. The disparity in the rates at which the different branches of fortification, as illustrated in the table above, is proceeding furnishes a valid reason for uniform appropriations and the creation of a board of central control, proposed in later pages. The finished and partly finished work of the project has been set forth. To complete the armament for the 18 ports named will require $36,342,935, exclusive of the balance due to the Bethlehem Iron Works of about $3,500,000 and $238,000 which may be required for rapid-fire guns in certain fortifications. For emplacements for guns and mortars finished or building $3,521,000 has been appropriated, and appropriations of $41,688,093 will be required to complete this work at the 18 ports, excluding mining casemates, and fortifications at Portland, Me., the estimates for which are not yet completed. The details from which these conclusions are drawn are herein shown in the form of tables, which for the first time present an adequate statement of what has been done and what remains to be done to fortify our seacoasts. |