New-York tribune., 1915-12-09

way of Germany's territorial lusts and ambi-
tions. As Austria tore up the Treaty of Ber-
lin and appropriated Bosnia and herzegovina,
so Germany broke her plighted word ana
ravished Belgium. Her plans for the con-
quest of the United States are already in
print, and he who wills may read them.
Third, in the conduct of the present war
Germany has broken every law of nations
and humanity. She it was who first LAID
mines in the open sea and against the pro-
test of Great Britain. She has poisoned the
wells in South Africa and inaugurated the
uses Of asphyxiating gas and liquid fire. She
has Systematically despoiled Belgium, burned
her people out OF house and home. ravished
her women, killed the babes at the breast
and then taxed the harried remnant to the
verge of penury. Only the intervention OF
American charity has saved the Belgian peo-
pie from starvation. In her submarine war
fare she has shown even less mercy toward
non-combatants than on land Passenger
vessels have been torpedoed without warning,
and hundreds Of innocent women and children
have not been allowed a chance for their
lives. In the sinking of the Lusitania she
maritime history, and what is more, she
glories in it to this day.
Fourth, Germany has to all intents and
purposes declared war upon the United
States The country teens with her spies
and agents. They have attempted the assas-
sination Of Pierpont Morgan and endeav-
ored to wreck the bridge between the United
States and Canada They have forged our
passports, procured lying clearance papers
under false pretences, violated our neutral
ity, abused their diplomatic immunity, broken
their parole. conducted a criminal propaganda
and are now engaged in blowing up our man.
ufactores, killing our citizens and setting on
fire friendly ships sailing from our ports.
Such are the acts Of which Germany stands
convicted before the civilized world. They
are all acts which harmonic with her po-
litical faith and methods; but they are also
acts which deny the faith on which our Re-
public rests. There can be no means of
reconcilng her principles with ours, even if
she were disposed TO argue honestly and in
accordance with the laws Of mind. But what
makes reconciliation hopeless is the fact that
she has violated the laws Of reason as sys-
tematically as she has despised the laws OF
righteousness and mercy. The intellectual
tenor and procedure Of her propaganda are
~ once the despair and the laughing stock of
the human mind II is this intellectual dis
honesty which makes all attempts TO come to
terms with such nation both futile and su-
perfuous. Converse with her representatives
holds out no prospect of result, for when
person occupying the position Of Count Won
Bernstorff can be publicly convicted, as he
was last winter, Of having taken copious ex-
tracts from a well known English book and
of fnr his address.
which he delivered before an important
American society, there can be but little
confidence in German sincerity and truth
fulness. For be it remarked that Bernstorf
is not the exceptional bit of mendacity that
proves the rule of general German integrity,
but rather the illustration of a general false
ress demonstrative Of the exceptionalness of
Teutonic veracity. further example Of
what may fairly be regarded as a national
obNauity of character, although not of the
gross sort OF Won Bernstorf's literary theft
is the attempt recently made in "The Allan
tic Monthly" by Herr Kuno Franckc to prove
that there is no break between the Germany
Of Schiller and Kant and the Germany of
Bernhard and Won Tirptz, but that the in
vasion of Il neutral country and the massa-
ere of the innocents upon the Lusitania are
only logical extensions of that high Kantian
sense Of duty which preached the doctrine
"act so that men shall be treated not as
means but as ends"
. Such are be it admitted but individual in
stances of intellectual depravity on the one
hand and of perversity on the other, but they
are sustained by solid array OF falsehood
along the whole German front. The Kaiser
has publicly declared that Russia and France
bo-an the war; when the whole wide world,