ken much
more, proportionately, from the entire squadron at a critical moment.
Above all, had that aggregate, 65,934 of tonnage, in seven ships, been
divided among five only, of 13,000 each, I know not how the two ships
that were designated to go with Watson to the Philippines could
possibly have sailed.

The question is momentous, and claims intelligent and immediate
decision; for tonnage once locked up in a built ship cannot be got out
and redistributed to meet the call of the moment. Neither may men
evade a definite conclusion by saying that they will have both
unlimited power--that is, size--and unlimited number; for this they
cannot have. A decision must be reached, and upon it purpose must be
concentrated unwaveringly; the disadvantages as well as the advantages
of the choice must be accepted with singleness of mind. Individual
size is needed, for specific reasons; numbers also are necessary.
Between the two opposing demands there is doubtless a mean of
individual size which will ensure the maximum offensive power _of the
fleet_; for that, and not the maximum power of the single ship, is
the true object of battleship construction. Battleships in all ages
are meant to act together, in fleets; not singly, as mere cruisers.

A full discussion of all the considerations, on one side or the other,
of this question, would demand more space, and more of technical
detail, than the scope of these papers permits. As with most
conclusions of a concrete character dealing with contradictory
elements, the result reached will inevitably be rather an
approximation than an absolute demonstrable certainty; a broad general
statement, not a narrow formula. All rules of War, which is not an
exact science, but an art, have this characteristic. They do not tell
one exactly how to do right, but they give warning when a step is
being contemplated which the experience of ages asserts to be wrong.
To an instructed mind they cry silently, "Despite all plausible
arguments, this one element involved in that which you are thinking to
do shows that in it you will go wrong." In the judgment of the writer,
two conditions must be primarily considered in determining a class of
battleship to which, for the sake of homogeneousness, most of the
fleet should conform. Of these two, one must be given in general
terms; the other can be stated with more precision. The chief
requisite to be kept in view in the battleship is the offensive power
of the fleet