or the present year are compiled an engaging tale of reduced submarine
effectiveness will be told; yet--as the British Government has
announced--any effort to minimize what the submarine has done would work
chiefly toward the slowing up of our ship-building and other activities
designed to combat directly and indirectly the lethal activities of the
submarine. And from a naval standpoint it is also essential that the
effectiveness of the undersea craft be fully understood.

It was on January 31, 1917, that the German Government suddenly cast
aside its peace overtures and astonished the world by presenting to the
United States Government a note to the effect that from February 1 sea
traffic would be stopped with every available weapon and without further
notice in certain specified zones. The decree applied to both enemy and
neutral vessels, although the United States was to be permitted to sail
one steamship a week in each direction, using Falmouth as the port of
arrival and departure. On February 3 President Wilson appeared before
Congress and announced that he had severed diplomatic relations with
Germany on the ground that the imperial government had deliberately
withdrawn its solemn assurances in regard to its method of conducting
warfare against merchant vessels. Two months later, April 6, as already
noted, Congress declared that a state of war with Germany existed.

The German people were led to believe that an aggregate of 1,000,000
tons of shipping would be destroyed each month and that the wastage
would bring England to her knees in six months and lead to peace. The
six months went by, but the promises of the German Government were not
fulfilled. Instead the submarine war brought the United States into the
struggle and this, in the words of Philipp Scheidemann, leader of the
German majority Socialists, has been "the most noticeable result."

None the less, the submarine, used ruthlessly, without restrictions,
proved itself to be an unrivalled weapon of destruction, difficult to
combat by reason of its ability to stalk and surprise its quarry, while
remaining to all intents and purposes invisible. It has taken heavy toll
of ships and men, and has caused privation among the peoples of the
Entente nations; it is still unconquered, but month by month of the
present year its destructiveness has been impaired until now there may
be little doubt that the number of submarines destroyed every month
exceeds the number of