The amount of money now being spent by the United States on its
navy is so great that the expenditure can be justified only on
the basis that great naval power is essential to the country.

Is it essential, and if so, why?

_Primary Use for a Navy_.--To answer this wisely, it may be well
to remind ourselves that the principal object of all the vocations
of men is directly or indirectly the acquiring of money. Money, of
course, is not wealth; but it is a thing which can be so easily
exchanged for wealth, that it is the thing which most people work
for. Of course, at bottom, the most important work is the getting
of food out of the ground; but inasmuch as people like to congregate
together in cities, the thing taken out of the ground in one place
must be transported to other places; and inasmuch as every person
wants every kind of thing that he can get, a tremendous system of
interchange, through the medium of money, has been brought about,
which is called "trade." For the protection of property and life, and
in order that trade may exist at all, an enormous amount of human
machinery is employed which we call "government." This government
is based on innumerable laws, but these laws would be of no avail
unless they were carried out; and every nation in the world has
found that employment of a great deal of force is necessary in
order that they shall be carried out. This force is mainly exercised
by the police of the cities; but many instances have occurred in
the history of every country where the authority of the police
has had to be supported by the army of the national government.
There is no nation in the world, and there never has been one,
in which the enforcement of the necessary laws for the protection