Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-05-03
DANIELS DISCUSSES
NAVAL ERRORS THAT
DELAYED VICTORY
Says U. S. Should Have Con-
centrated on Construction
of Destroyers in 1915.
WHAT EXPERIENCE SHOWS
BY Josephus Daniels.
Former Secretary of the Navy. 1919
to 1921

Former Secretary n the Navy, 1913
10 1921
Copyright. 1927. BY John = Ollie Copy
rignfed by National Newspaper Service,
Copyright in Great Britain. Canada and
throughout Europe. All rights reserved.
including tranalation INTO Ioreign an
authorized reprintIng for any purpose for
hidden
After every war one "a look hack
and sec that somewhere there vas
lack ~ foresight somewhere there vas
wanting vision translated into action.
somewhere there was failure to grasp
new and daring plan which might
have turned defeat into victory or have
FASTENED the day Of peace.
When one reflects upon the zeal. cour-
age and success of the British navy in
freeing the seven seas from German
traffic. one is filled with admiration for
its spirit and achievements. But i
made mistakes. as We. and AL the
other navies, did
over on this slde ~ the ocean what
was our chief naval error?
II was that We lacked the foresight
in isf5-ie. largely because we did not
have the Information which VAS kept
from neutrals. 70 concentrate upon the
I nliaIn& 14 1ENiEftFEAS lB AsEF S&t-AA*EAPAA
/ of larger ships To be sure. We were
utilizing before the United States en-
/ tered the war every available facility
! for the building of destroyers.
More Destroyers Needed.
The great three-year program pro
posed BY me in 1915 and voted by Con
gress in 1918 embraced afty destroyers
to be constructed in three years. along
i with sixteen capital ships and ten
scout cruisers
Looking hack upon that program. il IS
/ clear now. taking advantage Of what
we learned during the var that it
/ would have been wiser 20 have delayed
contracting for 50 many capital ships.
and built hundreds Of destroyers, the
i craft most effective against submarines.
/ Our ship construction program during
the war included approximately a thou
sand vessels This in addition 10 the
| 81 ships converted for naval pur-
! poses
There was 10 delay in pressing work
on destroyers. Immediately after Con
/ rsress authorized the three-year pro-
gram. contracts We're made for the
twenty authorized the first year. Is
we'll as for twenty seven submarines,
/ four battle ships, four battle cruisers
and other vessels. In March. 1917.
before we entered the war. as soon
I as funds were available. twenty-four
more were ordered; additional orders
were given as rapidly as the con
tracts could De placed and BY the
! middle of October we were building or
had contracted for 270.
All Records Broken
Millions had to be spent for new facih-
ties 10 build thena-enlargemen of old
ship yards. building of giant new plants.
1t was great job. but we broke all
records IN rapid construction when we
| struck our gait. The House Naval
/ Committee. after thorough investiga-
ton. said in its report made March 4
1918:
When il came to building additional
destroyers especially those of the large
| program. it was found that the ship
buiIding facilities of the country were
, fully absorbed with the vessels then un-
der construction and il would be neces-
sary TO create new facilities. The plans
adopted required more than doubling the
capacity available last summer for
building dastroyers 0nd that capacity
was materially sreate~ than before the
war. In spite Of speed IN construction
Continued on page "a