to fight the enemy.  It also means healthy camps for our soldiers to live in, and readiness to furnish clothing, food and medical supplies.  For lack of these, thousands of our friends and relatives die in every war we are in.  A rebellion had been going on in Cuba for years.  The cruel government of Spain had kept the Cubans in misery and in rebellion, and disturbed the friendship between Spain and the United States.  It was our duty to see that Cuban expeditions did not sail from our coast to help their friends, and in this work a great many ships of our Navy were busy all the time.  Nobody liked to have to do this for we naturally sympathized with the Cubans, who were making such a brave fight against stupid and tyrannical governors sent from Spain.  One of the last of these was particularly bad.  He herded the Cuban people into camps where they died of disease and starvation, and he had great numbers of them shot without mercy.  We had justly revolted against the mis-government of King George III in 1776, but nothing that King George’s governors and generals had done to us was as bad as the things the Spaniards were doing in Cuba, in 1896 and 1897.

Many of the men in Washington felt that war would come sooner or later.  Roosevelt believed it and worked constantly to have the Navy ready.  He had the support of the President and of Secretary Long in nearly everything that he proposed, and so was able to do some useful work.  It is important to understand what Roosevelt thought about war, not only about this, but about all wars.  Here it is in his own words.

I abhor unjust war.  I abhor injustice and bullying by the strong at the expense of the weak, whether among nations or individuals, I abhor violence and bloodshed.  I believe that war should never be resorted to when, or so long as, it is honorably possible to avoid it.  I respect all men and women who from high motives and with sanity and self-respect do all they can to avert war.  I advocate preparation for war in order to avert war; and I should never advocate war unless it were the only alternative to dishonor. [Footnote:  “Autobiography,” p. 226.]

You will be able to see from what he did while he was President, when he was in a position where he could have plunged the country into war half a dozen times, whether these words were true, or whether he was really the fire-eater which some of his enemies insisted he was.

He secured from Congress nearly a million dollars, to permit the Navy to engage in target-practice.  To those who were alarmed at such “waste,” he remarked that gun-powder was meant to be burned, and that sailors must learn to shoot, since in battle, the shots that hit are the only ones that count.  There is nothing wonderful about such remarks.  In looking back at them there seems to be nothing wonderful about many things that he said and did.  They are merely examples of plain, common-sense, and it appears ridiculous that anybody should have had to make such remarks, or to fight hard to get such clearly necessary things done.  Yet he did have to fight for them.  It had to be driven into the heads of some of the men in Congress that it is not the proper use of gun-powder to keep it stored up, until war is declared, then bring it out, partly spoiled, and give it to soldiers and sailors, who for lack of practice, do not know how to shoot straight.