LXXVIII.

CHAP. time would mean that they would fall into a welter of murderous anarchy. Such desertion of duty on our part would be a crime against humanity."

Of the much-discussed Monroe doctrine he made this declaration: "The Monroe doctrine should be the cardinal feature of the foreign policy of all the nations of the two Americas, as it is of the United States. Just seventy-eight years have passed since President Monroe in his annual message announced that the American continents are henceforth not to be considered as sub

jects for future colonization by any European power.'
In other words, the Monroe doctrine is a declaration
that there must be no territorial aggrandizement by any
non-American power at the expense of any American
power on American soil. It is no wise intended as
hostile to any nation in the Old World. Still less is it
intended to give cover to any aggression by one New
World power at the expense of any other.
other. It is simply
a step, and a long step, toward assuring the universal
peace of the world by securing the possibility of perma-
nent peace on this hemisphere."

When Perry won his decisive victory on Lake Erie, in 1813, two of the largest vessels of his fleet had been built the winter before, at Erie, Pa., from green timber just felled in the forest. Half a century later, when our country was plunged into civil war, iron-clad gunboats, for service on the western rivers, were built in one hundred days. But so great has been the advance in naval architecture and naval gunnery that the warships of the great nations now require years for their construction and equipment. The building of our modern navy-the ships by which the pride of Spain was humbled and her flag abolished from the Western Hemisphere was begun in 1882, and has been in progress ever since, the most powerful vessels having been built since 1892. The largest afloat is the new battleship

MCKINLEY'S SECOND TERM.

1245

LXXVIII.

Maine, launched in July, 1901, which has a displacement CHAP. of twelve thousand three hundred tons and engines of sixteen thousand horse-power, can carry two thousand tons of coal, and has a speed of eighteen knots an hour. Of others that have been planned, but not yet built, some are to have a displacement of fifteen thousand tons and engines of nineteen thousand horse-power, with a speed of nineteen knots. The whole number of vessels in our navy is three hundred and five, of which all but seventeen are fit for sea service. Twenty of these are battleships, eight are armored cruisers, and twenty-three are protected cruisers. The others are smaller and less powerful, torpedo-boats, supply-ships, etc. Some of the protected cruisers can make twenty-three knots an hour. The largest of these ships are clad in heavy steel armor, and all are armed with improved breech-loading and rapid-firing guns. The latest experiments have been with submarine torpedo-boats, and one of these invented by Holland, has proved successful. Rear-Admiral John Lowe remained in it beneath the surface of the water fifteen hours, and reported that it was perfectly manageable. Attempts at this method of warfare have been made from time to time since the first years of the nineteenth century; but heretofore they have proved harmful only to their inventors and navigators.

Our navy has 1,945 officers (commissioned and warrant), and 25,228 enlisted men. The active officers comprise 1 admiral, 24 rear-admirals, and 75 captains. In addition we have a marine corps of 200 officers and 6,000 men, and naval militia in several of the States, consisting in the aggregate of more than 400 officers and 4,600 men.

The maintenance of an army is a simpler problem, since the country has proved more than once that it can quickly put into the field a vast number of volunteers who, from their superior intelligence and education,

LXXVIII.

CHAP. need but little drill to become equal to regulars. According to the act of Congress of February 2, 1901, the army now consists of 15 regiments of cavalry, 1 artillery corps, 30 field batteries and 126 companies of coast artillery, 30 regiments of infantry, 3 battalions of engineers, and an additional provisional force of 5,000 men. The total strength is about 66,000 men, of whom 3,800 are commissioned officers. The law limits the total strength to 100,000 men.

Our armament is not so vast and powerful as those of some of the European nations; but one of our most eminent citizens has called attention to the fact that it need not be, since in case of war with them we should only have to close our ports and deprive them of our agricultural products on which they so largely subsist.

The march of invention and discovery goes on steadily, and usually Americans are in the lead. The recently perfected discovery that mosquitoes are the distributors of malaria-one of the most important in the medical world-was made and published by Dr. Albert F. A. King, of Washington, as long ago as 1883.

Edison's wonderful feat of sending six messages simultaneously on one wire has been eclipsed by William Marconi, who sends them thousands of miles on no wire at all. In January, 1903, a wireless message of more than fifty words was sent across the Atlantic from the President of the United States to the King of England, and an answer of equal length was promptly returned. And still later a message was wafted through the ambient air from the United States to Italy.

The dream that began with the Montgolfiers a hundred and twenty years ago has never been abandoned. Tennyson expresses it poetically in one of his finest creations: