Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-01-29

| MO ONE cares. any more. about the great
! IN question of is months ago: "Who started
! the war?" 1t is more interesting to speculate
to who will stop it. 1t is more important
to decide what caused it.
The first crying out against Germany came
because the world believed that Germany
had caused the war by her magnificent prep
arations for it. Pacinsts argued that arna-
ment drags nations into war, as one might
insist that If there were no boats there would
be no drownings. BY this time the world has
regained its balance. 1t does not believe that
things are the first causes. It knows, had
there been no will to conquer, that all the
siege guns and all the Ieppens in the world
wouldn't have provoked a war. But that is
not all.
why did the war come precisely at the time
It did? Why has it taken precisely its present
course? These things are dependent upon
things upon the many inventions which
the Preacher said men have sought and
found The war would have come e it had to
be fought with battle axes, but it would not
have come at this time The contributing
causes of the great struggle are the invcn-
tions of warfare-and n book
The book is the work of an American, Ad-
miral A. 4. Mahan, who believed that sea-
power the determining factor in virtually
every war. His first book was "The Influence
of Sea Power on History" and from the
moment it was published it became the text
book of the German Kaiser and Of the British
Admiralty. Wilhelm ordered every magazine
article of Mahans translated and given to
every officer of his navy The British Adj
miralty repeatedly has asserted that Admiral
Mahan was the guide of British destinies.
Mahan pointed out that the terrible victories
of Napoleon on the Continent were nullifed
and made futile by British control of the
sea. He showed that the same held true in
the Civil War. Before he died he what
he thought was the beginning of the end for
Germany, because Germany had lost the
of the sea.
Yet, when the war began. the Kaiser had
intention of losing control of the sea, and
he owed his illusion to two Inventions the
submarine and the flying machine. A mere
comparison of dates will indicate how subtly
and how surely the German directing mind
has worked. The first naval program of Ger
many was framed in 1893. The Kiel Canal
was opened two years later, and up to this
time water-power was intended. But in
1901 when France was yielding to the same
belief in the submarine, the Kaiser defed
Britain with these words "Our future is on
the water. The more the Germans go upon
the water the better it will be for u.s." In
July OF that year the English newspapers told
England that France had the most powerful
navy in the world, because of her submarines.
"Where is Britain's naval supremacy now?"
was a frequent question.
Germany has not yet been accused of being
blind. When Winston Churchill proposed a
ratio of 16 British battleshps to 10 German,
Admiral Won Tirpitz was reported as agree
ing. Why shouldn't he agree, since eight
months before Germany had passed a bill for
a fleet of 90 Zeppelins capable of remaining
in flight for 90 hours at a stretch? That was
in 1912. Forward from that time German
defense centred on the two arms by which
the Kaiser and his councils expected to break
Englands sea power. 1t is amusing in the
light of events, to note how Germany bahled
the world. While France announced that she
would have IS submarines ready at the end
of 1914 and England So, Germany contented
herself with the modest word that she was
building several each year" to add to the 20
she had AS for aerial fleets, these were
hardly mentioned.
From the moment when Orville and Wilbur
Wright made their successful experiments at
Kitty Hawk from the time when submarines
became perfected instruments of destruction,
the war became an immediate thing 1t had
to be fought while Britain ruled the waves.
and Germany could creep unawares beneath
them or swoop inaccessibly above ships and
battlements. Whether Germany wanted to
do these things or was compelled to do them,
whether she or any other country is the
"aggressor" are separate questions. The GER
tain thing is that the historian of the future
will not neglect the inventions of men in
selecting the factors which made for the
Great War.
oNJE nav IC pUTTUD THAN NrONrD