The Wilmington morning star., 1941-01-20

= SAS@9 NAAA -I
which irradiated your face with a
smile of satisfaction"
l recall distinctly n time Wnen
there was a clash between FRANK
lin and myself. It was the only one
in which I felt it necessary to APP
peal to Woodrow Wilson to support
my position, and I won. Not long
after the fficial declaration that a
state of war existed between this
country and the imperial govern
ment of Germany Woodrow Will
son always used that term instead
of war between the people OF these
countries). Franklin Roosevelt
came into my office one morning
more serious than usual and in
formed me that he felt it his duty
to enter the war in the combat
service and wished to tender his
resignation as Assistant Secretary
of the Navy and 60 to the front
in uniform. He had favored this
country's entrance into the World
War in advance of the President,
the Secretary of War, and the Sec
rotary of the Navy. He, therefor,
declared he did not feel he could
resist the urge to enlist at once.
II told him that as Assistant Secre-
tary of the Navy, with his exper-
fence and knowledge, he could do
an hundredfold more to win the
war than as a fighter in the ranks
that the big job in the Navy was
to see that it measured up to its
best traditions, and be ready to
pass from peace to wal conditions
for the great task before it.
"But I feel" he insisted, Il must
get into the war in my own per-
son. You can find a man of ability
to take my place here"
I thought I knew two things:
First, that he would count many
times more in the great expansion
and effectiveness of the Navy than
if he should don a uniform and
shoulder a rifle; and, second, that
in the emergency, there was no
man so qualified as he to do the
team work required to make every
unit of the Navy fit and ready,
and on it's toes. He insisted that
he must follow the call to enlist,
and when my argument did not dis
| suade him from what he believed
the more impelling duty, I called
upon President Wilson to cast the
deciding vote. He agreed that I'M
der a proper Interpretation of the
selective draft it was the duty of
Franklin Roosevelt to r in the
place to which the Commander-in-
Chief of the Army and Navy as
signed him. He said:
TELL the militant young man that
I assign him to serve as Assistant
Secretary of the Navy, and I say
as Commandments Of the
Army and Navy that he can serve
his country better in that position
than in any other way, and that it
is his duty to carry on in war in
cooperation with us to make the
Navy truly the first and most eff
fective first-line of national
strength. 1 have sometimes envied
the young men who were barring
their breasts to the enemy, but I
must stay in the position to which
I have been called. Neither you
nor I, o Franklin Roosevelt has
the right to select the place of
service to which u country has
assigned us. Tell him I direct him
to stay put under the principle of
selection"
With a cheerful AYE, aye, SIR"
Franklin obeyed the direction of
our Chief, sometimes restless in
the early days to get across as a
member of the American Expedi-
tionary Force. However, as III e
war progressed, he went to Europe,
voyaging across the ocean in a
destroyer through stormy waters,
to oversee and advance naval con-
tribution and to cooperate in ex-
pediting the construction of the
barrages in the North Sea and in
the Adriatic. After the Armistice
he was commissioned to superin-
tend the after-War activities of the
Navy in Europe. He dedicated all
he was and was an inspiration to
his associates in the Strengthening
of the Navy. The organization of
that branch of the service, though
largely expanded, was not changed
a whit in passing from peace to
war time.
These memories of the youthful
Roosevelt would have little in
terest today if they did not serve
to anticipate the high place he was
to occupy in the life of the republic
and to justify the unprecedented
confidence the Amer can people
have shown in him as a man and
as Chief Executive, a confidence
based on his devotion to the COM
mon veal and the welfare of men
too long forgotten. On the basis
of these memories naturally I am
proud if I was once the boss of
the man who is the boss of all OF
us now. But I am more than proud;
I am confident of ! i'm. We know
the strength of materials by the
loads they will, bear. I know the
material in this man by the
SCrengLn ne gave 1olS OeIoie Ile
was a world leader in the building
of the Navy-in that Nays fight,
a fight glorious for democracy even
if the world was not made safe for
it.
1 knew what sort of man he was
that dark day in 1888 when he de-
clared that "the only thing we
have to fear is fear itself-name-
less, unreasoning, ~unjustified ter
ror, which paralyzes needed efforts