The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-05-05
THE PRESIDENT
RAISED ALARM
He Expressly Ordered Al
lies Plight Revealed
to the Public
SECRETARY LANE
NOT TO BLAME
For Exaggerated Sinkings
American Strategy to
Save the Situation

" Washington, May Sit is betraying
no confidence to reveal the fact that the
declaration on the same day of the Sec
rotary of state and the secretary of the
interior and the chairman of the ship
ping board regarding the gravity of the
German submarine peril were delivered
by direct order Of the president, who de-
sires the people of the United States to
know that all that the members of the
ed regarding the shortage of food in
Britain and France, the diminishing of
the supplies of coal and other raw mate
rials, and the enormous shipping losses
have been amply confirmed by coniiden-
tial reports from the American ambassa-
doris at London and Paris, and the Amer
lean military and naval observers on
the scene.
A misquotation of Secretary Lanes
speech was not the fault of the efficient
secretary of the interior, who, in co-op-
Grafton with the secretary of the treas
ury, has been a potent factor in lining
up the cabinet during the last sixty
days, and is suppementing the efforts
of Secretary McAdoo to lift the embargo
on ability and purge The activities of the
administration of poisonous political par
tisanship. The British government has
been guilty OF a well-intentioned but
unfortunate blunder in not taking its
own people into its confidence regard
ing the extent of the losses at sea due
to German submarine attacks and to the
mines which the German submarines
scatter broadcast. In the effort TO de-
ceive the enemy, the British have de-
ceived nearly everybody except the enc
my, and it against this deception that
Lord Northcliffa and Lord Beresford are
pluckily protesting.
Our own government has taken the
position that it is impossible to speed
up the shipbuilding activities on this
side of the Atlantic unless the Ameri-
can people We're bluntly told the truth.
In this position, the government has
been sustained by both the British and
French missions, who, upon their arrival,
were naturally amazed to find how very |
little this nation really knows about |
the critical condition of the conflict. The |
initiative of the French has been es-
pecially helpful and the tact of Mr.. Bal |
four potent factor on both sides of the |
Atlantic. The French have been as
brave in their confessions as they have |
been on the battlefield. They have con-
cealed nothing, not even the fact that /
their manpower is near exhaustion, that I
the end of the war is not in sight, that
the submarine terrors, so far from being
have showed alarming increases
and that everything American must be
employed as rapidly and as efficiently
as possible if the war is to be won for
democracy without any concession to au-
tocracy.
The revelations of the last week have
also paved the way for the presidents
request to Congress for war powers far
more extensive than the public expected
or would have been disposed to approve
before the arrival of the two missions.
Congress will not consent to the gag
cling of the press, but it is disposed to
grant ample authority to the president,
reserving the right at all times to in.
bulge in the fullest criticism of his use
Of that power and retaining for the press
and the people the same right to criticise
and suggest in so far as criticism and
can be made with patriotic
purpose and without betraying to the
enemy movements of troops and ships,
plans of strategy and other facts and fig
nres which otherwise the enemy could
not secure and which could be used with
dangerous effect against ourselves and
our allies.