Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1917-09-14
Secretary's' Daniels Speech.

Secretary Daniels in part said:
The Impulse that has made possi-
BILE our rapidly expanding Navy came
from speech made by President Will
son in st. Louis, on the third day of
February, 1916, when he declared: {:
There is no other navy in the world
that has to cover so great an area of
defense as the American Navy, and
it ought in my judgment, to be in
comparably the most adequate navy
il. the world Up to that time no ma
tional leader had urged upon the peo-
pie or upon Congress so large a pro-
gram, or given the vision of a navy
worthy of the American Republic In
deed the argument, brought forth by
what were then known as the big
navy people was for the second larg-
est navy in the world, their position
being that there was no necessity for
creating navy bigger than that pos
sessed by Great Britain. They indeed
said that we did not need a fleet of
British size, because we did not pos
sess colonies scattered through every
part of the world
A Forward Step.
Following close upon the declara-
tion by the President, Congress took
a radical and a forward step on its
naval program. 1t abandoned the plan
tf q yearly authorization of new
ships, and adopted three-year build
ing program Shortly thereafter, ii
increased the naval appropriation
from an average of former years of
Sl45,000, 900. to $312, 1885, ,060.25, and
since the first of August, 1916, has ap-
propriated for the support and in
crease of the Navy $1,344, ,1S4,S96.
while estimates pending before Con-
gress carry an addition of nearly
six hundred million dollars. The ag-
gregate appropriation in little more
than year, to make effective and
impregnable the nations first arm OF
defense is, including pending esti-
mates, nearly two billion dollars.
IF any man doubts that the Ameri-
can people are ready to wage this
righteous war to victory, no matter
what the cost, he need only to read
the messages and acts of the Presi-
dent and the legislation and appropri-
alton. revenue and bond bills that
rave passed Congress. They answer
effectively and eloquently the sugges-
tions of alien critics that America is
not enlisted with all it's resources to
free the world from the menace of
eutocracy.
Vision Reality.
NO sooner was the spirit of the
broad policy of the President for a
Navy incomparably the most ade-
quate' breathed into the nation and its
Congress than the tremendous work
of material creation began 1t over
taxed building facilities, it taxed, but
not overtaxed, the energies of those
to whom it was given to make the vi
sion real. The facilities grow. Men
grow. The vision began to be. q
reality
This is not the time to speak Of
what has been accomplished. or ol
much that has been begun, for mill
tary experts agree that many of the
things under way should not be dis.
closed in the making.
81 am not publishing a military Sc
cret, however, when l say that while
the increase in personnel in the pas
few months has far surpassed the in
crease in material, there are three
times as many ships in commission
today as there were six months ago;
and that ships and more ships, from
enlarged and ever enlarging ship
yards, are coming to afford a place
upon naval craft to the thousands o.
patriotic young men who have crowd
ed into the Navy since the call was
made under the legislation for in
crease in enlistment.
Nays Enlisted Strength.
~On September 1st, 1916, the tota
enlisted strength of the Navy and Ma
! rine Corps. including men and off
GERS in the regular service and II
the reserve ranks, was 1852. Or
September 1st, 1917, the number Il
232.930. So popular has service il
the Navy become that the Department
has been compelled TO limit enlist
ments because it could not buils
training stations and provide ship
enough for the thousands of splendi,
youths who have fiocked to the stand
/ ard of what will be made before ;