The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1915-05-18
DANIELS DEFENDS
UNCLE SANS NAVY
Answers Security League Which
Says Navy is Weak.
SPEAKS WORD OF PROMISE.
Entering New Era of Progress
Such as Navy Has Never
Known Before.


New York, May 15.-Offcers of
the Atlantic fleet gathered here to-
night at dinner i'm their honor
heard Secretary Josephus Daniels de-
fend the navy as efficient and pre-
pared for war and promise that the
administration, with tie support Of
/ the people, would make it more
powerful and more efficient. Mr..
Daniels answered the navy's critics.
particularly the National Security
League, which recently made public
an open letter declaring that investi-
CATION disclosed that the navy was
Inadequate and unprepared for war.
with the praise of great city
ringing in our ears" said the secre-
tary, with our mighty ships in 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 / feel
1T right to utter a word of warming
/ lest we forget to those who may
| feel inclined to rest too sure 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 our efforts to
reach as near as possible to perfec-
ton.
/ TRY TO MAKE TT RETTER
Our navy is good; it is not good
enough. With your ships, as long as
| am secretary of the navy, we will
all try to make it better. The navy
is strong; it is not strong enough.
With the help of the whole Ameri-
can people, with the help of a Con-
gress and an administration thor
oughly committed to the policy Of
taking leave to be strong upon the
seas we will make it stronger. This
review is not the end OF a century's
labors. We do not here exhibit our
completed work. Rather, we here
begin a new era, supported by the
Chief Executive and by an enlighten-
ed and progressive Congress, which
gave evidence of it's faith in a strong
navy by the passage of the best navy
bill in the history of your country.
I'VE are entering upon an era of
progress 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 or politics and
by the subordination of all things
afoat or ashore to the efficiency of
the fleet in order that by our very
strength we may be able to demand
the right to live at peace with all
the world
VAIL OF THE PESSIMIST.
You have seen-and lately you
have heard far too much-of the
petrified pessimist who visits one of
our leviathans of power with sour
and disappointed visage, looking for
something upon which he can hang
a tale of woe and wall a jeremaid.
THE navy and it's head have been
a target of much criticism of late.
some from those honest in their be.
liefs, but sadly ignorant or misin-
formed, and much from purely par
tisan and political sources which had
no interest in facts whatever AS
for such criticisms as concerned my
self l 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 far better answer than any
thing / could be able to say. AS they
ride tonight ct their anchors on the
river let them stand as their own
spokesmen, and / rejoice that it is
my pleasure to greet here tonight
the commander-in-chief of the At
lantic fleet, Admiral Fletcher.
"A few days ago a new organiza
ton, bearing the name OF the Ma
tional Security League, issued an
open letter announcing the result of
investigations and published to the
world this statement:
Investigation discloses it is as
serted, that the navy is neither ade-