Part 23 (2/2)

Germany has once more said that force and force alone shall decide whether Justice and Peace shall reign in the affairs of ht as America conceives it or Dominion as she conceives it shall determine the destinies of mankind There is therefore but one response possible from us Force, Force to the uthteous and triuht the law of the world, and cast every selfish Dominion down in the dust

Months after hostilities had ended, there appeared froe of proposed publication, utterances of his tothe conflict which showed his warrior heart and his extraordinary ability to grasp a technical military problem such as his dispatch to Admiral Sims, his address to the officers of the Atlantic Fleet, and his intervieith Marshal Joffre in the White House Perhaps it is not generally known that Mr Wilson, who has constantly read and loved the philosophic poetry of Wordsworth, has also been an intense admirer of Shakespeare's warrior-hero, Henry the Fifth, and has frequently read aloud to friends, with excla speeches of Henry in the Shakespearean play

The cable e to Admiral Sims is as follows:

FROM THE PRESIDENT FOR ADMIRAL SIMS, American Embassy, London, July 5, 1917

_Strictly confidential_

Froreatly surprised at the failure of the British Adreat naval superiority in an effective way In the presence of the present subency they are helpless to the point of panic Every plan we suggest they reject for some reason of prudence In my view, this is not a tireat losses In most of your dispatches you have quite properly advised us of the sort of aid and cooperation desired from us by the Admiralty The trouble is that their plans and methods do not seeed to you if you would report to me, confidentially, of course, exactly what the Ad, and what they have accoestions, based upon independent thought of the whole situation, without regard to the judgments of any one on that side of the water The Admiralty was very slow to adopt the protection or convoy and it is not now, I judge [protecting] convoys on adequate scale within the danger zone, seerand fleet The absence of craft for convoy is even lish coast and in the Channel I do not see how the necessary military supplies and supplies of food and fuel oil are to be delivered at British ports in any other ithin the next few months than under adequate convoy There will presently not be shi+ps or tankers enough and our shi+pbuilding plans hteen months

I believe that you will keep these instructions absolutely and entirely to yourself, and that you will giveand if you were running a navy of your own

(Signed) WOODROW WILSON

For sheer audacity, there is not much that can be compared with his address to the officers of the Atlantic Fleet on August 11, 1917:

Now, the point that is constantly in entlemen, is this: This is an unprecedented war and, therefore, it is a war in one sense for amateurs nobody ever before conducted a war like this and therefore nobody can pretend to be a professional in a war like this Here are two great navies, not to speak of the others associated with us, our own and the British, outnuin the navy to which we are opposed and yet casting about for a war in which to use our superiority and our strength, because of the novelty of the instruments used, because of the unprecedented character of the war, because, as I said just now, nobody ever before fought a war like this, in the way that this is being fought at sea, or on land either, for that matter The experienced soldier--experienced in previous wars--is a back number so far as his experience is concerned; not so far as his intelligence is concerned His experience does not count, because he never fought a war as this is being fought, and therefore he is an aot to think this war out Soht the sub

We are hunting hornets all over the faro to the nest and crush it; and yet I despair of hunting for hornets all over the sea when I knohere the nest is and know that the nest is breeding hornets as fast as I can find the because I know the stuff you areto sacrifice half the navy Great Britain and we together have to crush out that nest, because if we crush it the war is won I have come here to say that I do not care where it coest officer or the oldest, but I want the officers of this navy to have the distinction of saying how this war is going to be won The Secretary of the Navy and I have just been talking over plans for putting the planning machinery of the Navy at the disposal of the brains of the Navy and not stopping to ask what rank those brains have, because, as I have said before and want to repeat, so far as experience in this kind of war is concerned we are all of the sa that I do not expect the ad that I want the youngest and ht to do if he knohat it is Now I a to make any sacrifice for that Ielse I am ready to put myself at the disposal of any officer in the Navy who thinks he kno to run this war I will not undertake to tell you whether he does or not, because I know that I do not, but I will undertake to put him in communication with those who can find out whether his idea ork or not I have the authority to do that and I will do it with the greatest pleasure

We have got to throw tradition to the wind Now, as I have said, gentle that I say here will be repeated and therefore I a to the British Admiralty the reply has come back that virtually amounted to this, that it had never been done that way, and I felt like saying: ”Well, nothing was ever done so syste done now” Therefore I should like to see so that was never done before; and inas done to you were never done before, don't you think it is worth while to try so them to you There is no other way to win, and the whole principle of this war is the kind of thing that ought to hearten and stimulate America America has always boasted that she could findShe is the prize amateur nation of the world Germany is the prize professional nation of the world Nohen it co theainst the professional every time, because the professional does it out of the book and the amateur does it with his eyes open upon a neorld and with a new set of circuh to try to do the right thing The er are the rashest estion to the men about me in both arether the word ”prudent” Do not stop to think about what is prudent for athat is audacious to the ut, because that is exactly the thing that the other side does not understand, and you in by the audacity of method when you cannot win by circu ears to hear this in the American Navy and the Aet tired of the old ways and covet the new ones

So, gentle and to say how absolutely I rely on you and believe in you, I have come down here to say also that I depend on you, depend on you for brains as well as training and courage and discipline

When Marshal Joffre visited the President in the spring of 1917, he was surprised, as he afterward said to Secretary Daniels, ”to find that President Wilson had such a perfect mastery of the military situation He had expected to meet a scholar, a statesman, and an idealist; he had not expected to ist fully conversant with all the military movements

”In answer to my question as to whether it would be feasible to send in advance of his areneral as to command American troops in France, the President said at once that it could be arranged”

The President and Marshal Joffre considered together a nuave the President his expert opinion as to what should be done in every instance and was surprised at the promptness hich in each case the President said: ”It shall be done”

A little incident at the White House at the luncheon given by the President to the ht upon the fighting qualities of the us W McLean, a warm and devoted friend from North Carolina, as seated near him at the table, what the Scots down in North Carolina were saying about the war Mr McLean replied he could best answer the question by repeating what a friend of the President's father and an ardent admirer of the President had said about the President's attitude a few days previous ”I am afraid our President is not a true Scot, he doesn't show the fighting spirit characteristic of the Scots” The President promptly replied: ”You tell our Scotch friend, McLean, that he does not accurately interpret the real Scottish character If he did, he would understand ht but when once he begins he never knohen to quit”

Two capital policies which contributed enor of the war received their impulse from Woodrow Wilson--the unification of command of the Allied armies on the western front and the attack of submarines at their base in the North Sea On November 18, 1918, Colonel House let it be known in London that he had received a cable fro emphatically that the United States Government considered unity of plan and control between the Allies and the United States to be essential in order to win the war and achieve a just and lasting peace

It was Woodrow Wilson, a civilian, who advised, urged, and insisted that a e be laid across the North Sea to check German submarine activities at their source Naval experts pronounced the plan ie, and, when laid, it would not hold A great storm would sweep it away But the President insisted that the thing could be done, and that nothing else could check the sub by July, 1917, to 600,000 tons aThe President's audacity and persistence prevailed, and it is not too much to say that his plan ended the submarine menace

It will be recalled that European newspapers carried a story of a farewell reception to Mr Bonar Law, in which he paid his co, in substance, that he had seen Lloyd George discouraged only once It was on the reat Gere told Mr Bonar Law thatthat only a vast increase in American reinforcements could save the Allies A cable was i Mr Wilson to send the number of reinforcements necessary Mr Bonar Law stated in his speech that an affirmative ansas received frolish the President's work in connection with the hile criticizing what he characterized as the President's ignorance of European conditions, said: ”I feel asha when I re the war No other ave such fir operations effective His decisions were fearless and pro troops pro in the naval effort, in insisting on the unity of coh command in the field, and in every other practical detail Mr Wilson had big, clear conceptions and the courage to carry them out”

Those ere critical of the President's conduct of the war forget the ringing statereat offensive was on, when he said: ”The race is noeen Von Hindenburg and Wilson” And Wilson won

Thethe as delivered at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City, on Septen for the Fourth Liberty Loan