New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-11
Berlin via Stockholm

VIC SAO~"h
All the comment in the world cannot
add to the educational value Of the cor
respondence conducted by the German Off
cial representative in Buenos Ayres with
his home government through the cour-
tesy of the Swedish diplomatic representa-
tive in the Argentine. Argentina Is at
peace with Germany; her ships are sailing
the seas, as they are entitled to do, and
the German representative in Argentina
advises his government that it will be
wiser either to spare these ships or else to
sink them and leave no trace.
There is nothing new in the idea of the
German government as an assassin. The
Lusitania episode established German of
fetal reputation in this country, as Bel
cian and Northern France episodes estab-
lshed it in Europe. 1t is not so long ago,
while we were still at peace with Ger
many. that the German Foreign Office was
engaged in offering to Japan and to Mex
leo American states in return for an at
tack upon us. This Argentine episode is
only little more frankly brutal than all
the other German incidents" There is
in it a picture which is trife more inti-
mate of the German official advising muir
der in his correspondence. But it is entire
" question of degree.
To "sink without leaving trace" is a
method that has become familiar. Usually
the German submarine takes off the crew
of victim, puts them on the outside of its
hull and then submerges, leaving the crew
to drown. Occasionally this is accompa-
MED by delicate and kindly comment from
the submarine crew Just prior to the exc
cution. The method is without novelty;
the Germans have used it before, and there
is no occasion for surprise.
But the thing that the American people
should recognize as important in this Ar
gentine affair is the light that it casts
upon the present temper of the German
government and those who control the
German policy. We are fighting Germany,
as one says so often, because the German
adopted the method of the wild beast, of
the assassin. And from all sides there
In still rise voices protesting against this
W characterization Of the German. Fortu-
nately the voices are seldom raised in pro-
test much in advance of new revelation
of German character. The defenders of
the German in the United States are con-
stantly compelled to interrupt their de-
fence in the presence Of some new crime
more terrible than those that have gone by.
1t is an open secret that the Swedish gov
eminent and the Swedish Crown have sym
pathized with Germany from the beginning.
Bear in mind that it was in Stockholm that
this conference to make peace by world
socialism was to be held. Remember Ger
man wrath when the British and Ameri-
can governments declined to issue pass
ports to permit their Socialists to go to the
Stockholm capital. These circumstances
should now be read in the light Of the
Argentine affair. One can conjecture
what influences would have been exerted
in Stockholm by the Swedish government
once the delegates had arrived.
This latest revelation should lead the
government of the United States to harden
itself against the neutral pleas in the mat
ter of the embargo. There are nations,
like Holland and Switzerland, in which pro-
Allied sympathies are considerable, if not
controlling, among the people. But Hol-
land, Switzerland and Denmark are all of
them under the German thumb. They can
be bullied; they have been bullied; and
they will be bullied. They have no power
TO defend themselves and, save in the case
of the violation of their territory, they are
likely to submit TO every German exaction.
The Swedish case is different in degree,
although the mass of the Swedish people
do not side With their Germanic Queen