I have recently had my models tested in the government tanks at the Navy Yard in Washington by the United States officers in charge, and their official reports will show that I can get a guaranteed speed of 22 knots per hour submerged, and the same speed on the surface, and this speed can be obtained in vessels of the same or greater tonnage as those now being built by the Electric Boat Company.
I hardly think, Mr. Chairman, that your committee, in making an appropriation for submarine boats, will exclude the Navy Department from any consideration of the plans made by me when I say to you that these plans have the approval of some of the most expert officers in the Navy on the question of submarine boats, and that the boats can be built at one-third less than is now being paid the Electric Boat Company for boats of two-thirds less submerged and more than fifty per cent. less surface speed.
If I am prevented by the suits filed against me by the Electric Boat Company from obtaining capital with which to build my boats, which will have three times the submerged speed of the present boats, and a vast improvement in other directions, then I want the law so framed that I can present a proposition to the Secretary of the Navy to cause my plans and new inventions to be thoroughly examined by a board of experts, and if favorably reported on, that the government may build the same in its yards under my supervision, and pay me a reasonable royalty. That is all I ask your committee to do, and to not frame a law that will exclude me, the inventor of the present submarine boats, from having my improvements considered by the Secretary of the Navy, and pass one in the interest of the Electric Boat Company under its monopoly now of the business of the department under my old and obsolete patents.
The title of the bill (H.R. 10070) should be: "A Bill to Prevent the Increase of the Efficiency of the Navy, and Prevent Economy Being Considered."
If your committee is desirous of increasing the efficiency of submarine boats for the Navy, and at the same time reduce the cost to the government at least one-third, if not one-half, of the prices now being paid for submarine boats, a clause in the Naval Appropriation Bill on the following lines would effect the object: