New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-01
Germany Wants War

uOuSneSS OF l1e ldSO NNiii'"''
aects q state of mind bordering on desper-
at;on-a state of mind in which caution is
thrown to the winds and the ordinary re-
straints ON utterance and conduct, observed
bc,voen nations still at peace, are no longer
operative
Germany stands at bay. Her people are
facing scmi-starvaton. They are oosessed
with the idea of striking at the foe which
is attempting to starve them out, no mat
ter what the effect of that policy may be
ON their relations with neutral countries
If more enemies are to be made by war
Of unmitigated frightfulness at sea-di-
rected at the powers which are enforcing
food blockade on the populations Of Cen
trail Europe-then, as Germany used to
say light-heartedly at the beginning of the
war: 1.-The more enemies, the more honor "
The last note from Berlin brutally de-
molishes all the fimsy diplomatic improvi-
stations on which our relations with Ger
many have rested for nearly two years
mast. 1t defiantly challenges all the con-
tentions which the United States has put
forward land made some feeble show OF
maintaining) in its capacity as cham
MON of the rights of neutrals on the high
seas. II makes absolutely vain and nuga-
tory the so-called diplomatic triumphs"
with which the Administration has sought
to cover over its failure to secure dis
avowal of or reparation for the Lusitania
massacre.
Those elastic pledges which were given
by the German government after the sink
ing of the Arabic and were slightly en-
larged after the torpedoing of the Sussex
many times violated and always subject
TO violation i have now been abruptly
withdrawn. Germany refuses any longer
to recognize that the United States has
any rights on the seas which she is bound
to respect--any rights which may not be
abridged or abolished to suit the purposes
of German military pecessity."
We are back where we were when the
original war zone" proclamation of the
German Admiralty was issued on Febru-
arv 4. 1915. We retorted then with the
"strjct accountability" note of February
10. 1915. the cIearest and most vigorous
assertion of neutral rights made by our
covcrnment~-because made at a time when
realization of the practical inconvenience
Of enforcing such rights had not yet
sicklied DER the innocent earnestness of
our diplomacy.
II there was a threat of trouble-of an
armed cash-in the war zone" proclama-
ton of February 1915, and our answer to
il land there was more than threat; there
was certainty of armed collision if we
had really meant what we said) there is
to-day still graver threat in the more
extreme and lawless German proclamation
of a submarine blockade Of practically the
whole coast of Western Europe.
For we have lived through the Lusitania
horror-through the wearisome repetition
If German violations of the laws of hu-
manity and Of the international code of
warfare at sea. We have suffered for two
wears in humiliation and sycophancy. We
have fed ourselves on specious and worth
less promises, until we are now heartsick
Of diplomatic evasions and duplcities. Can
any new diplomatic subterfuges be invent
cd with which 70 tide US over another year
Of being kept out of war'-now that Ger
many has brutally dropped the mask and
seems to care no longer whether or not we
pluck up spirit 10 assert by force rights
which we have asserted time and again in
diplomatic arguments, but not otherwise?
The United States cannot without the
conpletest loss Of self-respect, accept the
conditions which Germany now announces
she will impose on our commerce with
Western Europe. Our government said
in February, 1916, that it would hold Ger
many 10 "strict accountability" for the
lives of American citizens lost OIL neutral
or bclligcrent merchant vessels. sunk by
German submarines without search or
Warning. We never did enforce "strict
accountability" for any Of the many muir