ecame head of the government
has failed, because my admirals see double and have learned--where I
don't know--that war can be made without running risks."

The probable value of a "fleet in being" has, in the opinion of the
writer, been much overstated; for, even at the best, the game of
evasion, which this is, if persisted in, can have but one issue. The
superior force will in the end run the inferior to earth. In the
meanwhile, however, vital time may have been lost. It is conceivable,
for instance, that Cervera's squadron, if thoroughly effective, might,
by swift and well-concealed movements, have detained our fleet in the
West Indies until the hurricane of September, 1898, swept over the
Caribbean. We had then no reserve to replace armored ships lost or
damaged. But, for such persistence of action, there is needed in each
unit of the "fleet in being" an efficiency rarely attainable, and
liable to be lost by unforeseen accident at a critical moment. Where
effect, nay, safety, depends upon mere celerity of movement, as in
retreat, a crippled ship means a lost ship; or a lost fleet, if the
body sticks to its disabled member. Such efficiency it is probable
Cervera's division never possessed. The length of its passage across
the Atlantic, however increased by the embarrassment of frequently
recoaling the torpedo destroyers, so far over-passed the extreme
calculations of our naval authorities, that ready credence was given
to an apparently authentic report that it had returned to Spain; the
more so that such concentration was strategically correct, and it was
incorrect to adventure an important detachment so far from home,
without the reinforcement it might have received in Cadiz. This delay,
in ships whose individual speed had originally been very high, has
been commonly attributed in our service to the inefficiency of the
engine-room force; and this opinion is confirmed by a Spanish officer
writing in their "Revista de la Marina." "The Americans," he says,
"keep their ships cruising constantly, in every sea, and therefore
have a large and qualified engine-room force. We have but few
machinists, and are almost destitute of firemen." This inequality,
however, is fundamentally due to the essential differences of
mechanical capacity and development in the two nations. An amusing
story was told the writer some years ago by one of our consuls in
Cuba. Making a rather rough passage between two ports, he saw an
elderly Cuban o