The Washington herald., 1917-03-10
One Step Forward.

AuPtuAC VIII tSCilhahy hAtS AtSSttSsnts
has taken the step which he outlined
in his address to the Senate
He has armed American ships. He
has served notice on the world that
the American merchant marine is
going forth to meet the U-boat men
ace. The blockade of our ports Is
ended; the hour of action has. ar
rived.
There can be only one voice, one
opinion, one conscience throughout
America today. 1t will be an ire
vocable conviction that the President
has taken the only course consonant
with the cold logic of facts and with
the demands of American honor. He
has battled against the inevitable and
breasted the food for weeks; it has
all been in vain.
The President does not deceive
himself as to the meaning of the pol
icy on which he has embarked. 1t
reduces the war perspective from the
horizon to the foreground. 1t means
that our immediate future is no longer
in our own keeping, but rather on
the knees of the gods, and on the
wanton gamble of the War Lord in
Berlin. A German submarine sunk
by an American gun pointer, an
American merchant ship torpedoed
after an armed clash, means that the
United States is no longer in the war
up to the shins or to the knees, but
to the shoulder. 1t means that and
nothing else.
The American people meet the &C
ton of their government with grim
satisfaction. Confident of their abi1-
ity to take care of themselves, slow
to wrath but sure of strength, they
have watched the Towering of Ger
man barbarism with the mixture OF
pity, contempt, and concern that it
deserves, have endured the outrage of
their own rights with the highest for
titude of forbearance shown by any
modern nation, have asked for peace
with the quiet strength of neutral
loath to take part in a blood phan-
tasmagoria of decadent dynasties.
They have borne the Stinging charge
that they were shirking their share
in a struggle to preserve civilization
Indignantly, and yet with certain
uncomfortable feeling that there was
show of justice in the accusation.
All that is water under the bridge
now. America took her definite stand
when she broke with Germany. The
step taken yesterday is neither radi-
cal nor revolutionary. 1t is merely
an elementary assertion of American
rights. Irate little Holland is brow
beaten out of the same action by the
Prussian bully. Other neutrals con-
tiguous to Germany are also held in
awe. But from the first It was GER
tain that the United States, peace-lov-
ing as it is, possibly convinced that
it was duty to keep the processes
of peace in operation while Europe
was in savage anarchy, would neither
be awed nor gulled nor bullied into
a course such as the German foreign
Office had assigned it.
The arming of our ships closes the
chapter in our history which includes
the disgraceful episode In the Senate;
the uncovering of these cheap, silly,
futile German plots which perhaps
have done more to reveal the true
nature of Prussianism to Americans
than anything else; the slow solidi-
fcation of American public opinion
behind the President; the plucking
out of jingoism and ignoble partisan
ship from our current life; a growing
conviction that it is American destiny
to assist in giving this insane Hohen-
zollern brutality its death blow.
Whatever the future holds, we are
prepared for it. War may not mean
the sending of millions of American
youths to the trenches in France, but
it at least means that our full eco
nomic resources will be cast with the
allies. The American navy may show
it can cope with the U-boat peril in
way to cause emulation in Great
Britain. A hundred and one things
may happen to reflect credit to the
American name. The furtive peri
scope is now legitimate prey for our
guns-the mere presence of a sub
marine near a merchantmen is legi-
innate presumptive evidence of hos
tile intent, in the view of the Ameri-
can government-andi it is "up" to our
highly-trained gunners to show they
rank with the best in the world.