The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-10-31
ny II. M. Scale.

| How many little men there are,
quaint homunculi STUNT In normal
| times you are not aware how many
there are. even among your neighbors-
The most of them are known to you
as intelligent. well educated people.
1 taking the usual interest in the ordi-
nary affairs Of life. It Is only when
stirring times are at hand and some
| thing akin to crises arise that you
discover to your surprise how large
number of small men are to be found
1t Is then you find to your disgust
, they have no minds of their own,
have no individual grasp Of affairs,
but are mere parrots. repeating the
words of others by whom they are
! led.
How many of these people. for ex-
ample. who have been listening to the
peace-at-any-price propagandists ever
stopped to think that IL Germany wins
the war in Europe and this country
has no larger navy than at present,
she will gain full control of the seas
one of the prime objects of the war
| in fact-that she will collect all the
money she wants from France (as she
did in 1901. and has now done from
Belgium). from England. Russia, Italy.
Spain and Portugal and Holland. AUS
tria, the Balkans. and Turkey, in
short from all the countries of Eu-
rope and from whatever parts of Asia
and Africa she can lay hands on; ana
that with the enormous sums SO OBJ
tanned she will at once betake herself
| to the building of 'warships for the
conquest of the rest of the world
Would Rule the World.
What is to prevent her from doing
this? II she has the power through
superior preparation OF equipment to
conquer such nations as France, Great
Britain. Russia and Italy combined.
whose people are the equal in national
courage to any other on the earth, she
would be able to make herself mis-
tress of the rest of the worId-even as
Rome once did in the career of that
masterful empire when Caesar and
other rulers with their trained le-
gfons defeated the unframed and I'M
ready peoples of the rest of Europe,
Asia and Northern Africa History Is
fond Of repeating itself. Instead of
the Roman empire of Gibbon there
would come again the Holy German
Empire-"Gott nit US" and save us
and all Europe Is then Germany.
Whoever has studied the acts and
words of the Kaiser. ruler of the
Prussian oligerchy of today can easily
understand his ambition to become an
Alexander, a Caesar and a Napoleon
rolled into one, or at least a Genghis
Z
teenth century. who overran and con-
quered all of Asia and Europe as far
as the Dneiper. with slaughter and
destruction everywhere. The latter
conqueror also had been preparing for
his conQuests a quarter of a century
and more. and when he burst upon a
comparatively unarmed world his
tartar hordes. though semi-barbarous.
were armed with the latest devices of
offensive and defensive weapons of
war. With such troops and arms he
easily overcame peasants armed only
with scythes and other farming i'm
pIements. led by a few knights who
knew nothing of warfare beyond the
jousting lists.
Her Fleet In Our Waters.
II this thing should happen-that
Germany wins-which competent crit
les say is within the range of posi-
bilities-what will probably happen as
a result: Germany will have money to
burn: but she will not burn IT; ex-
cept in building so many ships of war
that. added to those taken over from
England and France and other allies,
she will soon find herself cramped for
harbor and anchorage room in her
home ports. She will then be looking
, for other places to anchor, in the
Dutch West Indies. perhaps. and along
America, where a fleet would doubt
less be assembled some two or three
sizes larger than that of the United
States navy today in ships. men and
guns, all within supporting distance
OF each other and contemplating with
interest the eastern entrances to the
Panama Canal.
II cosling and renting stations were
required. Mexico could furnish every
. fno IN hat lima in arf nav ant fnr
German property and lives destroyed
during the past few years in that
country. and then despite the Monroe
scrap of paper. Germany. however.
never was a subscriber to the Mon
roe Doctrine. and she would therefore
feel herself at liberty to act in &C
cord with her military necessities"
regardless of any treaty in existence.
II in such case. a protest or vigorous
note" should be sent to Berlin from
our State Department the reply would
probably be the addition Of a few
more battleship squadrons to those
already on the spot. carrying a fleet
of transports with a few army corps
to be landed somewhere on the gulf
coast-vera Cruz. Galveston or near
New Orleans, as most convenient.
Our Fate In the Balance.
And what would We do about it?
Could We do anything else but night
and attempt to defend ourselves? And
what would be the result? That
would depend very much on whether
or not the peace dove Chadbands had
prevailed with the American people
on the question of national defense.
II they should have so prevailed, our
gallant navy, attacked by hostile
fleet three or four times its size.
would be destroyed and the million
men rising between sunrise and sun
set with their squirrel guns and other
archaic weapons would be swept
away like chaff before the machine
guns and gas bombs of a cultured
enemy. Billions of money would then
be demanded for shipment to Berlin.
as the price of peace. with the under
standing that we should never build
a navy larger than the one just de-
stroyed on pain of another invasion
and collection. And unless we should
all make up our minds to die fighting
with our fists in the last ditch this
peace would have to be accepted with
Teutonic control of the seas an ac-
complished fact.
Happily this condition of things Is
less probable than possible. Already
the Chadbands of the peace propa-
gands have begun to lose their feeble
minded followers and the outlook IL
bright that before Germany wins the
war and the modern Attila with his
Huns shall overrun all Europe we