New-York tribune., 1918-07-22

to beat off the offensive which the Cor
mans are now beginning to develop.
Nov. what has all that to do with
censorship?
"Well it has this to do with it,
"1f censorship had not Quilted Ana
were in the whole world. you people
and the people Of England would not
have been going about complacently
awaiting for Germany's inevitable de-
feat, and wholly believing that the AL
lies were surely winning the war
"And if the English people and the
American people had not been so wholly
and absolutely deceived into a careless
state of mind England would have been
prepared to stand the submarine siege
and the Allied armies would have been
equipped to stand the wastage of war
until our own strength and preparation
could have been VIGOROUSLY developcd.
I'VE tell you plainly that in mill
tary, naval and economic way the Ger
mans have the Allies whipped, and that
without our intervention there was not
a doubt that Germany would have vic
torlously dictated peace before this
year was gone. And you may depend
upon it that this condition of affairs,
both on the Continent and in England
is due to the deadly havoc wrought by
the submarines against England's water
line of communications, which is the
vital factor of Italy's and Frances
military strength, even more than it is
the vital factor in keeping Englands
population fed.
Weeks and months ago, over and
over again, we tried to make you see
the situation which was clearly devel
oping, so that you would all realize the
URGENT NECESSITY of our own
preparation for war.
What "The American" Did
"No newspaper ever did or ever will
warning. try to perform more patri
otic service.
eve failed through no fault of our
own to impress the truth upon the
government and upon you people.
'You simply would not believe the
truth, heed our URGENT warnings, or
take ona single step toward forming
the army or organizing the resources
or building the ships or cultivating the
idle farms. all of which you and the
government are now trying to do in
such desperate haste.
And why would you not believe the
at and disregarded?
why are we now so utterly unpre-
pared either to make war on our own
account or to help England and France
and Italy to stave off the menace of
starvation and defeat?
why, because you were deceived
and deluded by the lying censorship
because you believed the prepos-
te-ous and almost self-evident lies of
this clumsy and stupid and fatally
disastrous censorship.
"You people ought to listen to
what we say about this matter with
conviction. You yourselves know that
had you listened to US and believed
us when we were absolutely alone tell
ing you the truth while this London
censorship-aided and abetted by
American newspapers which should
have had more patriotism and common
sense-was lying to you by day and
by night, the country would not now
be in the deplorably unprepared con-
dition it is, with no army and still
debating how to raise an army; with
no aeroplanes, with no submarines that
can go to sea, with not enough machine
guns to equip division, with neither
artillery, rifles. ammunition nor any
other military necessity sufficient to
without ships enough to carry them
and their equipment overseas if the
men stood ready to embark.
with Blood and Iron
"And we have been plunged into
war without preparation with the most
powerful single nation in the world,
equipped to the last shoe lace with
every possible necessity of warfare
filling the seas with her submarine
navy, covering half a continent with
her huge veteran armies and every
where winning her way, with blood
and iron, against her foes!
"Do you imagine that we can make
good our defence against such a
battering ram of war as that by imi-
tating England's clumsy and stupid
contrivance of keeping the people in
ignorance of what is being done by
way of defence?"
"Why. that is just exactly the sum
total of the sense and the stzategy of
a poor, foolish ostrich, jamming his
head in the sand and summing his in
telligent tail feathers while the hunter
makes haste toward him!"