ut they have made it possible for merchant ships to
live in that part of the ocean they are covering.

Somebody has broken into print somewhere to say that Germany has trouble
getting U-boat crews; that men have to be driven into U-boats to man
them. What a queer idea of human courage people who say such things
have! There are always volunteers, probably always will be--plenty of
volunteers for any dangerous service. If the U-boat crews were the kind
that have to be driven to sea, there would be no great harm in them. But
they are not that kind. They have courage, and they have skill, and
because they have courage and skill they are dangerous.

After a year of the U-boat drive England saw a danger of being some day
starved out; and with England starved out, our army might as well have
stayed on this side last summer; but though the drive is still on,
England is not yet starved out, for much of which comfort they can thank
the officers and men of our little destroyer flotilla.

At a time when England was worn and weary with the U-boat game, our
fellows went over to hearten them up; and they are still heartening them
up; and, besides heartening them up, they are getting the U-boats
regularly. How many they are getting I could not say, even if I knew;
but one of our vice-admirals has publicly stated that they once got five
in one day. And with malice toward none, let us hope for more days like
it.

THE MARINES HAVE LANDED----

It was a little girl at home, not old enough to read long words, but
able to read a picture, as she put it; and there was a print of a
company of marines leaving one of our navy-yards, and she said: "The
marine soldiers going away--more trouble somewheres, isn't there, papa?"

Which caused her papa to recall that from where he was born and lived
the first years of his life he had only to look out of his top window
and across the harbor to see a big navy-yard; and while he was still too
young to read a paper, he had seen marines boarding ships and marching
off to trains; and just as sure as he did the older people would read
from that night's or next morning's paper of trouble somewhere abroad.

And always they went without any fuss. Most of us would have more to say
about going to the office of a snowy morning than do the marines on
leaving for some far-away country, from where, as they know by past
records of the corps, quite a few of them are never coming back. They
were the original