Evening Post. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1924. WATCHING THE PACIFIC

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 55, 2 September 1924, Page 6

Evening Post. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1924. WATCHING THE PACIFIC

In the hesitation displayed by President Coolidge in the presence of the oil scandals which dominated American politics at the beginning of the year, and his reluctance to purge his Cabinet of the incriminated Ministers till it was virtually forced upon him by his enemies in the Senate, he was not seen to the best advantage. But after he had bowed to the inevitable and got rid of both Mr. Denby and Mr. Daugherty, the President's position was much strengthened, not merely by; the elimination of the tainted material but'also by the excellent manner in which"" he filled the vacancies. Both Mr. Stone as At-torney-General and Judge Wilbur as Secretary of the Navy were generally' regarded ;cs admirable appointments, and, though neither of them was a politician, the choice of Judge Wilbur at any rate was considered to be good politics. To some extent a man who owed his position/as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California to the votes of several hundred thousand electors, and presumably, was looking for re-election, may be said to have been in polities^ but his qualifications dov the- office' had been established not on the hustings but by several years of excellent service as Associate Justice of the Court. "An exceptionally able man of the s loftiest integrity, who .will strengthen the-'Cabinet both intellectually and morally," was the verdict of ,the "Springfield' Republican " bn this appointment. •In ordinary circumstances distinction as a lawyer and a jurist 1 would not provide any special claim to.the Secretaryship of the Navy, but an Administration which was reputed to be- weak in legal training was glad to welcome such an accession of strength. At the same time, the tangle in which.Mr. Fall, Mr. Deiiby, and Mr. Daugherty had between them involved the affairs of the Navy Department made the new 'Secretary's double first in law and in morals a guarantee of two of the most essential qualifications for^the job. " There is a real kick in "the Coolidge Cabinet now, or at Jeast a real kicker," was the general comment of the American Press on Judge Wilbur's accession to it. ,• The allusion was in part to his moral strength, but had a special-application to'his athletic prowess. A man of six feet three inches, the late Chief Justice •of California had, said the " New York World," " with a hitch and a kick jjwung his toes upward into collision with the tambourine nine feet and one/> inch above theground." This ability to kick, and .to''kick in such very high places, was, of course, welcomed by the '' World" and other papers as likely to prove very useful ,in the administration of the Navy Depart-, ment. To what, extent these expectations have been realised we. are unable to say, but it is cer-~ tainly not to'the new Naval Secretary's discredit that we have heard little of his administration so far. In work of this kind th,o*se who make the most noise or get most of the limelight are'not necessarily the mpst efficient, and, conversely, silence is no evidence of failure. After nearly six months of office, Mr. Wilbur has broken silence, and :t cannot be denied Jthat there is some " kick "in what he says. In another respect his utterance confirms what was generally expected ci him. The' appointment of a Cali.fornian to' succeed Mr. Denby was taken as ." a recognition of the vital interest of the Pacific Coast to the United States Navy." Writing in the Hearst papers, Mr. Arthur Brisbane regarded it as significant that the- new Secretary's environment "has been .California, looking put toward the Pacific Ocean and what lies beyond." To the Western States, the belief that Pacific problems would be seen in their true perspective by the Navy Department under its new head naturally gave great satisfaction. c . The trend of world affairs during the ;!.\ sfc tc,',l years, said the " Los Angeles 'Jimcs," indicates vpry clearly that the greater volume of. trade and commerce ■liofoiv the century prids will he in Pacific wliters. Whil(f we hiive no desire to mulct! of the "Pacific an American lake, it i> of vast economic importance thai, this country should 1.-ike thu lead in the development of what is, known 'as the Pacific iu'C.i. The speech which Mr. Wilbur lias

Pacific Coast since he became Secretary of the Navy is fulfilling these hopes, for-it shows that the " particular attention to America's defence .lines" which has been forced upon him at Washington has a special concern for the A big naval base on the Pacific Coast for aircraft is, says Mr. Wilbur, to be established as soon as Congress has put the necessary legislation through, and his only suggestion of trouble relates to the same ocean. When he speaks of the need for raising the elevation of the naval big guns and of bringing America up to her ratio with Britain and Japan, there is certainly no need for any alarm o/ uneasiness on the part of the British Empire. If ,America -.is building to, match .-Britain, .with whom she wants to get "on, an equal footing as speedily as possible, she is only1 doing what she j was empowered to do by the Wash-1 ington Naval Treaty, and what but | for the slackness of her politicians : would have-been doneibefore now. How far the American Navy lags j behind Mr. Wilbur does not say. I A so-called naval expert, who is certainly.- an expert alarmist, said soon after Mr. Wilbur took office that America's Navy was only onefifth as strong as that of Britain and one-third as strong as that of Japan.- Mr. Wilbur deals neither ir. alarms' nor in figures, but he tells us that the American Navy has fallen short of the standard' proscribed at Washington, and, whatever we might have thought a few years ago, the recent tendencies of the world's affairs make it ] impossible to regard such a short-1 age as an advantage from- the standpoint either of Britain or of the Dominions. . t ->. It was only when Mr. Wilbur turned his eyes westward from America's Pacific Coast -that he sounded anything like ah alarming note. The human race, as now constituted, he said, has spread from Western Asia • o the East and West." and the marching hosts of the two civilisations now stand face to,face across the Pacific. Either ol these two must pause on their respective shores, or by war cause the retreat of the opposing civilisation. It is a great and terrible problem which the Secretary of the Amerij can Navy touches in this remarkably candid fashion, and it is to be feared that Japan, still smarting under the exclusion law, will find' more kick than tact in the, referonce.