New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-12-08
BATTLE EFFICIENCY
URGED ON DANIELS
Writer in Marine Review
Pleads for Restoration
of Morale in Navy.

A plea for battle efficiency, freer dis
cussion of naval affairs and the rettora-
ton of shattered discipline in the SER
vice is contained in an open letter TO
Secretary of the Navy Daniels which
appears in 1.-THE Marine Review" 1t IS
signed p. Decimus Muss, S. p. Q. Il.
(retired), and reads in part as follows:
81 wonder whether you realize that
you are manager Of great Industrial
concern, representing an investment OF
hundreds Of millions of dollars, with
payroll of over hundred thousand
ma les: and also wonder whether you
actually know what product that con-
Germ was established to turn out.
There is nothing in your official acts
and utterances, 50 far as | am aware,
TO show that you realize the one or
know the other. II there were ! should
not be calling your attention at this
moment to the navy as vast factory
or to its product, battle efficiency
"Unfortunatel, for yourself, you
have, like your predecessory, exerted
all your power to prevent any express
sion of general sentiment by forbidding
the open discussion of every profess
sional topic, of whatever description.
There are, at most, but very few mat
ters which in themselves are conhden-
tial-such as new devices in ordnance
and torpedoes or plans OF naval cam
paigns and actions No officer, one could
almost say no enlisted man, would ever
think of discussing such things In pub
lic-but, emitting these and such other
subjects, if any, as may be definitely
prescribed by the department, the
whole field Of naval activity might well
be thrown open to debate conducted
within the limits of courteous and i'm
personal treatment"
After suggesting that certain by
products of the service have been
favored to the sacrifice of the main
issue the writer asks:
ITO divert the navy's work, funds or
interest to any other cause, worthy or
unworthy, whether it be seeking the
good will of the labor unions, the oper-
alton of useless navy yards, the killing
off of private shipyards, armor plants,
powder factories; the sudden announce
ment of new qualifications for promo
ton, the discouraging Of private makers
of naval material, are only justihable
when the proof is clear beyond perad-
venture that battle efficiency is thereby
enhanced. Has the latter been your
guide in your attitude toward these and
similar questions"
In regard TO the discipline Of the
service, the writer comments:
Whether / think it wise on your
part to check the flow of promotion by
declining to accept the designations of
officers. thus keeping disgruntled men
in the service to the detrment of its
morale, and, in so doing to stimulate
the growth Of the so-called hump; or
by opening appointments to the enlisted
men t. the Naval Academy TO intro
duce an element of discord among them
similar to that which in the 70's
wrecked the apprentice training sys-
TEN; or to forbid Jack Tar TO spend
his own money In the canteen on ar
ticles of his choice, through ruling out
the proprietary brands he definitely
prefers; or to interfere, possibly with
ultimate defeat to the nation, with the
training of officers and men for actual
battle, by turning the former into
schoolmasters and the latter into sui
len and reluctant schoolboys. many of
whom entered the navy TO escape the
irksome drudgery of the school, thus
rendering the service less popular than
it ought to be; or TO hold up tenn
perate and hard working officers to uni
versal contempt by branding them in
your recent order as lacking self-con-
troll IN the presence of temptation to
drink too much, wholly unmerited
and false accusation, etc, il is bootless
to say Yet | feel sure that a consult
ing of navy public opinion might have
helped you, even if il did not alter
your opinion or influence your actions,
TO a broader view of these matters.
"While admitting that some of your
innovations have been favorably ac-
claimed by many persons, whose opin-
ions, being based on ignorance or on a
wholly erroneous conception of the
nature and extent of the task you have
so lightly undertaken, are of no real
value, yet an impartial summing up
of the pros and cons has largely pre-
dominated. Unfortunately for you, the
public cannot readily forget that in
your desire to break down the sense of
subordination and respect of authority,
which Is the keynote of naval disci-
pline, you were hardly persuaded to su =
press your order compelling enlisted
men against their will to mess with
their officers, or that a man in your
exalted position should have exhibited
such astounding Interpretation of
the most vital thing in naval life"
-s-