The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1918-08-03
Fabric Of international Economic
Life Is Threatened.
DEPENDING ON LAND POWER
Germany'a Aims Must Be Thwarted,
Forcing Her to the Sea and OBJ
servance Of Its Rules Of
Freedom.
BY FRANK J. GoopNoW-
F'rom the Committee on Public Inform


This was the bringing about of the
economic unity of the world. Since
the opening of the present century it
may be said that no country which has
any marked development has been self
sufficient. The products of the trop-
les have become articles of necessity
to the inhabitants Of the temperate
zone. The minerals which nature has
stored in such profusi0n in particular
districts are regarded as held in trust
for the world at large. Failure in the
crop of certain staples like cotton,
which can be grown only under pc
culiar conditions, is felt in distant
lands. Drought in the Australian an
tipodes makes it difficult for Europe
to clothe herself In wool.
This economic world unity has been
the result Of a slow development.
Many things have contributed to its
growth. Without, however, the recog-
milton of the freedom of the seas it
would have been impossible. The
transportation of many products is
by the cheapness of
freight rates incident to water routes.
These routes are available for general
use only if the sea is free to all who
desire to use it, unmoleSted from at
tack. Their interruption as result
of the naval operations of the present
war has been followed by scarcity in
many countries.
The freedom Of the sea became an
established fact only in comparatively
recent times. A perusal of the quaint
of some marine insurance
policies, often still retained beyond
the times to which it is applicable, re-
veals the dangers incident to ocean
travel not so many years ago. Pirates,
potentates and princes all combined
not so long ago to make the risks Of
ocean travel extra hazardous. The
claims Of potentates and princes to
the ocean were recognized
as incapable of justification only a few
hundred years back. Pirates still
piled their nefarious trade within the
memory Of living men. Indeed, pirates
are still to be found in the rivers and
estuaries Of southern China, and mer-
chant ships In that part Of the world
are compelled to arm themselves even
now against piratlcal attack, as was
the case the world over
not much more than one hundred years
ago.
No Peculiar Rights to Sea.
The freedom Of the sea against pi-
Hatical attack was secured by the
united efforts Of all seafaring nations
who treated the pirate as an outlaw to
whom no consideration or quarter was
to be given. Long before this result
was reached it was determined by
common agreement that no one coun-
try should claim any particular rights
in the sea such as Spain and Portu-
gal had with papal sanction once set
up. Apart from the influence of prin-
ciples Of justice, it was found as a
practical matter that live and let live
was the only principle which could be
VI WIN l-iI
ships Of any country was easily re-
payable in kind. Ceaseless hostility
between seafaring powers would have
followed the application of any other
policy, as it did actually follow the
attempts of Spain.
The significance of the submarine
which has first been used in the war
now raging consists in the fact that
its use imperils the economic unity
Of the world to which attention has
been called. The submarine threatens
the freedom of the seas through the
recognition of which progress in the
direction of world economic unity has
been made possible. The submarine
threatens the freedom of the seas be-
cause no adequate method of defense
against it has as yet been discovered.
If it is used as 1t has been in the past
few years by a nation whose chief con-
Germ is land rather than sea power,
and reprisal are impossible.
Two can play at the game of sea mo-
nopoly when surface shipping and sea-
faring nations are concerned. But
where the submarine is used by power
whose interests are continental rather
than oceanic the game which is played
is quite a one-sided one. All the pow
er which is attacked can do is to en-
deavor to destroy as many submarines
as possible, and recent experience
would go to show that such policy
is not effective. A power which makes
use of submarines for the destruction
Of merchant shipping Of course in
vites reprisals, but if that power has
no shipping such reprisals are i'm
possible.
Owed Existence to Britain.
This is the situation at the present
time. The submarine is the weapon OF
the German empire whose seacoast Is
both small and completely under the
control Of Great Britain so far as con-
Germs it's use as base for sea power.
Germany had, 1t is true, q great mer-
chant marine before the outbreak Of
the war. But she knew very well that