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Show NAVY IS PREPARED FOR EMERGENCIES SECRETARY DANIELS SAYS OUR NAVY IS IN THE BEST OF SHAPE IN CASE OF WAR. Two Hundred and Twenty-five Vessels Now in Commission, One Hundred Hun-dred in Reserve and 77 Under Construction. Washington. Secretary Daniels on Sunday made public a letter he has written to President Garfield of Williams Wil-liams college, detailing the work in the navy during the last two years. Mr. Daniels wrote in reply to Mr. Garfield's Gar-field's request for material to meet statements that the United States is unprepared for military emergencies. Secretary Daniels says there are j now in active service fully commissioned commis-sioned 225 vessels of all characters, which is thirty-six more than were fully commissioned when he became secretary. There are also 101 vessels of various types in reserve and in ordinary or-dinary and uncommissioned, capable of rendering service in war. We havej under construction and authorized seventy-seven vessels (nine dread-naughts, dread-naughts, twenty-three destroyers, thirty-eight submarines and seven auxiliaries), auxil-iaries), as compared with fifty-four vessels (five dreadnaughts, fourteen destroyers, twenty-three submarines, three gunboats and nine auxiliaries), which were under construction on March 1, 1913. All the vessels enumerated, those in active service and those in reserve, are supplied with munitions of war. No navy makes public the quantity of ammunition and torpedoes, mines and other implements of naval warfare wrhich it keps ready. The personnel of the navy is at present composed of 4,355 line, staff and warrant officers, and 83,171 enlisted en-listed men. Increases in the number of officers is dependent almost entirely entire-ly upon the output of the naval academy, acad-emy, admission to which is restricted by statute. The number of enlisted men also is restricted, and the navy is today recruited to the maximum strength allowed. There are now with the colors 5,824 more men an increase in-crease of 12 per cent, than there were on March 1, 1914. |