Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-05-28
LESSONS OF THB W. Ar.
Importance Of a Stronger Navy and MI
merOuS COaling Stations.
THE POWER OF ENG LAND AND AMERICA.
What Statesmen Are Thinking of In WASH
ington-Several Indications Which VIII
Soon Be Realized as Facts, or Which

Already the war with Spain has
brought forth problems which are alb
sorbing the attention of American
statesmen. There are some who are
predicting that the present struggle
will have far-reaching results that it
will change the map of the world in
number of particulars. There are a
few who believe that before the con-
flict between the United States and
Spain is ended other nations will be
drawn into the fight, and that the war
will be more terrible one than the
world has ever known. There are
some who believe that the time is now
ripe for an alliance between the two
great English-speaking nations of the
earth for the purpose of bringing about
the supremacy of the Euglish-speak-
ing people in the Pacific and in Asiatic
waters there are others that claim
the folly of the United States in inter-
fering outside of its own territory has
been demonstrated.
The president is being advised
strongly on the one side never to haul
down the American flag in the Philip
pines, and on the other not to consider
the holding of these islands as Ameri-
can territory after the conclusion of
the war. But while opinions differ
radically upon the subjects of terrific
rial ACKNOWLEDGMENT and the advisable
ity of the English alliance, there are
two things developed by the prese NJ
struggle upon which there is practi-
cal unanimity of American sentiment.
One is that the United States must
have much greater navy than it has
a navy, backed by the nations other
resources, will make the United States
fully capable of holding its own with
any other nation in the world and
the other is a necessary concomitant
of the irst-more coaling stations.
Captain Mahan, a member of the
board of strategy and one of the most
distinguished naval experts in the
world, has said that a warship without
coal is like wingless bird. The full
force of this analogy has been impress
ed upon the American people in the
past six weeks as it never was before.
When Admiral Dewey was forced to
leave Hong Kong with his fleet, he
was practically compelled to fight for
his life. That he succeeded so brill
iantly does not in the least affect the
fact that when war was declared the
declaration left him in most desperate
straits, as he was over 5000 miles from
home and having no port in which he
could enter for refuge or to recoal.
The difficulties Spain has had to en-
counter to get her fleet across the At
lantic are too fresh in the public mind
to need repetition.
NEED OF CoALING STATIONS.
"Coaling stations" said naval ex-
pert today, ''are the great necessity Of
a maritime power. 1t would be better
for warship to be without guns than
to be without coal for if she should
have coal and be without guns she
would at least have chance of get
ting away, but left without coal she is
at the mercy of the enemy. Whether
the United States government shall
decide to give up the Philippines or
not when peace has been restored, it
may be taken for granted, | think,
that this government will at least re-
tain one coallng station in the Philip
pines, which will be strongly fortified,
so that in the future, in case of war
between this country and any other
power, our Asiatic fleet will have some
harbor Of refuge. Our lack of coaling
stations and the advantage of posses
sing them in such a situation as the
country finds itself at present is the
reason for the strong revival of inter-
est in the Hawaiian annexation propo-
sition. If it had not been for the war
with Spain, Hawaiian annexation
would almost certainly have been
beaten, but now it looks as if there
was a splendid chance of its success.
Naval and military strategists have
long contended that the United States
needed those islands as base for op-
erations in the Pacific, and now the
public is coming around to that view.
MOueTu SlilpS VI Wai ahu SOui w
need facilities for frequent coaling and
for frequent docking for repairs.
ga neutral port can not be used as
base of supplies in time of war.
This was emphasized during the
Franco -Tonquin war, when England
refused to allow French ships to coal
at Singapore, and France was forced
to send coal transports from Marseilles
through the Suez Canal to Saigon.
Spain likewise will be obliged to
send transports through the Suez canal
in case she intends any attempt to
recapture the Philippines. Hawaii
not having declared neutrality, our
ships which will 90 to the relief of
Amiral Dewey will be enabled to re-
coal at that port. If Hawaii was in
the possession of hostile or even
neutral power it would be impossible
for this to be done, and the matter of
sending relief to Dewey would be one
of very much greater difficulty than it
is under present circumstances. With
Hawaii in our possession and Pearl