New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-17
HOW CAN GERMANY INJURE US?
Bv HENRY REUTERDAHL

intention.
There are lots Of good people who tremble
in their boots for fear the German SUBS
are coming up our bays, rivers and inIets'
and that little baby ones viii go up the
Croton aoueduct and float down into the oa'h-
this Of Harlem But the damage Germany
can do TO the United States depends largely
unon the number Of new submarines she mas
launched. how many of these can be diverted
TO worry US, and on how many the BRUSH
have captured. Considering the large ca
pacitv of German shipbuilding, it is likely TO
no correct that more than four hundred sub
marines have, within the last year, oeeh
added to the imperial navy. All types are
standardized and machinery parts turned out
like Ford automobiles. A U-boat is COM
pleted in less than five months
U-Boats May Harass Us
We will have a circus just the same, but
not n three-ring one. Germany knows the
panicky character of some of our people, and,
for the sake of moral effect few giant
"subsv might be despatched, basing from
somewhere in the West Indies or IN cove In
Mexico. The neighborhood OF Tampieo VIII
he a lively one. The game of the U-boat viii
be 70 diminish the oil supply OF the British
navy. and, since the Allied patrols OF the
Mexican coast are not perfected, as IN the
Irish Channel. the U-boat will make lew
headlines In cruising torpedo or two
might be launched against our steamers
hornd for the canal-also some coast town
raided here and there, but only for the
moral effect. lust 70 show that the war is on.
The worry will be small, but it will keep
patrols on their mettle. In the beginning
German submarines will be sighted every
where Just as the trains along the coast OF
Cuba, during the Spanish war, were re-
norted as enemy destroyers in full chase.
Then it will simmer down to routine ana 'he
damage will depend on our watchfulness and
on bow MANY of the Kaiser's submarines are
footloose and free.
The one who controls the surface has
undersea control, is the new maxim. with
thousand or more motor boats-not those
which 90 IN creek for picnic with dozen
cold beer in the bow locker, but real fellows,
bip and fast-bgger than the British, cover
inc the ocean lanes, the ubiquitous U-ooat
has small chance. But then the best patroi,
no matter of what size and seaworthlness, IS
blind in a fog and the top of the sea IN
half gale covers the tracks of any periscope.
War will increase the activities of the Ger
mans Of military age in this country. sun
subjects of the Kaiser, they must do the
nroper bidding of the fatherland. And In the
whirl of the huge spy system centred IN New
York. internal disturbances are TO be eN-
pected and from Mexico sporadic outbursts
of hate. just as the revolution in Hayti and
the fare-up in Cuba was Matched under I'M
peral German protection. Every oihcer OF
the German liners now in American haroors
belongs to the German navy. For more tnan
two years he has done his best TO help, and
the eight hundred German blueJacKets IN
termed in German men-of-war In the fhlla-
delphia Navy Yard have not been idle in re-
porting their pick-ups as 10 our preparations.
Stupidly. these German warships were placed
in one of our prominent navy yards, giving
them front seat in reporting our naval pre-
paredness, at least in one spot. In war all
these lads have to be taken care of and the
problem of internment and policing comes up.
A Cheap Sport for Germany
To sum up. 1t is cheap sport for Germany
to 20 10 war with US. We can do her no I'M
mediate harm, except by means of our poten-
tal strength, lending all our spare casn 70
the Allies. Possibly we might open our har-
bors to the Allies and take over their ocean
patrol. thereby releasing their cruisers for
other duties. But then all this is balanced
in Germany's favor inasmuch as automati-
cally q larger part of the raw material for
munitions will stay here and not be sent
abroad.
Then again, might not war with the
United States help Germany, now in the
throes Of starvation, literally fighting for her
life but not beaten? Was the zimmerman
note a plant? Could any statesman outside
an insane asylum propose such nonsense?
Might it not be an effort to excite US, 10
make US fight?
If we go to war. our Importance as ma
ton gives US a seat at the peace table We
are known to be magnanimous. We saved
Japan from Russia, and stepping in laid the
foundation to Japans greatness as world
power. Might not Germany argue that II she
can force US into war, at the round table Of
peace she can appeal TO our well-known
magnanimity and our desire for fair play
and thereby get better terms? This is a
rough conjecture, expressed by many in the
navy and worth recording as an interesting
current of thought in the crisis. Think 1t
over.
Copyright, 1917, by John y. Wheeler, Incl