Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-05-11
Tuesday, May II, 1915.
Facing a Crisis.

crisis which he must meet has been
reached in the affairs Of this nation
The people of our country are afiam
with indignation, first, but cannot re-
strain the undercurrent Of disappoint-
ment and grief that friendly power
If high civilization should inf1ict such
a blow upon the unarmed and inno-
cent in order to stab an enemy.
America has always known how to
have arisen; it will successfully meet
this one in a way to go down in his"
tory on the side Of the laws of God
and man.
This crisis has been thrust upon US
violation of the rights of neutrals and
noncombatants. Our protests have
been ignored and our patience scoffed
at by those who speak for the Ger
man people.
It is now plain to every American
that this cannot go on indefinitely.
Neutral peoples have rights as we'll as
those who establish hell on the fair
face Of the earth.
Because a nation is powerful ami
has become blood mad, Is no reason
that it should be allowed to run
amuck upon the earth.
Even were it necessary in the prose.
cution of Its war against the allies, to
sink their merchant ships, the nom
combatants aboard such ships should
be given reasonable time in which to
leave the doomed craft before it IS
sunk.
Amy method of warfare that pre-
cludes such human practices, common
down through all modern times, is be-
yond the pale of civilization. 1t will
not be recognized by the world, and
the nation which persists in any war.
fare so inhuman must eventually lose
her place as a nation, her opportunity
to iniiict barbarism upon the world.
AS we understand it. Germany
claims that she had moral right t.
murder any number Of people to pre-
vent the Lusitania from placing arms
in the hands Of German enemy. She
claims to have sunk a great passenger
steamer because that ship carried
guns. mounted and unmounted" to-
gether with great quantities of am
munition.
AS a matter Of fact. the Lustanil
carried no guns, either mounted or un !.
mounted, and no ammunition of any
kind. That statement is sworn to By
the Cunard S. S. Co.
Thus does Germany's EXCUSE con.
viet her Of having taken hundreds Of
human lives on misinforma alton whie,
she did not investigate.
Is that the part of government
that the world should permit to gro :,
and thus take the chances of its be-
coming dominating power?
Last Fridays act awakens The world
to the possibilities Of German domino
tion-what If Germany should defeat
the allies?
The German question has become n
world question. without going farther
back than last Friday. Can the neu-
trail nations afford to take the chances
Of a German victory in Europe? III
pursuing pitiless. inhuman policy Of
determination to create terror. Of the
German hand. to carry outsa .sreient-
less plan of retaliation for Failure IA
obey the slightest whim OF the wax
party. has not Germany outlawed her
self before all nations. and totally
alienated all real friendships among
the most advanced powers, both grea.
and small?
No attempt on the part of Germany
can justify such acts as the sinking of
the Lusitania. the Falaba. or the Gulf
light as military necessity" That Is
the brazen pretense of sentiment
deadened militarism.
Frederic r. Coudert. the distin-
guished international lawer says:
"If the destruction Of the lus;<.n;.
however, 10 indicative that the Ger
man Government means to destroy oil
vesssis-enemy or neutral-in the 90.
called war gone because Of the posi-
biiity Of their carrying eontraband tn,
question assumes gravsst proportions
No seIf-respeetins Government can
sequissee in the destruction Of its
ships or its citizens upon the high
ssas. Such destruction would eonsti
tuts an act Of lawlsss aggression"
Lorenzo Ullo. specialist in interna-
tional and admiralty laws. says:
"Ths sinking Of the Lusitania is en-
tirsiy contrary to international law
A war gone, such a. the ship is sup
posed to have been within when sunk
10 new invention for nsw conditions
and Il 10 also outside The rules Of in