The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-03-27
THE MERICAN NAVY.

The one thing in which the American people
shine is that which prompts them to tell the other
fellow what he ought to do. Especially is this true
of the public man, from the president and the con
gress down to the county commissioner of the most
remote locality the map. And this is true from
the very first president and the very first congress
down to the present time. OF course. the habit Is
so we'll established that it would be useless to try
to eradicate it, but when things do not turn out as
those whose advice was not followed. there is an
instructive lesson in what really did happen. In
the experiences of mankind we may read lesson
which should make us slow to condemnation of
those in responsible positions upon whose shoulders
is placed responsibilities and cares of which the
most of us can know nothing 1t may safely be
presumed that the men charged with public duties
have sources of information upon which to base
their conduct and actions which are not known to
the world and not known to those who feel it is
their duty to criticise.
Before the opening of hostilities in the late
Spanish-Amercan war, President Mckinley was
the subject of much severe condemnation for not
rushing in though subsequent developments
showed the nation to be all too uprepared for war
and the most severe critics of that time have
since been silenced And after the hostilities we're
declared. the cry which went up from Boston, New
York and other cities on the eastern coast for pro-
lection, and the severe condemnation of the action
of the administration in sending the fleet away
from shores, leaving the cities all unable to de-
fend themselves against bombardment of the Span
ish feet was quieted when the feet was efectually
bottled up in the harbor at Santiago and destroyed
when 1t made its first sortie in the memorable bat
tie off the southern coast of Cuba
Just now there is agitation for two fleets of
batteships-one for the Atlantic coast and one for
the Pacific coast. And everybody that has any
thing to do with the navy who has the temerity to
question the wisdom of such an arrangement is at
once the subject of the severest criticism and to
charges almost of treason. But during the Span
the navy did little work of pro-
tecting cities along the coasts from bombardment.
The fleet went to sea to meet the enemy. Of course,
that does not show that in the event of another
war such action would be justifable but we might
20 a little further back in naval history not only
of American history. but in the history of the navy
of England, and find lesson in the greatest naval
war that ever fought-a lesson of similar DUR
port-a lesson which shows that the navies of the
world have usually had other things to attend to
than guarding the coasts of the countries which
they represent In the Napoeonic wars which con
tinued with little intermission over period of
twelve years, the British navy left practically I'M
guarded the entire coast line of the home country
1t is interesting to note too that the home shores
were almost entirely unvexed by the French fleet
during all this time, An expedition to Bantry Bay
and a landing in Ireland. neither of which seri-
rl, into l,,,tl r.
naval part of the great wars, we're about the only
interference suffered by the home country in the
absence of the feet On the contrary the British
navy went forth, not to menace the shores of
France and demand tribute from the people of the
French cities. but to meet the navy of the enemy.
A battle was fought off the north coast of France
one 400 miles at sea- west of Ushant, one off the
coast OF Portugal, near Copenhagen and the
battles OF the Nile, winding up with the famous
battle of Trafalgar, off the lower coast of Spain
after which there not much of the French navy
eft
And during the usso-Japanese war there was
10 bombardment of cities and no tribute demanded
20 prevent bombardment by either nation. if we re-
,al the events of that great war correctly. Bat
leships fought battleships they did not resolve
themselves into floating fortresses to protect the
titles of the belligcrent nations
So while may give heed to the CRY for ma
al establishment i'll the Pacific and one in the At
antic to protect the coasts. we should not overlook
he facts in history which uniformly show that thc
lavies of belligerents confined themselves princi
'ay to fighting the navies of the enemy History
% far teaches that it is not so much question of
he location of the feet as it is the suficiency of