Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-05-17

signature OF the secretary of tho navy
the order could not have been issued.
that the responsibility of signing rested
on me alone. IL l had declined to afiix
my signature the order as drawn would
have been mere scrap OF paper. and
that had never had any patience with
public officer who sought to escape
responsibility by passing the buck" and
saying he acted upon the advice of my
advisers"
| mo, issued the order l replied. III
II Is a mistake. / made 1t with my eyes
open. IL could shift it TO the general
board. then the general board would be
exercising the functions of the secretary
of the navy. and for the nonce l would
have abdicated my office. Moreover. the
chief defect in the navy-and 1t is In
the army and other places. as wells
the confirmed habit of passing the
buck. / may commit all the other
crimes in the criminal catalogue. but as
long as / am secretary of the navy I
will initiate my old military political
hero and fellow Tarheel, Andrew Jack
son. who when some action of his adj
rninistration was assailed, had a habit
of saying II take the responsibility
Fun Over the Wine-Mess Order.
ttt you Ieii1tIi1Dtl the lufl lfe papers
had when / issued the win-mess order.
way back In 1914? Sometimes / have
thought the paragraphists and the car
toonists ought to have shared with me
the pay they received out of the oppor-
tunity that order gave them to draw pic
lures and write poetry. But none OF
them offered. 1t was a common, almost
daily. occurrence to see myself pictured
as a long-faced and angular ancient
Puritan old maid driving the joy out of
esistance. Life. indeed, found my order
and subsequent actions so amusing or
ridiculous or revolutionary, or all three,
that it got out an illustrated "Josephus
Daniels Edition."
Talk about blue laws and putting men
in the stocks for following their con-
science! What else was Life doing to
ME under the belief il was pillorying
narrowness and Puritanism? / wish to
say this about Life. for honesty and
frankness are virtues which ought to be
commended everywhere: When the
world war broke and the navy demon
srated its efficiency. Life wrote An
Apology TO Josephus Daniels"
Critics Converted Into Boosters.
That simple order. which forbade the
introduction of intoxicants on any ship
or shore station in the navy except for
medicinal purposes, has demonstrated its
wisdom. Only one officer in the navy
knew it was to be issued until 1t was
read in the papers, and that officer was
Admiral Braisted, surgeon general of the
navy. He recommended il, and when
that fact became known he came in for
his share of the abuse which followed.
i am sure he is entitled to his share of
the honor for its later almost universal
approval / do not take credit or blame,
whichever way you look at it. for the
fact that this order making the navy
dry accelerated the coming of national
prohibition, but il is satisfaction to me
II It it did not deter it.
The order did not make me as popular
in the navy as it deserved to do.
knew. of course. was taking a course
which would contravene tradition. And
TO not few older officers tradition is
sacred. More than that. knew excellent
officers would resent ii because they be-
lieved lit would improperly convey an
impression that drinking was so general
in the navy that such an order was
necessary TO insure sobriety and eff
ficiency.
OF course. drinking to excess was rare
and my only hesitation about issuing
the order was the reflection that il might
convey such a misleading impression to
the public.
Victory Over Armor Plate Makers.
But the greatest sin / committed, GER
tainly the one responsible for the con-
tinued, organized and well-oiled criti-
cisms which never let up except during
the war, was my successful contest with
the steel companies and powder con-
Germs which made arrnor plate and pro-
jectil and srnokeless powder and other
munitions for the navy.
I found upon examination that all
three of the armor plate plants. by some
hypnotic method beyond my under
standing, bid exactly the same price 10
a cent when bids were asked for armor
plate. I found they had sold armor
plate TO Russia for less than they
charged to the American navy. / be-
came convinced that there later came
into existence an understanding that
manufacturers Of armor at home or
abroad would not compete; that our
navy was being charged a price that
had little relation to the cost Of pro-
duction and that competition was a
sham.
In snokeless powder I found the navy
could manufacture it for 35 cents and
that the powder trust was charging the
navy SO cents per pound for IT. l found
that some years before. under the dy-
manic advocacy OF Senator Tillman, con-
gress had appropriated money and au-
thorized the erection of an arnor plate
plant. but that the word provided" had
by some means or other defeated the |
intent for the government
10 make its own armor and free itself |
from monopoly made prices.
Continued on page 8.