For these reasons, every nation that has acquired and has long
retained prosperity, has realized that every country liable to
be attacked by any navy must either be defended by some powerful
country, or else must keep a navy ready to repel the attack
successfully. To do this, the defending navy must be ready when the
attack comes; because if not ready then, it will never have time
to get ready. In regard to our own country, much stress is laid by
some intelligent people--who forget the _Chesapeake_ and _Shannon_--on
the 3,000 miles of water stretching between the United States and
Europe. This 3,000 miles is, of course, a factor of importance,
but it is not a prohibition, because it can be traversed with great
surety and quickness--with much greater surety and quickness, for
instance, than the 12,000 miles traversed by the Russian fleet,
in 1904, in steaming from Russia to Japan.

The 3,000 miles that separate the United States from Europe can
be traversed by a fleet more powerful than ours in from two to
three weeks; and the fleet would probably arrive on our shores in
good condition, and manned by full crews of well-trained officers
and men, habituated to their duties by recent practice and thoroughly
ready to fight, as the _Shannon_ was. We could not meet this fleet
successfully unless we met it with a fleet more militarily effective;
and we could not do this unless we had in the regular service and
the reserve a personnel of officers and men sufficiently numerous
to man immediately all the vessels that would be needed, and to
man in addition all the shore stations, which would have to be
expanded to a war basis. The officers and enlisted men, of course,
would have to be at least as well trained as the corresponding
personnel in the attacking fleet, and have as recent and thorough
practice in their respective duties; for otherwise, no matter how