New-York tribune., 1916-04-27
The Warning.

American Snoul0 recognize }" i'"'''S w"
account Of what has happened in Ireland
The incidents which have taken place IN
Dublin may be repeated in Chicago, IN
Milwaukee. i'm New York City at any mo-
mcnt. They may occur because with pre-
ciselv the same warning that the BRUSH
Government has had the American has
neglected. lodged, skulked away from the
obvious duty and the unmistakablc fact
There is no element of surprise in the
Irish rebellion or mutny or instruction
the name does not signify. Months ago
the certainty Of just such a thing was
unmistakabc. English public men knew
il. The evidence was in their hands, the
truth was patent to every ono who VISITED
Ireland. Yet the Ministry, the Cabinet,
the responsible servants Of the people, did
not dare to act, to admit the fact, to deal
with the danger-instead they fumblcd and
faltered and looked away.
II is truth known i'm Washington
that six months ago the State Department
was even permitting the fact to leak out
that there was going forward actively IN
this country of ours the work Of sedltion'
the organization of treason, the manufact-
ure of anarchy. Officials whispered prl-
vately the facts they did not dare to act
upon and hinted at the evidence they
lacked the courage to give to an unsus-
pecting public.
q
pay the price Of folly and cowardlce That
which might have been settled by the
courts will now be disposed of by machine
guns; scores, hundreds. perhaps thou
sands. will die because those who direct
British affairs did not dare to deal with
the peril when it was only peril, and
must now kill when they could have disci-
Mined. For another century, perhaps, the
hone of true settlement between the Irish
and the English peoples has been post
poned.
The situation will not be different here
or that day, long threatened, long
planned. when other instruments and
agents Of sedition and treason follow the
Dublin example and seek to stab in the
hack their own country in the moment OF
war or even Of acute International crisis.
Neither will the consequences be different.
We shall dispose of treason here as 1t
will be disposed Of in Ireland, but we
shall do it also by machine gun, by rifle
and by military, not civil, law.
We have lived in this country of ours
amidst disorder, violence, outrage organ
lied from without, directed to serve alien
ends and skilfully grated upon every
form of local disturbance and disaffection.
We have had dynamite, arson, crime, but
so far in widely separated places and IN
relatively minor incidents. All this has
been repeated in Ireland.
There never has been a time when the
American peril could not have been dis
posed of had our rulers dared, had they
possessed the courage, the will, the strength
10 face the situation. The same Is true OF
the Irish trouble. But there has been
no such courage, no such vision, no sucn
patriotism. While sedition organized and
strengthened itself, men in high place
thought Of votes, of political favor and
of personal safety or prosperity.
We are coming 10 the end Of this. We
shall presently have to face the facts
that no department can longer hide, 10
\ elected official disguise in futile speech
or suppress in official archives. We arc
going to know as Dublin knows. as Lon
don knows. because the end of all tolera-
tion of treason is the outburst of that fire
and slaughter which treason and anarchy
breed.
The whole world is filled with terrible
lessons that are being taught 70 the sell
fish, the cowardly the blind. Half the
planet is ravaged because the men who
direct the fortunes Of countries would not
or could not tell the truth, face the facts
act in the light Of their knowledge and
in the strength Of their patriotism, but
forever saw only votes, Office, popularity
and all these only for the moment
Democracy has broken down in all dem
ocratic countries because the men it has
set in Office have failed, have neither dared
nor troubled nor cared, because little men
of no faith and Of no vision have though.
that it was sufficient to suppress what
was unpaatable, ignore what was un-
comfortable and fee from what was dan
gcrous. On the edge Of volcano they
have talked.
The most tragic corner Of this earth
today is England. II is tragic because
day by day all that is best in England
Of lives, all that is the highest and noblest
in the race, is being sacrificed, thrown
away in defeats. in disasters, in blundcrs
that have no excuse and result IN no
service. Half England Is in mourning,
yet with the sacrifice there Is no dignity,
no grandeur, bccausc II Is a waste, an