Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1915-05-14
COUNTY OFFICIAL PAPER
CITY OFFICIAL PAPER
THE SINKING OF THE LUsITANIA

Dastardly is none too gentle word to describe
1t, as it appeared to the American people. non
combatants and neutrals they are nor horror
too mild to express the feeling which pervaded
them when the first news of the sinking of the
Lusitania by German submarine and the death
of twelve or thirteen hundred persons one him.
dred and twenty of them Americans was flashed
over the country Elsewhere in this issue are
published the comments of the larger newspapers
OF the United States this incident that came
so close home to Americans comments written
when the affair was still startling and which
therefore reveal quite reliably the first impress
sions created by the tragedy. Elsewhere, too, are
printed portions of that remarkable speech by
President Wilson to four thousand newly natural
ixed citizens at Philadelphia Monday night
speech which we believe reflects the calmer surer
Judgment OF the American people the Lus
tania affair, the speech in which he said:
The example of America must be special
example. The example Of America must be the
example not merely Of peace because it will not
tight, but of peace because peace is the healing
and eevating influence of the world. and strife is
not. There is such thing as man being too
proud to fight. There is such thing as a nation
being right that it does not need to convince
Others by force that it is right
Germany, justifying its course by military
necessity, has sent statement to this country
from its foreign office expressing its deepest
sympathy at the loss of lives aboard the Lusi-
tania' but placing the whole responsibility on
England. Meanwhile German and Austrian news
papers hail it as wondrous feat Of warfare,
while singulary the press of every neutral nation,
the nations whose goodwill it would seem Ger
many would want in this present strife, refer to
1t as have our own newspapers. What Germany
sought to obtain by this act we, of course, do not
know; what it secured, we believe certain, is the
enmity in greater or less degree of every neutral
nation the hostility instead of the favor of neu-
trail opinion.
The course which the United States will pursue
has not been officially published this is written
Unoffically it is reported the United States will
demand that Germany its present mode of
warfare by sea and confne itself to the estab-
lished rules of maritime warfare. That the United
States will not declare war on Germany or break
off diplomatic relations seems certain for there is
such demand in the popular sentiment of this
country. The American people do not want war;
If it can be avoided and the integrity, honor and
respect of the nation be maintained. Peculiarly
there has not been that strong of sentiment
that might naturally have been expected, such
sentiment as would be satisfied with nothing short
of war as, for example, followed the sinking of
the Maine, to which the Lusitania affair was
ikened iii the first moments. The American
people have been quick to note the difference in
the two instances, to note particularly that the
sinking of the Lustania not direct attack
upon the American government but upon Eng
land, and that those Americans who persisted did
so because they ignored the advice of our own
state department and the advertised warnings of
the German embassy.
We do not mean to suggest that the American
people forget the piratcal nature of the incident
we do mean that in the calmer view of it, they
have confidently placed the decision of this ma
tion's course in the president hands, apparently
sure that it will be handled by him rightly aud
Justly and with honor to this nation IF they had
not had that faith there certainly would have been
stronger consolidation of popular sentiment and
a pronounced statement of it having it, they are
going about their business in their way,
afraid of the president s disposition Of it.