Pre-WWI Military Buildup

LONDON, Aug. 28, 1908 (UP) - The astounding sum of $1,431,070,989 has been spent in the last three years on the navies of seven of the leading countries of the world, according to an estimate by the British admiralty.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Feb. 6, 1909 (UP) - With a bottle of old native Delaware champagne dashed against her towering port bow from the hands of her sponsor, Miss Anne Cahall, the battleship Delaware slid into the James river Saturday. Gov. S.S. Pennewill and staff of Delaware were present.

OLD POINT COMFORT, Va., Feb. 22, 1909 (UP) -- The great American battleship fleet again is at home.

OLD POINT COMFORT, Va., Feb. 22, 1909 (UP) -- President Roosevelt made the following welcoming address Monday afternoon on board the Mayflower to Admiral Sperry and staff, and later repeated the speech on the flagship:

WASHINGTON, March 1, 1909 (UP) - President Roosevelt fed, praised and farewelled the "tennis cabinet" Monday. "Jim" Garfield of Cleveland was the hero. The president by his speech symbolized the secretary of commerce and labor as the typical tennis aid.

LONDON, May 4, 1909 (UPI) --This is the question British naval authorities are debating as the result of the reported division of opinion among members of the secret naval commission as to whether the Lord Nelson type of battleship - the type that immediately preceded the Dreadnaught - is not preferable to the latter.

LONDON, June 5, 1909 (UP) - Full details of the meeting of the German naval league at Kiel have not been received here, but the fact that the Germans openly threw off the cloak of secrecy and admitted Germany's intention of wresting from England control of the seas has merely accentuated the bitterness of the British anti-German feeling.

ST. PETERSBURG, June 15, 1909 (UP) - There is excellent authority Tuesday for the statement that the czar, in his forthcoming meetings with several other European rulers, will urge the restriction of future naval armaments.

BERLIN, June 25, 1909 (UP) - England as ruler of the seas of the world and Germany as the dominant power in Europe is the plan proposed Friday by Maximilian Harden, editor of Die Zukunft, who became a prominent figure in Germany by his exposure of the immoralities of courtiers that had ingratiated themselves into the kaiser's favor.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 1911 (UP) - The American people should know that their army is in a lamentable state and that our means of defense, except the navy, are virtually nil.

LONDON, Jan. 16, 1911 (UP) - While the press of the world is shouting for peace and Senator Root and his colleagues are working out how to spend Andrew Carnegie's $10,000,000 peace fund, figures obtained from the British naval authorities to-day show that 1911 will break all records for battleship launchings and naval activity.

WASHINGTON, March 15, 1911 (UP) - That Japan already has an army of veteran soldiers in Hawaii, and has been engaged during the last year in military activity in the Philippines, was admitted here today in connection with a statement of Count Von Reventlow, German military expert, to the United Press.

PORTSMOUTH, England, June 24, 1911 (UP) -- The greatest war fleet the world has ever seen in which the giant United States battleship Delaware easily stood out as the most formidable craft, was reviewed here to-day by King George, the review being the closing event of coronation week.