The San Francisco call., 1898-04-11
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OUR CHANGES WITH SPAIN.
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BY WILLIAM c. BOYNS.

In yesterdays Examiner Ambrose Bierce had a sermon of warning" the text being our possible war with Spain. No critic is due more difference on such matters than he, for not only is he an able writer, but he is familiar with his subject, having had the very consider ble advantage of being a staff officer in a great war. Members of the staff of a commander in action learn much more than others of the force have any chance to. Yet I venture to disagree with MT. Bierce in his ideas as to what it is likely will occur if we war with Spain. To begin with he says:
 '"The last word has not been spoken in the ship market, and it may we'll be that by secret purchases Spain has reduced the disparity; not all the purchases of warships are bulletined."
 I dissent. Spain sees as clearly as we that war Is imminent, and she knows, too. that no great power will permit any juggling in the turning over of war vessels to either of the combatants four hours or so before hostilities commence. The consent of the Government for which a warship is being. or has been, built, is necessary before a sale is pos sible by the constructors, for they, much like other business men, wish to keep customers, when they once have them.
 I quote again:
 "If' dhe value of the torpedo is great "the disparity between the naval strength of the United States and that of Spain, as they stood before the present activity in purchase of ships, is not nearly so great as is complacently affirmed"
 No doubt the torpedo boat question is serious one, but it seems to me that a torpedo flotilla is not nearly such a bugbear as most people imagine. These tiny craft have no coal endurance, and detached even a couple of hundred miles from their port of refuge they are much at the mercy of a skilled naval tactician who has cruisers at his command. I do not wish to be mis- understood; I am talking of the weak ness of torpedo f1otilla for offensive purposes. The value of a dozen torpedo boats or destroyers attached to a squadron of battleships and cruisers Is another matter. Then they must be carefully reckoned with in- dubitably. Alone, mosquito fleet" does not constitute very serious men ace, although it is pretty evident that the administration has insisted on Spain keeping hers at the other side of the Atlantic.
 In diagonal opposition to this capa- ble writer I am inclined to think our superiority on the sea is much greater than we are accustomed to say it is. Truly it could be wished that the crews of all our ships were two-thirds Ameri- cans, but the fact that they are Splen- didly officered makes up in great meas ure that weak point The discipline ob- taining in our navy is excellent; it is not equaled in any marine branch of national service excepting, possibly, those of Germany and Great Britain. It has been my fortune to see much of navies of many countries and I know of none except the Turkish where dis cipline is more lax than it is in the ships of war of Spain. And MT. Bierce to the contrary notwithstanding, disci- pline wins more battles than collective courage. It breeds confidence, and that is the prime factor in the decision of all struggles. Spain's particular weakness, both in the army and the navy, is in her officers.
 Where that unfortunate country got her 100000 troops in Cuba, fully one half of whom are veterans" or where MT. Bierce got the notion that she had them, I am unaware. The veterans Spain has in Cuba are principally raw recruits, badly drilled and not well of ficered. q am not making this state ment idly: it would be confirmed by anyone who has seen the Spanish army in Cuba within a year.) MT. Bierce further says:
 'If it please whatever gods may be- to raise up against us on the sea a Spanish Nelson, denying us one of the same sort, there will be lamentation in the land a lamentation that even the chin-thunder of talking Bob Evans cannot drown So far as the possibility of the rising of great genius is concerned that saw ors much of the Lucky shot" of MT. Irving M. Scott, which this gentleman with whom controvert so mercilessly satirized when war .sith Great Britain over affairs Venezuelan was in the air. A writer in this paper once said, Tt is essential to face the situation as 1t is; not as we dream it might be-" That is l clearly true, and it is scarcely sensible | <o ort3vn f> ,,,r ho pooc of c,,ooaoJin0 Q