276 A Forgotten Maxim 



work faster. Cruisers would take almost as long. 

 Even torpedo boats, the smallest of all, could not be 

 put in first-class form under ninety days. Guns 

 available fos use against a hostile invader would re- 

 quire two or three months; and in the case of the 

 larger guns, the only ones really available for the 

 actual shock of battle could not be made under eight 

 months. Rifles and military munitions of every 

 kind would require a corresponding length of time 

 for preparation; in most cases we should have to 

 build, not merely the weapons we need, but the plant 

 with which to make them in any large quantity. 

 Even if the enemy did not interfere with our efforts., 

 which they undoubtedly would, it would, therefore, 

 take from three to six months after the outbreak of 

 a war, for which we were unprepared, before we 

 could in the slightest degree remedy our unreadiness. 

 During this six months it would be impossible to 

 overestimate the damage that could be done by a 

 resolute and powerful antagonist. Even at the end 

 of that time we would only be beginning to prepare 

 to parry his attack, for it would be two years before 

 we could attempt to return it. Since the change in 

 military conditions in modern times there has never 

 been an instance in which a war between any two 

 nations has lasted more than about two years. In 

 most recent wars the operations of the first ninety 

 days have decided the result of the conflict. All that 

 followed has been a mere vain effort to strive against 

 the stars in their courses by doing at the twelfth hour 

 what it was useless to do after the eleventh. 



