Page 232 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

Preparedness for Naval War. 213

torpedo-boat can be built and ready for service
before, to use the old sea phrase, " the hay seed
is out of his hair." Further, in a voluntary ser-
vice, you cannot keep your trained men as you
can your completed ship or gun. The inevita-
ble inference is that the standing force must be
large, because you can neither create it hastily
nor maintain it by compulsion. Having fixed
the amount of material, — the numbers and
character of the fleet, — from this follows easily
the number of men necessary to man it. This
aggregate force can then be distributed, upon
some accepted idea, between the standing navy
and the reserve. Without fixing a proportion
between the two, the present writer is con-
vinced that the reserve should be but a small
percentage of the whole, and that in a small
navy, as ours, relatively, long will be, this is
doubly imperative for the smaller the navy,
;
the greater the need for constant efficiency to
act promptly, and the smaller the expense of
maintenance. In fact, where quantity — num-
ber—is small, quality should be all the more
high. The quality of the whole is a question
of personnel even more than of material ; and
the quality of the personnel can be maintained