Evening star., 1934-09-20
NAVY IS ASSURED
SECOND TONONE"
Assistant Secretary RooSe.
Welt Tells Radio Forum
Audience Progress.
America now has in prospect Navy

America now has in prospect Navy
second to none.
This message was given to the coun-
try last night by Henry L. Roosevelt,
Assistant Secretary of the Navy,
speaking in the National Radio Forum,
arranged by The Star and broadcast
over Nationwide network OF the Ma
tional Broadcasting Co.
Discussing the building program
undertaken by the administration to
bring the Navy up to treaty strength,
Mr.. Roosevelt said the sea establish
ment is rs ships short, but something
is being done about it
One handicap the Navy faces Is
lack Of personnel, the Assistant Sec
retary continued. the force being only
about 83 per cent OF requirements.
IS Per Cent Danger Point.
"Anything below IS per cent
strength is dangerous" he continued,
"and it is hoped and confidently ex-
pected that this situation will be REM
edied."
Mr.. Roosevelt also bespoke the need
for an adequate merchant marine, in
ferentially taking issue with a recent
statement by Secretary of Agriculture
Wallace in opposition to this view.
Pointing out the difficulties into
which this Government was plunged
at the outbreak of the World War be-
cause it did not have sufficient mer-
chantmen to carry on its trade, Roose-
welt said, I'VE cannot afford again to
ha Y,1arad in S,1pb T1OSjtiOn
Address in Full.
The text of his speech follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Radio
Forum:
I am glad of this opportunity to
report on our progress, during the
past year toward goal important to
every Americana Navy adequate in
strength and properly balanced.
An adequate Navy is now fixed by
international treaties. To obtain such
a Navy, it is therefore only necessary
to build to treaty strength in accord
ance with our obligations under those
treaties A balanced navy is one in
which not only the number and types
of ships are properly proportioned-
and this is to a large extent taken
care of by the treatieS-but one in
which ships, personnel and shore es-
Establishments are properly proportioned
and maintained so as to obtain the
highest efficiency Of the fleet.
The navy of today consists of many
types, each planned and constructed
for a specific mission. and the whole
assembly of types co-ordinated and
administered toward the accomplish
ment of the great mission of the
Navy - our national defense - along
such lines as our national policies
and requirements indicate.
Principal Types in Navy.
In the navies of the world the prin-
cipal types are: First, battleShipS, the
shj~S with heavy guns and heavy ar
ma, the weapons of decision in every
important naval encounter; then the
heavy and the light cruisers, designed
for speed and hardness and held
available for scouting and for the pro-
lection of merchant shipping and the
patrolling Of sea lanes, with sufficient
gun power to enable them to give
proper account of themselves in case
of engagement with ships less powerful
than battleships; then the destroyers,
faster and lighter than the cruisers,
carrying torpedoeS as their principal
weapons. and operating at sea as the
light forces of the great fleet; aircraft
carriers, which transport groups of
airplaneS for scouting and observation,
for bombing operations and for aerial
combat; and the submarines, for the
extension of operations, either often
sively or defensively. beneath the sur
face of the sea. To these principal
combatant types are added also the
mine layers and mine sweepers, the
repair ships that accompany the fleet,
the hospital ships and the very neces-
sary fuel and supply ships-all grouped
under the classification of the fleet
train.
Behind the forces afloat, as organ
lied into their several tactical and
administrative units, there stands the
naval shore eStablishment-the navy
yards and naval bases, whose task is
maintenance, upkeep and supply for
the ships at sea, and in which at least
half OF our new ships are being built
All this is material. Behind and
over it and through it live and work
the officers and men of the naval serv-
ice who wear the uniform and make
the whole thing go. The U. S. Naval
Service, which is to say the line and
staff of the Navy and Marine Corps
is one Of the most complex and human
organizations in the world, and I am
very proud to add, most devoted and
competent.
Compares Old and New.
What I have outlined to YOU. so
briefly, is the growth of $50 years of
naval development. 1t Is a far cry
from the few and scattered frigates of
the Revolution, which were the first to
fly the Stars and Stripes on salt water,
to the great fleet that steamed into
New York Harbor a few months ago.
At one end you have the old Consti-
tuition and the scratch crews of John
Paul Jones, Hull and Truxtun, recruit
ed obviously along the wharves and
driven to their work by hard boiled
bos'ns, and at the other our mod
ern shipS-battleships, carriers, heavy
and light cruisers, destroyers and sub
marines, which represent, in their
construction and their operation, the
ultimate triumphs of scientific age.
and in their officers and men the
finest types of our American people
1t is logical that, with such an estab-
liShment to operate and maintain,
there must be in effect certain con-
sistent naval policies.
A ship grows old. becomes obsolete
and is no longer capable of perform
Ing her assigned mission; officers and
men, the human material, must be
kept abreast of the times The as
poets Of international affairs develop,
change, turn into situations different
from last years situations. In this
world nothing stands still: it goes
ahead or it goes back. 1t grows or it
rotS. And the Navy, which for all its
mechanization and the turbines that
have replaced the sails, and the great
guns that strike across the curve of
the world, where Decatur's target was
a ship a hundred yards from his
smooth-bore cannon, remains an or
ganiZation intensely human. and must