Norwich bulletin., 1917-08-06
Views of the VigilantSs
KEEPING AMERICA ASLEEP
By Charles J. Rosebault of the Vigi-
 lantes.

lantes.
 The Chamber of Commerce of the City of New York informed the repre- sentatives of the press on July 18th that the only safeguard against the U-boat was the building of ships which could. for at least twenty four hours that is while in the danger zone achieve a speed of sixteen knots per hour The informatio upon which this warning was based had been ob- tained through confidential sources ana is undoubtedly correct. That is, even though the United States and the Al lies arrived at the maximum output or new shipping deemed possible, which is about six million tons per year for the United States, Englano, France and Italy combined, the U-boats would still achieve their end within the next year and a half at the most. unless the new boats were fast enough to cut down the present percentage of des- tructiOn.
 The Chamber of Commerce had held a previous meeting a day carrier. At this there were present some shipping experts and the Managing Editor of The Vigilantes At this smaller meet ing a chart was shown which indi- cated at a glance the entire argument of speed. It showed how the U-poats were wiping out the existing tonnage of the combined Allies the period within which England, France and It. ally would, at the present rate, reach the point of starvation. and how soon this point would be reached even though we and they were able to do cur utmost in providing new shipping. Beyond that was line indicating the Happier result if we built ships capa- ble of a speed of sixteen knots, which would render them practically immune
 A discussion arose as to whether this chart should be given out for pub Iication and the Managing Editor of The Vigilantes was appealed to for his judgment.
 Why not publish it?" he asked
 Some of us" was the reply, think it would be unwise to scare the American public"
 Which is the one thing" retorted the Editor. that is really needed to wake up a lot of them
 Tn the end of the timid ones pre- vailed and the chart was not published.
 We have heard a great deal from different sources. including some val Iant members of Congress about the importance of not soaring out people, yet every military man. every naval man. and every psychological expert knows that we will never get real speed in this country until the ut most sense of danger is realized by the great ma jority.
 There can be no question about the importance of the point raised by the Chamber of Commerce. To build the
 
 tke opponents of General GOethals was shown by all the experts to be not only a waste of time a~d money but certain destruction of life 4 Dutch sea captain, who was present and who had had experience with wooden sains, declared dramatically that he consid- cred it nothing short of murder to send man out in the hastily thrown to- plated in the Hough programme-ard he had just come in from inspecting rUch a vessel which had taken thirty da"s to cover normal six days voy age
 ' Now, a the risk of causing s1eepless nights all over the country I want to impress on the readers of this article the fact that We not only abandon every chance of winning the war if VIC neglect this warning. but that we are most certain of sacrificing the livss of the soldiers we send abroed. F,vo'y parent who has a son in the trer rch-G CT a son likely to 20 there, every wife ?rd sister and sweetheart Of tho sol oiers abroad should Drina pressure to hear upon those responsible to forca the only rationaI program Get after the President. CCneress, the halfwake Arierican people. Lives are a stake thousands. perhaps millions.
 There are too many people Tn au- thOrity who gre considering what kind of mercantile fleet is going to remain to Us after the war. That question must be absolutely secondary at this moment. The only problem that we have a right to think is how we can get our men across safely and how we can insure their being fed and armed after We get them there. That duty GOes not even consider our obligation to provide food. munitions and other supplies to our allies. After tht war, And war faced at this moment with the strongest probabilities against our winning the war unless we put our utmost energy into solving our great est problem. Have we sent thousands of our boys to France and are we go- ing to send perhaps millions more and not take every precaution that human foresight and energy can provide to keen the lines of communication open? Father that the hundred millions of this country should not sleep a wink for months that even a thousand of our soldiers be sacrificed.