Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1916-01-07
PLENTY Of MEN FOR
u. S. DANIELS
All Available Craft in Commission
With Full Crews, He Tells
Inquirer.
MUST LOOK TO FUTURE.
The Navy Today is Fully Recruited
With All Ships That Are Needed
in Commission.

There are no ships of the United
States Navy out of commission on ac-
count of a shortage of men, according
TO Secretary Daniels. There also are
more ships in commission than for
merly. the Secretary says.
The question now is one of getting
sufficient men TO man ships which will
be added TO the navy within the next
year or two, and for this reason Con-
gress has been asked TO authorize an
increase of 1900 men to the person
mel of the navy.
These statements are made by Sec
rotary Daniels in a letter to Dwight
Braman, president of the Law and Or
der Union, who recently wrote the Sec
rotary directing attention to an APP
parent inconsistency between his state
ment that the navy had a large waiting
list and press dispatches from Wash
ington that several large ships had
been unable to leave port on account
of lack of men.
Under the law the Secretary says,
in his letter, "the navy may enlist only
81 500 men, plus one man for each
sailor serving sentence under general
courtmartial or assigned TO duty with
the naval militia. This maximum has
been in effect since 1912. When the
present administration came to Wash
ington there were only 47.347 enlisted,
so that the navy was about 5000 men
short of the number allowed by law
Since that time we have made up the
efficiency
To-day we have 53,011 men enrolled.
We are as fully enlisted as possible
under the law. and we have nearly
5000 more men with the colors than
we had formerly"
Secretary Daniels explains that,
like every other navy, ours does not
maintain in full commission during
peace every warship on the roster or
every ship that would be in commits
sion in time of war. Instead of
number of ships being out of commits
sion because of shortage of men. as
has been stated, the fact is, he ayers.
that there are today more ships and
probably fewer in reserve than two
and a half years ago, while on the
other hand there are at least thirty or
forty ships in full commission.
"Just prior to the outbreak of the
European war" Secretary Daniels
writes, "the organization of the Brit
ish navy provided one-half of its battle
ships should be in full commission
and the remaining half in reserve. The
organization of the German navy was
along the same lines. In our own
navy the General Board has recon-
mended that all battleships of fifteen
years of age be kept in commission.
Every one of our battleships in that
classification, excepting the North Da-
kota, which is laid up because of poor
engines, is in commission, and in adj
dition there are number of pre-
dreadnaughts. All the vessels now in
reserve are maintained in condition
for immediate service.
"Our navy" he concludes, to-day is
fully recruited and we have in COM
mission all ships that are needed in
commission. In order to man certain
new ships which will be completed
within the next year or two and to pro-
vide crews for those which go into re
serve, I am recommending TO this
Congress an increase of IL 500 men,"