Getting Together | Page 3

proper
consignee, directly the war is over. Can you beat that?
"Would we welcome Intervention? My dear sir, is it likely? Supposing
you had been caught entirely unprepared, and had been sticking your
toes in for two years--fighting for time and playing a poor hand pretty

well--and were at last ready to hit back, and hit back, until you had
rendered your opponent incapable of further outrage, and were in a fair
way to fix this war so that it never could happen again--would you
welcome Mediation, or offers of Mediation? I think not.
"Submarines? We aren't attaching too much importance to submarine
frightfulness. It is true we have lost a number of merchant ships, and
that a number of innocent lives have been sacrificed. But let us put our
hearts in the background for the present and look at the matter from the
economic and military point of view. We have lost, in twenty-seven
months, about one tenth of our original merchant fleet. Against that you
have to set the fact that we have been steadily building new merchant
ships during the same period. The dead loss of merchandise involved
amounts to about one half per cent. of the total value--ten shillings in
every hundred pounds; or fifty cents per hundred dollars. That won't
starve us into submission.
"But the Germans will build more and more submarines? Very
probably. Still, I think we can leave it to the British and French navies
to prevent undue exuberance in that direction. Our sailors have not
been exactly garrulous during this war, but I think we may take it that
they have not been entirely idle. Has it ever occurred to you that
although there are hundreds of Allied warships patrolling the ocean
to-day, you hardly ever hear of one being torpedoed by a submarine?
Passenger ships and freight ships suffer to the extent I have quoted, but
not the warships. Why is that? Don't ask me: ask Jellicoe! But it rather
looks as if the submarine, as an instrument of naval warfare--as
opposed to a baby-killing machine--had rather failed to deliver the
goods.
"The Deutschland? I take off my hat to Captain Koenig: he is a plucky
fellow. The U 53? I have no remarks to offer, except to repeat my
previous reference to baby-killing machines. As for the presence of
these two vessels in American waters--in American ports--I won't
presume to offer an opinion. Still, not long ago the U 53 sank six
British or neutral vessels off the American coast, just outside territorial
waters. Fortunately for the passengers, an American cruiser was in the

neighbourhood, to guard against violation of American waters, and
picked them up. But the whole incident looks to me like a deliberate
German plan to jockey an American cruiser into becoming a German
submarine tender.
"Let me see--what else? Too proud to fight? Not much! We know the
American people too well. Besides, we suffer from politicians
ourselves, and know what political catch-phrases are. So don't let that
worry you.
"National Training for America? There I am neither qualified nor
entitled to offer advice. I know the difficulties with which the true
American has to contend in this matter. I know that this vast country of
yours is more of a continent than a country, and that so long as your
enormous tide of immigration continues, it will be a matter of immense
difficulty developing a national sense of personal responsibility. I also
know that your Middle West is inhabited by people, many of whom
have never even seen the sea, who are rendered incapable, by their very
environment, of realizing the immensity of the external dangers which
threaten their country. These must see things differently from the more
exposed section of the community, and I see how dangerous it would
be to enforce upon them a measure which they regard as ridiculous. But
on this great subject of Preparedness, I can refer you to the case of my
own country--not as an example, but as a warning. We were caught
unprepared. In consequence, we had to sacrifice our best, our very best,
the kind that can never be replaced in any country, just because they
hurried to the rescue and allowed themselves to be wiped out, while the
country behind them was being aroused and prepared. That is the price
that we have paid, and no ultimate victory, however glorious, can
recompense us for that criminal waste of the flower and pride of our
youth and manhood at the outset.
"Do we expect to win the war outright? Yes, we do."
It is true that the Central Powers have recently succeeded in devastating
another little country, though they have not destroyed its army. On the
other hand, during the past few months the Allied gains on