What are we toiling for?
The same thing that Great Britain maintains her navy for--wealth and power.
The real reason for Great Britain's having a powerful navy applies with exact equality to the United States.

Now that Great Britain has proved how great a navy is best for her, we can see at once how great a navy is best for us.

That is--since Great Britain and the United States are the wealthiest countries in the world, and since the probability of war between any two countries is least when their navies are equal in power--the maximum good would be attained by making the United States navy exactly equal to the British navy..