The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-09-20
SENATOR FOUND NAVY
ITCHING FOR FIGHT
Admiral Rodman Said All They Asked
Was That the Navy Be
Left Alone.

| WASHINGTON, Sept. POI asked
Admiral Rodman if there was any mes
sage / could take for him for the seere-
tary OF the navy, or if there was ANYTHING
we could do for him in CONGRESS" said
Senator Thompson of kansas.zin telling
the senate recentlyeof a 'tafk@he had with
the Rear Admiral Hugh Rodanan. who
has command of American battleships in
British waters. The Admiral's reply as
repeated to the senate was:
Not a thing. Tell the secretary we
have everything we need over here and
that everything is running perfectly
smooth, and for Gods sake to let US
alone"
The spirit of Americas navy, senator
Thompson said, was succinctlv expressed
| by Admiral Rodman.
With such a spirit, we need have no
fear that our navy is not in safe hands, +"
| SAID Senator thompson, ''or, like Admiral
Dewey, even with the cable cut, when
ever hight comes, which all of our men
and officers are itching for, victory will
| surely be on our side
| Senator Thompson alluded to the
statement of Admiral Scheer of the Ger
man admiralty, who recently declared
he did not doubt for a moment we shall
bring England to her knees by submarine
warfare"
This cry is simply like that of the
drowning man, said Senator Thompson.
1T is the last effort to alarm the coun-
try over the submarine. ~
'One Of the best items of information
am able to bring home to the people of
the country is the fact that the intended
object Of the submarine warefare has
proved failure. | think | can also
safely say that the submarine is no
longer serious menace to transporta-
tion across the seas. 1t is. of course.
an annoyance and q great hindrance;,
anu as long as there IS a single subma-
rlne IN the waters of the sea every eff
fort must be made by the allied powers
to destroy it. for it is an outlaw. and
must not exist.
The truth is that Germany never
had more than 320 submarines all told.
including all construction before and
since the war. We have positive knowl-
edge of the destruction Of more than
one-half of these submarines. and we al
so know that it is practically impossi-
BILE for Germany to keep in operation
more than 10 per cent of those remain
| ing 1t therefore reduces itself into a
negligible, so far as its ultimate effect
upon the war is Concerned.
I feel | owe il to the mothers and
fathers OF the country, whose BOYS are
daily going upon the transports and
crossing the seas, to tell them the exact
facts. Il will be observed that the trans
portation OF troops and supplies goes on
Just as vigorously and almost as unia-
terrnptedly as if the submarine did not
exist
Il saw reliable statement in France
to the effect that there is one ship OF
some. character leaving the Eastern
shores OF America for the war zone every
SIX minutes, and it IS only a few ships
which are evt&l !torpedoed. estimated at
ubout per cent This is less than the
loss by storm and accident in the earlier
days OF transportation, and is not much
greater than such loss now.
we must. bear in mind that we read
only of the ships which have been tor
pedoed and see but little account of the
hundreds OF ships which pass over the
ocean undisturbed. Three hundred thor
sand soldiers are conveyed across the
Atlantic every thirty DAYS. and an aver
age OF about 100000 tons Of freight car
ried TO the French coast. There are
warehouses in one Of the ports Of France
with capacity of over 100000 tons. !"
Senator Thompson spoke of the close
cooperation existing between the BRIT
ish and American navies.
With such combined fleet" said
the Senator, no one need worry about
the German fleet ever coming out of it,
hiding place and doing any real harm :