ROOSEVELT CHAMPIONS DEWEY
Roosevelt had suggested that when war came it would be wise for the United States to seize the Philippine Islands, then under Spanish possession. He it was who, when the War Department proposed to supplant Dewey, successfully urged that he be retained at the Asiatic station. “Keep the Olympia! Provide yourself with coal,” he cabled to Dewey at this time.
No sooner had President McKinley declared war than Roosevelt sent a still more vital message to Dewey, ordering him to sail into the port of Manila and to capture or destroy the Spanish fleet.
Those who, at the Cabinet meeting, scoffed at Roosevelt’s plan for a war now remembered that he had advocated this very act in his programme and that the officer who had so splendidly captured Manila was the very man Roosevelt had managed against strong opposition to keep on the job.
Roosevelt’s reputation as a picker of men was further illustrated at this time by the interest he took in Lieutenant Sims, then American naval attaché at Paris.
Sims had written to his superiors letter after letter pointing out how backward our fleet was in marksmanship. He had definite plans for teaching Yankee sailors how to shoot. Those in authority considered Sims an alarmist, but Roosevelt grew concerned as he noted the small proportion of hits to shots made by our ships. He then sounded the slogan that “the shots that hit are the shots that count.”
Roosevelt could do little then in support of Sims, but when he became President he remembered Sims and appointed him to lead in revolutionizing the fleet’s training in marksmanship. It was due to Sims—now the admiral who has served this country so well in the present war—that the fighting efficiency of the navy, as far as gunnery went, became three times more effective.
COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD
ROOSEVELT ADDRESSING AN INTERESTED AUDIENCE
The following account and appreciation of Admiral Dewey’s work derives a special interest from the fact that it was written by Colonel Roosevelt shortly after the battle of Manila:
“Admiral Dewey was sent to command the fleet on the Asiatic station primarily because he had such a record in the past that the best officers in the navy believed him to be peculiarly a man of the fighting temperament and fit to meet emergencies, and because he had shown his willingness to assume heavy responsibilities.
“For our own sakes, and in particular for the sake of any naval officer who in the future may be called upon to do such a piece of work as Dewey did, let us keep in mind the further fact that he could not have accomplished his feat if he had not had first-class vessels and excellently trained men; if his warships had not been so good and his captains and crews such thorough masters of their art.
“A man of less daring courage than Dewey would never have done what he did; but the courage itself was not enough. The Spaniards, too, had courage. What they lacked was energy, training, forethought. They fought their vessels until they burned or sank; but their gunnery was so poor that they did not kill a man in the American fleet. Even Dewey’s splendid capacity would not have enabled him to win the battle of Manila Bay had it not been for the traditional energy and seamanship of our naval service, so well illustrated in his captains, and the excellent gun practice of the crews, the result of years of steady training.”
Roosevelt never lost his interest in the navy. Admiral Chadwick wrote a book on the early period of the American navy. As soon as the book was published Senator Lodge hurried to the White House, hoping to surprise Mr. Roosevelt with the news of the publication.
“I see,” he remarked, “that Admiral Chadwick has written a book on the American navy.”
“Yes,” broke in Roosevelt, “I have read it. It’s bully. I didn’t think Chadwick was equal to it.”
Roosevelt felt that his work for the navy was done at the outbreak of the war.
“I have nothing more to do,” he said. “I must go to war myself.”
He was urged to keep his position. The women of the Cabinet reminded him that he had six children.
“I have done what I could to bring about the war,” he said; “now I have no right to ask others to fight it out while I stay home.”
He resigned to go to the front.
VIII
Roosevelt’s Rough Riders
When America went to war with Germany she was in her typical state of unpreparedness. In spite of her handicaps, the world admits that she did her tremendous job efficiently.
The same state of confusion and unpreparedness existed when America went to war with Spain. The thing that saved the day in both cases was the latent fighting strength of the nation. At the beginning of the Spanish war, just as at the beginning of the war with Germany, the young men thronged the enlistment centers. Regiments and ships were besieged with applicants. Men who had deserted in peace times returned, begging for a chance to fight.