New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-01-26
Cash"

uean cash settlement? This must be the
,,,estion every American will ask to-day,
having read the published summary oil 'he
latest communication from the German
Government. When, in the presence OF
our newly dead, Mr.. Wilson informed the
corr,an Government that his nation would
"omit no word or act" did he mean that 1t
would not pause until it had received
money for the murder Of Americans? Was
the principle that he set out to establish IN
the world the principle that it is expensive
10 murder Americans; that 1t costs money
90 send American women and children to
their graves ruthlessly and barbarously?
Month after month we have waited while
Mr.. Wilson has exchanged words with that
"friendlv nation" which sent its subma-
rines forth to murder in defiance Of all law
human and divine. We have seen the total
Of our dead swollen by new slaughter and
we have seen Germany's allies take up the
killing under their flags. Has 1t been for
this accommodation that we have waited
Are they now to quote rates in American
lives on the German bourses as they do
the price Of cattle? Does Mr.. Wilson be
lieve that this American people will ever
endure seeing written into the memory OF
their own or foreign peoples the precedent
that the German offer in the Lusitania
case would inscribe? Is there nothing in
the world but money? Is the whole sum
and substance Of national honor and ma
tional safety guaranteed by the payment
Of a fixed sum, cash bonus for the massa-
ere of American citizens? Are the subma-
rine commanders Of the future to be
warned
do not kill Americans unnecessarily
it costs money?
This is all there is TO the German pro-
posal save for one thing. Even the money
has a condition marked on the bills which
are already blood stained. We are to get
n money for our dead under the actual or
Y implied agreement that we shall attack
the British. The price Of the settlement Is
carefully nominated in the bond; Germany
has the blood and the flesh, too, for her
Shylock bargain; but this is not enough; in
addition she must have American activity
against her enemy; she must have the as
surance that the nation whose children
she has murdered will, in return for cash,
for so much per head paid on the muir
dered. serve her interests against Great
Britain.
How shall Americans hereafter face the
world if there be once established the prec-
edent that we sell our women and chill
dren for money and accept murder with
no other protest than that incident to OBJ
tanning gold for their lives and for their
injuries? More than this, how will they
face the evidence that TO get that gold we
did not hesitate to sell our diplomacy to
the murderer nation and make ourselves
the agents of such a criminal country as
that which invaded Belgium and burned
Louvain?
We are not TO go to war over the Lusi-
tania. and that is understood. We are TO
accept the agreement as to the future, OBJ
tanned by British sea power, not by our
diplomacy, and that is inevitable. We are
10 20 through the solemn farce of assert
inc a moral and diplomatic victory for a
policy which for eight long months has
done nothing but write words and utter
empty boasts. That is humiliating, but
tolerable. But is it tolerabe is it to be
endured. that we should proclaim to the
world that any one may murder American
men. women and children, provided he is
prepared to make a cash settlement there
after?
We told Germany that we should hold
bor 70 "strict accountability Did that
moan TO cash accountability? We told
Germany that we should "omit no word or
act to perform our sacred duty Did that
mean to get the money? We told Great
Rritain the other day that we eagerly &C
cepted the task of championing the rights
% neutrals and of humanity. Did that
mean more cash?
If Mr.. Wilson does not intend TO DO any