The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-09-10

age of eighteen, many of whom are to-
day holding good positions aboard the
ships of many lines, rejecting credit
upon themselves and upon the rudi-
mentary training received by them as
cadets in the Junior Reserve.
The very tune that Mr.. Hurley at
the eleventh hour of his administra-
ton, sings as a sort OF swan song,
is the same cheerful roundelay the
Junior Naval Reserve has voiced
since it began in 1915. 1t is the same
identical plea that has been directed to
Mr.. Hurley himself by the Junior Re-
serve, and to the u. S. Shipping Board
from its very inception. when Ber-
nard n. Baker was itsx sponsor. The
latter gifted with the foresight that
was the first to see the need of legis-
lation that brought the Shipping
Board into existence. was also quick
TO express, as Admiral Sims recently
expressed it, the high appreciation of
the value of the organization to the
future of the u. S. Navy and the
Merchant Marine
In a letter Mr.. Baker, wrote Dec.
4th, 1916. to the Reserves about the
Shipping Board, he said, mo body IF
men will have a more important duty
in the training of a Naval Reserre
than this particular board. and As sorn
as they are appointed j shall certainly
do what i can to assist in the splendid
work of the Junior Naval Reserves. /
only wish 1 had more time to take an
active part in it personally. You pos
sibly know my work is devoted to the
question of securing a merchant ma
rine, which is the most necessary ad-
junct to the work you are doing, in
fact, you may have all the naval
training you want but unless we can
provide an auxiliary reserve force for
the Navy in constant training in our
merchant marine. they will be of very
little use. Over eight thousand men
have been called on by the British
naval authorities from their merchant
marine, where we would not have
enough today June 5th 1870 to call
for eight hundred. 1 certainly can
endorse your project most heartily and
feel sure of its practical value and
immediate need to the nation. 1 will
be glad to aid you in any way / pos
sibly can"
To the Junior Naval Reserve is due
the credit of vigorously starting
an Americanized Merchant Marine.
It's thousands of members all over
the United States, familiar themselves
with the Reserve slogan of American
Crews for American Ships" has
passed along to thousands of other
Americans this stirring watchwor1 and
battle cry, until even Mr. Hurley him
self has unconsciously absorbed its
patriotic potency.
He says, Our present great need is
to get in touch with the American
boys who should man these ships" a
point that the Junior Naval Reserves
has since the days of Bernard Baker
and on through the days of Mr.. Hur-
ley, studeously endeavored to impress
upon the u. S. Shipping Board. Mr.
Baker quickly recognized this truth
Mr. Hurley seems only to have become
seriously conscious OF it at the last
moment OF his official career as head
of the Shipping Board. With all the
power and influence at his command to
speed up recruiting and make that
speeding UP easier and more possible
no more efficient means existed for
getting in touch with the American
boys who should man these ships than
the potential instrumentality of this
junior naval and merchant marine
training organization that already held
the confidence and encouragement of
the great shipbuiiding and shipping in
terests of America, plus the actual in
terest of thousands of American boys
themselves. saturated with the desire
to go down to the sea in ships
At this eleventh hour he realizes
just what the Reserve said he would
realize, namely, the urgency of the
need. A Reserve interview given to
the press more than a year ago con-
tanned this widely published statement.
1T is one thing to build ships in ever
increasing numbers, but it is another
and very much more importan. thing
to man these ships with proficient
seamen of American birth. The Junior
Naval Reserve is the one potent factor
in the direction of conserving Ameri-
cas- boy power and in bringing it TO
a state of efficiency whereby the new
merchant marine may be equipped the
more quickly with trained crews"
|. Thousands of forward looking
Americans recognized the truth of this
almost trite observation. but Mr.. Hur-
ley was not one OF them in so far as
his influencing the Shipping Board to
lend it's encouragement to the patriot
&c efforts of a volunteer movement
sponsored by men who knew the ur-