owing their advice,
and the advice of men not so held responsible, is well recognized,
and is discussed fully in the reports of the Moody and the Swift
Boards on the organization of the Navy Department. Furthermore,
our officers do not have the machinery of the _Kriegspiel_ to help
them. It is true that at the Naval War College, a war-game apparatus
is installed and that war games are played, and war problems solved;
but the officers there are very properly engaged in the regular
work of a war college, in educating officers in the principles
of warfare, and have little time for other work. It is also true
that the war games and problems there do lead occasionally to
recommendations by the War College to the General Board as to various
matters; but the connection between the conclusions of the War
College and the decisions of Congress via the General Board and
the secretary of the navy is so fragile and discontinuous, that
it may truthfully be said that the influence of the war games at
our War College has but a faint resemblance to the determining
force of the _Kriegspiel_ in Berlin.

It is often said that Germany is an empire and the United States
a republic, and that _therefore_ the military methods of Germany
cannot be employed here. The inference is not necessarily correct,
however, as is shown by the excellence of the army of France; for,
France, although a republic, insists that military strategy only
shall control and direct the army. The American Congress can do
the same with the American navy. Whether Congress shall so decide
or not, the decision will undoubtedly be wise; and we of the navy
will do our utmost to make the navy all it should be. In this
connection, it should be noted that:

1. Germany has been following a certain strategic system regarding
the navy; we a system different from that of any other navy, which
has been used now for about one hundred and forty years. Both systems
have been in operation for a time sufficiently long to warrant our
comparing them, by comparing the results they have achieved.

2. The German navy has been in existence a much shorter time than
the American navy, belongs to a much less populous and wealthy
country, and yet is not only about 30 per cent larger in material,
and more than 100 per cent larger in trained personnel, but if
we judge by maneuvers carried on in both peace and war, is much
better in organization, morale, and capacity for doing naval work
upon the