Up to 1913 the only organization that made any pretense of training men for the navy was the Naval Militia, and that was under State control, with practically no Federal supervision. As the militia seemed to offer the only means of producing a trained reserve, steps were at once taken to put it on a sound basis, and on February 16, 1914, a real Naval Militia under Federal control was created, provision being made for its organization and training in peace, as well as its utilization in war. As with all organized militia, the Naval Militia, even with the law of 1914, could not, under the Constitution, be called into service as such except for limited duties, such as to repel invasion. It could not be used outside the territorial limits of the United States. It is evident, then, that with such restrictions militia could hardly meet the requirements of the navy in a foreign war, and to overcome this difficulty the "National Naval Volunteers" were created in August, 1916. Under this act members of Naval Militia organizations were authorized to volunteer for "any emergency," of which emergency the President was to be the judge. Other laws included the same measure, provided for a reserve force, for the automatic increase of officer personnel in each corps to correspond with increases in enlisted men, and for the Naval Flying Corps, special engineering officers, and the Naval Dental and Dental Reserve Corps. It also provided for taking over the lighthouse and other departmental divisions by the navy in time of war. Briefly, then, on July 1, 1917, three months after the declaration of war, the number of officers had increased to 8,038--4,694 regulars, 3,344 reserves--and the number of enlisted men to 171,133--128,666 regulars, 32,379 reserves, 10,088 National Naval Volunteers. The increase since that time is as follows: April 1, 1918 Officers Men Regular Navy Permanent 5,441 198,224 Temporary 2,519 ....... Reserves 10,625 85,475 Total 18,585 283,699 November 9, 1918 Permanent 5,656 206,684 Temporary 4,833 ....... Reserves 21,985 290,346 Total 32,474 497,030 THE NAVY THAT FLIES