The Washington herald., 1915-05-30
THE RIGHTS OF HUMANITY IN WAR
of Paper NotMn
Human

1t was demoralizing. The machinery Of
scientific warfare could not be oper-
ated by robbers. Wherefore. it is safe
to say that in the present war. private
the eye of an invading enemy than
woman's honor or human life itself.
Piracy ON the Seas.
speak only of private property on
land. Piracy continues as rampant
On the sea as in the days when KID
was the partner of an English King.
A hungry soldier holds up a ped
dler's cart on the highway; that Is
robbery. But when a sailor holds up
both ship and cargo. that is commerce
destroying. The United States from
the beginning has challenged this sur
vival of the buccaneering spirit and
championed the freedom of the wave.
On the other side stands England, in
sisting that her national existence Is
somehow wrapped up in the mainten-
ance on the seas of
the simple plan
That they should take who have the power
And they should keep who can.
The declaration of Paris is 1856 paid
tribute to virtue by forbidding pri-
watering. But the United States re-
fused its signature. though Its dissent
left 1t no other companion than Spain.
Secretary Marcy. on behalf Of ths
American government. insisted upon
the abolition Of commerce raiding by
navies as we'll as by privateers and
announced that on no other condition
would the republic sign the declara-
ton of Paris.
OF course. the Americans and all
agree that belligerents should still be
permitted to seize contraband of war.
But If the American contention had
prevailed. the great German merchant
ships now lying idle in the harbors
sail the seas as freely as in times OF
peace. And why not? For, after all,
the sea Is the great common of man.
kind. as Admiral Mahan himself said,
and as such the nations are equally
entitled to go and come upon it.
Yet commerce destroying is one of
the oldest institutions Of warfare.
Even in Plutarch We read of the
enemies of Athens capturing a cargo
of wheat destined to that city, and by
cutting off the food supply bringing
upon the Athenians a terrible famine.
To starve out an enemy nation by
maratime blockade has not. how
ever. been a common practice. al
though England attempted it for a
time in the early stages Of the French
revolution. The federal fleets main
tanned a close blockade Of the south
ern ports in the civil war. but without
any hope of reducing the Confeder-
ates to hunger.
The measure is new because until
our own time nations have not been
dependent upon imported foodstufrs.
The Scotch could raise enough to eat
and SO could each of the countries of
Europe In the era Of the general war
100 years ago. Only since mills and
and steamships came in have
nations specialized and grown really
dependent upon one another for sub
sistence.
The Foul Blow.
The Germans declare that since the
British are threatening to starve a
whole people. they are justified in tor
pedoing British merchant ships. But
naturally the world views the mere
threat in one instance very differently
from the horrible actuality in the
other instance. No one has yet been
starved to death. Moreover, the Brit
ish campaign of starvation against
Germany differs from the German sub
marine campaign against England in
one very vital particular. In the last
the Germans would at least
have a chance to surrender and there
by save themselves.
But that chance was denied the
helpless people aboard the Lusitania.
There was no quarter for them and
not even an opportunity to fight for
their lives.
Nor did Baron Won Schwarzenstein
Of the German foreign ONCE meet the
issue in his statement that "the new
ness of an instrument Of warfare Is
no argument against using It." Tho
world has not condemned Germany's
because they. are a new
weapon in warfare. but because they
have been turned upon peaceable per-
sons on a peaceable errand, subjects Of
neutral and enemy nations alike. It
would have been no more and no less
heinous IL German dreadnought SUD-
denly had opened q broadside out Of
q fog and with her 1s-inch guns swept
the decks Of the Lusitania. Mankind
Is aghast not because the deadly blow
was delivered beneath the water. but
because It was dealt beneath the belt.
International law IL only fair play,
tempered with such mercy as human
ity has been able to wiring from the
fiinty heart Of war. 1t has no super
and no 42-centimeter
guns with which to enforce its pro-
visions. Its sursst and swiftest pen
Atty has been Indicted when. a. now,
the whole neutral world cries "foul!"
-