New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-07-30


.-.veninc in your country and in Can
10 II 1903 in which particularly
,.rsd attention 10 IFS certainty. In the
.;,ies visited ] WAS regarded as
wsnorgor.
r,eland WAS almost as slow as the
-,s. o. the world 10 believe that Ger
,,.-, meant war Our successive ad-
--pistrations had no excuse except that
che vast German influence IN our pub
lie lie and press threw dust IN our
svps. We we're much too busy acquir-
;,, new territory and new businesses
and storing up money TO want TO be-
reve in war. Your people are in eX-
sctlv the same condition as we were.
Americans IN London tell me that, al
though YOU were the inventors Of the
seroplane, you have practically an eye
less army and a blind navy.
Judging from the amount Of adver-
Using IN The Tribune and other news
pspers. YOU arc now enjoying sort OF
commercial boom that up TO 1914 we
had cot 10 regard as our normal state
Of affairs. IN those days the annual
eolf championship ranked in our news
columns as OF greater Importance than
The annual review Of our army, and
II certainly aroused much more discus
sion. Whole pages were given over to
stock markets. To use a common Lon
doaism. Everything in the garden was
lovely"
On Four DAYS Notice.
When the war arrived it came with
Just four DAYS notice and all the wise
acres and business folk, who mad pre-
dicted that the world had 3utgrown
>uch evil things as wholesale slaughter,
Tbev speedily plucked UP spirit again
and said not only on our side but on
,or~s that the thing would soon be
aver. u businesshke settlement would
he come 10 and all the rest OF It. We
fove now been at IL for nearly two
,ae-s and. so far as John Bull IS con
co~-ed after q tremendous amount OF
hacking and flling. apathy and muddle,
he has az length got into his stride,
and. let me add, a great deal more
ranidy than you did when you started
on your comparatively small scrap IN
1s6i.
though the war found US almost as
rnprepared on land as you are to-day,
national instinct and annual recur.
rent newspaper agitations had provided
Us ,,!th an almost perfect feet.
Germany giant blunder-the chief
of in her b1unders. worse than her at
tempt 20 capture Paris or her bloody
struggle 10 get TO Calais-was her
astonishing miscalculation that John
Bull would allow little Belgium 70 be
trodden on.
In my own opinion. the principal
agent in Germany's undoing is that
9eet OF ours. which, despite Germans
boosted sea victories, keeps CONNER
cially possible and above water German
shipping as clear Of the seas as II
the Hamburg-American and the Nord
Deutsche Lloyd we're nOn-existent.
of what value would have been the
glorious herOism Of France If Germany
could have landed troops at almost any
point on the French coast she chose
Of what value would have been the
numberless brave but at that time un-
organized Russians if the Germans
could have transported their armies by
sea to Riga? / will not dilate upon the
TACT. which is obvious 70 any outside
observer. and has been stated over and
over again By your experts, that with
out the British Fleet the long pre-
pared German war machine might and
probably would have proved invincible
The First Blunder.
As TO o1,r muddles. The first of our
IN
Injustice and waste Of a voluntary
army. There never was any real OBJ
lection 10 compulsory military service
EXCEPT in the minds Of the vote-hunting
politicians. who, when It came 10 a
Showdown" as you say-are rarely
proved 20 have any real knowledge OF
national will and purpose. Because you
had riots i'm New York over the raising
OF Nr. Lincoln's drafts" fifty-ive
years ago under the old-fashioned sys-
TEN bv which rich men could purchase
substitutes. our vote-hunters really
persuaded themselves that the modern
young man would not stand military
service. But have no doubt that the
Young men, if necessity arises, who
pgai out Of your tall buildings at b
o'clock In the evening will welcome
compulsory service as readily as ours
DO.
When CONSUMPTION came 70 be intro
duced with us 10 was done without one
single disturbance of any sort. Had
we inaugurated that system IN August,
lsl4. the war might have been finished
by this time As il was, the politicians
were obliged 10 resort TO all kinds OF
degrading methods of raising men, by
Advertisement and by low and threaten
ing appeals A book Of their speeches
and newspaper writings / have before
me makes pitiable reading to-day.
Our ncrt blunder was IN ordering
the wrong kind Of she'll and the wrong
KIND Of guns. For this the soldiers
were 10 blame as much as the poll
ucians. The very first battles proved
mat the machine-gun was vital. In
those days, before the Censor waxed
lat newspaper CORES pOndents saw
great deal of the fighting, and they
pointed out repeatedly that the man
Win the machine-gun magazines nm
sell by hundred IL was known also
mat the Germans and Austrians had
az the outset between 10000 and lOO,-
700 machine guns.
Our third blunder was the total
neglect 10 use the services Of the busi-
Tess men and inventors Of the country
ana the Empire. British capital and
Canadian brains have done wonderful
saiifoad making in the Dominion, yet
ior more than "a year we did not begin
- realize the instant necessity Of rail
transport for the army in the field.
s quite easy TO understand these
wnceneies. Our wars have been little
"kA vonr Indian war2 az TAnr