Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-04-19

CT the reason or the heart of man.
kind.
Claimed Extra Rights.
In February of the present year the
imperial German government informed
this government and the other neutral
governments OF the world that It had
reason to believe that the government
or Great Britain had armed all mer-
chant vessels Of British ownership and
mad given them secret orders to at
tack any submarine of the enemy they
night encounter upon the seas and
that the imperial German government
telt Justified in the circumstances in
treating all merchantmen of belliger-
ent ownership as auxiliary vessels of
war, which it would have the right to
destroy without warning The law of
nations has long recognized the right
OF merchantmen to carry arms for pro-
lection and to use them to repel at
| tack, though to use them In such CIR
cumstances at their own risk; but the
imperial German government claimed
the right to set these understandings
aside under circumstances which it
deemed extraordinary. Even the terms
in which It announced its purpose thus
still further to relax the restraints 1t
had previously professed Its willing
ness and desire to put upon the opera
lions Of its submarines, carried the
| n q In T,1i hot or CT cn1e
which were not armed would still be
exempt from destruction without warn
ing and that personal safety would be
| accorded their passengers and crews;
| but even that limitation, if it was ever
practicable to observe it, has In fact
constituted no check at all upon the
destruction Of ships of every sort.
Promises Not Kept.
Again and again the imperial Ger
man government has given this gov
eminent its solemn assurances that at
least passenger ships would not be
thus dealt with, and yet 1t has again
and again permitted its undersea COM
manders to disregard those assurances
with entire impunity. Great liners
| like the Lusitania and the Arabic and
mere ferry boats like the Sussex have
been attacked without a moments
warning, sometimes before they had
even become aware that they were in
the presence of an armed vessel OF the
enemy and the lives Of non-combat-
ants, passengers and crew have been
sacrificed wholesale, in manner
which the government of the United
States cannot but regard as wanton
and without the slightest color Of JUS
tifcation. No limit of any kind has in
fact been set to the indiscriminate pur-
suit and destruction 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 Amer
leans who have lost their lives on
ships thus attacked and destroyed has
grown month by month until the omin-
Gus toll has mounted into the hun
dreds.
| Mentions Sussex case.
! "One of the latest and most shock
/ ing instances of this method of war
fare was that of the destruction Of the
French cross channel steamer Sussex.
1t must stand forth, as the sinking Of
/ the steamer Lusitania did. as so sing
ularly tragical and unjustifiable as to
constitute a truly terrible example of
! the inhumanity of submarine warfare
as the commanders Of German vessels
have for the past u months been con-
| ducting it If this instance stood
alone, some explanations, some disa-
vowal by the German government,
some evidence of criminal mistake or
wilful disobedience on the part Of
| the commander of the vessel that fired
the torpedo might be sought or enter
tanned; but unhappily it does not stand
alone Recent events make the con-
/ clusion inevitable that it Is only one
| instance, even though 1t be one of the
most extreme and distressing in
stances Of the spirit and method of
warfare which the imperial German
government has mistakenly adopted
! and which from the first exposed that
government to the reproach of thrust