of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 255

a warm spot in her heart for the Navy, a feeling that has become greatly
intensified in the years during which we have been "next door neighbor" to the
great Naval Academy at Annapolis.

As Governor of the State, and as a frequent visitor to the home of our
Navy in Annapolis, I welcome and am sincerely thankful for the opportunity
to be with you, and to participate in this colorful celebration of 1940 Navy Day!

What a difference, what a tremendous difference—but what a reassuring
difference—we find between this nineteenth observance of Navy Day, and that
first Navy Day back in 1922, just eighteen years ago!

The object of Navy Day is the same today, of course, as it was then; first,
to make the people of our Country fully cognizant of the great contribution
made by the Navy to the safety of our Nation and its free institutions; and
secondly, by impressing upon them this fact, to make them conscious of the
vital necessity of supporting a Navy Policy that will insure for America a
Navy fully adequate to defend our far-flung interests against any aggressor.

There the similarity between 1940 and 1922 ends, however, —but the
reassurance begins. In 1922, with the greatest Navy in the world not only
projected, but much of it on the ways, Navy Day found our shipyards busily
engaged, not in rushing to completion those mighty battleships upon whose
construction so many millions had been expended, but in destroying them, in
cutting them up into scrap to carry out America's pledge, freely given under
the Navy Limitation Treaty of that year.

That treaty, by which the people of our Nation went to extraordinary
lengths in their effort to exert moral leadership towards the abolition of all
wars, was perhaps the most remarkable, certainly the most generous, national
gesture recorded in history. By it we freely yielded an assured overwhelming
superiority of sea power and agreed to limit ourselves to parity with Britain
and a 5 to 3 ratio with Japan. The disillusionment of the World War was
still fresh upon us. We were willing to sacrifice much to prevent any reoccur-
rence of such a conflict.

Today, however, Navy Day finds a far different picture! Our shipyards
again are alive with activities, building now, where in 1922 they were tearing
down. Again have we been disillusioned, this time by the complete failure
of our generous sacrifice for Peace. We know now, only too fully, that the
one sure defense available to us is a Navy superior to any other Navy in the
world, and we mean to have just that.

Too long have we lived insecurely, in the hope that war would not come
or that, if it should, we would have warning enough, and time enough, to build
up our fleet to the required strength. The two-ocean Navy projected under
present National Defense plans will assure for us a sea force that truly will
make America impregnable. And for that, let us all offer up a silent thanks-
giving to a beneficent Providence that always, heretofore, has permitted us
sufficient time to correct the effects of our mistakes.

On this Navy Day of 1940, we can all, as loyal Americans, take satis-
faction from the fact that we did our part and vastly more than our part in
a gallant effort to bring permanent peace to the World: and that, having failed
in this laudable endeavor, we new are headed towards a goal that good old
American common sense tells us is the only sensible one. We are embarked
upon a Navy Expansion Program that no other Nation in the world can match,