ople are about to starve? Did Spain do so in our last war? Did
Russia fear that Japan would force the people of her vast territory
into starvation?

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
necessities of the naval defense of a country have caused the gradual
development of different types of vessels, each having its distinctive
work. If those different types operated in separate localities they
would lose that mutual support which it is the aim of organization
to secure, and each separate group could be destroyed in turn by
the combined groups of an enemy. For this reason, the types or
groups are combined in one large fleet, and an admiral is placed
in command.

The command of a fleet is the highest effort of the naval art. Its
success in time of war demands in the admiral himself a high order
of mind and nerve and body; and it demands in all the personnel,
from the highest to the lowest, such a measure of trained ability
and character that each shall be able to discharge with skill and
courage the duties of his station.

In order that the material fleet shall be efficient as a whole,
each material unit must be efficient as a unit. Each ship must
be materially sound; each pump, valve, cylinder, gun, carriage,
torpedo, and individu