Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1916-04-05
WASHINGTON LETTER.
By John j. Marinan.

s. Washing April 4If war re-
|sults from the submarine controver-
|sy the responsibility for that war
will rest upon President Wilson and
his vacillating foreign policy If
war comes, it will be war that might
have been avoided If war comes,
America will pay for the Wilson
administration with thousands of her
best lives and millions Of her
treasure.
international law is a maze Of
unintelligible phrases to most per-
sons. In ordinary times the aver
age citizen concerns himself but lit
tie in information questions. Unable
to comprehend the rules under which
diplomacy is conducted, in crisis
such as the present he is inclined to
trust blindly in the administration, or
embrace the first explanation, no
matter how impossible.
We have seen the submarine sit
uation stated nowhere so clearly as it
was recently explained by Senator
Burton in his speech at Trenton. It
is notable that Mr.. Burton. who is
an authority on international law, is
the last Of the Republican leaders to
attack the administrators foreign
policy. He has evidently felt that
indicate situation caused by the war
the President should be unhampered
by criticism. But when the crisis
came and we began laundering to-
ward the welter of blood in Europe,
Mr.. Burton has spoken plainly on
the dangers Of a shifty diplomacy.
In few sentences he showed why
our present unenviable plight is due
to President Wilson's vacillating
foreign policy, and he explained this
SO clearly that anyone can under
stand it.
"The whole difficulty" said Mr.
Burton, "arose from the exercise of
those two conspicuous talents Of the
present administration, the passion
for interference in the affairs of
other nations and the inability to
keep away from both sides Of the
question.
con the tenth Of February, 1915,
the administration warned the Ger
man Government of the consequences
|of carrying out the policy fore
Swallowed in its admiralty proclama
ton in case it should result in des-
troying any merchant vessel of the
United States or in. causing the
death Of American citizens, and
threatened to hold the German Gov
eminent to strict accountability for
any such act.
"A note from the Secretary of
State on the 18th of May last limited
the rule that lives of non-combatants
of neutral states should not be put
in jeopardy on Unarmed merchant
men. The word 'unarmed' is i'm
portant.
"In the later part Of January, 1916,
The State Department in a note to
the various powers sought to in
duce the Allies to disarm their mer-
chantlment and placed especial stress
on the disadvantages of submarines
in conflict with armed merchantmen,
saying in substance that it would
not be fair that the submarines
should be compelled to expose them
selves to destruction from such YES
sells and that merchantmen should
not be permitted to carry armament at
all, stating further that the United
States government was seriously
considering the announcement Of the
purpose to treat merchant vessel
carrying guns as an auxiliary cruiser
because of the changed conditions in
maritime warfare resulting from
the introduction Of the submarine
and it's defenseless character.
"After the publication of this note,
Germany and stro-Hungary on
about the 10th of February very
promptly and adroitly announced
that on and after March 1st they
would regard merchantmen carrying
armament as warships and would
exercise the right to destroy them
without warning.
"What did the President do then?
He said, mo, for such course
would involve the loss of life of
American Citizens, and American
citizens have the right to travel on
lnerchantships armed for defense
'"Thus we attempted to persuade
England and France to give up a
right which they claimed under in
ternational law, but would not ask
American citizens to yield a right
which we alleged belonged to them
under the same law.
'In other words, we took the
position that England and France
had no right to arm their merchant
men, for thus they became warships
while, on the other hand, only a few
weeks later we maintained that al
though they were warships, Germany
had no right to sink them without
warning.
stTh1s it. annears that the whole