potential, which our own is, but organized and developed, which our own as yet is not.  We wisely quote Washington’s warning against entangling alliances, but too readily forget his teaching about preparation for war.  The progress of the world from age to age, in its ever-changing manifestations, is a great political drama, possessing a unity, doubtless, in its general development, but in which, as act follows act, one situation alone can engage, at one time, the attention of the actors.  Of this drama war is simply a violent and tumultuous political incident.  A navy, therefore, whose primary sphere of action is war, is, in the last analysis and from the least misleading point of view, a political factor of the utmost importance in international affairs, one more often deterrent than irritant.  It is in that light, according to the conditions of the age and of the nation, that it asks and deserves the appreciation of the state, and that it should be developed in proportion to the reasonable possibilities of the political future.

PREPAREDNESS FOR NAVAL WAR.

December, 1896.

The problem of preparation for war in modern times is both extensive and complicated.  As in the construction of the individual ship, where the attempt to reconcile conflicting requirements has resulted, according to a common expression, in a compromise, the most dubious of all military solutions,—­giving something to all, and all to none,—­so preparation for war involves many conditions, often contradictory one to another, at times almost irreconcilable.  To satisfy all of these passes the ingenuity of the national Treasury, powerless to give the whole of what is demanded by the representatives of the different elements, which, in duly ordered proportion, constitute a complete scheme of national military policy, whether for offence or defence.  Unable to satisfy all, and too often equally unable to say, frankly, “This one is chief; to it you others must yield, except so far as you contribute to its greatest efficiency,” either the pendulum of the government’s will swings from one extreme to the other, or, in the attempt to be fair all round, all alike receive less than they ask, and for their theoretical completeness require.  In other words, the contents of the national purse are distributed, instead of being concentrated upon a leading conception, adopted after due deliberation, and maintained with conviction.

The creation of material for war, under modern conditions, requires a length of time which does not permit the postponement of it to the hour of impending hostilities.  To put into the water a first-class battle-ship, fully armored, within a year after the laying of her keel, as has been done latterly in England, is justly considered an extraordinary exhibition of the nation’s resources for naval shipbuilding; and there yet remained to be done the placing of her battery, and many other matters of principal detail essential to her readiness for sea.  This time certainly would not be less for ourselves, doing our utmost.