The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 12, 1898, Page 18

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, DAY, JUNE 12, 1898. REAR ADMIRAL BELKNAP Advises What We Ought to Do to Resume Our Place Among Maritime Nations. F the United States Is to resume its place as a great maritime nation Wwe must have an adequate navy. We should have at least eighteen battleships on the Atlantic Coast and six on the Pacific; we should have at least two monitors for every large harbor, and we should have thirty cruisers like the New York. }\’r- should ave both ships and forts for coast defense. But the most effective force is that which is mobile. Land batteries and forts are necessary 3 for the defense of our seaports and seaboard cities; must have a navy to oper: the ocean, to meet, but we ate against an alert and energetic enemy on beat him off, destroy or capture him. It is impossible by fortifications alone to defend our many thousands of miles of coast line with its numerous bays, reaches and inlets, so as to prevent the g of an invading army. See how many ports there on the New gland coast. as we are, we must be strong and ready on the sea ve but offensive operatio: If we had had an ade- quate navy to protect our whole coast line, surround Cuba, crush Cervera's fleet and smash the fleet at Manila the war would have been all over by this ti Sir Wi conquered are ter Raleigh said: “England s a country that can never be while the sovereigns thereof have the command of the sea; whosoever commands the sea commards the trade, and whosoever com- mands the trade commands the riches of the world.” If the United States is to resume its place as a great maritime nation we must have more ships. Before the civil war we built fine ships and them. But during the war the Confederacy destroyed much of our shipping; we would not permit any ship which had carried the Confederate flag in the war to return under our flag, and so much more of our shipping changed hands. Then our people began to turn their attention to building railroads and developing the enormous internal resources of the country. They received a greater return from this investment than they could from ships. Meantime conditions changed on the sea. and wooden bottoms to those of iron and steel. ers of wooden of irc ship building we knew little, and gradually the busix v from us. I hope it is to be restored and that we shall take the place that belongs to us among maritime In a very short time the Pacific Ocean is going to see an enormous pment of commerce. With the building of the Nicaragua Canal it is going to become the pathway for trade with the 400,000,000 people of China, the 40,000,000 of Japan, the 8,000,000 in Korea and the 10,600,000 in the Philippine Islands. Honolulu must be the stopping place for all this commerce and it is going to became one of the great commercial centers of the world. We need not admit Hawall to the Union. We can govern it as a territory, just as we govern the District of Columbia. As to the natives, there are only 180,000 of them and they are fast dying off. Besides, with the ac- quisition of the islands by the United States they would be settled by American families. ‘We can govern the semi-barbarous population of the Philippines. How does England govern her colonies? Let us take a lesson from her. As to Chauncey Depew’'s argument that to tax the Philippine Isianders without representation wouid be a betrayal of the principles for which we fought in 1776, I answer let the Philippine Islanders do as we did in he Revolution and demonstrate their power and capacity for self-govern- ment. The great difficulty in controlling the Philippines or Porto Rico would be the religious question. In all Spanish countries the Catholic church i{s supreme. Do you know that from the Isthmus of Panama to Cape Horn no bell can be rung for a Protestant service? Protestants can worship in & hall if they like, but they cannot hold services in a church. Why, it is only in England and the United States that there is any re- ligious independence. Now there would be trouble, I am afraid, if Protestant churches were opened in any of the Spanish colonies taken by us. The natives have been Salls gave way to steam, We had been great build- but PPPOPCIPVPPVVPPP00 0 PPV PPV0DPPOPOODEVPOPOVPOOVOPOPOC VPPV 00G 0000006068000 L ESSON REAR-ADMIRAL BELKNAP 1t & BY .condition. S oF THE WAR GEN.NELSON A.MILES. #r vt vt SENATOR SEWELL. 'SUGEESTIONS FOR IMPROVING OUR STANDING ARMY By General Nelson A. Miles. I lay the blame for the long delay in preparing for active operations on the smallness of our regular army. ¢ Our standing army in time of peace should be maintained in ‘the proportion of one soldier to every 1000 citizens. % ® GENERAL NELSON A. MILES, Commanding United States Army. E have been a very long time prepar- ing for active operations. I lay the blame for the delay on the smallness of our regular army. I propose when this war is over, with the co- operation of the President and Congress and of the Secretary of War, to raise the regular army to a point of efficiency where it will be ready for any pressing emergency on a day’s notice. Experience in the ranks makes a man a better citizen in private life than if he had never understood through practical experience the meaning of army discipline. During recent years it has been my privi- lege to visit Germany and other foreign coun- tries, and while upon these journeys I have studied the effect of military training upon the citizens. Inasmuch as military service is only optional in the United States, we @ave not the disciplined material to draw from that exists in countries where every man over 12 is, to a certain extent, a soldier. Therefore we ought to have an army of more than seventy thousand men and the army ought at all times to be kept up to the ratio of one soldier to every 1000 in- habitants of this country. Look at the nations of Europe. Germany. for example, is a nation of soldters. Every able-bodied citizen must serve in the army for a certain number of years. So must the men of France. I was talking with a German officer not long ago, and he told me that the effects of the German system were excellent in more than a military sense. The German Government takes the raw citizen and makes of him a man, with not only a military but a social training. It makes him bathe. It makes him comb and brush his hair. It teaches him to keep his clothing clean.. It requires a certain amount of athletic exercise and improves his physical It requires him to walk erect. But above all, it teaches him discipline. The German system makes men—it does more; it makes gentlemen. It makes good cit- izens, with respect for authority. ) Beyond all question military service mekes & better man better fitted for the duties of civil life than he wouid have been without it. teaches him to concentrate his mind on what he is doing. He carries with him into bus_\- ness and professional life the idea that there is a right way to do a thing, and that that is always the way to do it. It does not make the citizen less original, but it makes him quicker in his actions, more decisive in his speech. It polishes him as nothing else on earth could possibly do. I do not think the German system of mili- tary service could be successfully introduced in this country. It is not suited to our peo- ple. And I think it is not necessary to our safety. We do not need to be prepared as the nations of Eurore must be. Still, we must be ready for confiict at any time. And we are not ready when our chief reliance must be placed in our militia. See the condition of our army to-day. Many of the men are without uniforms. Soms of them have guns of one kind, some of an- ather. The regular army, on the other hand, has been prepared for active service from the mo- ment war began. As I stated above, the standing army in time of peace should be maintained in the pro- portion of one soldier to every 1000 citizens. Our present population being in round num- bers 70,000,000, that would give us an army of 70,000. As we increase in numbers so the size of our army would grow and thus the pro- portion be constantly observed. If that were ‘he case we should be in no danger of finding ourselves as at the beginning of this present war, with an army ridiculously inferior in point of numbers when its duties are considered. We do not need the standing armies of Eyrope in the United States, but it will always be wise to have an army of adequate propor- tions to the size of the country. At €/ —t @ @ - to have pushed = U S SENATOR SEWEL L Writes on The Proper Way to Mect the Ever-Chang- ing Demands Now Made on the Nation. WASHINGTON, D. =5 - AL et ol h“‘_EI?JHC.,_ June 10, ~To the Sunday Call: ©en increased years ago and should t s Geners Miles suggests organized on the basis of P T e Sy t Sis of one man to every thousand of the D o g shgil that event the army would be comparatively small, ‘io,nért; :?{:};}:S;Cl!:ree months we might have been enabled SIS, o hla\‘e“i\srsw dc |;ba without any delay. nuded the country of national togr:osui»lyl';:rg Sgn !:‘-filr:x}meu?srs ““ht; ;lave i many months to put them in s BT it anc 3 2 it roquton Y e P! m in shape, and at such an enormous cost when & crisis arrives. Had it not been for the National Guard at this time we would have been in an unenviable position. ¥ While the great defenses of the country must alway: S National Guard and the volunteers, at the same thwe 3wl Oh 2o ought to have a regular army of a moderate number, which would be ready to_take the field under any and all circums es at a momént's notice. The failure to preserve' a reasonable orga fon in proportion to the population 6f the country has been demonstrated on two. octasions as extremely costly and inimical to the best inter of the republic. In the war of the rebellion if we had had a regular army of a reason- able number the result might have been different at the start, and to-day if our regular army had consisted of 75,000 men, 50,000 thoroughly organ- ized, disciplined troops might have been placed in Cuba without any de- lay. I fully believe we are capable 6f overcoming even this situation and that the National Guard and the volunteers will immediately fill and occupy it. The military situation changes materially every moment. No one sup- posed that we would be obliged to send troops to the Philippines, and, personally, I have been opposed to it. g > I would have preferred that Commodore Dewey after his great suc- cess in the destruction of the Spanish fleet should have left Manila and assembled his fleet at Honolulu. That is the natural outpost country, which means in the future the construction of the X Canal. But I have no objection to the occupation of the Philip will support the administration in that matter, as I do in everyt believing that whatever is determined by the President and his advi is the proper thing to do. > W. J. SEWELL, United States Senate Committee on Military Affairs. The regular Lo O R R R IR R RO RO R ORI OROR R R CRORCRCRORCRCRCRCRCRCRR R X R R R R R A2 X 2 A 2 24 0000800000000 00 taught to believe that Protestants are heretics, with no hope of To see them permitted to hold services in a church would stir and nothing can make more trouble than a question of religion. It is not true, as E. J. Phelps says, that we must develop sailors before we can take a place among naval powers. We inherited an aptitude for the sea. There were never any better saflors than American seamen before the war. It was the diversion of interest from our shipping that made them turn to other occupations. By npature we are sailors. An Englishman sald to an American commander jestingl “Why do you talk so much of the superiority of Americans? You were all English not so long ago.” And the American answered: ‘“We are now English a little improved.” When we look at the map and note the fact that our shores are washed by the Atlantic and Pacific and the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and Puget Sound, we see that as regards a war with any maritime power we are quite as open to an attack by an enemy’s fleet as are the seagirt shores of Great Britain. In attacking an enemy beyond our borders as we are doing to-day a naval force is a prime necessity: a force to which must be confided the first operaticns in a war like that which we are now waging against Spain. < Cervera’s action I going into Santiago harbor looks to me like very bad strategy. Of course he could never have hoped to come out. But we don’t know yet what drove him in. Possibly lack of coal. or the breaking down of his machinery compelled him to seek refuge there. salvation. up strife, a race of e»@@@@@o@@e@@@@@@@«9@@0@@@@@@®©<~>®@@@@@@@e@@@oe@e@@@@@@@@e@@@@e@é\ca»m«:~-@@e@o@@@@@s@e@@e@e@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@o@@@@9@@@@@®©®<’>®®®®®©®‘>®\“®9©®®"®®° FOREIGN CARTOONISTS’ QU SE SANLHO UINOTE ARD THE PORIU 0 FTHE SPANESK DO O TOND 15FOR (BUDAPEST. HUNGAR < et 6"%‘31‘ o .,(““A“ Re) TMPER THEENCOUNTER DOED NOT SEE M, AT PRESEN], EXALTLY A HAPPY ONE FORPOOR CUBAFAOM KLADDERADATSCH, T AR \\ L~ hid == SIR JOIN YENNIELS A&untfimvrmor THE AMERICAN AT **THE DUELLO ‘O, THE PITY OF IT!™ FROM PUNCh, 7504104 TITUDE THE MANILA INCIDENT REFLECTEDIN THE FACES IDEA OF THE WAR . A SPANISH IDEA OF ANGLO-AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP, AN ORNAMENTAL ‘WITIAL FROMTHE CADIZ ALE 6RE oF EYROPE~ FROM THEBEE