River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1916-07-27
A Great Battleship
(From James A. Frear, M. c.

During a weeks end trip to Fortress
Monroe and Newport News, / was
taken under and over the biggest"
floating fort in the world. The Mis-
sissippi is on the ways and will not
be completed for another IL months
because it takes nearly three years
to build one of these modern battle
giants. but the hull is in place and in
length it reaches about two city
blocks, or $50 feet. 1t is 81 feet in
width and several decks which gives
the comparative height, from it's keel,
Of a five story apartment building.
The Mississippi will have tonnage of
$4,000 speed of twenty-five knots,
and crew of over thousand men.
All the figures were given to me but
/ only remember she is larger than
the next biggest battleship, the Penn
sylvania, and that the Quaker fight
er is about 1000 tons larger than any
European war vessel. When complet-
ed the Mississippi will cost twenty
million dollars and it will take ST.
900 torpedo to sink her. Of course
we do not expect torpedo will hit
the Mississippi, but if it should, our
biggest war vessel with the three pro-
tected bulls, inside and out, would
probably be crumpled by the explos-
ion. A dozen 12inch guns and a num-
Der of small guns, torpedo tubes and
areoplane tracks are also being
placed on this, the greatest fighter
anywhere in the world, SO far rs
known.
While driving back from the ship
yard, our guide pointed out 12-inch
gun at Fortress Monroe, which killed
or wounded eighteen soldiers about
five years ago. Strange to say they
were all at the safe end of the gun,
but the breach block blew out and
when that occurs there is no safe end
OF gun.
Hampton's Normal school with 900
negro and Indian pupils is on this
drive - the first manual training
school ever erected for colored and
Indian boys, and the first domestic
science school for colOred and Indian
girls A barefooted negro boy who
swept out class rooms and was gradu-
ated, thereafter started the now fam
Gus Tuskgee institution in a deserted
chicken house down in Alabama.
Booker T. Washington died few
weeks ago, but before his death he
proved that, notwithstanding color or
circumstances in early life, a man is
a man for all that. 1t was at Hamp-
ton he learned to sweep and to build.
Our colored driver acknowledged to
SO years of age and said he was born
at Hampton His two sisters gradu-
ated from the school and were teach
ing. He was intelligent, polite and
had gained some book knowledge from
his sisters and from years school
ing, vet when | asked him something
about Norfolk, fourteen miles away,
a city of over one hundred thousand
people, the smoke plainly visible
across Hampton Roads, he replied,
"Indeed | don't know, sir; have never
been that far away from home" Let
me repeat, George is 80 years old, an
intelligent driver, guide, and phil
Osopher. He appeared more content
ed than many summer tourists regis
tered at the great hotel, and he found
happiness without chasing all over the
country in search of it, SO | say he is
a philosopher who enjoys pointing out
alfalfa fields, Towering trees, and the
objects of interest around this his
toric spot, although he has never been
across the little bay on which the
Monitor licked the Merrimac within
sight of Fortress Monroe.
The Senate passed the Naval bill,
providing for immediate construction
of four battleships, five battle cruis-
ers and fifty smaller warships. In
one year the preparedness program
has jumped from about $43O,OOO,OOO
to $840,000000, although no new for
eign danger confronts US. In the
Senate, La Toilette and others pro-
tested against the enormous increase
but the program went through. To
show the effect of propaganda let me
say that last years naval bill staged
big fight between small and large
navymen to determine whether one or
two battleships should be constructed.
The writer voted for two ships be-
lieving in a good naval increase and
the one-ship men were defeated. This
years bill carries eight or nine big
ships and those who question this
great increase are called pacifsts and
unpatriotic. Yet it is significant that
Chamberlain, Chairman of the Senate