The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-12-03
UPBUILDING THE NAVY.
Must Have War Graft or Take q Back
Seat.

| The work of. upbuilding the navy
must be steadily continued. No one
| point of our policy, foreign or domestic,
| is more important than this to the
honor and material welfare, and above
all to the peace, of nation in the
future. Whether we desire it or not,
we must henceforth recognize that we
have interna tiOnal duties no less than
international rights Even if Our flag
were hauled down in the Philippines
and Porto Rico, even if we decided not
to build the isthmian canal, we should
need a thoroughly trained navy of adj
equate size, or else be prepared def
nitely and for all time to abandon the
idea that our nation is among those
whose sons go Down to the sea in ships.
Unless our commerce is always to be
carried in foreign bottoms, We must
have war craft to protect it.
Inasmuch, however, as the American
people have no thought of abandoning
the path upon which they have en-
tered, and especially in view of the fact
that the building of the isthmian canal
is fast becoming one of the matters
which the whole people are united in
demanding, it is imperative that our
navy should be put and kept in the
highest state of efficiency, and should
be made to answer to our growing
needs. So far from being in any way
provocation to war, an adequate and
highly trained navy is the best guar
anty against war, the cheapest and
most effective peace insurance The
cost of building and maintaining such
MUM for insuring peace which this ma
ton can possibly pay.
ANXIETY FOR PEACE.
Probably no other great nation in the
world is so anxious for peace as we
are. There is not a single civilized
power which has anything whatever to
fear from aggressiveneSS on our part
All we want is peace; and toward this
end we wish to be able to secure the
same respect for our rights from 9TH
ers which we are eager and anxious to
extend to their rights in return, to in
sure fair treatment to us CONNER
cially, and to guarantee the safety of
the American people
Our people intend to abide by the
Monroe doctrine and to insist upon it as
the one sure means of securing the
peace of the western hemisphere The
navy offers us the only means of max
ing our insistence upon the Monroe doc
trine anything but a subject of derision
to whatever nation chooses to disre-
gard it. We desire the peace which
comes as of right to the just man
armed; not the peace granted on terms
of ignominy to the craven and the
weakling.
NAVY MUST BE READY.
1t is not possible to improvise navy
after war breaks out The ships must
be built and the men trained long in
advance. Some auxiliary vessels can
be turned into makeshifts which will
do in default of any better for the
minor work, and a proportion of raw
men can be mixed with the highly
trained, their shortcomings being made
good by the skill of their fellows; but
the efficient fighting force of the navy
when pitted against an equal opponent
will be found almost exclusively in the
war ships that have been regularly built
and in the officers and men who through
years of faithful performance of sea
duty have been trained to handle their
formidable but complex and delicate
weapons with the highest efficiency. In
the late war with Spain the ships that
dealt the decisive blows at Manila and
Santiago had been launched from two
to fourteen years, and they were able
to do as they did because the men
in the coming towers, the gun turrets,
and the engine rooms had through long
do their duty.
NAVAL RETROSPECT
Our present navy was begun in 1882.
At that period our navy consisted of a
collection of antiquated wooden ships,
already almost out of place against
modern war vessels as the galleyS of
Alcibiades and Hamilcar-certainly as
the ships of TrOmp and Blake. Nor at
that time did we have men fit to handle
modern man -Of-war. Under the wise
legislation of the congress and the sue
cessful administration of a succession
OF patriotic secretaries of the navy, be-
longing to both political parties. the
work of upbuilding the navy went on,
and ships equal to any in the world of
their kind We're continually added; and
what was even more important. these
ships were exercised at sea singly and
In squadrOns until the men aboard
them were able to get the best possible
service out of them. The result was
seen in the short war with Spain, which
was decided with such rapidity because
OF the infinitely greater preparedness of
our navy than of the Spanish navy