The Leader, enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1915-1921, 1918-06-26
LETTER FROM
J. J. HOLLAND

almost impossible to let any inform.
alton out, although | would like tc
have all the folks at home know what
we are really doing. can say though
that the old navy slogan 1--WE have
just begun to fight" is true now as
it was in the time Of Jones and Far
ragut. We have just begun to fight
and before we are through fighting
the Huns will know that they are
poor judges of humanity when they
said we wouldn't fight.
We are ready to fight and getting
more prepared every day. The people
that don't understand what is being
done can't appreciate the delay, but
the years delay we had has made us
practically the strongest and most eff
ficient navy in the world We are Just
three times as large as we were a
year ago, and if you were able to see
the target practice you would know
we were efficient in spite of the dan
| inthree wouwcffi
gerous and difficult services in which
| our oversee" fleet has been engaged.
There have been only two naval YES
sells sunk, the Jacob JONES'" torpe-
docd December 9th, and the patrol
vessel, "Alcedo," November 5th. The
"Chauncey had collision with a Brit
ish transport. The "Cassin" was
torpedoed but went into port under
her own steam and is now back on
the jobs And I think this is very
good work with the fact that we have
been continually the prey of the u
boats while conveying troops and
supplies.
We have taken over 300 chafts of
various types and converted them in
to what we needed most. Hundreds
of sub chasers have been built and
the Ford company is putting out a
patrol boat known as the Eagle
Cross" that surpasses anything in her
line. American battleships are larg-
est layed down by any nation. Here
are the figures: The largest British
battleships we have any knowledge
of displaces 1880 tons; the largest
German, 28,488 tons; the largest Jap
anese displaces 10000 tons. These
may be compared with our Arizona"
and pennsylvania" 81 400 tons; Ida
no." mississippi" and New Mexico"
$4,000 tons; California" and Tenn
essee," $1,000 tons; Colorado" West
Virginia" Maryland" and Colorado"
as ve,theaw,0,'0,Mary-F
$1,000 tons and the six new battle
ships now under construction of Al
| 500 tons. Our battle cruisers of 35,-
500 tons. and IS knot speed are the
fastest in the world, so you can see
where we stand. We are aching to
fight. All we want is chance to show
| them what we are made of, and if we
can CITE the KaiSer's fleet out where
we can get shot at it, "moustache
and sauerkraut" will be the style in
| H for the next twenty years.
/ was in an Atlantic port a few
! weeks ago and was looking at movie
that caused considerable excitement,
and by going into full details you can
see how different peoples American
ism runs on some lines. 1t wan the
Beast OF Berlin" One crazy pro-
German hops up and yells Long live
the Kaiser! May Berlin never fall" A
big rookie from the training station
was setting next to him and swung
a blow on him like the kick of mule
and believe me, brethren, if Berlin
J falls like taht poor bird did it will be
SOME fall. The poor fish came to
in Jail some twenty minutes later
and when htey showed the square
i headed Kaiser on the screen some
farmer patriot in the audience yanks
out gun and took crack at him,
trying to kill the picture of the Kaiser
as it was played by an American
actor who was trying to show the
American people what brute the
Kaiser is. This kind of people have
gone about as far as their patrioticm
will permit, and if he was so patriotic
as he looks he could at least have had
| on a uniform That really stands for
patriotism these days. He might take
a trip across and take shot at some
more Germans. We need sharp
shooters over there.
| am in favor of fellow showing
his spirit and feelings but not the kind
that come and go like it does onasome
people, and if that fellow was filled
with patriotism we have a million
patriots" in the insane asylum, fol-
they are affected in similar way.
am very sorry | can't give you q
word or two about our movements
and about the excitement we have
occasionally but the censorship regu
lations are more strict now than cvel
and I am hrayino the censor nov