The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-02-14
NATIONAL PRIDE MAKES
 AMERICA INv|NCIBLE
Thr Admiral Says That the Greatest Guarantee of Peace Is Great Navy or One Equal to That
 of Any Other Nation.

Admiral Winfield Scott Schley, hero or the battle before Santiago in which tho Spanish fleet commanded by Admiral Ger vera was annihilated on July 4, lSss' re- tired now from active naval service, re- ceiyed the Hearst News Service corre- spondent in his home in this city today and discussed the militant peaceful and religious relations of the United States toward other powers.
 MT. Hearst's inslstence that the Pa cihc coast be fortified with an additional naval strength" he said, lis sound Amer icanism and it's logic can be disputed by no one I think the Pacific coast should be supplied with at least 2S drydocks and naval stations, the central station being San Francisco.
 Tt would be indelicate for me in my position to tell Congress what it should do or to advise the Americans as to how many battleships it should keep on the Pacific. My knowledge now is that we have 25 or more fighting ships in the Pa cinc But none of these unfortunately are battleships.
 eff we possessed more guns and more steam power and more powder in that region 1t is possible that we would hear less talk of war.
 None Like War.
 q do not think there is a man in the navy or army who believes in fighting. Surely those of us who have seen blood shed or been in the conflict of battle revere such memories. My idea is that all army and navy men would much rather be bishops than colonels or ad- mirals- We would then sleep sounder of nights
 But from the dawn of time the hu- man race has been fighting race. Wars come of competition for commercial ad- vancement. Let us take the prize fighter, Jeffries. His right arm possesses ter rible swing-a terrible punch. You and l having also an athletic training, we will say, having licked the fellows around us, become jealous of the reputation of Jeffries It Is the natural desire to dis cover whether this man really is the aweing creature that he has been pie tured.
 50 it is, I think, with Japan She went against one of the most powerful nations of civilization and that nation was subdued She heard of an American sentiment that was inharmonious with her commercial and military ambitions It would not be fair to say that the gov ernment of Japan-intelligent government that it is, friendly government, too, might say-is now or ever WAS desirous of clalshing swords with America but the people behind the ruling powers of the little island inflated and overzealous because of former triumphs. have : ad 1t in their minds that they could lick tho universe.
 We Can't Be Licked.
 Tt may be that some of these years long to come the United States may be licked by some power other. But I doubt if any one existing on either hem isphere could do 1t now. If we were sud- denly engaged in conflict we might be temporarily embarrassed because of the lack of warships, because of the lack of military material, because Of the absence of coast defenses. But to whip this coun- try or to embarrass it for more than a day or two would be like comparing the athletic force and energy of Battling Nell son to that of a Jim Jeffries, or of a small savings bank depositor to that of an E. H. Hartman depositor. We have the men, We have, all of us, that na- tional pride which when aroused Is in- vincible. Moreover, our nation is blessed with so many natural resources that we could fight for an indeterminable time without causing hunger in any home
 Cannot Afford Quarrel.
 Tt would be inadvisable for me as an attache of the navy department to sug- gest to the government how our coasts, both east and west, might be better for tified. l agree with the President that we could i'll afford to pick quarrel with Japan at the present time. do not mean to say that this government would be "a I r a cqad Ua but I do say that I do not think the cir cumstances so far presented are sufficient to precipitate conflict. believe how ever, that this war talk will so influence the American people that they will insist that Congress will provide the seas with those instruments that really insure peace.
 For instance, we will take Great Brit ain. Not in loo years has she had naval battle. Nor war with nation that had coasts to defend. You ask the reason why? We'll, while nations have been angered at England. and have wanted war with her. they have not dared to go against England, because they knew that war would be disastrous
 List of Warships.
 "I have read with much interest the proceedings emanating from year To year to The Hague. They are intensely instructive. But you know as I know that every government represented at The Hague conference goes there with memorandum of it's battleships. it's guns and it's men and it's money.
 The safest road to peace is a navy. do not mean that we should have an extrava ganoe of ships floating about idly upon the seas manned by dilitants. or that the names of the vessels should be gilded on in letters of gold, or that their searchlights emblazoned with 1. 1xtrf 1D T, tE United States had a fighting water force superior to that of any other pow G, we would be freer from prospects
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 LCONTlNUED ON PAGE e.)