The Washington herald., 1915-05-12

| a single one of whom was an American. Long be-
| fore that President Wilson had notified Germany
that this government would hold her to "strict
accountability" for the loss of American lives
Then followed the sinking of the American ship
Gulflight and the death of more Americans, and
then the monstrous crime off the coast Of Ire
land. AS civilization contemplates the Lusitania
horror which almost forbids belief the sinking
of the Falaba appears in retrospect as but trivial
incident of the war; and yet at the time the kill
ing of one American produced outburst OF in
dgnation and cry for vengeance such as had
not been heard OF since the sinking OF the Maine.
The country's state Of mind the Falaba
tragedy, as reflected in the press, faithfully
revealed in the Literary Digest of April 10. "No
previous incident of the war;" said the leading
article in that issue has stirred the American
press to such vigorous condemnation the tor
pedoing of the British passenger steamer Falaba,
with its sacrifice OF more than 100 unoffendng
noncombatants among them American citl-
zen German interpreters of the event agree with
DR.. Dernberg that this killing of innocent trav-
elcrs while regrettable,' was perfectly Justhable
in view of the provocation afforded by England
and the peculiar difficulties OF submarine warfare;
or they affirm, with The Fatherland, that the cap
tain of the Falaba was solely responsible for the
death of his passengers because when the Ger
/ man submarine first signaed him to stop he
failed to obey But it must be recorded that most
of our American papers take sharply different
view OF the case The killing of the Falaba pas
sengers and crew, declares the Philadelphia Public
Ledger. was "a crime against humanity, and re-
vcals Germany in the attitude Of "a frenzed beast
at bay 1t is mot war, but murder exclams the
New York World; and this characterization re-
ours, accompanied by such adjectives as brutal,
cold-blooded' 'cowardly and 'atrocious' in papers
like the New York Press Tribune, Sun, Times,
and Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, and
BROOKLYN Eagle 1t is assassination says the
Tribune and the Times remarks that 1t tends to
make the stories of other German atrocities crcdi-
bic 1t is an act of shocking bloodthirstIncss
and d massacre, in the opinion OF the Ph1ladel-
pha Inquirer and the New York Journal OF Com
| mercc calls it an atrocIty against which the
civilized world should protest with one voice
PIRACY is the New York Evening Posts word
for it. while the Albany Journal brands it bar
barism,' and the New York Herald 'barbarism
run mad To the New FORK Evening Sun IT is "a
| triumph OF horror and to the Evening Mail "a
humiliation to all the world III it is permissible
on the open sea to send a torpedo into an out
bound ship loaded with civilian passengers re-
marks the New York Globe, then it is manifest
that great injustice was done to the Barbary
warshps to the African coast This paper goes
on to say:
ali the rule that required the passengers and
crews OF attacked merchantmen to be protected
and which confined operations merely to the de-
structon OF property is to be dlsregarded. then
it is difficult to how it is possible logically to
oppose the poisoning OF water supplies, the intro
duction OF disease germs, and the employment of
assassins to murder the leading personages OF an
enemy nation. When a treacherous Greek offered
Il Tho -lr1rl Rnr led
the plot to Pyrrhus and indignantly delivered up
the Infamous creature who made the proposal:
But in these modern days, after $500 years OF
additional culture, the representatives OF civil
lzed nation, acting with deliberation and with
cold blood arc not sel-bound the Romans
were
Recalling our governments to Germany
in February the article in the Digest continued,
"in which it was definitely stated that If the COM
manders of German vessels OF war should destroy
on the high seas the lives OF American citizens,
the government OF the United States would be
constrained to hold the imperial government Of
Germany to strict accountability many OBJ
servers view the situation with the gravest con-
Germ A Washington dispatch to the Sun says
that because of the gravity OF the issue raised by
this first American death resulting from the Ger
man submarine program, State Department Off
Gals refused to comment the for publica
ton The correspondent goes to say:
at is regarded extremely probable that
the case will eventually have to be taken up with
the German government. The point of
law which will be made the chief basis of the
American case is that the Germans were under
obligation to put all the passengers and crew of
the Falaba in place of safety before sinking her.
This according to reports from Berlin. they de-
cidedly did not do. 1t is held that Thrashcr was
exercising his undisputed rights in boarding the
Falaba in England to 60 to Africa. and that the
German warning to neutrals not to take passage
on ships cannot be accepted by this government
as having any bearing this 1t is pre-
sumed that the German defense when the is
taken up will be that Thrasher took chances when
he became a passenger the Falaba
at is interesting to note that these pleas and
arguments do not prove altogether convincing
even to the Washington Post paper whose vigor
in denouncing England's treatment OF sea-
borne commerce prohibits any suspicion that it
is British in its leanings. Says the Post:
at will not do for Germany to assume that
because the United States is engaged in a dis
pute with England regarding the violation of
American rights this government or the American
people will condone other violations of their rights
by Germany.
"'Americans will resent injuries from Germany
as quickly as they will resent them from Eng