One result of agitations such as this in Germany is
to increase American belief in the necessity for a strong Navy. It was supposed that Congress might reject President Roose- velt's advice in this sense, but at the last moment both Houses agreed to add to the Navy three battleships of 16,000 tons, and two of 13,000 tons, besides two training ships and a brig, to double the number of naval cadets, and to increase the per- manent force of men by three thousand. The total expendi- ture appropriated under the Bill is £16,200,000. The increase is a great tribute to the persuasive power of the President, who, it will be remembered, told the people that to maintain the Monroe doctrine without a strong Navy to defend it was an absurdity unworthy of sensible men. The American Navy will therefore grow rapidly, and with our own ought to be able to police the world, even though that world still remains larger for sailors than it is for globe-trotters or men of science.
