Springfield weekly Republican. [volume], December 03, 1914, Page 2, Image 2

About Springfield weekly Republican. [volume] (Springfield, Mass.) 1851-1946

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FUTURE OF THE PROGRESSIVES.
If there hss been doubt concerning tbe
action to be taken by the conference of
progressive party leaders in Chicago this
•week, it seems entirely dissipated by the
performance of Charles Sumner Bird and
his friends in buying the Boston Adver
tiser and Boston Record. It is difficult to
conceive of Mr Bird backing with his money
a daily newspaper enterprise in Boston un
der present conditions, unless he expected
the progressive party to stay alive. Such
tangible and substantial evidence of the
plans of the Massachusetts progressive lead
ers has a political bearing that passes be
yond the boundaries of this commonwealth.
Many of the progressive leaders are too
deeply committed to the new party to be
utterly overcome by the discouragements of
the last election. Nor is it easy to under
stand how they could so soon abandon their
great enterprise without a personal humili
ation, and discredit even, that would pur
sue them in history. The greenbackers
and the populists lasted much longer than
two years. The socialists and the pro
hibitionists are a continuous performance,
in the party sense, and they began business
long ago. There would be laughter from
the gods if the Chicago conference should
resolve to make an end of a movement that
only two years ago was articulate to the
extent of 4,000,000 votes.
Whether or not the party is doomed soon
to die, its responsible leaders cannot pos
sibly abandon it at this stage without earn
ing the execration of a multitude of sincere
people who accepted their assurances that
it was not a party suddenly trumped up to
satiate one man's personal ambition and
hunger for political vengeance. The Chi
cago conference is in honor bound to keep
up the fight and trust to future political
conditions to revive and extend the new
party's influence. Nothing could be clearer
than that.
The popular verdict of the recent elec
tions was in favor of what is known as the
two-party system, with the republicans as
one of the major parties. But the progres
sive leaders will appeal to the great court of
the people in 1916 for the final decision.
THE MEXICAN ANARCHY.
European nations may, not without rea
son, charge upon us the responsibility for
present conditions because we insisted on
eliminating Huerta.-—William H. Taft.
Would Mr Taft have recognized Huerta
had he remained in the presidency for the
term beginning March 3. 1913?
If he should finally answer this ques
tion in the affirmative, then Mr Taft
would face the question whether he did
not err very seriously in not doing his
utmost to save the government of Por
firio Diaz from downfall. The Mexican
anarchy began in the presidency of Mr
Taft. We had some two years of it be
fore Mr Wilson was inaugurated.
Present believers in a Mexican dictator
ship of the Diaz type should have done
more to uphold Diaz and his system. The
mobilization by Mr Taft of the United
States army in Texas before President
Diaz fell was a mortal blow to his regime
because it convinced the restless spirits
among the Mexican people that, in the
opinion of the United States government,
Diaz could no longer be depended upon to
protect foreign interests and maintain or
der.
If Mr Wilson eliminated the assassin
Huerta, did not Mr Taft contribute to
the elimination of the tyrant Diaz? When
did anarchy, in short, really begin? Mr
Taft meant well. Mr Wilson meant well.
Did both blunder?
THE GERMAN-AMERICAN'S.
One unhappy result of recent events has
been to put in a somewhat trying position
both the Germans in America and the
Americans of German origin. The former
stand on the same footing as any other
aliens, the latter on the same footing
as any other Americans; between them
are some who find it hard to decide on
which foot to stand. Their natural and
proper loyalty to the elder fatherland has
been deeply stirred by its peril, and they
Lave been stunned and hurt by an out
burst of feeling in this country which they
have perhaps not rightly understood. And
to make matters worse, there has come
from various sources a stream of wholly
unjust depreciation of Gennan-Americans
which can hardly fail to cause bitter
ness.
For the most part since the war be
gan this criticism has started from Brit
ish sources, and ought to be ignored as
merely a by-product of the war; for the
German-American press to reproduce it
is a mistake. A typical example is the
declaration of Sidney Whitman that “The
‘Germans have nowhere, not even in the
‘United States, where if anywhere the
‘prizes of life are to the strongest, brought
‘forth any personality in public life of the
‘first rank; a few soldiers, but no great
'statesman or lawyer—those vocations
‘which call for the strongest fiber.'’ Such
criticisms may all the more be ignored
because they are so like those made in re
cent years by German and specially by
pan-German critics.
Here in the United States we know
their essential injustice, but modern Ger
many, so triumphantly successful in its
cultural and economic undertakings, has
shown some disappointment at the appar
ent meagerness of the effect upon America
of a proportion of German blood which
has been rated as high as a fourth of the
whole. There is no more critical country
in the world than Germany; setting high
standards for itself and applying them
inexorably at home, it sees no reason why
other countries should not be kept up to
the mark, and is apt to judge with undue
severity the German-American for not
developing along the same line. Even
more severe things have been said by
friendly German than by hostile British
critics. “The German-American,” declared
Prof Lamprecht bluntly, “is a failure.”
America knows better than that.
Nothing could be more misleading than
the lists compiled, often by these hyper
critical Germans, to show how relatively
small is the number of distinguished Ger
man-Americana for a total which some
statisticians calculate to be about 20,000,-
000. Distinction is won, as a rule, in
fields in which the Germans in this coun
try have 'been handicapped, such as pub
lic affairs, literature, and the arts. In
literature they have been handicapped by
a foreign language and a foreign literary
tradition; in politics they have had the
additional handicap, besides language, of
h . I
being settled among two of the most polit
ical peoples on earth, the English and
the Irish, not forgetting the “Scotch-
Trish,” who were largely contemporary
with the earlier German settlements. The
arts are a late and relatively a minor
product of American life. Many things
have conspired to make the achievement
of the Germans in America predominant
ly material, and their success in this field
cannot well be questioned in the land of
Astor, Drexel. Rockefeller and Schwab.
But to suggest that the Germans brought
no idealism to America is absurd, in view
of the fact that so many of the German
migrations have been made up of ideal
ists, religious in the 17th and 18th cen
turies, political in the 19th, social and
antimilitary in the 20th. If this phase
has not been conspicuous, it has been
for the reason that all this idealism was
brought to a land of new ideals where
the pressing need was for the sober and
varied industry in which the Germans
are unexcelled.
More than once, when a fresh ferment
has sent over a new migration of en
thusiasts. as after the '49. there has been
something of a feud between the old and
the new, the “grays” and the “greens,”
over this very point; the new-comers were
vaguely disappointed that their predeces
sors had settled so easily into the back
ground, had not more vigorously main
tained the cause of German culture. They
did something to revive it with the large
proportion of educated men driven abroad
by the revolution, but they and still more
their descendants came to realize what
critics abroad do not wholly understand,
how secondary and transitional this Ger
man culture must he in the face of the
tremendous pressure of Americanism. It
serves a useful purpose; assimilation is
none the worse for being slow. We should
rather view with disquietude any less
tenacious stocks which lose their own
culture without gaining another —a real
danger in the process of transplantation.
In the stiff conservative life of German
farming communities, as in the friendly,
cheerful freedom of German life in our
cities, there has been an element of real
value which has helped to make America
what it is.
No assimilation can be more perfect or
more admirable than that, of the German
stock which has gone to the making of the
American type, and when 20,000,000 Ger
man-Americans are spoken of, it goes
without saying that the overwhelming ma
jority are purely American, and no more
Gorman than Lincoln was an English
man. That is Germany's loss, but only in
the same sense that our English stock is
England's loss; both these and others go
to make a blend which can only be called
American. And that is the point of view
from which America as a whole regards
Europe and the war in which Europe is
involved. The reaction in the case of Bel
gium is precisely what it would have
been if Holland had been harried and
burned by England. Such detachment
cannot be expected from those w-ho still
have ties with Germany, and in their
loyalty to the fatherland there is no dis
loyalty to America. Their position merits
much sympathy, and with their sturdy de
fense of the kaiser there need be no quar
rel: the one thing to ask is that they re
frain from trying to stir up old-world
hatreds which have no place in this land
of refuge from the feuds of Europe. In
this respect the pan-German agitation of
the past dozen years has been distinctly
harmful.
STATE EXPENDITURES.
In planning for the coming winter s
work in the state Legislature, the repub
lican leaders show much concern over the
state tax which in 1914 amounts to SB.-
750,000 as against only $2,500,000 10
years ago. How to keep the state tax
from rising is a difficult problem in times
notable for the steady expansion of the
activities of government in response usual
ly to popular demand. Reforms are apt
to cost money and this has been a period
of reform. New ideas of administration in
institutional work make their way, and
these often involve, at least temporarily,
additional expenditure. Nothing is more
notorious than the tremendous increase in
the expenditures of all governments, mu
nicipal, state and federal. Everywhere
there is anxiety over this tendency. Mas
sachusetts as well as lowa has had a com
mission on economy and efficiency in state
administration, but while the talking pro
ceeds the state tax beautifully climbs
its steadily rising curve.
It is useless to insist that no more
activities shall be allowed that increase
expenses, for if a departure of any sort
impresses the mass of people as desirable
some political party will sooner or later
put it through in order to gain popular
favor. Efficiency is no enemy of progress.
What is needed more imperatively year by
year is efficiency in government, and it
may be said that while taxes will never
be small enough to satisfy taxpayers, effi
ciency is the main solution of the immedi
ate problem of rising expenditures. Thia
means saving. Tax reforms are by no
means excluded, since great gains could be
effected, particularly in this state, by re
leasing new business enterprises from tbe
burden of the old, indiscriminate general
property tax on invested capital. But the
time has come in state administration, as
well as in municipal administration, to
eliminate waste in expenditure. “The
‘future expansion of governmental activ
ity” should “for a considerable time at
'least, and until private wealth and in
‘come have greatly increased.” “he
'financed out of the savings which are so
‘patently possible.” That is the conclu
sion of the recent report on ‘‘lncrease in
‘Public Expenditures." by Dr Thomas 8.
Adams, state tax commissioner of Wiscon
sin and secretary of the national tax asso
ciation.
There are serious difficulties encountered
tvhich are inherent in our form of govern
ment. In Massachusetts, the direct state
tax rises the more rapidly because so
many voters pay no direct taxes of conse
quence out of their own pockets. Our
general property tax law, also, by encour
aging tax dodging on a great scale, makes
indifferent on the subject large numbers
of people. They condemn the whole sys
tem and are not much concerned in any
of the by-product*. There are also serious
handicaps in the ignorance of the public
concerning public business and in the lack
of incentive for officials, who may or may
not serve long terms, to save public money
as they wotiid save their own in a. private
enterprise. The form of state government,
THE SPRINGFIELD WEEKLY REPUBLICAN: THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1914.
as in most municipalities under the older
charters, is contrived on the system of
checks and balances, which diffuses power
and responsibility. Efficiency and econ
omy fly out of the window when no one
in particular has power to do things with
out being harassed and thwarted at every
turn. In order to secure the efficiency
that will result in the elimination of waste
in administratiou, it may be indispensable
to simplify the machinery of state govern
ment.
Colorado, a state which has not escaped
severe criticism in some respects, has tax
limitation laws that have special merit.
The committee of the national tax asso
ciation, of w-hich Dr Adams is chairman,
recommends that, except in emergency
cases, the taxes levied by any political
subdivision should not be permitted to
exceed those of the preceding years by 5
per cent. To have such a rule apply to
the state Legislature, it would be neces
sary to amend the constitution. But, in
order to finance future extensions of gov
ernmental activity out of savings due to
the elimination of waste, very much more
would have to be done. The report already
referred to. which is applicable to all
state and municipal governments, offers
other recommendations that are worth
considering. In order that states and cities
may compare themselves with others, tbe
federal census bureau should publish annu
ally statistics of expenditure, taxation, pub
lic debt and wealth of a selected list of
states, counties, cities and towns in the
United States. Bureaus of public effi
ciency should be established everywhere,
so constituted as to have the freest ac
cess to public offices, do their work con
tinuously, and have their recommendations
treated as other than mere academic pro
posals. They should be made an integral
and permanent part of government, bent
upon reducing cost.
As for changes in the form of govern
ment, the recommendation may be regard
ed as radical, for the statement is made:
“Modern government must be simplified
‘and the existing diffusion of power and re
sponsibility corrected. The short ballot,
‘and those modifications which logically
■go along with it, should be introduced. A
’single legislative chamber, reduction in
‘the number of elective executive officers,
‘closer relationship between legislative and
‘executive departments of government, a
‘budget which emphasizes the spirit but
‘wastes no time and effort on the form
‘of this procedure—are probably all neces
‘sary accompaniments of any movement
‘permanently to reduce public expendi
tures and increase public efficiency.”
It might be added, as particularly ap
plicable to Massachusetts, that public ex
penditures can be kept down by utilizing
the services of the many capable and
public-spirited citizens who are independ
ent of private money-getting and are
willing to act in offices or positions with
out salaries for the sake of promoting the
state's welfare. Mere job hunters never
have high economic value in the public
service.
CHURCH REPORT ON COLORADO.
Our own war, in Colorado, has been get
ting renewed attention ce the elections.
•The choice of Mr Carlson for governor and
of a candidate for attorney-general, both
pledged to restore order, has been inter
preted as a very hopeful sign. The other
aspect is perhaps best indicated by the opin
ion of such experienced and interested ob
servers as the American federation of labor
and the united mine workers, whose rep
resentatives waited upon President Wilson
the other day with the federation’s reso
lution that he “should operate the mines
‘of Colorado in the interest of the people.”
Officials of the union have also protested
against the withdrawal of federal troops.
This skepticism on the part of labor
has an explanation in the tone of tbe re
mark of a Colorado official, whose com
ment on the recent election is that the
candidates elected are not only “most em
phatic for law and order,” but that they
are “most bitterly opposed to the trea
‘sonable tactics of the united mine work
‘ers.” Not very comforting for the unions,
surely! President Slocum of Colorado
college, lecturing to Amherst students Sun
day, is also reported to have laid the en
tire blame for the strike upon the unions,
and his view appears to be fairly repre
sentative of employer and professional
opinion in the state.
There have been many investigations
and reports on conditions in Colorado, and
the federal commission on industrial re
lations will make another one, but
there is special timeliness and significance,
in view of recent official declarations and
resolutions, in the very latest report, that
of Rev Henry A. Atkinson, which has the
evident merit of being uninfluenced by
close association with either side of the
controversy, previous to the investiga
tion. Mr Atkinson is secretary of the so
cial service commission of the Congrega
tional churches and associate secretary of
the commission on the church and social
service of the federal council of the
churches of Christ in America. His report,
which has just been issued from the Con
gregational house, Boston, is based on
personal observation, interviews with lead
ers on both sides and careful study of
all of the available printed evidence. He
finds that "30 years of oppression, indus
trial, social and political, have taught the
‘miners that their only hope is in the
‘union. An individual" counts for nothing;
‘if he protests he loses his job; if he makes
‘too much trouble he is dealt with by
‘hired gunmen, who are kept in the mines
‘to do the will of the companies and help
‘enforce the law against the workers.”
“The fight,” says Mr Atkinson, “is sim
‘ply a fight for a recognition of the right
‘of the men to unionize.”
Tbe following bit of history from Mr At
kinson’s report ought to be generally
known:—
This is Colorado's fourth great strike.
They have occurred at internals of about
10 years. After the strike in 1883-84 the
mines were operated with imported strike
breakers, the Anglo-Saxon miners being in
the minority. The new comers were non-
English speaking foreigners, men much in
ferior to the strikers whose places they
filled. The strikers 10 years later were
these strike-breakers who had been im
ported into the state 10 years before.
The strike, was again won by bringing in
another group of strike-breakers, all for
eigners, and viewed as laborers, an ap
preciably inferior class of men. Ten years
later these men went on strike, and after
deporting their leaders the companies
brought in men to take their places, men
from southern Italy, Greeks, Slavs, Mexi
cans, Japanese, 26 nationalities in all. Id
the counties of Las Animas and Huerfano
live only one-eighteenth of the population,
but these counties have two-thirds of the
illiteracy of the state. It is these men who
have found conditions intolerable and have
struck.
The molting pot. .has plainly been work
ing in Colorado, but pnder conditions which
refleet no great .credit upon the state.
Gov-elect Carlson and Gov Ammons ask
for a let-up in official investigations, and
report that they are working together on
a plan for restoring effective state govern
ment in the mining regions. Surely noth
ing less would be decent; but effective gov
ernment must also be just government, and
in re-establishing the sovereign power of
Colorado in the strike zones, after the
withdrawal of federal troops, the state gov.
eminent should so perform its functions
in law enforcement that the miners would
have no good cause for thinking, that the
mine owners dominated the commonwealth
in their own interest. The mine workers
must have full justice, or these “wars” will
continue to rage.
BROTHERHOODS AND UNIONISM.
The action of the brotherhoods whose
members are employed by the New York,
New Haven and Hartford railroad, in
coming to a vote on the question of
federation, is in liqe with the significant
development which has been long in
progress, both in the brotherhoods and
in the American federation of labor, in
the direction of closer association of the
different groups of wage-earners. There is
significance also in the fact that one of
the voting bodies, the brotherhood of rail
road telegraphers, is already affiliated
with the federation.
The “brotherhoods,” comprising the
order of railway conductors and the three
brotherhoods of railway trainmen, locomo
tive engineers and locomotive firemen,
were organized originally as mutual in
surance societies, primarily to meet the
risks of an extrahazardous occupation on
more favorable terms than were afforded
by the regular companies. There was
nothing of the “class struggle” in their
inception, and the brotherhoods have from
the first declared their recognition of the
common interests of employer and em
ployed. Insurance was a strongly con
servative feature, and the brotherhoods
have maintained a business policy of
avoidance of strikes, fully indorsed the
principle of arbitration and entered into
many wage agreements without resort to
either arbitration or strike. For many
years these agreements were made by
separate brotherhoods and for a small
territory; sometimes even with a single
superintendent. Then joint protective
boards were formed: then a federation
of these boards and finally, in 1902. the
conductors and trainmen, in western ter
ritory, organized for the first time a sys
tem of co-operation by the different broth
erhoods. The brotherhoods in the more
conservative East did not begin to follow
suit until 1910, and the South is still
farther behind.
The processes at Work in the brother
hoods parallel the development which is .
proceeding still moje rapidly in the Ameri
can federat|pnof latjor. in the direction
of industrial pqi.qnisi^.. It is a common
mistake.^ 7 pupj><?se, that ..the. federation,
is an association craft unions, while.the'
industrial workers' t of the world have a
monopoly. of industrialism. The real dif
ference, aside from certain spectacular
features, is that the latter—and later—
organization has, so to speak, taken the
bull by the horns,. while the former has
been content to feel its way cautiously
in the same direction. Industrialism has
made rapid strides in the federation. Al
ready the brewers and both of the great
unions of miners are industrially or
ganized. The tendency is marked in other
industries also, as well as in the federa
tion's policy of grouping the unions of
related trades. A .system of interchange
of union cards is also developing,
simplifying the co-operation of craft and
industrial union—a member of the black
smiths’ union, for instance, becoming a
member of the western federation of
miners when at work about the mines.
Developments of this character, which
explain the many jurisdictional disputes
at federation conventions, disclose an un
mistakable tendency within the ranks to
ward a greater appreciation of labor's
interrelationship. It is a natural and in
evitable corollary of the displacing of the
skilled worker by the machine and the
growth and amalgamation of great in
dustries, and, if rightly directed, it has
within it great possibilities in the develop
ment of the good citizenship qualities of
self-government and self-respect.
THE BEST ROAD MATERIAL.
The vexing question as to the best ma
terial with which to build roads in
these days of automobiles is concise
ly answered by a good roads work
er out in Washington—apparently the
“father” of good roads in that state—by
one word—"brains.” The epigram as ap
plied to the construction of roads, or any
thing else, is not new, but it directs at
tention from speculation whether the ideal
road material has been, or can be found,
to the fact that, whatever the material
it must be handled with intelligence. No
motorist needs to go far from Springfield
to point out stretches on which money
seems to have been wasted, not through
the fault of the material so much as
in the way it was laid. For ex
ample, cemented surfaces have not
always worn well, although around
Detroit, the very .home of the automo
bile and a district in which the road prob
lem might be assumed acute, cement roads
have proved notably successful. Just out
side of New Haven on the way to Bridge
port a stretch of cement roadway soma
seven miles long was opened a few weeks
ago; - its wearing qualities are now the
question, for the present surface is be
yond criticism.
The particular complaint made by this
Washington speaker at the annual con
vention of the state good roads associa
tion in Spokane was that, the state uni
versity had discontinued its course in the
construction and maintenance, of-highways.
He maintained that “ten thousand men
‘ean .make a watch where one man can
■make a road.” While that is obviously
a rhetorical exaggeration, unless it be ad-,
mitted that the country isabsolutely
without competent roadmakers. U is clear
that roadmaking ie of necessity'becoming
a more.highly specialized affair aprons
which calls increasingly for vocational
training and scientific study. When dur
Massachusetts hill towns in their desire
for a revival of prosperity go deep into
their owti pockets txt secure good roads
with supplementary state ’aifi' the loss
would be a peculiarly severe one' if, either
through a pennywise and pound foolish
policy’ in the use of funds Or through lack
of intelligence in actual construction,
roads so built should lack in durability. The
state authorities have here a large bur
den and it is to be hoped that certain
stretches of road under construction last
summer will confound the predictions of
venturesome lay critics as to their abil
ity to stand up under traffic.
GERMANY'S NAVAL PROBLEM.
The repeated dispatches from Copen
hagen and The Hague telling of
great activity among the German
dreadnoughts lying off the Baltic end
of the Kiel canal, do not necessarily
imply a change, in the German strategy
or ap immediate venture of battle with
the British fleet. The German dread
noughts will be risked only when Ad
ndral von Tirpitz and his staff consider
either that the conditions warrant it or
that the necessities demand it. But for
such an occasion, whether it comes in one
guise or the other, the fleet must be as
ready as it can be made by target prac
tice, perfection of equipment and con
stant attention to any detail that Ger
man thoroughness Can better.
The war draws to the close of its fourth
month, and those who predicted from the
first that the German strategy would be
to preserve “the fleet in being,” So that,
though inferior, it would remain a men
ace to England and be ready to take ad
vantage of any lack of ■watchfulness or
large disaster, have been fully vindicated
thus far. But in no struggle do condi
tions remain constantly the same, and it
is essential to take stock of them anew
as time passes. Measured in broad terms
those changes since England and Ger
many began the war which affect its con
duct at sea are three: On August 23,
Japan entered the war: a month liter
the great effectiveness of submarines had
begun to be demonstrated; on November
1 the exploits of the Emden and other
German commerce destroyers and the ac
tion bn that day off Coronel had at least
suggested the strategy and gunnery of the
Germans to be superior.
The Bearing of these developments on
the problem of the German naval staff
is clear, but, in a degree, contradictory.
Japan’s entry means that when the Ger
man south' Pacific fleet and the Karls
ruhe are finally accounted for, the Jap
anese fleet, having no service to perform
■elsewhere, may be depended upon by En
gland for a reinforcement in her home
waters if needed. As the war goes on
we are likely to see some of the Jap
anese dreadnoughts berthed in English
waters where they can be protected from
submarines, and. be quickly called upon as
a reserve. For Japan has a vital if indi
rect interest in preventing Germany from
gaining command of the sea and invading
England. The consequence is that aside
from such losses as may be suffered in the
meantime. England will eventually be
stronger in her'home waters'than she is to
day in proportion to the aid lent by the
Japanese.
On the other hand, the effectiveness of
mine and torpedo presents the hope to
Germany that in spite Of new ships to be
added to both the British and French
navies, and of prospective reinforcement
from Japan, the superiority of the allied
fleet may be gradually reduced, as one Ves
sel is picked off after another and a whole
squadron possibly lured into a mine field.
That hope obviously spells a policy of
watchful waiting for the hour to strike.
On the other hand, again, the victory at Cor
onel must naturally stir more than one Ger
man officer to the belief that England's
numerical superiority in ships may be
overcome by better strategy in concentra
tion and more accurate gunnery, and that
it is wiser to make tbe venture now- rather
than permit time to increase the odds.
It is altogether likely that the German
staff to-day is forced to repress, or else
give way to, the advocates of this course,
who can point to the further fact that
the destruction of the South Pacific fleet
would release for service in English wa
ters, not merely the Japanese ships, but
two British dreadnought battle cruisers of
great power and many other vessels. The
psychology of the battle of Coronel may
eventually prove a larger factor than, the
battle-itself.
The strength of the various fleets in
dreadnoughts and old-style battleships as
they are to-day, or should be according to
the most authoritative figures, is:—-
Old style
Dreadnoughts, battleships.
England 3s 39
Franco 4 21
Japan 4 16
Russia (Baltic fleet) 4 4
Germany 21 20
Austria 4 J 2
It should be added that some author
ities give France seven dreadnoughts, al
thoiigh it appears that three of . these are
not yet ready, and that Japan has four
more which should be ready soon. Further
than this, there are six so-called “semi
‘dreadnoughts” among the nominally
older French ships and four among the
Japanese, and these, while technically not'
dreadnoughts, far surpass any of the older
German ships in size and power, and very
closely approach the Germans ships of the
first line. Similarly the 39 older British
battleships, the Bulwark haying been de
ducted, are of materially greater average
power and size than the German ships list
ed under the same head. Of the 21 Ger
man dreadnoughts, one, the Goeben, wheth
er or not actually sold to Turkey, is bottled
up in the Black sea.
One of the most important factors of
the situation confronting Germany when
the war began, remains to be mentioned.
The Russian Baltic fleet cannot be ig
nored, despite the woeful inefficiency of the
Russian navy 10 years ago. In venturing
a decisive struggle with the English fleet,
Germany might forfeit the command of
the Baltic while trying vainly for the com
mand of the North sea. Within the year
Russia should have on the Baltic eight
very powerful dreadnoughts of her reor
ganized navy, aside* from her four older
battlfeships,, two of whieh ate fat superior
to v tbe Gerpian , pre,drea<V>oughte, If
the German fleet should limp back into
port, depleted, battered and damaged after
an encounter with the English, the Rus
steps then, for a time at'least, con
trol the Baltic, shut off Gornaany s vitaljy
important food supplies from Scandinavia'
and gain an advantage in any movement
of tfeops down the coast of East Prussia
similar to that which England holds
through her ships that shell the Germans
xvho'venture too close to the Belgian coast
in their attempted advance on Dunkirk
and Calais. Only while Russia’s ports are
ice-bdtmd beyond the help of her powerful
ice-breakers can Germany disregard the
Russian fleet, and the moment the ice again
permits navigation the German navy must
be adequate to the task of renewed con
trol. _______________
EMBASSADOR HERRICK.
Embassador Herrick’s countrymen can
not fail to be pleased by the extraordi
nary praises showered upon him by public
men in France as he retires from his diplo
matic post. His success has been signal
and memorable in the crisis that the war
brought upon Paris.
All of the American representatives in
the European war zone have had excep
tional opportunities for service. Some
have distinguished themselves and not one
has been found seriously lacking. This
fact is the more remarkable because,
with scarcely an exception, they took
up their work abroad without the slight
est diplomatic training. Mr Herrick him
self. who was appointed by President
Taft, had never done a day’s work in the
diplomatic corps when he was sent to
France as embassador. While certain
kinds of diplomacy might not have been
skilfully handled by him because of in
experience. his business sense and well
developed executive talent doubtless made
him especially efficient in meeting the sud
den crisis of August and September.
Under the circumstances it is to be
regretted that Mr Herrick is not to re
main in Paris as embassador until the end
of the war. But his successor, Mr Sharp,
was nominated by the president and con
firmed by the Senate for Mr Herrick’s
position before tbe war was regarded by
anyone as possible. To have kept Mr
Herrick much longer in charge of the post
virtually involved asking for Mr Sharp's
resignation, after Mr Sharp had volun
tarily acted for two or three months as
Mr Herrick’s assistant in the embassy.
It can be said for Mr Sharp that he be
gins his duties as embassador with more
actual training on the spot than most
American embassadors have had. while
Mr Herrick’s departure has been fortu
nately deferred until the danger of a
siege of Paris seems to have passed away.
THE WATERWAY LOBBY.
How much political terrorism there is
in the methods of the national rivers and
harbors congress it is impossible to say
with precision. To speak with precision
might be a delicate matter. Suffice it to
say that the congress meets once a year
and that its practice dictates that an an
nual appropriation of not less than $50,-
000,000 from the United States government
be advised to ptomote river and harbor
improvement. The annual convention is
popularly called the “waterway lobby.”
and it will meet in 'Washington early this
month, just as Congress reconvenes for
the short winter session. The word has
■been passed around that the amount de
manded In the new rivers and harbork
bill will be $40,000,000-a most magnani
mous concession.
The contest over the “pork barrel” at
the last session must be still fresh in the
public mind. A $20,000,000 appropriation
was finally carried, but the original meas
ure appropriated $53,000,000 in Cash and
$33,000,000 in new projects in addition to
$6,990,000 in the sundry civil bill, or a
total of some $93,000,000 in 1914 for
waterways. The schemes that were
blocked will now be pushed with fresh
zeal under the congressional system of
“mutual bribery. ’ The foes of extrava
gance, waste and even graft will need
to be on guard again the coming winter at
Washington, to counteract the influence of
the waterway lobby—the more so because
‘ this country is now paying a special SIOO,-
000,000 war tax.
Senator Burton of Ohio will serve until
the end of this Congress, and it is to be
hoped that he will resume the leadership
of the opposition to a monstrous appro
priation. He will find a large portion of
the press supporting him. If he can ob
struct the passage of a bill until March
3 he will win.
THE VALUE OF A DIPLOMAT.
There has been occasional evidence in
late years of a disposition to underrate
the importance of the diplomat. The feel
ing was perhaps typified by the remark
of a raw youth—a European, however, and
not an American—who at a Washington
dinner some years ago blurted out: “I
‘don’t see what the diplomats amount to
‘nowadays. All they have to do is to call
‘on the secretary of state once in so often
‘while everything important is decided be
hind their backs by cable.” His belated
recollection that he was in the presence of
diplomats and his stammered apology
were met with a grave “You are quite
Tight” from a Japanese attache who
sought to spare the youth’s blushes. That
indiscretion suggests something as to the
difficulty, hilherto, of persuading Congress
to make adequate appropriation, or any
appropriation, for the construction of em
bassy buildings abroad and for the estab
lishment of the diplomatic service upon a
proper basis.
To-day there are quite numerous Amer
icans who are convinced that a diplomat
may be worth something after all. In
fact it is safe to assume a consensus of
opinion, among those who have profited
by the aid of our representatives in Europe
since August 1. that a really good diplo
mat may really be worth a good deal. Out
of this there should grow a new popular
disposition of encouragement to the diplo
matic service and of favor to its further,
development as a field of life work, undis
turbed by politics, for young men of in
telligence and character.
But there is at the moment, and much
nearer home than the European capitals,
a very distinguished example of the value
of a diplomat. Last spring, when Yale
and Harvard conferred honorary degrees
upon Etnbassadqr Romulo S. Naon. the
representative of the Argentine Republic
who was one of the mediators at Niagara,
his admirable speeches at once advertised
tbe presence among us of a diplomat of
notable gifts. Bines then the war has
created a new opportunity and desire to;.
closer commencb>l relations with the Ar
gentine. and Embassador Naon has fiad
thrust upon him new responsibilities in
tbe consummation of that goal. It was
for this that he addressed an audience
composed largely of prominent manufac
turers at the Union League in Philadel
phia Monday night.
It may be counted a matter of public
fortune that in the present situation the
Argentine embassador is a diplomat who
has already aroused interest in and ad
miration of his individual personality.
GEOGRAPHY AND CULTURE.
Prof Simon N. Patten, who years ago
so lucidly explained German culture in
terms of beer, sausages, and rye-bread,
gives us in the New Republic for Novem
ber 14, an even grander simplification.
It even recalls the German geographer’s
theory, which amused Bismarck, that it
followed from the character and conduct
of the maid of Orleans that “she could
only have been born on a fertile marly
soil, that she was fated to give victory
in a limestone country, and to die in a
sandstone district.” Germany’s license
to go as far as she likes rests, in Prof
Patten s view, on the ground that Germany
and Austria already have the best land
in Europe; therefore they must have the
highest culture, and are entitled to the
hegemony of the continent. It is a theory
which would have amazed the Athenians,
comparing their thin soil with the fatter
fields of the Boeotians. It also ignores
that the maid of Orleans was born “on
‘a fertile marly soil.” Prof Patten has
looked too hastily at his map in dividing
Europe into its “three natural divisions.”
The southwestern part, occupied by the
Latin races, is “high and mountainous,”
with “a thin upland soil” and failing re
sources which make it harder each dec
ade for the overworked peasants to make
a living. Hence race hatred and group
antagonism. On the other hand eastern
Europe, under the dominion of Russia
is “a semiarid upland with limited re
‘sources.” Both are obviously destined
by Nature to be subordinate to central
Europe with its vast fertile plains and
its rich valleys of the Rhine and the
Danube. Central Europe has three-fifths
of the resources of the continent: “It is
‘here that rapid progress is being made,
'and here the hope of the continent lies.”
If this region, including of course. Bel
gium and Holland, were united, it would
dominate Europe, says Prof Patten, and
he does not waste his time on scraps of
paper: "The action of Germany in Bel
‘gium is but a repetition of what England
‘did in Morocco and Persia.” Such is
the doctrine of the geographical right
of conquest as Prof Patten learned it
from German professors: “It transformed
‘my viewpoint.” The cry of “German
‘versus Slav” is of university origin, he
says, and has among the professors its
leading exponents: “The professor rules
‘Germany; his idealism has gone to the
‘schools, and is finnly implanted in every
'boy’s heart.”
As to professorial activity there ’ can
be no question, but let us hope that
Prof Patten mastered German psycholo
gy better than European geography. His
view of the natural right of central Eu
rope to dominate because of its natural
resources would rather amaze those Ger
man geographers who have been point
ing out that German success has been
won despite Nature by hard work. As
for the “thin upland soil" of France,
does he forget the French plain west of
the hills? "A semiarid upland with lim
ited resources” is a curious way to speak
of the great Russian lowlands, the vastest
plain in Europe. Germany and Austria
have nothing comparable for fertility to
the famous “black belt” of Russia, per
haps rivaled only by the Mississippi val
ley. Central Europe has a great wheat
district, but it is Hungarian, not Ger
man; in the main Germany can do no
better than rye, falling back, in the lean
north, upon potatoes. Germany is not
by nature a rich country; it is the justi
fiable boast of its people that they have
made it what it is. Perhaps a blessing,
says Dr Bartsch, professor of economic
geography at Breslau, lay in these scan
tier endowments: “Upon the poor soil of
‘the colonized land of East Germany
‘between the Scotch firs and the potato
‘fields, grew up the powerful race whose
‘fight for freedom dragged Germany
‘from the depth of oppression and founded
‘a solid center for the Slowly ripening
‘national unity.” But this makes havoc
of the notion /hat Nature by its bounti
ful gifts made Germany the rightful over
lord of Europe.
The truth is that the “Slavic menace”
lies not in the poverty but in the great
ness of the natural resources of Russia
and more particularly in its vast area
with no obstacles to the evolution of a
homogeneous race. Economically Rus
sia is the most uneven part of Europe;
with much of its soil little can be done.
The nearest parallel is in the United
States, and on the steppes are lands like
those beyond the Mississippi, where
drouth makes agriculture precarious. But
the resources of the country are prodi
gious, and its poverty has mainly come
from its backward economic condition.
And this in turn has come from its con
tinental situation, cut off from markets
and from the sea. It is the melting pot
of races, and the fusion is not yet com
plete. Thus it is the youngest of great
European nations, and its past gives lit
tle suggestion, of its future. Within 20
years a notable economic advance has
been made. Its agriculture is being slow
ly improved, and its exports have in
creased. while its industrial beginnings
speak well for the future. The Rus
sians take kindly to applied science, and
progress of that sort is cumulative. Rus
sia grows slowly because it is big, re
mote, continental, but it is but one gen
eration since the emancipation of the
serfs; another generation may make such
changes, political as well as economic,
that the traditional Russia can hardly be
recognized. Geography has its lessons, but
they should not be applied too hastily,
THE GERMAN PROTEST.
Germany’s singular protest to the Unit
ed States against alleged violations of the
declaration of London by Great Britain
causes the state department.to reveal the
fact that more than a month ago Ger
many was notified that the United States
government did not regard the declaration
of London aa ever having gone into effect
or as now having the least binding force
upon the nations.
Legally peaking, this Is the only, wise,
or even possible, position to take, inas-