The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-04-18
Gernany Has Airships
 For Possible English War

many years of welr organised prepara- ton. and the expenditure of over e2.- s00.ooO to accomplish this. The Ger mah people Of their own free will g1ve Count Zeppelin s1.3zs.oo0 to carry on his work. and by 1912 most of that "a splendid and weli-tried aerial fleet. Before lo1ss France. 1t is computed. spent over e750.o0G on. sxperimentai work which resulted in the establish : ment. of her aerial, fleet.
 0ernanyss Navy.
 When the history of Germany's mighty naval development comes to be written one name win stand, out in boidest relief-kdmirai Alfred von Tifpitx, Secretary of State for the Im- .perial Navy. To this giant fork bearded saiior-statesman. q magnificent specimen of Teuton physique of the old school. must fall the Hons share of credit for the persistent aggressive ness with which the Fatherland has rushed to front rank as a sea power. He Is the real creator of the German fleet.
 A conmoner by birth. with little at his back except indomitable energy, will. and ambition. Admiral von Tir- pits has advanced. through sheer force of ability and zeal. from naval cadet
 
 Epnpire's sea forces: He is perhaps the worlds only Minister of Marine who incorporates in himself the rare com bination of. practical seamanship, emi- nent executive talent, and astute statesrlanship. Sixty years old. he has been at the head of the Admiralty unbrokenly for twelve, years. It Is the ambition of the Emperor and the coun- try to keep him there as long as he can fx- lf<sy1 fa ufo von Tirpitx himself sets the limit of his usefulness at the date when the Naval Laws he fashioned are fully car- ried .out---when Germany's proud squadrons of Dreadnoughts and In- vincibles are a fleet fin being.
 von Tirpitz's career is in inspiring contradiction of the theory that birth and caste are essential to advancement in German government service. Born far remote from salt water, at Kus- trin an Older. in the March of Brand enburg, as the son of Prussian K. O.. there was nothing in his origin to sug- -gest the. future admiral and naval >ad- ministrator., At sixteen. at the end of gymnasium education he became & cadet in. the modern Aggregation of frigates known as the Prussian' navy. Four years later he had won a lieu tenancy, and at twenty-fv he had att tafned the coveted rank of a lieutenant commander. It was while in this com paratively ~unimportant position that Won Tirpitx first revealed his amazing capacity for initiative and his ability to . impose his ideas on superior and inferior alike.
 In, 1891 Won. Tirpitz had carved his way to the chiefship of stan at the Kiel.s station. the headquarters of the fleet. a position which gave him rich opportunity for his fnexhaustible pow CTS of initiative and organization. With far-seeine eye he first turned his at- tention to the creation and perfection of. the-torpedo service The German fleets acknowledged strength in that branch of naval warfare is essentially and primarily Won Tirpitz's achieve ment. It was he who mapped out and mobiiized the entire torpedo boat division, which when he took hold of 1t consisted of handful of insignifi- cant mosquito craft. He discovered of ficers peculiarly iadapted to the needs of torpedo tactics. and dint Of rest loss example and enthusiasm welded them into an aggregation of experts who now form the backb bone Of the Empires sea-fighting forces. Having founded the torpedo school. Von Tirpftz dedicated himself to bringing order out of administrative chaos at the Kiel station. It was reserved for him . year and a half later to be elevated to the heights at which he had himself hurled many vigorous broadsides-the State Secretaryship of the admiralty at Berlin. He was then given chance to prove his theories in practice.
 Having accomplished the shercufean task of administrative Reorganization, he began 10 busy himself with the paramount question of fleet worthy of the name. The great naval law of 1909 was born in Won Tirpitz's brain. Lnongh an unninchfng believer in "Germany's future upon the water :. ! he has never been an extreme zeaio4 of naval expansionist