Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1915 — Who Is Getting the Munitions? [ARTICLE]

Who Is Getting the Munitions?

A pertinent word is said by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to those American citizens who are so peisistenly concerned with our shipment of arms and ammunition. With no regard for our own interests, rights end duties th; se folks would go so far as to have an embargo laid on such shipments. As the Post-Dispatch says, Germany is neither being starved nor deprived of the power to continue the war, so why should we Change international law’ and offend all of Germany’s enemies? It cites the Philadelphia Record with deformation from Waterbury that 10 per cent of the war material made in that town is shipped to Germany. Hartford reports 12 per cent of the Colt company’s output as having been sent to Germany ever since the war began. Bridgeport says that 15 per cent of the arms and ammunition manufactured there since the beginning of the war has been bought and paid for by Germany. One manufacturer is reported as saying that his Information is that Germany is having little difficulty in getting South American shipments through Amsterdam and Copenhagen and possibly some through Greece, and that th'ere has been no diminution in Bridgeport’s German war supplies since Italy entered the war. In the nine months ending with March, the Post-Dispatch says, our exports to neutral countries in Europe were $404,000,000 compared with $173,000,000 for the same time before the war. We are still exporting goods in about the same amounts to the neutral countries, which is evidence that the German-Austrian alliance must have got a large share of this output of ours. For example, our exports to Denmark for the nine months jumped from 12,000,000 tons to 63,000,000, and to the Netherlands from 84,000,000 to 101,000,000. Both .these countries are at Germany’s gateway. Trade is trade, so that if Germany got none of this increase the laws of trade must have been mysteriously' abrogated. The plain Inference is that our enormously increased output poured into these little neutral countries, added to what we know' from our own manufacturers as to their sales to Germany, leaves beyond doubt the conclusion that Germany and Austria are getting their share. Add to this that neither has protested against -our exercise of this trade under international law, and we shall have a truer view of the situation. —lndianapolis News.