Middletown transcript., 1915-05-15
AS AMERICANS
From the New York ,rribunel J

fOI GNGIy CillLCn OIlC ldCl
will stand out clear and beyond all else
this morning. In defiance not alone of
every principle of international law,
but of every dictate of common human
ity, American men, women and children
citizens of this neutral nation, have
been exposed to death, have perhaps
been actually murdered, by German
war craft.
For this murder there is no justifca-
tion outside of that law of necessity
para led by the German chancellor in the
opening hour, when the first German
regiment rushed through Belgium to
consecrate at Louvain the work of
German Kultur. The passengers, the
American citizens, who embarked
upon the Lusitania were protected by
every rule and precedent of in
ternational law. They journeyed to
an unblockaded port, and thus journey
ing, were entitled to the protection
supplied by all civilized warfare.
The vessel on which they sailed was
fair prize for German warships. Ger
man sea power was entitled to capture
the Lusitania if it could, to sink her if
necessity compelled, but not until every
non- combatant was taken fIom her
decks, not until the safety of every
life had beeA assured,
The proclamation of a submarine
blockade issued by the German admir-
atty was a creation of Germans; it had
no warrant in international law, no de-
fence in ordinary humanity. 1t was
purely and simply an advertisement
that Germany purposed to commit muir
der in certain waters; it was declara-
tion foreshadowing assassination; but
in law it was nothing.
Now, it seems, German naval officers
have carried out the thread of the Ger
man government. American lives have
been imperiled; by every evidence avail
able it seems unmistable that American
lives have been taken. sacrificed to the
blood lust of those who dictate German
policy and direct German action on land
and on sea.
A few short months ago the Ameri
can government answered the German
proclamation of a "war zone" and a
submarine blockade with a calm. fair
warning, of what would be the conse-
quences of the destruction of a single
American hfe. In the voice of friend
ship, without bluster, anger. threat, the
will of this nation was conveyed to the
German government.
To that warning Germany has now
made answer. American citizens may
look for it not in the actual death list,
however great that may be, but in the
list of Americans sailing on the Lusi-
tania, all exposed to death by German
action. Such survivors as there may
be owe their escape to no German
hands. They have escaped the consent
ing murderers- that is all.
From this tragedy we shall now turn
to Washington, More than a century
ago, when this nation was weak and its
people were lacking in ell the resources
of great power, it made answer to The
pirates of the Barbary Coast, who as
serted a prerogative less intolerable
than that which is now asserted in Ber-
lin and executed upon the high seas.
No voice will be raised, no effort will
be made, to force the hand, to hasten
the action, of the President of the United
States. But neither he nor any Other
official in our government can mistake
the temper in which their fellow citizen.
will wait. They will wait with the
casualty list in their hands. They will
wait, fortified each day and each houi
by new evidence and fresh details of the
manner in which Americans, American
women and children. have been exposed
to death by German submarines.
If Germany murders Americans turn!
her artillery against neutral Americans
sparing neither age nor sex, what worse
treatment can she reserve for an Ameri
can nation resolved to defend its honor
its citizens, its women and its children
What can there be left for men, or fo
nations to do but to resort to tina
method which in all ages has been tn
last resort against tyranny and anarchy
In sinking the Lusitania Germany ha
turned new page in history, III Ameri
can history. She has carried across tn,
Atlantic the spirit and the metho
written large over half Europe, reveale,
in the ruins of Louvain, disclosed in tn
crumbling walls of Rheims, expresses
in the terrible record of atrocities
which have stained her arms in recen
months. What Belgium has long know,
we Americans know in part
The voice of the United States mus
be heard first in Washington. But i
this crisis the President will be assure
of the support, the loyal, the unfalter
ing support, of American citizens of a
parties and of no parties. In the pres
ence of a national tragedy we shall b
neither more nor less than America
citizens. In the presence of a nations
peril we shall have but one thought, on
duty and one determination.
The nation which remembered tn
sailors of the Maine will not forget tn
civilians of the LusitaniaI
WANTED.-High class man to Sc