Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-01-19

There was a time in American history
when the spectacle of some scores OF wom-
Ten and children, American women ana
children among them, scattered over the
seas by 4 brutal and murderous attack ny
d warship. their helpless hands out
stretched, appealing not to nationality but
to humanity, would nave moved the gov
ei'nrnent and the people of the Iilteu
States to a wrath and Indignation winch
would have stirred the whole nation. IN
those better and drawer days no American
could nave been brought to believe that IN
later years, in the presence of such Il
massacre. an American administration
would wait supine and complaisant. trust
ing that some technical pretext might OBJ
solve it from the duty of protecting
American lives or putting q final end to
crimes that would make a red Indian
blush.
a hundred years ago, whom this country
was weak and lacking in all that wealth.
numbers, national greatness could provide
to strengthen it's hand. it did not hesitate
to venture on a doubtful war to perform
The first duty of any state. How 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
American women and children would be
murdered upon the high seas by a friendly
sdNI thG liiSti NJ Ao ''>
massacre would follow a direct and eN-
plicit warning by the United States, and
SIN months after the crime there would
sun be no diSayowal, no apology, not even
so much as a promise TO pay the poor in
demnity which is the sole repalation 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 It's brave words with coura-
geous action. Out of pity for prospective
victims the German embassy in this coun-
try warned those who were planning to
go down to the sea upon the Lusitanla
that they would be murdered. They We're
murdered, and the best that their own
country could do for thcm 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
dence that is mounting of a hideous crime.
for which no technical defence is a de-
iSlioS, oSCLtS, lOpSldiiS, Woil
ing for some pretext, 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
for. They are making the supreme sac
rftice out of which arises national and
human greatness. Here in America, un-
der the inspiration of MIR. Wilson'S adj
ministration, the American people are day
by day absorbing more and more of the
cult of cowardice and the gospel of self
ishness. 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 put
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 day
there is growing up the belief that there
is something of s~uper-nobility i'm this
AAAA> - tiSSAS ASiC, liSLl NiiSi IS SCIIGIIlIlS
OF higher 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. This is becoming the American doc
trine of public and international policy.
uhhapptly there is only one result to
such a policy. 1t does not invite, respect,
but murder; it does not make us respected,
IL 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 fame. An Austrian am
bassador in this country becomes the cap
tain of sedition, and when sent home re-
ceives a decoration from his government
as the reward for his infamy. Alien
fringes of our population are making alien
interests the test Of their votes cast in
our elections and openly boasting of it.
Abroad American citizens lave been
killed in Mexico with an impunity that
taggers belief. On the high seas we have
mad murder after murder, and each muir
der has only provoked further literary ex-
diIu EXCURSIONS. AL This present
hour no one sees the helpless women and
children sinking in the Mediterranean. VIC
tins of a fury and madness beyond be-
lief; all that millions of Americans are
thinking of, SO the Washington dispatches
would Indicate. is some pretext that will
a a reluctant administration the diff
Guilty of defending, not the lives OF Amer
leans but the abstract principle tina muir
der is. if not a crime, at the least IAN UNI
friendly act