New Britain Herald Newspaper, January 4, 1919, Page 8

:hem the poimt In reference oM dlom of the seas.” Secretary nsing in o noté'to the Swiss Min- e, for .transmission to Germany. s dd: “They (the Allled Governments) fust point out, however, that Clause hat is usually de- scribed as the freedom of the seas, is ‘open to various interpretations, somws § of which they could not accept. They f must, thercfore, reserve to themselves complete freedom on this subject when they enter the peace confcrence.” Ger- many subscribed to this modification and acquiesced in the various demands umistice, umong them th stip- ulation that every U-boat be surren- dered to the victorious arms of democ In the Court of Public Opinion Just 11 happen to the U boai at the peace conference is a con jectural matter upon which no one can conclusive umption By essions of public opinion in various courts and market places of the world it is certain that were the submarine an instrument of war- fare placed on trial before the moral court of the world at the present time it would be coidemned forever to oblivion as a “piratical weapon of in famous and fllegitimate warfare.” By the women and children who perished miserably on the Lusitania; by the thousands of noncombatants who have gone down to death in helpless mer- chant ships; by the Red Cross nurses and countless wounded who were trapped and overwhelmed in torpedoed hospital ships; by all the Grand Jury of horror-stricken humanity the world over who have looked on aghast these last four years at the depredations of Germany's ruthless U-boat flects, the submarine has been indicted of foul murder in the first degree. Whether it is to expiate by extinction the crimes committed in its name by Ger many—the outlaw who brandished a “stolen” weapon in fiendish carnival without the pale of international law— s a verdict yet to be rendered. Whether it will be so rendered is a question now before the court. Fighting the U-boat and the cow ardly beast cunningly concealed within its sheer coat of steel has so engrossed civilization that the ques of th future status of this instrument of warfare has of necessity been deferred. Now, with the time of reckoning at hend, a great towering interrogation point emerges from the thin mists of the sea at the bow of the submarine; upon fits slippery decks and evil-eyed periscopes s cast this shadow of the impending inquisition, reflected full and free upon the culprit by the mearching sun of a reclaimed civiliza- tion. Already it has been decreed that Germany must pay, and pay to the ut- ‘most, for the diabolical carnage engi- neered from the turrets of the U-boats and from the chambers of the German Admiralty, where ‘“unrestricted war- fare” was ordered by the arch-villains of the world. The case of the sub- marine vs. the world is about to be called. Freedom of the Seas Freedom of the seas, as interpreted by Woodrow Wilson, ILloyd George, Clemenceau and other spokesmen for democracy, may mean the elimination of the submarine as an offensive weapon. By all the damning evidence piled against it, it may be ruled from the seas—tabooed—either as an inter national policeman or as a defensive unit to be utilized in guairding coast lines and harbors. Already the admin- istration of President Woodrow Wil son, through the head of the Ameri- can Admiralty, has placed itself on record in this particular. Josephus Daniels. Secretary of the Navy, had this to say about the future of the submarine to the writer in a Washing ton interview last spring: “No doubt the inventor of the sub- marine thought he was giving to the world of science something great and wonderful. Very likely he thought it would prove a boon to society. Instead of that it stands out today the scourge of the world. The world never will be safe until the submarine has been banished from the seas. * * * I do not think there will be any marine after the war. It is my notion that the nations of the earth-—the tri- umphant forces of democracy—wiil pan the submarine forever from the ocean. It is contrary to all the prin- ciples of fair play. * * * I expect that when the war s over the doom of the submarine will have bee ot expect that as a form employed solely against a w will grow a peace s a League Peace, and I feel sure nant nations of the submarinc able weapons of » earth will scratch ted among banishment. than Germany that brought about lords thought to starve ( submission submarine; Germany in the last act threw up the people were frenzied of starvation impotency down the gauntlet to the United States came with mliitary the coming of Yankee sons transported Lusitania was the said not long ago Revolt Against “Frightfulness” instrumen- undersea-hoat England through concentration of because of the acts of the commanders in slaying women and children and non- combatants. world against Germany the United States into the wa the United States was the deciding factor.” While the final chapters of the hor- rible world war were being written, the German people themselves vose in revulsion against the U-boat. For a long time the German Admiralty had had to resort to drafting crews for the submarine fleets. Men were com mandeered, according to authoritative report and forced into the U-boat service. These men of the underwater fleets could no jonger endure the men- tal tortures that they suffered in ret- ribution for the unlawful massacres of humanit Who among all the U- boat captains and sailors through the years of life that remain will not be haunted by the faces of their vic- tims, the cries of the helpless men who were taken aboard the submarine decks and allowed to perish when the craft submerged, or the frantic pray- ers of the women and children who were shelled in open boats as thev but off from torpedoed liner: The “Coffin Fear™ That U-boat sailors suffered the pangs of conscience and fled from further subsea service the vietims of their own hallucinations has been re- vealed since the evacuation of the for- mer U-boat bases along the Belgian coat. When the Allied forees -moved into Bruges and Ostend they discov- ered tell-tale evidences of the psycho- logical collapse of the “u ceboot kommanders, Long vigils at sea, marked by fre- quent battles for life with the oppos- ing navies and varied by the wholesale killing of innocent women and children, got upon the nerves of these dupes of insane militarism. They be- came the victims of “claustrophobia,” a nerve trouble that the doctors trans- lJate to mean “the fear of a shut room.” Persons who suffer ‘“coffin fear, the worry of being buried alive. suffer as these U-boat navis tors. On shore leave they indulged in frizhttul orgles of intoxication in an effort to “forzet,” and the revels lasted until they again put to sea. In the rathskellers of the U-hoat ren- dezvous were found all manner of Jegends depicting the mental state of the murderers. In one Bruges roust- ing place was found this inscription serawled upon the wall: “Drink deep of wine, ye heroes. Tt will compen- of hardship. extermity, everywher autocratic fatherland, of the U- boat fleets had spread to all the navy, evolted to battleship attempt- the clutches of justice. Germany at last supinely surrendered auered the world! German U-Boat Colonies Novelists have great fleets of submarines with which to challenge the freedom of the world cordon of subsea commerce-carriers in anticipation Germany’s eign spokesmen hLav in autocracy’s crumble to a fall a la some fragrants for despotism. In reply to Dr. Solf’s insistent demand some manner conference onies intact, the British Colonial Min- that “the real significance of this de- ds as bases for wireless. airplanes submarines.” armistice a of Copenhagen had it that German engineers had un- construction submarine displacement, twenty-five torpedoes, 8.8-centimeter guUNS 2000 shells. Whether overturned Ger- gineers and continuc off remains to be demonstrated underwater In this country laxation of effort to bulld ap incom parable navy in anticipation of inter- national policing of the seas after peace. The three-year naval program urged by Secretary Daniels before Congress cal the construction of ten additional superdreadnoughts, six battle cruisers and 140 smaller ves sels, among them submarines. Just how far the question of disarmament will figure in future peace conferences mains yet to be demonstrated Human Minds vs. Mailed Fist One outstanding fact 1s patent in discussion of the future of the subma- vine. Public opinion has come to re- « the weapon of barbarvism when wielded as Germany used it in struction of noncombatants, hos- pital ships and the like. At no time have the Aliies or America stooped to conquer as did Germany with her leets of submersibles. England has compiled a long list of U-boat cap- tai who as long as they live will be upon the face of the earth outlaw Defeated and chagrined, their U-boats in disgrace, their undersea mariners haunted by shoulish memories, it is 1ble that Germany for the ne: two ever could mobilize improbz generation or and put into active commission an- other “unrestricted” U-boat fleet. F he revolt of the submarine sailors themsclves it is evident that the minds of men emerge from the war stronger than the mailed fist. Democratized the ruth- civilization will not toleratc less brand of warfave from which the world has recoiled and which reacted to the vanquishment of the mightiest war machine the world had ever known up until 1914 Science that gave the world the sub- marine may settle the future of the “scorpion of the deep” by prov iding an antidote that will completely neutral ize the “sting” of the hidden monster Indeed, it is not altogether unlikely that when the curtain is fully lifted and the remarkable exploits of our val scientists revealed it will- be found that the U-boat has been robbed of ts terror Already we know of depth bombs, nets, smoke screens, “zig terpedoes, mines, sound detectors, underwater guns, magnets and various other anti-submarine de- vices. Just a few days ago it was re- vealed that the United States navy had equipped vessels with a new kind of “ears” with which it had been possible to come so close to a U-boat that the pursuer had to “lie to” in the water to avoid collision with the unsuspecting enemy. In peace time the submarine may be made ineffec tual altogether for wartime. Checkmate on War? In the hands of the Hun the subma- rine has proved a power for evil. Be- ause of the company it has kept it stands blacklisted and must prove it- self before the world. Submarine in- ventors always have clung to the be- lief that the supreme destiny of the submarine was to render maritime wars between nations impossible, Pointing out that submarines cannot fight submarines, Holland held that eventually the submarine would drive the battleship from the sea. Simon Lake. another American inventor, holds similar views. Under the cap- tion “The Destiny of the Submarine,” Lake says, among other things, in his book entitled “The Submarine in War and Peace “When the day comes that subma vines are equipped with engines of battleship speed, and thus take away from the battleships the only means of defense which they now have— namely, the ability to run away from the submarine—the submarine will dominate the surface of the high seas. The battleship will be powerless be- fore the submarine of the future; the advantage will be always with the sub- marine, as it is invisible “When every country with a sea~ coast is equipped with a sufficient number of Cefensive submarines, even of very low speed, attacks by inva- sion of their seacoasts will be impos- sible. In case two maritime nations £0 to war, the submarines belonging to each other will effectively blockade the ports of the other. Commerce will come to an end, but there will be no invasions and no naval battles. The submavrines, not being able to see each other, will not be able to fight. The worst that can happen is a deadlock, and a commercial deadlock of this sort will soon be ended by mutual agreement. The smallest of countries may fear no country, how- ever large, whose sole access to her is by way of water. Lake’s Predictions “This is the destiny of the subma~ rine. This has been the aim and prophecy of the pioneers in submarine development. There is nothing which stands in the way of the accomplish- ment of this happy result. The suc- cess of the submarine in the present war has at last forced those in power —and among them many who bitterly opposed its development—to recognize the value of this weapon. Submarine designe: and submarine inventoirs will from now on receive the encour- agement and the attention of naval authorities throughout the world. Hence we may expect to see the sub- marine developed and improved until it has many times the efficiency, speed and destructive power which is pos sessed by it today. We may also ex- pect to see the industrial possibil ities of the submarine developed to When Disease O 7 of the most curious of discus- sions has been started by Prof. Roy L. Moodie, a scientist of high reputation, who has made a special study of the beginning of disease. Once upon a time, he says, there was no such thing as disease in either animals or plants. But it was a very long while ago. His inquiriez led him to the conclusion that discases began in the coalforming period, when the vast deposits of our fossil fuel were laid down in peaty bogs from the lux- uriant vegetation of reglons then trop- ical—in Pennsylvania, along the south- ern Alleghenies and elsewhere. In those very ancient times. ever so many millions of years ago, the earth was covered with water far more ex- tensively than at present, and on the bottom grew fields of “sea lilies"—just as they do today in marine shallows. They are oddly imitative of plants, though really animals; and fossil re. mains of them found in coal show en- largements of the stems plainly due to attack by parasitic worms. During the coal period thers scems to have been an extensive development of those forms of microscopic vege- tation that we call fungi and bacteria. Nearly all plant diseases are due to attack by parasitic fungi, Most dis. eases of men and animals are attribu- table to bacteria of one species or an- FOCEAN’S HIDDEN TREASURES ' a higher degree within a few years. Travel will be made safer, rich car- goes will be recovered, and the ocean will be forced to give up its wealth nd its products to the uses of man in greater quantity than ever before. Thus, instead of following a career of murder and piracy, the submarine is destined to protect the weak, to strengthen the strong and to serve humanity in general as an agent for prosperity and for peace. One may not agree with all that Mr. Lake says about battleships being powerless before submarines in view of the recent accomplishments of sci- ence; and it is well within reason to doubt his contentions concerning the security from attack of maritime na tions, for with the development of submarine cruisers and huge under- sea carriers it may be but a step to the submarine troopship. Mr. Lake belies his own contentions along these lines when he predicts the develop- ment of huge submarine commerce- carriers, for these mighty leviathans of the deep may as easily trade their of merchandise for armies might circumvent the mightiest of blockade flee It was a big step from Holland’s first submarine, lately consigned to the junk heap, to the Deutschland. From the Deutchland— where may the evolution of the sub marine lead? Peace-Time Pursuits With Mr. Lake’s contention that the submarine may serve humanity in peace times in various ways there can be no quarrel. Already it develops that the submarine will lead the way in undoing some of the wrong of the U-boat. In the salvaging of sunken ships and the recovery of lost car- goes the submarine will play an im- portant part. Even before the war this was proved feasible. Millions of dollars’ worth of valuable merchan- dise awaits reclamation on ihe bottom of the sea. Many vessels were sunk in the orth Sea and the English Channel, where the water is compar- atively shallow. Engineering thought now is directed toward the develop- ment of the best diving and lifting apparatus for this work. Navigation under ice flelds is an- other peace pursuit mapped out for the submarine. Ports bound with ice fields during great parts of the year may be made communicable, accord- ing to submarine engineers, North pole explorations via the submarine also are hinted at, the underwater craft escaping the long rigorous de- lays due to ice flelds As submarines in wartime have dynamited their way ahead with torpedoes, so, it is held, may they clear their pathway of ice masses. No doubt the “movies” before long will contribute for our fancy new and even more startling underwater pice tures than any heretofore shown. All that Jules Verne beheld in “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea’ may soon float in flimy procession be. fore our eyes on the ubiquitous screens. Investigations of the flora and fauna of the sea by bottom-creeping submarines equipped with powerful searchlights and moving-picture cam- eras already are demonstrable. The sea will give up its secrets, More food will be provided by sub- marine devices wccording to mari- time experts. Vessels exclusively for the location and recovery of shellfish are being developed. Oysters, clams, scallops and other edible shellfish are to come on the markets in abundance once these fleets get into action. In engineering lines alsg it is ex- pected to work revolutionary changes. “In general submarine engineering work,” says Mr. Lake, “in the con- struction of breakwaters, lighthouses, driving piles and building abutments, and in the deepening and improve ment of waterways and harbor the submarine will be utilized. In pros- pecting for and the recovery and sep- aration of gold from river beds and seacoast bottoms, submarine devices have been found to be very efficient and economical. A new method of lay- ing tunnels under water has been pro- posed in which adaptations of the sub- marine will play a great part. Thus it is evident that the submarine has a utility entirely apart from that of a military weapon.” First Happened other that have acquired the habit ot parasitism, ¥ Minute bacteria and fungi—traces ot their colonies, that is to say—have been found in the fossil droppings of extinct species of fishes, embalmed, as one might say, in our coal deposits. In plant structures of corresponding an- tiquity are discovered natural ‘“cul- tures” of bacteria, silicified. The fossil teeth of long-extinct spe. of fishes have been found affected “dental caries"—irregular decayed spots. Are we to suppose that those finny creatures of early days suffered from toothache? Twenty or thirty millions of years ago arrived the age of reptiles, which developed the gilant lizards that were the largest animals ever known in the world, if some modern whales be ex- cepted. Some of their bones (preserved in the rocks) show deformities obvi- ously due to disease. Certain of these deformities suggest chronic inflamma. tion of the joints; others, tuberculosis, After the age of reptiles came the early mammals. They and their de- scendants (including ourselves) have certainly had a due allowance of di ease ever since. But (f Professor Moodie’s dictum is to be accepted) there was np such thing as disease in the world up to the time when the coal beds were laid down.