Roosevelt had suggested that when war came it would be wise for the
United States to seize the Philippine Islands, then under Spanish
possession. He it was who, when the War Department proposed to supplant
Dewey, successfully urged that he be retained at the Asiatic station.
“Keep the Olympia! Provide yourself with coal,” he cabled to Dewey at
this time.
No sooner had President McKinley declared war than Roosevelt sent a
still more vital message to Dewey, ordering him to sail into the port
of Manila and to capture or destroy the Spanish fleet.
Those who, at the Cabinet meeting, scoffed at Roosevelt’s plan for a
war now remembered that he had advocated this very act in his programme
and that the officer who had so splendidly captured Manila was the very
man Roosevelt had managed against strong opposition to keep on the job.
Roosevelt’s reputation as a picker of men was further illustrated at
this time by the interest he took in Lieutenant Sims, then American
naval attaché at Paris.
Sims had written to his superiors letter after letter pointing out
how backward our fleet was in marksmanship. He had definite plans for
teaching Yankee sailors how to shoot. Those in authority considered
Sims an alarmist, but Roosevelt grew concerned as he noted the small
proportion of hits to shots made by our ships. He then sounded the
slogan that “the shots that hit are the shots that count.”
Roosevelt could do little then in support of Sims, but when he
became President he remembered Sims and appointed him to lead in
revolutionizing the fleet’s training in marksmanship. It was due to
Sims--now the admiral who has served this country so well in the
present war--that the fighting efficiency of the navy, as far as
gunnery went, became three times more effective.
[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD