Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-05-21
DANIELS TALKS
OF SEA AND AIR
CRAFT MERITS
Big Submersibles or Giant
Airships for Next Great
War?
SAFETY IN PRECAUTION
BY JosEPHUs DANIELS,
Former Secretary of the Navy,
1913-1e21.
ARTICLE 35.

ARTICLE 35.
The questions which are puzzing
the naval experts of the world may
be answered before midsummer at
Hampton roads.
What is to be the fighting craft of
the future?
Must the dreadnaughts be
scrapped?
Have the submarines and the air
craft revolutionized warfare?
Nobody really knows yet. Many
opinions have been expressed. For
months in Great Britain, where
naval matters are of supreme i'm
portance and dominant interest with
all the people, a controversy has
waged in newspapers and magazines
as to what should be done with the
dreadnaught.
There are those who say that the sub
marine of the future viii be as big and
powerful as the creadnaught of today,
able to fight with equal ease and er-
fciency on the surface or beneath II
Others tell US that ships as big and
vastly more dangerous than dreadnaughts
will fly In the air.
None of US can contradict these proph-
cts None of US is in any humor to try
to contradict them. The war demon
strated the possibility Of so many seem
ingly impossible things that credulity is
now the mark of wisdom when we are
talking about what tomorrow may bring
forth.
WILL TAKE
TO WOODS"
But If these prophets are right; if we
are going to see submersible ships as big
rs the Idaho OF New Mexico, and flying
monsters rivaling the Pennsylvania or the
Arizona, then all I have TO say is that II
I am alive when such things come about,
I am going to feel like the darky who
was in the congregation when the col
ored preacher discoursed on the two
roads.
II tell you. Sinners shouted the
preacher, there are just two roads to
take: One of them leads to hell and
damnation and the other to everlasting
perditiOn. Which road will you take"
Neither one" cried an excited hearer
"Dis-yer niger am agwine TO take to
the woodsI"
When I discuss this question Of the
probable lighting craft Of the future l
do so with reservations. l am aware
that there are reservations which destroy
and reservations which create. l speak
not Of the reserva tions so much discussed
in 1920, when the Senate was debating
the League OF Nations.
Nv reservation has indeed to do with
q league or an association or an under
standing with the other great nations Of
the world.
"BEsT YET
TO BE"
This appIies. however. more TO quantity
and cost Of fighting craft than to type
and quality. For we must remember
that our generation need not hope that
the world, and all parts Of the world, will
become so amenable to reason that it
will not be necessary to maintain for
some years to come some kind Of police
man on the sea. Even IL all the great
powers are wise enough to make an
agreement which will provide for the ef-
fective settlement of disputes by inter
national judgment. there will still be
needed a sufficient mobile force to ex-
ecute the decree and to prevent warlike
nations from taking advantage Of those
which reduce their armament.
You will note I say 'Our" generation.
I am proud to belong to that despised
and sometimes called fools who believe
the dream of a world freed from war and
the fear Of war will one OF these days
come true. I know that the militarists
think that an idea,ist and a fool are
one and inseparable, but I also know
that those who put their trust only in
what they can see and touch have always
secuted and scorned the faith of those
who believe that the best is vet to be-"
Ny reservation being undersood, 1 re-
turn to the discussion of the question
with which we began.
NAVY on WATER
OR IN AIR?
Are We to look for a navy in the fu-
ture which will fight in the air rather
than on the sea?
a Few years ago-indeed, until 1914
we thought of navy in terms Of dread
naughts and cruisers and destroyers and
other surface craft. The sailing ship Of
the line in Nelson's day and the ship of
the line IN our day prior to the World
War differed mainly in that the former
used sails and fought at shorter range
1t is, Of course, true that before 1914
submarines had been built, and some
naval experts had regarded them as
valuable auxiliaries of a powerful feet
But the older officers, with few ex-
reptions, looked upon theaa so purely as
iuxiliaries that they were treated like
ed-headed stepchildren in naval admin
istration.
When l became Secretary of the Navy
there were a lot Of young men keen
about the possibility Of the submarine,
but naval officers responsible for op-
eratiOns had given undersea craft no in
dependent organization or direction.
In 1914 a civilian Secretary Of the
Navy. out Of civilian faith that new agen-
eies ought to be given every chance 30
demonstrate their value decreed a sepa-
rate organization for submarines under
the direction Of an admiral.
CREATION OF
AMERICAN BRAINS.
But none OF US even then sensed the
tremendous, the almost decisive part, the
submarine was to play in the war just
ahead Of us We did not know what
Germany had up her sleeve Our fore
sight did not catch q vision of great
undersea ships able to cruise at long
Continued on Page Three.)