The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-04-25
HONOR MEMORY
 OF PAUL JONES
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 @~---------~-~-~~-------- indomitable determination, and dauntless
 scorn of death which marked John Paul Jones above all his fellows.
 "The history of our navy, like the his-
 tory of our nation, only extends over a period of q century and a quarter; yet we already have many memories of pride to thrill us as We read and hear of what
 has been done by our fighting men of the
 sea, from Perry and Macdonough to Far ragut and Dewey These memories in- clude brilliant victories and also, now and
 then, defeats only less honorable than the victories themselves but the only de-
 feats to which this praise can be given are those where. against heavy odds, men
 have stood to the death in hopeless bat tie It is well for every American officer to remember that while a surrender may
 or may not be defensible the man who
 refuses to surrender need never make a
 defense. The one fact must always be
 explained; the other needs no explana ton. Moreover he who would win glory
 and honor for the nation and for himself, must not too closely count the odds; if
 he does, he will never see such a day as
 that when Cushing sank the Albemarle. Jones Had Greatest Pluck
 "In his fight with the Serapis Jones ship was so badly mauled that his op- ponent hailed him, saying Has your ship struck?' To which Jones answered. I have not yet begun to fight. The spirit
 which inspired that answer upbore the
 man who gave it and the crew who served under him through the fury of the battle which finally ended in their triumph. 1t was the same spirit which marked the
 commanders of the Cumberland and the | Congress when they met an equally glorious though less fortunate fate. The l Cumberland sank, her flag flying, and 1 her guns firing with the the decks awash
 while, when summoned to surrender, Nor
 rls replied: 'Neverl I'll sink alongside! l and made his words good. Immediately after the Cumberland was sunk, the Con-
 gross was attacked, and her commander | Lieutenant Joe Smith, was killed. After l fighting until she was helpless, but when Smiths father. old Commodore Joe Smith l who was on duty at Washington, saw by the dispatches from Fort Monroe that the 1 Congress had hoisted the white flag. he l said quietly: Then Joes deadp Surely no father could wish to feel a prouder
 certainty of his boys behavior than the old commodore showed he possessed when he thus spoke, and no naval officer could l hope to win q finer eptaph
 Must Emulate Great Deeds.
 We have met today to do honor to the
 mighty dead. Remember that our words of admiration are but as sounding brass and tinklng cymbals if we do not by l steady preparation and by the cultivation | of soul and mind and body fit ourselves so that in time of need we shall be pre- l pared to emulate their deeds. Let every midshpman who passes through this in- stitution remember. as he looks upon the tomb of John Paul Jones' that while no l courage can atone for the lack of that 1 efficiency which comes only through care- | full preparation in advance through care | full training of the men, and careful fit | ting out of the engines of war, yet that none of these things can avail unless in | the moment of crisis the heart rises level | with the crisis. The navy. whose cap- | tains will not surrender, are sure in the l long run 10 whip the navy whose cap tains will surrender, unless the inequality l of skill or force Is prodigious. The cour- | age which never yields cannot take the i place of the possession of good ships and | good weapons. and the ability skilfully to use these ships and these weapons. but l it's presence will often atone for many other shortcomings, and if with 1t are | combined the other military qualities, the l fortunate owner becomes literally in- | vincible
 Navy Must Be Large. "I wish that our people as a whole, and l especially those among us who occupy 1 high legislative positions, would study the | history of our nation, not merely for the l purpose of national self-gratifcation but | with the desire to learn the lessons that l history teaches Let the men who talk | lightly about 1t being useless for us not | to have an army and navy adequate for | the work of this nation in the world re-
 
 | merely foolish, for in their effects they may at any time be fraught with dsas- ter and disgrace to the nations honor as well as disadvantage 10 It's interest. Let them take to heart some of the lessons which should be learned by the study of the war of 1872. As a people we are too apt to remember that some of our ships did well in the war We had few ships "a very few ships-and they did so well as to show the utter folly of not having
 enough of them. Thanks to our folly as a
 nation, thanks to the folly that found ex- pression in the views of those at the heads of the government, not a ship of any importance had been built within q 1 dozen years before the war began, and | when once the war was on, our opponents were able to establish close blockade throughout the length of our coast.
 Parsimony Ultimately Expensive. "Our parslmony in not preparing an ade- 1 quate navy (which would have prevented | the war) cost in the end literally thou 1 sands of dollars for every dollar we thus
 foolishly saved After two years of that | war an utterly inconsderable British | force of about 4000 men were landed here
 in the bay, defeated with ease d larger
 body of ray troops put again 1t, and took Washington. I am sorry to say that those 1 of our countrymen who now speak of the | deeds, usually coniine themselves to de- nouncing the British for burning certain buildings in Washington. They had better | spare their breath.
 "The sin of the invaders in burning the | buildings is trivial compared with the 1 sin of our own people in failing to make l ready adequate force to defeat the at l tempt. This nation was guilty of such 1 short -sightedness, of such folly of such lack of preparation, that it was forced l supnely to submit to the insult. and was