Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-05-25


great country was confronted with &
country is the United States. and that
time is today.
The great var, upon which at last
we have ourselves embarked, is sc
complicated that no man In the pre-
sent hour can predict, with any Ger
tainty. TO which side the tide OF finaI
victory will turn
And ! say this with full realization
OF the fact that our entry into the Wal
has brought to the side Of the Allies
unlimited wealth, vast industrial re
sources, a great navy. and resources
in men for the creation Of a vast army
Six months ago. the entrance OF the
United States into the war would have
meant the absolute triumph Of the
Allies, for six months ago outside Of
Germany II was not believed that that
country would commit itself to the hOr-
rfble barbarites Of an unrestricted sub.
marine warfare. Today, however, this
twentieth century piracy is in full
swing, and these modern successors
to Morgan and Captain Kidd are send
ing helpless noncombatants to the bot
tom Of the sea with a cold-blooded
ferocity, the contemplation Of which
would make even a Morgan blanch.
! Now, Mr.. Chairman, have spoken
OF the present as the greatest crisis
| in our history, and in such a crisis 1t
/ is imperative that we should keep our
judgment well balanced and preserve
our vision absolutely clear. In judg-
-, Nnl- oatV 1foiN
a just sense Of proportion and a true
perspective; and II we do this we
shall see at once that absolutely the
most important element in this crisis
Is the submarine war, inasmuch as
upon the issues Of that war depend the
alternatives Of a complete crushing OF
German militarism in Europe, or Of
our having to fight that militarism in
our own waters and within our own
territory.
Therefore, I do not hesitate to say
that the absolutely imminent and i'm
perative duty Of our authorities is to
bend all the strength of our Navy,
present and future. actual and poten-
tial, to the defeat Of the German sub
marines, for + repeat, that upon the
success or failure Of the German U.
boats depends, for US, the winning or
losing OF the great world war
Deliberately Drove v. 8. into War
Has 1t ever occurred to you what
an amazing thing 1t was that Ger
many, hard pressed as she now Is, out
matched in money, men and NUM-
lions, should deliberately have added
this great country to her burdens?
Why did she do It? Feather-brained
her philosophers and professors may
be, but feather-hrained her military
and naval men are not, and when they
deliberately drove this country to take
arms against them by sinking our
ships, they did so because, after care
full estimate Of their ship and engine
building facilities, they came to the
conclusion that they could set subma-
riries afloat upon the high seas in such
numbers that they could shut Off the
United States from Europe, and thus
at once neutraliZe the effect of our
entrance into the war by starving out
the Allies.
Can the Germans do this? Their
success depends upon two things;
first, upon the German submarine
building capacity, and secondly, upon
the capacity of the Allies to build
antisubmarine craft and set afloat
new shipping faster than the Germans
can sink 1t.
Now It is just here in the construc-
ton Of new shipping, and particularly
in the building Of anti-submarine war
craft, that the United States should
at once exert its maximum effort. II
the naval authorities get the true per
spective upon the great crisis in which
we find ourselves, they will at once
cease work upon battleships, battle
cruisers, aye and even upon our fast
scouts, which cannot be ready until
the war Is over, and they will lay
down to the full limit of our ship
building capacity destroyers and a
large type of sea-going submarine
chasers.
The immediate duty Of the Navy, as
1 see 1t, is the construction Of vast
fleet Of large, sea.keeping, powerfully
armed surface ships, which will be
sent into the submarine infested area
at the rate Of at least haf a dozen
surface ships Of the Allies for every
one Of the 'sub-surface practical craft
that the Germans are able to set
afloat.
German u.soat Capacity
What is the misunderstanding ca
pacity Of Germany? How long does it
take her to build a U-boat, and how
many can she turn out within the
month? Nobody outside Of Germany
knows. But we can make a pretty
good guess, not at the number OF sub
marines that she is building, but at
the number that she could build, If she
wished to. And because she has stat
ed, with very good reason, that in this
submarine warfare lies her one last
chance Of victory, we may as we'll
make up our minds to the fact that
Germany is dropping all construction
on capital ships and is bending the
whole of her shipbuilding and engine
building strength to the construction
of submarines.
In war, perhaps more than In any
other contest Of strength, It is perilous
tn underestimate the resources and