The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1915-07-29
APPROACHING A CRISIS.

There can be no doubt that diplo-
States and Germany are approach
ing crisis, the responsibility Tor
which rests wholly upon the Imperial
government. -. '
This fruitless exchange of notes
cannot go on forever. The president
has been more than patient and the
American people have been more
than patient, but their patience is
not inexhaustible, and the feeling is
growing that, however motives may
actuate Berlin, good faith is not one
of them.
So far as the merits of the con-
troversy go, no progress whatever
has been made since the Lusitania
protest of May - was transmitted
to the German Foreign Office. The
| fundamental differences remain. 1t
is the contention of the United States
that submarine warfare, like any
other warfare, must conform to the
established rules of international
law. It is the contention of the
German government that whenever
interna tional law conflicts with the
possibilities of submarine warfare,
international law must succumb.
To admit this is to admit substan-
tally that neutrals and non-combat-
ants have no rights that belligerent
! is bound to respect. The German
contention is the very negation of
law, for it assumes that neutrals
sail the high seas by favor of belli-
gerents. The fact is that certain
unusual rights on the high seas
have been granted to belligerents as
a concession from neutrals.
The United States cannot yield on
this issue without yielding on every
issue that involves the rights, the
property and the lives of it's citizens
on the high seas. Today the Ger
man war zone" is necessarily re-
stricted by the mechanical limita-
tons of the submarine. Tomorrow
some new device may make it pos
sible for submarines to scourge the
whole of the North Atlantic, in
which case the "war zone could be
extended to the three-mile limit from
our own coasts, and American citi-
zens would sail the seas only by the
gracious permission Of German
autocracy.
German submarine commanders
have proved in many instances that
| it is possible to carry on submarine
warfare in accordance with interna-
tional law. There is no recorded in
stance in which any German subma-
rine has suffered damage or loss Of
| life by such conformity to law. But
even if the reverse were the case, the
legal situation would remain TN
changed. Long before submarines
| were thought of, merchant ships oc-
casonally resisted visit and search.
Sometimes they escaped Some
times they fought back and inflicted
serious damage upon their pursuers.
! This was the fortune of war, and no.
body dreamed that neutrals must
abandon their lawful rights because
belligerent ship of war had suffer-
ed in conflict with merchant ship
belonging to subjects of another
belligerent.
There are no differences between
the United States and Germany that
cannot be disposed of at once by
German compliance with the estab-
lished law of nations. But if Ger
many is determined not to comply
with such law, the note which the
president is now preparing is likely
to be the last. The United States
cannot indefinitely maintain interna-
tional relations with a government
which persistently refuses to recog-
nize the only possible basis of inter
national relations.-New York
World