Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-05-06
Battleship Fund
i Is Growing
THE COURIER JUNIOR SENDS IN
FIRST CHECK $4.3o-ARLlNE
80 PATTON FIRST BOOSTER.

Inc Marjorie olSIIcD DdIIASohAP
fund, started by Airline Patton, and
fostered by The Courier Junior is GER
tainly growing. When The Junior
went to press last week the fund was
only $2.1O. However, by Monday ev-
ening it had reached the proportions
of $43O, so the Courier Junior Booster
sent in check for that amount to The
New York Tribune, custodian OF Mar
jorie Sterrett's Battleship fund.
The names Of the contributors in
Iowa and northern Missouri follow:
Airline Patton, Doris, Tower, Edwin
William Piatt, Elmer Piatt, Verna
Piatt, Earle Derby, kleta Derby,
Dorothy Mae MacManus, Eleanor
Patricia MacManus, Erma Kellogg,
Miss Emma Fielder, principal of the
Adams school, two donors who do not
want their names published right now,
Buelah Binks, Maize Areingdale, Miss
Catherine Ramsell, teacher at the
Adams school, Donald Pickett, Paul
Clifford Pickett, Gerald Lee, Gretchen
Grotz, Robert Mclaughlin, John Can
ny, Edward Wayne Songer, Paul Greer,
the Misses Marie, Helen, Ruth and
Gretchen Silvers, two unknowns,
Elmer Gillen and the Messrs. Johnson,
Poundstone, Mayes and Merritt.
A few of the readers may not know
just how the battleship fund was
started. ..... .. .f..
Here is the way Marjorie started it.:
Three months ago little school
girl had an idea. She wanted another
battleship for the United States navy.
She sat down, wrote letter to the
New York Tribune and enclosed her
entire available resources-one dime.
Brooklyn, N Y, Feb. 2, 1915.
To the Editor New York Tribune.
Dear Sir:-I read in your paper
every morning lot about prepared
ness. My grandpa and my great
grandpa were soldiers. If was boy
l would be a soldier too, but am not,
so want to do what can to help.
Mamma gives me dime every week
for helping her. am sending you this
weeks dime to help build battleship
for Uncle Sam. know lot of other
kids who would give their errand
money if you would start fund.
am thirteen years old and go to public
school No. 9, Brooklyn. ....
! Truly yours,
| Marjorie Sterrett.
am true blue American and I want
to see Uncle Sam prepared to lick all
creation like Paul Jones did.
P. S.-Please call the battleship
! America.
This is the letter that Marjorie Ster-
rett, Brooklyn school girl, wrote to
The New York Tribune.
Col. RooseeeIt Sends Dollar.
Three days later Marjorie received
a three page letter from Theodore
Roosevelt, written in his own hand.
writing, in answer to one which she
had sent him. 1t contained $1-forty
cents Ga dime apiece) for Oracle
Roosevelt, Richard Derby II, Theodore
Roosevelt III, and Cornelius Van
Schaak Roosevelt. ..-
"The other sixty cents" it explained
ARE for my other six grandchildren
They are not born yet. If they are
girls think some of them will be nam
ed Edith, Alice, Ethel, Eleanor and
Belle. If they are boys some of them
will be named Kermit, Archie, Quen
tin and Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan
Edwards was an ancestor of theil
grandmother's, who lived in colonia
times. He was a great preacher anc
strong and good man."
Today 100000 persons. old ant
young, between the Atlantic and the
Pacific, not only have welcomed Mar
jorie Sterrett's idea, but have re
sponded spontaneously in sums from
five cents to $500. And the campaign
has just got under way.