Secretary Long's Foresight

Our Critical Condition

And in thirty days after the need was known to be imperative, the Government factory at Newport was turning out thousands of pounds daily, and of a quality giving greater velocity than had ever before been produced in the world.

A large degree of the readiness of the navy when war was declared, was due to the foresight and energy of the patriotic Secretary of the Navy and his able First Assistant. Secretary John D. Long, a former Governor of Massachusetts, and Assistant Secretary Theodore Roosevelt, had, since the beginning of President McKinley's administration, been working with steadfast diligence to put the naval forces of the Government in the best state of preparation which their opportunities and funds would allow. Politics had been sedulously kept out of the navy administration; the best men had been assigned for all critical positions; the ships were where they were needed, and all the war material available had been placed in easy reach. As if the war had been foreseen, this department had done its best to prepare for it.

Taking all things together we were not more than half prepared for war when the executive officers of the Government were forced to begin hostilities by the Act of Congress. The navy was more than half prepared; but the army was hardly prepared at all. In a few days 225,000 American citizens who had scarcely been in a camp and never seen a battle had to be organized, clothed, armed, and sent into the field.

Misgivings of Many

Unhesitating Courage

The men, it is true, were at hand; but there was not much more of the outfit of an army ready. There were many who had misgivings. No doubt of the ultimate result was felt. No one questioned the power of the United States to conquer Spain eventually, in both the New World and the Old; but many, who knew the traditional pride of the Spanish people and the fighting qualities of the Spanish soldier, feared that it would be done only after serious reverses and at great cost.

Yet the people would not hesitate. They trusted that great resources in the hands of Anglo-Saxon intelligence and energy, and in a good cause, would give us the victory; and that each day of zealous preparation, under the pressure of the demands of battles not far off, would hasten the end and make it more overwhelming. They did not know just how the end would come, nor to what it, in turn, would lead; but, guided by sound impulses and having confidence in themselves, they were willing to wait for time to make it clear.

The First Blow

Philippine Islands

CHAPTER V

Dewey's Battle in Manila Bay

THE

HE first blow delivered by the United States in behalf of Cuba was struck on the other side of the globe, in Asiatic waters; but it was so hard that it startled the nations of Europe and was heard with great satisfaction in every part of the United States.

The chief colonial possessions remaining to Spain, before this war, aside from Cuba and Puerto Rico, were the Philippine Islands. This is a group of some twelve hundred islands, about four hundred of which are inhabited, lying off the southeast coast of China. The largest one, Luzon, is about the size of the State of Kentucky. The Philippines have a population of perhaps seven million people, chiefly Malays, though many of the inhabitants have Spanish blood. The office-holders and tax-gatherers were, of course, Spaniards.

Much of the territory is fertile. The chief products are rice, sugar, coffee, tobacco, and hemp. The value of the commerce of the Philippines is estimated at more than fifty million dollars annually. The mineral deposits and lumber are considered to be exceedingly valuable, but have never been developed with modern business methods and energy.

Importance of the Philippines

Defenses of Manila

The islands are upon the natural highways of Oriental commerce and are of enormous commercial and military importance, not only because of the value of their products, but also because of their safe harbors, their supplies of coal, and the relation in which they stand to the world's trade with the unknown resources of the vast regions embraced in the eastern countries of Asia.

Spanish oppression, extortion, and cruelty in the Philippines finally produced there an insurrection scarcely less formidable than that in Cuba. Under the leadership of Aguinaldo, a young native somewhat educated, thousands of the people were engaged in a bloody warfare against the authority of Spain. This had led the Spaniards heavily to fortify and arm the capital, Manila, a city with its suburbs of three hundred thousand inhabitants, situated thirty-five miles from the open ocean, on Manila Bay. Forts were erected at the entrance to the bay and an efficient army was established in the city. The Government arsenal and naval station is at Cavite, on the right-hand side of the bay as we enter, and about three quarters of the way from the entrance to the city.

At the prospect of war with the United States, the fortifications and the army at Manila were strengthened and a considerable Spanish fleet gathered there.

Before the end of February, 1898, Commodore George Dewey of the United States Navy, under instructions from the Government at Washington, began to assemble the greater part of the American warships,