of Governor Herbert R., 0'Conor 523

, NAVY DAY
EMERSON HOTEL •

October 27, 1941
Baltimore

AMID all the uncertainty that prevails in the world today, one clear, certain
fact stands forth, to provide security of mind and promise of protection to
the people of America, no matter where they may reside.

• On this Navy Day of 1941, possibly the one most significant fact in the
whole wide world is the United States Navy. Not only is this so because our \
Navy is at least the equal, and probably the superior, of any other naval fight-
ing force, but it has had a tremendous influence upon the trend of world affairs
during the fateful months through which we recently have passed.

The United States Navy has been a beacon of hope to the embattled people
of Britain; it has hindered as perhaps no other single factor has been able to
do, the plans of Nazi Germany to strangle Great Britain by cutting off her com-
merce; and with its powerful air arm, the United States Navy has been the one
deterring influence in the Far East that has kept Japan out of the sphere of
active belligerency, and that today is causing even the most bellicose of Japa-
nese leaders to restrain themselves.

The people of America, of all the Americas, may well be thankful for, and
proud of, the United States Navy. And, indeed they are. By the same token,
the members of the Navy League, and particularly those among you gathered
here this evening who have labored so continuously during the past twenty years
to awaken and sustain interest in the improvement of our Navy among the
people of our Country, may well feel gratified to know that these efforts un-
doubtedjy played their part in providing for us today a Navy that is so definitely
our chief hope for continued national security, a Navy that, when developed to
its full projected strength, will make the United States dominant upon the seas
as no other nation in the world ever has been.