Page 151 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

132 Possibilities of an

variable, and private property receives scant
consideration when its appropriation or de-
struction serves the purposes of an enemy.
The man who trudges the highway, cudgel in
hand, may claim for his cudgel all the sacred-
ness with which civilization invests property;
but if he use it to break his neighbors head,
the respect for his property, as such, quickly
disappears. Now, private property borne upon
the seas is engaged in promoting, in the most
vital manner, the strength and resources of the
nation by which it is handled. When that
nation becomes belligerent, the private prop-
erty, so called, borne upon the seas, is sustain-
ing the well-being and endurance of the nation
at war, and consequently is injuring the oppo-
nent, to an extent exceeding all other sources
of national power. In these days of war cor-
respondents, most of us are familiar with the
idea of the dependence of an army upon its
communications, and we know, vaguely perhaps,
but still we know, that to threaten or harm the
communications of an army is one of the most
common and effective devices of strategy.
Why? Because severed from its base an army
languishes and dies, and when threatened with