The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-10-07
TIE FUTURE OF THE SUBMARINE
 AND SIMON LAKES PART IN IT

available for either a Baltic or North Sea fight, and consequently En glands apparent strength is only half, in case England decided to blockade the Baltic ports of Germany.
 Germany adopted the prudent tac- tics of keeping her large vessels be- hind mines and forts, pending att tempts to reduce England's bIockad- ing battleships by mine and submarine torpedo work. Consequently the First Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill stated in effect that the English fleet would dig the German craft out of thedr ports like rats unless they came forth to fight. { The .sUJ9'' came forth the next day and historical result is recorded in the Scientific American, as sfhe most brilliant naval success thus far achieved in the present war and which establishes at a stroke, the deadly efficiencys of this, the latest moral prestige acquired, rather than in the material loss to the enemy, that the value of this German success is to be estimated. Not only has it shown the wisdom of the defensive tactics adopted by the German Admiralty but it will have a profound effect in provoking a. sense of insecurity in the enormous fleet, estimated at some 200 ships, which is holding the German battleship fleet in it's home waters" October g. 1914, Count Ernst zu Re ventlow, Germany,s greatest naval critic stated: 'sThe English fleet has shown no disposition to court battle When our destroyers and submarines seek them, we find them close to their own coast line.'' The <sU9,'s evident ly made a profound impression upon the English Navy, however, ALL ENGLAND DEMANDS REVENGE. but stands impotent because Ger many's mines and forts hold the Brit ish submarines and battleships at bay while the German submarines are able to annihilate the big craft if they attempt a close blockade which Count Reventlow indicates is aban- doned The British surface war craft cannot sweep and destroy the German mines in order to carry out the First Lords s-rat'' threat, be- cause the mines are protected by forts
 As the naval expert Of the London Globe sees it, the sinking of the Abou-, kir, Greasy and Hogue twill arouse the British Fleet to action as nothing else could have done and the success of this submarine attack may yet prove the death knell of the German Navy
 It Is difficult to understand how the British Fleets can sound Germanyss deathknell, as the British submarines are useless to destroy the German mines. because the English submarines have no bottom wheels and diving chamber, through the use of which Submarine can destroy mines and tor pedo mine and fort protected large war craft The submarines strength has heretofore been mintmized, but
 nadnaum consideration will now be given to its torpedo powers and possibly to the mine destruction pos abilities of a submarine.
 THE MINE DESTROYING POW FRS Of the submarine were tested in a sister ship of the Defender which is now at Bridgeport, by a Government Board, which officially reported in part: s'FOR THH DEFENSE. it will give the nearest approach to ABSO- 5LUTE PROTECTION now known to the rd's-s'the boat can locate and pick up cables,'-s'the faculty pos sessed by the boat of man euvertng on the bottom and sending out divers leaves little or nothing to be desired in it's facilities for doing this work. 2 "FOR THH ATTACK, the boat shows great superiority over any existing means of ATTACHING mine fields, as at present installed, with little or no danger from the explosion of any particular mine, or from gun fire and can ATTACK at it's PLEASURE the vessels in, the harbor. he Board personally witnessed the ease with which cables can be grappled. raised and cut while the boat is maneu- vering on the bottom; MINE CABLES can be swept for, found and cut, or a diver can be sent out for that pur- pose.''L''the. Board recommends, in conseQuence of its conclusions, that five of these boats be purchased"
 The submarine industry means much to Bridgeport and consequent 1y THE FARMER is giving close ob- servatfon to the subject.
 THH LITERARY DIGEST has stat ed, in reference to the .-JJs.' affair, that, sThe incident may even mean, in the opinion of many observers, that the day of the big unit in naval war fare. the Dreadnaught and super dreadnaught is over.''@
 THE BROOKLYN EAGLE remarks that e'The German victory lends color to Admiral Scottss theory which, if correct, condemns the policy of every first class power in the world. inc1ud- ing Germany herself. ?
 The sconcensus of opinion is that the submarine has come into it's own. It is evident that the smaller powers will no longer follow the lead of the larger in building Dreadnaughts, be- cause for the smaller powers, the t'U9" solved in an hour the problems
 of disarmament and the maximum protection with minimum taxation,
 because the submarine has proved in practice a perfect coast defense and
 eliminates the costly big dry docks, immense machine shops, great store
 houses, high expenditures for coal and
 innumerable supplies for big ships
 and many men and numerous and inn
 mense navy yards incidental to a pro
 tectton by batt1eshfps which cost dol
 lars where the submarines cost cents.
 Some large powers may continue a policy of building battleships, in or der to rule the high seas and control
 foreign trade, but no large power will attempt to seize from the sea and overload the land of any small power whose coasts and ports arc defended by submarines, because the attempt
 will prove bad business financially and
 a disaster equal to the attempt of the British cruisers to blockade the
 North Sea ports of Germany.
 A prophet is not without honor,
 save in his own country, but the