THE MAINTENANCE OF THE FLEET. 



By Captain A. P. Niblack, U. S. N., Vice-President. 



[Read at the twenty-third general meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, held in 



New York, November 18 and 19, 1915.] 



The first line of the national defense is diplomacy, which, for safety and to 

 avoid misunderstandings, should be in the hands of skilled if not specially trained, 

 men. Due to our geographical position, our second line is the navy, which must 

 ever be prepared to act on the offensive, as its chief value lies in mobility and in- 

 itiative. The third line is the sea coast and other fixed defensive, with a mobile 

 land force to protect the land approaches. From its immobility this third line is 

 essentially defensive. The fourth line is the regular army, which, like the navy, 

 is essentially offensive. The fifth line is the trained reserve, and that we have not. 

 As patriotic and as self-sacrificing as are the individuals who compose the militia, 

 no thinking person, with knowledge of the facts, can count the militia as a trained 

 reserve. For all that it is, we should, however, be deeply thankful. The sixth line 

 is the reserve of equipment — guns, ammunition, clothing, food and fuel — together 

 with the manufacturing establishments to turn out whatever additional is needed, 

 from a button to a battleship. Untrained men, as a war asset, are like ore in the 

 mine, cotton in the bale — simply a valuable raw material. The dear old lady who 

 is represented as singing "I did not raise my boy to be a soldier" is quite right, 

 and she was wise not to undertake it. It takes several years of special training to 

 make a soldier, and it is the duty of the general government, and not even of the va- 

 rious states, to undertake this. She had her work cut out for her getting him 

 through the mumps and measles. 



We are prone in this country to regard ourselves as a rich nation. My ex- 

 perience with rich people has been such that I have come to regard mere riches as a 

 severe test of character. Money is certainly not a war asset until it is actually in- 

 vested in the creation of war material and trained personnel. It is, however, a 

 good thing to use in paying war indemnities, and in that respect we have an at- 

 tractive bank account. Money not spent ia preparedness for war, if no war comes, is 

 not necessarily money saved, for, unhappily, the ideas which spring up like weeds 

 around the noble aspirations of universal peace always tends to sap, strangle and 

 kill the national stamina and deteriorate the national character, whereas the recog- 

 nition that every citizen owes spontaneously his services to the country in time of 

 war (and hence in time of peace in preparation for war) is an asset independent of 

 national wealth and infinitely more valuable. Except China (and it is almost too 

 late for her to lock the stable door). Great Britain and the United States are the 

 two remaining countries in all the world which cling to the voluntary system of 

 enlistment, because, setting the individual above the state, the individual has been 



