principal navy-yards was 29,708. On March 1, 1918, the total number of
employees in the same yards was 58,026. The total number of mechanics
now employed at all navy yards and stations throughout the country is
more than 66,000.

The Navy Powder Factory at Indianapolis, Ind., manufactures powder of
the highest grade for use in the big guns; it employs 1,000 men and
covers a square mile. Additional buildings and machinery, together with
a new generating-plant, are now being installed. The torpedo-station at
Newport, a large plant where torpedoes are manufactured, has been
greatly enlarged and its facilities in the way of production radically
increased. Numerous ammunition-plants throughout the country prepare the
powder charge, load and fuse the shell, handle high explosives, and ship
the ammunition to vessels in the naval service. Among recent additions
to facilities is an automatic mine-loading plant of great capacity and
new design.

Schools of various sorts, ranging from those devoted to the teaching of
wireless telegraphy to cooking, were established in various parts of the
country, and from them a constant grist of highly specialized men are
being sent to the ships and to stations.

In these, and in numerous ways not here mentioned, the Navy Department
signalized its entrance into the war. While many new fields had to be
entered--with sequential results in way of mistakes and delays--there
were more fields, all important, wherein constructive preparation before
we entered the war were revealed when the time came to look for
practical results.