The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-04

even worse and should be hunted out of the community. But, on the whole, the most contemptible position that can possibly be assumed by any man is that of clustering, of bragging, of insulting or wrongdoing other people while yet expecting to go through life unchallenged, and being always will ing to back down and accept humilia- ton if readiness to make good is de- manded.
 Well, all this is just as true of a nation as of an individual, and in dealing with other nations we should act as we expect a man who is both game and decent to act in private life. There are few things cheaper and more objectionable, whether on the part of the public man or of the pri- vate man, on the part of writer or of speaker, an individual or a group of individuals, than a course of con duct which is insulting or hurtful, whether in speech or act, to indivldu- als of another nation or to the repre- sentatives of another nation or to an- other nation itself But the policy becomes infamous from the stand point of the interests of the United States when it Is combined with the refusal to take those measures of preparation which can alone secure us from aggression on the part of others. The policy of peace with in- sult' is the very worst policy upon which it is possible to embark, wheth- CT for a nation or an individual To be rich, unarmed, and yet insolent and aggressive, is to court well-nign certain disaster.
 The only safe and honorable rule of foreign policy for the United States is to show itself courteous to- ward other nations, scrupulous not to infringe upon their rights, and yet able and ready to defend it's own. This nation is now on terms of the most cordial good will with all other na- tions Let us make it a prime object of our policy to preserve these condi- tlons
 In any great war on land we should have to rely in the future as we have relied in the past chiefly upon volun- teer soldiers; and although 1t is in- dispensable that our little army, an army ludicrously small relatively to the wealth and population of this mighty nation, should itself be train ed to the highest point and should be valued and respected as Is demand ed by the worth of the officers and enlisted men, yet its Is not necessary that this army should be large as compared to the armies of other great nations, But as regards the navy all this is different We have an enorm-
 ous coast line, and our coast line is on
 two great oceans. To repel hostile
 attacks the Notifications, and not the navy, must be sold; but the best way
 to parry Is to hit--no fight can ever
 be won except by hittng--and we can
 only hit by means of the navy. It is
 utterly impossible to improvise even a
 makeshift navy under the conditions
 of modern warfare Since the days
 of Napoleon no war between tive
 great powers has lasted as long as il
 would take to build a battle ship, lei
 alone a fleet of battle ships; and il takes just as long to train the crew oi
 battle ship as 1t does to build it; ant
 as regards the most important thing
 of all, the training of the officers, i takes much longer. The navy mus , be built and all it's training given 1T . time of peace, When once war ha!
 broken out it is too late to do any : thing, We now have good navy . not yet large enough for our needs but of excellent material
 The BattIcship Expedition. Where a navy Is as small as ours the cardinal rule must be that tn, battle ships shall not be separated l This year I am happy to say tha l we shall begin a course which I hope 5 will be steadily followed hereafter / that, namely, of keeping the battle : ship fleet alternately in tho Paciht t and in the Atlantic. Early in De |