Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-09-24
THE QUIESCENcE OF THE GER
MAN NAVY.
and Navy Journal

(Army and Navy Journal.)
No student OF military conditions
can fail TO speculate as to the ulti-
mate fate of the German navy. 1t
was built TO defend German ocean
commerce. At the present time this
commerce has practically ceased to
exist, but the fleet remains virtually
intact near shore under the protec-
ton of mines and Notifications. This
quiescent state Of the navy raises the
interesting question Of what the
function of a fleet in being" is. 1t
is true that the German fleet is in
ferior to that OF the British, but in
the history Of naval fights it has
not always been the superior fleet
that has won. The men behind the
guns have often been able to make
up for deficiency in material things
and to snatch a victory from a SUI
perior enemy. If a navy should fight
only when it is superior, then indeed
would the principles OF sea fighting
have to be reversed. One would have
to strain his imagination. greatly 20
conceive Of Farragut refusing to fight
because his feet was not as strong
as the enemy's, and n can fancy
Lord Nelson almost rejoicing in the
inferiority Of his feet that would
make a triumph all the more resound'
ing.
The Germans still have a powerful
navy, the second strongest in the
world. 1t has done nothing during
the war up to the present time except
to create s~pecul2tions as to when it
was going to do something. 1t Is al
together possible that a naval genius
with that fleet might sally forth and
destroy or badly damage the British
fleet. Great as Is the superiority OF
the British navy, still it is not wholly
beyond the power CT a skilful COM
mander to get the better of it pro-
yided the British fleet were handled
by an incompetent commander.
There Dis no reason to believe that
the British fleet is thus commanded,
but on the contrary there is every
evidence that Admiral Jellicoe is ad-
mirably fitted to take charge or Brit
aims interests in this grave crisis In
his country's history; sdll the test
Of every officers ability is his con.
duct in actual war, and how do the
Germans know that a severe encoun'
ter with the navy Of England might
not reveal weaknesses by which the
Germans could profit to the extent
of destroying or at least Gripping
the naval power OF Great Britain Ger
tainly Germany will never be able TO
discover the limitations Of the Brit
ish on sea unless they try out their
ships In action.
lNhe commence Of Germany is so
great a prize that 1t is almost worth
the risk of sacrificing it's entire feet
were that necessary. The trade with
Great Britain in 1911 amounted In
Germany to $487,000, 900; with Rus
STA. sS15, 900, 900; with France 1885,
900, 900. So great was the expansion
OF Germany's seaborne commerce that
in fewer than a half dozen years, or
from 1908 to 1912, the German ex-
ports and imports rose from $685.
600, 900 to Safe, 100000. The largest
part of this great trade was made
I'D of the one hundred thousand car
goes that contributed to the activity
of such ports as Hamburg, Bremen,
Stettin, Altoona, Lubbock, Danzig and
Warnemuende. All these ports are
practically commercially dead, dead
as Pompeii and Herculaneum. Not a
ship can go in or out so far as ocean
commerce is concerned. In the docks
of the German steamship companies