nothing wonderful about many things that he said and did. They are
merely examples of plain, common-sense, and it appears ridiculous
that anybody should have had to make such remarks, or to fight
hard to get such clearly necessary things done. Yet he did have to
fight for them. It had to be driven into the heads of some of the
men in Congress that it is not the proper use of gun-powder to
keep it stored up, until war is declared, then bring it out,
partly spoiled, and give it to soldiers and sailors, who for lack
of practice, do not know how to shoot straight.

Roosevelt also was able to help in having appointed to command the
Asiatic squadron, a naval officer named Commodore George Dewey.

On February 15, 1898, while affairs were at their worst between
America and Spain, our battleship Maine was blown up in Havana
Harbor. She had gone there on a friendly visit, but now was
destroyed and sent to the bottom. Over two hundred and fifty of
our men were killed. Almost every one knew that war was now
certain. For weeks the country debated as to the cause of the
explosion which sank the Maine, and the matter was investigated by
naval officers assisted by divers. They found that the explosion
had come from the outside. Somebody had set off a mine or torpedo
beneath the ship. Nobody in America disputed this, except a few of
the peace-at-any-price folk, who preferred to think that the
carelessness of our own sailors had been the cause. These
gentlemen always think the best of the people of other nations,
which is a fine thing; but they are always ready to believe the
worst of their own countrymen, which is, on the whole, rather a
nasty trait.