In the afternoons the fleet has two or three hours’ practice at battle maneuvers, which excite as keen interest as gunnery exercises.

The competition in coal economy goes on automatically and reacts in a hundred ways.  It has reduced the waste in the use of electric light and water, and certain chief engineers are said to keep men ranging over the ships all night turning out every light not in actual and immediate use.  Perhaps the most important effect is the keen hunt for defects in the machinery causing waste of power.  The Yankton by resetting valves increased her speed from 10 to 11 1/2 knots on the same expenditure.

All this has been done, but the field is widening, the work has only begun.

* * * * *

C. S. SPERRY.

When I left the Presidency I finished seven and a half years of administration, during which not one shot had been fired against a foreign foe.  We were at absolute peace, and there was no nation in the world with whom a war cloud threatened, no nation in the world whom we had wronged, or from whom we had anything to fear.  The cruise of the battle fleet was not the least of the causes which ensured so peaceful an outlook.

When the fleet returned after its sixteen months’ voyage around the world I went down to Hampton Roads to greet it.  The day was Washington’s Birthday, February 22, 1907.  Literally on the minute the homing battlecraft came into view.  On the flagship of the Admiral I spoke to the officers and enlisted men, as follows: 

“Admiral Sperry, Officers and Men of the Battle Fleet: 

“Over a year has passed since you steamed out of this harbor, and over the world’s rim, and this morning the hearts of all who saw you thrilled with pride as the hulls of the mighty warships lifted above the horizon.  You have been in the Northern and the Southern Hemispheres; four times you have crossed the line; you have steamed through all the great oceans; you have touched the coast of every continent.  Ever your general course has been westward; and now you come back to the port from which you set sail.  This is the first battle fleet that has ever circumnavigated the globe.  Those who perform the feat again can but follow in your footsteps.

“The little torpedo flotilla went with you around South America, through the Straits of Magellan, to our own Pacific Coast.  The armored cruiser squadron met you, and left you again, when you were half way round the world.  You have falsified every prediction of the prophets of failure.  In all your long cruise not an accident worthy of mention has happened to a single battleship, nor yet to the cruisers or torpedo boats.  You left this coast in a high state of battle efficiency, and you return with your efficiency increased; better prepared than when you left, not only in personnel but even in material.  During your world cruise you have taken your regular gunnery practice, and skilled though you were before