140 Military Preparedness 



during- or immediately before the war which was of 

 any practical service. The "bombs enveloped in 

 petroleum" had no existence save in the brains of the 

 Spaniards and their more credulous sympathizers. 

 Our navy won because of its preparedness and be 

 cause of the splendid seamanship and gunnery which 

 had been handed down as traditional in the service, 

 and had been perfected by the most careful work. 

 The army, at the only point where it was seriously 

 opposed, did its work by sheer dogged courage and 

 hard fighting, in spite of an unpreparedness which 

 almost brought disaster upon it, and would without 

 doubt actually have done so had not the defects 

 and shortcomings of the Spanish administration been 

 even greater than our own. 



We won the war in a very short time, and with 

 out having to expend more than the merest fraction 

 of our strength. The navy was shown to be in good 

 shape; and Secretary Root, to whom the wisdom of 

 President McKinley has intrusted the War Depart 

 ment, has already shown himself as good a man as 

 ever held the portfolio a man whose administration 

 is certain to be of inestimable service to the army 

 and to the country. In consequence, too many of 

 our people show signs of thinking that, after all, 

 everything was all right, and is all right now; that 

 we need not bother ourselves to learn any lessons 

 that are not agreeable to us, and that if in the future 



