The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-09-17
Women of Navy League to Ignore
 MT. Daniels Order

Washington, Sept. 17.--In defiance of the order of Secretary of the Navy, MT. Daniels, who, has requested the Red Cross to take over the work of providing comforts for the men of the navy, the Comforts Committee of the Navy League to-day issued a state ment announcing that it's work will go on under the honorary chairman ship of Mrs. George Dewey, widow of Admiral Dewey.l
 The statement of the committee contains the announcement that this will be done regardless of this ef- fort to disrupt it's organization"
 Naval stations have received, as late as to-day, shipments of individ- uals," says the statement.
 "More than twentythree thousand sets of comfort garments have been distributed to men of the navy since the day MT. Daniels first sought to cripple our work.
 Relying upon public opinion to sustain us in the justice and reason ableness of this course, we will seid the garments in Mrs. Dewey's name. We see no reason whatever to expect MT. Daniels Ito take action which will interfere with this arrangement and are confident that it will continue with entire satisfaction. to the men of the navy and to the women enlisted with the Comforts Committee in this work.
 we have thoroughly considered the situation presented by MT. Daniels request of the, Red Cross,'' continues the statement, "and after consultation with the women of our organization throughout the country with many, members of Congress and with of- ficers and men of the navy, we are fully convinced that the comfort and welfare, of Our brave seamen requires the continuation of our organization as one peculiarly fitted to serve the needs of the men of the navy
 Since the issuance of Secretary Daniels order, in which he attempted to. outlaw the. Navy league, the Com forts Committee has received requests for more than 50,000 comfort garments for seamen, and these requests have been accompanied in a great many cases with the unsolicited statement of the men that the Comforts Com mittee has demonstrated its ability to provide for their needs more speedily and in more satisfactory manner than other organizations not devoted exclusively to service to the navy.
 'Tn the difficult situation presented for us by MT. Daniels action only three of our more than 700 local units have withdrawn from our organiza- tion and our correspondence with these local units has convinced us that the women of our organization are determined to continue their work with us We believe this fact proves that the abandonment of our organi-, zation would seriously and even per- manently impair the work of patri- otic American women in behalf of our seamen, and our decision to maintain our organization therefore rests firmly upon a sincere desire to see that the men of the navy are not made to suf- fer for something for which they are in no way responsible.
 Tt is the desire of the Comforts Committee to conform as closely as possible to the instructions of the Sec. retary of the Navy, as it has always done in the past, and this will be done in the future except where such in- structions clearly jeopardize the ex- istence of our organization and there by threaten to interfere with the work being done in the interests of the men of the navy.
 We are pledged to the service of these men. We entered that. service at the direct invitation of the Secre- tary of the Navy and we developed our organization and invested consid- erable sums of money in this under taking with his sanction and under his official direction as to the manner in which the work was done But his official sanction cannot be regarded as essential to the mere gift of an arti- cle Of wearing apparel by an Ameri. can woman to a man in the navy.
 The fact that the delivery of articles under the name of an individual has been permitted since the issuance of MT. Daniels ban strongly suggests that our opinion upon this point is not seriously disputed by the Secretary of the Navy.
 Consequently, confident of our abil- 1ty to continue this work and of the necessity off it, we make this formal announcement of our decision to re- main at work in this dield."
 Mexican independence day was cele-
 brated in northern Mexico without any
 disturbances for the fi,.st3 tiy,o,