good
job; for, of course, none of us count Spain, who wasn't ready to begin
with, and wasn't our size, anyway. And yet, we mightn't make out so bad
'gainst a bigger enemy at that. Our fellows can shoot, that's sure.
There's a gun crew in this ship we're breasting now, and I saw them
awhile ago put eight 12-inch shot in succession through that regulation
floating target we use, and it was as far away as the farther end of
that line of cruisers there, and the target was bobbing up and down, and
we steaming by at 10 knots an hour. Not too bad--hah? And a hundred
crews like 'em in the navy. That's for the shooting."

He flicked the end of another fleeting cigarette over the rail. "Yes,
the American navy has fought pretty well, and this navy, no fear, will
fight too. There's more different kinds of people in it than ever
before, they say--though as to that I guess there were always more kinds
of people in the navy than the historians ever gave credit for. Now it's
all kinds like the nation itself, I suppose. And that ought to make for
good fighting, don't you think?"

NAVY MEN

The foregoing occasion was the first of several naval spectacles staged
by Theodore Roosevelt during his presidency to show the public that we
had a growing navy, and not too small a navy, and a navy that, ship for
ship, need ask for no odds in its equipment at least.

More than any President we ever had did Theodore Roosevelt work for a
big navy. To no President before him in our country did the prospect of
a great European war loom so near; a war which meant our participation,
not so much through any will of our people as by the pressure of
happenings from the other side.

Hence, the need of the country for as large a navy as we could get
together. With an eye for this future need President Roosevelt asked for
4 battleships a year. There were men in Congress who believed that to
talk of war was foolish; there would be no more war; so, instead of 4,
Congress gave him 2, and the famous "big stick" had to come into play
before they gave him even the two.

During these years I had the privilege from President Roosevelt of
cruising on United States war-ships--gun-boats, destroyers, cruisers,
battleships (later, through the good offices of Secretary Daniels, I
became acquainted with submarines and navy airplanes).

The war-ships were an interesting study, and the life aboard a war-ship
then was even more interesting, for after all, men, no