The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1915-05-13
PAGE TWELVE

By j. ID. WATSON

the country like the sinking Of the Lusitania,
last Friday afternoon, with more than 1000
persons on board, over 1900 of whom were
lost.
The sinking of the Titanic caused as much
sorrow but the circumstances were so differ
ent that there is no comparison between the
two catastrophes
The Titanic's loss was due to an cacident,
but the Lusitania's was due to well-laid plan
of the German Admiralty to send the Gu
harder to the bottom of the ocean--due to a
deep-laid plan of what may we'll be called
WantOn murder OF innocent women and chill
dren by German submarines
While it is true that the German Embassy
at Washington advertised the fact that Ger
man submarines were on the lookout for the
Lusitania and would sink her at first oppor-
tunlty; nobody for 4 minute believed that
Germany would resort to means that would
have Shamed any nation Of medieval times.
1t was well known to the German Admir-
atty that the vessel had on board hundreds
Of neutral men, women and chidren yet Ger
man submarines, without any warming what
ever, t0rpedoed the boat and left her hundreds
OF passengers to drown like so many rats.
While there may not be any section of In
ternatlOnai law that exactly covers such a
case, 1t IS because no civilized country ever
dreamed that such an act would be committed,
and while the innocent people who boarded
the liner in New York for Europe were put
on notice by the German Embassy, that tie
vessel would be sunk if possible. this Govern
ment was not notified that Germany would
resort to such murderous tactics to wreak ven
geance on Great Britain-the vessel sailed
under the presumption that should subma-
"rines attack her, the passengers and crew
would be given time to leave the ship before
she was sunk-she left with the presumption
that Germany was still Waging war in the
manner of a civilized nation.
But it made no difference to the Germans
whether they were killing men going to Eng
land to Join the British Army, or innocent
women with three-m0nths-ol old infants clasped
to their breasts-the Germans in Berlin re-
joiced and made merry, just the same-the
Ambassador at Washington seemed to gloat
over the catastrophe, just the same, and when
questioned as to what he thought the Ameri-
can people would think of Germany's action,
replied: set them THINK"
The Lusitania case, following so closely
upon the sinking of the American vessel
Gulfight, has naturally centered the eyes of
the world on Washington and President Will
son is now in position where he must enforce
the position that he took as to Germanys sub
marine warfare, or he must back down.
When Germany notified us of her sub
marine policy, our Government took the stand
that we would hold Germany to a strict &C
counting for any damage done to any of our
vessels, or for any American lives lost on
neutral vessels.
The GulHight was an American vessel, fly
ing the American flag, and when she was sunk
three American lives were lost with her-a
clear case of what we had notified Germany
we would hold her to a strict accounting for.
And while the sinking of the Gulfight is a
more serious case to us than the sinking of
the LIlsitania, so far as our Government is