Omaha daily bee., 1916-11-20
WILSON FACING
SERIOUS ISSUES
RAISED BY war
President Must Deal With Sub
marine Question on One
Hand and Allied Block
ade on Other.
OTHER IMPORTANT AFFAIRS
U-Boat Situation Regarded as
the Most Disquieting Of
Them All.
CRITICAL CASES PENDING

Washington, Nov. IA portent-
ious and complicated international
situation now faces President Wilson
and for the, next few weeks will en-
gage his attention and that of his
advisors, to the exclusion of all but
the most urgent of democratic sub
jects.
From now on the president expects
to deal with all foreign questions
without embarrassment. While it is
not evident that there will be any
fundamental change in policy, free
dom from fear that any move at all
would be misinterpreted as inspired
by an international political struggle
has been removed.
Questions Facing President.
The president must decide how the
United States shall meet the Ger
man submarine question on the one
hand and the entente allied trade re-
strictions on the other; whether the
retaliatory legislation shall be en-
forced; whether the traditional theory
of isolation shall be abandoned for
concerted neutral action; whether the
country shall have an aggressive or
a passive policy toward the peace con-
ference; the war after the war; the
permanent league to enforce peace,
and during the rest of the war shall
Americas attitude be governed by
benevolent Interpretation of interna-
tional law according to its own best
interests, or shall it be strictly legal
istic, regardless of whom II affects.
The most disquieting problems is
the German submarine situation. Five
critical cases are pending, one in
volving loss of six American lives,
two others involving American ships.
Building U-Boats Fort.
Increasingly serious is the fast
growing conviction that any kind of
a general submarine warfare is in
tolerable. Germany is known to be
built ing submarines rapidly and there
is the possibility of a starvation cam
paign against England. The United
States might find it difficult to avoid
complications.
The American attitude is fiat and
final. No technicalities would be ad-
mitted. Ships must not be sunk with
out warning and with provisions for
the safety of the passengers facing
high seas or distance from shore. The
armed ship issue will not be ac-
cepted. Secretary Lansing forsaw it
last March when, without announcing
his reason, he decreed that merchant
vessels could carry small defensive
gun.
Rest With Germany.
The future of the submarine situa-
ton is felt to rest entirely with Ger
many. The next step must come from
Berlin. Tyo possibilities are feared;
either that Germany will decide it can
starve England by an undersea cam
paign or that it may endeavor to in
volve thus country, and thus insure
the participation in peace conferences
of generous enemy. Beyond this,
the Lusitania case remains unsettled.
Germany has admitted liability and
offered indemnity. But the delicate
matter of its amount has not been set.
tied. Attempts made to close the is
sue have been repeatedly blocked by
unexpected new U-boat complications
The ravages of the U-53 off New
England were displeasing to the gov
ernment. 1t was said that continu-
ance of the practice would not be per-
mitted, as it would constitute a prac-
tical blockade of American harbors.
Less Clear Cut.
Relations with the entente allies are
less clear cut. Sea power has enabled
them, through the blockade and the
imposition of the blacklist, virtually to
destroy all foreign trade hostile to
them and divert all American COM
merce to their own uses. Constant
belligerent encroachment on neutral
rights has led President Wilson to say
that neutrality is ''intolerable." War
has become so world wide, so unlim.
llSu dS ~ udllOlldl DOulludI1eS, tlldI II
is no longer the hostile army, but the
hostile state, men, women and chill.
dren, with its outposts all over the
world, that is involved.
First and Oldest of the entente allies
restrictions is the blockade, which our
government has declared illegal be.
cause it is both ineffective and dis.
criminatory in favor of Norway and
Sweden in that it does not blockade
the Baltic, and because it attempts tc
blockade neutral ports, contiguous tc
Germany, to which British goods are
allowed to go. The case dates back tc
March II, 1915, and the last note was
the British refusal Of April "a, last.
Bitterly Condemned.
The rationing of Holland, Norway
Sweden and Denmark has been bitter.
ly condemned in the blockade notes
where it has been held to be abso.
lutely unwarranted in the interruption
of neutral trade directly between neu.
tral countries.
California 0fficiaI