The Sentinel=record., 1916-12-15

St. Louis, Dec. 14.--The right of a neutral which has suffered from the effects of the European war, particu- larly the right of the United States to initiate a movement for peace, was asserted here tonight before the League to Enforce Peace by Senator Stone, chairman of the senate foreign relations committee.
 "Since the war has almost from the beginning resulted in continuing ot. fensive attacks on the rights and dig nlty of this sovereignty and nflict- ing incalculable injury to our national interests-all of which we have borne with patience because of our friend ship for the nations involved" said Senator Stone, it seems to me that after enduring these attacks and suf. fering these losses for nearly two and a half years with no end yet in sight, that we have a right without regard to any question of sympathy or hu- manity but solely on our own account and to safeguard our own interests, to approach the eombatants as 8 .mu- tual friend and ocen negotiations with view to the re-establishment of nor. nal international cond tions
 "Our relations to the combat are such and our interests are so involv. ed that I think we have right to speculate-a right so clear as to en. title us to speculate without asking and without just oftense. We would not speculate inIpertinently as inter meddlers but as a friend who suffer ed grievously and innocently from the ruthless acts of war"
 The senator declared that he wish ed 1t distinctly understood that he spoke on his own personal responst bility, but said he later might speak "in another forum" on whether any neutral or group of neutrals should attempt any affirmative action to end the present war" He said he would not discuss the wisdom or unwisdom of an approach of the belligerents with feace proposals, but merely of the propriety of the right and pointed out that distinguished men ld NS NtInt Aidl 6uNh o AiON0blChl would not only be futile but offensive.
 q am not disposed" he added, "to accept without questioning either the accuracy of these statements or the sOundness of the reasons on which they are predicated. Two families with a feud between them might so long as they kept the peace and ob- served the law resent any effort of an outsider to harm0nize them, but if they should break forth into open war so as to disturb the general peace and visit universal harm upon the whole neighborhood, the law abiding members of the community would have a right to call a halt without being guilty of impertinence. Why should not the same rule apTly nor ally and legally to the family of na- tions?"
 The United States, the senator said, has suffered from acts committed which have been grossly offensive to our national pride and hurtful be. yond estimate to our national inter ests" He instanced censorship of the mails, ships seized or sunk on the high seas, peaceful commerce with neutrals interrupted or interdicted and American citizens-Fmen, wo- men and children and guilty of no offense-ki' d on land and sea with out warning and without justifica- tion"
 "There have been timer," he con. tinued, when our patience has been strained to the limit and when dan ger to our own national peace lurked in the thickening shadows of every passing day. Yes there have been times when our peace was preserved only by the clear vision, the steady hand, the resolute heart of one man. Do not such things give us some right of our own to speak kindly
 word in behalf of Ieace?"
 "I cannot escape the view" Sena. 1 tor Stone concluded, that neutral --