The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1915-06-26
What America Could Do

Those persons, and their number is legion, who arr
prone to speculate upon what might happen to this coun
try in the event of our becoming embroiled in war will
Germany, will find a sedative for some of their worst fear:
in the following brief statement, amanating from a Wash
ington authority. 1t is a we'll recognized fact that in the
event of this country's being drawn into the war, there
could be no thought of sending an army to Europe, at leas
for more than a year, and that Americas chief part in sucf
a war would be to supply munitions and food to the Allies
This cOuntrys most potent weapon must always be its vas
treasury and its ability to supplement and maintain tha
treasury to meet every demand upon its resources. In re
ply to the question as to what would first happen if the
United States and Germany should enter into a state O.
war, the article IN question says:
Germany cannot get to the United States, at
least until the present trouble in Europe is over. And
it would be half a year at least before the United
States could send an army over to Europe. But it
does no. necessarily follow from this that the United
States could not make its wrath felt at once in case
war was declared.
The first offensive move that the United States
could make against Germany would be the impOund-
ing and Selling of seventy-two German and Austrian
ships tied up in this country, including the cruisers
Prlnz Eltel Frederick and kronprlnz Wilhelm, IN
termed at Norfolk; a gunboat held at Honolulu, sixty
eight merchant steamers, aggregating 527,29S gross
and 3o2,20o net tons in various ports, and the mer-
chant steamer Odenwald in San Juan, Porto Rico. The
total tonnage of these ships is about 100000 net tons,
and their value has been placed by experts at $Iooooo,-
900. Fifteen of these ships are owned by the North
German Lloyd and twenty-five by the Hamburg
American line. The largest of them is the Vaterland
of the Hamburg-American line, which has accommo-
dations tor 2.2o4 passengers and a crew OF o23 men,
III Il Spctu IL lWculy-lOuI kuOlS. he NcOISc w Su-
ington is second in size, with accommodations for
PTS passengers and a crew Of SIS, and a speed of
nineteen knots. F%ifty-four of the ships are German
and the remainder are Austrian.
In the event of war the cruisers Prinz Eitel Fried
rich and Kronprinz Wilhelm could be placed at once
in active service at b~attleships along with the other
ships of the United States navy.
This country is weak on transports. There are
only seven of them. But suppose Uncle Sam COM
mandeered the %siXty-nine merchant ships of Germany
and Austria in this country and used them for trans
ports and ships for passengers and general merchan-
disc, and utilized the two German cruisers now in
termed in conjunction with our own cruisers as con-
voys-wouldn't that be a great help to the Allies, and
wouldn't these additional ships increase the supplies
for the Allies and facilitate the movement of their
troops, and wouldn't the additional warships tighten
the blockade around Germany and Austria and make
it more difficult than ever for supplies to get into
those countries?
The second offensive move of this country against
Germany would probably be in supplying the Allies
with ammunition. 1t has been said that if the United
States went to war with Germany this country would
require all the ammunition it could produce for the
use of its own armies. Such a view of the case has
been taken by the Nation of London and Professor
Roland G. Usher of America, author of "Pan-German-