Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-05-10
Monday, May 10, 1915.
Have We Any Rights?

AuSltdIld 'CoA6C 1ls tlcIcChs pun
Usher of the German paper, THE Fa
therland," says:
illegally and morally there is nc
basis for any protest on the part Of
the United States"
This complacency ION the part Of
the" mouthpiece of a nation will
arouse more bitterness in the United
States and among all the neutral ma
tons, than did the act itself. That
any one of group Of warmad pow
ers should assume that any act they
may inflict upon the world, in open
violation Of all the traditions and
agreements of civilization, must be
accepted because THEY are "AT
WAR" and choose to so act and that
any reprisal or protest would be in
violation of moral and legal rights.
Whom the gods would destroy they
first make mad"-Germany is mad.
We speak Of the controlling hand OF
the German people as Germany
but we feel sure that the great masses
regret Fridays action of their gov
eminent as much as do the neutral
nations. Dispatches from London
quote Berlin papers as declaring that
the German people rejoice in the
act" We do not believe it.
The German war party-that ele-
ment of the German people which has
lived war for a generation, whose fin
er sensibilities have been deadened by
the nurtured and forced growth of the
war spirit; whose imperialism has
been lived, and boosted to each other,
and rehearsed ten thousand times
that element rejoices in the spectacle
of wholesale slaughter, to prove TO
friend and foe that they CAN and are
NOW READY to relentlessly carry
out such hellish methods of warfare
as no savage was ever competent TO
conceive.
That is the part of Germany that
rejoices in the sinking of the Lusita-
nia-but it is NOT 1.-THE German peo-
pie"
The German government and its
representatives in America and else
where knew the coming fate of the
Lusitania and awaited the tragedy
with calmness, having soothed the
conscience of a militaristic creed by
warning neutral citizens not to trust
their lives to the ships of an enemy
of Germany. They knew almost to
the hour the time when the subma-
rine would arise in the steamships
path and send it with it's human
freight to the bottom. They were ex-
pectant of the first bulletins from
England telling of the disaster.
DR.. Bernard Dernburg, former COL
onial secretary Of Germany, says the
sinking of the Lusitania was justifi-
able; that the Lusitania and the
Gulflight deserved sinking.
These facts are the exasperatina
influences which America must swaI-
low, while considering the act itself,
the grief Of it's people, and the nation
al honor.
1t is true that the Lusitania carried
war material; that she was sailing
under the flag Of an enemy of Ger.
many; that Americans and other neu-
trails had been warned not to sail in
her; that Germany had openly
threatened to prove her ability; to
strike even at the expense Of the
whole world. .sgs -
Germany has proved her ability to
strike-NOT the war forces of her
enemy, but the unarmed mem women
and children Of many nations among
them strong friends Of her people ana
believers in the business of her cause.
Germany has also proven that she
struck these helpless people without
giving them opportunity to leave the
doomed ship.
Civilized" warfare provides for
warning previous to the bombardment
of a city, that non combatants may
escape. In this new warfare" Ger
many has proven her disposition and
now claims the right Gf she could do
it) to destroy at one blow all the
people Of a nation, because some Of
those people had dared disobey the
ediet Of the German war faction.
Americans disobeyed the war lord
and paid for it with their lives.
And now the German Government
and its henchmen proclaim that
"America has no moral or legal RICH.
to protest"
All these points must be weighed
with care by those who hold Ameri-
cas- rights and honor in hand. We
have no desire to rock the boat" bu-
we believe it is high time to throw
overheard some Of the fools who ARE