284 A Forgotten Maxim 



a break. We ask this not in the interest of war, 

 but in the interest of peace. No nation should ever 

 wage war wantonly, but no nation should ever 

 avoid it at the cost of the loss of national honor. 

 A nation should never fight unless forced to; but 

 it should always be ready to fight. The mere fact 

 that it is ready will generally spare it the necessity 

 of fighting. If this country now had a fleet of 

 twenty battleships their existence would make it 

 all the more likely that we should not have war. It 

 is very important that we should, as a race, keep the 

 virile fighting qualities and should be ready to use 

 them at need; but it is not at all important to use 

 them unless there is need. One of the surest ways 

 to attain these qualities is to keep our Navy in first- 

 class trim. There never is, and never has been, 

 on our part a desire to use a weapon because of its 

 being well-tempered. There is not the least danger 

 that the possession of a good navy will render this 

 country overbearing toward its neighbors. The 

 direct contrary is the truth. 



An unmanly desire to avoid a quarrel is often 

 the surest way to precipitate one ; and utter unreadi- 

 ness to fight is even surer. If at the time of our 

 trouble with Chili, six years ago, we had not al- 

 ready possessed the nucleus of the new navy we 

 should almost certainly have been forced into fight- 

 ing, and even as it was trouble was only averted 

 because of the resolute stand then taken by the 

 President and by the officers of the Navy who were 

 on the spot. If at that time the Chilians had been 



