Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-05-04
BY JOsEPHUS DANIELS,
Former Secretary of the Navy.
AnnT-T n On
20.

Former Secretary OF the Navy.
ARTICLE 20.
One OF the nveliest days Of the
whole war for the Navy Department
was Monday. June 3, 1913. 1t Will
be many a year before forget it
Sunday a U-boat had suddenly
bobbed up about forty or fifty miles
of the New Jersey coast and sink
four scbooners.
That was hard-hitting for a war
alphabetically 5000 miles away.
It certainly stirred things up in
our corner of Washington. When
received the newspaper correspond
ents that Monday morning I faced a
fire of questions as rapid as that of
any machine gun in France.
what Is the Navy doing to protect
our shipping7"
'why did it let the submarine sink
those vessels?''
Have you sunk the U-bOst?"
Wont you recall our destroyers from
Europe2"
GETS 5000 CALLS
IN TWESTT-FOUR HOURS.
While I did my best with the eager.
inquisitive and persistent gentlemen OF
the press, kilograms were pouring into
the department by the hundred. and the
telephones were ringing without cessa-
tion. In tweRty-four hours. 5000 tele-
grams, radio messages, phone calls and
other inquiries were handled by the
Navy. The halls and offices of the de-
partment were thronged with anxious
people, shippers and ship owners, and
friends and relatives OF captains and
crews. And everybody wanted informa-
ton.
There was general alarm along the coas
from Cape Cod to Cape Sable. II one L.
boat was over here. two might be, or
three, or four. There was no saying
where the enemy would strike next.
Such was the feeling and, Of course, we
heard from It
The last OF the four questions which
have given as coming from the news
TePer- correspondents came from al over
the country, but especially from the
coast:
Won't you recall our destroyers from
Europe7"
Nor was It always phrased so politely
or as difeidently as this. Sometimes it
passed from the interrogative to the i'm
perative, and became an emphatic de-
mand.
NO RECALL
OF DEsTROYERs.
Obviously Il was quite impossible for
the Navy Department to satisfy all these
inquiries, or to answer the very pointed
Of h. re
could not tell the public what We were
doing; what ships were being sent out.
and wdere. We might just as well have
cabled the information to Germany.
Most OF our destroyers and other pa
troll craft were in European waters, but
we had no idea OF recalling them.
In the first place, 10 cover every point
where submarines might appear, TO pa
troll adequately the waters OF our long
coast line and to convoy all coastwise
shipping-which was what excited indi-
viduals were insisting we should do
would have taken not less than a thou
sand vessels.
In the second place. nothing would
have suited Germany's purpose better
than to scare rs into Withdrawing our
forces from the European hunting
grounds. and perhaps abandoning our
mine barrage across the North Sea.
we realized that we would have TO ac-
cept the likelihood Of some small craft
being sunk-possibly a few steamers; but
that at all costs We must keep the line
of communication clear by which troops
and supplies were carried to the fight
ing front
MUST KEEP
ROAD OPEN.
Germany had sent her U-boats across
the sea mainly for the purpose Of inter
rupting the transportation Of troops and
supplies. Failing in this, their long and
perilous adventure would be without
military effect.
"Our first duty" I said to the news
paper men that morning, SIS to keep
open the road to France, to proteot
troop ships and supply vessels We are
doing all we can 10 protect ali shipping
and commerce. but that must be our
first thought"
And that policy was so well carried
out that not one troopship or transport
was delayed in sailing a single day, and
the months in which enemy submarines
were operating almost continuously of
our coast were the very months in which
we broke all records In troop transpor-
tation.
DEUTSCHLAND
CONES BACK.
There were six U-boats which made
the voyage from Wilhelmshaven or some
other German port to the region Of
American waters in 191s-the U-151, the
U-156, the U-140, the U-117, the U-155 and
the U-152. The U-1J5 was the Deutgch-
land. which, doubtless, you remember as
the submarine that arrived in Baltimore
on a July Sunday in 1916 and was hailed
as a marvellous demonstration of Ger
man enterprise and intrepidity. Some of
us have wondered since whether It was
also q demonstration Of German fore
eight-in other words, an experimental
voyage, IN peaceful guise, to determine
whether, should we get into the war on