is utterly impossible to improvise even a makeshift navy under the conditions of modern warfare. Since the days of Napoleon no war between two great powers has lasted as long as it would take to build a battle ship, let alone a fleet of battle ships; and it takes just as long to train the crew of a battle ship as it does to build it; and as regards the most important thing of all, the training of the officers, it takes much longer. The Navy must be built and all its training given in time of peace. When once war has broken out it is too late to do anything. We now have a good Navy, not yet large enough for our needs, but of excellent material. Where a navy is as small as ours, the cardinal rule must be that the battle ships shall not be separated. This year I am happy to say that we shall begin a course which I hope will be steadily followed hereafter, that, namely, of keeping the battle-ship fleet alternately in the Pacific and in the Atlantic. Early in December the fleet will begin its voyage to the Pacific, and it will number, friends, among its formidable fighting craft three great battle ships, named, respectively, the _Illinois_, the _Missouri_, and the _Kentucky_. It is a national fleet in every sense of the term, and its welfare should be, and I firmly believe is, as much a matter of pride and concern for every man in the farthest interior of our country as for every man on the seacoast. A long ocean voyage is mighty good training; and not the least good it will do will be to show just the points where our naval program needs strengthening. Incidentally I think the voyage will have one good effect, for, to judge by their comments on the movement, some excellent people in my own section of the country need to be reminded that the Pacific coast is exactly as much a part of this nation as the Atlantic coast.