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FS ee ee ee _Prussianism shrank Former German Liners: at he Are Now Repaired and Sailing Under the Stars and Stripes 38 at IER A Counter O all unterseeboote commanders: "After Feb. 1 : resume unlimited submarine warfare in the barred zones, according to previous instruc- tions." re To the commander of the interned fleet in North America: "Unlimited submarine warfare has been proclaimed. The United States may join with our enemies. She must be prevented from using our ships. Vorwaerts mit thren schlagein ! single vessel." Such in effect were the orders spat out from the powerful German wireless station at Nauen a little. less than a year ago. The submarines were loosed. What booted it if America joined the Allies? Would not the war be won in three months? And meanwhile, would not Hohen- zollern efficiency, sleepless, painstaking, invincible, fore- stall any Yankee plans for utilizing the five score or more vesseis ar the Fatherland interned in American harbors? The plan was simple. The interned ships would be put out of action for the dura- tion of the war. Even from their total de- struction. They would be needed too soon for the great commercial struggle after the war. So the orders went forth to cripple, but not to destroy. Cylinders and other vital engine parts were to be wrecked, while in the meantime German foun- \ fiack on | German Vandalisn to schedule. Spare not a- 'massive: and intricate castings. A BOILER DRY-FIRED AND DESTROYED dries provided | new Oe from patterns which they had in readiness for just such an emergency. For a time events moved smoothly and according While neutrality guards policed the Prussian wreckers labored and cursed in the bowels of the interned steamers. For weeks drills were busy; hack saws were active; and battering rams, more ingenious than those rigged before the walls of Carthage, bludgeoned their way through At the same time in pumps and boilers, in fire extinguishers and double bottoms, cunning German minds laid traps to foil piers, American ingenuity. As the work of demolition pro- ceeded in American harbors, German foundrymen paused in their war labors to make new parts to take the place of those de- , stroyed. More than likely these castings were machined, finished and promptly shipped to some convenient port of debarkation, there to await the coming of peace. -Thus only could all contingencies be provided for, and the great Prussian god, Efficiency, ap- peased. But even though Schrechlichkeit feed on itself, its ends are not always accom- plished. In this case the Germans reckoned with- out their host. They over- looked the difference between efficiency and effectiveness, and forgot that although some men may ruin, others can build. Nevertheless, when the a