Western Kansas world., 1916-03-25
weak against the aggression of the

strong.
To this people the invasion of Bel
gium brought a shock of amazement
and horror. If the public opinion of the
world was to remain silent upon that,
neutral upon that, then all talk about
peace and justice and international law
and the rights of man, the progress of
humanity and the spread of liberty is
idle patter. mere weak sentimentality;
then opinion is poweriess and brute
force rules and will rule the world. If
no difference is recognized between
right and wrong then there are no
moral standards. There come times in
the lives of nations as of men when to
treat wrong as if it were right is trea
son to the right.
The Wrong Done to Belgium.
The American people were entitled
not merely to feel, but to speak con-
cerning the wrong done to Belgium.
1t was not like interference in the in
ternal affairs of Mexico or any other
nation, for this was an international
wrong The law protecting Belgium
which was violated was our law and
the law of every other civilized coun-
try. That law was the protection of
our peace and security. 1t was our
safeguard against the necessity of
maintaining great armamentS and
wasting our substance in continual
readiness for war. Moreover, that law
was written into a solemn and formal
convention, signed and ratified by Ger
many and Belgium and France and the
United States in which those, other
countries agreed with us that the law
should be observed.
There was no question here of inter
fering in the quarrels of Europe. We
had right to be neutral and we We're
neutral rs to the quarrel between Ger
many and France. but when as an in
cident 30 the prosecution of that
quarrel Germany broke the law which
we We're entitled to have preserved
and which she had agreed with rs to
preserve we We're entitled to be heard
in the assertion of our own national
right.
Neutral Between Right and WronsI
Yet the American government ac-
quiesced in the treatment of Belgium
and the destruction of the law of ma
tionS. Without one word of objection
or dissent to the reputation of law
| or the breach of our treaty or the vio-
lation of justice and humanity in the
treatment of Belgium our government
enjoined upon the people of the United
States an undiscriminating and all en-
| bracing neutrality, and the president
admonished the people that they must
| De neutral in all respects in act and
| word and thought and sentiment We
were to be not merely neutral as to the
| quarrels of Europe, but neutral as to
the treatment of Belgium, neutral be
/ ioh ond xy-rOnp Montreal no.
tween justice and injustice, neutral be-
tween humanity and cruelty, neutral
between liberty and oppression. Our
government did more than acquiesce,
| for in the first Lusitania note, with the
| unSpeakable horrors of the conquest
| of Belgium still fresh in our minds, on
| the very day after the report of the
Bryce commission on Belgian atroci-
ties, it wrote these words to the gov
ernment of Germany:
| Recalling the humane and enlightened
| attitude hitherto assumed by the imperial
| German government in matters of inter
| national right and particularly with re-
| gard to the freedom of the seas, having
| learned to recognize the German views
| and the German influence in the field o1
| international obligation as always engaged
| upon the side of justice and humanity, etc
And SO the government of the United
States appeared as approving the treat
ment of Belgium. 1t misrepresented
the people of the United States in that
acquiescence and apparent approval
1t was not necessary that the United
| States should go to war in defense
| of the violated law. A single official
expression by the government of the
| United States, single sentence deny
I ing assent and recording disapproval
| of what Germany did in Belgium,
would have given to the people of
America that leadership to which they
were entitled in their earnest cropping
! for the light. 1t would have ranged
behind American leadership the con-
science and morality of the neutral
| world
1t was not to be. The American
government failed to rise to the de-
mands of the great occasion. Gone
were the old love of justice, the old
i passion for liberty, the old sympathy
\ with the oppressed, the old ideals of
| an America helping the world toward
better future, and there remained in
the eyes of mankind only solicitude for
trade and profit and prosperity.
Shrank From the Truth.
The American government could not
really have approved the treatment of
Belgium. but under a mistaken policy
it shrank from speaking the truth
Such policies as / have described are
doubly dangerous in ttheir effect upon
foreign nations and in their effect at
home. 1t is a matter of universal ex-
perience that weak and apprebensiye