Page:An Adequate Navy - The Navy League of the United States (1916).pdf/5

 America must look out for her own people and her own trade.

Congress (busy with governing a mighty country and perplexed by manifold and conflicting duties) has not seriously grappled with the problem of organizing the Navy as so great an enterprise should be organized.

"Authority equipped with responsibility" is essential to good organization. In every properly managed and successful business in the world some person, or persons, have the authority to act, and on them rests squarely the responsibility for success or failure. No such principle prevails in our Navy now.

In a country such as ours, policies must be fixed by those who come into office from civil life, elected by the people. Such vital questions must not be left to the decision of naval or military men; but when policies are once decided, when the die is cast, when war is declared, the details of the execution of the plans of the administration should be left to naval officers. They have been chosen from the people, trained and educated at the expense of the people, and are the experts of the nation for this kind of work. No successful business man in the country would give an accountant the job of building a steel bridge, nor would he give an expert bridge-builder the job of managing his office.

At present our laws do not give the naval officer either the necessary authority or the accompanying responsibility for the success of even the ordinary tactful