142 Military Preparedness 



service. The discipline is just but not severe, unless 

 severity is imperatively called for. As a whole, the 

 officers have the welfare of the men very much at 

 heart, and take care of their bodies with the same 

 forethought that they show in training them for bat 

 tle. The physique of the men is excellent, and to 

 it are joined eagerness to learn, and readiness to take 

 risks and to stand danger unmoved. 



Nevertheless, all this, though indispensable as a 

 base, would mean nothing whatever for the efficiency 

 of the navy without years of careful preparation and 

 training. A warship is such a complicated machine, 

 and such highly specialized training is self-evidently 

 needed to command it, that our naval commanders, 

 unlike our military commanders, are freed from hav 

 ing to combat the exasperating belief that the aver 

 age civilian could at short notice do their work. 

 Of course, in reality a special order of ability and 

 special training are needed to enable a man to com 

 mand troops successfully; but the need is not so 

 obvious as on shipboard. No civilian could be five 

 minutes on a battleship without realizing his unfit- 

 ness to command it; but there are any number of 

 civilians who firmly believe they can command regi 

 ments, when they have not a single trait, natural or 

 acquired, that really fits them for the task. A 

 blunder in the one case meets with instant, open, and 

 terrible punishment; in the other, it is at the mo- 



