New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-01-15

GUMS offence was the offence of
man who resists the passage OF an as
sasSin through his house seeking
short cut TO the house Of his neighbor.
The fancied necessity OF the sltua-
tion was of Germany's own creation.
Ii was necessity only from the point
of view of her haste TO quickly de-
stroy France. France had aimed no
blow at her; she was only getting
ready 10 ward off sucn a blow. France
would never have attacked Germany.
She did not dare to; and if she had
even contemplated such an act, she
was not ready 20 strike at that time.
If Germany had invaded France from
her own territory, as she did in 1870,
or had modified her army there and
waited for her enemy 10 strike the first
blow, how different our attitude toward
the whole matter would have been! In
1870 our sympathies were largely on
the German side. France was the
agPressor, and the fimsy cause of that
sham Napoleon did not win US. Now
the cause of the Allies wins rs because
it is the cause of civilization; it is the
cause of international morality; il is
the cause of neutral states; il is the
cause of the weak and the innocent
against the ruthless and the powerful;
it is the cause Of our heritage of peace
and good will to men against the ram
pant, the overbearing, the hellish war
spirit, drunk with the greed of con-
quest. The necessity of the highway
man TO act quickly, aiming knife o.
a bullet at your heart, is quite D..
fercnt thing in the eyes Of the wo4
from the necessity of his victim to Ict
quickly. We could excuse the latter If
his blow or his bullet injured some ore
else. but could we excuse the former
Germany was bent on assassinating
her neiRhbor and plundering her treas
ury, and we know why she wanted to
10 il quickly, but her fear of Russia.
whom she had defied, and the tramp Of
whose gathering hosts were in her ear,
does not make her crime any the less.
The sophistries with which the
learned Germans seek to dope their
consciences such as the assertion that
if Germany had not violated the neu-
trality of Belgium the French or the
English would and that French officers
in automobiles had been seen weeks
before in Belgian territory how
in her desperation Germany catches at
straws. No, not till our eyes are hold
en- that we cannot see, till our hearts
are turned to stone that we cannot
feel and our sense of right and wrong
dulled and obscured by German Kultur
till We cannot judge, can our sympa-
thies in this war be other than they
have been from the first.
In what respect does the conduct Of
the German army differ for the better
from that Of the highwayman or the
robber baron, who murders or over
powers his victim, and then takes or
demands his treasure? The money
penalties which Germany has demanded
OF PROSTATE Belgium and the destruc-
ton that has strewn her path place
her acts on level with the murder
and pillage of band of common out
laws.
believe we are justified in applying
10 this collective act Of the German
people the standards of justice and fair
play Of our civic and social life and OF
judging nations as we judge individu-
ais, because our humanitarian progress
during the last century points in this
direction. We feel the incongruity and
the debasing effect of one rule OF con
duct for man singly and another and
lower rule for man collectively. If the
nation can not and ought not TO be as
fair-minded and as Humanitarian as
are the individual units of which il is
composed, then we should like 70 have
the present day moralists and philoso-
piers of Germany-Haeckel, Eucken