Gilpin observer., 1915-07-29
SOME FRIENDLY INQUIRIES

llle language VI uiiiSiS
from that of business. Responding to
the latest German note in everyday
commercial terms, the president
would be apt to make these inquiries:
If, as Herr Won Jagow says, Ger
treaties between Prussia and the
United States, still in force, why
does it not respect them? In one of
them it is written:
If one of the contracting par
ties should be engaged in war
with another power, the free in
tercourse and commerce of the
subjects or citizens of the party
remaining neutral with the bel
ligerent power shall not be inter
rupted.
Thus far the protests of the Unit
ed States against Germany's invasion
of neutral rights has been based al
together upon international law. The
treaties between the two countries,
beginning with that of 1885, cover
nearly every point now in dispute, in
plain words and all of them have been
disregarded by Germany.
II as Herr Won Jagow says. Ger
many has no guilt" in the offenses
recently committed at sea, how does
it happen that its excuse for the
Lusitania massacre is not based upon
law or right but upon revenge and
desperation? A man who killed wo-
men and children on such a plea
would confess to murder. Is it diff
ferent with a nation?
If, as Herr Won Jagow says, Ger
many was driven by British naval
activity to submarine war on trade"
what is the precise use Of the great
navy which is now hidden in the Kiel
Canal? Is a civilized nation at war
privileged to decline honorable bat
tie and resort to cowardly assassina-
ton?
If, as Herr Won Jagow says, Ger
many is conducting war in self-de-
fense for national existence" how
does it happen that its armies are in
Belgium, France anc Russia, as they
have been from the first days of tie
struggle? Why are they not behind
German fortifications, like the float?
If, as Herr Won Jagow says, "ac-
cidents" involving neutrals at sea in
war time cannot be judged different
ly from accidents to which neutrals
are at all times exposed at the seat
of war on land does he refer par
ticularly to the accident that be-
fell neutral Belgium last summer and
autumn, when, through no fault of
its own, it found itself at the seat
of war?
If, as Herr Won Jagow says, Great
Britain Is in a position by reason of
its naval supremacy to give "the Ger
man people the choice of perishing
from starvation or surrendering in
dependence" what choice has Ger
many given to Belgium. which would
have starved but for American char
ity and whose independence has dis
appeared in slaughter and devasta-
ton?
Finally If the United States were
to accept Herr Won Jagow's gracious
permission on behalf of Germany, a
nation having not single first-class
ship on the ocean, to trade under the
tutelage of few prowling submar-
ines, what greater humiliation could
Germany put upon us at the end of
victorious war?
In the guarded language of diplom-
acy we have now been informed twice
from Berlin that Germany recognizes
nobody's rights under international
law. The next American note might
properly contain an inquiry in busi-
ness-like terms as to the German at
titude toward treaties-not treaties
with its near neighbors but treaties
with an old friend on this side of the
Atlantic, for whom 1t processes
high but rather eccentric regard
New York World.
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