The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-04-24
Danger for the United States.

y. IN my opinion as your profession
al adviser and in the opinion OF every
naval officer with whom | have talked
the United States is in danger of being
drawn into war and will continue to bt
in danger for several years. And wher
/ say war | do not mean war of the kind
that we had with Spain, but war with q
great power, carried on in the same ruth.
less spirit and in the same wholesale
manner as that which peryades the fight
| ing in Europe now. lt is true that
cannot specify the country with which
war is most probable nor the time nor
the cause. But my studies of wars in
the past and my observations of condi-
tons at the present time convince me
that if this country avoids war during
the next five years it viii be accom-
plished only by happy combination of
high diplomatic skill and rare good for
tune.
49, Would il be wise to base all our
hopes of national safety on such frail
foundationg Would it be wise to
close our eyes to the dangers that con-
front us? Would it not be wiser to look
the dangers clearly in the face and take
reasonable preeaution to avert them2
80. Comparing our navy with the ma
vics which we may have to meet in war
l find that our navy is unprepared in
three ways;
insufficient Personnel.
40. First, it has an insufficient num-
Der of officers and enlisted men. The
number of officers cannot be increased,
that is, the number of suitable officers,
. kot- d 4
shipman through the academy and sew
eral years afterward to train him. But
the number of enlisted men can be in
creased, and very quickly II has been
said that in time of war We could add to
our enlisted personnel from the naval
reserve and the naval militia. To my
mind this is visionary notion, with no
basis of fact to rest upon. We have been
working TO get naval reserve and ma
val militia for more than 80 wears, scores
of expedients have been tried and the
only result has been no naval reserve at
all and less than 1000 incompletely
trained militia. Possibly we may do bet
ter with the naval reserve in the future !
than in the past, but only possibly, not
probably.
"All reasonable expectation for the flu /
ture is based. and must be based, on the .
experience of the past, and the expert /
snce Of the past shows ms that 10 place /
dependence on the naval militia and ma
val reserve is to place dependence ON
nope, not reasonable expectation
The only men we can depend upon
or nlyal work on board our ships are
men who are enlisted regularly and who
ave been trained on board our ships and
wear the naval uniform. But even II We
ould expect reasonably to get a naval
eserve in the future the fact remains
hat we tant enlisted men right now.
10 man the ships which should be used
n war We need 1900 men more.
Department Not Unorganized.
"The second way in which I find our
ANY unprepared j. in departmental or
anization. our ships are well organized
nd pretty well drilled. but the depart
lent itself j. neither organized nor
rilled in a military way. Perhaps this
mobodv's fault and may be attributed
o the fact that cur navy has never had
o fght a serious enemy; certainly not
} 100 years
The people 81 the country have nat
rally devoted their energy along the
aths Of most obvious profit and have