Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-03-25
- THE TRI-WEEKLY EDITORIAL DIGEST
National Summary Leading
Did Mere Luck Win the War

eff Admiral Sims is right" says the DE-
TROIT FREE PRESS (Ind.), mot even the
war department with all it's laundering was
as slow about utilizing it's resources as was
the navy department" 1t had been assumed
that the Navys part in winning the war was
accomplished with efficiency and dispatch
until the charges of Admiral Sims burst on
the country like a 14-inch shell and started
people wondering whether the war was won
in spite of the Navy rather than because of
it.
"But Germany was beaten, anyhow" Mr..
Average American is likely to say. why not
be satisfied with. that? Why try to unearth
scandals?" To this the PITTSBURG PRESS
Ind.) replies:
1--WE are not so secure from the posi-
blity of future war but that it is the part
of prudence to understand just where we
fell short this time and adopt precautions
to prevent a repetition of the plumbers OF
which Admiral Sims complains
The substance of the Admrals complaint
is that the Navy Department tried to direct
the strategy OF the campaign from Wash
ington, and that instead of cooperating with
the Allies in a common plan against the
enemy it pursued an individual plan Of it's
own. His three basic charges" according
to the CHICAGO DAILY NEWS Ind.) =,
are:
THAT during the early period of the war
the navy department violated fundamental
principles of warfare and thus caused need
less and costly prolongation of the fighting;
that the policies of the department during
the last half of the war were identical with
those recommended by him and rejected
during the first six months and that the
department either did not have suitable
plans when the nation entered the war or
else did not make use of them in a timely
manner"
"a painful picture of confusion and de-
lay" the NEWS comments, and the SEATTLE
TIMES (Ind) puts emphasis on the Admit
RAILS opinion that these conditions "cost half
million lives $4,000, 100000 in treasure
and 100000 tons of shipping" The SAN
ANTONIO LIGHT Gnd.T thinks all this
sounds bad for Daniels and it points es-
pecially to the original policy Of the secre-
tary in keeping our warships in home wa
tiers because of the submarine menace,
whereas:
''The department should have understood
enough of naval strategy to know that the
damage they could inflict on this side OF
the ocean was negligible compared with
what they could do on the other side, and
that the best way to keep them from our
coast was to conduct such a forcible often
sive against them that they would have been
obliged to remain on the other side of the
Atlantic
"And it turned out" adds the BUFFALO
EXPRESS (Rep.), "that after we sent our
patrol boats to those European waters we
had no more trouble from submarines off
our own coast" The NEW YORK ,TRIB-
UNE (Rep.), however. calls attention to a
Daniels telegram to Sims, saying that Fthe
future position of the United States must
in no way be jeopardized by any disintegra-
ton of our main fighting fleet" and it thinks
this "boldly indicates that, instead of CO.
operating intellectually for the prompt
defeat of common enemy, we we're to con-
serve our main fighting fleet intact for post
bellum conditions. Gin this" thinks the
TACOMA NEWS-TRIBUNE (Ind.), "the
navy's head seemed to fear the English navy
as much he feared Germany. e
However, as the CLEVELAND PLAIN
DEALER (Ind. Dem.) remarks, we should
hear the other side before finally condemn
ing the one department of the government
reputed ready for the German peril in
1917"
Admiral Sims judges the navy by its
failure to reach a standard which was in
fact unattainable,' says the SPRINGFIELD
REPUBLICAN (Ind.), and ''allows too little
for the natural and inevitable slowness and
+ indecision of democracy in the first stages
of war. 1t is in the last stages that de-
mocracy is apt to shine The DAYTON
NEWS (Dem.) reminds us that Fthe appro-
baton of the Allies followed Americas
naval services" asks "Why need Admiral
Sims consider our part so insignificant and
poorly conceived?" 1t appears to the MEM
PHIS COMMERCIAL APPEAL (Dem.) that
"the egotism Of the admiral has run away