Professor Hatfield, of the University of California, speaking of cost accounts, emphasizes the fact that "It is impossible to frame a system of cost accounting applicable to establishments of different character. Iron works producing a single form of staple commodity, a factory making a few standard grades of cloth, each involving a succession of separate processes, works manufacturing special machines, where it is desirable to learn the cost of the entire machine and each of its parts, and a shipyard undertaking special contracts each needs an entirely different system of keeping its cost accounts. No general scheme of forms can be outlined which will apply to all of them, nor can a scheme be outlined which will apply in detail to the different individual establishments of a single class of undertakings."

Dicksee has said, "It need hardly be pointed out that the requirements of undertakings carrying on a similar business are by no means uniform. Special and local considerations have to be taken into account and the most desirable system of any particular undertaking can only be ascertained after a full and detailed inquiry has been made into its peculiar circumstances and conditions."

Prof. Hatfield also points out the following considerations-" Three points of uncertainty arise even in regard to the best system of cost accounting.

The first is whether the information acquired is after all worth the expense of acquiring it. This is more than doubtful in some of the more elaborate and expensive systems of costkeeping that are occasionally introduced. To take a flagrant and notorious case the cost system introduced into the Government Printing Office seems to have cost decidedly more than it was worth. In this instance the Committee investigating the system reported that "It is principally to be criticised upon the score that in an attempt to secure all classes of detail, the amount of labor entailed upon each employee for the purpose of recording necessary facts, and the amount of labor required for subsequent tabulation were so great as to make the system almost prohibitive."1

The second point of doubt is as to the degree of accuracy which may be obtained and the danger from treating as actual what is merely hypothetical."

APPROPRIATIONS.

Approaching the subject from the author's viewpoint that success only lies in remelting and recasting the Navy in a certain system of moulds borrowed from a certain school of accountants, there is no doubt that the language of these appropriations does present obstacles in that case. Congress still seems to adhere to the old fashioned idea that foundry work of this character is peculiarly within its own province.

Instead of larger lump sum appropriations the tendency seems to be to subdivide and more definitely classify them. If we do not attempt to carry into our appropriations the estimates or figures obtained under an accounting system, it will be seen that the appropriations are no bar to

'LX Cong. 1 Sess. H. Doc. 974, p. II.

any system. In the one case job orders are classified and charged in accordance with the purpose of the appropriation, in the other case they are regrouped, restudied, proportioned, and prorated according to any system of accounts that may be desired. This sort of accounting need only be made at one central office and not attempted at each individual navy yard, whereas the yards need only be concerned with the present system of charging to the proper appropriations as required by law. The reliability of any comparisons between yards would also be much more certain if compiled in one central office by the same group of men.

To do justice to the comprehensive paper by Paymaster Conard, the writer in bringing forth a different viewpoint has been obliged to discuss it at some length. The writer does not claim originality in many of the ideas set forth, as they have been considered by various writers on such subjects for years. One point that the writer believes should be recognized is the fact that various authorities hold quite different views on these subjects, showing that accounting systems can not be reduced to an exact science like that of mathematics.

Early Days in Japan.
(SEE NO. 137.)

WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, L. H. D.—With thanks and congratulations for the "India paper" editions of the PROCEEDINGS, and also for Captain Arthur C. Hansard's delightful paper on 'Early Days in Japan" permit me to supplement his account of what, in the Century Magazine for April, 1892 ("The Wyoming in the Straits of Shimonoseki"), I ventured to describe as follows:

"In the annals of the American navy, no achievement of a single commander in a single ship surpasses that of David McDougal in the Wyoming at Shimonoseki."

Captain Hansard's account adds one more to the others and happy are we to have his hearty words from across sea. Having myself interviewed officers and men who were in the fight, and Japanese who were behind their guns, including some eminent statesmen, as well as talked with or read the autograph narratives of French, Dutch, English and American officers and sailors in the Shimonoseki battles, I am glad to make some amendation or corrections of statements in Captain Hansard's most interesting paper.

Page 144, in place of "Shimadzu," read Shimoda (now famous for its quarries which furnish stone for the new Government buildings in Tokyo). Page 144. "Ronins," as foreigners knew them, were "armed bands"; yet we must not forget that these "wave men" were often scholars, men of research, prophets of the better day coming-anything but smug salarydrawers, sycophants or causeless haters of foreigners. There was mutual misunderstanding in those days. The good ronin helped mightily to bring in the era of to-day. He was a man born out of due time.

Page 145. It is certain that "the Japanese," i. e. the tottering Yedo government or suzerain Tycoon were powerless to coerce the Prince

(feudal vassal, daimio) of Satsuma. Indeed the Shogun's minister sent pilots to McDougal-one of whom (Heco, formerly of Baltimore, Maryland) told me the story of the fight, from the inside, as he saw it.

Page 148. So far from the Americans then (in 1864) being represented in the great battle of the four squadrons against the Choshiu forts, only by "one unarmed, chartered vessel," the Ta Kiang under the American flag had a thirty-pounder rifled Parrott gun, from the U. S. sailing ship Jamestown. With this superbly drilled party of thirty marines and sailors, Lieutenant Frederick Pearson not only kept his gun hot, firing at 3000 yards, but actually beat in aim and frequency the (clumsy) hundred pounder Armstrong breech-loader on the British Euryalus. Pearson then towed the boats of the landing force, and later, quickly landed the fifty-six wounded of the fleet at Yokohama. Captain Hansard was probably too busy on the British flag-ship Conqueror (101 guns) to notice this. The Washington Government paid $25,000 for the charter of the Ta Kiang and for ammunition expended, etc. The number of rounds is in the official report.

The whole fleet consisted of 17 ships, 338 guns and 7590 men, against the 75 or 80 Japanese battery cannon. It was because of the Ta Kiang's presence under Pearson, that our Government received one fourth of the indemnity of $3,000,000 as did Great Britain with her 9 ships, 5156 men and 228 guns!!!

Page 150. Mr. Heusken (Mr. Hueksen or Heutsen, of the British Legation) was the brave, efficient, but rash secretary of our Minister Townsend Harris, at Shimoda and Yedo. He was assassinated at night. His mposing funeral was finely described in Sir Rutherford Alcock's book "The Capital of the Tycoon."

Page 155. "The Wyoming having fired fifty to sixty shots in all" -exactly, 55 rounds in 110 minutes.

Page 156. In addition to the $12,000 collected by the United States on account of the firing upon the S. S. Pembroke, our nation mulcted Japan of $750,000.

Then after the money had lain in the treasury untouched, for Americans have a conscience, until it doubled itself by compound interest, Uncle Sam generously returned the original sum, and pocketed the interest-after deducting prize money for the Ta Kiang's and Wyoming's men. Proud as

I am of my countrymen's valor and skill I am glad I spent years in agitating for the return of the indemnity.

Pages 155, 156. No praise can be too high for McDougal. Alas that such valor and patriotic devotion can be so little known, so generally forgotten, or so slightly mentioned in histories of the U. S. Navy.

PROFESSIONAL NOTES.

Prepared by Professor PHILIP R. ALGER, U. S. Navy.

V."

It has commonly been assumed that the first battleships of the AustroHungarian Navy would bear the names of Kaiser Franz Josef and Tegetthoff, but up to the present they are officially known as "IV" and and the Armee Zeitung asserts that the first of them will be called Viribus Unitis. The succeeding Dreadnoughts bear the designations of “VI" and "VII." The first of them will be built at Trieste by the Stabilimento Tecnico, and the other at the Danubius Yard, Fiume. The latter place is being enlarged to the capacity of Dreadnought-building by the assistance of the Hungarian Government, who are also prepared to open a gun factory at Diosgyör, which is about 140 km. WNW. from Budapest. Although Admiral Montecuccoli has secured the adoption of a program, and there is no navy law, it is interesting to note that the German system of regarding new ships as substitutes for old ships, describing them as Ersätze, has been adopted in Austria-Hungary, and that the four new Dreadnoughts are to replace four old wooden corvettes, the Donau, Ersherzog, Friedrich, Dandolo and Saida. It is not expected that Dreadnought "VII" can be begun at Fiume this year, and therefore the sum of 5,000,000 crowns which has been voted for her will be devoted to the other new constructions. The first Dreadnought receives, as her initial instalment, 19,000,000 crowns, the second 16,000,000, and the two others 5,000,000 each. The three cruisers are designated "G," "H," and "J." The two first mentioned received 3,000,000 crowns each as first instalments, and the last 2,000,000. There are also six 800-ton destroyers, 12 seagoing boats, and six submersibles. To complete the program some other vessels will

have to be laid down. A period of supersession has been adopted under the programe-for battleships 20 years, cruisers and destroyers 15 years, and torpedo-boats 12 years. It is expected that the three small cruisers will be built at the Danubius yard, and one of them probably at the new "Canterie Triestino" at Monfalcone.

The Viribus Unitis will be launched at the Stabilimento Tecnico, Trieste, on June 24. The keel was laid on July 23, 1910, and the work of construction has proceeded very rapidly. The Armeeblatt of Vienna states that the length of the water-line will be 492 feet, the extreme beam 88 feet, 6 inches, and the mean draft a little over 27 feet. The displacement in round figures, will be 20,000 tons. This ship will carry twelve 45 caliber 12-inch guns in four triple turrets on the middle line, twelve 5.9inch 45 caliber, eighteen 2.7-inch, and six smaller guns. Three turbine engines, with an aggregate of 25,000 horse-power, are to give a minimum speed of 20 knots. Electricity will be used for many purposes on board, current being supplied by four turbo-dynamos, each of 300 kilowatts, and a Diesel dynamo of 75 kilowatts. The ship will have an installation of II searchlights. There will be 22 boats of various types, including two motor and one large steam boat. Great attention has been paid to hygienic conditions and refrigeration of magazines. In relation to the name of the vessel, Danzer's Armee Zeitung makes a curious remark. It sneers at other papers for asserting that the name of Kaiser Franz Josef or Tegetthoff would be given to the ship, and compares the name of Viribus Unitis to that of the Italian Dante Alighièri. The latter, it says, seems poetical, and is as if the Germans had called the Nassau by the name of Goethe or Schiller, or the Austrians their first Dreadnought by that of the national poet Grillparzer. But look a little deeper. Dante is not a dead poet, but a living inspirer of the clubs, societies, and individuals who are enemies of Austria and exponents of the claims of "Italia irredenta!"-Army and Navy Gazette.

According to the Moniteur de la Flotte the full load displacement of the Viribus Unitis will be 22,000 tons (her normal displacement being 20,000), and her cost is as follows:

Much of the material for a third Dreadnought, to be built on the same slip as soon as the Viribus Unitis is launched, has already been collected. According to some rough sketches of the two battleships building at Trieste, the triple-turret system is not their only claim to distinction. Each of the four turrets will have a remarkably comprehensive arc of fire well over 300°.

THE NAVAL PROGRAM.-It appears now to be certain that the Dual Monarchy has actually entered upon a considerable program, which will ultimately change the situation in the Mediterranean. There are to be 16 battleships, including the new Dreadnoughts, and the supersession of the older vessels will take place much on the German system, although Admiral Montecuccoli does not believe that Dreadnoughts are likely to become rapidly obsolete. He told the representatives at Budapest that