t guard may
be needed a very short time after war breaks out; and that the
vessels and the men, with all the necessary equipment and all the
necessary organization and training, should be put into actual
operation beforehand.

Not only the fleet, however, but all the bureaus and offices of
the Navy Department, all the navy-yards, and an the radio stations,
recruiting stations, hydrographic offices, training stations, and
agencies for securing information from foreign countries, will have
to pass instantly from a peace basis to a war basis. To do these
things quickly and correctly many preliminaries must be arranged;
but if the General Staff prepares good plans beforehand, arranges
measures which will insure that the plans shall be promptly carried
out, and holds a few mobilization drills to test them, the various
bureaus and offices in the department can do the rest. If the fires
have all been lighted, the engine gotten ready, and the boilers
filled in time, the engineer may open the throttle confidently,
when the critical time arrives, for the engine will surely do its
part.

But if the proper plans have not been made and executed, the sudden
outbreak of war, in which any country becomes involved with a powerful
naval country, will create confusion on a scale larger than any
that the world has ever seen, and compared with which pandemonium
would be a Quaker meeting. A realization of facts will come to that
country, and especially to the naval authorities, that will overwhelm
them with the consciousness of their inability to meet the crisis
marching toward them with swift but unhurried tread--confident,
determined, unescapable. Fear of national danger and the sense
of shame, hopelessness and helplessness will combine to produce
psychological effects so keen that even panic will be possible.
Officers in high places at sea and on shore will send telegrams of
inquiry and suggestion; civilians in public and private station
will do the same. No fitting answers can be given, because there
will be no time for reflection and deliberation. The fact that it
would be impossible to get the various additions to the fleet and
the patrol services ready in time, and the consciousness that it
would be useless to do any less, will tend to bring on a desperate
resolve to accept the situation and let the enemy do his worst.
The actual result, however, will probably be like the result of
similar situations in the past; that is, some cou