CHAPTER VI.
NAVAL POLICY Every country that has a satisfactory navy has acquired it as the result of a far-seeing naval policy, not of opportunism or of chance.
The country has first studied the question thoroughly, then decided what it ought to do, then decided how to do it.
Naval policy has to deal with three elements: material, personnel, and operations, which, though separate, are mutually dependent.

A clear comprehension of their actual relations and relative weights can be obtained only by thorough study; but without that comprehension no wise naval policy can be formulated, and therefore no satisfactory navy can be established.
The most obvious thing about a navy is its material: the ponderous battleships, the picturesque destroyers, the submarines, the intricate engines of multifarious types, the radio, the signal-flags, the torpedo that costs $8,000, the gun that can sink a ship 10 miles away.
The United States navy ever since its beginning in 1775 has excelled in its material; the ships have always been good, and in many cases they have surpassed those of similar kind in other navies.

This has been due to the strong common sense of the American people, their engineering skill, and their inventive genius.

The first war-ship to move under steam was the American ship _Demologos_, sometimes called the _Fulton the First_, constructed in 1813; the first electric torpedoes were American; the first submarine to do effective work in war was American; the first turret ship, the _Monitor_, was American; the first warship to use a screw propeller was the _Princeton_, an American; the naval telescope-sight was American.

American ships now are not only well constructed, but all their equipments are of the best; and to-day the American battleship is the finest and most powerful vessel of her class in the world.
Our personnel, too, has always been good.