Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 263, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 November 1917 — Naval Supremacy. [ARTICLE]

Naval Supremacy.

Sir Cyprian Bridge has said one of the functions of a fleet is the defense of commerce. There is no more important function for a fleet than this, writes John Hays Hammond, Jr., in the Atlantic Monthly. A nation may be subjugated by direct Invasion, or it may be isolated from the world by blockade. If the blockade be sufficiently long, and effectively maintained, it will ruin the nation as effectually as direct invasion. Thus, in the maintenance of a nation’s merchant marine on the high seas, its navy exercises one of its most vital functions. There can, therefore, be no naval supremacy for a nation unless Its commerce Is assured of immunity from considerable losses through the attack of its enemy.