Enlisted Men: The Foundation 

 of the American Navy 



By Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy 



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ONE of the curious and unexpect- 

 ed things which I have found 

 since I assumed the duties of 

 Secretary of the Navy has been the 

 effect of a too near point of view in 

 destroying the perspective of some of 

 our ablest Naval Officers as to what 



Loading a four-inch gun in battle prac- 

 tice on the cleared deck of a torpedo 

 boat 



the subordination of everything con- 

 nected with the Navy to its military 

 functions really means, and how far 

 back military preparation must begin. 

 As each new civilian Secretary of 

 the Navy assumes office, it has of an- 

 cient custom been regarded by the 

 service as necessary for the Naval of- 

 ficers with whom he comes in imme- 

 diate contact in the Department to im- 

 press upon him that the Navy is a 

 fighting machine, that its sole purpose 

 and reason for existence is to fight and 

 fight effectively, and that everything 

 that is done must be done with this 

 foundation principle constantly in 

 mind. This is an almost self-evident 

 truth, and it would be indeed a dull 

 mind that could not grasp it and 

 agree, but in the carrying out of this 

 principle there is, I find, a tendency to 

 begin at the top, and, working down 

 towards the foundation of things, to 

 stop suddenly before the bottom is 



171 



