Middletown transcript., 1915-06-26
A FIENDISH CRIME

The Cupard Lines great steamship
Lusitauia steamed out of New York on
MAY 1st. On the morning of that day
the Imperial German Embassy at
Washington caused to be printed in the
prominent newspapers of the country
an official notice to the effect that
travellers sailing in the war zone on
ships of Great Britain or her allies do
so at their own risk. "
Besides the crew of 816 there were
more than 1850 passengers booked for
the Lusitania, and in the cabin were
many prominent citizens of the United
States, as well as of England. The
notice was not given much attention by
these passengers, for no person blessed
with even semblance of humane in
stincts could imagine that even fiend
in the lowest depths of the most ortho-
dox He'll could possibly conceive of a
crime so diabolical, so damnable, so
villaipous as would be the torpedoing
of passenger ship with only neutrals
and nom -combatants aboard.
And yet this fiendish crime was not
only conceived of and plotted, but it
was actually carried out and it was un-
questionably prepared for when the
Germany Embassy was ordered from
Berlin to print the warning notice.
There have been numerous crimes
committed in the name of "kultur"
during this war. The slaughter of in
offensive citizens in unfortified towns
oy bombs dr' pped from aeroplanes was
atrocious enough; the bombardment of
defenseless coost cities and killing of
women and children was inconceivably
cruel and wicked; the torpedoing of
merchant vessels without warning in
absolute defiance of international law
was outrageous in the extreme, but
every one of these atrocities pales into
insignificance in the light of this latest
CRIME OF INFAMY- this crime so
brutal, so barbarous, so pitiess, so hor-
rible, so cold-bloOded in its conception
and in the carrying out of it, as to pas
alze With CONSERVATION every man in
whose VeiB flows one drop Of decent
blood.
Germany threw international law
into the scrap heap when it established
its so-ealled war zone" and refused
TO abide by honorable warfare. But it
might at least have directed its atten-
ton to cargo carriers and transports
But with the craze of desperation its
maddened war lords haye deliberately
chosen to astound the whole civilized
world by picking for for their victim a
passenger ship filled with innocent
voyagers.
Why, this is not war on men, it is
war on women and childrenl
And it isn't even war, it is pure un-
adulterated murder. Murder was in the
hearts of the merciess wretches who
ordered their Assassins of the Sea do
their deadly work. On their hands is
the blood Of those who have perished
From the beginning of hostilities the
Germans have done their best to argue
citizens of the United States into their
way of thinking. They are said to be
puzzled over the fact that nearly all
Americans who are not of German ex-
traction have not sympathized with
them. They have sent men of brains
and great persuasive powers to this
country to reason with its people.
They have flooded US with printed
documents. But the reason for their
failure to make headway ought to be
perfectly obvious. One infamous, in
fernal, monst GUS crime like the torpe-
doing of the Lusitania isquite sufficient
to Offset every argument
If they cannot comprehend the enor-
nifty cf such offenses against civiliza-
ton, against 'kultur", at least the un-
, hyphenated citizens of the United
States do. To gain the ear of this
country, the German authorities must
radically change their methods.
The German Embassy gave warning,
but it is high time that declaration
should be made in return that the
United States cannot and will not brook
the murder of its nationals in any helm
Gus crime of this nature.
There are limits to patience - Inquirer.
!