THE SUBMARINE CAMPAIGN ON OUR COAST

It is natural that the appearance of German submarines along the American coast, and their activity in a radius of less than one hundred miles of New York City, should excite and disturb us perhaps in a degree more than commensurate with the naval importance of the campaign. Up to the time of writing, the destruction caused by these undersea boats has been that of several schooners, one or two coastwise passenger steamships, and two or three other small steam vessels. So far as is positively known, there has been no destruction of life. Sensational as all this undersea activity is, and puzzling as are the problems as to where the submarines came from and what they may do next, it may be said that all of the injury they have inflicted up to date is much smaller than would have been the destruction of one large transport loaded with American troops. No one is a better judge of the situation than Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He is quoted as saying that he believes that the submarine captains are under orders to cause terrorism by sinking as many ships as they can without regard to the military damage done. He explains this by saying: "I think the German strategy is obvious. By their campaign of terrorism they evidently hope to make us withdraw our ships from European waters, or at least fifty per cent of them. In this they will be disappointed, for the best protection we give to our shipping comes from the presence of our war craft in the war zone.

So far the submarines on our coast have sunk the captured ships by bombs or gunfire, not by torpedoes. In all cases, so far as we now know, the crews and passengers of the ships were allowed to take to the boats, and it is not known that in any case the submarines practiced the atrocity of shelling the boats, as undoubtedly other German submarines have done across the sea. Many crews and passengers are, however, still to be heard from as we write, and special fear had been felt for the fate of the 360 or more persons aboard the Carolina, a passenger liner running between Porto Rico and this country. A wireless message from her on June 2 said that she was being shelled and that passengers and crew had taken to the boats. Passengers from the Carolina to the number of over 300 were later landed or picked up at sea. Certainly three, probably five, submarines have been operating on our coast. On June 4 New York City

had a lightless (or near-lightless) night. The possibility of air raids supported by submarines and of submarines bombarding coast cities has long been foreseen.

The captain of the four-masted schooner Edward H. Cole gave a thrilling and intensely interesting account of his experiences and those of the crew. They were given twelve and onehalf minutes to take to the boats, and escaped with practically nothing but their clothes, while their ship was destroyed before their eyes by bombs placed within it. Even more exciting was the story told by Captain Holbrook, of the schooner Hattie Ďunn. He was held eight days as a captive in a submarine. He reports that the submarine was constantly receiving wireless messages, some of them almost certainly from points within the United States. Generally speaking, the submarine officers treated their captives decently as compared with the brutality so often shown by German submarine officers abroad. Captain Gilmore, of the Edna, states that the submarine he was in was about 300 feet long. If this is so, it is not of the super-submarine type which report has said Germany had built for use in distant waters; nor was the submarine which sank the President Lincoln.

Whether or not these submarines have a base in Mexico or whether they have made the voyage directly over from Germany is a matter of conjecture. Naval officers say that it is incredible that a base exists in the United States. Theorists have many arguments to adduce for various solutions of the mystery. The new super-submarines are said to have a cruising radius of eight thousand miles, which would give them time to come to this country, carry on a campaign for some days, and then return without taking in new fuel.

But even this kind of campaign would seem to be one more for show and effect than for actual injury. The very fact that these submarines were satisfied to pick up small merchant ships rather than to lie in wait for transports indicates that they know that the system of guarding transports makes any attempt to attack them almost suicidal. With the warning now at hand, the danger to transports is even less than before. When we consider the numbers of transports used on the Atlantic and the hundreds of thousands of men who have been taken over, we may congratulate the American and British navies that such splendid protection has been afforded.

The loss of the President Lincoln on her return voyage from France was a serious injury to our transportation facilities so

far as the loss of one vessel could be, but it is a trifle compared with what her loss would have been if she had been torpedoed on her outward voyage when filled with thousands of soldiers. As it was, none of the returning convalescents were injured, and, while twenty-three of the crew and three officers are reported missing, and it is said that one officer was taken prisoner by the submarine, the disaster was very much less tragical than was at first feared.

THE THIRD GERMAN OFFENSIVE

The third large effort of the German forces on the western front to drive back the Allied armies, and thus to form a broad wedge of conquered territory extending beyond the former comparatively straight line in the west, moved rapidly to what appears to be its culmination for the present during the week ending June 4. The section of French territory gained, if it were supposed to be turned on the map so as to have its point toward the west instead of the south, would present to the eye a figure very much in shape like that of the ground taken by the Germans in the Picardy drive, and not very different from it in dimensions. On the date given the apex of this figure rests on the north side of the Mane near Château Thierry, and about forty-three miles from Paris. The base, or widest part of the section, extends from Noyon southeasterly for about fifty miles to a point north of Rheims. Soissons, of course, is included in this section.

At the end of the week under discussion the reports strongly assert that General Foch has brought enough reserves into action to check the drive effectually. Attempts of the enemy to widen the section toward the west on June 1 met with little success, and a specially vicious thrust forward at the very point or spearhead of the offensive failed altogether. On June 4 it was announced that French and American forces had driven the Germans back across the Marne with heavy losses at a point where a crossing had been forced. The fighting has been fiercest in the region lying between the Marne to the south and the Ourcq, here running parallel to the Marne at a distance of about twelve miles to the north.

Assuming that for the present the position remains practically as it is, while Germany again reconstitutes its forces and gathers munitions for a new drive, the question must be mooted in the councils of the Allies as to what direction that new drive will take. The question at once brings out the strong point of Germany's general offensive plan on the western front. The credit for forming the plan is variously assigned to General Hutier and General Ludendorff. In brief, it consists in making the most of the natural advantage afforded by the fact that the old battle-line in the west took a sharp bend eastward, turning, as it were, on Montdidier as a pivot. Thus, if we take, say, Mons or Maubeuge as the central point of an imaginary irregular circle, it will be seen that German forces concentrating in that vicinity can be moved with equal facility northwest in the direction of the Flanders drive, westward in the direction of Amiens, or southward in the direction taken by the third drive. It is equally true that points of attack might be selected with equal advantage between any. two of the places named; thus it is very possible that a move might be made from the point of concentration westward below Arras in the direction of Albert. Not only is it extremely difficult for the Allies to know in advance the direction a new German drive will take, but it is quite possible that the German General Staff itself does not know until practically the last minute—that is, within a very few days of the actual move. The choice may then be made in accordance with the latest information obtained as to the disposition of the Allies' forces and the comparative weakness of the different fronts.

To oppose this general plan the Allies must be as ready to defend one sector of the curve as another, and that from the outer and longer side of the curve. They cannot decide positively that the drive is coming at one point rather than another, and until it becomes clear to them what the German plan of attack is they must hold their reserves in readiness to move to the endangered section-and this takes time.

Immediate success, so far as occupying new ground is concerned, is pretty certain to follow the German plan of striking

first in one direction and then in another. But if the Allies can check each of these repeated pushes before their line of defense is broken through or their armies crushed, it is more than likely that Germany's series of offensives will in time wear down its own man power and ability to attack, until the balance as be tween the two contending armies is restored to the state where it was when the Russian collapse made it possible for Germany to put practically its sole effort on the western front. Just what the relative losses in these offensives have been is not known, but the very nature of the German attack involved terrible expenditure of man power.

Despite the fact that the new drive has been pushed on in the direction of Paris, military critics generally do not think that Paris is now in danger. They hold that it is more likely that a fourth German drive on some different section of the line will follow than that the German effort will attempt to smash through the Allies' forces and move directly on Paris. The battle of the Marne in 1914, and later the failure at Verdun, has probably taught Germany the lesson of the folly of being precipitate.

The lessons of all the conclusions to be drawn from the new drive and the comments which come to America from England and France drive home again and again the pressing demand that American soldiers, American airplanes, and American ships must be forthcoming with despatch and in large numbers if victory is to be assured to the cause of the Allies.

Americans are justly proud of the capture and retention of the town of Cantigny by American soldiers. German papers admit that our regiment was outnumbered two to one, and the capture of two hundred German prisoners was a fine stroke. The dash and steadiness of our soldiers are highly praised.

GENERAL WOOD

The daily newspapers give rather full reports of the parting of Major-General Leonard Wood, U.S. A., from the Eighty-ninth Division of the National Army in accordance with the orders of the War Department. It is not announced where the Eightyninth Division is now stationed, but before General Wood left he reviewed the division and said good-by to the officers. We quote as follows the account in the New York “Times :”

From headquarters General Wood, accompanied by the officers who had been of his staff and had been the closest to him during the long months when the division was being whipped into shape at Camp Funston, walked to the parade field to review for the last time the Eighty-ninth Division.

The review was a splendid spectacle. Every unit of the command was in line. The soldiers never appeared to better advantage. Tears were in the eyes of some of the staff officers as the last unit passed and General Wood saluted the colors.

"A magnificent body of men. There are none better in any army in the world," said General Wood to a staff officer as this last unit in the long column swung by.

General Wood was asked before he returned to Camp Funston if he would say anything regarding his conference with President Wilson last week, at which conference he was supposed to have asked the President for field service either in Europe or at home.

"All that I feel privileged to say regarding my talk with the President," replied the General, " is that he was very courteous and very considerate."

General Wood absolutely refused to discuss the report that his detachment from the command of the Eighty-ninth Division was made by Secretary Baker at the request of General Pershing.

"I am leaving for Camp Funston to-morrow," General Wood said, "where I shall give the best that is in me to the training of the boys who will be ordered to that camp. We have got to win this war, and I intend to do everything that I can to make that victory, which I am sure is coming, certain and decisive." Asked what he thought of the situation on the French front, General Wood replied:

"I think the line will hold."

General Wood is universally recognized as one of the best judges and critics of military affairs in this country. His attitude and opinions as expressed above give encouragement to all Americans in this time of serious war crisis. In last week's Outlook we announced that General Wood had been assigned

to administrative work in San Francisco. According to the daily press, that order has been modified, and he will again take up his work of training at Camp Funston, where he so well prepared the Eighty-ninth Division for its great task overseas.

MAGNETO OR BATTERY IGNITION

In the Special Correspondence printed elsewhere in this issue Mr. Henry J. Haskell says: "It would be well for the reader to bear in mind that every statement to be made in this article will be challenged." Among the statements which Mr. Haskell undoubtedly expects to be challenged is the following: The men who designed the [Liberty] motor believe battery ignition to be superior. The battery spark is sharper, the magneto spark more prolonged and harder on the spark plugs.

We know this statement will be challenged because we have already in our possession a letter from a well-known electrical engineer in which he makes exactly the contrary statement. He declares that the Liberty motor overheats because the spark which ignites it is not of the proper character and is too weak in intensity, and that this is due to battery ignition. The effect of the weak spark, he explains, is to give a very slow flame propagation, which means that the gases under compression burn very slowly during a very long part of the piston travel, thus exposing the cylinder walls and piston-head to the heat of actual combustion for a much longer period of time than would a hot magneto spark. We shall not attempt to give the scientific reasons he adduces for the greater strength of the magneto spark as compared with the battery spark. We do not want to start a debate in our columns over a technical matter which most of our readers will not find interesting or even intelligible. We cite this letter simply to show how difficult it is to give a fair account of our aircraft production programme.

There is one other point, however, which does not involve so debatable a question, but which shows the difficulties which our automotive engineers have encountered in producing the Liberty motor.

As almost every one who drives an automobile knows, the gasoline vapor is compressed in the cylinder, is ignited, and, exploding, drives the piston. In the Liberty motor there are twelve of these cylinders, and therefore there must be twelve sparks in succession. These cylinders are set at an angle, six in one row and six in the other. Magneto ignition requires absolute regularity in the intervals between the sparks. In order to have absolute regularity these cylinders must be set at an angle of sixty degrees. For reasons which we need not enter into and which are variously reported, it has been decided to set these cylinders at a different angle. This means that the cylinders have to be divided into groups with a magneto for each group, and that means extra weight. To avoid this the designers of the Liberty motor resorted to the battery ignition, which can provide irregular timing of the sparks. It is claimed that this irregular timing causes a harmful vibration in the motor. Whichever system, therefore, is adopted, there will be experts who will point out its disadvantages.

It is folly for laymen to attempt to sit in judgment on such technical matters. The most that public opinion can do is to insist that the experts come to some kind of an agreement, or else that the authorities decide which expert's advice they will follow, and stick to that. One of the dangers of democracy is that every man shall tend to regard himself as an expert on all matters. What democracy has to learn is to select experts, trust them as long as they produce the required results, and give these chosen experts a free hand within their field and the reward at least of appreciation.

THE LAUNCHING OF THE FIRST

FABRICATED SHIP

A remarkable achievement in American ship-building was commemorated on Memorial Day by the launching of the Agawam, the first of the new fabricated steel ships, at the Newark Bay shipyard of the Submarine Boat Corporation. It is believed that this new type of standardized ship will enable our ship-builders to overcome speedily the submarine menace by steadily increasing their output. As the name implies, these

fabricated ships are of standard construction, the parts being made at a number of different steel mills and quickly put together or "assembled" at the shipyard. Thus the full manufacturing capacity of the country is utilized, and it is estimated that by 1919 our annual output of ships will equal or surpass the 5,000,000-ton mark.

The launching of the Agawam marks a new era in the shipbuilding industry. It proves the practicability of building ships wholesale," according to a standard design-just as a number of automobiles are "assembled," all of the same model.

This achievement is the more remarkable when we consider that only nine months ago the site of the present Newark Bay shipyard was an impassable swamp. Within these few months the land was filled in and twenty-eight shipways erected, upon which an equal number of ships are being constructed.

The launching of the Agawam was witnessed by several thousand people, who loudly cheered the first of the fabricated fleet as she slid gracefully into the water. The customary bottle of champagne was broken over her bow by Miss Mary Eurana Ward, a niece of Charles M. Schwab, the Director-General of the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation. Mr. Schwab, in a brief address, gave high praise to the executives who had made possible this early launching and to the workmen who had given their best efforts to speed the completion of the work. He announced officially that the Government had actually put into commission during the month of May over 250,000 tons of new ships, which is the equivalent of two ships like the Agawam for every working day of the month. Mr. Schwab also stated that within a short time the rate would be 500,000 tons a month.

The name Agawam was selected by Mrs. Woodrow Wilson. Its literal translation is "Great Salt Meadows of the Atlantic Coast"-a happy allusion to the spot where she was built. Approximately 27 steel mills, 56 fabricating plants, and 200 foundries, machine, pipe, joinery, and equipment shops are engaged in the production of the parts to make up the finished steamship. The Agawam has a dead-weight carrying capacity of about 5,500 tons. The length of the vessel is 343 feet on deck. The maintained speed at sea fully loaded will be at least 101⁄2 knots per hour on a mean draught of approximately 23 feet. It is planned to launch two, and possibly three, ships per week at the Newark yard when in full operation.

The complete fruition of the plans of the Emergency Fleet Corporation will usher in a new epoch in the maritime history of the United States. It will enable this country again to assume its proper position as a great maritime power and to take over its share of the carrying trade of the world at the end of the

war.

CHILD LABOR LAW INVALID

By the closest possible vote-five to four-the United States Supreme Court has decided that the law passed by Congress forbidding the transportation from one State to another of goods made by child labor (as defined in the law) is not in accord with the Constitution, and therefore cannot be enforced. The judges who agreed in invalidating the Child Labor Law were Chief Justice White and Justices Day, Van Devanter, Pitney, and McReynolds. Those who dissented from this opinion and held that the Child Labor Law ought to be regarded as Constitutional were Justices Holmes, Brandeis, Clarke, and McKenna. According to the despatches which reach us as we go to press, the prevailing opinion, read by Justice Day, holds that the statute is "an invasion by the Federal power for the control of a matter purely local in its character, and over which no authority has been delegated to Congress;" and argues that if Congress has the power which it assumed to exercise in this statute "all freedom of commerce will be at an end, and the power of the States over local matters may be eliminated, and thus our system of government be practically destroyed."

Justice Holmes, in the opinion in which all who dissented concurred, declared that "the National welfare is higher than the rights of any State or States," and pointed out several important cases upholding the principle which the dissenters regarded as being embodied in the Child Labor Law.

This decision by the Supreme Court will be regarded by a