New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-08

I hate TO say that in this crisis of war
England owes more to its Press than
10 its Government. but beyond ques-
tion II does. IL is TO the loyal Press.
and TO THE Times" and "Daily Mail"
/ more than TO all other journals. that
the reconstruction of the Government
and its chief acts of energy are due.
The Munitions Act is due to the Press.
II is the tolerated defiance of it in
South Wales which is due to the Gov
eminent. But for the Press the army
would still be starved of shells, high
explosives, machine guns and much
else, it is in fact still starved because
such industries cannot be improvised:
II takes months TO make up for past
negligence. There would have been no
National Registry but for the Press;
no attempt to put an end to the in
credible and scandalous waste in ex-
penditure; no internment of Germans
in England-even now half-heartedly
and incompletely carried out. 1t was
the Press which compelled the former
Government to revoke its permission
for the sending of German reservists
TO Germany; to stop in part the sys-
tenn of granting licenses to trade with
the enemy.
The War Office.
The Press and few Members of
Parliament Liberal and Conserva-
tive, and both of them with minds of
their own -h have joined in exposing
some OF the ineificiencies of the War
Office. These inetfciencies Ministers
neither deny moi defend. but maintain.
The exposed incompetents are not
scrapped, but kept in office, and the
system under which they were able to
hamper the conduct of the war still
exists. Ministers sit silent when ques
toned. or return the usual evasive off
cial answers, in which Mr.. Tenant,
who represents the War Office in the
House of Commons, is expert.
They tried to silence THE Times" by
criminal prosecution out, as Theo-
dore Parker said when indicted in
United States Court in Boston for the
crime of free speech, their sword broke
in their hands Their partisans tried
10 silence "The Daily Mail" They
burnt it on the Stock Exchange and
elsewhere ard spread abroad reports
that its circulation had gone down by
half. The answer of "The Daily Mail"
was to publish the sworn statements
of two eminent firms of Chartered Ac-
countants, giving the figures for each
month of this year, including the
months of the burning: for each month
from a Million to Million and a
Quarter.
The Times" and Daily Mail"
And it is these two journals, with
Lord Northcliffe in control, which have
steadfastly educated the public into
perception of the imperative necessity
for National Service; which means
LOT ,lao oplf q roa
They have even educated Ministers,
some of them, into the same belief.
Their hesitations and vacillations are
slowly giving way. Lord Kitchener,
Lord Lansdowne and Mr.. Walter Long
are openly for CONSUMPTION. Why is
not Lord Northcliffe in the Cabinet?
Had their conversion come earlier
there would have been no Welsh strike,
since discipline for enlistments would
/ inevitably have brought with it the
discipline of all war industries. Or
had there been a strike, it would then
have been crushed with an iron hand.
The Lusitania Judgment
do not care 10 write about Lord
Mersey's Lusitania Judgment" except
10 say that in most of its conclusions,
ether than his condemnation Of the
numbering Germans, ! dissent My be-
lief still is that if the Admiralty in
structions to the Lusitania had been
obeyed the ship would have gone safe
~ into port Her dead remain un~
avenged They are our dead. Mr..
Roosevelt. says the cable, considers our
failure TO act with instant decision
"a meaner and more contemplate ac-
ton than that of the Germans in sink
ing the Lusitania" Thank you, Mr..
Roosevelt; yours and not Mr.. Will
sons is the true voice of America.
G. w s