Arizona republican., 1898-09-26
WHAT THE WAR HAS TAUGHT US.

1 Commodore Hichborn, chief con-
 structor of the navy, reviews the les sons of the war in the Washington
 Star. His general conclusions, which from his we'll known professional abil- ity are entitled to the greatest consid- eration, are that "the naval battles of the future will be fought by the most powerful engines of war that can be constructed. He thinks that the great battleship is the ship of the future, though the armored cruiser has also proved it's value as a subordinate or secondary agent. The torpedo boat was only effective as a bugbear and was practically of no use at all" It might be suggested that an active bug bear is a valuable auxiliary in war though it must be admitted that the thought of the torpedo boat does not now strike the same terror to the hearts of merchant captains and sea- side residents that it did at the begin ming of the war. Commodore Hich- born says:
 "The Furor and the Fulton were among the very best and the most mod ern of the destroyer class, and yet the Gloucester, which is merely con- verted yacht, defeated them both"
 But suppose that Wainwright, Blue or Hobson had been in command of the torpedo boats with Yankee crews and the machinery all in perfect working order, and that the Spaniards had con- manded and manned the Gloucester, might not the event have been entirely different? A highly complicated piece of mechanism needs the brains of the trained and skilled operative to render it effective. It may be questioned whether any of the Latin nations are characterized by the peculiar combi- nation of coolness and promptness of action which marks the Yankee me- chanic. The failure of the Vizcaya is not an argument against the value of the battleship.
 Commodore Hichborn points out the fact that the war has shown the ne- cessity of dry docks large enough to take our heaviest fighting ships and To- cated at convenient points. Battle ships, he says, should be as nearly as possible fire-proof and the wood neces- sarily used in their interior fittings must be mineralized and rendered in combustible. He closes by saying:
 "The war has demonstrated also the value of the rapid-fire guns and the eight-inch guns as compared with the guns of larger caliber. At Santiago the secondary batteries of the Brooklyn and the Oregon are reported to have been more effective than any other DOT tion of their armament. The Manila and Santiago battles also have shown that smokeless powder is an invaluable part of a ships equipment.
 'It is rather curious that no good demonstration has been given during the war of the value 1.-the experiment tai craft which the government has been interested in. The ram Katahdin has had no opportunity to display its merits and the submarine boat has also been ignored. The Vesuvius, it is true, had "a chance at Santiago, but it does not appear that the results were at all decisive as to its surpassing value in naval operations.
 The war has taught us great deal about the practical value of our ships as engines of destruction and the bur eau of construction is capable of rem dering its lessons alright and profiting by them. But we must remember that the human element is quite as impor- tart as the mechanical weapons of de- struction Organization, morale, esprit de corps, discipline, are more essential than great guns. The most impene- trable armor plate is the finely tenn pered courage in the hearts of the officers and crews of the United States navy. This is the ultimate reliance of the nation. Ten inches of Herveyized steel is of little account compared to the fighting qualities of the men be- hind it.
 The great lesson of the war is that the men who fought our naval battles of 1898 have inherited the spirit of the men who fought our naval battles in 1872.