The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-24
EDITORIAL CAUSE .OF WIDE COMMENT THROUGHOUT SOUTH Many IndOrse While Others Dissent From Age-Herald
 Expression Thursday SPECIMEN LETTERS
 FROM THE READERS One Man Calls It Most Important
 Editorial Published During
 the Past Ten

No editorial expression in months has aroused such widespread comment as that in The Age Herald last Thursday morn- Declaration It has not only brought out views which commend and dissent from it, but has caused the subject to be seriously but dispassionately discussed everywhere.
 Many letters on the subject have reached The Age-Herald among them the following:
 To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 I was astonished, not to say shocked, by some of the statements contained in your editorials of April 20 and 21 rela- tive to the Presidents note to Germany I find it impossible to understand how anyone could apply the word impulsive to the Presidents action. I feel sure that am correct in saying that a large num- Der of the most thoughtful people of the country have had the feeling for months that the Presidents method of handling the question of the submarine outrages has been characterized by too much de- liberation rather than by impulsiveness. They have felt, and it seems to me that this. feeling was justified that our gov ernment was permitting itself to be drawn into contest in diplomacy in which the consideration of our fundamental rights were kept in the background and hidden from view by great fog of words on technical details. They have felt that this was humiliating in the extreme; that the country was losing in prestige and power; that it was undergoing as one of the most serious of the results an internal disintegration that bodied ill for the future.
 SOURCE OF SATISFACTION
 I am very certain that to a very great majority of the American peo- pie the stand taken by the President before Congress and in his note to Ger many has been a source of profound satisfaction, for here is an indication that this government does not intend to surrender in a cowardly manner to the Teutonic powers, who, repudiat- ing the obligations of civilized nations, have deliberately caused this war in the hope of gain, and in it's prosecu- tion have resorted to methods worse than barbarous.
 Our government demands that Gre many abandon its present methods of submarine warfare against passenger and freight carrying vessels. The right of belligerent to sink enemy mer- chantmen after providing for the safe ty of passengers and crew has never been denied. That submarine cannot provide for the safety of passengers and crew, cannot even expose itself to give warning without risking its own destruction, does not constitute a req son for a change Tn the laws of na- tions in the interest of submarines and at the cost of the principles of hu- manity.
 Professor Ladd of Yale university points out (New York Times. April 9) that we as a nation are confronted by very ugly dilemma: either we must give up our right as neutrals to be free from the risk of murder on the high seas or we must defend that right at all cost. To give up this most sacred of all rights-the right to life-is to give up all rights as neutral nation. Such a course of irretrievable shame would expose us in the future to in- calculable danger. We would be treat ed by other nations in any way that they might please to treat us; we would have no rights. We would, in fact, cease to be a nation at all. In this submarine controversy we must have not merely a diplomatic triumph; we want an actual cessation of the murderous deeds. That or nothing
 DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES
 With hundreds of thousands of other Americans I gladly subscribe to the following declaration of principles:
 1. We believe that there is morality of nations which requires every govern ment to observe it's treaty obligations and to order it's conduct with decent respect to the opinions of mankind.
 ?. We believe that the Teutonic pow