The Washington herald., 1922-11-03

rcctly TO me as President that t:s
target practice and Other schemes
went through. Nelson was also in-
subordinate"
He probably did intimate to the
department that IL l didn't make
good he would hand me over to
their tender mercies. That accords
well with his methods: A man was
given a job and not interfered with
as long as he produced results. But
If he did not make good. out he
went.
As Roosevelt himself expressed
IL:
Il have to use the material that
is at hand. 1 find men who can
serve me. When they develop the
frailties l simply find another man.
We must progress and ! must find
men who will progress with me.
We cannot let the whole works 60
because one man falls down. Sew
eral OF my aides have made mis-
takes, but ] have taken the best OF
their good advice, and I have left
the bad
Here is the whole Of administra-
ticn in a few words.
Nevertheless. his attitude toward
my letter was far from unfriendly.
The result was that finally / was
called from the China station to
Washington to substantiate my
claims. Thus began my personal
relations with Theodore Roosevelt
To prove the state of Workmanship
in the navy the whole feet had been
ordered out to fre at a conde mined
'iShtship. This had resulted in an
amusing situation. At $500 yards
the entire fleet blazed away, and
at the end of the test the target
ship had been hit but twice. al
though the areo OF the target was
5000 square feet. H. NJ. S. Terrible
alone had made 14l hits on a target
of only 1925 square feet. To avoid
the humiliation of displaying the
results of this test a battleship
steamed close alongside the target
ship and sank her with a broadside,
But the test had been conclusive,
Not Yet Plain sailing.
However. this did not mean plain
sailing. Between an insubordinate
lieutenant and a sympathetic Presi-
-1ent there were many powerful SUI
periors. and they were able to put
more than one monkey-wrench into
the machinery. and at this time 7
aid not feel that / was in a posi-
tion to call upon the President for
support: on the contrary. ever since
l had been called to Washington |
mad studiously refrained from even
paying him an official call. This
was partly due to the fact that
was fully aware that, :iotwrhstand-
ne the purity OF my motives and
the ample provocation. I had never
theless committed "A breach of dis
clpiine and did not care to appear to
take advantage of the fortunate
issue of the incident: and partly he
cause ] wished to avoid any appear-
ance OF going over the head of Ad-
miral TGylor-a friend as well as
my superior. As a matter Of fact 4,
was some time-nearly two years
atter my appointment as director Of
target practice that first came into
direct and intimate association with
Theodore Roosevelt. and it came to
pass in this manner.
one day I chancei 10 meet the
Secretary OF the Navy. had not
even called upon him. The Secre-
tarN asked me IL 1 had ever called
upon the President.
i have never been near the Pres
ident" ] replied.
WHY" he askei
We'll. Mr.. Secretary" l said, "to
tell you the truth. I thought that he
would not care to, see me: I have
| neen lnsuhordinate, you know, and
II might embarrass US both
The Secretary advised me to leave
card. which ! did: perhaps he re-
portet the conversation. At any
rate I was promptly. invited TO the
white House to dinner. and IN.
President on that occasion showed
tire keenest interest in the progress
or Tunnery: he asked repeated
ores'i"ns and instructed me to keen
7 Informed regarding devel-
opments.