The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-03-15
We Are Going to War With Germany
--Peaceis Declared Impossible.
tNew York Tribune, March %

the German tiger is a man eating
tiger. we shall have to fight him.
Nothing is more certain.
Ultimately. only one of two ideas
can prevail in the world-the German
idea or the idea of the rest of man
kind, the ideal of civilization or the
ideal of the jungle Neutrality Is a
farce, and American neutrality has
been a bitter and shameful farce
since the moment when the crime Of
the Lusitania first gave to Americans
clear illustration of the German
mind and the German policy.
1t Is useless now to criticise those
who. in control Of our government,
failed to give us that moral leader
which we sought. The blame for
what has been will be apportioned be-
tween Mr.. Wilson and the American
people by another generation. which,
president. will not let his fellow coun-
trymen off lightly.
But what is ESSENTIAL now Is to face
the fact. We have submitted to muir
der, we have fed our sons and our
daughters to the German tiger and
his appetite has increased with the
feeding. We have sacrificed most of
all the rights for which our ancestors
fought when they were as weak az
we are now strong From the Lusi-
tania to the Laconia the history runs
evenly The destruction of American
property and lives at home has now
been supplemented by the disclosure
Of the effort of Germany to involve us
in war with Japan and trouble with
Mexico
/ One recalls today. as on all recent
days. the words of Cicero. How long,
20 Senator's" Must we await a new
murder? Has there been tacit agree
men that when the number of assas-
sinated Americans reaches some
agreed figure-and God knows 1t is
already high-then we shall take
arms? Does Mr.. Wilson so dstrust
his fellow countrymen--not without
some reason--that he feels that only
GROWING tragedy will avail?
Our dead lie on all the shores of
the seas The little Irish villages
along the coast of the channel are be-
ginning to have American annexes to
their cemeteries. Hundreds of Amer
leans are in enforced exile in Europe,
abandoned by their government and
forsaken by their countrymen. Our
ships hide in our own ports. Ameri-
cans abroad are the objects of pity,
those who go down to the sea in ships
go under the shadow of the assassin
and without even the sustaining
thought that a government will honor
what it did not protect
We are going TO war with Germany
| because 1t is not possible to live in
the world with a nation protesting
and practicing German ideals and not
fight. Today. as on all days since the
morning of the Lusitania the mass of
his fellow countrymen would follow
Mr., Wilson if he would only trust
them and believe in them enough to
act, if he would only lead instead of
cropping, not after the light. but after
/ that national sentiment which always
responds to brave appeal and never
to timid search.
/ For thirty-one months we have been
neutral in the struggle between civil
i2ation and barbarsm. between hum
anity and brutality. We have pre-
tended that the slaughter of our fell
low countrymen was accidental. that
the massacre of women and children,
not few American. was unintention-
al; we have taken counsel with our
fears until self-defense has come to
seem unwararnted provocation and
voyaging under the American colors
at sea a reckless challenge to another
nation. And what have we escaped?
Have we even avoided that sense of
humiliation which makes the mere
existence of many Americans night
mare now?
We are going to war with Germany
because sooner or later we shall be
unable to escape war with a nation
whose international policy is that of
the man eating tiger viii not the
American people perceive, will not.
American people directly lead them
to the perception of the fact that peace
is impossible. and always has been
impossible, since German adopted the |
policy of assassination and accepted
the doctrine that there was no right
but German right and that the German
army was its prophet?