New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-13
More Clamor for Naval Action

1t was an acute observation of Herbert
Spencer's that when an evil is very great
it often attracts little or no public atten-
ton; when, however, it has been mitigated
ty some means or other, recognition brings
conscious efforts to decrease it by new
means, and when at last it has been con-
siderably diminished there comes a loud
and peremptory demand for its extinction
Spencer was speaking particularly OF
social Affections, yet what he said holds
good to some degree in most other affairs,
ty no means excepting the ups and downs
Of war And though it cannot be said that
the submarine evil has as yet been dimin-
ished to a degree that is really consider
able, vet the old familiar process is already
apparent in a great deal of current COM
r1ent on the measures hitherto used tn
mitigate it; and in proportion to the sue
cess Of these measures we must doubtless
expect an increased demand for more dras-
tic efforts to eradicate it.
There is no good reason to regret q
manifest loss of complacency on the part
of some easygoing folk whose faith in the
omnpotence Of the British navy blinded
them for a while to the necessity Of any
effort or self denial on their own part, but
q reasonable consciousness Of the peril
that confronts us hardly justifes the blind
fury Of some recent converts against those
who have been abundantly sensible of II
from the first. The very least that can
be asked of these critics is that if they
know better way of getting us out of our
difficulties they will condescend to be a
little particular and make it clear precisely
what it is they desire to be done, instead
Of wasting all their energy in rhetoric and
iDvective.
In so far as it is possible to interpret
their vague discomfort, it appears that
they have fallen under the spell of official
German teaching and are honestly con
WINGED, as German readers are expected to
be, that the fleets of Britain and its allies
have been idle for the last three years, and
that it is high time they made their power
manifest in an aggressive way by going
fer the Germans off their own coasts. IT
is true that at this point their speculations
begin to grow vague, but in general sense
they are apparently more or less conform
able to Mr.. Churchills interesting pro
posal in his celebrated rafting speech
And. indeed, it is wonderful to see how
many of Mr.. Churchll's former enemies
Rave of late fallen in with his inspiring, if
indefinite, suggestion and how, with eau
tious taunts, the German commentators
still urge them on.
"The Saturday. Review of London, is
only a little more outspoken than the
lest in clamoring for the head of Sir john
Jellcoe-that "amiable and high-minded
gentleman" who made such mess of the
Battle of Jutland. What they would have
said land done) in the days of Byng we
know" says THE Saturday Review" very
magnanimously suggesting, however, that
II will suffice for the present to throw him
cut Of office, that his place may "be filled
by an officer who has studied the history
of maritime war;"
"The Saturday Reviews own excur-
sions into history are not fortunate. 1t
reminds its readers Of Calder and how