The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-07-19
LETTERS TO EDITOR
The Deutschland

To the Editor of The Age-Herald.
 More than likely the Deutschland has a double purpose in view. One purpose is to be a merchant vessel, the other is to be decoy boat. Englishmen are slow to see the humor of a joke They are about as tardy to comprehend the point of a fact. Of truth, they generally have to be knocked down with both before they get the glimpse of either. So I will just lay aside my portion of English blood and will try to ferret out the purposes of the Deutschland from the facts she presents on the basis of my portion of German blood.
 Taken on her face as she is, the Deutschland is harmless merchant ves- sel-more so than any topwater merchant gun for self defense, much less weapon for an offense. She is incapable to defend herself against an attack, save to duck and to run. Her physique shows her to be an absolute merchantmen for traffic and signal purposes.
 But what is that rocket gun for? It is for vital purpose No enemy can inter- pret it's shots. No neutral knows it's code Captain Koenig says that his mi crophone gives the noise of other sub merged boats within six miles of his From such a suggestion of the micro phone, we gather an idea of the purpose of the rocket gun.
 Here is the idea of its purpose. By means of the microphone and the pur- posely broken throbs of the engine work of those vessels, each can recognize the others of it's kind and thus be conveyed under water. These interrupted sounds can be interpreted as signals between themselves. When out of such sounding reach, each submarine can signal the others with rocket fire, when the peri scope shows the field clear of an enemy. Those rocket guns can also decoy an en- emy for destruction, when the offensive ones are lying in wait for such purpose.
 We therefore see that with the Deutsch- land constructed as she is, that she is more than apt to be decoy vessel as we'll as merchant one. A nation that is so shrewd and resourceful as to float such harmless female Deutschland also must have made her male species to con- voy and to protect her on her voyages. And for every other female type of tho Deutschland, it Is more than probable that male one is made that never shows up at any neutral port, but lies in wait not far outside for the return of his mate.
 I hardly think that any of those male Deutschlands will attempt the destruction of any of the allied patrol boats within American waters any time soon, unless it becomes matter of absolute defense. I believe that Germany will lay in sup ply of needed materials first. Thus wait ing, she will encourage allied prejudice against American commercial intercourse with herself, which will cause the allies to huddle greater number of patrol ves- sells near our shores until we are grossly insulted-if it can be done-with allied in- reference of our commerce and mails. When those purposes are accomplished by a consorted action of a number of her male Deutschlands, Germany will clear our waters of her enemy, break the back bone of the European war and knock out all of the active broadly spirit of the whole neutral world. Then every Eng lishman will see wherein the Deutsch- land was a fact He will also compre- hend that his German brother-whom he endeavored to yoke with the bondage of the world-saw it conqueror for exist ence and apty made himself equal to the occasion E. A. TIMMONS
 Columbia, Tenn, June 1T, 1916