New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-09-02
What Has Been Won.

many has passed. The note Of Count von
BernstorT to Mr.. Lansing patiently fur
nishes satisfying evidence of the change
in the German submarine policy. So far
as it is possible to Judge, and there can he
no desire TO minimize the value of the
Ambassadors words, Germany now &C
cepts the principle which has been the
point Of departure Of American diplomacy
that submarines shall exercise the right
Of visit and search before attacking pas
senger ships. In a word, Germany has
consented to live within the law which is
all that the United States has ever asked.
Internationally the first emotion of most
Americans will be one of relief and even
Of iubiation that the peril Of war has
been averted Certainly nothing was more
unmistakable in all recent tense days than
the reluctance and even downright horror
with which the people of this country
viewed the gradual drift of German
American relations toward that break
which could hardly be anything but the
prelude to war And there was in this
country not the smallest desire for war,
not because war was thing to be feared,
but because it was to most Americans a
thing to be hated.
Such an emotion, however, can be but
transient. nor will there be a much longer
span of life for that pride incidentally
stirred 10y the successful stand of Ameri-
can craftsmanship. We shall be more
thankful that we have avoided war than
exultant over any triumph in diplomacy,
whether great or small There never was
any desire to win a victory merely to
humilate Germany, and there will be no
enduring elation now because the termi-
nation Of the dispute brings the vindica-
ton Of the American contentious.
What will be of permanent significance
70 Americans is the fact that lies above
and beyond all else in the German-Ameri-
can controversy. American diplomacy
Mr.. Wilson-and in all discussion it is Mr..
Wilson whose responsibility has been COM
plete and to whom all credit is equally
due-has successfully defended civilization
against barbarism, law against anarchy.
1t has indicated the right to live as
sailed by the doctrine of "frightfulness'
which is but the policy Of murder.
The massacre of the Lusitania was only
incidentally an attack upon American citi-
zens. 1t was only in part wanton injury
suffered by one nation at the hands Of an
other. 1t was in addition ar attack upon
the rights, the liberties, the lives of citi-
yens of all neutral nations. 1t was
frank and fragrant demonstration Of the
German claw of necessity" which was in
itself the negation of all law, the death
sentence TO all humanity, if it could get
itself established.
It was not a question Of the right of
few American citizens to travel on pas
senger ships of a belligerent when they
carried ammunition 1t was not ques
ton of individual interests or privileges.
Those who saw in the Lusitania only
this saw but a minor detail. Above all it
was a question of the right Of a great
nation having the power TO kill TO use
this power in defiance of all the agree
ments, conventions, principles which men
have established and which stand as the
sole monument TO the progress of civiliza-
ton.
A year ago Germany demanded that
Belgium should surrender her indepen-
dence because Germany desired TO send
her troops across Belgian territory TO
strike France. Last February Germany
demanded that we should consent to the
murder Of American citizens when, pro-
fected by all the guarantees Of interna-
ssaos1 law, they were travelling on bellig
erent ships. Belgium refused and was
conquered and crushed. We refused and
our citizens, our women and children were
scattered over the sea, hapless victims Of
German necessity"
Had We accepted this German principle,
had we submitted TO this new law, which
was no law, international law would have
become a mere nothing memory, a con-