Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1917-06-10
BILL THINKS US A
MERCENARY NATION
CONTINUED FROM PAGE NINE
(TlIS SECTION

] government WHllt more American
| lives were lost, or imperilled, by the
destruction OF the Arabic Hesperian
Ancona and Sussex. The attack on the
Sussex, eleven months after the loss
! of the Lusitania, moved Mr.. Wilson 10
a real ultimatum which Germany met
| by announcing that henceforth, on
Irondition that America take vigorous
action against the Illegal British
starvation warfare, merchantme en-
would not be sunk without warning.
The promise was accepted the condi-
ton curtly repudiated by the president
During the next ten months scarcely
week passed without violation by a
U-boat commander OF the. German
pledge, but still Washington remained
inactive, until, on the first of last
February, Germaey announced that
she proposed TO sink everything al
sight Mr.. Wilson Immediately broke
off diplomatic relations, experimental
for some weeks with the idea OF
armed neutrality" then, after several
American cargo boats had been sunk
with loss of life, and two American
women had died in the Cunarder La
coma, he convened congress and war
was declared.
Evasion of Duty.
80 stated idnu ] nave mere sum
married. the sea debate as it is under
stood by most Englishmen) the sub
marine controversy between America
and Germany appears to have been
marked by persistent paltering and
evasion on the part o4\the former,
casuistry If not cowardice, dominat-
ing White House policy during two
years when the presidents main object
was to worry along somehow, without
fighting, To the end of the war seeking
to save some modicum of national self
respect by dialectic, while his country
amasscd dollars; and il Is now open to
disgruntled Americans and others who
have taken this view to adopt its log
zeal corollary-the real reason why
war did come is that the new subma-
rine campaign, by depicting the
worlds tonnage alarmingly and so
threatening to cut off much of the
munitions trade with Europe, has at
last touched the American pocket
nerve and thus must be scotched But
both views are wrong.
They are wrong because the sub
marine issue cannot be rightly judged
if stated solely in the terms of the
summary | have given, which repre-
sents, according to the American view
point tmust | say again that in these
days of paper shortage il is not worth
while to set forth the views OF those
Americans who have taken their opin-
ions ready-to- wear from Berlin or
London?), only one phase of the truth,
as the statement that the allies we're
lighting for small nations, i'm the dayS
when czardom was seeking to advance
IT'S ends by the sword, was true as re-
CARDS France and Great Britain. but
was not the whole truth. There never
WAS time in our history when any
power could deliberately and avowedly
set out to sink everything afloat and
drown crews and passengers without
finding America its enemy, hence there
could be no question about our present
action; but ! am concerned. i'm at
tempting to explain the Wilsonian pa
uence, with events taking place prior
10 the anarchic German proclamation
of February |.
The presidents reluctance to fight
Germany because of her murders of
Americans at sea lasted until the "un-
restricted campaign began in Feb
ruary. So long as any apparent effort
was being made to safeguard life, the
deaths incidental to submarine war
fare were not regarded as of necessity
furnishing American honor if we re-
mained neutral. So long as Mr.. Will
son could obtain apologies and prom
ises of amendment, after the sinking
of~passenger ships without warning,
he felt, not content but constrained,
To keep out of hostilities: partly be-
cause Of the natural desire of every
civilized country to avoid war II IL can
honorably do so, partly because he
thot that a neutral America might be
in position to perform services for
the world at the settlement which no
other power could attempt, still more
because he did not want to fight on
the side of the Russian autocracy. But
these considerations could not have
kept him out of war If Gcrmany's sea
behavior had been viewed in Washing
ton as II was viewed here / propose
TO substitute for the familiar summary
of the submarine controversy outlined
above larger view of the whole ques-
tion of American rights at sea.
Where England Sinned.
At the beginning the United States
believed in the existence of interna-
tional law safeguarding wartime com
merce. She found, within the first few
months, that her trade with European n
neutral states was being more or less
regulated by Great Britain: more.
rather than less, as time passed. EN-
barrassing precedents for these lille
galities, as we regarded them. were
cited by the British from our own civil
war procedures but Great Britain
went far beyond the lengths we had
dared. Mr.. John Buchan, a British
writer, said; "The northern cruisers
took only cargoes of absolute contra
band where the presumption of enemy
.lns. t,,.,. f,..., L.. II
cargoes of conditional contra band.
part of which might easily have been
used by neutral civilian Industries.
and we defined conditional contraband
in way which played havoc with that
declaration of London which in early
August We had proudly declared to be
our guide" The practical ands later
formal reputation of the declaration
of London is excused by Great Britain
on the ground that the instrument was
-