Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1919-08-06


the official papers and in the life his
tories of each one of the 100000 men
who went over to fight the Hun.
Almost Immediately after the first
American expeditionary force was sent
to France there sailed a company or
officers and men whose duty it was to
gather the basic material for his
tory Of the American armys operations
wherever they were carried out.
Nobody knows how many histories
of the war will be written. Some of
them are under way now, but the one
history which will be accurate beyond
peradventure is the history which will
be compiled from the actual field serv-
ice of supply, and operation orders of
the American expeditionary forces.
Specifically speaking, therefore, the
history which will be of greatest adj
vantage to the man who wants facts
without undue color will be the one
which is compiled from the orders Is
sued from time to time, and from the
reports made by the men who carried
out the orders.
Facts Without Prejudice.
Other histories may be more hu-
manly interesting and unquestionably
they have the widest kind of sale.
Some of them will approach accuracy,
but none Of them probably will reach
it along every line to the goal. Fa-
voritism and prejudice frequently en-
ter into histories which are written
while the men who made the history
still are living. Such a thing is al
most inevitable and the war depart
ment knows it. The history of the
war which the department will COM
pile will contain nothing except what
was done and how it was done.
A vast deal of inaccurate history
already has been written. The won
der is perhaps that it contains as few
errors as it does.
Splitting Fleet Arouses Debate.
Secretary Of the Navy Daniels order
to split the American navy fleet into
two fleets, one to do service on the
Atlantic and the other on the Pacific,
has caused a somewhat lively contro-
tent in civil circles.
Some of the naval officers say that
it is bad strategy to separate the
ships, that either fleet could be de-
stroyed after separation by concen-
tration in force of an enemy. Some
other officers are inclined to believe
that with the Panama canal in good
working order, and. with the virtual
certainty that an alarm of war would
precede actual hostilities by some
weeks, the concentration necessary
could be accomplished before the en-
envy could strike.
For a great many years there was
an insistent demand from certain quar-
tiers that large fleet be stationed in
the Pacific ocean. Some men SAID
that the danger of war lay in the East
and nowhere else. Then came the Eu-
ropean war and such danger as there
was for us lay in the west of Europe.
One naval officer has said that guess
ing about where war is to come from
is proftless business and that the
thing to do is to have ships enough
to make certain that we can meet the
enemy quickly, either East or West.
Favor Battle Cruiser.
Seemingly, however, there is no
chance that the United States mate
rally will increase it's naval forces in
the immediate future, although there
are six battle cruisers now building
which it is intended to complete. They
will be among the most formidable
fighting ships afloat because they will
combine terrible offensive qualities
with high speed. Naval experts the
world over seem to believe that the
battle cruiser is the ship upon which
reliance must be placed.
When the German sailors sunk their
ships in Scapa Flow the word went out
that some of the ships destroyed were
the greatest fighting machines that
ever sailed the seas. In one sense
they were, but in another sense they
we're not. The Germans constructed
some of their great dreadnaughts for
use only in seas close to home. Sew
eral of these great ships were sunk
by the Germans in Scapa Flow.
While these vessels of the Germans
were terrible fighting agents they
could not have been used far from the
home base. TheJ were built fos
North-sea purposes, and as most of
them were built prior to 1914, proof is
thus adduced that they expected to
fight either the English navy, or the
ships of the French, expecting the
main fight TO take place Ia the North
sea close to their home base.
These big dreadnaughts of the Ger
mans were built for heavy fighting
purposes and not for cruising pur-
poses. It is doubtful If their crews
COULD have lived on them for any great
length of time. Everything was sacri-
feed for fighting quarters and for
armament. The members of the crew
silent in places that looked like metal