The copper era and Morenci leader., 1917-07-06
SPLENDID UNITED STATES FLEET PUTS TO SEA, READY TO MINUTE
GOWeeur Morris Visits Fleet of American Washps Some where in American Waters and Gives Vivid Picture of Life Aboard Fighting Ship Men and Ships
 Fit to Meet Any Foe.
By eouvERNEuR MORRIS.

Somewhere Near America.-On Fri 4 day, May II, I received permission to visit fleet of United States warships, < was told where to find it, how to reach 1t, and that until Thursday, the 24th of May, must not convey to the news papers which I represent any of the impressions that it should make upon me, nor all of the impressions until the end of the war.
 It may be of interest to the public to know that the fleet which I visited Is somewhere in American waters, and that, backed by the proper authority, it may be reached in several ways. More than this am not permitted to say, nor may I give the composition of the fleet, nor the names of the ships composing it, nor of any of the officers governing those ships.
 must deal in impositives. If saw faults or virtues must not particular ize. In short, I must tell about the fleet without telling about it, and give a general impression with most of the impressions left out.
 BattIeship Man.
 I shall deal, then rather with the humanities of the fleet than with its mechanics; with it's aspects rather than it's potentialities. And with one particular ship rather than with many.
 It las been said that modern bat -tleship is d machine. It is not. It is a man. His eyes may no longer have the vision of youth, but he sees through a hundred pairs, whose wis ion is twentytwenty 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.
 It 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 80OO0 tons, 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 a battleship. There was some . thing familiar about him and some thing strange. It was like meeting a promising friend of your boyhood af ter he had grown into a man. q will not be-she warships, nor be-her them They are men.) He had grown older, wiser, grayer, stronger, broader, tall CT 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 Heaman. And by the tone of the voice a knew that friend battleship had not tonly grown stronger and greater, but Eo sure of himself that he could af dord to be more courteous and more 0kind Things happened. A meal came and went. One threw dice for the ci kars. One lost. One listened and one talked, and one began to associate ir the back of ones head this face with the rightful name of it's owner and that insignia with the office of its wearer.
 No two faces of the uniformed mer around the long, narrow table of tho ward room mess were alike. Blu they were all fine, clean-cut faces of vigorously educated men in the pink of pllyiscal condition. Like all trav' elers, they were broad-minded, ano like all men who have been brought up among true values. they were without affcctation of any kind.
 l have said that a battleship is g man. It is not. It is a city.
 ,.. l.I a;T lafn oT 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 whict it returns thcm.
 The government is the flagship The admirals are the governors ol states and the captains and con manders are the mayors of cities ant towns. It is complete civilization a floating country, to which the de votion of its seamen and fremen i: as necessary as that of it's 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. Ther' - are more people awake in the day time than at night; but the city's eye' are never closed. And during eacl minute of his waking hours each citi zen knows what he must do, or wha he may do.
 Our Ships at Sea. One day learned that on the fol lowing morning we were going out. Close to my room was one of thu steel tubes through which the ancho Ehains slide, and very early I wal Eakened by sound that was as if, oI U dozen adjoining alleys, giants wer' bowling and making ten-strikes. 4