New-York tribune., 1901-12-04
THE NAV Y.

The work OF upbuildug the navy must be steadily
continued. No 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 our nation in the future Whether we desire
IT or not we must heuceforth recognize that we
have international duties no less than international
rights. Even IL our flag were hauled down In the
Philippines and Porto Rico. even If we decided not
TO build the sthmian canal. we should need
thoroughly trained navy adequate size. else
he prepared definitely and for all time to abandon
the idea that nation is among those whose sons
go down to the in ships. Unless our commerce
is always be carried in foreign bottoms We must
have craft to protect IL.
Inasmuch. however. the American people have
no thought of abandoning the path upon which
they have entered, and especially in view or the
fact that the building of the isthman 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 high
est state of efficiency. and should be made to
answer growing needs So far from being
in any way proyocation TO war, an adequate and
highly trained navy is the best guaranty agans.
war. the cheapest and most effective peace in
surance. The of building and maintaining
such a navy represents the very nghtest premium
for insuring peace which this nation can possibly
pay.
Probably no other great nation in the world is so
anxious for peace are. There is not single
civilized power which has anything whatever TO
fear from aggressiveness on our part All we want
is peace: and toward this end wish to be able
to secure the same respect for rights from
others which We are eager and anxious to extend
to their rights in return. to insure fair treatment
commercially, and to guarantee the safety
of the American people.
Our people intend to abide by the Monroe Doctrine
and to insist upon 1t the means of
securing the peace of the Western Hemisphere
The navy offers the only means of making our
insstence upon the Monroe Doctrine anything but
a subject of derision whatever nation chooses
to disregard it. We desire the peace which comes
as of right the just armed; not the peace
granted terms of ignominy TO the craven and
the weakling.
1t is not possible 10 improvise navy after war
breaks out. The ships be built and the
trained long in advance. Some auxiliary vessels
can be turned into makeshifts which will do in de
fault any better for the minor work, and pro-
portion 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 tho navy when ptted against equal
opponent will he found almost exclusively in the
warships that have been regularly built and in the
officers and men who through years OF faithful per-
formance of duty have been trained to handle
their formidable but complex and delicate weapons
with the highest efficiency. In the late 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 years of practice at sea learned how to do
their duty.
ITS EARLY STAGES.
Our present navy begun in 1882 At that
period our navy consisted of collection of anti
quated wooden ships, already almost out of
place against modern vessels the galleys
of Alcibiades and Hamilcar-certainly as the ships
of Tromp and Blake. Nor at that time did
have men fit handle a modern man-of-war.
Under the wise legislation of the Congress and the
successful administration of a succession of patr-
otic Secretaries of the Navy belonging TO both
political parties the work of upbuilding the navy
went on. and ships equal to any in the world
of their kind were continually added: and what
even important. these ships exercised
at singly and in squadrons until the aboard
them able to get the best possible service out
of them. The result in the short war
with Spain, which decided with such rapidty
because of the Infinitely greater preparedness of
our navy than of the Spanish navy.
While awarding the fullest honor to the men who
actually commanded and manned the ships which
and in Cuba. not forget that equal
need of praise belongs to those without whom
neither blow could have been struck The Con-
gressmen who voted in advance the money
to lay down the ships. to build the guns, to buy
the armor plate the department officials and the
business men and wageworkers who furnished
what the Congress had authorized: the Secretaries
of the Navy who asked for and expended the ap-
propriations: and finally the officers who. in fair
weather and foul. on actual service, trained
and disciplined the crews OF the ships when there