CHAPTER XXIV
Thelosses of the navy in the war with Spain were extraordinarily small. There were but sixteen killed and sixty-eight wounded, of whom two died later. But even more remarkable, and it reflects the highest praise upon the service, was the state of health of the 26,102 men during this war of 114 days (April 21st to August 12th, inclusive). There were but fifty-six deaths in this period from disease, or at the rate of 6.85 per thousand a year. There were but thirteen cases of typhoid fever, and no death aboard ship from this disease and but one in hospital. There were but eighteen cases of dysentery. The marine battalion at Guantánamo numbered 588—21 officers and 567 men. There was no death from disease; only nineteen cases of malaria and no typhoid.
The whole was a very remarkable showing; one never equalled elsewhere. And it should be remembered that it was in a climate, and indeed very largely in the same region, where, acentury and a half before, the crews of some British ships were so swept by disease that they had in some cases to be renewed three times in but a moderate period of service. The health conditions of the American fleet showed an enlightened care which reflects honor upon all concerned.
The situation left us by the Spanish War is one which can be maintained only by a powerful fleet, though our acquisitions in themselves scarcely add to the necessity of such a fleet, for meanwhile we have built the Panama Canal. And while the canal has lightened our strategic difficulties in that our battle fleet can now reach San Francisco from the Caribbean in a fourth of the time it took theOregonto make her celebrated passage from San Francisco to Key West, there is upon us the heavy burden of the defence of the isthmus, its position being in effect insular. It can only remain in our hands by our controlling the sea. Fortifications assist in its defence for the time being, but should we go to war it must finally go into the hands of the power with a superior navy. And being thus isolated and having this insular character, the canal and its fortifications should be in navalcontrol in order that there should be complete unanimity of effort in its defence.
It is safe to say that however anti-imperialist one may be, there is no American who would see the canal go into foreign control with equanimity. The most pronounced would halt at such a danger. Thus whatever one’s attitude may be toward the Monroe Doctrine, there are few who would not uphold the contention that we shall not permit any further extension of foreign influence in the Caribbean or in any part of the neighboring Pacific littoral, or in neighboring islands such as the Galapagos. This is not a question of extension of influence, but of safety.
A word must be said as to the navy’s diplomatic work. International law is mostly both made and administered by navies. The navy is thus a great and constant school of diplomacy, the right hand of the Department of State. We have had a notable instance, almost as I write, in the events in Mexico, and from none have naval officers received higher praise for their work than from the late lamented Secretary of State, John Hay. It is duty such as this which gives the naval profession its breadth and importance in peace, as great in its way, as in war. Andthe diplomacy of naval officers is always in the direction of peace, though it may sometimes be peace with a strong hand, as in Admiral Benham’s most admirable handling of the situation in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro during the revolt of 1895. He brought instantaneous peace between the revolutionary forces and the Government; he upheld international law, stood by the rights of our merchant captains, and rendered a service beyond price to Brazil.
Such international uses of the navy accentuate the value of the Marine Corps, now a naval army of 10,267 men and officers. Little has been said heretofore in this book of this valuable, indeed invaluable, force, as its duties are merged largely in the general duties of the navy. It differs from the army proper in its mobility and ever-readiness for foreign service. Its mobility is that of the navy itself; its transport is ever ready; its supply train is the fleet.
It is an international understanding that seamen or marines may be landed in any part of the world for the protection of life and property, and that such action may even extend to the use of force without being regarded as an act of war. There is no need to expand the value of such a convention which gives the navy such an extensionof its field of forceful, and at the same time peaceable, action.
We speak much of our development into a world power through the war of 1898. We were such a power potentially as soon as we had a navy of a strength to enable us to say to another power, “I forbid.†And we can only remain a world power through a navy which can command safety and peace. Linked to such power there must be political good sense and just dealing. Long habit in obedience and in command, a life-long study of international relations, a knowledge of the races of men such as no other great profession can offer, an ideal which puts duty as its first law; these enable the navy to furnish its just quota of both the high qualifications mentioned. To it the country can securely trust its honor and safety. It will ever do its duty.