The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-03-12
Naval Expert Says it is Neces-
sary For Protection.
NEEDS OF PACIFIC COAST
UNITED STATES SHOULD ALSO
COMMAND CARIBBEAN SEA.
He Says That the Development of
Trade With the Philippines and
the Many Questions Arising About
China Require Large Navy
Other Nations Are Interested.

New York, March lin a paper on
the Monroe doctrine and our navy.
which he has written for the forthcom-
ing Issue OF Leslie's Weekly, Captain
A. T. Mahan says:
The settlement and growth of our
Pacific coast, the increasing commercial
consequence of the Pacific coast and
the questions arising about China, it's
future government and its trade. make
&c necessary to connect our Atlantic and
gulf seaboard with the Pacific by
canal across the isthmus. establishing
thereby consecutive water communica-
ton between the two, as well as short
enlng the access from our eastern
shores to Asia The isthmus and its
immediate surroundings thus becomes
the greatest of our internal interests.
Scarcely secondary to them is the. Ca
rlbbean sea, because all sea roads to
the isthmus run through it, and it con-
talns many strong positions, the acqui-
Sition of which, by a formidable Euro
pean state, would endanger our ship
ping-mercantile and naval alike
passing between our Atlantic ports and
the Pacific bv the canal
Other Nations Interested.
We must remember that other ma
tons, and especially European-be-
cause the most active-are interested
likewise in using that canal, and. for
the support of their interests, in gain
ing positions. To their doing so we op-
pose the Monroe doctrine. Therefore.
II we intend TO make good the affirma-
tons of the latter, we must be prepared
TO resist, forcibly if need be, any at
tempt 10 obtain adjacent territory or
ports which may serve as stations for
4 naNW n rrrr oil t. not
ural that European nations should wish
such possessions, that of Germany. for
instance. as has been lately rumored.
should wish the Danish islandS-St
Thoma, etc. Her right 70 buy them is
as good in international law as ours;
the Monroe doctrine depends not upon
legal rights, but upon the moral right of
our Indispensable interests. and derives
Its support from the fact that it is not
worth while to incur our enmity push
ed, perhaps, to the extent Of war.
Now, the one prOvocatiOn for war
in maritime region like the Carib-
bean, is a navy large enough to be eff
tectlVe. Ports are quite secondary.
They are necessary to a navy which
needs a local base Of operations: but
they are useless without it, especially
in the Caribbean because conditions
there are so backward as to give no To-
cal resources. Positions held there not
only must be fortified. but everything
TO support shipping must be imported,
and steady stream of supply main
tanned This can only be done by the
navy keeping the sea open, which, at
the same time, secured our other mer-
chant shipping.
Large Navy Needed.
To do these things, which is called
controlling the sea, the navy should
strictly be superior to any which can
be brought against it, but this extreme
conclusion is qualified by other circum-
stances. such as our nearness to the
Caribbean sea. our national power
through our great resources, the dan
gers through which our possible oppo-
nents may be exposed in other quar-
tiers, and from other enemies. We can
not. in the near future, expect to have
navy nearly as large as that which
Great Britain must keep, but ii is cas-
lily within our means to rival that of
France or Germany. the only other
European states other than Great Brit
ain, whose navy lead them to dispute
the Monroe doctrine.
Reflection upon this condition will
reflect the size of our own war fleet,
and as to the wisdom of cultivating
49, VI Ni"i AOAdtiOAiS " WAlCH CItdl
Britain has invited US, when our in
terests and institutions advise, and the
existence of which put it out of the
power or wish Of any other state 10
quarrel with Us about the Monroe doc
trine. 1t is to the interest of Great
Britain that we should take naval
charge of the American isthmus. pro-
vided she can feel sure that we will do
it effectively. or that our preparations
and our deeds will answer TO the words
of Wash ngton and Monroe