But before I speak of the navy of the United States I want to take
advantage of the first public opportunity I have had to speak of the
Secretary of the Navy, to express my confidence and my admiration, and
to say that he has my unqualified support, for I have counseled with
him in intimate fashion. I know how sincerely he has it at heart that
everything that the navy does and handles should be done and handled as
the people of the United States wish them handled--because efficiency is
something more than organization. Efficiency runs into every
well-considered detail of personnel and method. Efficiency runs to the
extent of lifting the ideals of a service above every personal interest.
So that when I speak my support of the Secretary of the Navy I am merely
speaking my support of what I know every true lover of the navy to
desire and to purpose, for the navy of the United States is a body
specially trusted with the ideal of America.

I like to image in my thought this ideal. These quiet ships lying in the
river have no suggestion of bluster about them--no intimation of
aggression. They are commanded by men thoughtful of the duty of citizens
as well as the duty of officers--men acquainted with the traditions of
the great service to which they belong--men who know by touch with the
people of the United States what sort of purposes they ought to
entertain and what sort of discretion they ought to exercise in order to
use those engines of force as engines to promote the interests of
humanity.

For the interesting and inspiring thing about America, gentlemen, is
that she asks nothing for herself except what she has a right to ask for
humanity itself. We want no nation's property; we wish to question no
nation's honor; we wish to stand selfishly in the way of the development
of no nation; we want nothing that we cannot get by our own legitimate
enterprise and by the inspiration of our own example, and, standing for
these things, it is not pretention on our part to say that we are
privileged to stand for what every nation would wish to stand for, and
speak for those things which all humanity must desire.

When I think of the flag that those ships carry, the only touch of color
about them, the only thing that moves as if it had a settled spirit in
it, in their solid structure, it seems to me I see alternate strips of
parchment upon which are written the rights of liberty and justice and
strips of blood spilt to vindicate th