y notes we write. I don't know that the
President could have done differently--unless, before he sent the
_Lusitania_ notes, he had called Congress together and submitted
his notes to Congress. But, as the matter stands, the Germans are
merely encouraged to blow up factories and practically to carry on
war in the United States, because they know we can (or will) do
nothing. Mere notes break nobody's skin.

We don't seem to have any machinery to bring any influence to bear
on foreign governments or on foreign opinion; and, this being so,
it is little wonder that the rest of the world does not follow our
republican example.

And this sort of impotence in influence has curious effects at
home. For example, the ship-purchase bill, as it was at the last
session of Congress, was an economic crime. See what has happened:
We have waked up to the fact that we must have a big navy. Well, a
navy is of no far-fighting value unless we have auxiliary ships and
a lot of 'em. Admiral Jellicoe has 3,000 ships under his command;
and he couldn't keep his fleet on the job if he didn't have them.
Most of them are commandeered merchant, passenger, and fishing
ships. Now we haven't merchant, passenger, and fishing ships to
commandeer. We've got to build and buy auxiliary ships to our navy.
This, to my mind, makes the new ship-purchase bill, or something
like it, necessary. Else our navy, when it comes to the scratch,
will be of no fighting value, however big it be. It's the price
we've got to pay for not having built up a merchant marine. And we
haven't built up a merchant marine because we've had no foreign
consciousness. While our Irishmen have been leading us to twist the
Lion's tail, we've been depending almost wholly on English
ships--and, in late years, on German ships. You can't cross the
ocean yet in a decent American ship. You see, we've declared our
independence; and, so far as individual development goes, we've
worked it out. But the governmental machinery for maintaining it
and for making it visible to the world--we've simply neglected to
build it or to shape it. Hence the President's notes hurt nobody
and accomplish nothing; nor could our navy put up a real fight, for
lack of colliers and supply ships. It's the same way all around the
horizon. And thes