Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-04-13

navy much more rapidly than they
have been destroyed; as well Is per.
fecting her strategy, under the infu.
ence of the wars stimulus. Leaving
out of consideration, however, what
she may have been doing since the
wal began, and neglecting any I'M
authenticated accounts of her status
before it started, we know positively
that in 1913 the maneuvers Of the Ger
man fleet were executed by a force of
81 b~attleships, 3 battle cruisers, 5
small cruisers, 6 fotillas of destroyers
Chat Is, sc seagoing torpedo vessels),
IL submarines, an airship, a number
of aeroplanes and special service ships,
22 mine sweepers. all in n fleet, all
under n admiral and mancuvered as
a unit. This was nearly three years
ago and we have never come anywhere
near such a performance. In January,
1916. the United States Atlantic fleet
capable as to both material and per
sonnet of going to sea and maneuver-
ing together, consisted of Is battle
ships and 90 ~destroyers, 2 mine depot
ships and l mine training ship, and 4
tugs fitted as mine sweepers, with no
submarines, no aircraft of any kind, no
scouts (unless the Chester be so con-
sidered, which was cruising alone off
the coast of Liberia, and the Birming-
ham, which was flagship to the de-
stroyer flotilla). This was the only
fleet that we had ready to fight in jan
uary, 1916; because. although more
battleships could have been put into
commission, this could have been done
only by putting out Of commission GER
tain smaller vessels such as cruisers
and gunboats: and the battleships
would have had to be put into commits
sion very hurriedly, filled up with men
fresh from other ships, and no more
ready to fight in the fleet against an
enemy (whose ships were fully
manned with we'll trained officers and
men, accustomed to the details of
their respective ships, and acquainted
with each other) than the Chesapeake
was ready to fight the Shannon.
3. In case our systdem is not so
good as that Of, say Germany, or of
any other country having a system
equally excellent. we shall never be
able to contend successfully against
that navy. under equally strategic on
ditions, unless we have an Xce over
her in numbers of personnel and ma
terial sufficient to counterfeit our in
feriority in efficiency.
The efficiency of a navy or an army
is exactly what the strategic system
makes it. Eleven thousand Greeks I'M
der Miltiades. highly efficient and thor
oughly trained. defeated 100, 900 Per
SLAMS at Marathon. A Greek fleet I'M
der Themistocles defeated and almost
destroyed a much larger Persian feet
at Salamis. With an army of less than
$4,000 men, but highly trained by Phil
ip of Mecadon. his father, Alexander,
in only twelve years conquered ten of
the most wealthy and populous coun-
tries of the world. Caesar, Alaric, At
tia, Charlemagne and all the great
military men from the greatest an
tiquity down to the present moment
have trained and organized bodies Of
soldiers and sailors, under systems
suited to the times, and then waged
successful war on peoples less mill
tarily efficient. Cortez conquered Mex
leo and Pizarro conquered Peru; the
British. French and Spanish subdued
the Indians of North America. and dur
ing the latter half of the nineteenth
century nearly all the land in the world
that was ~"unoccupiel" by Europeans or
their descendants was taken in posses
sion by European powers. Great Brit
tain Is now mistress of about one.
quarter of the land and the population
of the globe. Russia. France, Germany
and the United States govern most Of
the remainder.
These results were brought almost
solely by the exercise of military
force, and of this force. physical cour-
age was not a determining clement. be-
cause it was just as evident in the con-
quered as in the conquerors. The de-.
termining element was strategy that
(under the behest Of policy prepared
the military and naval forces in mater.
ial and personnel before they were
used, and directed their operations,
while they were being used.
OF all the single factors that have
actually and directly made the history
of the world. the most important ia ctor
has been strategy.