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‘S76 ’
ASHINGTON, D. C., July 11.-It will do no harm to keep
. an eye on the State Department in connection with the sub-
marine Deutschland, which arrived at Baltimore on Sunday. This
‘feat of German seamanship has created something like consterna-
tion in Administration circles, and it will be a wonder, as one member
of Congress pointed out to me, if the vessel is not subjected to some
form of diplomatic chicanery in the hope of removing it as a factor
in showing the British blockade of Germany to be in very truth
“ineffective, illegal and indefensible.”
.It is as yet too soon to say what the policy of the Administration
will be. There has not been time to hear from London. Several
times the Administration has made an impulsive start to follow an
American line of thought-as when Lansing proceeded to recognize
the legitimate character of the submarine warfare-‘only to be over-
ruled from London and to convert its independent attitude into one
of servile accommodation to this British policies. Simon Lake, the
.alleged inventor of the submarine, has already announced his inten-
tion of levying on the vessel,for infringement of patents. It is a
I ‘V good advertisement for Lake and it helps the British. The feat is.
universally regarded as the greatest achievement since the voyage
of Columbus, and its effects, in the opinion of members of Congress,
will be of the most far-reaching kind. '
On the face, it is a defeat for Great Britain. She must either
knuckle down to a new condition of undreamed-of possibilities, or
blockade the American ports in order to prevent the ingress and
egress of these vessels. If Britain blockades an American port it
will be up to the Administration to decide whether it is an actual
ally of the Allies or whether the American rule that British war
vessels must keep away from American ports is to be vigorously
asserted. For this reason alone the arrival of the German sub-
marine is causing the'Wliite House and State Department no end
of worry. By the time this appears in print the country will have
heard from London. The American people will have read the
opinion of the London Past, Times, Telegraph and Mail and the
Northcliffe press in New York, Boston, etc., and the State Depart-
ment will have been made acquainted with the prevailing state of the
official mind in British Government circles, and will-unless all signs
fail-take another radical step like that of Lansing’s in the Appam
case.’ In this case, as will be remembered, the Secretary of State
disregarded the treaties of 1799 and 1828 and sent the Appam case
to the courts in conformity with the wishes of the British owners
of the vessel and the British Foreign Office.
It :1: at :9: ,
Meanwhile the Mexican situation continues to furnish combustible
material for "further trouble with Germany. A story I heard here is
A to the effect that a large supply of arms and ammunition bought up
by German agents in this country has found its way to Vera Cruz.
This consignment of war material, it is alleged, was bought by agents
of the German Government to keep it from going to the Allies. No
particulars go with the story, and, of course, nothing is said of the
‘large supply of American munitions sent to Mexico by citizens of
the United States, whose supplies have furnished Villa, Carranza,
and even Zapata, with all the war material they have used to keep
' up the struggle.
. The Mexican fiasco is the cause of widespread dissatisfaction in
Congressional circles. Under the specious pretext that we are being
kept out of war lurk the strongest financial reasons. It is proposed
to create a neutral zone across the Mexican border of from forty to
sixty miles in width. Few realize that within this zone are located
practically all the big copper mines and other valuable property in
the hands of the Guggenheims, Phelps, Dodge & Co. and the Morgan
interests. Marcellus Dodge, head of the big Connecticut ammunition
factory, is a brother of Cleveland H. Dodge, who is the head of the
Cananea Copper Co., developed by old Col. Bill Green. His wife is a
daughter of VVilliam Rockefeller.
Thisshows the ramifications of the Big Interests which are now
directing our policies with Mexico. Lansing is oredited 'ivith saying
.‘that.before,he coulddeal stcrnly with'Engla.nd the Administration
t
, ,
THETBATHERLANDT
Behind. grsscenes ..< an
pecial Correspondence of THE FATHERLAND. .
Capital
would have to deal stcrnly with Germany, on the principle that :1
thief and a murderer cannot beedealt with on the same level. The
recent exchange of friendly notes between President Wilson and
Carranza loses sight of this doctrine. ' .
It is fairly amazing to some of the statesmen on Capitol Hill how
quickly the Administration has condoned the killing of American
troops and the murder of American citizens.“ But its reversal IS
easily explained by those‘ who lookunder the surface and" see to
what enormous extent the Morgan and other interests are involved.
All that is now desired in behalf of these interests is to secure from
Mexico the neutrality of a strip of territory within which the big
copper mines may be peacefully developed to get material,for the
Allies, as well as to protect the properties of the British corpora-
tions operating in Mexico. The policing of this neutral strip is, of
course, to be at the expense of the American tax payers.
t 3 i it
Some observers of events have been misled by the recent reversal
of our policy toward Carranza from one of extreme hostility to one
of apparently cordial good will. And this on’the heels of the mas-
sacre of Carrizal. It is pointed out, however, that this is involved
with certain policies that are highly flattering to those behind the‘
moves. While on one hand .Carranza is treated with remarkable
oflicial courtesy, on the other hand the news has gone forth that
Carranza can raise no financial backing in the United States.
Here, obviously, the official and the financial world is working
hand in glove. Without money to back his government Carranza
is doomed to fall. He represents, if high-class Mexicans may be
believed, eight-tenths of the Mexican people; he embodies the W0‘
test against the old clerical regime of the Cientificosh As pointed
out before, strong religious influences are secretly opposing Wilson
for having ‘recognized Carranza, and it is to the interest of the
Administration to "see Carranza retired and some one else, possibly
Diaz or Obregon, placed at the head of fhe Mexican Government-
Whoevcr the choice may be, he will have the financial backing of
"Morgan. ,VVo‘rd has goneout that Carranza can get nolfinancial back‘
lng in the United States,‘ andlif this embargo on the sinews of war is
maintained, as it will‘be,' Carranza will ultimately have to yield hi5
Place to another. The Mexican people are in a state of starvation .
The'war has been waged through illegal,’ forcible levies of horses and
food on all ranches. Labor has been seduced from farms and mlfles
by the prospect of a ba’ndit’s life at the expense of the producmg.
classes, But all this must soon end with the utter exhaustion of the ’
country-and then! it will be the turn of some one else. '
It is a waiting garne, with the American financiers holdinsifhc
Purse’ string." ,The Administration is both keeping us out of the’
war and helping the Big Interests. The man that thought Of the
forty-to-sixtymile netural zone, to be policed atlour expense, had
the intellectualendowment of a diplomatic genius.‘ If it Wilsfhc.
inspiration of J..P. Morgan, he
has Machiavelli reduced to the
status of an amateur. ' ‘ '
I ,
tr at six-
I heard an interesting bit of gossip about books and their makers‘
. A little book entitled “Their True Faith and Allegiance" 1135 "6'
cently made its appearance under the nominal authorship of On,“-
“0h1iIl8er," who attempts to show that the National’ German Amer?’ .
can‘Alliance is in reality a secret society to convert the institutl0‘‘.5 ;
of the United States into mere fiefs of the Kaiser. :The introdutftlo“
waswritten by Owen Wister in his most intemperate stl'3lf1- N?
one knows anything about any writer named Ohlinger. and this
German cognomen has evidently been assumed purposel)’ t0 ‘lend '
‘ force to the arguments in which the book abounds, intended to Pmve
that the Alliance is'a menace to the country.
The gossip current here credits Theodore Roosevelt with lhe ll
authorship at the book. It is to the Alliance that RooS9",".’1.t 3?
tributes his "defeat for .the Republican nomination, and undel’ the
borrowed name of some mythical German, whose identity. 110 0“?
so far has been able’ to trace, he is thought to have launched ms
1
