No--starvation has nothing to do with the case. If some discovery
were made by which Great Britain could grow enough to support all
her people, she would keep her great navy nevertheless--simply
because she has found it to be a good investment.

The anti-starvation theory--the theory that one does things simply
to keep from starving--does apply to some tropical savages, but
not to the Anglo-Saxon. Long after starvation has been provided
against, long after wealth has been secured, we still toil on. What
are we toiling for? The same thing that Great Britain maintains
her navy for--wealth and power.

The real reason for Great Britain's having a powerful navy applies
with exact equality to the United States. Now that Great Britain
has proved how great a navy is best for her, we can see at once
how great a navy is best for us. That is--since Great Britain and
the United States are the wealthiest countries in the world, and
since the probability of war between any two countries is least
when their navies are equal in power--the maximum good would be
attained by making the United States navy exactly equal to the
British navy.




CHAPTER IV

NAVAL PREPAREDNESS

In a preceding chapter I endeavored to show why it is that the