"I may say, with regard to the features that Mr. Lake has brought to our notice--the hydroplane, for instance, and getting good freeboard and seaworthy boats--the mere fact that they have been largely copied and that most nations build these submarine boats is, as Mr. Lake contends, a conclusive proof that he has been for years on the right tack. Well, I do not think at the present moment submarine boats are being built in any country without hydroplanes, in order to dive, if desired, almost horizontally." One of the latest contract requirements of the United States Government, specifying the characteristics of the new boats to be built under the appropriation for submarines for the year 1915, stated: "The vessel shall make also the necessary trials to demonstrate her ability to effect initial submergence, to maintain submergence under way, and to change depths without exceeding an angle of inclination of one degree." This, in substance, calls for "even-keel submergence" when one considers that it was common for early boats of the diving type to take on an inclination of fifteen to twenty degrees, and inclinations of as much as forty-five degrees were not unknown. All governments and submarine builders have at present in their latest boats adopted the method of even-keel submergence by the use of hydroplanes, and I am gratified that this method of control has been finally adopted as the standard, as I believe none of the latest modern submarine boats will make the uncontrollable dives to the bottom common in the boats of the diving type, which have been accompanied in many cases by the loss of their crews. I did not make a proposal to build a boat from my designs as submitted in 1893, but offered to coöperate with the government in developing submarines under my patents, which were then pending, on such terms as the government might desire. Not being fortunate enough, however, to secure the financial assistance of the government in developing my inventions for the protection of our country, I turned my attention for a time to applying my inventions to commercial purposes and to prove the practicability of navigating on the bottom.