Vol. I

No. 1

Publishing Company wishes to thank the readers of "The Navy for their kindness in forgiving so many mistakes during the past four years, and to assure them that in the future he will do his best to avoid errors in the publication.

The editorial policy of the new magazine will be practically the same as that followed in "The Navy." Naval and marine subjects will be discussed in a sane and conservative manner.

Owing to the present crisis in the foreign affairs of the country, the policy of the President of the United States will be endorsed in every way in so far as it affects the foreign relations of the nation but the privilege of criticising and calling attention to what may be regarded as mistakes of any officer or servant of the people of the United States so far as domestic relations may be affected, will be exercised as hereto fore, and if any act of Woodrow Wilson or of Josephus Daniels is criticised in the editorial pages of "The Navy and Merchant Marine" such criticism must not be construed as indicating in any way, shape, or manner that we are unwilling to loyally support the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.

The Editor of "The Navy and Merchant

Marine" pledges unqualified endorsement to the sentiment voiced by Stephen Decatur more than one hundred years ago, when he said:

"Our Country, may she always be successful and always right; but successful, right or wrong."

The future appears to be pregnant with events which may develop the United States as much politically as the past three years have developed it industrially, commercially, and financially. The Spanish War gave Dewey the opportunity to open the door through which the United States stepped into the brotherhood of nations as an equal, and it is but reasonable to believe that we are now standing upon the threshhold of events which may make this nation the leading world power, not alone commercially and financially, but politically as well.

It is at this opportune time that "The Navy and Merchant Marine" comes to the people of the United States, a new magazine with the inherited ten years' experience of "The Navy," devoted to the building up of the Navy and Merchant marine. These two are "one and inseparable" as Daniel Webster remarked concerning "Liberty and Union." It will be the aim of "The Navy and Merchant Marine" to bring home to every reader the inseparableness of the Navy and Merchant Marine, by showing through pertinent articles in its columns, their interdependence.

Kindly asking the support of all who believe the United States should have a superior navy and merchant marine, in the attempt to carry out the program outlined

above, "The Navy and Merchant Marine" comes to the Court of Final Appeal - The Public for an answer as to its fitness for its self ordained task.

THE GERMAN AMERICAN CRISIS

The long delayed crisis with Germany has at last arrived. Ambassador Bernstorff has been handed his passports and Ambassador Gerard has been recalled from Berlin. This is but the natural outcome of a long series of events initiated by the sinking of the Lusitania.

When that vessel was torpedoed, "The Navy" editorially stated that Ambassador Bernstorff should be sent home at once, and that the suzerainty of the German Kaiser over American citizens as instanced by his advertisements in American newspapers forbidding American citizens the freedom of the seas at their peril due to the uncivilized methods of warfare employed by the German Admiralty should be repudiated by the United States.

The spirit which has animated the entire German nation since the outbreak of the war was clearly indicated at that time by the joyous celebrations in Berlin and other German cities over the murder of unoffending women and children and citizens of neutral nations, when the report of the sinking of the Lusitania was made public in Germany.

When the news was flashed over the continent that Bernstorff had been dismissed, the entire people of the United States rose up as one man and said to President Wilson, "Well done.”

Germany's latest move is but the seizing of a straw by a drowning man and can result only in her unconditional surrender to the higher moral forces of civilization. Even as an unprincipled individual will sometimes in case of personal defeat, resort to mayhem in order to injure his opponent, so Germany is attempting to commit national mayhem that she may for a short time avoid inevitable surrender.

Possibly the Kaiser may be using the present barbaric methods of waging war in order to force all neutral nations to unite with the allies against the Teutonic race so that he may be able to claim with some show of plausibility that Germany is unable to fight the entire world, thus, in the Chinese sense, saving his face, when ignominious defeat finally comes.

One noteworthy thing connected with the severing of diplomatic relations with Germany has been the large number of German and Austrian citizens, living in the United States, who have applied for naturalization papers. So many of these have applied in some cities that the Court has been unable to naturalize the applicants in the ordinary course of busi

ness.

While, of course, there are individual cases where American citizens with Teutonic affiliations are willing to break their oaths of fealty to the United States, yet, it is unlikely that many citizens will thus perjure themselves. German Americans who know Teutonic institutions and conditions as they exist in the Fatherland and who are at present living under American laws and conditions will unite in sup

porting the American Government when it comes to a final show-down.

Let it not be forgotten that the people of the United States are at heart AngloSaxon for all intents and purposes, and at the risk of using a trite saying, we are inclined to remark that blood is thicker than water, and when this nation is called upon to decide whether they shall support Anglo-Saxon traditions, institutions and laws as against Prussian militarism and Teutonic kulture, we will be found giving unqualified support to Great Britain and her allies. If we do so it will be but repaying a debt which we have owed England since 1898.

If the United States had thrown its lot with the allies in 1914 insisting upon inviolability of Belgian territory the war before this would have been finished and an inestimable amount of human suffering avoided.

Commenting upon the dismissal of Ambassador Bernstoff, the Providence, R. I. "Journal" of February 5th remarks:

"The Government knows positively that there is not a German or Austrian Consulate in the United States which is not the center of vicious intrigue and which, since the beginning of the war, has not been guilty of violating the laws of neutrality.

"Do we imagine that men like the German Ambassador,- himself a proven fomenter of murder and property destruction,- Baron Zwiedinek and Heinrich Albert, the fiscal agent of the German Government in the United States, are not busy night and day plotting with these Consulates against the peace of the coun

try? Are we silly enough to believe that the criminal Bopp, the German Consul General in San Francisco, was not acting under direct instructions from headquarters or that he is an isolated exceptioin among these men?

"No. In the warped and distorted philosophy of German "Kulture" every crime, the death of the innocent, the use of dynamite and the torch are fully justified as long as the deed is done in the name of "The Fatherland."

"Let us not fool ourselves any longer with platitudes. We are face to face with the menace within our borders and we must use every honorable effort to combat and destroy it utterly the moment it shows its head."

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BIDS FOR SHELLS

Although Secretary Daniels, in awarding contracts for shells to foreign companies, may have had the best interests of the country at heart, yet, in considering the difference between the English manufacturing price and the bid of the Bethlehem Steel Co, it must be borne in mind that there is an essential difference in the price of labor from the very start in this country.

The miners are paid higher wages, the railroads are paid higher freight rates, the skilled mechanics who convert the crude iron ore into steel are paid higher wages, and so far as the difference in price is concerned, the difference in wages paid to American mechanics and laborers fully

accounts for the higher price asked by American manufacturers.

It is an entirely different matter when the time of delivery is considered. Thirtytwo months to manufacture a few thousand shells is altogether too long a time, when it is a well known fact that our shipbuilders have been turning out submarines for foreign governments in five or six months whereas the American government has been unable to get delivery in less than two or more years.

Other things being equal, work for the Navy of the United States should be given to American firms even if the cost is higher, as the increased cost is fully accounted for by the increased wages paid to laborers as stated above; but time of delivery and quality are important components in the matter.

To thoroughly understand the exact state of conditions, the following synopsis of bids submitted to the Navy Department on January 3, for furnishing the Navy with 16-inch and 14-inch armor-piercing projectiles is given:

"For the 16-inch projectile, the proposals were as follows: Bethlehem Steel Co. 4,000 in 36 months at $775 each; Washington Steel & Ordnance Co., 2,500 in 32 months at $750 each; Crucible Steel Co., 1,700 in 36 months at $758.50 each; Midvale Steel Co., 1,000 in 24 months at $900 each; and in addition to these four home firms, one foreign firm, Hadfields, Ltd., proposed to deliver 3,000 shells in 16 months at $513 each. For the 14-inch projectiles, the proposals were as follows: Crucible Steel Co., 2,000 in 42 months at $543.50; Midvale Steel Co., 5,600 in 30 months at $550; Washington Steel & Ord