The New York herald., 1922-05-28

IL was an optimist about navy
affairs while he was Secretary
of the Navy from 1918 to 1921, and
now that he has told what the navy
did during the world war he demon
strates in his narrative that he is a
good sport. For in spite of the many
and bitter attacks that were made on
him in that troubled time he does
not make a single reference to any
OF them. nor does he wreak any
such revenge as he might have done
through this medium. In this respect
1t may be said that truly does he
live up to the description of his char
acter set down in the pages of Rear
Admiral Bradley A. Fiske's autobiog-
raphy. namely, that Secretary Dam
iels impressed me as being a Chris
tan gentleman"
In its general outlines and in many
of its details there is little in Mr..
Daniels's story that has not been
told before in volumes devoted to
single phases of the United States
Navy's war operations. For exan-
pie, his chapter on the extraordinary
task of laying the great mine fields.
known as the North Sea barrage.
from Norway to the Orkneys. is
much more fully described in the ac-
count written by Capt. Reginald r.
Beiknap; the story of Sending Sims
to Europe" is also more extensively
presented in that officers book, THE
Victory at Sea-" and the same quail
fication can be applied to the chapter
on the fighting of the marines in
Belleau Wood and elsewhere. and the
work Of our destroyers and subma-
rines in European waters.
But Mr.. -Daniels's history has one
great merit that these other books
lack. This is that it tells in its 374
pages the complete story of the work
of the navy in the world war. giving
so many details and so much precise
information about officers and their
commands, ships of all classes and
just what they did, the valuable con-
tributions made to the winning of
the war by civilians. that it makes a
special place for itself, a very special
place. in any library or shelf devoted
to war books.
what was the greatest thing
America did in the world war;" is
question Mr.. Daniels says he has
often been asked, land it is easily
answered. 1t. was the raising and
training of an army of 1000, 200 men,
a navy of over 100000 and the safe
transportation of over two million
troops to Europe. And all this WAS
accomplished in eighteen months"
q War began for the navy five minutes
after President Wilson signed the
war resolution passed by Congress
Oil apiil % lJlf WHcli the navy TduiO
operators flashed that news to every
ship and station in the service The
far distant vessels on the Asiatic
station knew it before the extras"
were on the street, and the fleet was
mobilized that same afternoon in ac-
cordance with the plan of the pre-
ceding March 21. Admiral Henry T.
Mayo afterward said he did not have
to "give a single order of any kind or
description to pass the fleet from a
peace to a war basis" Complete in
structions and plans, brought up 10
date. had been issued two weeks
previous and mobilization was COM
pleted without an hours delay.
To the general public the place
where the fleet was modified was a
profound mystery, although we have
long known now that it was in the
York River. Once before, in February.
1917, the fleet had been moved to a
secret base in Cuba as a protection
against possible attack while con-
Quoting the annual maneuvers that
were begun at Guantanamo. secret
that was kept as faithfully as that
of the base in York River. To pany