The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-07-02
SPLENDID UNITED STATES FLEET
PUTS TO SEA, READY TO MINUTE
Gouverne Morris Visits Fleet Of American Warshps "Some.
where in American Waters" and Gives Vivid Picture of
Life Aboard Fighting Ship-Men and Ships
Fit to Meet Any Foe.
BY ooUvERNEUR MORRIS. .

day, May IL, received permission to
visit fleet Of United States warships,
was told where to find It, how to reach
1t, and that until Thursday, the oath
of May, must not convey to the news
papers which I represent any of the
impressions that 1t should make upon
me, nor all Of the Impressions until
the end of the war.
1t may be Of interest to the public
to know that the feet which I visited
is somewhere in American waters, and
that, backed by the proper authority,
Fit may be reached in several ways.
More than this am not permitted to
say, nor may give the composition Of
the fleet, nor the names of the ships
composing 1t, nor of any of the officers
governing those ships.
I must deal in impositives. If I saw
faults or virtues / must not particular
ize. In short, I must tell about the
feet without telling about it, and give
general impression with most of the
impressions left out.
BattIeship a Man.
shall deal, then rather with the
humanities Of the fleet than with its
mechanics; with its aspects rather
than its potentialities. And with one
particular ship rather than with
many.
1t has been said that a modern bat
tleship is q machine. 1t is not. 1t Is
man. His eyes may no longer have
the vision of youth, but he sees
through hundred pairs, whose WIS.,
ion is twenty-twenty magnified many
diameters by lenses exquisitely ad-
justed; his hands may not be large or
strong, but they have within them
almost a gods power to destroy.
1t is as If. his brain had multiplied
his eyes and made telescopes of them,
had increased his body to an ominous
and beautiful abomination, displacing
10000 tens, and had heightened his
arms and strengthened his hands un-
til they could reach out clear away
over the rim Of the world, and there
smash and crush and tear and kill.
It was twenty years since I had set
foot on battleship. There was some
thing familiar about him and some
thing strange. 1t was like meeting a
promising friend Of your boyhood af-
ter he had grown into man. Il will
not bessie warships, nor be-her them.
They are men, He had grown older,
wiser, grayer, stronger, broader, tall
err and swifter. And though neither
Of us had forgotten the best, nor the
worst Of those things which we had
once had in common, he eyed me
askance, and I felt embarrassed and
shy.
Warship Now More Kind.
The officer of the deck spoke to a
seaman. And by the tone Of the voice
I knew that friend battleship had not
only grown stronger and greater, but
so sure of himself that he could af-
ford to be more courteous and more
kind. Things happened. A meal came
and. went. One threw dice for the CT
CARS. One lost. One listened and one
talked, and one began to associate in
the back of ones head this face with
the rightful name of it's owner and
that insignia with the Office Of it's
wearer.
No two faces Of the uniformed men
around the long, narrow table of the
ward room mess were alike. But
they were all fine, clean-cut faces Of
vigorously educated men in the pink
of physical condition. Like all trav-
elers, they were broad-minded, and
like all men who have been brought
up among true values, they were
without affectation of any kind.
I have said that a battleship is a
man. It is not. 1t Is city.
That it Is a walled city, defended
by terrible cannon, every man knows.
So I shall not here and now speak
of the magic eyes with which it sees
the approach Of the enemy, the thick
armor with which it repels his blows,
nor of the terrible cannon with which
it returns them.
The government Is the flagship.
The admirals are the governors Of
states and the captains and COM
manders are the mayors of cities and
towns. It is complete civilization,
a floating country, to which the de-
votion of its seamen and firemen is
as necessary as that of its admirals,
captains and commanders.
But to return to our city. It diff
fers from land cities In that it recog-
nizes neither night nor day. There
are more people awake in the day
time than at night; but the city's eyes
are never closed. And during each
minute Of his waking hours each cit-
zen knows what he must do, or what
he may do.
Our Ships at Sea.
One day I learned that on the fol-
lowing morning we were "going out"
Close to my room was one of the
steel tubes through which the anchor
chains slide, and very early I was
wakened by sound that was as If, on
q dozen adjoining alleys, giants were |
bowling and making ten-strikes. A
li++Io latar T fn1t the first revolutions |