Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-07-14
AMERICA AND THE LusITANIA

Honolulu, July }.
Editor Honolulu Star-BuIletin, -.
Sir: There were several errors oil
Judgment that were undoubtedly con
| tributary factors In the Lusitania ca
tastrophe. Among these may be men
toned, the running CT this great vessel
at reduced speed. Her owners wanted
to save coal and reduce expense. Tes.
timony to this effect was given at the
coroner's inquest
The failure of the British admiralty
to protect the Lusitania from subma.
rine attack was a blunder. This ship
was torpedoed within sight of land
and within a very short distance of her
home port. England has numerically
and in tonnage the largest fleet of
war vessels of any naA'on, yet no eff.
fort was put forth by her to safeguard
the homecoming of this great liner.
We Americans contributed to the
disaster when we permitted the ship
ment of munitions and other contra
band on a passenger vessel
Undoubtedly we have the legal"
right to sell war supplies to any bel
ligerent in any war Whether we also
have the right to imperil the lives OF
passengers by forwarding contraband
on the same ship is an open question.
Ii depends on whether, when we in
woke the supreme law of humanity and
make our stand on that. we are willing
to recognize Its universal scope. We
cannot invoke the law and then limit
its direction.
We cannot place the cnus of blame
on the owners of the Lusitania an
say it was all their fault-that they
should not have accepted that class of
freight We who shipped, and they
who contracted to carry, war muni-
tions on a passenger ship are not abb
solved from moral obligation because
both were within their legal rights.
Suppose the position had been re-
yersed Imagine the United States
had been at war with Canada and that
we believed IL we could prevent Ger
many from delivering a cargo of am
munition to our enemy we would win
the fight. If we knew great German
passenger liner heavily laden with war
IF we had convinced ourselves that
could we intercept that particular car
go it would end the war in our favor
ARE we Americans so sure of our
high standards of humanitarianism
that we would applaud the commander
of one of our submarines If he per-
mitted the vessel to pass because
there were women and children
aboard? l hope we would, but con-
fess am a little doubtful whether
we could measure up to that high
moral standard.
| say this, not for one moment in
justification of Germany's act. but only
to ask the question. We. as nation,
are following President Wilson up into
the pure and rarefied atmosphere OF
higher Christian morality. We have
invoked the Supreme Arbiter to up
hold the cause of humanity as some
thing higher, better, more noble and
more just than the selfishness bred by
war, the selfishness of self-preserya-
ton. In fear and trembling | ask 1t,
could we as nation fly far, or long,
on that higher plane? Would no man
among us applaud when that Germanic
'Lusitania' went down? Would we
hang our submarine commander for
murder, or imprison the crew?
To me the wonder of this time and
age is that SO many men in all lands
should now be openely questioning the
two earth-old proverbs might makes
right" and, "Alls fair In war
We of the United States are trying
to read a new moral principal into the
conduct of human affairs. Are we as
a nation so pure, so untainted with
sordid commercialism that having
climbed to these mountain heights we
can continue to stand there, unabash
ed and unafraid?
Will Uncle Sam question his own
soul to discover whether he is seek
ing the right because 1t is a concept
of human morality, or will he follow
the lead of other nations and dwell
on the LEGALITY" of his position-to
back up that legality by force AMI
arms?