The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-11-18

pended on the "seventy-milee cannon"
might just as well have been sunk in
the sea. They delayed the defeat of
the Hun not a day.
"The Sneaking Submarine"
Next came the boosted "U-Boats."
Again there was no novelty. Under
water fighting had been known since
primeval man first thus surprised his
foe. The submarine was not only
Invented. but made practical outside
of Hunland. The Hun merely made it
bigger, and used it with savage disre-
gard for all the rules Of the game Of
sea warfare, to which Germany, as a
supposed civilized nation, had solemn
ly sworn observance.
Former wars had not developed all
the possibilities of 1.-The sneaking SUBJ
marine" against surface warships. es-
pecially when others of the squadron
humanely paused to rescue drowning
comrades. But after the first surprise
the order Themistocles to the Athen-
ian galleys at Salams went out again
and the U-boats attained no other con-
siderable success against fighting
ships.
The success" of the U-boats after
that were against unarmed vessels or
were those of the savage ambuscade.
They were on par with those of the
savage who shoots from behind tree
the settler with whom his tribe has
sworn peace, or the pirate who COM
pels the crew of captured merchant
man to walk the plank" In such
cases as that of the Belgian Prince,
where the Hun U-boat captain took
the ships crew on his deck and then
submerged under them, the ways Of
the pirate were exactly initiated.
The free nations did not develop
the submarine as did the Huns, mere
because they had no need to, and
were restrained in its use by their
continued observance of the rules OF
sea war. After the first few months
there was no German fighting ships
at sea, and the Huns high sea fleet
never ventured out Of it's home ports
but once, and then was SO roughly
handled as to be glad to scuttle back.
AS factor in the supply and trans
port problem the U-boat was a very
real menace for many anxious months.
Wonderful things were done toward
beating it down, in ship building, in
adapting the methods of the fishermen
10 ltS QeStTuCllOn, IN barring IL out
of certain waters. by miles of steel
nets and in barring it by obstructing
its way out and by keeping vast flo
tillas Of light and swift craft always
on the watch for it.
But one new mechanical invention
was made for fighting the submarine,
the depth bomb" contributed by an
American. A British aviator made the
discovery that submarines under the
water could be located by flying over
the water some hundreds of feet in the
air.
The Zeppelin and the AirpIane.
Most wonderful things had been pre-
dicted by the prophets of the end Of
the war through mechanical inven-
tons making war to terrible for hum
an nature to endure for aircraft. Big
pictures used to-be printed of airships
lowering over cities and armies and
compelling their surrender with exem-~
plary bomb droppings.
With the Huns customary conf
dence in mere bigness he put his stake
on the dirigible balloon rather than on
the airplane. Neither was German
invention. The dirigible was first
made really to work in France, and
the airplane was made possible by the
genius of Langley and the patient ex-
perimenting of the Wrights, both of
whom were Americans.