Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1915-05-14
THE SINKING OF THE LUSTTANIA

NTfOIH Lie lNCI Olk w ora.
The circumstances md the conse-
quences of the destruction of the
Lusitania by German submarine
call for all the sclf-reatraint and self
possession that the american people
can command.
Morally, the sinking of the Lusi-
tania was no worse tn;tn the sinking
of the Falaba.
In each case Il passenger ship carry
ing ncutrals and n-combatants
was destroyed by German subma-
rine, and hundreds of helpless men
women and children left to survive
or drown, as luck decreed. The de
struction of the Lusitania makes
more dramatic appear to the hui
man imagination than did the de-
struction of the Falaba, but both were
crimes against civilization in equal de-
gree.
How many American lives have
been snufred out in the loss of the
Lusitania we do not yet know. But
it is no fault of the German Govern
ment that anybody escaped from
either ship. 1t is no FAULT of the
German Government trat every Am
erican on board the Lusitania is not
lying at the bottom or the sea.
The German authorities claim in ex-
tenuation that fair warning was given
by the German Embassy in Washing
ton that the Lusitania was to be
torpcdoed. Murder does not become
innocent and innocuous because the
victim has been warned in advance
that the blow would be struck if he
persisted in the exercise of his law
full rights.
1t may be said in respect to this
warning that nobody believed the
Germans could or would carry out
their threat. People thought better
of them that they thought more of
themselves And why they should
have carried out the threat, abetted
by the complaisant Indifference of
the British Government, is still a
mystery.
What military advantage was gain
ed by such procedure comparable to
many that it is certain to produce?
wars are not won by drowning neu-
trails or -combatants. We ven
ture to say that no single act of
TINS conflict has so outraged Ameri-
can opinion or so riddled German pre-
stige in this country as the destruc-
ton of the Lusitania. The Ger
mans have sunk the largest British
ship in active mercantile service.
They have destroyed small quantity
OF munitions of war. They have evil
IDENTIFY killed II large number of AM
ericans and non-combatants In the
long run they might better have lost
= battle. The military gains are
thrilling. The moral losses are in
caiculahlc.
The whole German submarine
policy IN its campaign, not against
BRUSH ships of war but against
merchantmen on the high seas, is a
revival TO piracy-piracy organized.
systematized and nationalized. II
is piracy against neutrals as well as
against enemies. One day it is a
british passenger ship that is torpedo
ed. Another day it is an American
merchant ship flying the American
flag which is destroyed without a
word OF warning. And still another
DAY 1t is n defenseless Swedish or a
Dutch ship that is blown from the
lace of the waters by a German
torpedo.
Modern history affords no other
Snch example of great nation run
nlng amuck and calling it military
necessity.
what Germany expects to gain by
her policy is something we cannot
guess. What advantage will it be to
her to be left without a friend or :,
weli-wisher in the world? The war
cannot last for ever. Peace will even
tually come, if only through exhnus-
tion. What will be the attitude of
the other nations toward GERMANY
when the conflict is finished? How
many decades must pass before Ger
many can live down the criminal rec
ord that she is writing for herself in
he annals of history?
IL mas often happened that men in
their desperation often become ONT
laws. But we recall no other in
stance IN which great nation has
deiiberately elected to become an out
'&w' That is the tragedy of the in
sensate policy that the German wov-
c;nment is pursuing, and eventually
the German people will pay a stag
gerlng price for their Governments
foliy-a price that cannot be r,as-
tired even in treasure or blood.