The Washington times., 1915-06-26
SECRETARY DANIELS SPEECH

ed a decisive military action.
SECRETARY DANIELS SPEECH
Secretary Daniels demonstrated a
realization Of the navy's problem,
at least from the strategical side,
in his address at the opening of the
Navy War College. He assured his
hearers, the men who must use The
naval weapon in war, that bith him
self and the Administration would
cooperate in every possible way to
make the mechanism and material
everything it ought to be; and he
admitted frankly that the problem
of naval organization, construction,
strategy, is today so vastly changed
that revolution may even now be in
progress.
It is good to have these things
thus freely recognized. Mr.. Daniels
doesn't know whether aeroplanes,
dirigible, submarine, greater guns,
higher speed, and all the new para
phernalia of ocean war are going
to send present equipments to the
junk heap, or what part of them
may be sent there. He does admit
that the hour has sounded for as.
founding changes; he pledges him
self and urges naval men to make
sure that no effort be spared, no
preconceived ideas be allowed to in
terfere with the purpose of making
our navy and keeping it navy of
every today; never a navy of any
yesterday. He was really eloquent
when he pictured the revolution in
naval methods and material:
As you look abroad. you see the foun-
dation of old theories crumbling every
day. Old tactics. old strategies. old
theories Of naval warfare which have
since the ,triremes of Carthage and
Rome grappled together in the Medi-
terranean. are disappearing over night.
New and terrible instruments of de-
peared under and over the seas. Slip
ping unseen through the dark waters
Underneath, silent submarines elude
great fieets. slip by impregnable forti-
acationa ac,,,,l thread , safely narrow straits
moment transform great battleships into
useless sunken. iron land steal. In the
air overhead dirigibies and aeroplanes
!ems and upset old theories OF warfare.
II war upon the land has reverted to
the bayonet and the hand grenade, war
upon the sea has leaped forward at a
single stride and broken almost every
snackle OF ancient convention.
We have seen the main fleet of the
greatest sea nation in the world with
drawn from the seas to some secluded
harbor without having fired a shot dur
tng the first year of a mighty conflict
We have seen battles begun at ranges
believed to be impossible and ships dis
abled by shots from guns as yet in
visible. We have been told that modern
sea-fghts would bo determined in the
1t took six hours to decide one of the
greatest ocean battles of the present
war, We have seen ships Of shallow
draft used as fortresses to protect land
only yesterday Of submarines gliding
unchallenged past the impregnable
fortress Of Gibraltar and the guardian
ships that watch the straits. We have
and eluding their pursurers by the help
Of dirigibles. lowering far above, that
watch from their high post as an eagle
watches the sea beneath, for many miles
around to warn, through the new
miracle. wireless telegraphy. the ships
Every day some new thing in naval
warfare arises. The old things are
passing away; new things must be de-
strategy. shall we meet the terror of
the submarine the still unrevealed pos
sibilities of the airship? 1t is to you.
gentlemen, that this question must be
put. 1T Is to you your Secretary Of the
Navy looks for an answer My earnest
word. my solemn plea. today is to urge
you fearlessly to discard worship of all
courageously anything that is new the
moment that some new development of
the present convinces you that the old
way Is no longer the right way, or that
the new way points the path to VIC
tory.
The Secretary, perhaps a bit
tardily, admits what everybody
knows is true. He puts himself in
line with the national eagerness to
get and keep in touch and step with
the very best that science and in
vention can provide for the great
est arm of national defense. That
is the right spirit. Lived up to in
all sincerity and with ability enough
to translate its inspiration into ac-
complishments, it is the spirit that
will make the navy what the nation
wants and needs it to be.