Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-04-19

/ the slightest color of Justification. No
limit of any kind has in fact been set
/ to the indiscriminate pursuit and de-
struction of merchantmen of all kinds
and nationalities within the waters,
constantly extending in area where
these operations have been carried on:
and the roll of Americans who have
lost their lives on ships thus attacked
and destroyed has grown month by
month until the toll has mounted into
the hundreds.
Cites Shocking Instances
Zone of the latest and most shock
ing instances of this mode of warfare
was that of the destruction of the
French cross channel steamer Sussex;
IL must stand forth as the sinking OF
the steamer LuSitania and, as so sin
gularly tragical and unjustiiiable as to
constitute truly terrible example OF
the inhumanity of submarine warfare
as the commanders of German vessels
have for the past IL months been con-
Quoting il.
''If this instance stood alone, some
explanation, some disaVowal by the
German government, some evidence of
criminal mistake or wilful disobe-
dience on the part of the commander
of the vessel that fired the torpedo
might be sought or entertained; but
unhappily il does not stand alone.
evitable that it is only one instance,
even though it be one of the most eX-
treme and distressing instances, of the
spirit and method of warfare which
the imperial German government has
mistakenly adopted. and which from
the first expressed that government to
the reproach of thrusting all neutral
rights aside in pursuit of its imm ediate
objects.
The government of the United
States has been very patient At
every stage of this distressing expert
ence of tragedy after tragedy in which
its own citizens were involved it has
sought to be restrained from any eX-
tTeme course of action or of protest
by a thoughtful consideration of the
extraordinary circumstances OF this
unprecedented war, and actuated in
all that it said Or did by the senti-
ments of genuine friendship which
the people of the United States have
always entertained and continue to
entertain towards the German nation.
1t has, of course, accepted the success
siVe explanations and assurances of
the Imperial German Government as
given in entire sincerity ana good
faith, and has hoped, even against
hore, that It would prove 20 be pos
sible for the German Government so
to order and control the acts of its
naval commanders to square its policy
with the principles of humanity as
embodied in the law Cf nations. 1t has
been willing TO wait until the signili-
canoe of the facts became absolutely
uImistakaDle and susceptible of but
ono Interpretation.
That point has now unhappiIy been
reached. The facts are susceptible or
but one Interpretation. The Imperial
German Government has been unable
to put any limits or restraints upon its
warfare against either freight or pas
scngCr ships. II has, therefore, be-
come painfully evident that the posi-
ton which this government took at
the very outset Is inevitable, namely.
that the use of submarines for the de-
Struction of an enemy'S commerce is
of necessity, because of the very char
acter of the vessels employed and the
very methods of attack which their
employment of course involves, incom-
patible with the principles of human
ity, the lone-established and incontro-
vertible rights of neutrals, and the
sacred immunities of noncOmbatants.
have deemed it my duty, there
fore, to say To the Imperial German
Government that If IL is still its pur-
pose TO prosecute relentless and indiS-
criminatc warfare against vessels OF
commerce by the use of submarines.
Notwithstanding the now demonstrated
impoSSibility of conducting that war
fare in accordance with what the gov
ernment of the United States must con-
slider the sacred and indisputablc
rules of international law, and the uni
versally recognized dictates of human
ity, the government of the United
States is at last forced TO the conClu-
sion that there is but one course it can
pursue: and that unless the Imperial
German Government should now i'm
mediately declare and effect an aban-
dOnment of its present methods of
warfare against passenger and freight
carrying vessels, this government can
have no choice but to sever diplomatic
relations with the government of the
German Empire altogether.
This decision I have arrived at with
the keenest regret; the possibility of
the action contemplated | am sure all
thoughtful Americans will look for
ward to with unaffected reluctance
But we cannot forget that we are in
some sort and by the force of circum-
stances the responsible spollesmen of
the rights of humanity. and that we
cannot remain silent while those rights
seem i'm process of being swept utterly
away in the maelstrom of this terrible
war. We owe it to a due regard for
our rights as a nation, to our sense of
duty as representative of the rights
of neutrals the world over and TO a
Just conception of the rights of man