all our efforts in that direction have been little better than blind
gropings and expensive, aimless follies.

Unquestionably if we are content with the maintenance of a Navy
Department simply as a shabby ornament to the Government, a constant
watchfulness may prevent some of the scandal and abuse which have found
their way into our present organization, and its incurable waste may
be reduced to the minimum. But if we desire to build ships for present
usefulness instead of naval reminders of the days that are past, we must
have a Department organized for the work, supplied with all the talent
and ingenuity our country affords, prepared to take advantage of the
experience of other nations, systematized so that all effort shall
unite and lead in one direction, and fully imbued with the conviction
that war vessels, though new, are useless unless they combine all that
the ingenuity of man has up to this day brought forth relating to their
construction.

I earnestly commend the portion of the Secretary's report devoted
to this subject to the attention of Congress, in the hope that his
suggestions touching the reorganization of his Department may be adopted
as the first step toward the reconstruction of our Navy.

The affairs of the postal service are exhibited by the report of the
Postmaster-General, which will be laid before you.

The postal revenue, whose ratio of gain upon the rising prosperity
of 1882 and 1883 outstripped the increasing expenses of our growing
service, was checked by the reduction in the rate of letter postage
which took effect with the beginning of October in the latter year, and
it diminished during the two past fiscal years $2,790,000, in about the