Let nobody suppose that this is a
money-making agitation. I would for one be ashamed to be such a dupe as
to be engaged in it if it had any suspicion of that about it, but I am
not as innocent as I look; and I believe that I can say for my
colleagues in Washington that they are just as watchful in such matters
as you would desire them to be.
And there is another misapprehension that I do not wish you to
entertain. Do not suppose that there is any new or sudden or recent
inadequacy on the part of this Government in respect of preparation for
national defense. I have heard some gentlemen say that we had no coast
defenses worth talking about. Coast defenses are not nowadays
advertised, you understand, and they are not visible to the naked eye,
so that if you passed them and nothing exploded, you would not know they
were there. The coast defenses of the United States, while not numerous
enough, are equipped in the most modern and efficient fashion. You are
told that there has been some sort of neglect about the Navy. There has
not been any sort of neglect about the Navy. We have been slowly
building up a Navy which in quality is second to no navy in the world.
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