The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-07-17
DANIELS WRONG
SEAEXPERTS SAY
Battleships Still Navy Unit,
Declare Men Who Make
Them.
SEES SUBMARINES DOOM
British Electric Boats Will Tum
Tables. According to Cramp
Company.
SEES SUBMARINES DOOM

New York. July 16.-Shipbuilders and
naval experts do not agree with the
statement made by Josephus Daniels,
Secretary Of the Navy, that the main
defense of the United States in the fu-
ture will be the aeroplane and the sub
marine. Mr. Daniels made the assertion
at the home of Thomas A. Edison last
night, and in some quarters 1t was re-
garded that the Secretary had in mind
the gradual elimination Of the battle
ships.
William Cramp & Sons. the Philadel-
phia shipbuilders. who have constructed
many great lighting ships for the United
States, believe that the Secretary is
wrong In his assertion that America 8
undersea and oversee forces must be de-
pended upon as the chief defense Of the
ia ton.
The battleship is the unit of the
navy" it was stated today Every other
kind of craft is subsidiary to it. 1t is
true that the submarine and the aero
plane are a menace to the battleship, but
always will the latter type of craft bear
the brunt of battle. 1t cannot be elimi-
mated.
Sees Submarine's Doom.
''Of course. Mr.. Daniels has a perfect
right to expert opinion, but 1t is not
his experts or the opinion of the people
of the nation. Furthermore. Daniels can
not guide his opinion by any test of the
present war. for there has been no test
of the modern battleship. England's feet
is busy blockading the German fleet and
the German fleet has not seen fit to-
come out and battle.
We believe the submarine will get
setback in the next sixty or ninety days.
Every one knows that England is con-
structing a large fleet of small electric
boats. armed to be used as submarine
destroyers. When they are completed
the British Isles can be surrounded COM
pletely by these small, swift craft, prob
ably one for every five miles.
They will scour the seas and what
chance will the submarine have against
them. They require only crew of three
or four men, and when 1t is destroyed
the cost is small, but when a submarine
is destroyed the cost is great in property
and lives.
Not until the submarine is developed
so that it can remain under water in
definitely will 1t be paramount as a
lighting craft. The great drawback to
the aeroplane is its inability to carry
weight. In its present development. out
side of scout duty its fighting qualities
have been shown to be negligible"
Secretary Lansing Reticent.
Stanwood Menken, president of the Ma
iional Security League, stated the league
is much encouraged by Secretary Dan
iels' statement that he believes in pre-
paredness for war, but asserted that the
fact remains that the modern battleship
is still the all-important unit of every
fleet.
so far 1t has been shown said Mr..
Menken, that all improvements in aero
planes, submarines. and other subsidiary
forces are subordinate to the actual fight
ing craft. The league believes that no
improvements in the subsidiary fleet
equal in Importance the necessity of
bringing the super-Dreadnought, which Is
the first line of the fleet, to it's highest
state Of efficiency.
In emphasizing these facts at this
time the National Security League offers
no judgment upon the wisdom of the
Secretary in selecting the high talent of
the country to cooperate with him in the
building OF the navy, always providing
that such civilian assistance in no way
interfere with the necessary homogeniety
of the naval service and its discipline.
but the league feels that nothing should
be allowed to obscure the basic facts Of
the navy's need of preparedness for war"