Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-07-11
TRADE, INCENTIVE
OF DISCOVERIES
Koenig's Voyage Ranks in
Daring and in Purpose
With That of
Da Cana

TT is not in the distance travelled
l. $500 miles-or the dangers from hostile
war craft that the voyage of the sub
marine Deutschland is primarily remarls-
able. for 4OO0.mile trip by submarine is
on the list of wonders of the year 1915,
when several German submarines fol.
lowed the lead of Captain Otto Hersing
and his U.51 from wilhemshaven to the
Dardaneles. That exploit caused Hersing
to be hailed as one of Germany's greatest
sea heroes. He took his U.boat and the
accompanying fiotilla through the Bay of
Biscay, the Straits of Gibraltar and the
Mediterranean to the Dardanelles A
British fleet had been warned of the trip
taken by the submarines and pursued
| them until they reached their destination.
The U-51 arrived off the Dardanelles on
| May 25 and torpedoed and sank the Brit
ish battleships Triumph and Majestic. and
| then made safe passage to Constanti-
nope.
Nor is the Deutschland's voyage al
! together unprecedented in point of its
being conducted without the guardianship
of a mother ship" Submarines moth
| ers" are steamships which remain in the
background with supplies and equipment
| for their daughters" and were considered
| indispensable at the beginning of the war.
| For then all that was expected of the
| little vessels was an occasional dash to
| sea. A trip of 400 or 400 miles unaccom-
| panied was considered an adventurous
| feat But the German submarine U.35
| made a long "unmothered" trip before
| the Deutschland when she reached Car.
tagena, Spain, on June 90 last with a
message from the Kaiser to King AL.
fonso. This trip of 1900 miles, while not
so long as the Deutschlands, was yet
long enough to prove that the day was
not far off when solitary undersea ves-
sci could safely undertake even longer
voyages. 1t is important to note, in pass
ing, that with these examples of inven-
tive and adventurous prowess so recently
made public, human natures poverty in
sustained faith was great enough to ridi.
cule the idea of the transatlantic triron
until the Deutschland was actually bein
towed to Baltimore
For the Freedom of Trade
What the Deutschlands voyage is
primarily remarkable for is what the
great dscoverers' voyages of the
is at once trade voyage and the
harbinger of great idea. Her
purpose is trade that is to say, civiliza.
tion, and the establishment of the free
dom of the seas even in the time of the
most drastic blockade ever attempted.
If any ardent pro-Ally is inclined to
beittle the Importance of this trade and
freedom as merely commercial IDEAS let
him be reminded of one thing-the dearth
OF drugs which menaced sufferers in this
country when the German flag was swept
from the surface of the high seas.
Captain Paul Koenig, the "undersea
Columbus" seems to have the idealistio
temperament of the great discoverers of
the past. Hardly had he set foot on shore
when he was off on long series of discus
sions of topics of worldwide girth. His
ship was only the first of submarine
fleet which was to restore the trade of the
great blockaded Central Empires he said
He pointed to the key on the flag of the
old city of Bremen. This key is the sign
that we have opened the gates which
Great Britain tried to shut upon us and
the trade of the world. The gates which
we have opened with this key will not be
shut again."
1t was precisely in this spirit that the
sea route to India was dreamed of and
striven for in the 18th century The age
of discovery synchronized with an age Of
renewed intellectual activity. "Dscov-
cry" and Invention have been used in
terchangeably here. but it is only the ac-
cident that. more or less crudely. every
part of the world even the poles has
been revealed, that has changed the no.
menclature. New worlds are still being
discovered and are still discoverable. but
they now happen to be in the air and
under the sea and under the earth and
in the minds possibilities. and SO they
are called inventions.
Trade and freedom of trade routes were
at the bottom of the earlier age of dis.
covery. Trade between India and China
and the republics of Genoa and Venice
had long been carried on by overland
before Columbus and others
went out to look for a trade route to
India that would give western Europe the
same advantages that southeastern
Europe had The Venetians and the
Genoese had become rich and powerful.
and trade increased, although the means
of transport by land were not improved
by the rivalry which each entertained
for the other, any more than the rivalries
of England and Germany in the last =
decade have helped modern trade The
rivalry between Venice and Genoa ended
in war. ll
Da Gama's Feat
Portugal saw no reason why her great