"This calls for big battleships to be used in aggressive warfare far out in the Pacific and far across the Atlantic," he said.
"The alternate foreign policy for the United States would be that of abstaining from the quarrels of Europe and Asia, avoiding the giving of all gratuitous advice and insults to foreign governments and defending our continental home and adjacent waters.
"Despite all the emphasis on the utility of a large Navy for defensive wars in European and Asiatic waters, it is the Army who would have to do the real fighting if anything is to be gained, If Congress pass President's naval programme, it triple the appropriations f Army to put some real sense into our rearmament, "The idea that Germany, Italy and Japan might be sending a fleet of battleships conveying 500,000 soldiers across the sea to America in majestic array is simply fantastic—the kind of nightmare which a holder of ship building stocks has when ordinary business is bad.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.