The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-16
DANIELS DEFENDS
 NAVY; WANTS ID MAKE II STRONGER
Answers Critics of Present Sea Power in Speech at Dinner Given Officers
 of Atlantic Fleet

New York, May 15.-Officers of the
 Atlantic fleet gathered here tonight nt
 a dinner in their honor heard Secretary Josephus Daniels defend the navy as
 efficient md prepared for war and
 promise that the administration, with
 the support of the American people
 would make it more powerful and more
 efficient. Mir. Daniels answered the
 navy's critics, particularly the National
 Security league, which recently made
 public open letter declaring that
 investigation disclosed that the navy
 was inadequate and unprepsred for
 war.
 With the praise of a great city ring ing in our ears.' said the Secretary,
 with our mighty ships ina all their splendid strength lying just outside, in this hour of natural and pardonable exultation in our great navy, as the head of that navy I feel it right to ut ter a word of warning lest we forget
 to those who may feel inclined to rest too secure on this visible and outward display of our strength, and at the same time to speak word of promise and cheer to those who, perhaps, have looked too despondently upon the task that still lies before us in efforts to reach as near a S possible the perfec tion.
 Not Good Enough
 1 Our navy is good; it IS not good enough. With your help as long as am Secretary of the Navy, we will all 1 try to make it better The navy is strong; 1t is not strong enough. With l the help of the whole American people, with the help of a Congress and an administration thoroughly committed to the policy of taking leave to be strong 1 upon the seas, we will make it strong
 CT. This review Is not the end of century's labors. We do not here ex- hibit our completed work, Rather, we begin new era, supported by the chief | executive and by an enlightened and progressive Congress, which gave evil dence of its faith in strong navy by the passage of the best navy bill in the history of your country.
 | We are entering upon an era of prog
 ress such as the navy has never known before. whose keynote will be onward and whose watchword will be forward an era marked by the lifting of our navy out of politics and by the subordination of all things afloat or ashore to the lelilCitncy OI the neeI, Tn Ofuer that bN our very strength we may be able to demand the right to live at peace with | all the world
 l You have seen-and lately you have heard far too much-of the petrif1ed pessimist who visits one of our leva- thans of power with a sour and disap- pointed visage, looking for something upon which he can hang a tale of woe l and wall jeremiad Tell him that the | ic a .,f ..,-;.l | and protection and he tells you that so long as we have not as many New | Yorks as all the nations of the earth combined it is worthless. Point out that a fotilla of American submarines re- l gently made one of the longest continu- ous runs on record and he sighs deep l sigh and his only comment Is but we ought to have-and build them before breakfast tomorrow-as many as the | three biggest European nations com l bined Go to him and show him the big guns. the torpedoes. the large and in | creasing supplies of ammunition and he | looks at you mournfully and sadly re- marks: But if we had a long and bloody war we have not enough to fight the whole world, and, therefore, we would be annihilated. And son on He sees nothing in what patriotic and trained men have wrought. Like the boy cry ing for the moon, nothing else is of value in his eye unless he can own that shining orb
 Target of Much Criticism The navy and it's head have been a target of much criticism of late. some from those honest in their beliefs but sadly ignorant or misinforned and much from purely partisan and poIit- ical sources which had no interest in | facts whatever As for such criticisms as concerned myself, I have kept silent. Time must justify. or time condemn | The splendid condition of the ships for which you are responsible. the splendid discipline of the crews which you have established make today a far better an- swer than anything l could have been able to say. AS they ride tonight at their anchors on the river let them stand as their own spokesmen. and l rejoice that 1t is my pleasure to greet here tonight the commander in chief of the Atlantic | fleet, Admiral Fletcher.
 "A few days ago a new organiza ton, bearing the name of the National Securi- | ty league, issued an open letter announce ing the result of investigations and pub lished to the world this statement: i investigation discloses. it is asserted, that the navy Is neither adequate nor pre- pared for war; that 1t is inadequately manned, is short of ammunition and has
 no organized reserve of trained men; tha t l ehe supiiidflne HOtiila ex1StS cnle1ly on | paper; that fast scout cruisers, battle cruisers, aeroplanes. mine layers, supply ships and transports are lacking. and that
 target practice has been neglected or all l together omitted
 l IT the gentlemen who signed the above libel of the navy had known the real
 truth. their signatures would never have been appended. If they had not been
 misled and misinformed, they would have 1 written Instead:
 1 investigation discloses that the navy
 is efficient and prepared for war; that
 our ships gre we'll manned: that the
 supply of munitions is vastly larger than ever before, and the capacity of our
 plants has been practically doubled; that the last Congress authorized a naval re-
 serve. which Is in process of organza-
 ton; that we have 74 submarines author-
 ized, built or building, which are the equal of those of any other country. and that one fotilla of submarines has just
 completed a remarkable long distance run; that we recognize the need for more
 fast light cruisers; that we have lately
 ordered eight aeroplanes and dirigible out or a million dollars specially appro- hx- hn lnc