The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-18

assembly of ships at the rendezvous in all respects ready for war service.
 "4. The rendezvous is designated as Chesapeake bay. 9 Copies of mobiliza- ton sheets are forwarded herewith.
 READY FOR EMERGENCY
 This, as the order itself indicates, was strictly confidential communication. Congress alone has power to declare war, and no war order may be issued until it has given authority. But when war threatens it is the navy's duty to get ready for emergency. As the first line of defense it must not be caught mapping. Mobilization is the next step to actual hostilites, and is justihable only when conditions are extremely threatening. That was the case in the spring of 1916.
 As it happened, Germany yielded. She replied to our ultimatum with a declara- tion that her government was prepared to do its utmost to confine the opera tions of war for the rest of it's duration to the fighting forces of the belliger- ents." She further promised that mer- chant vessels should no longer be sunk without warning or without saving hu- man lives, except in cases where they attempted to escape or to offer resis- tance.
 Note the phrase, flor the rest of it's duration" This made the pledge bind ing until the war ended. Within eight months Germany was laying her plans to shatter this solemn promise. For the time. however, it averted the rupture between the two countries, and postponed for nearly year what many of us by now had come to regard as inevitable.
 WAR STAYED OFF FOR YEAR
 But this I want to emphasize if Ger ho5 }r h,, of warfare the Sussex sinking represent ed. President Wilson would have sent Bernstorff home in the spring of 1916 and we would have been at war, in all human probability. before midsummer. We were set for this programme when Berlin backed down.
 Early in 1915 I asked the general bo: I'd to make a study and submit recominen- dations concerning the preparation nec- essary to be made by the bureaus and offices of the department to insure 9 state of preparedness for war.
 On March 13, 1915, the board, then headed by Admiral Dewey, furnished the desired plans.
 I sent them to each bureau chief with instructions to comply with their re- Quirements.
 War plans had been made already, and corrected up to date, for the fleet
 In July of 1915, I invited MT. Edison and 20 other eminent engineers. scientists and inventors to devote their genius tc naval efficiency. I urged them to at tempt to discover some effective means for combating submarines.
 On October 1 I directed the genera board to prepare a five-year building programme for the navy, on an estimate of s1O0,000,000 each year for new con struction. About the same time Admra Blue. with my approval. made plans tc increase the number of enlisted men from 54,0OO to practically 10000. For two years before the war did come we worked to get the whole navy ready and when the mysterious s. W. David sen sailed for London in March. 1917, knew from Admiral Mayo, commander in-chief, that the fleet was In such good condition that only word would be re- quired to mobilize it for war. (Another article by Former Secretary Daniels will be published in The Age Herald tomorrow.)