But one morning a very wealthy and influential man, a respectable and upright man according to his own lights, called on me to protest against our choice of Tampa, and to put in a plea for a certain other port, on the ground that his railroad was entitled to its share of the profit for hauling the army and equipment! I happened to know that at this time this very man had kinsfolk with the army, who served gallantly, and the circumstances of his coming to me were such as to show that he was not acting secretly, and had no idea that there was anything out of the way in his proposal.

I think the facts were merely that he had been trained to regard business as the sole object in life, and that he lacked the imagination to enable him to understand the real nature of the request that he was making; and, moreover, he had good reason to believe that one of his business competitors had been unduly favored.
The War Department was in far worse shape than the Navy Department.

The young officers turned out from West Point are precisely as good as the young officers turned out from Annapolis, and this always has been true.
But at that time (something has been done to remedy the worst conditions since), and ever since the close of the Civil War, the conditions were such that after a few years the army officer stagnated so far as his profession was concerned.

When the Spanish War broke out the navy really was largely on a war footing, as any navy which is even respectably cared for in time of peace must be.

The admirals, captains, and lieutenants were continually practicing their profession in almost precisely the way that it has to be practiced in time of war.