The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1908-01-18

ing OF the pedestal and propose TO fall
without fracture.
My contention IL. and do not be-
lieve Ii Is based on chauvism. that
''our battleship fleet. man for man and
ton Of metal for ton. can outshoot and
Outright any other fieeted on earth, !"
aud that was my statement.
Your paragraph says; 'sNow we
know that our admirals did not know
what they were talking about when
they imagined the criticism of their
ships was warranted. Our admirals
Ia no instance have admitted ''tnat
the critlsm of our shpis in main fea-
lures was warranted The critism OF
our ships have naturally come from
foreign sources. except those made by
writer's in popular magazines. who,
III they stated that our navy was the
best in the world and the strongest
and most effective, would only be say !
ing ordinary things and their manu-
scripts would not sell
Reuterdhl. in McClures and l take. II
you have in mind his criticism more
than any other. because IL Is at the
moment. says that our ships are too
low with the shell-proof armor too near
or under the, water line. He says that
the bows OF our battleships are from ii
to Is feet above the water line, andthat
the bows of our last armored cruisers
are only 20 feet above, while in foreign
ships they range from % feet to as high
as. in the case OF the Dreadnaught, %
feet. He also states that IL ii were not
for fighting in heavy weather. the Mon
itor would be the fighting ship OF the
world.
Reuterdahl has written in an inter-
esting manner, and there may be some
thing to what he says, although .he
himself says in the article that.we. 40
not need to take his word for it.
To build ships twice as high as our
fighting ships would be to make. them
twice as large a target. The statistics
of hit show that the bsttleships are sell
dom hit below the shell proof armor
line Of our ships.
Since the defeat of disrupted and dis
organized Russia. batteling 500, 0 miles
away from her base, with her heart
torn TO shreds bv hounds of revolution
at home. people of Japan have been al
most unbearable. They have insulted
whites, both men and women. at home
have poisoned wells in Hawaii have
caused trouble on the Pacific coast,
both to England and our selves, and
seem to be carrying things with the
hing hand OF mean bred bully. This
has developed in the minds OF great
many people over the world sense of
fear. When a person is afraid he is
half whipped or more. In my opinion,
an average American is equal in tight
mig power TO two Japs. Their statis-
tics during the Russian war doctored
in every.-direction to suit themselves.
Whenever the Russians met them upon
anything like nearly an equality they
whipped them. There wasn't an ex-
ception to this fact.
The United States alone can keep
Japan in its place but probably can
most easily do 80 through the medium
of an alliance with Germany confined
to the Pacific, or even to that part of
the.pacihc which may be designated as
Asiatic waters This of course, would
be departure from all of our past pol
icies, but we have made many depar-
lures and will probably have TO make
more.
wish for our people that they will
not be afraid OF the Japanese or any
body else, In the world. and, in fact.
afraid of nothing but doing wrong
that they will not seek trouble. but
will not cringe or run. There is no
danger OF this, however, for the A
spirit il lust as potent today
as 1t has been throughout the existence
Of the country.
Very respectively,
Chase y. Osborne.