The age-herald., 1900-03-12
MONROE DOCTRINE
 AND LARGER NAVY
Captain Mahan Writes an Inter-
 esting Paper.
ISTHMlAN CANAL NECESSARY
Settlement and Growth. of the Pacific Coast and Increase in Commerce Makes it Necessary to Con
 nect the Great Seas

New York, March 11.LIn a paper on "The Monroe Doctrine and Our Navy" which he has written for the forthcoming issue of Lesie's Weekly. Captain A T. Mahan says:
 'The settlement and growth of our Pa cific coast, the increasing commercial con- sequence of the Pacific coast, and the questions arising about China. its future government and its trade makes 1t neces- sary to connect our Atlantic and Gulf sea- board with the Pacific by canal across the isthmus, establishing a consecutive water communication between the two, as well as shortening the distance from our eastern shores of Asia. TOhe isthmus and its immediate surroundings thus become the greatest of our external interests. Scarcely secondary to them is the Cario- bean sea, because all sea roads to the istih- mus run through 1t and 1t contains many strong positions, the acquisition of which by formidable European power would in war endanger our shipping-mercantil and naval alike-passing to our Atlantic ports and the Pacific by the canal
 We must remember that other nations, and especially European, because the most active-are interested likewise in using that canal, and, for the support of their interests, In gaining positions. To their doing so we oppose the Monroe doctrine. therefore, as We intend to make good the anrmations of the latter, we must be pre- pared to resist forcibly if need be, any at tempt to obtain adjacent territory or ports which may serve as stations for a navy hostile to ourselves. It Is natural that European nations would wish such possess sion, that Germany, for instance, as has oeen lately rumored, should wish the Dan ish islands, St. Thomas etc. Her right to buy them is good in international law as ours; the Monroe doctrine depends upon legal right, not upon the moral right of our indispensable interests, and derives its chief support from the fact that it is not worth while to incur our enmity, pushed, perhaps, to the extent of war.
 An Effective Navy
 Now the one preparation for war, fin a manitime region like the Caribbean. is A navy large enough to be effective. Ports are quite secondary. They are necessary to a navy which needs local base of oper- ations, but they are uselss without 1t and especially in the Caribbean because condi- tions there are so backward as to give no local resources. Positions held there not only must be fortified, but everything to support shipping must be imported and a steady stream of supply maintained.
 'To do these things, which is called con- trolling the sea, the navy should, strictly, be superior to any which can be brought against it; but this extreme conclusion is qualified by other circumstances such as our nearness to the Caribbean sea, our large power through our great resources, the dangers to which our possible oppo- nents may be exposed in other quarters and from other enemies. We cannot in the near future expect to have a navy nearly as large as that which Great Britain must keep. but 1t is easily within our means to rival that of France or Germany, the only European states other than Great Britain whose general interests might lead them actively to dispute the maintenance of the Monroe doctrine.
 Reelection upon this condition will in- dicate the size necessary to our own fleet and also the wisdom of cultivating those cordial relations to which Great Britain has invited us, which our interests and our institutions advise, and the existence of which will put it out of the power or worth of any other state to quarrel with us about the Monroe doctrine. It is to the interest of Great Britain that we should take naval charge of the American isthmus provided she can feel sure that we will do 1t effec- lively or that our preparations and our deeds will answer to the words Of Wash- ington and Monroe