The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-04-26
SECRETARY DANIELS DISCUSSES
 PREPAREDNESS OF OUR NAVY


 as well as it's remarkable adaptabAlfty in handling every problem presented to its
 Tt must be conceded by all that the best school and preparation for war is war itself, and 1t was almost un- der this condition that our fleet acted in proceeding almost in a, day to Mex iean waters The stay at Vera Cruz. however did not prevent practice, for the ships fiadlvld duaIly or in divisions, during a great part of the time held tactical naanoeuveess torpedo proving practice and sub-oa1lhre drills in prep aratfoaa for target practice.
 For many years, of11cers have writ ten and talked about the formation Of advance base material and the prao- .tlce Of exercising landing parties of -sesaraen and. marines in the use of th1ss frnportaxlt adjunct to naval warfares Cp1agress appropr1ated money for this in portAnt plan of caxnpatgns but never until January of last year r9yvHe the Ma w thus exercised There had been plenty Of talk. hut, not until January Of last yaar WIS te undertaken. Then under instructions from the Depart ana1lt. Admiral Badger carried out a compr rehensfye exercise 1T, which the professional sSlvanths es gained by c1- rKsree months after this extensive practice had been given for the. first time in our Navy, the same nests and the same men were called upon to land at Vera Cruz and In the tak1ng of that city the Navy ca1rted out under fire what had been learned at Culeb1a-
 aThese details are given because ev- cry Imam knows that the efficiency of the Navy depends upon constant prac- tzca but nobody in Ife Navy thinks anvsh4ng like perfection has been reached. and constant study and work are pursued with aim Of continue cd Improvement If the fleet was efficient in any degree before AsdnairaIs Bad ger and Fletcher carried out the drills thus detailed. it is much more efficient to-day and 1t will be made more ready every wear All that capable and trainad odlcers and men can do to accom- plish this steady Improvement is being done Only the untnforned or the partisan deny eE1e steady inn thanks chiefly to RsaT Admiral Bad- ber and Admiral Fletcher.
 sBEt, you aa how about equipment and nreparation for military eTnengen- cies2 What has been done since Will sorss fnau guEataon to make the Navy stronger In ships in ann sar1 tao-i, tp mines. in torpedoes2 Those questions are Of the utmost inportance. Let me asaaver them briefly
 ; -kvssE as to ships: During the hast tvro year of the Taft administration, Gongress authorized the construction Of two dreadnaughts to cost about $13 3.0eO,0 ,00e each. During the first two years of the Wilson nistration, upon by reconaTnendation. Congress dreadnaughts 10 cost about $14s000,-. 900. The Wilson administration in its first two years authorized seventy million dollars to he spent on the ohief lighting force of tlae navy. as a Inst twenty mi lion atSt hofized stated in numbers. M authorized dread noughts instead of two and stat. cd in effectiveness. the five dread naughts authorized under Wilson will mount tKrir ty -aix more fourteen inch guns than the two authorized llnder MT TsLft.
 Second, as to submarines: These. wonderful agencies of war have as tenished the world in the present El1- gross, elected with MT. Wilson, adopt ed my reeo1n1nendation to give us all the money it could for sub mar iness It ordered the construct1on Of three sea- going subHnarin nes. the Iargesa ever ala- thorlzed by any country and twenty three submarines of the same size and type which have done such fearful er- ecut1on in the present war Tlsese submarines will cost 16.260. .00o. Now VI hat was done during the last two years uuder Taft Twelve subma rines, to cost ST s958.936, were author lzed Some of our submarines are not as perfect as they should be, sor are the submarines of any other na- ton Under this administration, n, the Board of Inspection has adopted strictar tests before accepting submarines from seonIractors. Nobody has, as yet, effected a satisfactory en- zine or satisfactory battery for suo- Edison, last year, at the New York Navy Y ard, went down into subna- Iine and closely studied it's every feat tre He thinks he has a battery that will meet the need. Our tests at I1le BrooIyn Navy Yard cause us to be- ieve MT. Edison has the right prin-. eIpIe Without waiting for the com pletfon of his battery. he has been given an order for two, one to De put into an old subInarIne, accepted before March 4 191 whose battery does tot give satisfaction. and one for a new submarine which have ordered built in the Portsmouth 9H. H.) Navy Yard. Private firms building sub- marines have not given entire sat. isfaction. We have equipped the Portsmouth Navy Yard to build sub marines, and by competition between private and government construction it is hoped that every obstacle may be overcome.
 Third as to toepedoes: A state ment has been put in circulation that the navy is not making adequate pro- vision to supply itself with torpedoes. The only answer can make is to state the fact that we either have on hand or have placed orders for all the the General Board pre- scribes. Is this Administration go- ing backward in this respecto It would not be proper to make public the number of torpedoes we have on hand but this much may be said: For every one hundred torpedoes which the department had on hand in March 1g13 ninety-six more are completed or in course of manufacture. There fore within few months, the sup ply of torpedoes will be almost dou- bIed Upon my recommendation Congress. has enlarged the torpedo