New-York tribune., 1916-02-21
PAYING THE PRICE
The Tumng Condition Wilson's Policy Has Brought
the United Sates-Stil More to Pay in the Future-Ihe
of War Is Not Averted.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: Many of our people continue to con-
eratulate themselves on the fact that We
have been kept out of the war. Few seem
TO give heed to the price that we have paid
for occurring that privilege Some Of ns be
lieve it to be far greater than any we should
have been called upon to pay had We taken
the risk of being drawn into the conflict be
cause Of standing firmly for what we knew
to be the mora right of nations, instead of
evading every moral issue, as the present
government has done so consistently.
What is the price we have paid? 1t is to
have acquired the enmity of the most pow
crful military despotism on earth and lost
the friendship and gained the contempt Of
every other nation. Does any one believe
that to have done these things is to have
averted the danger of war? No one who
uses his mind can think so.
No one will deny the truth of the follow
rg statements: International law and treaty
rights were self-oonfessedly set at naught
when Germany invaded Belgium. The people
of the last-named country, civil as we'll as
military, were treated by the Germans with
savages.
Our own people hav, been killed while
travelling on peaceful errands on unarmed
merchant vessels, some of which have been
sailing under our own flag, some of them un
Ger that of one or another Of the countries
at war with Germany.
An underground warfare has been carried
on in our own territory By agents of Ger
many, in the course of which some Of our
of others has been destroyed.
To add to the significance of these crimes,
in so far as they relate to the attitude OF
our government, our women have been out
ragged and our men killed in Mexico with i'm
punity ever since this administration has
been in Office
What has the government of the United
States done In the face of these crimes
Nothing! Nothing of decisive nature!
Nothing that promises their cessation
Until eighteen months after the beginning
of the war the President confined his activi-
ties to the writing of diplomatic letters, not
one word of the demands contained in which
hes he taken any steps to make operative.
He has counselled us "to maintain our
poIse," Ito think neutrally"-which is to say
70 think not at all. lie has told us that a
man may be too proud to fight" when his
own people were being killed before his eyes.
He has informed US that this country has
nothing to do with the war"-a war in which
every national ideal, every free institution
in which the very roots of our national hfe
are planted, Is being attacked and threat
ened with extinction by the greatest military
despotism on earth, and defended by the
peoples Of the countries who hold dear the
same principles OF human liberty as we hav,
always held dear; a war in which. should
Germany be the victor. our own national ex-
istence would very presently be exposed 70
her attack And we are told that this war
has nothing to do with Us by the man who
~ st the head OF our state; who, whatever
else he may lack. is not defective In knowl-
edge of the worlds history and cannot claim
ignorance as an excuse.
Thus have passed the first eighteen month 5
Of the war, so far are concerned
passed in condoning the smashing to bits OF
international law; In condoning the murder
OF our own people on the high seas and in
Mexico, and in allowing to gather headway
the underground warfare conducted on our
territory by the agents OF Germany. who
have added TO the items OF the list Of our
dead and Of our properties destroyed.
SO much for the time until Congress as
sembled. Then at last the President awakes
to the fact that more and more Of our people
are no longer willing, out of respect for his
office. TO remain silent and patient under the
humiliation to which he has subjected them
by this course OF evading all moral respon-
sibility, and comes to the realization that he
is inviting disaster and defeat for himself
and his political associates at the next cleo
ton ii be does not adopt new one. So he