Sauk City High School - Sauk Log Yearbook (Sauk City, WI)

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Orient, with the productive Mississippi River Valley, which merely invites the Orient by way of the Panama Canal. The opening up of China should be different than the opening up of India, and Africa with the slothful population, or that of the American continent with few resources, for which many wars were fought in order to reap the benefits of the country. The European powers will make an inevitable step toward the seizure of China. The rights of America in an equal share of trade with China, can only be safeguarded by building, and maintaining a strong fleet in the far east. A country, as Amer- ica, making such rapid strides in commerce, whose interests can be affected in any quarter of the globe, must depend upon the size of her fleets, which should be the largest in the world. Thus taking into consideration our enormous influence on the outside world, protection of our commerce, safe-guard- ing of our foreign and new markets, which are greater than those of any other nation, by which the exact size of a navy should beestimated. America according to her needs should have a navy equal to the combined navies of the world. European trouble arising in South America, may only be stopped by enforcing the Monroe Doctrine, and sending as big a fleet to South America as Europe can. The United States possessions; Hawaii the Philippines and Alaska, are under the direct protection of our glorious United States. It would be a blot on American history to see the 10,000,000 of helpless people now committed under our charge, to pass under the yoke of any European power. The Monroe Doc- trine has already crossed the Pacific Ocean, covering the Philippine Archipelago 8,000 miles distant. How can a nation of action, such as the United States, protect her help- less citizens except thru a strong Navy ? The resources of the United States are so stupendous, that if our navy equalled the combined navies of the earth, the American tax payer would not even be conscious of the slightest burden. Our shipyards have already the required capacity of building. Why then should our country lie idle and be in time devoured by our European foes ? The Ameri- can Navy increased to the size of the combined navies of the earth, could bring on peace in any quarter of the globe. War injuring the British Empire, with which we have $800,000,000 annual commerce would injure us, and likewise with any other European country. Let there be but one supreme power, to keep the world in a continued reign of peade, and let that country be America.

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men involved at its close exceeded twice the hordes of Xerxes. Our campaigns have no parallel. There are five- hundred cases where the losses in single regiments in single engagements exceeded the losses of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, and two-hundred and fifty cases where the record exceeded those of the German army, in the war with France. For vigor in naval warfare, no such record exists in the world as that of the American Navy. In the war of 1812, when the English Navy was at its zenith, and after having counted an unbroken record of two-hundred victories, with European foes, and a force exceeding the American forces seven times, eighteen battles were fought, and fifteen battles were won by the American ships, with only one-sixth of the English losses. In the Spanish American War the American Navy again broke the world’s record in the two great sea fights at Santiago, and Manila. The American Navy stands alone of all the navies of the earth. It has never known defeat. Besides the vigorous population that the United States possesses, the richness of the soil from the Atlantic to the Pacific produces one-eighth of the world’s food stuffs, eight- tenths of the world’s articles of clothing, and holds beneath the surface one-third of the world’s known mineral deposits. America is the store-house, and work-shop of the world. The United States has 17,000 miles of coast line upon which are built innumerable cities whose protection is secured by fortifications, and mines, which are but of little importance to a determined commander of a large fleet. The only means of protection of all this property, of all these many happy homes, which are but a trifle when compared to the inland prosperity, lies in a strong navy. Taking into consideration the naval requirements, and the length of coast line, the United States Navy should be the largest in the world. During a European war only a strong navy can insure the safety of American citizens, and keep ourselves independent of any European turmoil. With America’s vast, growing commerce, and great pro- duction of manufactured articles, more than England, Ger- many and France combined, our foreign markets are becom- ing a subject of supreme importance. The new markets of undeveloped lands, where all countries may have an equal opportunity, and competition always reigns between the larger nations, the security of a nation’s interest can only rest upon the nation’s fleet. China will be the new market of America, being situated midway between Europe and the

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United States ranks but fourth in naval supremacy, having 550,000 tons of warship displacement, while England has more than three times the naval force of America. At the present rate of increase of the American Navy, the United States would overtake the British Empire in about 1930 when our annual appropriation for new ships would be $170,000,000. It is the only means of protection of our great annual com- merce, our citizens both in America, and foreign countries, and our possesions, whose people are left helpless, that America should maintain the largest and most powerful navy on the globe.