The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-01
LAUDS MEN OF NAVY
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT SPEAKS ON
WEST VIRGINIA.


y
washington, Oct. si.-President
Roosevelt regards his Southern trip.
Just ended, as most enjoyable ana
profitable experience. Particularly did
he enjoy the sea voyage and the Pres
tdent expressed himself In the most en-
officers and men of the squadron.
while at sea Sunday the President
made a speech to the officers and men
OF the West Virginia. He had just COM
pIeted an inspection of the entire ship.
In the boiler room profusely dec
Grated shovel was put into his hand
and he was asked TO throw a shovel OF
one and the boiler was Immediately
christened the Roosevelt Boiler. The
shovel was passed around that every
stoker might shovel with 1t. 1t was
then speedily demolished into bits, each
bit being retained as n souvenir. At
the conclusion the President was given
three rousing cheers by the officers and
men.
His speech follows:
att is a privilege for any President
to come on board one of a squadron of
American warships such as this. not
alone to see the ships. but to see the
men who handle them. From the Ad-
miraI down to the entire ships COM
pany every American should be proud
OF what / have seen aboard this ship;
the discipline, the ready differentiation
of each man. whether officer or enlist-.
ed men. to duty, the care taken Of the
men and in return the eager, intelli-
gent, self respecting zeal OF each man
In doing his work.
what must impress especially any
observer is how essential 1t Is that av-
cry Individual on ship like this should
do his whole duty and in any crisis
more than his duty. The result as i
see 1t in this ship is triumph, not
only of organization and discipline. but
OF the ready zeal with which each in
dividual performs his allotted task.
"At any time some emergency may
arise in which the safety Of the entire
ship will depend upon the vigilance.
intelligence and cool courage OF some
one man amoDg you; perhaps an omr
in the whole ships company who does his
full duty can claim as his own the honor
ana repute of the ship and has right
to feel a personal pride In all she does
'You and your fellows In the navy
and in its sister, the army, occupy q
position different from that OF any otn-
err set of men in our country. Going
through the ship yesterday. in the en-
CINE ROOM storerooms. turrets, every
where the thing that impressed me most
was the all-importance OF each man IN
his place; the all-importance of that
man Knowing MS WOIA anu ISClAhS ~ a
mater Of keen personal pride to do 1t |
as well as IL could possibly be done. All |
through the ship have seen the same |
nurnose. the purpose to learn exactly |
That the duty to be done was and then |
TO do IT; and the power to do presup.
noses the possession by each of you of |
intelligence, courage and physical ad-
dress. ....,,s ~ ..,,
"a tvnical of the men OF our navy gem
ersIly and of the army also. Now, on |
the one hand, they should make our |
country feel toward Uncle Sam In our /
arnnv and in our navy sense OF obli- |
sstion and gratitude such as they feel |
so,yard no others; end. on the other |
ma a should make you feel that no /
nther Americans rest under SO great |
en- obligation to do their duty well, for |
a. vour hands lies the credit the honor |
onS the interest of the entire nation.
Now, a special word to the officers.
-antaIn Arnold, as a boy you wit
nsssed a great fight Of the Merrimac.'
when she came out to Hampton Roads. |
sunk the Congress and the Cumber-
isnd and the next day met her match |
n; fine Monitor. That was fight |
fought with great honor for our peo- |
pie. ..,,.,. -. ,,.,.
Giving and her guns firing, while her |
decks were awash and as the water
=