Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-12-17
DANIELS STORY
OF WORK ON SEA
declares U. s. Navy Has Big
Task Ahead in Policing
the Seas.
DOES SEEMINGLY IMPOSSIBLE
Did Not Lose Single East-Bound
Troopship During War-Arma-
ment Worlds Most Powerful,
Secretary's Report Shows


OF brilliant achievements of the Amer
lean navy in the war, Secretary Dan
iels couples, in his annual report, an
urgent recommendation for continued
naval expansion to meet the demands
of peace for national and information
al work on the sea.
Through nearly all of the IA print
ed pages the secretary tells in brief
phrases of the navy's part in the war,
of the doings of the seemingly 1mpos-
sible through team work
He spoke of the mighty accom-
plishment of transporting 100000
men to France without the loss of an
east-bound troopship through enemy
action.
This reference TO the future con-
cludeS the report:
"The day is not lar distant when
the world will witness an end of
competitive building between ma
tons Of mighty weapons Of war.
In the peace treaty there undoubted-
ly will be Incorporated President Will
d
armament to the lowest point con-
siStent with domestic safety
"Navies will still be needed as an
international police force to COM
pei compliance with the decree of
an international tribunal which will
be set up to decide differences be-
tween nations. Naval vessels will
have large peace tasks of survey
and discovery and protection in adj
dition to police duty of an interna-
tional as well as of national char
acter.
'Inasmuch as the United States
is the richest of the great nations
and has suffered less in war than
any of the allied powers, 1t will de-
volve upon this country to make a
contribution to the navy to pre-
serve the peace of the worl COM
mensurate with its wealth, it's COM
merce, its growing and expanding mer-
chant marine and it's leadership in
the council OF free people.
ut is, therefore, our duty now not,
indeed to enter upon any new and
ambitious navy program, but to go
forward steadily upon the lines Of
naval increase to which the country
committed itself by the adoption three
years ago of the first far-reaching na-
val program in the history of the re-
public.
81 have recommended to this con,
gress the adoption of another three
year program substantially like the
one authorized In 1915. But the vic
tory of the allies and the United
States should, and will, / sincerely
trust, within a few years, make it no
longer necessary for any nation under
whip and spur to burden it's taXpay-
ers to undertake to build, in cOmpeti-
tive construction, bigger fighting ships
and more Of them than any other ma
ton can construct"
Mr.. Daniels shows that i the new
100000, 900 three-year building pro-
gram ne has proposed will provide
156 additional naval ships, ten of
them dreadnaughts and six battle
cruisers, and the others to be in such
distribution of approved types as the
department may deem best.
Taking up his story of the navy
and the war, the secretary declares
the service was ready from stem to
stern" when the United States en-
tered the conflict.
Teamwork has been the navy's slo-
| gan for five years.
The striking success of the navy is
ascribed to this fact by Mr.. Daniels,
who continues:
apparently there have been times
when a secretary of the navy seemed
| to find friction and lack of co-opera-
| ton among the officers around him.
If that spirit ever existed in the Unit
ed States navy, / can state with con-
| fidence and pride that there is now no
vestige of it, and l firmly believe, from
my experience, not only during the last
! year but during the last five years
preceding, it never will return"
Writing with pride of the record of
the marine brigade in France, the Sec
rotary shows that with only 5000 men
of the corps engaged, the casualties
numbered 60 officers and 1881 men
| dead, rs officers and 2,534 seriously
| wounded, while but 50 marines are re-
ported officially as captured by the en-
| envy, illustrating the desperate char
acter of the fighting in which the bri-
gade participated, and the fact that
| It was always advancing.