HONORS TO THE AMERICAN NAVY 



condition we are in, as far as our mer- 

 chant marine is concerned. If we had 

 a large merchant marine we could draw 

 from it without having special auxiliaries 

 for the Navy, but we are so lacking in 

 both that it makes our present situation 

 almost hopeless. 



When the Spanish War broke out it 

 was necessary to purchase colliers and 

 transports. One hundred and two ves- 

 sels were bought at a cost of something 

 over seventeen millions of dollars. In 

 my judgment, they were well purchased, 

 the board having this matter in charge 

 being perfectly competent men ; but they 

 cost a very large percentage more than 

 their market value, and more than twice 

 as much as they could have been sold for 

 if they had been put on the market at the 

 termination of the war. In other words, 

 we paid out millions of dollars because 

 we had not provided ourselves with suit- 

 able auxiliaries for our battleship fleet. 



We have possessions in the Samoan 

 Islands which we have no means of 

 reaching, because we have no merchant 

 ships on the Pacific Ocean; so we are 

 obliged to send men and supplies to our 

 men in foreign ships. I noticed the other 

 day that the Servian people were clamor- 

 ing for war with Austria, when it was 

 discovered that all of the ammunition 

 Servia had was locked up in an Austrian 

 fortress. We are in an analogous posi- 

 tion, as we have recently chartered Japa- 

 nese ships to carry ammunition and 

 supplies to our possessions in the Philip- 

 pine Islands. Ought not we to be 

 laughed at and commiserated with for 

 our own folly in allowing such a condi- 

 tion to continue? I think we should. 

 These are some matters we should con- 

 sider as well as battleships, and if I had 

 my way I would provide for necessary 

 auxiliaries before I provided any more 

 battleships, if only one could be appro- 

 priated for. 



I must ask your pardon for trespass- 

 ing so long on your time when there are 

 other speakers to address you. But this 

 is an endless subject. We should have a 

 Navy adequate for our needs; not only 



adequate in battleships, but adequate in 

 every other respect, and I hope the men 

 present, who have the power in their 

 hands to provide it, will take this message 

 home to themselves and help the good' 

 cause along. 



the: toastmaster 



In all the annals of Polar exploration^ 

 and research there is no more command- 

 ing and heroic figure than that of our 

 own friend and member of the Board of 

 Managers of the National Geographic 

 Society, Major General A. W. Greely. 

 He will say a few words about geo- 

 graphic research. 



GEOGRAPHIC RESEARCH BY MAJOR GEN- 

 ERAL, A. W. GREEDY, U. S. ARMY. 



It is a great temptation to say many 

 things when I come back after three- 

 years' absence to Washington and the 

 National Geographic Society. 



With the opening of the twentieth 

 century things have changed, and, among 

 others, geographic methods. A century 

 ago geographic research meant only 

 searching for new lands ; but such has 

 been the activity and energy of the men< 

 of the world that but few areas of im- 

 portance are now without our knowl- 

 edge. The field of geographic research* 

 has broadened. From seeking to bring 

 back the nomenclature of capes, moun- 

 tains, and valleys, we have come to know 

 the wonderful facts relative to these val- 

 leys as bearing upon mankind and upon 

 civilization. We have sought all the new 

 fields of production and of consumption. 

 We have brought back through the 

 genius and skill of investigators the- 

 knowledge of what makes a crop suc- 

 cessful here or there, and by further ex- 

 ploration in our own country have de- 

 termined where better than ever before 

 that crop can be raised. In other words,, 

 physical geography has been largely re- 

 placed by economic geography, which 

 means the adaptation of natural re- 

 sources to the benefit of mankind and; 

 to the development of civilization. 



The National Geographic Society has 

 lately entered upon a new plan — the de- 



