Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-04-08
aHisfellaneuus geading.
WANTS BIG NAVY.

hooSeven InInkS tno Sountty 0hoeS
Be Prepared For Contingencies.
President Roosevelt made a set
speech in Chicago last Thursday. He
discussed the Monroe doctrine In con-
nection with kindred subjects, leading
up to his hobby Of a more powerful
navy. On this subject he talked as
follows:
Boosting and clustering are as OBJ
jectionable among nations as among
individuals and the public men OF q
great nation owe it to their sense OF
national self-respect to speak courte-
ously Of foreign powers just as
brave and self-respecting man treats
all around him courteously. But though
the boast is bad, and causelessly to
insult another worse, yet worse than
all is 1t to be guilty of boasting,, even
without insult, and when called to the
proof to be unable to make such boast
ing GOOD. There is a homely old adage
whic.. runs: Speak softly and carry
a big stick; you will go far" II the
American nation will speak softly, and
vet build and keep at a pitch Of the
highest training thoroughly efficient
navy, the Monroe doctrine will go far.
ask you to think over this. II you
do, you will come to the conclusion
that it is mere plain common sense, so
obviously sound that only the blind
can fail to see its truth and only the
weakest and most irresolute can fail to
desire to put it into force.
Well, in the last two years l am
happy to say we have taken long
strides in advance as regards our
navy. The last congress, in addition
to smaller vessels, provided nine OF
those formidable fighting ships upon
which the real efficiency Of any navy
in war ultimately depends. 1t pro-
vided, moreover, for the necessary ad-
dition of officers and enlisted men to
make the ships worth having. Mean
while, the navy department. has seen
to it that our ships have been con-
stantly exercised at sea, with the great
guns, and In manoeuvres. so that their
efficiency as fighting units. both indi-
vidually and when acting together, has
been steadily improved. Remember
that all Of this Is necessary. A warship
is huge bit of mechanism, well-nigh
as delicate and complicated as 1t Is
formidable. 1t takes years to build
it. It takes years to teach the officers
and men how to handle 1t to good ad-
vantage. 1t Is All absolute impossible
ity to improvise a navy at the outset
of war. No recent war between any
two nations has lasted as long as II
takes to build a battleship; and II Is
Just as impossible to improvise the Of
ficers or the crews as to improvlse the
navy.
TO lay up a battleship and only send
II afloat at the outset Of a war, with
a raw crew and untried officers, would
be not merely q folly, but crime, Tor
it would invite both disaster and dis
grace. The navy which so quickly de-
cided in our favor the war OF 1893 mad
been built and made efricient during
the preceding fifteen years. The ships
that triumphed off Manila and Santa
20 had beer built under previous ad-
mlnlStraIlOIlS Will NlollSy dpPioPL loSSo
by previous congresses. The officers
and the men did their duty so well be-
cause they had already been trained
to it by long sea service. All honor to
the gallant officers and gallant men
who actually did the fighting: but re-
member, too, to honor the public men,
the shipwrights and steel workers, the
owners of the shipyards and armor
plants to whose united foresight and
exertion we owe it that in 1898 we had
craft so good, guns so excellent, ana
American seamen Of so high a type In
the coming towers in the gun turrets,
and in the engine rooms.
It Is too late to prepare for war
when war has come; and If we only
prepare sufficiently no war Will ever
come. We wish a powerful and em-
cient navy, not for purposes OF war,
but as the surest guarantee or peace.
II we have such navy-if we Keep
on building 1t up-we may rest assur-
| ed that there is but the smallest
chance that trouble will ever come to
this nation; and we may likewise rest
assured that no foreign power Will ever
quarrel with us about the Monroe doc
trine.