Our Navy at war

by Josephus Daniels

I also informed him of the result of the important conference we had held that morning with shipbuilders to secure rapid construction of additional destroyers. Before that time we had always insisted upon and been able to secure "fixed price" contracts, under which it could be known precisely what a vessel would cost, the builders being under bond to deliver it to us at the price agreed upon. But this was no longer possible. With the rising cost of labor and materials, the builders were unwilling to name specific figures. Reluctantly, I agreed to a contract based on actual cost of construction with ten per cent profit. Destroyers were sorely needed, we wanted all the shipyards could build, and expedition was worth all it might cost. As a matter of fact, no other construction during the war was accomplished with so little increased cost.

That night the President signed the order directing that the authorized enlisted strength of the Navy be increased to 87,000 men, and the next day I sent a telegram to the newspapers of the country, more than a thousand of them, asking them to print the order on the first page and also make an editorial appeal for recruits, saying:

New ships and ships in reserve are being fully commissioned as rapidly as possible, and the need is imperative for a larger enlistment to man them. There has been a net increase of over 6,500 in enlistment since Congress recently authorized an increase, but many more are needed and needed now.

This appeared in nearly every paper in the United States, and most of them accompanied it with an editorial. It was an example of the fine spirit of coöperation and patriotism shown by the American press during the entire war. Every recruiting station was telegraphed to increase the force and to engage doctors to examine applicants, so there would be no delay. Within a few hours after the President signed the order to increase the Navy, the recruiting campaign was under way in every part of the Union.

Thursday afternoon at 4:30 o'clock, as I was holding the daily interview with the press, President Wilson, unannounced, came into the Navy Department. It was several minutes before I knew he was there. There had been a rapid fire of interrogations and answers between the Secretary and the correspondents when an officer came to my desk and said, "The President is here." He was sitting quietly at the other end of the big room, listening to the cross-examination which a cabinet officer undergoes at the hands of press representatives twice every day. And they always ask "searching questions." As soon as the newspaper men knew the President was in the room, they lost all interest in me and I asked to be excused from further questioning.

"Do you have to undergo that ordeal every day?" Mr. Wilson asked.

"Yes, twice every day," was my reply; "but it is not usually an ordeal. Being a newspaper man myself, I recall that most of my life has been spent in doing to other public officers what those reporters are doing to me—and, besides, I rather like it."

What to do with the interned German ships was still a puzzling and undecided question, and that was one of the matters that Mr. Wilson had come to discuss.

"We must keep in close touch," he said, as he opened the conversation. He spoke of the submarine situation and the interned ships, and then showed me a letter from a man of importance to the effect that an Austrian had arrived in the United States on a submarine, had called upon the Austrian Consul at New York, and given him important papers which had been brought from Europe in the undersea boat. He understood that two submarines had come over from Germany, the writer said.

While this seemed improbable, a telegram was sent in code to all naval commanders and stations to be on the lookout. That night a message was received from the Commandant of the New York district that two submarines had been sighted off Montauk Point. Destroyers and motor boats were sent there to search the vicinity.