industrial or political chaos. We do not wish to see any Old World
military power grow up on this continent, or to be compelled to become
a military power ourselves. The peoples of the Americas can prosper
best if left to work out their own salvation in their own way.

The work of upbuilding the Navy must be steadily continued. No one point
of our policy, foreign or domestic, is more important than this to the
honor and material welfare, and above all to the peace, of our nation in
the future. Whether we desire it or not, we must henceforth recognize
that we have international duties no less than international rights.
Even if our flag were hauled down in the Philippines and Puerto Rico,
even if we decided not to build the Isthmian Canal, we should need a
thoroughly trained Navy of adequate size, or else be prepared definitely
and for all time to abandon the idea that our nation is among those
whose sons go down to the sea in ships. Unless our commerce is always to
be carried in foreign bottoms, we must have war craft to protect it.

Inasmuch, however, as the American people have no thought of abandoning
the path upon which they have entered, and especially in view of the
fact that the building of the Isthmian Canal is fast becoming one of the
matters which the whole people are united in demanding, it is imperative
that our Navy should be put and kept in the highest state of efficiency,
and should be made to answer to our growing needs. So far from being in
any way a provocation to war, an adequate and highly trained navy is
the best guaranty against war, the cheapest and most effective peace
insurance. The cost of building and maintaining such a navy represents
the very lightest premium for insuring peace which this nation can
possibly pay.

Probably no other great nation in the world is so anxious for peace