FDR's career in the New York State Senate came to an end in 1913, when, as a reward
for his support of the Woodrow Wilson's presidential candidacy at the Democratic National Convention in
1912, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy. FDR was thrilled. The Navy Department was one of
the largest and most important government agencies and it offered FDR substantial opportunities to gain
valuable administrative experience and make important political contacts from coast to coast. The
appointment also seemed propitious. His cousin Theodore held the post in 1898 and had used it as an
effective stepping stone in his march to the governorship of New York, and finally the White House.
FDR threw himself into the position with great enthusiasm, and soon established a reputation as an
energetic and effective administrator. Granted considerable latitude by his superior, Josephus Daniels,
FDR focused his attention for the most part on the business side of the Navy Department, although he did,
on occasion, discuss tactics. After the U.S. entry into World War One, for example, FDR pressed Secretary
Daniels to rush through a crash building program of 50-foot launches to defend U.S. ports against the German
submarine menace -- a program that Daniels rejected. FDR was more successful in his promotion of the so-called
North Sea Mine Barrage, an ambitious plan designed to keep German submarines out of the North Sea by sewing a
"belt" of mines from Norway to Scotland. Like the proposed 50-foot launch scheme, Daniels also opposed this
idea, but after a direct appeal by FDR to President Wilson, the plan was approved. In the Spring of 1918,
the British and American Navies began the difficult task of laying the mines, and although the barrage remained
incomplete at War's end, it limited German access to the North Sea and was a factor in the collapse of morale
among German sailors that manifested itself in the famous Kiel mutiny of November 1918.
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