Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-01-19
Haze American Honor and
Riqhts Become a Byu0rd?
Editorial in the New York Tribune.

Editorial in the
There was a time III American history
whcn the spectacle OF some scores of wom-
en and children. American women ana
children among them. scattered over the
seas by Il brutal and murderous attack pS
d warship. their helpless hands out
stretched. appealing not to nationality nut
to humanity. would have moved the gov
eminent and the people of the tni'eu
States to a wrath and indignation Wllca
would have stirred the whole nation. IN
those better and drawer days no American
could have been brought to believe tnat III
later years. in the presence of such a
massacre. an American administration
would wait supine and complaisant, trust
ing that some technical preteSt might on
solve IL from the duty OF protecting
American lives or putting a final end to
crimes that would make Il red indiah
blush.
a hundred years ago, when this country
was weak and lacking in all that wealth..
numbers. national greatness could provide
to strengthen its hand, it did not hesitate
to venture on q doubtful war To perform
.hc first duty of any state. bow would IL
have seemed to the men of that day ii
they had been told that a time would come
in the history of their country when
AII!t q OIlcI any Nob'V ~
murdered upon the high seas by a friendly
nation-God save the ~mark,-that the
massacre would follow a direct and eH-
pllcit warning by the United States, ana
six months after the crime there would
still be no disavowal, no apology. not even
so much as a promise TO pay the poor IN
demnity which is the sole reparation pos
sible.
The men. women and children of the
Lusitania We're massacred because the
German government believed that the
Wilson administration did not intend to
make good its brave words with coura-
geous action. Out of pity for prospective
victims the German embassy in this coun-
try warned those who were banning to
go down to the sea upon the Lusitania
that they would be murdered. They We're
murdered, and the best that their own
country could do for them was to write a
note, three notes, magnificent in the lofty
humanity therein expressed and futile IN
effect and in purpose. To these notes Ger
many made only clubbing let
ting the last go wholly unheeded and
leaving the United States to mourn its
murdered dead without hope of repara-
ton.
Today. after the Ancona killing. as yes
terday, and all days since the submarine
blockade began, the American government
Is sitting calmly in the face of all the evil
i yin ltiut - HIoulltIilS VI a HiticCuS CllILS,
for which no technical defence is a de-
Tense, eagerly, hopefully, watchfully wait
ing for some prcteXt, detail, surface cir
cumstance which may excuse it from TAX
ing any action. 1t is thinking not about
the dead. the slaughtered women and chill
dren. not about the future perils and pos
sibilities for American women and chill
dren; it is thinking of the best way to es-
cape from the situation which only cour-
age could face and only deep and sincere
patriotism meet.
Across the water men, even women and
children, are giving their lives for the
things that are worth living and dying
Tor. They are making the supreme sac
rftice out of which arises national and
human greatness. Here in America, UNI
der the inspiration of Mr.. Wilson'S adj
mlnistration, the American people are day
by day absorbing more and more of the
cult Of cowardice and the gospel of self
1shness. 1t is better that some women
and children should be murdered than
that many men should risk their precious
lives. 1t is better that American honor.
all that America has meant in the years
OF our national existence. should be dis
carded than that this country should nut
TO the touch its comfort, its prosperity, it's
glorious peace, which is the peace of
cowardice. This is the New Patriotism.
More than all this. from day TO dav
- 0P Lie DtIIc lluI InGre
is something of super-nobility in this
American attitude, that there is something
OF hlgher morality, more perfect religion
In suffering murder. refusing to protect
your women and children, in being com
Portable rather than brave, and secure
rather than self-sacrificing, Just so long
as 1t Is possible to find appropriate words
and pretty phrases, just so long as it is
possible to declare an abstract devotion to
high principles without taking a single
step to defend or maintain these princi-
pies. Ihis is becoming the American doc
Urine OF pubic and international policy.
unhappily there is only one result to
such a policy. 1t does not invite, respect.
out murder; it does not make us respected
II does not even keep US safe. Today our
own country Is filled from one end to the
other with disorder and with violence.
which shows itself in fires. explosions
plotting. Ships that sail from American
ports break into flame. An Austrian am
bassador in this country becomes the cap
tain of sedition. and when sent home re-
cetves a decoration from his government
as the reward for his infamy. Alien
frtnges OF our population are making alien
interests the test of their votes cast in
our elections and openly boasting of IL.
Abroad American citizens have been
Killed in Mexico with an impunity that
staggers belief. On the high seas we have
mad murder after murder, and each MUIR
DER mas only provoked further literary exc
periments and excursions. At this present
nour no one sees the helpless women and
children sinking in the Mediterranean. VIC
tins of a fury and nadine beyond no.
lief; all that millions of Americans are
Il In - r~ IN-