NAVY DAY

Navy Day was inaugurated in 1922 by the
Navy League of the United States and its ob-
servance is sponsored annually by the League.

October 27th was selected because it is the
anniversary of the birth of President Theo-
dore Roosevelt, so much of whose life was de-
voted to establishing a sound naval policy for
the United States of America. It will be re-
membered that President Theodore Roosevelt
first achieved a national reputation by writing
a naval history of the War of 1812, a work of
such merit that it was incorporated into
Clowe’s Royal Navy, a monumental history
of the British Sea Service. Later, as Assistant
Secretary of the Navy, and finally as President,
Roosevelt bent his tremendous energies to im-
press upon the American people the necessity
for an adequate Navy, and endeavored through
his leadership to realize this ideal.

- October is also the month in which the
American Navy was founded in 1775 by the
Continental Congress.

In addition to paying a deserved tribute to
the sea heroes of the Nation and recalling the
splendid part the Navy has played in making
and keeping us a Nation, the Navy Day ob-
servance has proved a valuable means of foster-
ing a better understanding of the Navy and its
work. Such information, in a country where
government is by public opinion, is essential
to the formation of correct judgments affect-
ing naval policy, and in this work of informa-
tion the Navy Day observance has played a
considerable part.