The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1915-07-22
C. 0. P. LEADER
ATTACKS POLICY
SAYS GERMANY IS LED TO BE-
& LIEvE U. S. is BLuFFINe.
OUR POSITION misunderstood
Berlin Thinks Same Result viii
Come as Came With Mexico, and
Germany Refuses to Take the
Protest Seriously.

| Washington, d, c., July 49,. - The
German disregard of American views
on submarine warfare is founded large
ly on the belief that the United Stat
es is bluffing in the same way that
the MeXicans were bluffed, is the
/ opinion that J. B. Reynolds, secretary
of the republican national committee,
expressed in a letter he has just sent
out. And Germany is not understand
ling President Wilson's position, just
as Mexico did not understand, he
says. Here is what the letter says:
That Germany's reply to the So
called Lusitania' note is highly un-
satisfactory is the verdict OF Presi-
dent Wilson, Secretary Lansing and
of the great majority of editors
Throughout the country, irrespective
| of party. The German communica-
ton ignores the carefully prepared
and forceful arguments of President
Wilson's note and submits a series of
contentions more suitable for news
Paper article than for serious dip
lomatic controversy.
. Public Mystified. ..
But while this is the general opin-
ion regarding the German note, the
public appears to be mystified regard
| ing the reasons for its unsatisfactory
character. They cannot understand
why Germany: has not taken the Unit.
ed States more seriously, why that
government did not take, up and at
tempt to answer the various conten-
tons of the United States. There are
however, many students of inter-
national affairs including certain for
eign diplomats stationed in Wash
lington, who are convinced that an
examination of the administration
Mexican policy-or lack of policy
Iaffords complete explanation of the
attitude of the German foreign office,
Especially when taken in connection
with the extraordinarily forceful-not
to say Observation-Disclosures of Presi-
dent Wilson's note to Germany of
Feb. 49,, in which replying to Ger
many'S announcement OF her estab
| lishment OF the war zone, Mr.. Wils1l
wrote that if Germany's naval author
| tiles infringed the rights of American
Citizens, the United States would be
constrained to hold the imperial Ger.
man government to a strict account
ability for such acts b..
I'm the conduct of our relations
with Germany, the administration
! has repeated the blunder it made
with Mexico, placed itself on plane
| OF lofty idCalism and used language
entirely too strong for the occasion
in February, only to eat its words in
July On Feb. 4, Germany proclaimed
oh
dent Wilson replied to the pTOClama-
ton with threat, not only asserting
that Germany would be held to a
strict accountability if it infringed
the rights of Americans on the high
seas, including those within the war
zone, but in diplomatic language,
threatened war il Germany failed to
heed the warning.
Did Not Heed Warning.
Germany did nOt-she claims she
could not-heed the warning. The
American ship Gulfight was sunk
with the loss of American lives and
the Lusitania was sunk with loss of
hundreds of American lives, And
Germany has not been held to "a
strict accountability any more than
were the Mexicans.
The impression that Americans
are nation of buffers has been
strongly confirmed.
| And now Germany has refused to
take seriously the presidents protest
regarding the sinking of the Lusi-
tania while students of international
anairs are convinced the explana-
ltion is to be found in the administra-
tons weak and vacillating Mexican
policy and in the in1iscreet threat
contained in its note to Germany of
Feb. 10.
1T is noteworthy in this connection
| that when Mr.. Wilson made public
his note of Feb. 10 two of the ablest
: diplomats In this country, John Bas-
sett Moore, a democrat, and Elibu
Roo, a republican, both privately ex-
pressed the conviction that the presi-
dent had erred grayely in uttering a
threat which he was not prepared to