Page 117 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

9 8 The Isthmus and Sea Power.

curs. Whatever be the particular merits of
the pending Hawaiian question, it scarcely can
be denied that its discussion has revealed the
existence, real or fancied, of such clogs upon
our action, and of a painful disposition to
consider each such occurrence as merely an
isolated event, instead of being, as it is, a
warning that the time has come when we
must make up our minds upon a broad issue
of national policy. That there should be two
opinions is not bad, but it is very bad to
halt long between them.
There is one opinion — which it is needless
to say the writer does not share — that, be-
cause many years have gone by without armed
collision with a great power, the teaching of
the past is that none such can occur; and
that, in fact, the weaker we are in organized
military strength, the more easy it is for our
opponents to yield our points. Closely as-
sociated wdth this view is the obstinate rejec-
tion of any political action which involves
implicitly the projection of our physical power,
if needed, beyond the waters that gird our
natural —
shores. Because our reasonable,
it might almost be called moral — claim to