is quickly accomplished, and the fleet is soon
ready for the spring maneuvers.

The fundamental requirement of any organization of men is that it
shall approach as closely as possible the characteristics of an
organism, in which all the parts, though independent, are mutually
dependent, each part doing its appropriate work without interfering
with any other, but on the contrary assisting it. The most complex
organization in the world is that of a navy, due primarily to the
great variety of mechanisms in it, and secondarily to the great
variety of trained bodies of men for handling those mechanisms.
This variety extends from the highest posts to the lowest; and
to make such varied organizations work together to a common end
is one of the greatest achievements of civilized man. How it is
accomplished is not clear at first view. It is not hard to see how
a company of soldiers, drawn up in line, can be made to move as
one body by order of the captain. But how in a battleship carrying
a thousand men does the coal-passer in the fire-room do as the
captain on the bridge desires? It may be objected that he does
not--that the captain has no wishes regarding the doings of any
coal-passer--that all the captain is concerned with is the doings
of the ship as a whole. True, in a way; and yet if the various
coal-passers, firemen, quartermasters, _et al_., do not do as the
captain wishes, the ship as a whole will not. The secret of the success
achieved seems to lie in the knitting together of all the personnel
parts by invisible wires of common understanding, analogous to the
visible wires that connect the helmsman with the steering-engine.
In the case of any small body of men, say the force in one fire-room,
the connecting wire joining each man to the petty officer in charge
of that fire-room is almost visible, because the petty officer is
familiar, by experience, with the work of each man; for he has
done that work himself, knows just how it should be done, and knows
how to instruct each man. But the more complicated the organization
is, the more invisible are the communicating wires that tie the
men together, and yet the more important it is that those wires
shall tie them; it is even more important, for instance, that the
wires connecting the chief engineer with all his force shall operate
than that the wires in any one fire-room shall operate. And yet not
only are there more wires, but the wires themselves that connect
the chief