xiii INTRODUCTORY PROCEEDINGS. 
cruisers is the most wonderful of all steps in the progress of designing skill, for in these 
ships are massed unprecedented power and unequaled speed and means of offense. 
These facts are enough to fire your enthusiasm, but if you have listened with fair atten- 
tion you have noted that there has been no indulgence in heroics. I trust, however, that you 
will have observed an underlying note of absolute faith in the future position and prosperity 
of our country, which must also carry with it the prosperity of those who build, own, oper- 
ate and use our ships. 
I see no chance of failure in the futute. We need men, but they will come from the 
warring nations, tired of their systems of government and rejoicing to become American 
citizens. Men, too, will be raised to find their opportunity in the steadily alive shipyards 
of the future. : 
Our nation will again be a great maritime nation, holding its own among the other great 
nations of the earth. i 
To feel otherwise would be a confession that our great republic—now 141 years old— 
is a failure in self-government, enterprise, industry, efficiency and foresight, an appalling 
failure in those qualities that make men and great nations. This surely cannot be, it must 
not be. 
The reading of President Taylor’s address was greeted with much applause. 
THE PrEsIDENT:—I take great pleasure in acknowledging gratefully the following 
sources of information for the details in the president’s address :— 
U. S. Navy Department. 
U. S. Department of Commerce. 
Hon. E. T. Chamberlain, Commissioner of Navigation. 
H. L. Aldrich, International Marine Engineering. 
Engineering of London. 
Liverpool Journal of Commerce. 
New York Journal of Commerce. 
Marine Journal of New York. 
Sir Norman Hill, President of Liverpool Steamship Owners’ Association. 
Lloyd’s Shipping Agency. 
Lloyd’s Registry. 
American Bureau of Shipping. 
War Loans and War Finances issued by the Mechanics and Metals National Bank of 
New York. 
The next in the order of exercises is the reading of papers, and I wish to call to your at- 
tention a notice that has been given heretofore, and is still in force, that the reading of papers 
is limited to five minutes. We have a number of papers, perhaps too many for the time at our 
disposal, and the enforcement of this rule must be made in order that all of the papers may 
receive due consideration. 
Paper No. 1 is entitled “New Method of Indicating the Density of Smoke as Installed on 
the U. S. S. Conynham,” by Admiral R. T. Hall, U. S. Navy, Member. If the author is 
present we will be glad to have him come forward and present the paper. As he is not 
present, we will consider that the paper is read by title. 
