Afterward a court of inquiry met to determine what had caused the explosion. The jury disagreed. Be that as it may, the spark had been applied to the powder magazine. America was in a convulsion--its voice was for war. On April 20 President McKinley declared war on Spain. ROOSEVELT CHAMPIONS DEWEY Roosevelt had suggested that when war came it would be wise for the United States to seize the Philippine Islands, then under Spanish possession. He it was who, when the War Department proposed to supplant Dewey, successfully urged that he be retained at the Asiatic station. “Keep the Olympia! Provide yourself with coal,” he cabled to Dewey at this time. No sooner had President McKinley declared war than Roosevelt sent a still more vital message to Dewey, ordering him to sail into the port of Manila and to capture or destroy the Spanish fleet. Those who, at the Cabinet meeting, scoffed at Roosevelt’s plan for a war now remembered that he had advocated this very act in his programme and that the officer who had so splendidly captured Manila was the very man Roosevelt had managed against strong opposition to keep on the job. Roosevelt’s reputation as a picker of men was further illustrated at this time by the interest he took in Lieutenant Sims, then American naval attaché at Paris. Sims had written to his superiors letter after letter pointing out how backward our fleet was in marksmanship. He had definite plans for teaching Yankee sailors how to shoot. Those in authority considered Sims an alarmist, but Roosevelt grew concerned as he noted the small proportion of hits to shots made by our ships. He then sounded the slogan that “the shots that hit are the shots that count.” Roosevelt could do little then in support of Sims, but when he became President he remembered Sims and appointed him to lead in revolutionizing the fleet’s training in marksmanship. It was due to Sims--now the admiral who has served this country so well in the present war--that the fighting efficiency of the navy, as far as gunnery went, became three times more effective. [Illustration: COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD ROOSEVELT ADDRESSING AN INTERESTED AUDIENCE] The following account and appreciation of Admiral Dewey’s work derives a special interest from the fact that it was written by Colonel Roosevelt shortly after the battle of Manila: “Admiral Dewey was sent to command the fleet on the Asiatic station primarily because he had such a record in the past that the best officers in the navy believed him to be peculiarly a man of the fighting temperament and fit to meet emergencies, and because he had shown his willingness to assume heavy responsibilities.