The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1918-01-31


in the United States there are material
and labor enough to build more ships
than the Germans can possibly sink in
the two years for which Hindenburg
can count upon maintaining his mill
tary resistance.
Money Is Vital.
The question of money is equally vi
tai. Germany and her allies are self
contained and the little purchasing
they are able to do in adjoining neu-
trail countries is carried out on a gold
basis. But within their own borders,
their paper is good SO long as their
well-disciplined and patriotic peoples
will accept it; their difficulties during
the war center around shortage of ma
terials, not of credits. The entente is
in a different position; it's credit must
be maintained, and this task has hith-
ertO rested upon the shoulders of Great
Britain. Whether the burden could
have been borne longer than the pres
ent year is doubtful, 1 have been as
sured by eminent financial authorities ;
it has now been transferred to the
shoulders of Uncle Sam. Here Amer
lea has given immediate and all-im-
portant help already, and is evidently
prepared to pass out the dollars with
out stint as long as may be necessary.
An inordinate amount Of nonsense has
been talked about the food shortage In
Germany, to the great advantage of the
German cause. Information here CO.
incides with that of Hoover and &C.
rard; there is little chance that Ger
many can be starved out for two years ;
but there is fallacious argument cur
rent that has doubtless reached the
United States, and may do much harm
in convincing the public that the war
cannot last long enough for American
help to be of much assistance.
Admittedly, it is said the German
people are suffering greater hardships
now than are the British or French.
Since they cannot import food, their
situation must grow constantly worse.
1t is absurd, then, to talk about starv-
ing England out, because the privations
of the Germans will go on getting
worse as the English feel the pinch of
hunger more and more, and obviously
the people to succumb to starvation
first, will be the people who first be-
gan to starve.
Reasoning Is Unsound.
Hl~s nd
Germany knew at the beginning of the
war that for so long as the struggle
might last she would be unable to i'm
port much food from the outside world.
Her measures from the start have been
taken with q view to enabling her peO-
pie to hold out. She knows down to
the last bushel and the last pound just
how much grain and meat there is in
the country. From the battle of the
User, when the war settled down to a
struggle of endurance, every possible
measure has been taken to increase
food production. There has been no
waste. The German authorities today
know, within the limits imposed by
the variability Of the harvests, what ra-
tons they can dole out for the rest of
this year, in 1918, and possibly even in
1919 and they have up their sleeves
one powerful trump card. They can If
really reduced to starvation evacuate
into the enemy lines the 100000 in
habitants of the conquered territories,
retaining only men who can be forced
to labor effectively, and the produce
of these lands, the food these 10000
600 would have eaten, can be con-
sumed by Germans while the burden
of feeding gigantic armies of refugees
is cast upon the entente.
In England, on the other Land, the
submarine menace to the food supplies
was not taken seriously until this year.
Measures to put into cultivation mead
ows and game preserves have only re-
Gently been taken, and the recruiting of
a large part of the able-bOdied farm
ing population makes the success of
these belated efforts extremely profile
NAUTICAL. Until the harvest of 1918,
Great Britain will be entirely Deepen
dent upon shipping for three-quarters
of her food. The German hope is that
the pinch will begin to be felt so keenly
that ships must be diverted from the
munition and transport services to
bring food for these islands, and to the
extent to which this is necessary the
operations in France and in other the
aires of war will suffer; while it is not
impossible, in the absence of immedi-
ate and whole-hearted efforts by the
United States to raise more food as
well as build more ships, that even
more disastrous results than this may
be attained by the submarines.
Elephant Against Whale.
It was said early in the war that the
struggle was essentially a combat be-
tween an elephant and a whale. Some
months ago wit pointed out that the
whale was now fighting on land, the
elephant at sea. 1t would be possible to-
day to carry the paradox still further,
and to say that the whale is winning
on his unaccustomed element, and so is
the elephant.
1t is the first business of the United
States to deal with the most pressing
danger, and to make certain that the
elephant does not triumph. And this
for no reasons of sentiment, or Anglo
Saxon solidarity, or hands-across-the-
sea reminiscence, but because the de-
feat of Great Britain would involve
the utter ruin of the whole entente and
most certainly of the United States as