The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1918-08-24
NOT AIMAN LOST
IN A MILLION
Despite tho Vaunted German
Submarines the Navy
Has Made Good.

Navy in France, Aug. 1S.-Rap on
wood and say this aloud: "We've never |
lost a single troop ship we've con-
veyed to France. We've brought over
approximately 100000 troops a month
direct to French ports and not a man
ever has been lost" says Frazier Hunt |
in special cable to the Chicago Trib- |
une.
This is incredible-that more than
100000 troops have been landed di- |
rectly on French soil and not a ship
ar a man lost-but it is true. In par
lance of back home, the navy has made |
good despite the Wanted German sub
marines. What of all these Hun
threats and boasts-of England starv
ing, France hungry, and America ma
rooned from the allies? I went forth
to find the answer.
Answer to U-Boat Boast.
1 found it in groups of long, narrow,
gray destroyers stealing in-in sturdy,
rolling blue Jackets, who know no SUI
perior and confess\no equal I found
it in the line officers trained in the
greatest naval academy in the world
and in the young reserve ensisns learn
ing this trade in jumps, and l found it
in certain lash cans" that the unini-
tiated would call $50 pound depth
bombs, strapped on the runway tracks
of the sterns of the gray destroyers.
With these the navy has done al
great bit toward helping to win the
"mothering the army" some call
it; others say being ''the big brother
of the doughboys." Call it what you
will, the American navy gets a big
chunk of the credit for making the
sea safe for democracy. The blue
Jackets have won.
U-Boat Now Hunted Rat.
Today you can cross the Atlantic
on a troop ship bound for France al
most as safely as you can CROSS Lake
Michigan or the Hudson river. The
Hun still turks there, but he's whipped.
He's a hunted rat, and these wise,
wirey terrors Of the American navy
run him to his hole. He may sink a
hundred or two hundred thousand tons
of allied shipping a month, but he's
lost. This moment we are building
more ships than he sinks and Destroy
ing more subs than he can build.
AS a 17-year-old blue jacket from
Chicago said, "The rats got his tail
between his legs and is beating it
home"
What America Has Done.
Let it be stated here that America
will have no small part to do with the
present comparative safety of the
sea. To say that we have done the
major portion would be foolish boast
just as it would to say that the
American troops at Chateau Thierry
early in June stopped the German
drive and saved Paris; but somehow
and some way the vanishing of the
submarine threat is dated from the en-
trance of the American destroyers, just
as the decline of the German military
threat dates with the throwing in of
our soldiers and marines into the
Marne retreat.
y These rosy checked boys from new
America, with their hair parted and
with smiles on their faces, brought
something into the war-youth, enthu-
siasm, spirit, the sureness of an I'M
compromising and relentless attack
something that fired the whole world
with a new hope and burst of courage
But leave all that for the naval histo-
rians and military tacticians of the
next generation to squabble over. The
facts are sufficiently pleasing in them
selves. 90
100 Per Cent Efficient
mo troopship bound for a French
port has ever been sunk" That is
No. of the navy's mission in france
to bring troopships over, to bring
army supplies over, then to hustle the
ships back to America to get more
troops and supplies.
Mark loo per cent efficient what
has been necessary to give an Ameri-
can navy in France on this first count.
But how about hustling the ships
back? What part has the navy played
in the great drama of hours? In this
war money makes little difference; it's
winning time that matters. Shipping
men say that the ordinary cargo of
ship is worth $4,000 day now. Pa
rents with sons in the war say it
might be cheap to spend $4,000 or
100000 if it helped to win the war.
so the unloading and coaling and
sending of these troops and cargo
ships back in the shortest possible
time become a drama of hours, with
the navy playing the lead.
The Drama of Hours.