The Republican journal., 1908-07-30
FIRS1-CLASS NAVY OR NONE.
Keynote of Roosevelt at Naval Confer
ence

Keynote OF Roosevelt at Naval CONFER
ence.
NEWPORT, r. l., July %. President
Roosevelt, after an adventurous night
trip in the fog from Oyster Bay, during
which his yacht, the Maytiower, ran
down and sank lumber laden schoOn-
er, rescuing the crew of six men on
board, arrived here at 9.45 a. m. today,
and later in the forenoon at the Naval
War College, addressed naval confer
ence of nearly 100 naval officers gather
ed together from all branches of the
service to consider plans for new
American battleships. President Roose-
welt made stirring appeal for hard
hitting, sea-going navy. He rldlculed
the arguments Of those who favored a
navy for defensive purposes alone.
81 want frst-class fighting navy or
no navy at ALL said the President,
because first-class fighting navy is the
most effective guarantee of peace this
nation can have. Uncle Sam can well
afford to pay for his safety by so cheap
an insurance policy as is represented by
the amount invested in the American
Navy. There is no safer investment he
could make. This nation may fail, no
matter how we'll we keep ourselves pre-
pared. 1t certainly will fail if we do
not keep ourselves prepared There
are only few things desire to say to-
day to this conference, and what nave
to say is said less to the officers present
than to the great bulk of my fellow lay
men outside. could not speak to you
technically, but | can speak to my
countrymen who are SO deeply interest
ed in the American Navy, but who
sometimes tend to be misled as to kind
of navy we ought to have and what
that navy ought to do. For instance,
there are always number OF amlable
and well meaning people who believe IN
having navy merely for self-detence-
a coast defence navy. Such an ad-
vocacy illustrates a habit OF mind as
old as nature itself, the proposition to
do something and not to do anything.
A purely defensive navy would be al
most worthless. To advocate such d
navy is like advocating school of
prize lighting in which no one should
do anything but parry.
No fight was ever won yet except by
hitting The one unforgiyable offence
is to hit soft. Don't hit at all IT you
can help it, but when you do hit, hit
hard. This applies to the individual as
well as to the nation. Yet there are
some who would have Us adopt as a
national principle the theory Of hitting
soft. | hope this nation will never
have to hit if it possibly can be helped.
We should do everything that honor
ably can be done to avoid trouble. We
should scrupulously refrain from harm
ing or insulting others. We should
put up with good deal of misconduct
on the part of others. But when we
do go to war, that warts only excusable
if the navy is prepared to hammer Its
until he quits hgh'ihs' And
you can't hammer your opponent if
YOU wait for rim to come to the coast
and hammer you first. For the pro-
lection of our coasts we need fortlfca-
tions. so the1 the navy may be left free
to stretch out and destroy the enemy,
That is it's function. No fleet is sc
ridiculous as would be fleet fer coast
defence purposes.
President Roosevelt discussed the
island possessions of the United States,
and declared that even if they did not
exist the heed for an aggressive naval
policy would still be present. The
Monroe Doctrine" he declared, had
almost fallen into disgrace and con-
tempt until the American nation be-
e e the question Of immigration,
and declared that the American people
have right to say who shall come and
dwell among them. 'It Is our duty"
he DECLARED. f'te exercise that right in q
way calculated to provoke the least
friction, If we choose to say who shall
come, however, we must be in trim to
uphold that in case anybody challenges
it,"
President Roosevelt declared that
the cruise of the battleship feet around
south America was the most lnstruc-
five object lesson ever offered OF the
reality of the Monroe Doctrine.