McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1918-10-04


not decided the war; Below this
line appears huge figure intended to
represent the English shipping facili-
ties at the outbreak Of the war, which
bears these words: England went
into the war with twenty. million gross
registered tons of freight space"
Alongside this figure of ship is a
drawing designed to show Uncle Sam
carrying the United States tonnage un-
der his left arm. The caption above
Uncle Sam reads: "Can America re-
place England on scar On the ship
which Uncle Sam carries is printed
this inscription: 'Three million gross
registry TONS" and below that is an
other inscription which says: AT the
beginning of the war America had on
ly tonnage of three million gross reg
istered TONS" Commenting on these
statements, the poster further declares
America cannot increase her gross
registered tons for 1918 by more than
two to two and half million tons.
Our U-boats sink twice as quickly as
England and America can build!"
The answer of the publicity bureau
to the two sections of the poster refer
ring to the transportation of men and
the building of ships follows: "At the
moment the bulletin boards of Ger
many scoffed the possibility of Amer
lea sending a force to France, there
were already more than a million fight
ing men overseas, and transports,
walled about by the American navy de-
flying the cowardly submarines, were
bearing every month hundreds of
thousands more The gauge is set and
the summer of 1919 will see 100000
fighting American men In France. Nor
will there be lack Of ships to trans
port and sustain them. The Liberty
Bond buyer is fast giving to America
merchant marine that will be the
peer of any in the world. America
launched in July alone 635,011 tons.
Losses to allied and neutral shipping
combined, from every cause, for the,
last six months, amounted to 2,0S9, 1893
tons.
1.-THE distance from New York to
England, the Boche points out" COM
ments the bureau of publicity publi-
cation, SIS two hundred times greater
than that from England to France,
from which he spells Opportunity for
the German U-boats,' Pitiful is this
boastsin face of the facts. ~Instead of
the U-boat being an unconquerable
engine of war, as the Hun confidently
expected, it has become the Sinking
foe of fishing smacks and other iso-
lated craft. The vast army ofILiberty
Bond buyers, thirty millions strong,
has built an unbroken bridge over the
Atlantic ocean into the heart of the
enemy's strongholds. Across this
bridge there are streaming our mil
lions of fighting men, as good as the
world has ever known, munitions and
equipment that have been wrought by
those back home, whose determination
is that the American fighting man shall
lack nothing that he needs"
AS back-handed slap at the French,
the German propagandists have repro
duced French poster which pleads
with French people to eat less in or
der that the United States may send
over more man power. The French
poster pointed out that If every per-
son In France would save hundred
grams of food a day that the American
achievements could be increased a
division month. The French catch
line on this poster was Does France
want wheat or menu" and the German
poster remarks "Also the allies are
now beginning to have their doubts!"
In further effort to convince the
German people that 1t will be impos-
sible for the United States to trans
port troops to France, the German
section of the poster says that ten
tons of freight space are required for
every soldier In crossing the water.
The truth is that soldier requires
less than one-half this amount Of
space.
Summing up all the falsehoods which
the German poster contains, the book
let says: 1.-THE War Lord Of Ger
many may have the futile hope that
his people will devour In the place Of
food, such statements as the forego-
ing. Falsehoods, however, are poor
substitutes and are likely to aggra-
vate rather than appease when the de-
lrded people Of Germany learn that
every requirement of the American
soldier will be met by his patriotic and
unqualified support back home. II
single soldier required ten tons of
freight space, II would be given him
But the truth Is he requires less than
one-half Of that.
"As for Germany's statement that
even If the United States built from
two and half million gross regis
tered tons In 1918, it would not mean
deliverance for the allies, no further
comment is needed than that by July
Of this year the 2,000,0 00-ton mark
has been passed. If further refu-
tation Of the Hun boast Of his
U-boat prowess were needed, it might
be stated that less than 500 American
soldiers have lost their lives in the
present war as result of U-boat at
lacks"
Closing the booklet is this striking
quotation from Secretary McAdoo:
"The Fourth Liberty loan is the bar
rage which will precede the victorious
thrust of our army"