The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-07-14
FIGHTING THE SUBMARINE
By HOLLAND

New York, July I3.-(Special.) )-When | Marconi speaks he does so as one hav- ing authority. Fully as much reliance is placed upon anything that he may
 say regarding invention and applied science as is the case when Edison speaks. Therefore when Marconi said a day or two ago to a company of friends in New York that no invention or any apparatus has been offered to the allied governments which was of any value in attempts to eliminate the submarine danger, his statement was accepted as conclusive. Furthermore, he is of the opinion that no apparatus of this kind can be devised. But it was not en- tirely due to Marconis assertion that the submarine cannot be eliminated or greatly impared by any apparatus that the belief is now entertained that the submarine can be met successfully in no other way than by fighting. He sim ply confirmed that belief Some auto matic devices may occasionally impair or destroy a submarine, but none as yet has been suggested by any man worthy of serious consideration.
 It is for this reason that the govern ment al Washington is presumably pre- pairing to meet by fighting craft what ever submarine perils may be developed near our own shores or within the pres ent danger zone with intent in that way to make reprisal upon the United States for the enactment and enforcement of the food embargo law.
 Only by fighting and by tactics of navigation in a new kind of naval battle can the submarine be matched, and it may be overmatched. This fightig may be either directed from the decks of ves- sels or may be carried on by air ves- sels. lntimations have come from good authorities that those who command the submarines are more apprehensive of overhead attacks from various kinds of air flotilla than from attacks made from the decks of conveys or other ves- sels
 Marconi's friends in this city with whom he has chatted report him as hav- ing greater faith in airplanes and sea- planes as fighting instruments than he even entertains for guns fired from the decks of conveys or other vessels, all though he regards these methods of at tack and defense as of the highest inn portance.
 While there appears to be some appre hension that Germany, impelled by de- sire to embarrass the United States greatly may extend the submarine dan ger zone so that 1t covers the entire north Atlantic, nevertheless the danger from this source is not regarded as very great. Marconi speaks with some enthu- sasm of various devices in the form of nets stretched across narrow straits or at the entrances to harbors serving as barriers to the entrance of subma- rnes Undoubtedly the United States has to a greater extent than the public real zes adopted devices of this kind for the protection of our coast.
 MANY WORTHLESS INVENTIONS
 One of those who were members of the company of which Marshal Joffre was perhaps the most conspicuous at the time of the visit of the French mis- sion to the United States explained to few friends at private dinner some of the activities with which Frenchmen, many of them men of science, have been occupied since the war with Germany be- gan. Within few weeks after the Teu- ton forces entered Belgium the French