The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-02-25
THURSDAY, FEB. rs, 1904.
THE NAVY AND NATIONAL PEACE.

Congressman Burton Is quite right in
saying that proposals to double the
navy of the United States are not a
peace measure. The people Of this
country are tremendously hard to
start on a new line of action and
equally difficult to stop. Public opinion
is like a SNOWFALL, which grows at first
so imperceptfbly that those trying to
form it are discouraged, and which
later acquires such size and momentum
as to crush down any ordinary obstacle
in its path.
1t required a great many years Of
agitation to convince the public that
the United States should have any
navy at all. It is only about twenty
years since the proposition that we
should build a navy took practical
shape and received public Endorsement.
And no one then dreamed that it would
be carried farther than the provision Of
a few first-class modern Warships, so
that we might not be entirely helpless
in case we needed to protect our inter-
ests anywhere.
Since that time we have gone on and
on without check or moderation, until
at present we bid fair to burden our
selves with the charges of the greatest
navy in the world. We have added
battleship to battleship and cruiser to
cruiser and multiplied torpedo boats
and destroyers, and still the clamor is
for more The presidents message to
congress is a good illustration of this
style of argument, and men on both
sides of the house are afraid to say
what they think, lest haply they should
be found standing against public opin-
ion.
There can be no end to this if con-
tinued, except the placing Of the people
of this country under an almost in
tolerable burden of annual charges for
maintenance as unnecessary as they
are excessive. For it must be remem-
bered that the first cost of a navy is
trifie compared to the amount neces-
sary to keep the ships in commission
and furnish them with officers, men
and supplies.
The argument that we need a big
navy as promoter of peace may be
sincere in a few Unbalanced minds.
but it is utterly without force. This
country enjoyed the most profound
peace and immunity from attack as
far as its foreign relations were con-
cerned during the very long period
when it had not a single warship
worthy of the name. What then Sc
cured us against invasion? How then
was peace maintained? Simply by the
natural and not unreliable certainty
that if we minded our own business
and meddled with no one else's con-
Germs no one else would NEEDLE with
US. This by no means involved any
surrender of principle on our part, We
maintained the Monroe doctrine lust as
heroically and held it just as invioIate
during the half century preceding 1880
as since. We did this without a navy.
and undoubtedly we could have gone
on under the same conditions.
The truth, as every sane man sees
It, is that large navy is provocative
not of peace, but of war. These great
monsters of the deep must have
something better to do than rust idly
In the various ports or the world. This
great establishments, maintained in
practical id1eness, grows filed with re-
pressed energy and longs for a burst
OF activity and chance at glory. The
powers at Washington, made proud by
knowledge that their mastery can at
any moment direct the peace of the
seas, take different tone with their
neighbors and insult or dictate where