Chapter V: Front Matter (5)

Mindful of this teaching of experience, we believe and
solemnly urge that the time has come to devise and to create
a working union of sovereign nations to establish peace
among themselves and to guarantee it by all known and
available sanctions at their command, to the end that
civilization may be conserved, and the progress of mankind
in comfort, enlightenment, and happiness may continue.

We, therefore, believe it to be desirable for the United
States to join a league of nations binding the signatories
to the following:

1. All justiciable questions arising between the signatory
powers, not settled by negotiations, shall, subject to the
limitations of treaties, be submitted to a judicial tribunal
for hearing and judgment, both upon the merits and upon any
issue as to its jurisdiction of the question.

2. All other questions arising between the signatories and
not settled by negotiation shall be submitted to a Council
of Conciliation for hearing, consideration, and
recommendation.

3. The signatory powers shall jointly use forthwith both
their economic and military forces against any one of their
number that goes to war, or commits acts of hostility,
against another of the signatories before any question
arising shall be submitted as provided in the foregoing.

4. Conferences between the signatory powers shall be held
from time to time to formulate and codify rules of
international law, which, unless some signatory shall
signify its dissent within a stated period, shall thereafter
govern the decision of the judicial tribunal mentioned in
Article 1.

There were half a dozen brief speeches in favor of the report. John Wanamaker did not think the report went far enough. He had hoped the conference would send out a message to the warring nations that would make them pause and think. He could not help but favor the report, he added, but felt that it, standing alone without any further action, would be laughed at by those on the other side of the Atlantic.

It is expected the Executive Committee will meet in the near future to adopt plans to carry out the objects of the league. One of the things that probably will be done, according to members of the Executive Committee, will be to start a propaganda in this country with a view to having the United States Senate adopt measures in line with the object of the league. Mr. Taft said today that, judging by its action in rejecting treaties in the past, the chief stumbling block to the aspirations of the league would be the Senate. Steps will also be taken to get European countries interested in the league.

ORGANIZATION.

President.

William Howard Taft.

Vice Presidents.

Lyman Abbott, Edwin A. Alderman, A. Graham Bell, R. Blankenburg, Charles R. Brown, Francis E. Clark, John H. Finley, W.D. Foulke, James Cardinal Gibbons, W. Gladden, George Gray, Myron T. Herrick, John G. Hibben, George C. Holt, D.P. Kingsley, S.W. McCall, J.B. McCreary, Victor H. Metcalf, John Mitchell, John B. Moore, Alton B. Parker, George H. Prouty, Jacob H. Schiff, John C. Schaffer, Robert Sharp, Edgar F. Smith, C.R. Van Hise, B.I. Wheeler, Harry A. Wheeler, Andrew D. White, W.A. White, George G. Wilson, Luther B. Wilson, Oliver Wilson, Stephen S. Wise, T.S. Woolsey, James L. Slayden, David H. Greer, Bernard N. Baker, Victor L. Berger, Edward Bok, Arthur J. Brown, Edward O. Browne, R. Fulton Cutting, John F. Fort, A.W. Harris, L.L. Hobbs, George H. Lorimer, Edgar O. Lovett, S.B. McCormick, Martin B. Madden, Charles Nagel, George A. Plimpton, Isaac Sharpless, William F. Slocum, Dan Smiley, F.H. Strawbridge, Joseph Swain, Edwin Warfield, H. St. G. Tucker.

Executive Committee.

W.H. Mann, John B. Clark, J.M. Dickinson, Austen G. Fox, Henry C. Morris, Leo S. Rowe, Oscar S. Straus, Thomas R. White, Hamilton Holt, Theodore Marburg, W.B. Howland, John H. Hammond, W.H. Short, A.L. Lowell, John A. Stewart, William H. Taft.

German-American Dissent

By Hugo Muensterberg.

The subjoined letter from Hugo Muensterberg, Professor of
Psychology at Harvard University, is addressed to Augustus
J. Cadwalader, Secretary of the National Provisional
Committee for the League to Enforce Peace.

Clifton, Mass., June 9, 1915.

Dear Sir: I beg to express my thanks for the courtesy of the invitation to attend the conference of the League of Peace in Independence Hall under the Presidency of the Hon. W.H. Taft. I feel myself, of course, in deepest sympathy with the spirit of justice and peacefulness which has suggested the foundation of such a league. Nevertheless, I beg to be excused from attendance, as I am convinced that this time of international excitement and prejudice is unfit for the crystallization of new forms for the common life of the nations.

I venture, however, to add that I feel in any case grave doubts of the value of any plans which aim to secure future peace by the traditional type of agreements and treaties. We live in the midst of a war in which one belligerent nation after another has felt obliged to disregard treaties and to interpret agreements in a one sided way. Only yesterday Italy, without any reason of vital necessity, annulled an agreement and a treaty which had appeared the firmest in European politics, and which yet failed in the first hour of clashing interests. A psychologist has no right to expect that the national temper of the future will be different.

Moreover, the Supreme Court of the United States has sanctioned the idea, which is shared practically by all nations, that treaties are no longer binding when a situation has changed so that the fulfillment of the agreement would be against the vital interests of the nation. We have learned during the last ten months how easily such disburdening changes can be discovered as soon as the national passions are awakened.

The new plan depends upon only one new feature by which the mutual agreement is to be fortified against the demands of national excitement. The plan of the League of Peace promises the joint use of military forces in case that one nation is unwilling to yield. But the world witnesses today the clear proof that even the greatest combination of fighting forces may be unable to subdue by mere number a nation which is ready to make any sacrifice for its convictions. One hundred and fifty millions are attacked by eight hundred and fifty millions, by joint forces from five continents, which moreover are backed by the economic forces of the richest country in the world; and yet after ten months of fighting one million prisoners, but no other hostile soldiers, stand on German soil. After this practical example the plan merely to join the military forces will less than ever appear a convincing argument in an hour in which a nation feels its existence or its honor threatened. For a long time we heard the claim that the Socialists and the bankers would now make great wars impossible; both prophecies have failed. The threat that the warring nation will have to face the world in arms will be no less futile. But the failure in this case will be disastrous, as the terms of such an agreement would draw many nations into the whirlpool which would have no reason of their own for entering the war.

The interests of strong growing nations will lead in the future as in the past to conflicts in which both sides are morally in the right and in which one must yield. We have no right to hope that after this war the nations will be more willing to give up their chances in such conflicts without having appealed to force. On the contrary, the world has now become accustomed to war and will therefore more easily return to the trenches. The break between England and Russia and finally the threatening cloud of world conflict between Occident and Orient can already be seen on the horizon; the battles of today may be only the preamble. In such tremendous hours the new-fashioned agreements would be cobwebs which surely could not bind the arms of any energetic nation.

But, worst of all, they would not only be ineffective--they would awake a treacherous confidence. The nations would deceive themselves with a feeling of safety, while all true protection would be lacking. The first step forward toward our common goal must be to learn the two lessons of the war of today and to face them unflinchingly; mere agreements do not and can not bind any nation on the globe in an hour of vital need, and the mere joining of forces widens and protracts a war, but does not hinder it. We must learn that success for peace endeavors can be secured only from efforts to avert war which are fundamentally different from the old patterns of pledges and threats. These old means were negative; we need positive ones.

If a psychologist can contribute anything to the progress of mankind, he must, first of all, offer the advice not to rely on plans by which the attention is focused on the disasters which are to be avoided. Education by forbidding the wrong action instead of awaking the impulses toward the right one is as unpromising for peoples as it is for individuals. We must truly build up from within. But a time in which the war news of every hour appeals to sympathies and antipathies is hardly the time to begin this sacred work, which alone could bring us the blessed age of our vision, the United States of the World.

HUGO MUENSTERBERG.

Chant of Loyalty.

By ELIAS LIEBERMAN.

Firm as the furnace heat
Rivets the bars of steel,
Thus to thy destiny,
Flag, are we plighted;
One are the hearts that beat,
One is the throb we feel,
One in our loyalty,
Stand we united.

Many a folk have brought
Sinew and brawn to thee;
Many an ancient wrong
Well hast thou righted;
Here in the land we sought,
Stanchly, from sea to sea,
Here, where our hearts belong,
Stand we united.

Ask us to pay the price,
All that we have to give,
Nothing shall be denied,
All be requited;
Ready for sacrifice,
Ready for thee to live,
Over the country wide,
Stand we united.

One under palm and pine,
One in the prairie sun,
One on the rock-bound shore,
Liberty-sighted;
All that we have is thine,
Thine, who hast made us one,
True to thee evermore,
Stand we united.

American Munition Supplies

The Alleged German Plot to Buy Control of Their Sources

_The following dispatch from Washington, dated June 8, 1915, appeared in The Chicago Herald:_

President Wilson and his Cabinet considered today the known fact that German interests, reported backed by the German Government, are negotiating for the purchase of the great gun and munition of war plants in this country.

Secretary McAdoo of the Treasury laid the matter before the Cabinet. He had information from Secret Service agents of the Government who have been following these German activities for some weeks. It is reported today, confirming The Herald dispatch of last night, that the plants for which negotiations are on include that of Charles M. Schwab at Bethlehem, Penn.; the Remington small arms works at Hartford, Conn., and the Cramp works at Philadelphia, which, it is said, Schwab is about to acquire; the Metallic Cartridge Company, the Remington Company, and other munition and small arms works.

Included in the Schwab plant holdings are the Fore River Shipbuilding Company, Massachusetts, and the Union Iron Works, San Francisco, where it is reported parts of submarines are being made for English contract, shipment being made through Canada.

This new move of the Germans involves the outlay of hundreds of millions, a gigantic financial operation in the face of war needs and conditions. It is one of the most sensational developments of the present conflict in connection with the United States. Its consummation inevitably would lead this country into serious disagreement, if not conflict, with Great Britain and the Allies.

The latter will demand the fulfillment of their contracts with these concerns. The German move is to prevent this delivery of munitions of war. With the consummation of the purchases, the German owners could refuse to fill these contracts. They will not fear suits for broken contracts.

The whole matter is fraught with such possibilities of danger to this country that Attorney General Gregory and the experts of the Department of Justice have taken up the question with a view to interposing legal obstacles. It may become necessary, it was suggested today, to prevent such a sale on the grounds of public welfare because of strained relations with Germany.

Secretary McAdoo will not disclose who are the agents for the German interests seeking to purchase the munitions plants, or who are the financial backers. The Secret Service men are believed to know these details, having been on the investigation for three weeks. Rich Germans in the United States are believed to be interested.

Charles M. Schwab, head of the Bethlehem Company, came here two weeks ago in response to an urgent summons. He saw Secretary McAdoo, Secretary Daniels, and other officials. At that time it was given out that he was conferring as to details of supplies to be furnished this Government under contracts for new warship construction about to be awarded. It is now understood that Secretary McAdoo sought information as to the negotiations under way at that time for the purchase of the munitions plants in this country by the German interests.

The report of Secretary McAdoo today stirred the Cabinet as deeply almost as the resignation of Secretary of State Bryan. Complete reports were asked and the Secret Service arm of the Government will be required to furnish immediately more complete and detailed information.

_Of the efforts to obtain control of the munitions companies, The Providence Journal of June 9, 1915, reported:_

Acting under the personal instructions of the German Ambassador, several German bankers of New York have been working together for the last week on preliminary negotiations for the purchase of every large plant they can lay their hands on which is now engaged in turning out munitions of war for the Allies.

Count von Bernstorff, Dr. Dernburg, and two well-known German bankers held a conference at the German Embassy in Washington on Tuesday, June 1. At that conference the Ambassador outlined in detail instructions he had received the day before from Berlin to proceed with this propaganda, and he declared to the three men there present that his Government considered the success of the plan as of vital importance, superseding every other phase of the war situation.

The bankers at once returned to New York, and at a meeting next day with Captain Boy-Ed and several other men at the German Club outlined their plan of campaign.

For months past the German Ambassador has been in possession of a list of factories all over the country engaged in turning out munitions of war for the Allies. Last Saturday a concerted movement was begun toward securing a majority control of many of these plants.

When one of the bankers at the conference in Washington asked the Ambassador if he had any conception of the magnitude of the financial problems involved in the scheme he replied that his Government was fully prepared to pay everything necessary, and repeated that the fate of the empire might rest on the success or failure of the plan. He then added these words:

"There is no limit, gentlemen, to the amount of money available."

The activities of the representatives of Count von Bernstorff in this matter have already brought them up to the point of negotiation, or attempted negotiation, with the Fore River Shipbuilding Company, the Remington Arms Company, the Bethlehem Steel Company, and the Union Metallic Cartridge Company.

Government officials, when notified of this new propaganda yesterday, were a unit in declaring it was impossible to believe that such a scheme could be carried through successfully. In the first place, they pointed out that activity of this kind would be a direct violation of the Sherman act, and, secondly, a case of conspiracy would lie against individuals attempting such a movement for wholesale violation of contracts, which would become necessary in order to carry the plan to its successful conclusion.

The moment the German agents in New York began to disclose their purpose, several cunning individuals who have had some slight connection with the contracts for supplying the Allies with various materials have deliberately put themselves in the path of these agents under the pretext that they already had contracts, or were about to be given contracts, and have already mulcted the German Government of many thousands of dollars.

In two specific cases men have talked of having contracts for picric acid--the manufacture of which necessitates the most skilled training, with most expensive and complicated machinery, and which is only being attempted in four places in this country, and were promptly paid off, on their pledge that they would violate these alleged agreements. One of these deals was made in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel last Saturday.

Another case, which is fully authenticated, is that of a Western dealer in horses, who delivered 1,500 horses to the port of New Orleans for the British Government last January. As soon as he ascertained what the German agents were doing, he produced his receipt for delivery of his first and only order, and declared he was now searching for 5,000 horses, in addition, for the British Government. On his pledge to abandon this search, he was given $2,500 by German agents.

The keen anxiety of the German Government, acting through the embassy in Washington, to deprive the Allies of any shipments of war materials that they can possibly stop is based on the result of calculations made in Berlin and forwarded to this country two weeks ago, which profess to show that the Allies cannot possibly arm their increasing forces or secure ammunition for their great numbers of large guns from their own resources, and that they must have the help of this country in order to accomplish their purpose. The German representatives also thoroughly believe that without this assistance the Allies cannot continue and complete an aggressive campaign, driving the Kaiser's armies out of Belgium and France.

_In_ THE NEW YORK TIMES _of June 9, 1915, appeared the following statement of counter-negotiations to checkmate the German operators in America:_

Negotiations for the purchase of arms and ammunition manufactories in this country have been under way for some little time, it is asserted, but so quietly have they been conducted that no hint of them became public until yesterday. Yet, coincident with their disclosure, came yesterday, also, announcement of a contract for the manufacture for the Allies of shrapnel and high explosive shells on the greatest scale yet undertaken by an American corporation, which revealed as could nothing else how carefully these supposedly secret dealings had been discovered, watched, and checkmated by the Allies.

This contract, all but the smallest details of which are said to be settled, is to be taken by the General Electric Company, directors of which admitted that the total involved would be at least $100,000,000 and might run far in excess of this figure. In fact, the order was spoken of as limited more by the capacity of the General Electric's plants than by any restricting order of the Allies.

The significance of this contract does not lie wholly, or even chiefly, in its size, for the American Locomotive Company recently closed a $65,000,000 contract with the Allies for shells. What is considered of especial note is that less than a week ago an official of the General Electric stated emphatically that his company had not taken any orders and was not negotiating for any despite the fact that for some time a proposal to specialize in war orders had been under consideration. Less than a week ago the company had reached a negative decision and less than a week ago there was no reason to suppose that it would rescind this decision.

J.P. Morgan & Co., fiscal agents for Great Britain and France in the matter of war supplies, then entered the field. Charles Steele, a partner in the banking house, is a Director of the General Electric Company and negotiations went forward rapidly. These were conducted with a secrecy which exceeded that even of the German interests with the other arms and ammunition companies, but there are several factors which, it is known, were of prime importance in effecting the General Electric's change of policy.

In the past much valuable time has been lost in the distribution of orders among a score or so of concerns which have had facilities for making shells, ordnance, and so forth. Competitive bidding for parts of contracts has held back the finished product and successful bidders have frequently been handicapped by inability to obtain necessary machinery.

Now plans for accelerating manufacture in all war lines have been launched by David Lloyd George, the new British Minister of Munitions, and in the shadow of his influence J.P. Morgan & Co. have practically brought to a conclusion plans to centre future war orders in a few great companies, with the General Electric Company as the dominant unit.

The extent to which the banking house used its tremendous influence is problematical, but it is history that Mr. Lloyd George has been bringing all pressure to bear to increase England's supplies, and with them the supplies of the remaining allies, since British purchasing agents are, to a large extent, looking after the interests of France and Russia, and it may be inferred that the Morgan firm has been as active as possible in carrying out the wishes of the European nations.

Persons in touch with the progress being made in war orders state that the British authorities have become greatly concerned over their supplies of ammunition at hand and in process of manufacture. While orders aggregating many hundreds of millions of dollars have been placed in this country and Canada, deliveries have been disappointing. Canadian plants got to work early in the war, but the delay in ordering supplies in the United States and other neutral countries has seriously affected the efficiency of the allied armies in France and Poland, it is said.

The experience of the American Locomotive Company is typical of the situation. After negotiations which covered several weeks, the company procured a contract which is said to amount to approximately $65,000,000 for shells. During the discussion of terms, and even before, the Locomotive officials were busy buying the necessary lathes and other machinery, but installation of equipment and the training of men could not be done in a few days. The contract was definitely closed six weeks ago, but the company has only begun to turn out the shells at its Richmond plant, and it was said in authoritative quarters that several weeks more would pass before anything like a substantial output would be possible.

The centring of manufacture in a single, or a few, great plants carries the additional and chief advantage to Great Britain and the Allies, that no efforts of Germany can now cut off their ammunition supply. The stoppage of this supply has been one of Germany's chief concerns since the war began, and by embargo propaganda here and by the attempt to create sentiment she has tried to cut down the supplies reaching the Allies from this country.

Well-founded gossip in Wall Street has had it that early rises in the stocks of munition-making concerns were occasioned not so much by the acquisition of war orders as by efforts of German agents quietly to buy up control of these companies in the open market. These devices failing, it is said, orders for ammunition and other supplies have been placed by Germany with no hope of receiving the goods, but merely to clog the channels against the Allies. With the General Electric and other co-operating companies pledged to the Allies this danger will cease to exist.

The concerns selected to join with the General Electric for what will thus amount practically to a combination of resources for rapid manufacture will be those whose equipment, with a few alterations, can be adapted to the new work.

The General Electric Company, according to a Director, is in a position to begin turning out shells at a high daily rate, and, under present plans, the company will not sublet any of the $100,000,000 order. There are facilities available in the plants at Schenectady, Lynn, Harrison, Pittsfield, and Fort Wayne to carry on the work rapidly and without interfering with the ordinary electrical manufacture now being conducted.

Wall Street offered one of the first evidences that things of moment were occurring in the war supply situation. Bethlehem Steel shot forward 10 points, to 165, a new high record, although Mr. Schwab's company was not mentioned in connection with fresh contracts.

It is believed that when the proposed concentration of munition making occurs the Bethlehem Steel Corporation and other companies which already have booked sufficient contracts to keep them busy for some time will not be included.

Stock of the Studebaker Corporation was in large demand as the result of reports that about $7,000,000 of additional war orders had been taken for artillery wheels, motor trucks, and harness. Tennessee Copper shares were strong after it became known definitely that the concern had arranged with the du Pont Powder Company for an increased monthly supply of sulphuric acid. Toward the close of business stocks generally reacted, being influenced by the desire of many traders to keep out of the market until the tenor of President Wilson's note to Germany was known.

But despite the many physical manifestations of unusual activity, officers and Directors of the companies mentioned as those on which Germany had set her eyes were uniformly non-committal when they did not positively deny that there was truth in the story.

William J. Bruff, who is President of the Union Metallic Cartridge Company and a Director of the Remington Arms and Ammunition Company, said:

"I don't think there is any truth in it. Yes, I am certain that no offer of any kind has been made by Germany to buy the two companies. I would know if such offers had been made and I haven't heard of them, except such reports as I have read in the newspapers."

Henry Bronner, a Director of the Bethlehem Steel Company, said:

"I have not heard that Germany or any one else has offered to buy the Bethlehem Steel Company. If such an offer were made, Charles M. Schwab would be the man who would know it."

THE NEW YORK TIMES _of June 10, 1915, included this report of Charles M. Schwab's purposes with respect to the control of the Bethlehem Steel Company:_

There is not the least danger of German interests getting control of the Bethlehem Steel Company and breaking the concern's contracts with the British for arms and ammunition, it was made known yesterday from an authoritative source. This same authority had no information that, as alleged by The Chicago Herald and The Providence Journal, and quoted in THE NEW YORK TIMES yesterday, the same interests were seeking to obtain control of other companies.

What blocks the attempts of the German agents, in the case of the Bethlehem Steel Company, for one thing, is that the majority of the stock of the concern is not in the market. Contrary to rumors that have lately been floating about hotel corridors and into and out of the brokers' offices adjacent to them, Charles M. Schwab still owns the majority of stock. This much Mr. Schwab emphatically confirmed to a TIMES reporter yesterday at the St. Regis. That he had no intention of selling he asserted just as emphatically.

At the same time the information is authoritative that agents representing the German Government or German interests have approached Mr. Schwab, not once, but several times, since the beginning of the war, asking that negotiations be opened. It has been intimated that interests, private or Governmental, were willing to pay any price that Mr. Schwab would name for his controlling interest.

Figures running into scores of millions have been named in offers, it being the understanding that the prospective owners simply wished to buy the big plant--the only one in the world that now compares with that of the Krupps, with the possible exception of that of the Schneiders at Creusot--and shut it up, in order to stop the vast sales of munitions of war to the Allies, and the filling of contracts so big that their delivery has hardly begun. Mr. Schwab, it is understood, could get today $100,000,000 or more for his stock in the Bethlehem Company.

It was established yesterday that more or less directly the visit of Mr. Schwab to England last Fall, on the Olympic, was due to the activity of German agents in this country in their efforts to buy the Bethlehem Steel Company.

Word of the attempts of the German agents to obtain control of the Bethlehem Company soon found its way to England, and the result was that Mr. Schwab was invited to London for a special conference with the War Office. He renewed his acquaintance with Lord Kitchener, and his previously formed intention not to sell out was fortified with a guarantee of orders large enough to keep the big plant at Bethlehem going steadily for eighteen months or more.

When rumors were prevalent about New York that the visit of Sir Trevor Dawson, head of a great English steel concern, had as its object an attempt to obtain control of the Bethlehem Company so as to insure that it would continue turning out supplies for the Allies, the German agents here were making a strong bid for the control of the concern, and their efforts have since continued.

A TIMES reporter put to Mr. Schwab yesterday the direct question as to whether he was in actual control of the Bethlehem Steel Company.

"Absolutely," he said. "The only way anybody else could obtain control would be to get my interest. I would never sell my interest without making for the men who stood by me with their support when I was struggling to put the Bethlehem Company where it is today the same terms that would be offered for my share. As a matter of fact, my interest in the Bethlehem Company is not for sale. Indeed, I could not sell. I have contracts that I cannot break."

It was said yesterday that the Germans had been trying to conduct their negotiations for the Bethlehem Company in much the same fashion as they recently had employed in their diplomatic negotiations, and that if they had been successful in getting the Bethlehem Company they would have found themselves with contracts on their hands which they would have had to carry out. The mere closing of the plant and the refusal to continue the further manufacture and delivery of munitions of war already contracted for would not save them from a situation which would be the equivalent of jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

Not only the courts would be promptly invoked to see that legal contracts were carried out, but, if necessary, the Federal Government could step in and insist that the manufacture and delivery of supplies contracted for be continued, in order to prevent a breach of neutrality. Then would be presented the spectacle of German interests turning out vast quantities of guns, shells, and shrapnel to be sent to Europe to be used in fighting their own troops.

According to the authority already mentioned, the Bethlehem Steel Company is the only plant in the United States that can turn out shrapnel shell complete. Most of the contracts that have been given here have been taken for various parts of the ammunition by different firms. One thing necessary for the turning out of shrapnel and shells is a twelve-mile proving ground, and the only privately owned range of the kind in this country is that of the Bethlehem Company.

Mr. Schwab has insisted to his friends who have questioned him about the rise in Bethlehem stock that the only valid reason, aside from whatever might be the intrinsic value of the property, is the tremendous war orders that have been obtained. On this account, as well as on account of his knowledge that the majority of the stock was safe in his possession, he was able to enjoy his trip to the Pacific Coast regardless of rumors at one time prevalent that a big market operator, who was supposed to retain an ancient grudge against him, was trying to wrest from him the control of the company he had built up.

A League for Preparedness

By Theodore Roosevelt, ex-President of the United States,

and

George L. von Meyer, ex-Secretary of the Navy.

It was ascertained in Washington on June 1, 1915, that the
Atlantic battleship fleet would remain in Atlantic Ocean
waters indefinitely. The plan to send the fleet through the
canal in July for participation in the Panama-Pacific
Exposition at San Francisco had been abandoned, and Admiral
Fletcher's ships would not cross the Isthmus this year. The
decision to hold the fleet in Atlantic waters is predicated
on two principle factors. These are: First, there
undoubtedly will be another great slide in Culebra Cut in
the Panama Canal some time this Summer, and it would be
considered highly undesirable to have the fleet on the
Pacific Coast with such a slide interposed between Admiral
Fletcher's vessels and the Atlantic waters. Second, the
general situation of American foreign affairs growing out of
relations with Germany is such that it is considered unwise
to send the fleet to the west coast and leave the Atlantic
Coast unguarded. This is the extent, at present, of national
preparation against war.

The Peace and Preparation Conference, called in the name of
the National Security League to discuss the military needs
of the nation, began on the evening of June 14, 1915, with
the opening to the public of the Army and Navy Exhibit in
the Hotel Astor, where there were to be seen numerous
placards which gave in figures and words information as to
the situation of the United States so far as military
preparedness is concerned.

General Luke E. Wright of Memphis, who was Secretary of War
the latter part of the second Roosevelt Administration, was
among the visitors to the conference, and said he was in
thorough sympathy with the aims of the National Security
League. In his opinion the American first line of defense,
to be immediately available for service, should be at least
300,000 men.

An audience composed of nearly as many women as men heard in
Carnegie Hall, on the evening of June 15, the arguments of
Alton B. Parker, Dr. Lyman Abbott, Henry L. Stimson,
ex-Secretary of War; Charles J. Bonaparte, ex-Attorney
General, and Jacob M. Dickinson, ex-Secretary of War,
advocating immediate increases in the army and navy as the
best safeguard against war. Ex-Judge Parker, who was
Chairman of the meeting, struck the keynote of the
conference in these words:

"We want to arouse the people of the United States from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, to the end that they shall let
Congress know that they have made up their minds to spend a
little of that $187,000,000,000 of which we boast in order
that our wives and our children and our grandchildren shall
not be visited with the calamity which has befallen
Belgium."

Two features of the conference were the reading of a letter
to Hudson Maxim from ex-President Theodore Roosevelt and a
speech on naval unpreparedness by George von L. Meyer,
ex-Secretary of the Navy. The speech is reproduced below in
part, and the letter from Mr. Roosevelt in full, together
with the resolution of the conference.

MR. ROOSEVELT'S LETTER.

My Dear Mr. Maxim:

I thank you heartily for your book on "Defenseless America." It is a capital book and I believe it is safe to say that no wise and patriotic American can fail to recognize the service that you have rendered in writing it. I hope it will have the widest possible circulation throughout our country.

I was glad to see the first-class letters that have been written you by such good Americans as Oscar Straus, Garrett P. Serviss, Rear Admiral W.W. Kimball, C.P. Gray, Holman Day, and the others. On the other hand, I was saddened by the extraordinary letter sent you by the three young men who purported to speak for the senior class of the college of which they are members. The course of conduct which these men and those like them advocate for the nation would, of course, not only mean a peculiar craven avoidance of national duty by our people at this time, but would also inevitably tend permanently to encourage the spirit of individual cowardice no less than of national cowardice.

The professional pacifists, the professional peace-at-any-price men, who during the last five years have been so active, who have pushed the mischievous all-arbitration treaties at Washington, who have condoned our criminal inactivity as regards Mexico and, above all, as regards the questions raised by the great world war now raging, and who have applauded our abject failure to live up to the obligations imposed upon us as a signatory power of The Hague Convention, are, at best, an unlovely body of men, and taken as a whole are probably the most undesirable citizens that this country contains.

But it is less shocking to see such sentiments developed among old men than among young men. The college students who organize or join these peace-at-any-price leagues are engaged, according to their feeble abilities, in cultivating a standard of manhood which, if logically applied, would make them desire to "arbitrate" with any tough individual who slapped the sister or sweetheart of one of them in the face.

Well-meaning people, as we all know, sometimes advocate a course of action which is infamous; and, as was proved by the great Copperhead Party fifty years ago, there are always some brave men to be found condoning or advocating deeds of national cowardice. But the fact remains that the advocates of pacifism who have been most prominent in our country during the past five years have been preaching poltroonery.

Such preaching, if persevered in long enough, softens the fibre of any nation, and, above all, of those preaching it; and if it is reduced to practice it is ruinous to national character. These men have been doing their best to make us the China of the Occident, and the college students, such as those of whom you speak, have already reached a level considerably below that to which the higher type of Chinaman has now struggled on his upward path.

On the whole, for the nation as for the individual, the most contemptible of all sins is the sin of cowardice; and while there are other sins as base there are none baser. The prime duty for this nation is to prepare itself so that it can protect itself--and this is the duty that you are preaching in your admirable volume. It is only when this duty has been accomplished that we shall be able to perform the further duty of helping the cause of the world righteousness by backing the cause of the international peace of justice (the only kind of peace worth having) not merely by words but by deeds.

A peace conference such as that which some of our countrymen propose at the moment to hold is purely noxious, until as a preliminary we put ourselves in such shape that what we say will excite the respect and not the derision of foreign nations; and, furthermore, until we have by practical action shown that we are heartily ashamed of ourselves for our craven abandonment of duty in not daring to say a word when The Hague Conventions were ruthlessly violated before our eyes.

Righteousness must be put before peace, and peace must be recognized as of value only when it is the hand-maiden of justice. The doctrine of national or individual neutrality between right and wrong is an ignoble doctrine, unworthy the support of any brave or honorable man. It is wicked to be neutral between right and wrong, and this statement can be successfully refuted only by men who are prepared to hold up Pontius Pilate, the arch-typical neutral of all time, as worthy of our admiration.

An ignoble peace may be the worst crime against humanity, and righteous war may represent the greatest service a nation can at a given moment render to itself and to mankind.

Our people also need to come to their senses about the manufacture and sale of arms and ammunition. Of course, the same moral law applies here between nations as between individuals within a nation. There is not the slightest difference between selling ammunition in time of war and in time of peace, because when sold in time of peace it is only sold with a view to possibility or likelihood of war. It should never be sold to people who will make bad use of it, and it should be freely sold at all times to those who will use it for a proper purpose.

It is absolutely essential that we should have stores where citizens of a nation can buy arms and ammunition. It is a service to good citizenship to sell a revolver to an honest householder for use against burglars or to a policeman for use against "gunmen." It is an outrage against humanity knowingly to sell such a revolver to a burglar or a "gunman." The morality of the sale depends upon the purpose and the probable use. This is true among individuals. It is no less true among nations.

I am speaking of the moral right. Our legal right to sell ammunition to the Allies is, of course, perfect, just as Germany, the greatest trader in ammunition to other nations in the past, had an entire legal right to sell guns and ammunition to Turkey, for instance. But, in addition to our legal right to sell ammunition to those engaged in trying to restore Belgium to her own people, it is also our moral duty to do so, precisely as it is a moral duty to sell arms to policemen for use against "gunmen."

Wishing you all possible success, I am, faithfully yours,

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

Hudson Maxim, Esq., Lansing, N.J.

MR. MEYER'S SPEECH.

_The National Security League brought its two-day Peace and Preparation Conference to a close on June 15, 1915, with a luncheon in the Hotel Astor at which more than 1,000 men and women listened to George von L. Meyer, ex-Secretary of the Navy, as he announced that the navy of the United States was utterly unfit for war with any first-class nation. Mr. Meyer was interrupted many times by applause, and the loudest outburst came when he placed the blame for what he termed the present demoralized state of the navy squarely up to Secretary Josephus Daniels. He said, in part:_

In calling attention to these defects I have not done so from a desire to criticise the present head of the navy, although I do believe that he is responsible for the demoralized condition of the personnel and the decreased efficiency of the navy.

_In advancing his argument for a greater navy Mr. Meyer contended that such a step would be the best safeguard against war. He asserted that we would have had no war with Spain in 1908 if we had had four more ships like the Oregon. With such a powerful fighting force, he argued, no nation at that time would have dared to meet us. Spain would have yielded without a fight, and this country would have saved $500,000,000. He continued:_

The only attack we need consider is an attack from some great naval power, and for that reason we need an adequate navy because it tends toward peace, because it discourages attack and serves the best interests of the country, while an inadequate navy is a vast expense to the country and does not serve as a protection.

Of the thirty-five battleships that we have today only twenty-one are in commission and ready for emergency. Of those twenty-one, three have broken shafts, and the fourth is a turbine battleship which was put out of commission because it needs to be thoroughly overhauled. In addition to that, there are seventy fighting vessels which are not ready to be called upon for an emergency because they are out of commission and would require a long overhauling. We lack battle cruisers, scout cruisers, aeroplanes, and armed airships.

Our submarine fleet is in a critical condition. The complement of torpedo vessels has been reduced from 15 to 25 per cent. to get men to commission new boats. This reduction in personnel is a serious handicap, reduces the efficiency of the destroyers, affects contentment, and prevents the boats being kept in good condition. The Atlantic fleet needs 5,000 men, according to the evidence of the Commander in Chief of that fleet. The reserve fleet at Philadelphia was largely depleted in order to get a new crew for the Alabama when she was ordered to Hampton Roads to enforce neutrality; and the naval force of Hampton Roads was a pitifully weak one: One small submarine, one little torpedo destroyer diverted from Annapolis, and one reserve battleship, of which the fleet in Philadelphia had been robbed in order to put her in commission.

The review in New York this year was a poor imitation of previous reviews, in that the reserve fleet was absent. It was a mere parade, not a mobilization. It did not indicate the true condition of the fleet, because the people did not know the whole truth. For lack of men, ships are laid up in navy yards, where they rapidly deteriorate, like a vacant house.

All small ships and all cruisers now laid up for lack of men are needed in Mexico and elsewhere, and should be ready for an emergency call. The complement of enlisted men at shore stations and training stations has been kept down, with a decided loss of efficiency and greatly to the discontent and discomfort of the men. A navy with an insufficient and disgruntled personnel cannot be efficient, and its morale must necessarily be disastrously affected.

_It would take 18,000 men in order to put the vessels that are fit for war service into commission, Mr. Meyer asserted. Congress was to blame for not having established a national council of defense, a general staff, and a national reserve of 50,000 efficient men. He added:_

It is the lack of any definite naval policy and the failure of Congress to recognize the necessity for such a policy that has placed us in a position of inferiority, which may lead us to war or cause us great embarrassment as well as discredit to the country.

_Mr. Meyer urged an investigation by Congress of our national defense, to the end that a comprehensive plan should be adopted for the future. He declared further:_

This investigation has been denied to the people by the leaders of the party in power, and it is deplorable that there should be an attempt to deceive the people in a matter of such vital importance.

OFFICIAL RESOLUTION.

_Here is the resolution of the league, which was later ratified by the official delegates and forwarded to the White House at Washington:_

Whereas, The events of the past year have demonstrated the fact that war, no matter how greatly it may be deplored, may suddenly and unexpectedly occur, notwithstanding the existence of treaties of peace and amity, and have also shown that nations who were unprepared have paid and are paying the price of their lack of foresight;

And, Whereas, The reports of our military and naval experts have made clear that the defensive forces of the country are inadequate for the proper protection of our coasts and to enable our Government to maintain its accepted policies and to fulfill its obligations to other States, and to exert in the adjustment of international questions the influence in which the Republic is entitled;

Therefore, be it Resolved

That we appeal to the President, if consistent with the public interest, to call the early attention of Congress to the pressing need of prompt and efficient action so that the resources of our great country can be utilized for the proper defense of the Republic;

And, Resolved, That the National Security League, under whose auspices this Peace and Preparation Conference has been held, be urged to continue the work which it has already undertaken, of bringing the American people to a full realization of our deplorable state of unpreparedness and of the necessity of action by Congress.

Przemysl and Lemberg

German Reports of Mackensen's Victorious Thrust in Galicia

Przemysl fell to the German arms on June 3, 1915, ten weeks
after the Russians had captured the fortress and its
Austrian garrison following a six months' investment. The
campaign which meant as its first result the recapture of
this great fortress of nineteen modern forts and sixteen
field fortifications, with innumerable trenches, was
continued by the renewal of the "thrust" of General von
Mackensen toward Lemberg, the capital of Galicia.
Semi-official figures published in Berlin estimated the
Russian losses from May 1 to June 18, when the victorious
German armies were approaching the gates of Lemberg, at
400,000 dead and wounded and 300,000 prisoners, besides
100,000 lost before Field Marshal von Hindenburg's forces in
Poland and Courland. On June 22 Berlin reported five
Austro-German armies shelling the last lines of the Russian
defenses before Lemberg, which fell on June 23.

The admitted weakness of Russia in this campaign was the
exhaustion of her ammunition supplies. The intent of the
German thrust was to drive the Russians far back and
establish easily defended positions from which the Germans
might detach forces for operations against Italy and the
Allies in the west. Political consequences, also, were
expected from German success in Galicia in deterring
Bulgaria and Rumania from entering the war.

On June 21 advices reaching Tokio from Vladivostok indicated
that heavy shipments of munitions of war intended for use by
Russia's armies had arrived at that seaport, in such
quantities that facilities were lacking to forward them by
rail through Siberia.

THE WEST GALICIAN "DRIVE."

(Wolff Telegraphic Bureau, Berlin, May 6, 1915.)

_From the Great Headquarters we have received the following in regard to the "drive" in West Galicia:_

To the complete surprise of the enemy, large movements of troops into West Galicia had been completed by the end of April. These troops, subject to the orders of General von Mackensen, had been assigned the task in conjunction with the neighboring armies of our Austrian ally of breaking through the Russian front between the crest of the Carpathians and the middle Dunajee. It was a new problem and no easy undertaking. The heavens granted our troops wonderful sunshine and dry roads. Thus fliers and artillery could come into full activity and the difficulties of the terrain, which here has the character of the approaches of the German Alps, or the Hörsal hills in Thuringia, could be overcome. At several points ammunition had to be transported amid the greatest hardships on pack animals and the marching columns and batteries had to be moved forward over corduroy roads, (artificial roads made of logs.) All the accumulation of information and preparations necessary for breaking through the enemy's line had been quietly and secretly accomplished. On the first of May in the afternoon the artillery began its fire on the Russian positions. These in some five months had been perfected according to all the rules of the art of fortification. In stories they lay one over the other along the steep heights, whose slopes had been furnished with obstacles. At some points of special importance to the Russians they consisted of as many as seven rows of trenches, one behind the other. The works were very skillfully placed, and were adopted to flanking one another. The infantry of the allied [Teutonic] troops in the nights preceding the attack had pushed forward closer to the enemy and had assumed positions in readiness for the forward rush. In the night from May 1 to 2 the artillery fired in slow rhythm at the enemy's positions. Pauses in the fire served the pioneers for cutting the wire entanglements. On the 2d of May at 6 A.M. an overwhelming artillery fire, including field guns and running up to the heaviest calibres, was begun on the front many miles in extent selected for the effort to break through. This was maintained unbroken for four hours.

Who Commanded the Victorious Teutonic Forces Against the Russians in the Southeast]