The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-03-26
TODAY.
New York Tribune.),

New York Tribune.)
Nearly two years ago The Tribune in its editoria
columns declared that the policy which Mr.. Wilson
was pursuing would end by involving us in wal
after the national conscience had been stiled and
the national appreciation Of the real facts Of Ger
man policy had been dulled Time and again since
then has The Tribune asserted that we should end
by drifting into a war which sought to avoid by
closing our eyes to fact and shutting ears
against the cries of and children saugf,.
tered by German submarines
We have come to that time. We have drifted
into war. We are at war. And facing the
spectacle Of nation going into without thought
of the consequences and without realization OF the
fact Never in human history has great nation
come to the edge of war with little understand
ing of the dangers and the responsibilities.
Must the condition which has endured for so long
continue after formal declaration Of hostilities
transforms the legal but not the actual fact of our
relations with Germany Are not now, at last.
to have some leadership and some intelligent guild
ance which will chart for the future the course. the
duty and the responsibilities Of American citizens
in the presence of war?
The time has passed for recrin1ination: the time
has passed for all criticism directed at the fall
ures OF the past: but no American can patiently
endure n continuation OF present conditions or
tamely face the prospects OF the future.
We are at war with Germany: we have been at
war with Germany for many months. Our citizens
have been murdered rights have been invaded.
Treason has been plotted by German agents within
our frontiers and German intrigue has sought to
loose against ncighbors south of the Rio
Grandc and beyond the Pacific. What are VIE go
ing to do about it now?
How much longer we to be permitted to go on
ignorant of the facts, blind the necessities de-
rrived Of leadership. deprived of advice destitute
of all knowledge? Today millions of Americans are
l,.+
eminent, to make any sacrifice which is required
Of them in the presence Of war and foreign threat.
Will not Mr.. Wilson now mobilize the patriotism
OF the country? viii he not lay aside tina
policy of "watchfu waiting" which has proven as
fatal to America as did the wait and see policy
which for two years mperilled the very existence
of the British Empira and sacrificed untold lives
at Galipoli and in Flanders?
For two years we have been lued into sleep by
the belief that impossible, even in the
presence of the fact of war Are we now to be
lulled to sleep by the assurance that war itself is
nothing and that country can be both at peace
and at war" Are we now to have policy? Does
not the administration now consider that the time
has come when we should join hands with the other
nations which are fighting against German bru-
tally and barbarism in the world? Does not the
simple question of future safety require that we
should make common with the rest of the
world and not find ourselves day still asleep.
left to face Germany freed from the complica-
tons of Europe and at peace with her present en-
emies?
When the Lusitania sunk The Tribune said
that the president should act that it was THE time
to end the German danger, either by war by
German submission to international law. When
the Arabic was sunk. when the Anc6na was sunk.
when the Sussex sunk. The Tribune said the
same thing. Time and again The Tribune has
world
so long as the German government asserted the
right to murder and pursued the policy of assassin
alton without regard to the rights of ncutrals. We
have lodged, twisted. turned, shut our eyes to tn,
truth, hoped and believed that # VIC could only
avoid action for a little might escape action
forever. And relenthcssy and rcmorselcssly duty
has overtaken us and we have found that have
escaped nothing Of duty or Of danger and lost much
Of honor and many precious lives And in the end
We have COME to war
The duty that came to Mr.. Wilson at tho time of
tho Lustania comes to him now in form n thousand
fold more difficult because it not faced then.
We have got into the sought to escape at
all costs shall now in pursue the same
policy of evasion of the years that have gone by?
Today as every day, the American people pre-
pared to support the president in the maintenance,
Of American honor in the defence of American lives
and in the performance Of American duties. Today
tn" appeal for leadership goes up with renewed
volume and added carncstncss. WIN not Mr.. Will
son at last lay aside the policy which has proven
mistaken, the views which have proven incXact tho
hopes that have been decisions and the expectations
which have been snarcs and take up the great task
of defending his country and directing the policy OF
his country in harmony with that of those othe,
atoms similarly forced into wal. by the same Ger
man spirit of murder and barbarism'
Surely the time has to end n situation which
would hc ridiculous If 1t not tragic, a stua
| ton in which a great nation is war without ar
appreciation the fact or preparation for the con
sequences.
HOW SHALL WE PREPARE?