The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-05-07

NOrCn CdrOllnd, on WHICH impatient and, intolerant W serene and unselfish serviC
 The story of Josephus Daniels is a success story, written not in terms of wealth bus in terms of veneration and public esteem. Daniels father died when Jose phus was only two years old, and his mother opened a millinery store to support her three sons. From this, Daniels rose to become Secretary of the Navy fin the World War cabinet and to hold that post longer than any other man in history.
 A commOner like Bryan, for whose presidential campaigns he directed the publicity, Daniels has the saving grace of sense of hum0r. It enabled him to survive the period wIcn he was the most savageIy criticized member of the Wilson cntour- age, and to carry into his autumnal years the esteem which he won before his eight cabinet years were over.
 The early days in the Cabinet were not comfortable for Daniels. A man of humble origin, he un- dertook to reform the Navy in the interest of the common man. He insisted on promotion from the ranks, inaugurated the prac- tice of making 100 enlisted men eligible for the Naval Academy each year, and insisted on im- partiality between the quarter deck and the forecastle. He fought what he called "the fetish of seniority"
 Naval NeWspaperman
 In this attack, and in the ruling he made that no wines or liquors be served on ships of the United States navy, he ran 1Ieadlong into trouble with the gentlemen of the service" who regarded the Navy as a reservation for aristo- cratS.
 There was also general criti- cism that he was unqualified for office. What can a newspaper editor know about ships?" was the question hurled at him. It was well known that he had raised more than $25,000 for the Democratic campaign fund, that as editor of The Raleigh News and Observer he had supported Woodrow Wilson. His appoint ment, it was charged, merely was in payment for political debt.
 The question of Daniels con- potency became more serious when the United States, entered the War, and within a few months a Congressional Investigation was ordered of-the conduct of the Navy. But by this time the rec ord was so impressive-the Navy having accomplished the amaz- ing task of creating a "bridge of ships" to transport troops across the Atlantic-that the findings of the inquiry were a personal tri- umph for Secretary Daniels.
 Daniels and Roosevelt
 During the important staff con- ferences which came almost daily during the war period, Daniels was a forceful participant, though sometimes less quick -witted than his Assistant Secretary, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had the repu- tation of grasping the problems more readily than the secreatry himself. One of the first diplo- matic appointments of that same Roosevelt in 1883 was to send Daniels to Mexico as ambassador.
 Secretary Daniels was good-na- tured, in the easy, diSarming man. ner of a commoner who has made his way by friendliness. When he disapproved of a letter or or der submitted to him, he would give 1t private burIa:, instead or sending it back with an open vote. 0uCll JdIltlS WOuiu bS bSl'SoiDNN in the two lower drawers of his desk and nothing said about them. When his clerks caught onto this habit, they nicknamed those drawers "the seWer".
 Baseball Fan
 Daniels said with boyish grin that as Secretary of the Navy he had achieved two of the desires nearest his heart: to be manager of a big baseball team, and to hear a good brass band play every day. The Navy gave him a num- Der of service teams to play with and brass bands galore.
 Baseball was 8 craze with Daniels as a boy, and he rose to the dizzy heights of captain and manager of the Swiftfoot team In Wilson, N. c.
 It took a certain amount of
 money to reach this eminencc,
 but J0scphus provided 1t him
 self. His mother, who had