The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-11-27
Our EeI-Iike Diplomacy.


appears to be the popular pastime at the State
Department just now. And the chief trouble APP
pears to be that everybody besides the State De-
partment has got it. And, whereas the State De-
partment appears to be obsessed with the sole
idea of seeing nothing and has assumed con-
Ntinuing attitude of suspended negation other
possessors of damaging evidence against the Ger
man arson gang have rudely insisted upon pub
fishing their discoveries to interested world.
But Il is always possible to overdo good thing
and it really seems as il the State Department
was beginning to overdo the know nothing, do
nothing" attitude, and that there must shortly
come sharp clash, as the result of which the
State Department will be accused of shielding the
German plotters of the United States.
Thus we have the Austrian attache boldly de-
handing that Secretary Lansing put end to the
newspaper campaign" against Consul General
Nuber and threatening to make diplomatic is
sue out of it unless the State Department apollo
gzes for allowing his name to be mentioned;
while on the other hand the editor of the Provi-
dence Journal asserts categorically that he has
handed to the State Department explicit and COM
plete evidence most of it over the signatures of
the men themselves, of the guilt not only of Nu-
Der and others, but even of the Austrian charge
Baron Zwiedinek. In the meanwhile we have the
State Department saying that there is evidence
of the criminality Of Boy-Ed-which is true since
he is diplomat and not subject to criminal
statutes-and that the department cannot take &C
ton unless it appears that Boyd knew of the
false registration of the ships intended for the
provisioning of the German warships. How could
it appear otherwise? He paid the money, knew
what he was paying it for. knew that ships could
not leave American ports with supplies for Ger
man warships unless they were falsely regis
tered. What additional evidence can be re-
quired? If the assumption of guilty knowl-
edge cannot be drawn from the above facts
then our jails are crowded with prisoners who are
unjustly languishing in durance vile because the
legal subtlety of the State Department not
at their command. But the State Department has
the right to ask for the removal of Boyd and
Won Papen and Zwiedinek and the whole German
and Austrian diplomatic stats if it has reason to
believe that the embassies here have been engaged
in merely cognizant of attempts by German and
Austrian plotters against the sovereignty Of the
people of the United States.
Does anybody doubt that they have been en-
gagged, that they have been oognizant? To add
greater perplexity to the lay mind we'll as-it
must be Misunderstanding to the suspicion under
which the State Department is beginning to fall.
We told that that department is at loggerheads
both with the Treasury Department and with the
Department of Justice which likewise at outs
with one another, and the gst of the quarrel seems
to be that action has been taken when the State
Department desired no action. OF course the evil
dence that the State Department has on all these
it doubt keeps secret though there is
strong indication that it will be required to pro-
duce such evidence before a committee of Congress
if something definite is not done to Capt Boyd
ct al before very long But the other evidence can
and will be published and if it should appear that
the Providence Journal any other paper has
furnished the State Department evidence upon
which it could have but has not acted the position
Of the President and Mr.. Lansing will be an I'm
fortunate one
Nobody has ever accused the administration of
being Policeman in sympathy and the fiery
oreathings of DR.. Hexamer and others indicate a
belief in the partisans of the Fatherand that it
Jared i'll at the administrators hands. In mat
ers in which the respective interests OF the belg
.rents have been concerned its attitude has been
admirably neutral But in matters concerning the
interests of Americans, their lives at sea and
he safety from bomb and arson of their ships and
factories the spine of the administration has as
'umed pliancy that would make the backbone OF
an eel look like the Washington Monument.