If they had acted in the belief, which they are
never . tired of professing, that war with America is unthinkable, '..they would not have objected to what Mr. Churchill called - mathematical parity, considerably to our disadvantage though it seemed to be. They would have welcomed American ships as additional police for the High Seas. We should not then have seemed to challenge the United States to competition. The Big Navy party would have had to convince not only the President, . but the whole American people, and we have no doubt that that would have been a task utterly beyond its strength. As it is, the Big Navy party, to say the - least of it, is more hopeful than it has been for a long time. If it be objected that we are lightheartedly ,recommending the acceptance of a danger, we would - answer that no danger is comparable with that of clinging : to an assertion of naval superiority—or even equality -- .which, in terms of money, we are no longer able to make good. The United States could afford to out-build us two or three times,- and still hardly feel the strain.
