New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-03-26
Citizens Believe Germans
Sank the Lusitania Because They
Saw 1t Was Safe to Ignore Pres
ident Wilson's Notes.

.
four bitter years; and was it lapse into
barbarism' that made Julia Ward Howe
sing AS He died TO make men holy, let
US die TO make men free"
a thousand times-No, You and all
good Americans believe as we DO that II
was a splendid and heroic devotion TO
ideals so deep and sacred that against
them even death and suffering could not
be weighed. Is our struggle less sacred
and justified?
The publicists Of the nation (again with
notable exceptions) shake hands with
themselves over the unprecedented crops
the record exports, the capture Of foreign
trade, the gain by the United States Of
financial leadership, and thank God they
are not as those bloodthirsty Europeans
who were so misguided as 70 resist OPP
preston and stand up for their countries,
their homes, their lives and the honor Of
their women. One great and influential
section (blindly ignoring the issues in
volved and the practical possibilities Of
the position which confronts US and our
allies beats the air and cries out on the
wickedness of war and the beauty of
peace-peace at-well, almost any price,
so long as it be immediate. What care
they if it mean right forever on the
scafold, wrong forever on the throne /.
Another even larger section-and a
slightly worther one-views the war IL
a regretful but superior and bantering
way. constantly berating or ridiculing
their fellow democracies for plumbers in
strategy and that slowness in operations
of a military kind which is inevitable in
nations whose genius and desires are for
peace. Mistakes and delays in plenty
must be sorrowfully confessed (particu-
larly the tragic failure at the Dardanelles,
for which we alone were to blame) but
70 Canadians it seems that anything more
2 than careful and kindly criticism comes
with small grace from the country which
did not greatly distinguish itself in rails
ing and handling the few thousand men
needed for the skirmish with Spain, when
, such criticism is directed to nations which
are using, with what ability they have,
the mightiest armies and navies the world
ever saw, and winning, by however slow
and painful degrees, the desperate day for
civilization. Perhaps we are over-sensi-
tive, but peoples who are struggling for
their national lives are apt 70 be rather
intolerant Of the ungenerous sallies and
lofty criticism Of onlookers.
We in Canada read American news
papers, magazines and books much oftener
than we DO the somewhat stolid English
products; public men and affairs in the
United States are as familiar 70 Us as
our own, and we do not labor under the
delusion that the American people are
accurately represented by Bryan or Ford,
Hearst or Archibald, Hoke Smith or
Walsh, or any combination Of these per
sonalities But when the President Of
the United States speaks and his words
are enthusiastically indorsed by a large
proportion of press and people, we DO feel
justified in assuming that he fairly repre-
sents the national sentiment. And, with
all respect to his high office and the diff
culties of it, his guidance Of the country
and his public utterances since the conflict
began make, in our opinion, lamenta5le
record. Since his first proclamation no
one has been so insistent on strict neutral
ity in word and act as he, no one so will
ing TO stand apart from the great moral
issues, no one but he so blandly compla-
cent toward dastardly outrage that he
could send, on the birthday Of that mon
arch, "the cordial fluctuations Of himself
and the American people" to the Butcher
Of Belgium, while the noble little nation
still lay quivering in the bloody fangs Of
; its oppressor.
Perfectly consistent, no doubt; but con-
pratuIations under all the circumstance
, if there be any sincerity left in the world
quite pass the understanding Of plain
spoken folks like Canadians. Nor can we
ever forget that smugly self-satisiied
speech at indianapolis in which he pct
| ured the belngerent nations iaA Of IheH'
presumably, turning exhausted toward
the nation which has grown rich as the
/, supine spectator Of their struggles and
SAYING, you were right and we were
/, wrong. You kept your heads when we
Z, lost ours" Were BelgiurS and France
and England wrong and did they lose
their heads when they sadly faced the
. aronies Of this conflict rather than yield
to the arrogant oppressors not only their
own lives and liberties, but those Of all
, the world?
When he speaks thus, and when he says
with the same discrimination, the same
? lack Of Insignificant the war was made
, by the rulers, and not the people, We may
fatter ourselves and take comfort in the
, ,bouCht that he refers only 10 our enemies,