112 THE MAINTENANCE OF THE FLEET. 



in the Pacific. Midway, at present an indispensable cable relay station, 1,150 miles 

 beyond Honolulu, near the route to Guam, has a harbor with a bar good for 17 feet 

 draught now, and which the cost of one cruiser would convert into an auxiliary 

 fortified and equipped island base. Many visits, in connection with constructive 

 work and planning, have made its every feature familiar and of deep interest to 

 me, and I look forward to the time when wise foresight will guard this vulnerable 

 outpost in the ocean on which our future lies. 



All this talk of fortification and equipment means less than the cost of two 

 battleships, and without which the battleships are restricted to operations from 

 bases improvised after war is declared. The money spent annually in soda water, 

 chewing gum and candy, if spent on reasonable military necessities would put us 

 in the hated class of the "prepared." The cost for one day of the war now going 

 on in the world would secure the Pacific coast from invasion for all time. Every- 

 one knows this, but like the Jews of old we consider ourselves the chosen people, 

 and the voices of those who could pilot the job are as those crying in the wilder- 

 ness of local politics. 



The question of maintenance of the fleets is separate from that of organization, 

 training and operation. But as to the supply of trained officers and men, as affect- 

 ing the maintenance of the fleet, so many more than the present number could be 

 utilized to advantage, and so much remains to be done, that it is best not to discuss 

 it. As short-handed as we are the training goes on incessantly, as it should, and 

 the spirit of competition keeps anyone from getting a swelled head as to being the 

 latest prodigy in any line of endeavor. Many prizes are given and adherence to 

 rules, in competitions, like obedience to orders, is ingrained. The science of getting 

 the most out of each ton of coal and gallon of oil, under the spur of competition, 

 has, as an example, enabled two of our fifirst dreadnoughts to make a knot more 

 speed in full power than their contract, and cut the coal consumption in port in 

 half, as compared with their first year in commission. Every battleship in the 

 fleet can today make her contract speed and most of them can exceed it. 



Suppose we had a Supreme Council of War, whose composition commanded 

 the confidence of everyone. The result would be that people would say, "The Coun- 

 cil says this must be done," and everyone would accept it as a national necessity. 

 The Council might say, "We must have an interior water-way from Cape Cod Bay 

 to the Gulf of Mexico for urgent strategic reasons," or "In every other country 

 in the world the coast defenses are under the navy, in order to insure co-ordina- 

 tion. The Coast Artillery Corps must be transferred to the jurisdiction of the 

 navy, just as the Marine Corps now is." In fact it is just the knowledge that 

 such recommendations would be made that keeps us from getting the Council of 

 National Defense. As a friend of mine used to say, "When pain or fear wrench 

 hard enough on the purse strings, the doctor gets called in," and like the sick man 

 we can only hope that it will not prove too late, if necessity ever forces the calling 

 together of such a council. 



Of the seventeen paragraphs of the Constitution of the United States which 



