4i6 : The Atlantic 



to disguise or excuse the fact that Germany was at the same time 

 endlessly, untiringly and rigidly building up a large navy and the 

 most ruthless war machine the world had yet seen. 



In America President McKinley was attending an exposition in 

 Buffalo when he was assassinated on September 14, 1901 and Theo- 

 dore Roosevelt, lately the colonel o£ Rough Riders, succeeded to the 

 presidency. Energetic, tireless, patriotic, he once gave utterance to 

 the motto, "Speak softly but carry a big stick." There were times 

 when he forgot the first part of this injunction but he kept the stick 

 by him all the years he was in the White House. In the program and 

 purposes of his administration Roosevelt incorporated three projects 

 designed to give the United States a more secure position in the At- 

 lantic. These were: the building up of an adequate merchant marine, 

 the building of the Panama Canal and the rehabilitation and increase 

 of the United States Navy. 



If in the first of these projects he met with no success at all you 

 may be sure this was due neither to lack of desire nor energy on his 

 part. It was just the old American preoccupation with work and 

 wealth ashore; neither labor nor capital found it inviting to go to 

 sea in competition with other seafaring people. Back in the 1890's 

 people became alarmed because only 12.5 per cent of United States 

 foreign commerce was carried in American bottoms and Congress 

 passed two acts proposed by Senator Frye of Maine designed to 

 strengthen the merchant marine. In the 1900's, after Frye and Roose- 

 velt had done their best, the figure had dropped to less than 10 per 

 cent. 



The canal was largely a Theodore Roosevelt triumph even though 

 it was not completed until years after he had left office. He showed 

 how urgently it was needed in the Spanish war; how it would in- 

 crease naval strength; benefit commerce; be of value to all nations. 

 He judged the times and the opportunities; bought out the French 

 failure; took advantage of local interests and the local revolt; selected 

 and supported the right men and methods. In the matter of the navy 

 he met both failure and success. He never got the advanced and effi- 

 cient ships he knew the navy needed and he never got the depart- 

 ment reorganized but he improved gunnery and morale and tech- 

 nical competence and in numbers he parleyed some dozens of obso- 

 lescent ships into a navy that stood next to Great Britain's in size. 



There was much to be built into the new navy that had not pre- 

 viously found a place in the battleships; inventions and new ideas in 



