The herald., 1898-07-31
A NET WINNER

Z
archipelago will in no wise diminish the
Importance of Admiral Dewey's victory
in Manila bay. IT, as one of the condi-
tions Of peace, the United States shall
withdraw its authority from the islands
of the far east as completely as we shall
insist upon the withdrawal of Spanish
sovereignty from the western hemis-
phere, and shall wholly renounce it's
implied purpose of extending it's empire
beyond the SD degree of longitude, we
shall yet be a large net gamer by the
incident of May LIST.
No single event since independence was
achieved has so impressed the world with
the puissance of the United States. The
mastering of two millions of men in arms
during the civil war esta blished our rank
as military power. The achievements
of our little navy of that period, brilliant
as they were, only served to illustrate its
utility in coast and interior waterway
defense The navy of the United States,
as it existed on the first day of last Feb
ruary, was considered inferor to that of
Spain. It's personnel was deemed mex
perienced and undisciplined. It's gun
merry was an unknown quantity. Con-
tinental naval experts freely expressed
opinions that it would be worsted in its
first engagements with the sea power of
Spain. The only encoura cement we got
from that quarter was that the battle
ground would be near to our own shores
close to our base of supplies, and that the
disadvantages under which the powerful
Spanish armadas would labor in this
respect might eventually turn the tide
in our favor So inferior, indeed. was the
naval strength of the United States con-
sidered to be that our audacity in de-
manding that Spain should agree. within
forty-eight hours, to wholly withdraw
from the western hemisphere, astounded
the world.
Between dawn and midday of the LIST
of May Dewey changed all this. He
compelled European naval experts to
speedily revise their opinions. He forced
1.-The powers to recognize the United
States as a factor not to be despised
He has since, in the very midst of their
combined fleets, and with scarcely foot
of ground on which he dared to assert
authority, commanded respect for the
flag of freedom never before shown in
that quarter.
The fleet which he annihilated might
otherwise have become very trouble
terially in prolonging it. Had Dewey,
after being driven from Hong Kong,
failed to speedily secure a base in far
eastern waters, he would have been
forced to seek shelter in some neutral
port and remain inactive until the close
of hostilities. His only other alterna
tive would have been to make desperate
cash across the Pacific to this coast, with
the chances of reaching it, for want of
fuel, not more than one in ten. The
probabilities are he would not have I'M
dertaken it. The chances are that Mon
tijo's fleet would have preceded him to
these measurably unprotected shores,
and that it would have inflicted much
before relief could have reached us from
around the Horn. 1t is quite conceiv-
able that, confronted with the dual task
of protecting both the Atlantic and the
Pacific coast lines at the same time, our
navy would have been so divided and
weakened that effective operations in
West Indian waters, either by sea or
land, could not to this day have been
undertaken. Cervera, instead of seek
ing a hiding place from Sampson and
Schey, might have been menacng the
Atlantic seaboard during all of these
months, for it is fair to assume that, in
the absence of a strong naval force in the
Caribbean sea, he would have been able
to secure base there. And with the
force effective of our navy divided by
broad continent, there would have been
no alarm in the Spanish peninsula, no
fear of attack by hostile fleet, and Ca
mara would have been free to join Mon
tito in the Pacific or Cervera in the North
Atlantic.
There is, of course, a great deal of
conjecture in all this, but nothing that
was not deemed possible by the Wash
ngton authorities when the war broke
,ut, and when Dewey was directed to
And and destroy" the Spanish fleet in
Asiatic waters. The fidelity with which
hat intrepid commander carried out his
nstrnctions made possible that which