New Britain herald., 1915-09-18

ing said on the question of prepared ness that it was an academic ques- 1 ton and might be discussed as such. l Later he told the people of Phi1adel- phiaI-the people of the whole coun-
 try in fact-that We were Too proud 1 to fight Now we are told that the administration is considering an ap-
 propriation of $500,O00,000 for pre- paredness. If it is an academic ques- tlon and if we are too proud to fight why waste any money on preparation? Secretary Daniels Ridiculed. "The secretary of the navy, who is enc of the war officers of the admins tratlon, has very largely devoted his energies in his naval policy to such
 matters as the instruction of seamen In the English branches. That is
 simply an illustration of the activities in which our officers and seamen have been engaged, and it is charged that these courses have been taken at the expense of the efficiency, the gunnery
 and morale of the men though.
 The secretary contended early this
 summer, in a long discussion Of the
 matter in a letter written to the presi-
 dent of Williams college, that the navy Was absolutely fit in every respect in
 case hostilities were forced upon us
 Within two or three weeks he has
 subscribed to the desirability of fur
 ther naval development and up-build-
 ing, presumably representing the posi-
 tion taken by the administration that
 $500,00O,000 or thereabou should be
 spent for military preparation.
 "Wednesday of last week however,
 he made a speech in Philadelphia in
 which he is quoted as saying that the
 wars of the future would not depend
 on men or munitions but on chemis-
 try, presumably urging this view to
 justify the appointment of the board,
 headed by MT. Edison, which has
 been given so much publicity. Inci-
 dentally I am glad to say the activi-
 ties of such a board can not possibly
 do any harm, although it is not, as
 understand it, the purpose of the
 m em bers of this board to devote their
 energies to developing munitions or articles which will be of value in
 warfare but to pass on the proposi-
 tions made by others. It almost goes without saying that officers of the navy, who have a technical knowledge which even MT. Edison and his con- freres can not have, are quite as com petent to pass on matters relating to their own profession as can be any such board, But, if the secretary of the navy is now right in his conten- tion that chemistry is going to be the basis for fighting successful wars, why is it necessary to build battleships or submarines or battle cruisers or to y,iz re serves to make cur present army and navy reasonably efficient.
 High Cost of Living.
 "There has for many years been a constant increase in the cost of liv- ing in the United States and the whole to the fact that there has been a m movement from the country to the city; that less people in proportion to the total population were engaged in raising food products and that the number of food animals, also in pro- portion to the population, was de- rather than increasing If this is true, there can be no other result in the United States than an in- crease in the cost of meat; for when l our population increases at least a | million a year, the number of food 1 animals actually decreases. and we shall see in the future, as we have in the immediate past, an increase in the price of food products and the increase will continue until it becomes so profitable for the employment of capital in farming operations that it will be diverted from other opera tions in which it is now engaged where the average return is greater than is obtained from the same amount of capital invested in raising food products.
 "But in order to obtain power, and by literally fooling the people, the democratic party charged that this increase in the cost of living was due to tariff laws and other legislation for which the republican party was re- sponsible. Therefore the first activity in which it indulged legislatively, was to revise the tariff downward. There is probably no great public ques- tion-and it is the very essence of politics itself in this country about which there is so much so much preju- dice, as there is in the considera- ton of the tariff question. Demo- cratic orators traversed the country l ;elling the people that they were oppressed by the duties which were imposed and succeeded in convincing ! very considerable number of voters hat the constant increase in living cost was due to the protective policy.
 ''Now We have had nearly two years ,f a tariff law framed as it's sponsors on revenue lines. The result 1as been disastrous to American in iustries, to American labor, and has tot carried out single one of the claims which the democratic party 1ad assured the people would result