Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-06-02
Tavenner's Capital Letter

the. British empire-cease to compete
with each other. They do undoubtedly
compete TO certain extent. But they
already meet each other at many
points.
You may remember the case OF the
Deutsche Munitions und Waffen-Fab-
rik, cited by DR.. Liebknecht in the
reichstag. This was the case OF
German company holding a consld-
cradle share in French companies ana
exerting provocative influence IN the
Partisan press, in order that compe-
tition and jealousy as to orders Tor
ornaments may be kept alive In
England we have a combination OF the
British and German Nobel companies
an Anglo-German dynamite alb
ance. We had up to recently the Har-
vey United Steel company, combina-
ton of British, American, French ana
German capitalists. There are other
such cases. There is no dltflculty
whatever, when profits are at the end
Of the road, for a Frenchman and
German to walk together tlaughter)
no more difficulty than for French
man and an Englishman to walk to-
gether. They are patriots both.
(Laughter) l think the worst aspect,
perhaps, of the operations of krupp,
Schneider and Armstrong is their Ell
fort to exploit those minor nations OF
the world, some of which were de-
scribed by an English poet, Mr.. Kip
ling, as half devil and half child
Il will take the case of Messrs. Arm
strong, Whitforth & Co., as sample
of the patriotism of these traders firm
The chairman is one Sir Andrew NO
Bile, and beg you to note the impair
TALLY of his patriotism. He is par
onet and a knight commander OF the
Bath of Great Britain, member OF
the Order of Jesus Christ of Portugal,
and a knight of the Order OF Charles
| the Third of Spain. He is also a flrst
class of the Sacred Treasure OF Japan,
grand cross of the Crown OF Italy,
and is decorated with Turkish and
| Chilean and Brazilian honors. His
patriotism is truly the larger patriot
ism. Uaughter.) But, unlike our pa
triotism, it has a strict cash basis.
| (Applause.) Messrs. Armstrong Will
build warships for any country IN the
world; they are qaite impartial. They
are constantly sending armor plate TO
all parts of the world, no matter what
| is the cause of dispute. You will OBJ
serve the double influence of these
sales, for if they sell a battleship to
a foreign country it becomes an argu-
ment for increasing the British fleet
in turn, and that means new IN
crease of orders for Armstrong, Whit
worth & Co. Some of you have nc
doubt looked down. as l have, upon
the chimneys of the PozZuoh-Arm-
strong company which pollutes the
BAY of Naples Here Great Britain
helps to maintain the fighting forces
of Germany's ally There is also the
Ansaldo-A company of Ge-
)noa. These companies not only build
for Italy but also for Turkey. Laugh
teri l do not know whether the war
ships of those two countries actually
came in contact in the Tripolitan war
but if they did they may both have
been impartially built by Armstrong
Whitworth companies. You also re-
member the curious triangular puZ-
zle lying over the destinies of the far
east in the relations of Russia, Japan
and China The Armstrong company
has it's own Oh dnance and armor plate
works in Japan. 1t is always seeking
orders for ornaments in China. Al
the same time, in conjunction with
two other British firms, Maxims anf
John Brown & Co, and also in con
nh g. nf a m,
burg, and Messrs Schneider, this
triple alliance is building up a new
fleet for Russia, at the cost of the
famine-stricken peasantry. The Arm
strong firm is at the present moment
part owner of the Hispania Naval Con
struction works at Ferrof. Another
British syndicate is building a new
fleet for Portugal, which is always
trembling on the brink of bankruptcy
Heaven forbid that Spain and Portu
gal should quarrel; but what are thesG
fleets for but to quarrel with? What
ever follows, the money will go into
the pockets of these statesmen. The
Armstrong, Vickers and Brown firm:
are now building up great ordnance
shipbuilding works in Canada for tht
exploitation of the innocent patriot
ism of the people of that colony. Wha
country is the enemy of Canada? Or
one side is the American nation
Cousin Jonathan as we call him
Across the ocean lies the rising EN-
pire Of Japan, which is England
ally
(Read the remainder of this grea
speech in tomorrow nights Argus,)