_My Fellow-Citizens_:
Naturally at the home of Secretary Moody I should like to say a word
or two about the navy. I think that whenever we touch on the navy we
are sure of a hearty response from any American audience; we are just
as sure of such a response in the mountains and great plains of the
West as upon the Atlantic or Pacific seaboards. The entire country is
vitally interested in the navy, because an efficient navy of adequate
size is not only the best guarantee of peace, but is also the surest
means for seeing that if war does come the result shall be honorable
to our good name and favorable to our national interests.
Any really great nation must be peculiarly sensitive to two things:
Stain on the national honor at home, and disgrace to the national
arms abroad. Our honor at home, our honor in domestic and internal
affairs, is at all times in our own keeping, and depends simply upon
the possession of an awakened public conscience. But the only way to
make safe our honor, as affected not by our own deeds but by the deeds
of others, is by readiness in advance. In three great crises in our
history during the nineteenth century—in the War of 1812, in the Civil
War, and again in the Spanish War—the navy rendered to the nation
services of literally incalculable worth. In the Civil War we had to
meet antagonists even more unprepared at sea than we were. On both the
other occasions we encountered foreign foes, and the fighting was done
entirely by ships built long in advance, and by officers and crews
who had been trained during years of sea service for the supreme day
when their qualities were put to the final test. The ships which won
at Manila and Santiago under the Administration of President McKinley
had been built years before under Presidents Arthur, Cleveland, and
Harrison. The officers in those ships had been trained from their
earliest youth to their profession, and the enlisted men, in addition
to their natural aptitude, their intelligence, and their courage, had
been drilled as marksmen with the great guns and as machinists in the
engine rooms, and perfected in all the details of their work during
years of cruising on the high seas and of incessant target practice.
It was this preparedness which was the true secret of the enormous
difference in efficiency between our navy and the Spanish navy. There
was no lack of courage and self-devotion among the Spaniards, but
on our side, in addition to the courage and devotion, for the lack
of which no training could atone, there was also that training—the
training which comes only as the result of years of thorough and
painstaking practice.
Annapolis is, with the sole exception of its sister academy at West
Point, the most typically democratic and American school of learning
and preparation that there is in the entire country. Men go there
from every State, from every walk of life, professing every creed—the
chance of entry being open to all who perfect themselves in the
necessary studies and who possess the necessary moral and physical
qualities. There each man enters on his merits, stands on his merits,
and graduates into a service where only his merit will enable him to
be of value.
The enlisted men are of fine type, as they needs must be to do their
work well, whether in the gun turret or in the engine room; and out
of the fine material thus provided the finished man-of-war’s man is
evolved by years of sea service.
It is impossible after the outbreak of war to improvise either the
ships or the men of a navy. A war vessel is a bit of mechanism as
delicate and complicated as it is formidable. You might just as well
expect to turn an unskilled laborer offhand into a skilled machinist
or into the engineer of a flyer on one of our big railroad systems as
to put men aboard a battleship with the expectation that they will
do anything but discredit themselves until they have had months and
years in which thoroughly to learn their duties. Our shipbuilders
and gunmakers must keep ever on the alert so that no rivals pass
them by; and the officers and enlisted men on board the ships must
in their turn, by the exercise of unflagging and intelligent zeal,
keep themselves fit to get the best use out of the weapons of war
intrusted to their care. The instrument is always important, but the
man who uses it is more important still. We must constantly endeavor
to perfect our navy in all its duties in time of peace, and above all
in manœuvring in a seaway and in marksmanship with the great guns. In
battle the only shots that count are those that hit, and marksmanship
is a matter of long practice and of intelligent reasoning. A navy’s
efficiency in a war depends mainly upon its preparedness at the
outset of that war. We are not to be excused as a nation if there is
not such preparedness of our navy. This is especially so in view of
what we have done during the last four years. No nation has a right
to undertake a big task unless it is prepared to do it in masterful
and effective style. It would be an intolerable humiliation for us to
embark on such a course of action as followed from our declaration
of war with Spain, and not make good our words by deeds—not be ready
to prove our truth by our endeavor whenever the need calls. The
good work of building up the navy must go on without ceasing. The
modern warship can not with advantage be allowed to rust in disuse.
It must be used up in active service even in time of peace. This
means that there must be a constant replacement of the ineffective
by the effective. The work of building up and keeping up our navy is
therefore one which needs our constant and unflagging vigilance. Our
navy is now efficient; but we must be content with no ordinary degree
of efficiency. Every effort must be made to bring it ever nearer to
perfection. In making such effort the prime factor is to have at the
head of the navy such an official as your fellow-townsman, Mr. Moody;
and the next is to bring home to our people as a whole the need of
thorough and ample preparation in advance; this preparation to take
the form not only of continually building ships, but of keeping these
ships in commission under conditions which will develop the highest
degree of efficiency in the officers and enlisted men aboard them.