You remember that during the first two years of the World War, 1914— 16, this nation under President Woodrow Wilson refrained from strengthening the national defense in order to assure the belligerent nations of our neutrality and impartiality. You also remember that President Wilson was reelected upon the slogan “He kept us out of war.” Within one month after taking office, President Wilson sent to Congress a message recommending war with Germany. In it he stated:
Property can be paid for, the lives of peaceful and innocent people cannot be. The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind. There is one choice we cannot make, we are incapable of making: We will not choose the plan of submission and suffer the most sacred rights of our nation and our people to be ignored or violated. But the right is more precious than peace and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts—for democracy.
Four days later, on April 6, 1917, Congress declared war against Germany.
These excerpts from President Wilson’s message to Congress illustrate that there are certain things for which you will not stand, even to the extent of declaring war in defense of your point of view upon right and wrong. This is no new trait in the American character; it has always existed. Whether or not the nation was prepared for war has made no difference when certain fundamental ideas have been violated. The United States has always entered wars in an unprepared state. When the great western part of this country was being settled, even before the creation of courts and police, citizens formed committees called vigilantes, for mutual protection and to eliminate bad men from their communities.
In the character of all patriotic American citizens there lies latent a point of view upon matters of public interest which when aroused will bring forth action necessary to support that point of view, particularly in the face of aggression. Being unprepared when war comes places us in the position of the cavalry recruit. He had just finished four years in the infantry and decided to re-enlist in the cavalry. The re-enlistment formalities finished, the recruiting officer directed him to report to the stable sergeant for a mount, which he did. The sergeant asked him what experience he had riding horses. The recruit replied that he had had none. The sergeant then asked why he had joined the cavalry. The recruit replied that after four years in the infantry he had decided that next four years would be spent riding instead of walking. “Do you mean to say you have never ridden a horse?” said the sergeant. “Yes, sir,” the recruit replied. The sergeant then pointed along the line of stalls and said “Do you see these stalls?” The recruit answered, “Yes.” “Do you see the square one at the end?” “Yes.” “Well, that is what we call a box stall. Are you sure you have never ridden a horse before?” “Yes,” replied the recruit, “I have never ridden a horse.” “Well,” said the sergeant, “in that box stall is a horse that has never been ridden. Now you two amateurs can start off together.”
America has never entered war adequately prepared. When your Army and your Navy have possessed a strength adequate to command the respect of foreign nations there have been no provocations to war. It is a matter of history that provocation to war has come when your power of resistance has been held in contempt. Just before the Spanish-American War the Spaniards contemptuously referred to you as Yankee pigs. When foreign respect for your strength has blessed you with an era of peace, political desire to divert money appropriated for the national defense to other purposes has been allowed gradually to weaken your Army and Navy. Increasing disrespect for America abroad is a warning signal that envious eyes recognize this waning strength, and that your national defense is no longer adequate.
Many of our national policies are a source of irritation to foreign nations. Let us consider several of them:
(1) The Asiatic Exclusion Act was passed by the Congress to exclude Asiatics from the privilege of immigration and settlement in the United States. You know that the yellow race does not mix with the white; the Asiatics live cheaper and furnish competitive labor destructive to our standards of living. Their presence to our standards of living. Their presence presents a problem to the native population, because the native soon finds the Asiatic chiseling him out of house, home, and work. Such peaceful occupation is just as thorough and effective as if it were the result of armed invasion. To keep the United States for American citizens, it has been found necessary to bar Asiatic immigration.
(2) There is a doctrine of “freedom of the seas” which, as its name implies would have the seas free to the ships and commerce of all nations. You have been at war with England, with the Barbary States, with France, and with Germany because of their interference with the lives and property of American citizens afloat. This doctrine is opposed to “control of the seas” frequently attempted by European nations. You probably remember how Germany in the early years of the World War proclaimed large sea areas of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean as submarine zones and forbade their use to neutral shipping under penalty of destruction without warning.
(3) There is the Monroe Doctrine which was first stated in 1823 by President Monroe in his message to Congress. It defines the policy of the United States not to interfere in the internal concerns of the countries of Europe and to regard an attempt on their part to extend their systems to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. The Monroe Doctrine has earned the respect of foreign nations, by some because of agreement with its principles, by others because of their respect for the ability of this nation to enforce it at times of their temptation to violate its purpose.
(4) The “open door in China” was first enunciated by John Hay, then Secretary of State. It would give all nations equal treaty privileges in the China market of over 400,000,000 people. This policy is in direct conflict with that termed the “most favored nation” policy advocated by certain foreign countries for their exclusive benefit. The recent events in China have a direct bearing upon these contradictory policies.
(5) There is the question now before the world of debt collection. Suggestions come from Europe that the American people should cancel the war debts. That is in effect to shift the burden of payment of our liberty loans from Europe to American taxpayers. What point of view American citizens will have on this question remains to be seen. However, it is safe to suppose that if your Army and Navy become weak enough to warrant the disdain of interested foreign nations, this question may some day confront you for a decision. If it does, the point of view of the American people will at that time determine whether this nation shall yield or fight.
As a result of his experiences as President, Woodrow Wilson, at the time of loaning billions and billions of dollars to foreign countries, began building the greatest Navy in the world. If its new ships had not been scrapped, you would have had the most powerful Navy in the history of the world. However, the Washington arms conference in 1922 sacrificed that supremacy and today your Navy is rapidly losing its relative standing among the great naval powers, even though the Washington and London arms treaties permit America to build to parity with the Navy of England and to a 5:3 ratio with Japan and a 5:1.75 ratio with both France and Italy. It were well if ratios set by treaty be maintained for purposes of future economy and peace.
With your Navy at parity in strength and efficiency with England’s, you assume a predominant influence in world affairs, an influence for peace, for harmony, for equality of opportunity, for security of free peoples, for improved economic world conditions.
These are some of your important foreign policies. There are others but these are sufficient to show that your influence and responsibilities extend beyond your sea coasts.
The two limitation of armament treaties have necessitated the destruction of 194 of your warships, totaling 1,013,960 tons, which cost $480,440,000 and the work of scrapping about 175 more of your warships continues in accordance with the terms of the treaties. The United States is not replacing obsolete vessels as permitted by treaty. Certainly if ever a country set an example in limiting armament, the United States has done so. Since 1922 France had laid down 159 new warships, Japan 126, Italy 115, Great Britain 111, and the United States 34.
If no changes occur in the current building programs, by December, 1936, when the treaties expire, the strength of the fleets in modern combat vessels will be Japan 151, France 159, Italy 121, Great Britain 130, and the United States 60.
Now the middle of the United States is over 1,000 miles from the nearest ocean. Those of you who have crossed an ocean realize the meaning of the word. Over its vast expanse a ship was sighted. The troops crowded the rails to watch its approach. Several colored doughboys tried in vain to arouse the interest of one of their number who was stretched out in the sun on deck. “Come here Sam, see the ship coming,” they urged. “Ah don’t want to see no ship,” said Sam. “What ah wants to see is a tree.” Compared to the soil, the ocean with all its size has given us but little wealth. However, it is the world’s greatest highway. Its great trade arteries carry exports and imports to the great advantage of mankind, economically, financially, and politically. The United States, situated as it is between two great commercial oceans, occupies geographically a position in world commerce of inherent value to its inhabitants. It is a heritage worth protecting lest those less fortunately situated be tempted to supplant you. This nation is bounded on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. These waters provide commercial routes to Europe, Africa, South America, Central America, and Asia. The Panama Canal is one of the greatest over-seas trade arteries of the world, being rivaled only by the route through the Mediterranean and Suez Canal which connects the Far East with the Atlantic.
With such extensive sea boundaries and over-seas trade routes, your nation has valuable interests extending beyond its seaboard, the stability of which is of vital concern to every inhabitant of the land. To quote that eminent American writer Alfred T. Mahan, U.S. Navy, D.C.L., LL.D.:
The Navy of the United States, for example, took its rise from purely commercial considerations. External interests cannot be confined to those of commerce. They may be political as well as commercial; may be political because commercial, like the claim to the open door, may be political because military, essential to national defense, like the Panama Canal and Hawaii; may be political because of national prepossessions and sympathies, race sympathies, such as exist in Europe or traditions like the Monroe Doctrine.
In 1928 about 13 per cent of the country’s trade was carried in ships. It represented a value of 19 billions of dollars, 9 billions worth being over-seas exports and imports and the remainder being coastwise shipping. The total was greater than the national debt which in 1928 amounted to a little over 16 billion. Today I am told that the value of this trade with foreign countries is about half as great. Now business men generally agree that such a fall-off of business is equivalent to the difference between payment of dividends with high wages versus non-payment of dividends and unemployment. While the present condition of the country gives you a faint idea of what happens in a country when its sea traffic is blocked, history is replete with examples where naval control of sea lanes and communication has given one belligerent the benefit of supplies, men, credit, and support from the whole world, while denying these same necessities to its adversary.
The sea power of the United States consists of give essentials—commerce, shipping, ports, routes, and protection. The strength of your sea power is measured by the strength of the weakest of these five. Exports from all parts of your country are sent overland to your seaports and are shipped to all the continents. While the United Sates is as nearly self-supporting as any nation in the world, yet it relies upon imports for many of its necessities, particularly those that come from tropical countries. For instance, without rubber you would be unable to use your telephones, you would be unable to run electric motors, or even use automobiles. Without manganese you would be unable to produce steel. Before the World War most of your shipping was carried in ships under foreign flags. This worked well enough until the necessities of war required foreign nations to limit the use of their ships to transportation of supplies and men for their armies in France. Without merchant ships your sea terminals soon became cluttered with trains loaded with wheat and other commodities which were finally dumped alongside the railroad sidings and destroyed. Many farmers and shippers may remember this. As a result the U. S. Shipping Board was established and there commenced the construction of a merchant marine to make this country independent of foreign controlled shipping. This has been successful, as now over half of our exports and imports are carried in the bottoms of American ships. Your shipbuilding industry received a great impetus and the money spent in the building of ships proved a great value throughout the country. Rear Admiral G. H. Rock (C.C.), U. S. Navy, testified before Congressmen that over 85 per cent of such money has gone into labor. At the shipbuilding yards about 40-45 per cent goes to labor. Of the materials purchased throughout the country for installation in the ships, about 4045 per cent goes to labor.
To protect your merchant marine and your commerce it is necessary that your Navy be adequate to perform its task. An inadequate Navy is a most costly form of government extravagance. Without commerce you lack profitable sea power. Without a merchant marine your sea power may be crippled at the will of foreign shippers. Without an adequate Navy your sea power may be taken away from you by force.
History is replete with conflicts between nations in which sea power has determined the outcome. You may go back to the Punic Wars waged between Rome and Carthage in the Mediterranean 300 b.c. At the outset Carthage had a strong Navy and had garrisons on all islands in the western Mediterranean. The King of Sicily, just south of Italy, appealed to both Rome and Carthage for help to settle internal strife. The Carthaginians responded promptly. Their troops quelled the uprising and restored the King to full control. About a week later the Romans arrived and got into dispute with the Carthaginians. Thus started the great Punic Wars. In the first one, the Navy of Rome defeated that of Carthage and the Romans took over all the islands held by Carthage in the western Mediterranean. The war finally ended when Carthage paid a large ransom and ceded her islands to Rome. In the Second Punic War, the Navy of Carthage was again defeated. With the sea controlled by Rome, Carthage in an attempt to destroy Rome sent Hannibal with a great army by land across Spain, through Gaul and over the Alps into Italy. This march took five months and was one of the most famous in history. Hannibal lost over half of his elephants and other animals and half of his men. When he reached Italy he defeated several Roman armies but was unable to capture the coast cities because of the supplies and reenforcements they received by sea. Exhaustion of his men and supplies ultimately required that Hannibal be relieved and his brother Hasdrubal was sent with another army over the same arduous route to the aid of Hannibal. The second army suffered as many casualties over the Pyrenees and the Alps as had Hannibal’s. Arriving in northern Italy, Hasdrubal found that Hannibal’s army was at the southern end. The Romans meanwhile had received re-enforcements in sufficient strength to allow them to defeat in turn the armies of Hasdrubal and Hannibal. Scipio, a Roman consul, was sent with an army by sea to Carthage and caused that city to pay heavy indemnity and sign a treaty giving up control of Spain which then became part of the Roman Empire. When the Third Punic War commenced, the Romans still controlled the sea, making it possible for them to send Scipio Africanus with an army overseas to Carthage which city he besieged by land and sea. When it surrendered the remaining Carthaginians were enslaved and the city and its name wiped out completely. The name was changed from Carthage to Africa by which it is now known. With the loss of its sea power, Carthage was annihilated, wiped out completely, and its grandeur, territory, and influence passed into the hands of the Romans.
Again in the middle of the eighteenth century, European influence was extended into the Far East. It was generally conceded that India would become a colony of France as the great and energetic Frenchman Dupleix had gained a foothold in India. The British maintained war fleets in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic, whereas the French failed to maintain their sea communications with India. As a result the English were able to continue their colonization schemes without interruption, receiving supplies and men as needed. The French colonists on the other hand failed to receive such supplies and men from their home government so their influence in India waned and finally disappeared. This is evidenced today by the fact that India has become an important English colony and part of the British Empire, due entirely to the effective use of sea power on the part of England and the failure of France to recognize its usefulness.
The effect of sea power upon the outcome of the Revolutionary War is generally little understood. The final test of that war probably occurred at Yorktown, Virginia, where General Washington besieged the army of Lord Cornwallis by land at the same time that the French fleet under Admiral de Grasse blockaded Cornwallis by sea. Lord Cornwallis was able to hold out for a period of about six weeks before hunger and lack of supplies forced him to surrender his army to General Washington. This brought the Revolutionary War to an early close. General Washington, who arranged the joint operation with Admiral de Grasse, was one of our earliest statesmen to appreciate the use of sea power in bringing conflicts to a successful conclusion.
During the War of 1812, the British Army of 11,000 men advanced into northern New York from Canada by water over Lake Champlain. Both Great Britain and the United States commenced building ships to control Lake Champlain. The British attempted a combined land and sea attack on Plattsburg. Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough, U.S. Navy, defended the town from sea attack. He had 4 sailing vessels, 10 oar-propelled galleys, and a total of 92 guns. The opposing sea forces engaged in battle which lasted 2.5 hours and ended in the capture of the British squadron. The loss of Lake Champlain denied to British Army means of obtaining supplies from Canada and it was forced to make a hasty retreat. Theodore Roosevelt said of Macdonough, “down to the time of the Civil War he is the greatest figure in our naval history.”
During the Civil War, the South in the early years was able to hold off the armies of the North. In fact, the Southern armies were generally victorious and a blockade was gradually placed off the Confederacy, denying it help from abroad, causing the Confederate Army to lose many of its most skilled men because of the necessity to send them to factories in the rear in an endeavor to replace material which could no longer be obtained from abroad. Thus weakened, the Confederacy became exhausted, while the Federal Armies were able to march through Georgia to the sea, to capture Richmond, and finally to take the surrender of General Lee’s army at Appomattox. This brought the Civil War to a close and again the silent but powerful influence of sea power is seen in its role of contributing to the ultimate victory.
In the middle of the last century a conflict took place in the Pacific between Chile and Peru because of a dispute about boundaries and ownership of territory containing valuable nitrate beds. Both countries claimed the nitrate fields. Their navies met and the Peruvian Navy was defeated. Shut off from the sea, Peru was unable to get necessary support and supplies whereas the Chileans were able at will to send their armies by sea to Peru and speedily won the war.
During the Spanish-American War American squadrons at Manila and at Santiago defeated the Spanish squadrons and thereby denied Spain the use of the sea to re-enforce her garrisons in the Philippines and in Cuba. The Americans by these same naval victories were able to make free use of the ocean for the transportation of troops and supplies. The outcome was evident as soon as Spanish sea power was broken. It became simply a matter of how long it would take the Army to overcome the isolated Spanish troops in the Philippines and Cuba. The latter being without re-enforcements and without additional supplies and without connection with their homeland soon capitulated and the war was brought to an end. Thus again you see the influence of sea powder upon the outcome of a recent war.
In June, 1917, began the great over-seas transportation of an American Army of over 2,000,000 men to France, half of them in foreign vessels, the remainder in ships turned over to the United States Navy. It convoyed them all to France without the loss of a soldier. Cargo vessels operated by the Navy but distinct from troop transports carried in all approximately 6,000,000 tons of supplies as well as 15,000 horses and mules before the Armistice. In the World War the control of the sea was in the hands of the Allies. They were thus able to bring supplies, men, and re-enforcements from the entire world whereas these essentials were denied to the Central Powers until the latter, through sheer exhaustion, were forced to seek the Armistice of November 11, 1918. The invisible but powerful effect of sea power gave your armies the opportunity to win the war, which they most certainly did.
Sea power is as much a part of your nation as are your cities, your factories, your farms, and your inland transportation systems. The inhabitants of this country will be those who recognize and utilize its sea power intelligently. The white man with his sea power superseded the Indian in this country. Early settlements were made by the Dutch, the French, the Spanish, and the English. Today its language is English because the English concept of sea power made the original thirteen colonies the predominating ones in the territory. It was the English sea power that closed the avenues to the French, the Dutch, and the Spanish until their influence waned. It was by a successful use of sea power that the American colonies were able to wrest their liberty from Great Britain. The future inhabitants of this land will be those who continue the full use of its sea power. We of today are trustees for our children who will inhabit the land tomorrow. As their trustees we should avoid steps which will allow any foreign sea power to supplant us.
To this end not only must you maintain your manufacturing, your farming and production, your exports and the provisions for imports, not only should you maintain ships sufficient to car these safely and under your own control but if you wish to provide for the common defense your Navy should be maintained strong enough to command the respectful attention of any probable foe to the end that conflict may be avoided. If you wish to promote the general welfare you require a Navy capable of keeping open all sea communications and transportation systems used by your over-seas commerce in times of peace and of neutrality. If you wish to secure the blessings of liberty for yourselves and your posterity, you require a Navy that can in war protect sea lanes in the area of operations necessary for your use and deny their use to your adversaries. All these things are of concern to the citizens inland fully as much as to the citizens of the coast. They concern you of today and those who may inhabit this land in years to come. The American citizen has a stake in the United States Navy and to the degree that he comes to this realization and ordains that his Navy shall be adequate to uphold his interests, in that degree will this country bless him with the fruits of peace and prosperity and in that degree will you be entitled to respect from abroad, that respect which is the surest guarantee that the Armistice signed November 11, 1918, will be an enduring cessation of hostilities and that the American citizens’ responsibility to the Armistice has been fulfilled.