The Portland daily press., 1897-12-28
LONGS VIEW OF THE NAVY.
Part of the Education and Progress of the
People," Says the Secretary.

The Novem Der number of the Hebron
Semester, published at Hebron Academy
which Secretary of the Navy John d.
Long attended when boy, contains the
following Letter from him:
Navy Department, Washington.
Dear Mr.. E itor: You asked me to
write some thing about the navy for the
newspaper which the boys are publishing
at Hebron Academy. / am always at the
service of..that institution, for it is asso-
| ciated wish my youth and start in life
when l WAS little fellow, 10 years
old, remem Der my father drove to He
bron, taking my older brother and myself
to go5to school there. The little old brick
building was then standing, and as we
drove up in front of it there were two
gentlemen conyersing together on the
doorstep. My father asked them if they
could inform him where he could find the
principal of the academy. One OF them,
not very large man, but instantly
Strengthening up and erecting himself
into what seemed to me to be the size Of
| the Bunker Hill Monument answered in
Websterian manner, very much as the
monument itself would have replied: He
stands before you have no idea that it
entered into his head, as it certainly did
not enter into mine, that / was ever to
be Secretary of the Navy, nor can I, with
the utmost exercise of ingenuity, recall
anything in my career from that day 70
this that has fitted me for the place. a
fact is, the supreme qualification of a
Secretary of the Navy is that the incum-
bent OF that Office, before entering upon
It's duties should have absolutely no
knowledge or experience in that line.
10 be serious the navy is by no means
mere war function of government. 1t is
really one of the great departments of the
affairs of state. 1t very rarely has any
thing to do with peppering any body with
shot or she'll, and about all the anxiety
have ever felt in connection with it is
that, with its enormous guns and pro-
iectiles and means of destruction, some
body might possibly get hurt thus far,
however, all these things have been rather
more harmless than the ordinary Fourth
of July firecracker, (which once in while
does put out an eye or main finger.
+" For nearly twenty years after the war
we had no navy to speak of. For the last
fifteen years we have been building some
of the finest .battleships in the world.
making cruisers of tremendous speed and
force, and creating fotilla of torpedo
boats that are capable of infinite mischief
and would think nothing of dropping in
under battleship of IL 900 tons displace-
ment, and OF cost OF some six million
dollars, and sinking it and lis crew of
800 men, 60 marines, and 80 officers
quicker than you can say Jack Robinson
Tho interesting thing to me is that in
all this development there has gone along
with it SO much activity of human brain,
so much wonderful inventive genius, and
so beneficial an employment of human
labor. There are not only the officers
who command and the men who serve at
the guns, but there are the artisans, who
do the most stupendous and ingenious
work of construction, and the skilled
mechanics and engineers, who develop
and apply all the forces of hydraulics,
steam, and electricity. So that our navy
is really at once product and an impulse
of modern civilization. 1t has to do with
the survey of our coast, with making the
pathsof the n arlner safer with extending
the interchanges of foreign commerce.
with astronomical Studies, and with
bringing our trained and educated officers
and seamen into interesting communi-
cation with orr people In other words,
like every other part Of the Government.
l like &c. think of it as part of. the edu-
cation and progress of.the people.
Every truly yours,
JOHN D. LONG,