The Washington times., 1917-02-04
TWENTY-FOUR HOURS AFTER

The United States Of America
awakes this morning refreshed, re-
Juvenated, reconsecrated. By a
single act, performed under the
stress of an obvious compulsion,
President Wilson has done more to
awaken the ideals of this nation than
all the preachments or theorizing of
decade could accomplish. There
has not been an echo of jingoism, of
spread eagling, of panic. A nation
calm, united, ,Iaustere, and determined
stands back of his pronouncement
before Congress yesterday.
Anyone who doubted that this
country, in the throes of devious fac
tions, conflict of sympathies, diverse
aims, and under the suspicion of
sloth, sluggishness, and fattening off
the misfortune of other lands, could
respond to a vigorous national ap-
peal, has had t4ose misgivings swept
away. Within twenty-four hours
men of all political faiths have re-
sponded to challenge of patriotism,
they have rallied to an america
First" program that found only faint
support as long as it was clothed
in mere words and pretty phrases,
they have proved that the backbone
and spine of, this country is as stiff
as it was in 1776, in 1872, or in 1898.
Within these twenty-four hours the
palaverings of professional pacifists
have been silenced. The specious
excuses of the pros" this and that
have been discounted. The essential
and ineradicable loyalty of millions
of Americans has been vindicated
again. The few who cling to ideals
of other lands while they bask in
the sunlight of American institutions
have been segregated. They will
talk henceforth only to their own
undoing.
A paragrapher remarked the other
day that about the only thing that
will save the American navy from
utter destruction will be a war"
That is putting it too strongly, but
it seems as if the one thing that
saved the face of the American ma
ton, that put US on our feet, that
called US to a nationalism that
seemed webbing from action at
cross purposes, was to be brought
face to face with the possibility, if
not the reality, of war.
A former President, as recently as
Friday evening, expressed this idea
in prophetic words. Mr.. Taft told
a Washington audience: Germany
may stir an active patriotism in our
people which she does not suspect.
She may shock us into a real prepa-
ration for war and the sacrifice it
involves as nothing else can" A
few hours lat the "shock" came,
and the reaction was more immediate
and more universal than could
possibly have been expected.
President Wilson told the Senate:
1--WE are the sincere friends of the
German people and earnestly desire
to remain at peace with the govern
ment which speaks for them. We
shall not believe that they are hostile
to US unless and until we are obliged
to believe it, and we purpose nothing
more than our reasonable defense
of the undoubted rights of our
people"
Ambassador Benstorff is quoted
as saying: There was nothing else
left for the United States to do"
and again as stating, mo matter what
you do, Germany will never declare
war on you-no, not even if you
declare war on u.s."
Both the President and the depart
ing representative here of the Ger
man government, and we believe, of
the German people as well, emphasize
the friendly feeling still existent be-
tween this country and the German
people. Their statements throw into
high light the pity of a situation
where government has violated, we
believe, the feeling of its own people
as deeply as it has that of neutrals,
and brought upon us the compulsion
of taking the only honest, manly and
courageous course.
That violation consists, it should
be kept clearly in mind, of not only
the breaking of the pledges made in
reply to the Sussex note. 1t consists
of far more than the outrages Ger
many perpetrated earlier in the war,
outages which many Americans con-
sidered adequate provocation for
handing Bernstorff his passports. 1t
consists of a new and more ruthless
prosecution of submarine warfare, of
an extension Of the zone of operations
beyond all semblance of compliance
with the broadest construction of in
ternational law, of disregard Of the
rights of neutral nations that
eclipses any of the high handed per-
formances Germany has yet indulged
in, warfare that long ago degene-
rofad into ho oHI e,,-a- ,-,&k