The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-04-26
Htter Hi 'TiS the
Man Who CountS.

New York Commercial Advertiser
- + THE Spanish fleet crosses the ocean
and nothing less can save the Span
ish monarchy from complete col
ldpsc-the woIld will see the first sea
u light between civilized Combatants
since the evolution of The modern war
shin and the revolution i'm methods of
naval warfare. The world is awaiting
the result with brCathlcss curiosity. 1t
is no new thing to see men lighting, but
the world has barely seen these fighting
machines in action and Is vastly curious
To know how they will behave. War
among civilized people, who, it is thought,
have machines of the greatest perfection
and will get the highest results out of
them, is welcomed as the first complete
test of all the elaborate experimentation
and anxious theoriZing in the naval con-
struction, armament and drill of the last
twenty years.
The worlds curiosity will be disap-
pointed if it expects modern invention TO
change the essential conditions of naval
warfare. The sea fight of today will be
won, as every sea fight since war pr-
ogues Clashed in the Mediterranean, long
before the dawn of history, was won-by
human vigor daring, prescience and res
olutiOn. The man is the soul of the steel
fighting machine, as he was the soul of
the Greek war galley, and the machine
can do no more that he makes it do. An
imperfect machine will do wonders when
directed by strength and Valor; the most
perfect machine will be impotent when
directed by feeblencss and irresolution.
The man will win, as he always has won.
Steel armor may protect weakness, but
cannot make it strong. Modern guns are
formidable only in firm and skilful hands.
Steam power loses all value when they
who direct it lack watchfulness and fore
ub wit G1tnn a NJ
dockyards Machinery becomes dead in
clumsy and careless hands. Matter cam
not fight; that is the glory of mind.
Modern battleships are only tools, and the
tools are to them who can use them.
There have been three sea fights since
our civil war, in which there was no fair
test, because the enemy had no equal
navy. This covers the era of steam power
and armor In each of these fights ships
far superior, more heavily armed and
manned, were crushed, beaten, sunk,
driven ashore and put to flight by an en-
eply of superior vigOr, daring and dis
cipline, fighting from weaker ships with
inferior weapons. The one CLEAN of glory
and color in Austrian history since the
heroic age of the Empress-Queen is the
battle of Lissa, which almost wiped out
the shame of SadoWa. The Italian fleet
was then as now, the heaviest in ton
mage, armOr ana guns in Europe, though
clumsy in movement and manned with
enormous crews, badly disciplined Clos
ing with it on the Damatia coast, with
a smaller number of weaker ships Te-
gethon drove right and left rammnS
and firing, reckless alike of life and ships,
till half the irOnClads were sunk or
beached and the rest We're crawling
across the AdriatiC. The valiant Chilians
beat the soft Pcruvians against odds
nearly as great when they took the Huas
car with weaker ship. In 1896 the Chi
nese fought on heavily armed battleships,
equipped with the best European machin-
cry and with crews trained and drilled
by German engineers. The japanese,
born sailors and historic fighters, steamed
around them with light-armed cruisers
and smashed them with rapid-fire guns.
-O-
Daring and discipline won the Yaiu,
the HuaScar ard Lissa against heavy
odds, as they won Salamis, Lepanto, Ira
falgar. Whether ships are moved with
oars, sails or screws, whether they fight
with bealts and ballistas, carronades and
cutlasses or high-powered guns and tor
pedoes, it is the human element that wins
battles The new machine, like the old,
is nothing without the man behind ii.