New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-13

receives decoration from MS SoNcih'
a. the reward of his infamy. Alien
fringes of our population are making alien
interests the test of their votes cast IN our
elections and openly boasting OF 1t.
Abroad American citizens have been
killed in Mexico with an impunity that
staggers belief. On the high seas we have
had murder after murder, and each muir
der has only provoked further literary
experiments and excursions. AT this pres
ent hour no one sees the helpless women
and children sinking in the Mediterranean
victims of fur and madness beyond be
lief: all that millions Of Americans are
thinking of, so the Washington dispatches
would indicate, is some pretext that Will
save o reluctant Administration the dill
Guilty of defending, not the lives of Ameri-
cans but the abstract principle that muir
der is if not a crime, at the least IAN un-
friendly act"
Let us take full measure of the estate
to which we have come. Let US reailze
that this estate was bound to be reached
when we consented to suffer the murder OF
the women and the children of the Lusi-
tania to go unatoned, even by the miserable
fiction of disavowal and apology. There
never was any reason after that why any
nation should have the smallest hesitation
in numbering Americans. This the Ter
mans continued to do in the Channel and
the Atlantic until British fleets had re-
duced the number and restricted the area
of operations of German submarines. only
when the submarine campaign IN the
north had collapsed did the Germans fling
us a surly and grudging pledge TO quit
massacre as an occupation.
Now. when they have found another
open sea, in which it may take more
months before their submarines can be
DISPOSED of, they and the Austrians are
setting forth on new campaign OF slaugn-
ter. and American lives are once more the
first sacrifice. But there is no reason 10
emphasize the American lives; Mr. Will
sons admirers would have us believe that
our Government has become the champion
of neutral rights and neutral lives the
world over. 1t has, in words, and the
Germans have answered the words by
a deed which will remain memorable In
the assembled records Of human brutality
and shame.
The women and children of the Ancona
have persisted as did those Of the Lusi-
tania. They have persisted because their
murderers were satisfied that no American
act would follow such crime. They have
perished because Berlin and Vienna right
" believe that in America safety first is
the motto of the Administration and OF
the people. whom the Administration rep
resents. Berlin and Vienna believe that
Mr.. Wilson and his advisers will see. not
the unfortunate human beings helpless
and defenceless tossed into the sea, but
some technica: excuse by which they can
escape the responsibility Of honor and
humanity which rests upon the nations
whose citizens are thus destroyed.
We have come long way since the
morning of the Lusitania stirred our
moral indignation and universal horror.
By degrees We have grown calous TO all
the appeals OF human sympathy and hu-
man emotion. Safety first" has become
the watchword Of the sons and grandsons
Of those who through four long years gave
y cir lives that the conception Of America
which came % them from their fathers
should be transmitted unsullied and IN
stained. Fifty years ago men died without
hesitation that the things that we're more
-ban life might live. To-day ne are taught
and our Government is conducted on the
idea that 20 escape all danger and avoid
all sacrifice is the noblest possibility m
life or citizenship, that life itself is every
thing. and what one makes Of life is moth
ing.
50 far We have come. Let us not mis-
take the fact or the cause. Il it not posi-
be that some day those who are responsi-
bic for this betrayal ~ America. the true
America. may be overwhelmed ~ an up
rising that will find ia inspiration IN The
words. "Rernember the Lusitania'?