X
THE NAVY DEPARTMENT, 1897-1911
The Spanish-American War was the principal event in the history of the navy and the Navy Department during the period 1897-1911, and by reason of its epoch-making results it has been the chief factor in shaping the recent naval policy of the United States. The war gave an impetus to every naval activity. It accelerated the building of ships, the increase of officers and seamen, the improvement of the navy yards and the establishment of naval stations, coaling depots, magazines and hospitals. It left its mark upon the organization of the Navy Department and of the naval service. Its effect upon the amalgamation of the line and the engineers and upon the provision of adequate educational facilities for naval officers was far-reaching. Since the war the improvement in the materiel and the personnel of the navy has gone on hand in hand. As a result of the brilliant victories of Dewey and Sampson, which greatly popularized the navy, large sums of money have been freely granted for naval purposes.
For a little more than half of the decade 1897-1907, the Secretary of the Navy was John D. Long, of Massachusetts. Entering the department in March, 1897, as the New England member of McKinley's cabinet, he served through McKinley's two administrations and a part of the first administration of Roosevelt. He had had a varied political career as a member of the Massachusetts legislature, governor of his state and one of its representatives in Congress. Secretary Long was conservative, steady-going and of a judicial temperament. In his love of books, gift of diction, integrity of character and ethical view-point, he was a typical New Englander. He had published a translation of the Æneid and a volume of after-dinner speeches, and, soon after his resignation from the secretaryship in 1902, he issued a book on the "New American Navy." His habits were exceedingly democratic, and, in Massachusetts where he was familiarly known as "Governor Long," he was popular with all classes. His appearance was plain, but striking; and is still vividly recalled by the employees of the department. He was short and stout, with broad, stocky shoulders, topped with an enormous head. He came promptly and early to office, and usually carried with him a green bag well stuffed with documents and papers. His rusty silk hat and cheap suit of ready-made clothes contrasted oddly with the dress of his polished and well-groomed colleague in the State Department, the late John Hay. In a novel published some years ago, one of the characters, "Mr. William Shortley, commonly called Billy Shortlegs," was modelled after Mr. Long. Shortley was "very popular, well up in classics, and stands a good chance of being governor some day." He was a "short man, with a corpulent body and a large, open face; but he was a born orator of a certain type. Rounded and polished, mellow and musical, his sentences rolled from his mouth in liquid cadence and perfect balance. Sir Hugh put him down as his ideal after-dinner speaker. He made his points, clearly, neatly, and with occasional vigor that was always surprising.”229
229Hoar, Autobiography, 1, 299.
On May 1, 1902, Secretary Long was succeeded by W. H. Moody, of Massachusetts, and after a little more than two years of service, Moody, on July 1, 1904, yielded his position to Paul Morton, of Illinois. One year later Morton resigned, and Charles J. Bonaparte, of Maryland, became Secretary of the Navy. On December 17, 1906, Bonaparte gave way to Victor H. Metcalf, of California, who, on December 1, 1908, was succeeded by Truman H. Newberry, of Michigan, Roosevelt's fifth and last Secretary of the Navy. President Taft's choice for the naval office was George von L. Meyer, of Massachusetts. Moody's career in the House of Representatives, where he served in the 54th, 55th, 56th and 57th Congresses, recommended him as a man of ability and integrity. Following the precedent established by two of his predecessors in the department, Thompson and Woodbury, Moody became a justice of the Supreme Court. Morton's success in administering railroads and manufacturing industries seems to have been his principal recommendation for the secretaryship. The choice of a man of affairs to be Secretary of the Navy was in a way a return to an earlier practice, which obtained before 1818, when the rule of the lawyers and statesmen in the department began. Morton was the second incumbent of the secretaryship to hail from an inland state, and Newberry the third. Bonaparte was an intimate friend of President Roosevelt, whom he somewhat resembles in character. Both are independent in temper, zealous for reform, fearless in initiative and strenuous for their ideals. Metcalf is the first man from the Pacific Coast to become Secretary of the Navy. He had been a member of Congress and Secretary of the Department of Commerce and Labor. Long, Moody, Bonaparte and Metcalf were bred to the law. Newberry and Meyer were capitalists and men of affairs.
Secretary Long's Assistant Secretary of the Navy for a little more than a year of his administration was Theodore Roosevelt, of New York, a most picturesque and masterful personality. He served from April, 1897, until May, 1898. In the Navy Department Roosevelt displayed his well-known qualities of omniscience, quickness on the trigger, self-confidence and indefatigable industry. Early in his life he became interested in the navy, and at the age of twenty-four published a history of the Naval War of 1813. He brought to the assistant-secretaryship a considerable first-hand knowledge of naval history and naval affairs. During his brief term in the department, he greatly magnified his office, and made himself felt as an influential factor in naval administration. Possessed with unusual powers for acquiring information, he left the department with a rather extensive knowledge of the navy, and certainly with decided opinions in respect to it. As President of the United States, these have stood him in good stead. In his first message to Congress not less than one hundred specific points connected with the navy were raised and discussed. His judgment of naval affairs was not infrequently better informed than that of his secretaries of the navy, several of whom were wholly unacquainted with their duties on first entering upon them.230 Indeed, outside of the naval officers, few men in official life had a more intimate knowledge of the navy and its wants than President Roosevelt. Its rapid enlargement formed a most important part of his policy of rampant nationalism. Roosevelt is one of the very few presidents who have been strong, positive factors in the administration of the navy.
230United Service, ser. 3, V, 291; Army and Navy Journal, XXXIX, 61.
Secretary Long's book, the New American Navy, contains a vivid characterization by the author of his chief civilian assistant in the Navy Department:
"Mr. Roosevelt was an interesting personality as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, as, indeed, he is in any capacity. There were several candidates for the place, which President McKinley allowed me to fill. In May, 1897, on the retirement of Mr. McAdoo, an excellent official under the previous administration, who had consented to hold over till that time, I selected Mr. Roosevelt, who had had, and indeed has had to this day, a hearty interest in the navy. His activity was characteristic. He was zealous in the work of putting the navy in condition for the apprehended struggle. His ardor sometimes went faster than the President or the department approved. Just before the war, when the Spanish battle-fleet was on its way here, he as well as some naval officers, regarding that as a cause of war, approved of sending a squadron to meet it without waiting for a more formal declaration of war. He worked indefatigably, frequently incorporating his views in memoranda which he would place every morning on my desk. Most of his suggestions had, however, as far as was applicable, been already adopted by the various bureaus, the chiefs of which were straining every nerve and leaving nothing not done. When I suggested to him that some future historian reading his memoranda, if they were put on record, would get the impression that the bureaus were inefficient, he accepted the suggestion with the generous good nature which is so marked in him. Indeed, nothing could be pleasanter than our relations. He was heart and soul in his work. His typewriters had no rest. He, like most of us, lacks the rare knack of brevity. He was especially stimulating to the younger officers, who gathered about him and made his office as busy as a hive. He was especially helpful in the purchasing of ships and in every line where he could push on the work of preparation for war. Almost as soon, however, as it was declared, he resigned his assistant secretaryship of the navy to accept the lieutenant-colonelcy of the Rough Rider regiment in the army. Together with many of his friends, I urged him strenuously to remain in the navy, arguing that he would there make a signal reputation, and that to go into the army would be only to fight mosquitos on the Florida sands or fret in camp at Chickamauga. How right he was in his prognosis and how wrong we were in ours, the result has shown. He took the straight course to fame, to the governorship of New York and to the presidency of the United States. He has the dash of Henry of Navarre without any of his vices.231
231Long, New American Navy, II, 173-175.
On May 11, 1898, Charles H. Allen, of Massachusetts, Roosevelt's successor, became Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He brought to his task a thorough training in business and an aptness for administrative work. On April 21, 1900, Allen resigned to become governor of Porto Rico, and was succeeded by Frank W. Hackett, of Washington, D. C. Hackett was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and during the Civil War was a member of the naval pay corps. He served until December 16, 1901, when Judge Charles H. Darling, of Vermont, became Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Darling was a decisive man, with a judicial temper and a sound judgment. On November 1, 1905, he was succeeded by Truman H. Newberry, of Michigan. Newberry had seen service in the navy during the Spanish-American War. He was succeeded on December 1, 1908, by Herbert L. Satterlee, of New York, who served until the end of Roosevelt's administration. President Taft's Assistant Secretary of the Navy was Beekman Winthrop, of Massachusetts.
The war of 1898 and the rapid expansion of the navy succeeding greatly increased the work of the naval bureaus. Secretary Long on more than one occasion testified to the professional skill, valuable counsel and painstaking labors of his bureau chiefs, and he said that the importance of their services during the war was too little known and that they, as well as the commanders of ships, ought to be rewarded for conspicuous merit. The chiefs of the several bureaus during the war of 1898 were as follows: Bureau of Navigation, Commodore A. S. Crowninshield; Bureau of Equipment, Commodore Royal B. Bradford; Bureau of Ordnance, Commodore Charles O'Neill; Bureau of Yards and Docks, Commodore M. T. Endicott; Bureau of Construction and Repair, Commodore Philip Hichborn ; Bureau of Steam Engineering, Commodore George W. Melville; Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, Commodore Edwin Stewart; and Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Commodore William K. Van Reypen. The head of the Marine Corps was Colonel-Commandant Charles Haywood.
Endicott, who was appointed chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks on the recommendation of Secretary Long, was a civil engineer of the navy. Previous to his appointment, this position had been filled by a line officer, who of course had no expert knowledge of civil engineering. Information of this sort is highly valuable to the chief of this bureau, since he is principally engaged in the improving of navy yards and naval stations and in the construction of buildings and docks. In 1901 F. T. Bowles, a brilliant young naval constructor, succeeded Rear Admiral Hichborn as chief of the Bureau of Construction and Repair, a position of great importance. In 1903 Rear Admiral Melville, who had been chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering since 1887, was succeeded by Chief Engineer C. W. Rae. In 1902 Rear Admiral C. H. Taylor took the place of Rear Admiral Crowninshield as head of the Bureau of Navigation. Various other changes in the headships of the bureaus have been made from time to time. An assistant to the chief of the Bureau of Ordnance was authorized in 1898.
By all odds the most important addition made to the administrative machinery of the Navy Department for many years was that of the General Board, which was established in 1900. An account of this organization, however, is appropriately preceded by a brief description of a temporary board of a somewhat similar character, which was organized to assist the Secretary of the Navy in conducting the war with Spain. The "Naval War Board" or "Naval Strategy Board" was created in the spring of 1898, with the following membership: Rear Admiral Montgomery Sicard, Commodore A. S. Crowninshield, who was at that time chief of the Bureau of Navigation, Captain A. S. Barker and Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, chairman ex officio. In May Captain A. T. Mahan (retired) became a member of the board, and Captain Barker and Assistant Secretary Roosevelt severed their connection with it. At one time an army officer reported as a member. During the greater part of the war it consisted of Sicard, Crowninshield and Mahan, the two last-named officers being its most active members. It was closely connected with the Bureau of Navigation. The board was dissolved in the fall of 1898, shortly after the war had been concluded.
The principal duties of the Naval War Board were to collect military information, to prepare strategical plans of war, to advise the Secretary of the Navy in regard to questions of naval strategy and policy, and to assist him in conducting the naval war. It gathered information respecting the movements, resources, conditions and plans of the Spanish naval forces. Its two principal agents abroad were Ensigns W. H. Buck and H. H. Ward. These officers travelled under assumed names and characters, representing themselves as Englishmen. In reporting the movements of Admiral Cervera's fleet, Ward visited Cadiz, Gibraltar, the Madeiras, St. Thomas and Porto Rico, and several times narrowly escaped detection. Buck followed the course of Admiral Camara's fleet through the Mediterranean, going as far east as Port Said. On the retrograde movement of Camara, he returned to Algiers. These two officers had many thrilling experiences, and exhibited much cleverness and sagacity in executing their difficult and delicate missions. The Naval War Board performed its part in the war with signal success and distinction, and to the great satisfaction of Secretary Long, who said that it did not make a single error, and that its deliberations were distinguished by wise judgment, comprehensive forethought and a competency to every contingency.232
232House Doc., 55C. 3S., No. 3, 33-34; Army and Navy Journal, XXXV, 669, 703. 771, 1079.
Shortly after the Naval War Board was dissolved, a movement for the establishment of a somewhat similar organization was set on foot. It was argued that a permanent war board would do away with the necessity of extemporizing a temporary administrative organ in case of another naval war. The friends of the movement, however, laid most stress upon the need of an organization within the department for the performance of a number of highly-important naval duties, which properly fell to none of the several bureaus and offices, and which therefore were not well done. Among these duties were the preparation of plans for war, the study of strategical problems, the collection of military information, the co-ordination of the work of the bureaus, and the advising of the Secretary of the Navy. Some of the critics of the movement saw in it merely another attempt of the line officers of the higher ranks to gain control over naval administration, and they asserted that the proposed duties of the new board were already adequately performed by the Naval War College, Naval Intelligence Office, Bureau of Navigation, Office of the Secretary of the Navy, or some other administrative division of the department. They thought that they discovered in Admiral Dewey's "general board" or "general staff the reappearance of Admiral Farragut's "board of admiralty," or of Admiral Porter's "board of control." The arguments now used, however, were somewhat different from the old ones. Formerly, the need of a unifying and advising power in the department was emphasized, while now the need of some organization to prepare plans of war and other military information was chiefly dwelt upon.
The name generally given to the proposed board was the “general staff," or the "naval general staff." Several years before the war of 1898, the need, or alleged need, of our navy for an organization of this sort had been pointed out by some of the naval officers. European practice, they said, had clearly established the great value of a general staff. The "military general staff" originated in Sweden when Gustavus Adolphus made his army the model of the civilized world. Thence it found its way into Prussia under the Great Elector. In Germany it had had a natural growth and development for two hundred and fifty years. The present German general staff contains some eight hundred officers, and its organization is quite complicated. The grafting of this institution upon the American navy was not contemplated. What was proposed was the introduction of a highly-modified form of the German or European general staff.233
233United Service, ser. 3, V, 2.
In the winter of 1899-1900 Captain Henry C. Taylor, who had given much consideration to the subject of naval administration, submitted to Secretary Long a memorandum setting forth the duties and organization of a general staff and the needs of the navy for such an institution. Long did not wholly agree with Taylor, and he was opposed to the establishment of a general staff upon the plan suggested by its friends. He could not see his way clear to do more than to organize a general navy board, which he effected by an order of the department, dated March 13, 1900. The General Board was to be composed of the following officers: the Admiral of the Navy, who was to act as president, the chief of the Bureau of Navigation, who was to preside in the absence of the president, the chief intelligence officer and his principal assistant, the president of the Naval War College and his principal assistant, and three other naval officers of or above the grade of lieutenant commander. The chief of the Bureau of Navigation was to be the custodian of the plans of campaign and of other military information prepared by the board. The duties of the new organization were not specified in detail. Its purpose was "to insure efficient preparation of the fleet in case of war and for the naval defense of the coast." It was to meet at least once a month, and two of its sessions each year were to extend over a period of not less than one week each, during which time it was to meet daily. Five members were to form a quorum.234
On April 16, 1901, the provision respecting membership was modified,235 and the board was made to consist of the following officers: Admiral George Dewey, president; the chief of the Bureau of Navigation, the chief intelligence officer, the president of the Naval War College, and such other officers of or above the grade of lieutenant commander as the department may designate. In April, 1902, the board comprised eleven members; and in April, 1904, thirteen. On the latter date four additional officers were on duty with the board, and two officers were engaged under its direction in the study of target practice. Counting its members and its assistants, the board at this time consisted of nineteen officers.
234Long, New American Navy, I, 123-124; General Orders of Navy Dept., No. 544.
235General Orders of Navy Dept., No. 43.
The Regulations for the Government of the Navy issued in 1905 again changed the membership of the board, which was made to consist of the four officers specifically enumerated above, and of such additional officers above the grade of commander as may be necessary to maintain the total membership at seven. An officer above the grade of lieutenant was to act as secretary, and was to record the proceedings of the board and have charge and custody of its files and correspondence. When the exigencies of the service permitted, the department was to order to appear before the board, upon its request, officers of special experience or fitness whose knowledge and suggestions might be of assistance in its deliberations. Such officers might take part in the discussions, but they could not act as members. The regulations for 1905 specified with considerable detail the duties of the board. It was to devise measures and plans for the effective preparation and maintenance of the fleet for war, and was to advise the Secretary of the Navy as to the disposition and distribution of the fleet and as to the re-enforcements of ships, officers, seamen and marines. It was to prepare and revise plans of naval campaigns, and was to consider the number and types of ships proper for the fleet, and the number and rank of the Officers and the number and ratings of the enlisted men. It was to advise the Secretary of the Navy concerning the location and arrangements of coaling depots, naval stations and depots of ordnance and supplies. It was to undertake the co-ordinating of the work of the Naval War College, Office of Naval Intelligence and Board of Inspection and Survey, and it was to consider and report upon naval operations, maneuvers, tactics, organization and training. Finally, it was to perform such additional duties as might be prescribed from time to time by a competent authority.236
236Regulations for the Government of the Navy, 1905, pp. 12, 19.
Since its organization in 1900, some of the ablest officers of the navy have served on the General Board. It has prosecuted its work with vigor and success, and has collected much military information, prepared plans of war, constructed shipbuilding programs and advised the Secretary of the Navy upon professional subjects. It has largely extended the sphere of its powers and influence. According to Assistant Secretary Darling, the General Board, in 1904, was in practice the most influential and the most controlling force in the navy. Although it had no authority to issue orders, nevertheless, on a proposition fairly within its jurisdiction, it outweighed the judgment of any bureau. Both Secretary Long and Assistant Secretary Darling were of the opinion that it was encroaching on what they considered the field of civil administration. Darling's view may be obtained from his testimony before the House Committee on Naval Affairs, given in April, 1904:
I think the board has done some good work and is a good institution, but I would restrict rather than extend its powers and authority. The board has taken up a great many things that it ought not to. It has taken up the question of title to land—work that could be done in any law office, and which has no more military or tactical significance than the administration of a law office. It has undertaken the purchase of land. It has attempted to administer navy yards. It has undertaken to locate storehouses, machine shops, and other buildings within naval reservations. These questions are entirely without military significance. It has undertaken to inform the department what legislation was needed. It has devoted much time and attention to the reorganization of the Navy Department, as well the civilian as the military side. It has prepared and circulated much literature advocating a general staff. In short, it has already invaded the province of civil administration and planted there the standard of conquest.237
The advocates of a naval general staff were by no means willing to accept the General Board as a substitute for the more powerful organization, and they conducted a lively propaganda in its behalf. Nominally, the General Board had only advisory powers. The general staff, however, was to possess affirmative powers of administration and was to exercise more or less control over the bureaus. The directive force of the navy was to become naval or military, as is the case with European navies. As a matter of policy, these facts were not always put to the forefront, but sometimes they were clearly stated. Secretary Moody favored the organization of a naval general staff, and in his annual report for 1903 President Roosevelt warmly advocated it. As a step towards its introduction, it was proposed to obtain legislation legalizing or incorporating the General Board. With this in view a strong fight was made by the friends of the movement in the spring of 1904. Important hearings upon the proposed legislation were held before the House Committee on Naval Affairs. Among others, Secretary Moody and Admiral Dewey spoke in its behalf. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Darling vigorously opposed it. His exceedingly able argument went far towards causing the committee to drop the measure. The fight for a naval general staff has been merely postponed. The sentiment in favor of it among the older line officers of the navy is very powerful. Moreover, the army has obtained an organization of this sort, and the navy naturally feels that its claims and needs are as well founded as those of its sister-service.238
237Hearings before House Corn. on Naval Aff., April, 1904, pp. 927-935; Long, New American Navy, II, 183-185.
238Ann. Rept. of Sec. of N., 1905, pp. 3-6; Ann. Rept. of Bureau of
Nay., 1905, pp. 4-6; Ann. Mess. of Pres., 1903; Hearings before House
Com. on Naval Aff., April, 1904, pp. 909-991.
It is plain that the organization of a general staff involves some fundamental questions of naval administration. Not the least of these is the proper division of duties and powers between the civil and naval elements of the Navy Department. Without attempting to discuss this subject, a few observations on it may be ventured. That the military should be subordinate to the civil function is one of the unwritten laws of our government. The secretaries of the army and navy must therefore be civilians. Now, the selection of a civilian Secretary of the Navy involves the anomaly of placing an amateur or novice in naval affairs over a body of professional and expert naval men. Such a system has its obvious defects. It weakens the Navy Department at its apex. The secretariat fails to become an adequate correlating and unifying force. Unnecessary friction arises between the secretary, more or less ignorant of his duties, and his naval chiefs. The technical naval men have never welcomed the exercise of positive powers of direction and control by untechnical civilians. Undoubtedly naval affairs would be vastly better conducted could the Secretary of the Navy bring to his work a hand practised in naval administration, the knowledge and assurance which come from long experience in the navy or the department, and the full understanding of one who is familiar with the customs, traditions and prejudices of naval officers and with their habits of thought and action.
On the other hand, the present system possesses certain counter-balancing advantages. A civilian secretary provides the department with one of its greatest needs, a judicial and impartial mind that has no service prejudices. A naval officer as secretary could hardly keep a level keel amid the animosities and diverse interests of conflicting naval corps. A civilian secretary is more likely than a naval one to understand the temper of Congress, to work in harmony with it and to obtain the necessary means for conducting the navy. Moreover, the present system gives assurance that the civilian point of view shall have due weight in the department, where the naval point of view is adequately represented by the bureau chiefs. In a very real sense the Secretary of the Navy is a minister of the people sent to the department to represent their opinions and prejudices in the naval counsels. He mediates between the people and the navy.
In the practice of the Navy Department many unwritten laws, customs and usages have grown up. An accurate knowledge of them is difficult to obtain. Moreover, they differ somewhat under different administrations. In the official communication of bureau with bureau, or the secretary's office with the bureaus, custom and the orders of the department have definitely fixed the procedure. Thus, a uniform method of briefing, indexing and referring of letters and documents is followed. A sort of code of official routine has been evolved which methodizes and facilitates the business of the department. The routine of business within the bureaus is also fixed. Owing to the necessity for a division of labor, most of the bureaus fall into divisions which are unknown to the law. For instance, the "office of detail" still constitutes a well-defined division of the Bureau of Navigation. As its name indicates, the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts is composed of a division of supplies and a division of accounts. In the Bureau of Construction and Repair there is a division of drafting. The office of the Secretary of the Navy may be divided into the division of the Secretary of the Navy, the division of the Assistant Secretary, the division of the Disbursing Officer, and the division of the Chief Clerk. The latter officer is a most important one, having charge of the correspondence of the secretary's office, the expenditure of the contingent funds, and the civilian personnel of the department.
The duties of the Secretary of the Navy, and also his relations to the chiefs of bureaus, to the President and to Congress, are for the most part not determined by law, but fixed and sanctioned by precedents, customs and forgotten orders of the President. The practice of making an annual report is unknown to the law and did not exist in the early history of the department. The first annual report appeared in December, 1823. It is an invariable rule that a senator or representative who calls to see the Secretary of the Navy shall be admitted to him. There are many unwritten customs respecting naval legislation. The two naval committees of Congress practically decide the amount of the annual appropriations for the navy, the uses to which this money shall be applied and the numbers and types of new ships. In reaching conclusions, they are assisted by the Secretary of the Navy, the chiefs of bureaus and the members of the General Board, who are called before the committees to explain their estimates and recommendations and to give all sorts of naval information. The Secretary of the Navy is the servant of Congress as well as of the President. Conferences on naval problems are often held between the President and the members of the naval committees. It is scarcely too much to say that the Secretary of the Navy, the chiefs of naval bureaus, the members of the General Board, the President of the United States, the Speaker of the House and the leading members of the two naval committees, constitute a grand committee on naval legislation, whose members, by conference or otherwise, resolve differences, compromise conflicting interests, bring the legislature and executive to an understanding and reach an approximate agreement upon naval legislation.
Among the few duties of the Secretary of the Navy that are prescribed by statute are the preparing of estimates of the annual appropriations, and the reporting annually of the expenditures of the department, contracts for supplies, and the vessels and naval materials that have been sold. The laws sometimes authorize the Secretary of the Navy to perform some special duties, such as the appointment of a board of naval officers, the making of a specified contract, or the locating of a naval station. At the department, the chief duties of the secretary are the reception of visitors bound on public or private errands, the conferring with the principal officers of the department and the navy, the conducting of his official correspondence, and the signing of his name to numerous official letters and documents, such as naval contracts, orders for the payment of money, orders to officers and naval commissions. If he is a lawyer, he may spend considerable time in reading the proceedings of courts-martial. He acts as the governor or balance-wheel of the department, and may be called upon to settle the disputes which arise between the naval bureaus. Ordinarily, the administrative machinery runs of its own momentum, without unnecessary friction, and the secretary may absent himself from his office for considerable periods of time without much inconvenience to the department. Of the great mass of correspondence of the department, the secretary sees nothing. Only the most important papers come to him. A month or more may elapse between the visits to him of some of the chiefs of bureaus. On the other hand, the chief of the Bureau of Navigation consults with him almost daily. The bureaus are semi-independent principalities, whose obligations to their suzerain, the secretariat, are rather slight.
The duties of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy are fixed principally by the orders of the secretary, and only slightly by law and custom. They vary considerably with different administrations. They were somewhat limited by Secretary Long in April, 1897, but they were much increased during and after the war with Spain. The regulations for the government of the navy issued in 1900 assigned to the assistant secretary cognizance and general supervision of all matters relating to the "Islands of Guam and Tutuila and the United States naval stations in island possessions and elsewhere beyond the continental limits of the United States; vessels in building at navy-yards; repairs to vessels, ships fitting for sea; tugs and other boats for service at navy yards; the Marine Corps and applications of enlisted men thereof for discharge; the Naval Militia; the Naval War College; the Library and War Records Office; reports of boards of survey; surveys and appraisals afloat and ashore; the loaning of flags belonging to the navy." In December, 1901, the Naval War College was placed under the direction of the Bureau of Navigation. In the fall of 1905 the duties of the assistant secretary were considerably modified by Secretary Bonaparte. He was now relieved of much of his strictly routine work. He was required to make personal inspections of ships and naval stations, and to examine into the fitness of all candidates for commissions in those branches of the navy that are recruited from civil life.239
In February, 1899, Congress provided for the regular establishment of the Office of Naval Intelligence.240 This office had previously existed only by authority of the orders of the Navy Department. Some of its clerks were detailed from the bureaus, and others were paid out of the appropriations for the "increase of the navy." Congress now authorized the office to employ five clerks, a translator, a draftsman and a laborer. The office was organized into six divisions, as follows: "Naval attachés," "ships," "ordnance," "personnel," "communications" and "steam engineering," each of which was to be presided over by an officer of the navy. In 1899 four naval attaches reported to the office. Three of these were attached to the American embassies or legations in Europe, and one to our legations at Tokyo and Peking. The work of the Naval Intelligence Office has greatly increased since the war with Spain. The head of the office is called the "chief intelligence officer."
239Ann. Rept. of Sec. of N., 1900, p. 67; 1905, p. 16.
240U. S. Statutes at Large, XXX, 874; Ann. Rept. of Sec. of N., 1899,
PP. 464-466.
During recent years, the Navy Department, if we may rely upon the judgment of its secretaries, has continued to suffer from an excessive division of responsibility and executive power. It is recollected that this evil was chiefly manifested in the shipbuilding bureaus. Among their chiefs, considerable ill feeling was often aroused over conflicts of authority. According to Secretary Long, their relations were sometimes so strained that ordinary courtesy was impaired. Long frequently recommended the consolidation of the Bureaus of Construction and Repair, Steam Engineering, and Equipment. This change was not considered advisable or advantageous by many officers of high rank and conspicuous ability and by many members of the naval committees. Little attention was therefore paid to the secretary's recommendation. In his annual report for 1905 Secretary Bonaparte submitted some observations on the organization of the Navy Department. He conceived that the system of autonomous bureaus was in theory open to very serious objections, and was attended in practice with some measure of friction, circumlocution and delay. He suggested that the department might be organized into four bureaus, dealing respectively with "men," "ships," "armament" and "supplies." This suggestion is similar to one made by Secretary Whitney in 1885.241 In his annual report for 1906 Bonaparte elaborated his plan of departmental organization. He now proposed that the head of one of the four bureaus should be the Secretary of the Navy, of another the assistant secretary and of each of the two remaining bureaus an officer of flag rank. Despairing of aid from Congress, Secretary Newberry began to reform the department by executive order shortly before his term of office came to an end. Secretary Meyer followed the same method. In 1909 he appointed four aides, one each, respectively, for "operations," "personnel," "materiel" and "inspections," to advise him in their respective fields and to co-ordinate the work of the bureaus. In the following year he abolished the Bureau of Equipment, and later he undertook to improve the business methods of the department.
241Congressional Record, XXXV, 5393; Long, New American Navy, I, 117; Ann. Rept. of Sec. of N., 1905, pp. 3-4.
The rapid increase in the number of civilian employees of the Navy Department in Washington during recent years is wholly unprecedented. The number in 1897 was 282; in 1905, 608.242 With unimportant exceptions the personnel of every bureau and office was increased. The Navy Department building was too small to accommodate the additional force, and great inconveniences were suffered from the overflowing of its rooms. In 1903 the “Naval Annex" was established in the Mills building, situated conveniently near the Navy Department building. This furnished quarters for the Naval Intelligence Office, Hydrographic Office, General Board, office of the admiral, office of the Marine Corps, Naval Pay Office, Board of Inspection and Survey, Naval Examining Board, Naval Retiring Board, Board of Medical Examiners, and Medical Dispensary.
242Official Register of U. S., 1897 and 1905.
Secretary Long was an ardent friend of civil service reform. At the navy yards he continued and extended the system of appointment devised by Tracy and improved by Herbert. To Long fell the distinction of placing under the labor-rules the office of ship-keeper, the last position in the yards to remain in the hands of the spoilsmen. He also directed that appointments in the navy to the offices of civil engineer, assistant paymaster and professor of mathematics should be made after competitive examinations. In 1902 examinations were prescribed for paymasters' clerks and naval pharmacists.
On March 26, 1897, Long issued regulations governing promotions in the Navy Department, which were prepared by the Civil Service Commission in consultation with the Secretary of the Navy and in conformity to certain amendments to the civil service rules promulgated by President Cleveland on May 6, 1896. These regulations provided for the filling of vacancies in the higher grades of the department by promoting employees from the lower grades. The promoting authorities were to be guided chiefly by certain "records of efficiency," which were to show the character of the services rendered by each employee. In determining his efficiency, the character, quantity and quality of his work and his office habits were to be considered. These records were to be placed in custody of a "board of promotion." It was thought that this plan would largely do away with scholastic tests for promotion, and the exercise of political pressure, favoritism and personal influence. It does not appear, however, that in practice the new system has greatly changed the old methods. The Navy Department does not offer an attractive opening to ambitious and capable young men. Their opportunities for advancement are less than in some of the other departments or in civil life. As a result, resignations are frequently tendered by the most useful and wide-awake clerks, and the clerical force of the department lacks stability. Secretary Bonaparte proposed to remedy this defect by establishing a clerical corps of the navy, the members of which were to enjoy the privileges of relative rank and the right of retirement on the same basis as obtains in the other non-combatant corps of the service.243
243Fourteenth Rept. of Civil Service Comm., 166-169; Ann. Rept. of
Sec. of N., 1905, pp. 8-9.