Page 196 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

Preparedness for Naval War. 177

War is simply a political movement, though
violent and exceptional in its character. How-
ever sudden the occasion from which it arises,
it results from antecedent conditions, the gen-
eral tendency of which should be manifest long
before to the statesmen of a nation, and to
at least the reflective portion of the people.
In such anticipation, such forethought, as in
the affairs of common life, lies the best hope
of the best solution, — peace by ordinary dip-
lomatic action peace by timely agreement,
;
while mens heads are cool, and the crisis of
fever has not been reached by the inflamma-
tory utterances of an unscrupulous press, to
which agitated public apprehension means in-
crease of circulation. But while the mainte-
nance of peace by sagacious prevision is the
laurel of the statesman, which, in failing to
achieve except by force, he takes from his own

brow and gives to the warrior, it is none the
less a necessary part of his official competence
to recognize that in public disputes, as in pri-
vate, there is not uncommonly on both sides
an element of right, real or really believed,
which prevents either party from yielding, and
that it is better for men to fight than, for the
12