New-York tribune., 1918-05-03
Two Men for Every Naval
Post, He Tells Cotton
Manufacturers Here
Spirit of '76" Revived
Secretary Declares Capital Is
Sure Kaiser's Doom
Is Sealed

The embers of T6 and 'bl had been
famed into flame, Josephus Daniels.
Secretary of the Navy, told the Ameri-
can Cotton Manufacturers last night
at their convention in the Hotel Bilt-
more, and generation of young
Americans, which was assailed on all
sides few years ago as idlers and
wasters, had proved that it had the
nettle OF its forefathers. Already,
% naval hero for whom to name one
of the destroyers that were being
turned out every day
1.-TWO men have jumped to fill every
post open in the navy" he declared
"When you see half dozen lads in
navy blue rollicking along the street
you may think that they are lacking
in serious viewpoint of life. But
they are the same boys, 100000 of
them, who are keeping the road open
to France, and that's no job for weak
lings.
Spirit of '76 Lives, He Says
"The only difference between the
heroes of to-day and those Of yester-
day is that between Paul Revere and
tho modern wireless operator, between
horsefiesh and lightning. The spirit is
the same.
almost every day l am called upon
to furnish a name for new destroyer,
so swiftly are the Hun hunters taking
to the water. l have been careful to
bestow none that were not the names
of heroes of the navy. Nor do we
always have to go back to the days Of
John Paul Jones or Farragut to find
them.
"Already there is destroyer bear
ing the name of James Ingraham of
Alabama, second class gunner's mate
on the Cassin, who, when he saw a
torpedo making straight for the spot
on his destroyer above which a depth
depth charge into the ocean, losing his
own life by this delay, but preventing
tremendous above-deck explosion
which would have cost the lives of
many score"
There had been many anxious mo-
ments in Washington, he said, since
Germany started her grand assault, but
no ominous ones. There was serene
confidence that the line would hold,
he said, and that the Kaiser was max
ing a last desperate effort, knowing
that when American forces were strong
in France his doom was sealed.
Let us have no talk" he continued,
"of sending 100000 or 100000 men
to France. Under the Selective Ser
vice Act 100000 men were dedi-
Gated to the winning Of this war and
we are calling them as fast as we
have the tonnage to take them over.
We are going to win the war if it
takes twenty years."
The "lack of craftsmanship" which
failed to prepare this country for re-
cent events by building up a great
merchant marine was matter for
sincere regret, said Secretary Daniels,
but the situation also had its compen-
sations. Among them were the fact
that the United States would emerge
from the war with g. vast fleet of mer-
throughout the world, that political
rancor was forgotten and a new Amer
lean unity was being born.
Praises w. II. Taft
Prolonged cheers broke out when he
mentioned ex-President Taft as an ex-
ample of the new Americanism and the
orchestra slid from Dixie" into
America" That was something that
the nation had been doing, too, Mr..
Daniels said, sliding from Dixie" into
America" The former was now a
national air, sectionalism had been jet
tisoned. Americans were yankees" in
the four quarters Of the earth, whether
they came from Maine or Alabama, and
the new army was training at such
cantonments as Lee, Grant, Sheridan,
Stonewall Jackson, Stuart, Sherman
and Sheridan.
He spoke of the necessity of buying
Liberty Bonds, of the treason that
lurked in locked purses and of the spe-
cial duty of cotton manufacturers.
Thanks to their efforts, he said, cotton
was now used in the wings of aero
planes with as good results as formerly
were obtained from linen.
There were about 1000 cotton men
and their guests in his audience.
Henry Ford Nav