A Forgotten Maxim 279 



Merely from the monetary standpoint the saving 

 would have been incalculable; and yet this would 

 have been the smallest part of the gain. 



It can therefore be taken for granted that there 

 must be adequate preparation for conflict, if conflict 

 is not to mean disaster. Furthermore, this prepara- 

 tion must take the shape of an efficient fighting navy. 

 We have no foe able to conquer or overrun our ter- 

 ritory. Our small army should always be kept in 

 first-class condition, and every attention should be 

 paid to the National Guard ; but neither on the North 

 nor the South have we neighbors capable of menac- 

 ing us with invasion or long resisting a serious effort 

 on our part to invade them. The enemies we may 

 have to face will come from over the sea ; they may 

 come from Europe, or they may come from Asia. 

 Events move fast in the West; but this generation 

 has been forced to see that they move even faster in 

 the oldest East. Our interests are as great in the 

 Pacific as in the Atlantic, in the Hawaiian Islands 

 as in the West Indies. Merely for the protection 

 of our own shores we need a great navy ; and what 

 is more, we need it to protect our interests in the 

 islands from which it is possible to command our 

 shores and to protect our commerce on the high seas. 



In building this navy, we must remember two 

 things : First, that our ships and guns should be the 

 very best of their kind ; and second, that no matter 

 how good they are, they will be useless unless the 

 man in the conning-tower and the man behind the 

 gun are also the best of their kind. It is mere folly 



