demy should be assigned to the
combatant branches, the line and marines.

Many of the essentials of success are already recognized by the General
Board, which, as the central office of a growing staff, is moving
steadily toward a proper war efficiency and a proper efficiency of the
whole Navy, under the Secretary. This General Board, by fostering the
creation of a general staff, is providing for the official and then the
general recognition of our altered conditions as a Nation and of the
true meaning of a great war fleet, which meaning is, first, the best
men, and, second, the best ships.

The Naval Militia forces are State organizations, and are trained for
coast service, and in event of war they will constitute the inner line
of defense. They should receive hearty encouragement from the General
Government.

But in addition we should at once provide for a National Naval Reserve,
organized and trained under the direction of the Navy Department,
and subject to the call of the Chief Executive whenever war becomes
imminent. It should be a real auxiliary to the naval seagoing peace
establishment, and offer material to be drawn on at once for manning
our ships in time of war. It should be composed of graduates of the
Naval Academy, graduates of the Naval Militia, officers and crews of
coast-line steamers, longshore schooners, fishing vessels, and steam
yachts, together with the coast population about such centers as
life-saving stations and light-houses.

The American people must either build and maintain an adequate navy or
else make up their minds definitely to accept a secondary position in
international affairs, not merely in political, but in commercial,
matters. It has been well said that there is no surer way of courting
national disaster than to be "opulent, aggressive, and unarmed."

It is not necessary to increase our Army beyond its present size at this
time. But it is necessary to keep it at the highest point of efficiency.
The individual units who as officers and enlisted men compose this Army,
are, we have good reason to believe, at least as efficient as those of
any other army in the entire world. It is our duty to see that their
training is of a kind to insure the highest possible expression of power
to these units when acting in combination.

The conditions of modern war are such as to make an infinitely heavier
demand than ever before upon the individual character and capacity of
the officer and the