The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1906-12-07
THE ARMY AND NAVY.
Asks for Maintenance Of Our Present
Sea Strength.


The United States navy Is the surest
guarantor of peace which this country
possesses. 1t Is earnestly to be visit that
we would profit by the teachings of his
tory in this matter. strong and wise
people will study it's own failures no less
than its triumphs, for there is wisdom to
be learned from the study of BOTH of the
mistake as well as of the success. For
this purpose nothing could be more in
structive than rational study of the war
of 1872, as 1t Is told, for instance, by Capt.
Mahan. There was only one way in which
that war could have been avoided. If
lively as strong as that which this coun-
try now has had been built up, and an
army provided relatively as good as that
which the country now has, there never
would have been the slightest necessity
of fighting the war; and if the necessity
had arisen the war would under such cir
cumstances have ended with our speedy
and overwhelming triumph. But our peo-
any preparations whatever regarding
either the army or the navy. They saved
a million or two of dollars by so doing;
and in mere money paid hundredfold
for each million they thus saved during
the three years of war which followed
a war which brought untold suffering
upon our. people, which at one time
threatened the gravest national disaster,
waging 1t, resulted merely in what was
in effect drawn battle, while the balance
of defeat and triumph was almost even.
l do not ask that we continue to in
crease our navy. l ask merely that 1t be
maintained at its present strength; and
this can be done only If we replace the
obsolete and outworn ships by new and
good ones, the equals of any afloat in any
navy. To stop building ships for one year
means that for that year the navy goes
back instead of forward The old battle
ship Texas, for instance, would now be
of little service in stand up fight with
o.
turret monitors have outworn their use
fulness, while 1t was waste Of money to
build the modern single-turret monitors.
All these ships should be replaced by
settled program of providing for the
building each year of at least one first
class battleship equal in size and speed to
any that any nation Is at the same time
consist of as large a number as possible
Of very heavy guns of one caliber, to-
gether with smaller guns to repel torpedo
attack; while there should be heavy ar
NOR, turbine engines, and in short every
modern device. OF course, from time to
time, cruisers, golfers, torpedo-boat de-
stroyers or torpedo boats, will have to be
built also. All this, be 1t remembered,
would not increase our navy, but would
merely keep 1t at its present strength.
Equally of course, the ships will be abso-
lutely useless If the men aboard them
are. not SO trained that they can get the
best possible service out Of the formidable
but delicate and complicated mechanisms
intrusted to their care. The marksman-
ship of our men has so improved during
bounds to say that the navy is more than
twice as efficient, ship for ship, as half a
decade ago. The navy can only attain
men are provided. and II these officers
and men are given the chance (and re-
quired to take advantage of IT. to stay
continually at sea and to exercise, the
fleets singly and above all in squadron,
the exercise to be of every kind and to
conducted under conditions that will test
craftsmanship in time of war
In both the army and the navy there Is
urgent need that everything possible
should be done to maintain the highest
standard for the personnel, alike as re-
CARDS the officers and the enlisted men.
I do not believe that in any service there
Is finer body of enlisted men and of
junior officers than we have in both
the army and the navy; including the
ment to the enlisted men should be given
in pay and otherwise, and everything
practicable done to render the service at
tractive to men of the right type. They
should be held to the striCtest discharge
of their duty, and in them spirit should
be encouraged which demands not the
mere performance of duty, but the per-
Torrance of far more than duty, II it
of the American nation. and in return
the amplest consideration should be
theirs.
Need New Promotionnl System.
West Point and Annapolis already turn
out excellent officers We do not need
to have these schools made more scholas-
tic. On the contrary we should never
each schpol is TO turn out man who