The Times correspondent says that people are wondering what Mr.
Roosevelt will have to say to this direct contra- vention of his oft-repeated pacific utterances. We should have thought that the answer was simple enough. Either Captain Hobson's memory and imagination have betrayed him, or else he misunderstood some obvious general remark by the President. For example, we may easily imagine the President declaring that, in view of the naval strength of Japan in the Pacific, of America's vast Pacific interests owing to the possession of the Philippines, the Sandwich Islands, and Alaska, and of her huge stretch of Pacific coastline, and, finally, in view of the possibility of the Pacific coast town mobs causing sudden and dangerous trouble, it was essential to the safety of the United States that her force at sea should be strong, and that such strength would also make it eager for Japan to resist her own Chauvinists. To use arguments of that kind would come naturally to a prudent and pacific statesman, and would not be in any way incon- sistent with Mr. Roosevelt's public utterances.
