The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-04

all to the peace, of our nation in the
future. Whether we desire it or not,
we must henceforth recognize that we
have international duties no less than
International rights. Even If our flag
We're 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 AIDE
quate size, or else be prepared definite
ly and for all time to abandon the idea
that our nation is among those whose
sons go down to the sea in ships. I'm
less our commerce is always to be car
ried in foreign bottoms, we must have
war craft to protect ii.
Inasmuch, however, as the Amerl-
can people have no thought OF
abandoning the path upon which they
have entered, and especially in view of
the fact that the building of the 18TH
milan 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 ana kept
in the highest state of efficiency ana
should be made to answer to our grow
ing needs. So far from being in any
way a prevention to war, an adequate
and highly trained navy is the best
guaranty against war, the cheapest and
most effective peace insurance. The
cost of building and maintaining such
a navy represents the very lightest
premium for insuring peace which this
nation can possibly pay
Probably no other great nation in the
world is so anxious for peace
as we are. There is not a sin
gle civilized power which has
anything whatever to fear from ag-
gressiveness 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 others which we
are eager and anxious to extend to
their rights in return, to insure fair
treatment to us commercially, and to
guarantee the safety of the American
people.
Our people intend to abide by the
Monroe doctrine and to insist upon 1t
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
doctrine anything but a subject of de-
rsion to whatever nation chooses to
disregard 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.
1t is not possible to improvse a navy
| after war breaks out. The ships must
be built and the men trained long In
| advance. Some auxiliary vessels car
| be turned into makeshifts which viii
| do in default of any better for tn,
minor work, and proportion of raw
men can be mixed with the hghl.
| trained. their shortcomings being mad,
good by the skill of their fellows; bu
the efficient fighting force of the navy
when pltted 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 han
die their formidable but complex and
delicate weapons with the highest eff
ficiency. 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 years of practice at
sea learned how to do their duty.
Our present navy was begun in 1882
At that period our navy consisted OF a
collection of antiquated wooden ships
already almost as 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 han
die modern man-of-war. Under the
wise legislation of the Congress and
the successful administration of sue
cession of patriotic secretaries of the
navy, belonging to both political par
ties, the work of upbuiIding the navy
went on, and ships equal to any i'm the
world of their kind were continually
added; and what was even more i'm
portant, 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.
While awarding the fullest honor to
the men who actually commanded and
manned the ships which destroyed the
Spanish sea forces i'm the Philippines
and in Cuba, we must not forget that
an equal need Of praise belongs to
those without whom neither blow could
have been struck. The congressman
who voted years in advance the money
to lay down the ships, to build the
guns. to buy the armor-plate; the de-
partment officials and the business
men and wage workers who furnished
what the Congress had authorized: the
Secretaries of the Navy who asked for
and expended the appropriations: and
finally the officers who. I'm fair wealth
er and foul, on actual sea service
trained and disciplined the crews OF
the ships when there was no war I'm
slght-all are entitled to a full share
in the glory Of Manila and Santiago
and the respect accorded by every true
American to those who wrought such
signal triumph for our country. II
was forethought and preparation which