the accident of events puts in supreme command at the moment, but upon those who have failed to prepare in advance. There should be no cessation in the work of completing our navy. So far, ingenuity has been wholly unable to devise a substitute for the great war craft whose hammering guns beat out the mastery of the high seas. But there is something we need even more than additional ships, and this is additional officers and men. To provide battleships and cruisers and then lay them up, with the expectation of leaving them unmanned until they are needed in actual war, would be worse than folly; it would be a crime against the nation.

Even in time of peace a warship should be used until it wears out, for only so can it be kept fit to respond to any emergency. The officers and men alike should be kept as much as possible on blue water, for it is there only they can learn their duties as they should be learned.

Every detail ashore which can be performed by a civilian should be so performed, the officer being kept for his special duty in the sea service. Above all, gunnery practice should be unceasing. It is important to have our navy of adequate size, but it is even more important that ship for ship it should equal in efficiency any navy in the world. This is possible only with highly drilled crews and officers, and this in turn imperatively demands continuous and progressive instruction in target practice, ship handling, squadron tactics, and general discipline. Our ships must be assembled in squadrons actively cruising away from harbors and never long at anchor. The resulting wear upon engines and hulls must be endured; a battleship worn out in long training of officers and men is well paid for by the results, while, on the other hand, no matter in how excellent condition, it is useless if the crew be not expert.

Good ships and good guns are simply good weapons, and the best weapons are useless save in the hands of men who know how to fight with them. The men must be trained and drilled under a thorough and well planned system of progressive instruction, while the recruiting must be carried on with still greater vigor. Every effort must be made to exalt the main function of the officer-the command of men. The

leading graduates of the naval academy should be assigned to the combatant branches, the line and marines.

Many of the essentials of success are already recognized by the general board, which, as the central office of a growing staff, is moving steadily toward a proper war efficiency and a proper efficiency of the whole navy, under the secretary. This general board, by fostering the creation of a general staff, is providing for the official and then the general recognition of our altered conditions as a nation and of the true meaning of a great war fleet, which meaning is, first, the best men, and, second, the best ships.

The naval militia forces are state organizations, and are trained for coast service, and in the event of war they will constitute the inner line of defense. They should receive hearty encouragement from the general government.

The American people must either build and maintain an adequate navy or else make up their minds definitelyto accept a secondary position in international affairs, not merely in political, but in commercial, matters. It has been well said that there is no surer way of courting national disaster than to be opulent, aggressive, and unarmed.

THE NAVY AND ITS FUTURE.

BY WILLIAM HENRY MOODY.

[William Henry Moody, attorney-general and former secretary of the navy; born Newbury, Mass., December 23, 1853; educated at Philips academy, Andover, and Harvard university; lawyer by profession; district attorney for eastern district of Massachusetts 1890-5; member 54th congress from 6th Massachusetts district to fill vacancy; also member of 55th, 56th and 57th congresses; appointed secretary of the navy May 1, 1902.]

The task which is employing the highest energies of the navy, and receiving the greatest attention from the heads of bureaus, the commanders in chief of stations, the commanding and subordinate officers of squadrons, divisions, and single vessels everywhere, is the work of training. To the development of the greatest efficiency in all branches of the service the attention, zeal, and thought of those in charge is mainly directed. This is an era of training. The reports of the several bureaus are largely made up of criticisms upon and plans for the improvement of present systems of practice, drill, and instructions.

The training of apprentice boys and landsmen entering for the first time the enlisted force of the navy in all that is comprehended by the term the sea habit; the training of seamen who have acquired this, but need greater familiarity with the specialized work of a modern ship of war; the training of officers and men of the marine corps in the military and naval duties of that organization; the training of officers and men, sailors and marines in the essential matter of marksmanship with all arms, great and small, including machine and rapid-fire guns, in the care and handling of ordnance, and, particularly, in gun pointing; training in developing and maintaining the efficiency of the main engines of ships, as well as of all auxiliary machinery and devices, steam, electrical, and other; the training of young officers of the staff corps in the specialties of their profession, as well as in its general obligations and duties; the training of junior officers in torpedo work of all kinds, and in the handling of the smaller vessels, and the training of more experienced officers in the capacity to bring

out and utilize the full powers of the vessels under their command, whether operating singly or in squadrons, appears to be the important present business of the navy.

For this purpose schools of instruction have been established wherever practicable, among them being the school for petty officers of the seaman branch at Newport, and for the artificer branch at the navy yards, Portsmouth, Va., and New York; the school at the medical museum, and the torpedo school at Newport. At the same time the work of the naval war college has received increased attention.

It is needless to say that the purpose of all this instruction and training is to make the navy fit for its ultimate design as an instrument of warfare. The navy serves many useful purposes in times of peace which should by no means be minimized. Nevertheless it would not exist in anything like its present form if the possibility of war were not in contemplation. It is believed to be the duty of the department to employ the means which congress has placed at its disposal to develop every latent power of material and personnel and see that all branches of the service operate in intelligent harmony. This constitutes that preparedness for war which is the best guaranty of the continuance of peace. It has been remembered at every step that the people desire peace and not war, and that the navy should be potent that peace may be preserved. This preparedness for war should be complete; a partial or half-way preparation will not insure us against attack, may even invite it.

Among the most important lessons learned in the war with Spain was that a modern navy can not be improvised during a war or upon the threshold of a war. Much money was then expended in the purchase of ships. Many of them served useful auxiliary purposes, but it may well be doubted whether they added materially to the fighting efficiency of our fleet. The time best suited to the development and perfection of our navy is the time when there is neither war nor threat of war. Happily the present is such a time, and it permits a dispassionate consideration of the future.

The country approves, with hardly a dissenting voice, the policy of strengthening our power upon the sea. What

would have been an adequate navy some years ago is totally inadequate for the performance of the duties growing out of our new possessions in the Pacific and Atlantic and the determination of congress to construct a canal across the Isthmus.

If, then, the policy of strengthening our power upon the sea to the point where it can respond to the national needs be not abandoned, the navy has manifold needs. There must be additional naval and coaling stations; more ships, fighting and auxiliary; and an increase of officers and men. In all of these respects, congress in the past has dealt with the navy wisely and generously, and I doubt not that in the future it will as accurately register the will of the people.