AMERICA'S EPIC.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 January 1918, Page 6

AMERICA'S EPIC.

A MARVELLOUS UPRISING. PREPARING TO HELP -TO OVERTHROW THE WORLD'S I£XE MY. London, Oct. 14. (Continued, from yesterday). American money-power actively mobilised took tlie field at once as it were, and has been lighting for and with the Allies during the last sis months to a degree demanding more recognition than it 'has received. That aid has not onlj l been invaluable, it has been gigantic. Has the average European reader the faintest notion of what lias happened in this respect? Mr. McAdoo, the Secretary for the Treasury, has shown himself a man who may one day make Presidential timber. To his personal strength and energy the Allies owe a great debt. Before rising the WarJjongress had sanctioned financial measures colossal beyond everything known or conceived before. No less tlban £4,200,000,000 of expenditure had been sanctioned in six months. That is, Congress, in proportion to the duration of its extraordinary sittings, had voted funds at tha rate of over £20,000,000 sterling a day. The first Old Glory Loan is now being followed by a second—the Liberty Loan. We set out the following summary:— AMERICA'S FIRST WAR FUND. To aid the Allies £1,400,000,000 For National War Organisation 2,600,000,000 For Normal Government Expenses ..... . 200,000,000 £*,200,000,000 America will foot that little bill. America will continue spending as long as this struggle may last until she gets what she and the Allies pay for—the overthrow and destruction of the Prussian war-system, and then "the universal peace o'er sea and land." Heavy taxation has been faced. It presses even more hardly on very large incomes than amongst ourselves. Never again will it be said that for the United States the dollar is deity. No people is more capable of offering up blood and treasure for an ideal. Profits on the prewar scale are all swept away. And lot us note two things, if only by way of marginal notes, which may throw their scintillations of Mile-light upon the soul of America in this war. First, as the corollary of conscription there is an unparalleled generosity towards the fighting men and tilieir families. Separation and compensation allowances are provided for on a scale unknown elsewhere, while against death and disability the Government arranges at pre-war rates insurance up to £2OOO. Next take the American Red Cross. That movement has already cast all our efforts into the shade by raising a first £20.000,000. A second "drive" is preparing to raise no less than £20,000,000 more: and it will be done. It is no secret that by means of these unprecedented Red Cross funds America in France is helping stricken families and proving a Good Samaritan such as. no nation before ever was to another, AIR POWER AND SEA POWER. Again, take America and air power. • We wish that instead of a few lines on that subject we could give a page. Thera would be plenty of material, and l tlhe* | theme would live like romance. Amcri-' ca, the home of the M 7 rights, is the pioneer country of the modern aeroplane.' I Physically and mentally the American people are peculiarly adapted to understand air power, develop it, and wield it. They realise that the final condition of ' complete success against Germany is an .overwhelming supremacy above the enemy's military lines and above the \v tafc of his war-making, power behind tlu lines. Towards this purpose a sum o £12S,0«?0,000 <has -been voted. Twenl thousand aeroplanes of all types—seo.it - light fighters, heavy bo mbing and batth planes —are under construction, and 100,000 selected men to handle this flyim. service are under training. Twentyfour flying schools have been created across ihe Atlantic, and many American airmen are training hard behiiiri battle lines in France. America has more of the best materials for this manufacture than any country, and the supply of human aptitude, whether for combative or mechanical purposes, is inexhaustible. The creation in record time of a new ail-American air-engine lias been one of the more remarkable technical achievements ii) the whole of the present war. This is a war of spare parts. In America the standardised principle is to be applied to the utmost. There is every reason to think that even in the next campaign tlhe American air squadrons will be playing a least an equal part with us and the P'rench in weeping the Germans from the sky. THE- NAVY. We now turn to yet another side of a j war-effort as. Various as vast. Take the American Navy. In the middle of May the first gallant contingent of U.S. destroyers crossed the Atlantic and joined forces with our own to guard the ccean paths and make U-boate beware their furrowing keels. .Admiral Sims has been in command off the Irish coast. Kver since, the two fleets lhave worked together in the frankest and most cordial spirit—a spirit not merely of fellowship but of brotherhood. But this is only in introduction. Across the Atlantic goes forward a mighty work for the expansion of sea-power. For this purpose Congress voted £400,000,000. There are three times as many ships of all kinds in commission as there were six months Jigo. More and still more additions will be made by the enlarged and ever-en-larging shipyards. Work on large ships o's, of course, postponed to work on destroyers. For these alone £70,000,000 I have been allocated. To accelerate this j species of construction every resource of standardisation is once more employed. More and more American energy and invention will help towards thwarting and mastering the submarine menace. That the convoy system works wfell is a matter of common knowlegc. In other respects the scientific work of Mr. Edison and his colleagues will not be carried on in vain. We have to dismiss this subject briefly. Now* the less, America's naval work means by itself the execution of a :>tupendous task. 1 •J iiU .VITAL QUESTION OF CARRY- ' ING-POWER. ' But now 1 we come to the one place where some have thought Mm prospect I so doubtful as to imperil all the rest. We i mean, of course, the question of mer- 1 chant shipping and of providing a huge < amount of new carrying tonnage. That ' all depends upon sucrcss in this goes < without saying. Let us at once that 1 we disagree with the pessimistic estim- f ate. The condition is so clear that no J American can miss it. When the thing is i "gross ae a mountain, open, payable/' ' utterly decisive for the whole fceffltjog '

■ i : and result of America's work, is th : President in the least likely to miss it We think noi. But the problem is enor mous. Across the slim, strip of water betweei us and Fraiice we carry our armv an< | iits needs by short voyages and quick rc , turns. To keep up across the Atlanti J a line of transport and supply 3000 mile long, America will require far mor shipping in proportion to her forces thai we have needed. Think of this mori strous traffic—the men, the stores, th guns and ammunition, the aircraft, mi way and workshop materials, thousand of ponderous motor-lorries and otlie | vehicles. To create sufficient new ship ping in American yards and to do it ii _ time means the necessary base and foun ; dation for all the rest. Before the wa | we were the greatest shipbuilding coup try in the world. Our maximum outpu ' was 2,000,000 tons. It is imperative tha \ we largely increase that output now. Ti find the hands in this fourth year of wa 1 will be desperately difficult, but we mils 1 do -I' America's task is to turn out tonnagi at the annual rate of at least 4,000,001 tons net, and as much more as she car get afloat. Altogether, considered hi comparison with American conditions it is a huge and almost daunting pro position. We repeat our absolute con viction that it will be tackled and doiu by the new Shipping Board under Mr Hurley and Admiral Capps. Congress voted this branch of business £227,000,• 000. America to begin with, is preparing to divert steam-shippng from the great lake and to requisition and commandeer every craft above 1500 tons that can be fairly relied on to, swim the Atlantic, The whole of this process of expanding existing yards, creating new ones, of seizing and adapting available vessels and building new Bhips is one of the more astonishing things even in the whole constructive revolution of American uprising for war. America ivill succeed even in this, but success will take her all her time. And it will inevitably means that, we in this country must look more and more to ourselves only for that, which is life and death for the island and the Empire—the upkeep of our own shipping. THE WORLD-EMBARGO AND NEUTRALS. And now we can only glance in filial sentences at things so many and mighty that they would deserve a long series of special articles. We commend such a series to the care of our daily contemporaries. They will find it worth while, and they will do a vital scbvice, not only to the present cause, but to the future of the English-speaking world. When once committed, the citizens of the United States have entered as an entire nation into the war of nations. Take Mr. Hoover and his work. He is one of he fnaster-figures of tlhe world. Of his policy we can only say that, like other things, it is gigantic. He is the overseer or director on a continental scale of harvests, transport, milling and baking, of costs and prices. Other Boards and controllers have struck fixed prices for coal, steel, copper, oil, and many commodities. President Wilson has appealed to men and women, farmers and industrialists, miners and foresters, to Capital and Labor throughout the land to produce-to

l ! the utmost and economise to the utmosl ' What followed immediately from thi was the policy of the world-wide embai go. The formidable character of this ne\ weapon is another fact not yet sufficient ly realised in Europe. Two things ar sun-clear. First, America and the A 1 ! lies are now bound to use every mean - within their control to shorten this wa ! and hasten victory. Secondly, wlie: there is a world shortage of food am raw material, and it will tax Americ • and. the Allies to provide for themselves the latter can no longer supply any neu ■ trals who nourish and equip the enemy ' Any oilier policy would mean that th members of the League of Liberty weri using their own resources to prolong th struggle and kill or burden their owr citizen-:. No reproach lies against th British Government for the earlier pol icy. All it:; bloclcnding operations wer. ' hampered until America came in. Nov the economic force of maritime action ii doubled. Blockade cuts off supplies . from their destination. Embargo stop: them at the source. The British ant I American Governments will hencefortl ' pursue an identical policy by rigidh : withholding all supplies and ' facilities | from those who have been helping tc j sustain the enemy. I Mr. Hoover ascertained that Holland and the northern neutrals were provid--1 ing Germany with snongh fats to supply | the needs of the entire German Armv . nil tlhe Western front. Holland lias continned the transit of sand, gravel, and cement which largely enables the Germans to keep up their svstom of concrete fortification. But for 'the Baltic traffic in Swedish iron-ore Germany would have been beaten before now. In Argentina and some other parts of South America pro-German influence continues to lie active and impudent. These are the onlv remaining parts of the world whence Germany might draw supplies of corn, meats, and fats. America and the Allies can only refuse to bunker any vessels seeking henceforth to engage in what has been a growing traffic. 'There is not one particle of vindietiveiiews in all this. It is a necessary and will :be an inexorable policy. LEADERSHIP AND DEMOCRACY. Nor is this all. The diplomatic and secret service of the United States have I supplied the League of Liberty with its most potent moral munitions. The systematic treachery, perfidy, and monstrous conspiracy and instigation of Prussian statecraft during flic last twenty years have been exposed with a thoroughness which in. the Jong run will measure in effectiveness with victories in the field. Nothing luis helped more to range nine-tenths of- civilisation de- , fintely on the side of tlie Allies. President -Wilson has given the utmost heart and comfort to France. He has destroyed one main oJTject of German I intrigue by restoring the best relations [With Japan. :TJe can yet do more than any other statesman to keep Russia in Imp. Ho has crushed pacifist manoetivres, and broken up anti-conscription propaganda, while at the same time rallying the solid bulk of American labor ~tlus thanks largely to its leader, Mr. Gompers—to tlhe cause of American patriotism and human freedom. Ha has reminded t'he Pope that the present toman extern never can be

trusted, and that until it k overthrown, abolished, and replaced by a free regime there can be 110 safety for democracy and no assured hope for the world's settled peace. Mow that Congress Irir risen, President Wilson stands out as si ruler equipped by the choice of those who hav<elected liirn witi'n powers more extraordinary, almost more absolute, over the whole life of a people, than were ever before concentrated in the hands of one man. He ha-, surrounded himself wit': other men worthy of his leadership of the task. He has known, by the very magnitude and audacity of his measures, how to fire the imagination and weld Hit' will of a whole tnighty society which iiks ourselves will never lay down arms except in victory.

These things will complete the making of the United States, enjoying after this the sole and undivided allegiance of all its elements fused into one solid nationality. As evidently will the- scope and weight, and, above all, the spiritual clearness and steadfastness of American intervention, make assurance doubly sure that the League of Liberty will attain the crowning victory, the right peace, and he guarantees, moral and practical, for the guarantees, moral and practical, f6r demption of mankind from war. The record of the last six months in America is a wonderful story. On the whole 110 greater thing has ever happened. It has opened a new epoch of history. Its influence on human fortunes and, above all. on tlie wide societies of t)he Englishspeaking world will be incalculable for good through ages beyond all the rnnge of future time that we of the preesnt <lav ra n measure or conceive.-Lomlon Observer. i