A Forgotten Maxim 275 



upon each and every one of these determinations 

 should be studied in every schoolbook in the land so 

 as to enforce in the minds of all our citizens the 

 truth of Washington's adage, that in time of peace 

 it is necessary to prepare for war. 



All this applied in 1812; but it applies with ten- 

 fold greater force now. Then, as now, it was the 

 Navy upon which the country had to depend in the 

 event of war with a foreign power; and then, as 

 now, one of the chief tasks of a wise and far-seeing 

 statesmanship should have been the upbuilding of a 

 formidable fighting navy. In 1812 untold evils fol- 

 lowed from the failure to provide such a fighting 

 navy; for the splendid feats of our few cruisers 

 merely showed what could have been done if we 

 had had a great fleet of battleships. But ships, guns, 

 and men were much more easily provided in time 

 of emergency at the beginning of this century than 

 at the end. It takes months to build guns and ships 

 now, where it then took days, or at the most, weeks ; 

 and it takes far longer now to train men to the man- 

 agement of the vast and complicated engines with 

 which war is waged. Therefore preparation is much 

 more difficult, and requires a much longer time ; and 

 yet wars are so much quicker, they last so compara- 

 tively short a period, and can be begun so instantane- 

 ously that there is very much less time than for- 

 merly in which to make preparations. 



No battleship can be built inside of two years 

 under no matter what stress of circumstances, for 

 we have not in this country the plant to enable us to 



