New Britain herald., 1916-03-17

only thing we can afford to do, a, voluntary withdrawal from position everywhere questioned and misun- derstood We ought to reverse OUT action without raising the question whether we were right or wrong, and so once more deserve our reputation for generosity and the redemption of every obligation without quibble or hesitation" This is an admirable statement of what should always be the policy of the United States.
 President Wilson on the War.
 The presidents course with the nations engaged in the European war
 is the subject of more heated discua-
 sion. The bulk of the American
 people favor the Allies and for tho
 best. of reasons. Germany's claini that she has the right to rob her reighbors if she can conquer them, that treaties do not bind her, that she may carry on war as she has done, sparing nothing and treating non-com batants, old men, women, and children, with the extremity of cruelty in order to overcome resist ance by inspiring terror, her appro- val of such barburisn as the sink ing of the "Lusitania" and other great ships loaded with innocent pas SengerS, her WantOn destruction of
 historic monuments that in all pre- vious wars have been spared have
 excited our horror and profound n-
 dignation, while our reason has been
 affronted by what her professors and
 historians have written in defense of
 her course, and by her absurd claim
 in face of all the facts that she
 though alone of all the combatants
 prepare dior war, has been fighting in self-defense. We believe that her victory would mean the substitution
 of ruthless and brutal autocracy for the free governments of Europe, and
 that it could hardly fail to mean an
 eventual war with us, even if we
 abandon the Monroe Doctrine as
 now interpreted with all it's possibil-
 ities of trouble.
 If the policy of the country was to
 preserve peace, it was clearly not the
 presidents duty to sit in judgment on the belligerents. He might have
 endeavored to throw the moral
 weight of this country into the scale by protesting against the invasion of Belgium and the brutalities which were committed there; but to do so
 he would have had to assume what
 many then were unwilling to believe, that the charges of cruelty against
 Germany were true and that her
 counter legations were false. He could not try such questions as these, nor decide between the conflicting
 statements of the two sides without any adequate knowledge of the facts.
 To do so at the time when these things happened and Germany was flushed with insolent triumph, would have done no good. Germany knows
 we'll and complains bitterly that the American people condemn her, but this knowledge has not changed her course. We should have added fuel to her flame. but we should not have affected her action.
 Moveover had the president taken this attitude our neutrality would have been a mere form. and as the war went on and the "Lustanio'' l sank. we could hardly have helped
 joining in the conflict. There are 1 many who would have approved this course and faced the result gladly, but they were only a fraction of our people; and had we done so, what would have been the practical re- suit? Had we gone to war, there would have been no strong neutral power behind the ships carrying food, cotton, and everything that Europe needs, no neutral passengers to be respected, but every ship that cross- ed the sea would have been at the mercy of submarines. There is no disguising the facts:---our ships were 1 not needed; we had no army, and we should have helped no one. The practical situation must. be regarded ' and with this in mind it Is clear that a policy of peace was best both for ourselves and Europe, and for the welfare of the world.
 Success of the Wilson Tarin
 The figures as stated by Mr. l. Hcc of hc