And State Papers 267 



lasted as long as it takes to build a battleship; and 

 it is just as impossible to improvise the officers or the 

 crews as to improvise the navy. 



To lay up a battleship and only send it afloat at 

 the outset of a war, with a raw crew and untried 

 officers, would be not merely a folly but a crime, for 

 it would invite both disaster and disgrace. The 

 navy which so quickly decided in our favor in the 

 war in 1898 had been built and made efficient dur 

 ing the preceding fifteen years. The ships that tri 

 umphed off Manila and Santiago had been built un 

 der previous Administrations with money appro 

 priated by previous Congresses. The officers and 

 the men did their duty so well because they had al 

 ready been trained to it by long sea service. All 

 honor to the gallant officers and gallant men who 

 actually did the fighting; but remember, too, to 

 honor the public men, the shipwrights and steel 

 workers, the owners of the shipyards and armor 

 plants, to whose united foresight and exertion we 

 owe it that in 1898 we had craft so good, guns so 

 excellent, and American seamen of so high a type 

 in the conning towers, in the gun-turrets, and in the 

 engine rooms. It is too late to prepare for war 

 when war has come; and if we only prepare suffi 

 ciently no war will ever come. We wish a powerful 

 and efficient navy, not for purposes of war, but as 

 the surest guarantee of peace. If we have such a 

 navy if we keep on building it up we may rest 

 assured that there is but the smallest chance that 

 trouble will ever come to this Nation ; and we may 



