The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-04-24
Sea TYRANNY.

| III
German diplomacy to work up Oh
grudges just as German chemists system
atically seek neglected by-products. MOI
only does it incite rebellion in Ireland
India, Mexico, or wherever a rebellion
might be useful, but it does not hesitate
to stir up trouble between the friendly
nations. It's agents in the United States
incite to war against Mexico the Mex
lean government is offered Texas as
reward for attacking the United States
The same agents have agitated in the
United States for u war on Japan; we
may be sure that not less ingenuity has
been used to incite Japan to attack the
United States. To STIR up feeling against
England, strenuous use is made of the
old grudges left by the war in 1912, and
to win sympathy or at least tolerance,
Germany is represented as the champion
of the freedom of the seas against Brit
ish tyranny.
The argument would be more effective
| if the war had not by this time given
neutrals an opportunity to observe both
| that Germany has used whatever sea
power il has even more unscrupulously
than Great Britain and that the methods
of German imperialism on land put Ger
many out of court as the spokesman for
freedom of any sort. We cannot ques-
ton the sincerity of its desire to destroy
British sea power, but the conduct of the
war from its very beginning shows that
if Germany should outstrip England i~
the competition OF ornaments 1T could
not be trusted to use sea power with the
moderation which England has learned
If there is to be a predominant sea
power, the world as whole would rather
have it England than almost any other
country, not because the English are
more virtuous, but because the use which
England makes of it is now fairly weD
known and measured. 1t has its empire.
and if only for selfish reasons, desires
peace and the status quo. 1t has hither-
to been wise enough also to recognize
that with wide empire based on sea
power free trade is essential. Its gov
eminent everywhere, too, has been of
loose. tolerant sort, which German eff
cheney despises, but which has greatly
reduced the friction inevitable to far
flung empire and the ubiquitous sea pow
er on which it rests. None OF these con-
ditions would exist if control of the sea
should be won by Germany, a new en-
pire, hungry for conquest, strongly mill
taristic in temper, highly organized and
correspondingly dictatorial.
II the war should end with Germany
dominant on land and England still the
first naval power, it would undoubtedly
be to Germany's interest, for the time
being, at least, to seek by international
action to curb sea power in the interest
of land power. Before the present war
it had All excellent opportunity to press
such a movement by postponing its chal-
lenge to Great Britain until it had made
its position secure on the continent. The
drift was all toward the neutralizing OF
the seas, and even in England feeling
was growing that the time approached
for laying aside the old prerogatives.
BY the Tirpitz challenge which began in
1898 Germany did it's best to increase
"navalism" as taught by Mahan, and |
thereby to perpetuate the chief force |
available against military conquest.
The war has given neutrals a broader |
view and in particular has let them see
that the problem is not single but dou |
bic. They have seen that the ncon
yenienees caused to neutrals by sea pow
err, while widely diffused, are not com
parable to the violence offered to neu
trails which like Belgium are unhappy |
enough to lie within reach of German |
land power. They have seen that to
carry out Immediately the highly desir-
able reform of war at sea for which |
America has worked since Franklin's day, |
would bring about an enormous derange
ment in the balance OF forces which in
some way would have to be compensat-
ed.
The present war, and not least the