New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-02

TO another or MAINTAIN tnem ny loiSe VI
arms
In the end we shall have to fight Ger
many, because in the end the people of the
United States will not consent to subor-
dinate their rights TO Germany or sacrifice
their own lives as the tribute paid to Ger
man will.
Between right and wrong there can be
no neutrality, and the German policy is
wrong. Whatever the merit of the Ger
man case against France, against Russia,
against Britain, whatever the balance OF
right and wrong between the nations now
at war the essential wrongness of the Ger
man policy of enforcing its will by the
murder of neutrals and seeking its ends
bv the invasion of the rights, the liberties
and the lives of neutrals is clear One
must repeal all the laws of humanity, all
the concepts of civilization, to justify the
course of Germany-not with her foes, prl-
roarilv. but with those who were not foes
and were guilty of no offence save that
they lived in the same world with the Ger
mans and by existing interfered with Ger
man purpose
We are going to war with Germany ulti-
tHo of
village will ultimately go out to kill
tiger. We are going to war with Germany
for the same reason. We have sacrificed
the opportunity of going to war for prin-
ciple-we are in the position of the same
villagers who attack the tiger only when
he has refused to take the tribute offered
in the shape of animal flesh. Since the
German tiger is a man-eating tiger, we
shall have to fight him. Nothing is more
certain.
Ultimately only one of two ideas can
prevail in the world-the German idea or
the idea of the rest of mankind, the ideal
Of civilization or the ideal of the jungle.
Neutrality is a farce, and American neu-
trality has been a bitter and shameful
farce since the moment when the crime OF
the Lustania first gave to Americans a
clear illustration of the German mind and
the German policy.
1t is useless now to criticise those who,
in control of our government, failed to give
us that moral leadership which we should
have followed, which we sought. The
blame for what has been will be appor-
toned between Mr.. Wilson and the Amer
lean people by another generation, which,
however heavily it condemns the President,
will not let his fellow countrymen off
lightly.
But what is essential now is TO face the
fact. We have submitted to murder, we
have fed our sons and our daughters to
the German tiger and his appetite has in
creased with the feeding. We have sacri-
feed most of all the rights for which our
ancestors fought when they were as weak
as we are now strong. From the Lusi-
tania to the Laconia the history runs
evenly. The destruction of American
rrope ty and lives at home has now been
supplemented by the disclosure of the eff
fort of Germany TO involve US in war with
Japan and trouble with Mexico.
One recalls to-day, as on all recent days.
the words of Cicero, "How long, . Sen
ators?" Must VIC await new murder?
Has there been tacit agreement that
when the number Of sssassinated Amerl-
cans reaches some agreed figure-and God
knows it is already high-then we shall
take arms? Does Mr.. Wilson so distrust
his fellow countrymen-not without some
reason-that he feels that only GROWING
tragedy will avail?
Our dead lie on all the shores of the
seas. The little Irish villages along the
coast Of the Channel are beginning to have
American annexes TO their cemeteries.
Hundreds of Americans are in enforced
exile in Europe, abandoned by their gov
eminent and forsaken by their country
men. Our ships hide in our own ports;
Americans abroad are the objects Of pity,
charity, contempt, as the case may be;
those who go down to the sea in ships 60
under the shadow of the assassin and with
out even the sustaining thought that a
government will honor what it did not