Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-03-02
Friday, March 2, 1917
Unless you bear with the faults
Of friend you betray your own
Syrus.-
More Cause Than Submarine Murder

Chancellor Won Bethmann- Holweg.
in his address to the Reichstag on
! Tuesday Of this week, declared that he
could not understand why the United
States had broken off relations with
Germany yet nearly two weeks before
Germanys announcement of its de
cision" to engage in ruthless submar-
inc warfare, that government was ne
. gotiating plot anticipating just such
4 course as President Wilson took.
Thus is German duplicity toward a
friendly nation disclosed, and the sus-
picion that America had more cause
: than submarine ruthlessness for re-
. sentiment against the Prussian
oligarchy. confirmed.
Bethnann- Holweg said to the Reich
stag:
lone step further than taken by Euro
= pean neutrals has been made-as is
: known-by the United States of America.
President Wilson. after receiving our
note Of Jan. 81, brusquely broke off rela-
tions with US. No authentic communica-
for his steps reached me. The former
United States ambassador here in Berlin
communicated only in spoken words TO
the state secretary of the foreign office
of breaking off relations, and asked for
= his passports. This form of breaking OF
: relations between great nations living
in peace is probably without precedent in
history"
." LAS to the American answer
> given to the German note. it was so alb
solutely contrary to what we in our note
had said clearly and without any posi-
Z bility of misunderstanding, that a reply
on our part would have changed nothing
{ as to the standpoints maintained by both
: sides But nobody, even in America,
: could doubt that already long ago the
conditions were fulfilled upon which, ac
= cording to our declaration, depended our
regaining full liberty of decision
What shall we make. then, of the
letter Of the German Secretary of
Z State for Foreign Affairs Of Jan. 10,
advising Count Won Bernstorff Of the
coming unrestricted submarine war
fare?" Do not our readers remember
: that Won Bernstorff expressed his
fear" that relations would be severed?
Had he not good reasons for such con-
illusions? And did not the German
ambassador lay before CarranZa the
German proposals for an alliance to in
clude Japan against the United States?
1t may be true that DIR. Zimmerman's
letter was permitted" to fall into
- President Wilson's hands, as a bug
bear to scare the United States out of
Sc it's only dignified and honorable course,
and may be likewise true that Presi-
dent Wilson in turn used it as a bug
i bear to influence Congress; but the
fact remains that the Zimmerman let
ter confirms the charges of treachery
and underhanded work by German
: tools in this country.
., In other words, the same cunning
forces that inspired the revolution in
, Ireland, and attempted others in India
and Africa, have been at work in this
country.
Thursday mornings revelation shows
conclusively that President Wilson has
for some time known, and the Amer
q ican people now know, what to expect
from the German government in its
II desperation-ttat it will hesitate at no
perf1dy to save itself from the wrath
to come which it has foreseen.
So far as Japan is concerned the
e.. German Imperial Government" must
x nave mistaken the Japanese govern
ment for home for feeble minded
And it must have had a foolishly exae-
gerated notion of the possibilities in
., Mexico
q, We hope none of our readers will be
% misled by the Washington sensation
into the fear of an United States war
against a German-Japanese-M Mexican
combination. Such a conception could
have come only from the mad hope of
"a desperate group of officials. And it
should be met with all promptitude and
decision.
Thursday mornings proof is conclus-
I've OF the menace to civilizat ton by
: Prussianism. The spirit of militarism
incubated generation ago, and nursed
to perfection under a power-mad em-
peror. must be ended before the world
can know peace or safety. Its accom-
phshment may overthrow every dvnas-
ty' but the worlds people are capable
of ruling themselves
On Thursday an excited pen+ler,,,