Der Deutsche correspondent. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1841-1918, 1917-02-03
IL WE MUST FIGHT. LET Us
FIGHT QUE OWN WAR, FOR
OUR OWN RIGHTS, WITH OUR
OWN MEN, BEHIND OUR
OWN PRESIDENT, AND
UNDER OUR OWN
FLAG

FLAG.
(Trom the New York American
The American who keeps his head
cool and his speech temperate in this
crisis is the best patriot.
IL we are to have war, we Will win
no victories except by foresight,
calmness and preparation very diff
ferent from excited defamation
II is the worst conceivable folly to
underrate the seriousness of u war
with Germany We have a mans
job ahead of us If hostilities begin
DO not misunderstood this state
ment. We all look to our President
TO lead us in the difficult ways that
We must tread whether to the goal
Of rightful and beneficial peace or to
the goal Of awful but unavoidable
war. We have never doubted that
our people can fight We have never
doubted that our people would fight
whenever they believed they should
fight. And We have not the least
doubt that any nation with which the
American people does wage war win
know that it has had a real fight
when the war is over.
But the highest good sense is to
meet all these conditions wisely and
calmly as Wen as couragcously..
We hope that the wisdom and sus-
tanned policy CT the President, recent
ly ratified by the people, may find q
way with hopur OF avoiding war and,
more than that, Of prosecuting to q
successful conclusion his noble ef-
forts to promote universal peace
Granting the possibility that we
are on the verge Of war with Ger
many, the FIRST question which arises
Is as t. tho character OF our appear
ancc in the arena.
Are we going to wage war rs one
of the allies, or arc VIC going to make
war strictly as single combatant.
unentangled in any alliance, and
maintaining our own rights with our
own swords?
Upon the answer we make to that
question depends our future for
many years to come.
Our own firm conviction is that if
we are compelled to 20 TO war with
Germany over the question of the
blockade and destruction of Amer
lean commerce by submarine war
fare, we should wage war strictly as
separate combatant--in military
conjunction. ol course. with the al
lies, but not in any way as party
to their political alliance or their
schemes of European conquest and
division of spoils.
For instance. at the very outset,
the Congress should plainly declare
that we will not be party to any
agreement to make peace with Ger
many only when all the allies are
agreed to make peace.
We should not be tied up in that
way.
If we fight with Germany we fight
upon one single proposition--th
proposition that submarines shall
not sink merchant ships without
warning, visit and search, and pro-
vision for the safety Of the lives Of
those on board.
And we should leave our hands
entirely free, SC that il Germany at
any time agrees to surrender upon
this point and meet our demand, we
will be at perfect liberty to withdraw
from the war, whether the others
desire to keep on fighting or not
)nr declaration OF war, II we make
one, should firc be confined to any
nation which employs submarines in
the way we insist they shall not be
employed and should not be gem
eral declaration OF war upon Ger
r1any, Austria Hungary, turkey and
Bulgaria. Because it is evident that
Bulgaria, for an example, cannot
commit any such offense against us;
nor Is Austria or Turkey at all GER
tain to commit any such offense.
Our sensible course is to rest our
warfare solely upon the reasons
which seem to justify us in making
war And this we can do IL we make
war as an Independent, sole Power.
and not as one Of combination OF
Powers If we embark on war as
one Of the allies, VIC shall bind our
selves TO the allies programme Of
crushing and Remembering the Con-
trail Empires; and that is exactly
what the President pointed out to
the allies as undesirable with us.
For there arc not ten in thousand
Of our people who want to sec the
peoples of Germany and Austria
Hungary put at the mercy OF Russia,
which would be the result Of the
success Of the allies" programme.
Neither are there any sensible
Americans who want to sec the
United States an ally Of Japan in Il
war with another white people. We
prefer to make our own war upon
men of our own race, be tho issue
what 1t may
Another powerful objection to our
formally joining the allics 10 that we
would be bound, in that case, to be-
come joint guarantors with European
nations of territorial and economic
arrangements made at the peace con-
ference, thus hopelessly entangling
us in European politics and European
wars.
We can ina gine no worse heritage
TO pass on to our children than such
heritage OF trouble. and war as that
would be-
II war comes, let us depend upon
ourselves and maintain, with cool
judgment and inhexibie purpose, our
traditional attitude Of aloofness
from foreign alliances That Is the