NAVY AWARDS

The great silence has at last been broken. On Armistice Day, two years after the close of hostilities, the Navy Department, in the person of Secretary Daniels, will award war medals to those men whom it considers worthy of such an honor. But, if current reports are to be believed, the list of awards is fully as unjust as was the one which aroused so much adverse criticism last December; indeed, it may be questioned whether the list has been altered at all. The opinions of the ranking Admirals--Sims. Mayo and Coffman--have been entirely disregarded, and their recommendations arbitrarily changed. There must surely be something amiss when Admiral Sims our greatest war-Admiral, and one of the nation's clearest thinkers, refused a medal on the grounds that a majority of the awards have been made through favoritism.

There is the fact, too, of the long wall, of the postponement of any announcement of decisions until after the elections, for fear that the interests of the Democratic party might be injured. This can be nothing more than a frank admission that favoritism and injustice have played a part in the Secretary's determination of Naval merits. What is more proof, Admiral Sims name has been erased from the new list, probably as a rebuke for his outspoken plea for fairness; such an erasure, however, is not more than natural; it is but in accordance with the administration's continued policy of handicapping and belittling the nation's biggest men.

Secretary Daniels is true to his favorites. Despite last year's protests, despite the opposition of the Navy officers themselves, despite the election, he intends to carry out his old program to the bitter end. If he succeeds in doing so, and the present list of Navy awards goes down on the official records, there will at least be some satisfaction in knowing that it is the final thrust at a Department which has suffered for eight years under an orgy of willful stubbornness and blind inefficiency.