Admiral Dewey 163 



but their gunnery was so poor that they did not kill 

 a man in the American fleet. Even Dewey's splen 

 did capacity would not have enabled him to win the 

 battle of Manila Bay had it not been for the tradi 

 tional energy and seamanship of our naval service, 

 so well illustrated in his captains, and the excel 

 lent gun-practice of the crews, the result of years 

 of steady training. Furthermore, even this excel 

 lence in the personnel would not have availed if 

 under a succession of Secretaries of the Navy, and 

 through the wisdom of a succession of Congresses, 

 the material of the navy had not been built up as 

 it actually was. 



If war with Spain had broken out fifteen years 

 before it did, that is, in the year 1883, before our 

 new navy was built, it would have been physically 

 impossible to get the results we actually did get. 

 At that time our navy consisted of a collection of 

 rusty monitors and antiquated wooden ships left 

 over from the Civil War, which could not possibly 

 have been matched against even the navy of Spain. 

 Every proposal to increase the navy was then vio 

 lently opposed with exactly the same arguments used 

 nowadays by the men who oppose building up our 

 army. The Congressmen who rallied to the support 

 of Senator Gorman in his refusal to furnish an 

 adequate army to take care of the Philippines and 

 meet the new national needs, or who defeated the 



