The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-08-22
irwin cobb is
HEADL|NER ON
T0DAY'S PROGRAM
Great Humorist Speaks To-
night-Bentley Tells Why
u. S. is at War.

Thursday Night.
1880 p. m.-Prelude, Vierra's Royal
Hawaiian Singers and
Players.
Sis p. m.-Lecture, Irwin Cobb, d.
rect from the Battle
Fields of Europe.
Friday.
$50 a. m-Miss Florence Norton.
1870 a. m.-War Lecture, Prof. j. H.
Bentley.
200 p. m.-Concert, Howard Quintet.
800 p. m.--Lecture, Miss Eleanor
Barker. representing the
Federal Food Admins
1880 p. m.-Prelude, The Howard
Quintet.
Sis p. m.-Lecture, The Aeroplane.
Burt l.. Newkirk.
"Why America Entered the War"
was the topic Of the fourth war lecture
delivered by J. II. Bentley Thursday
morning.
eTraditions in America" he said.
(which are founded on the inground
Bense of justice and right conditions
under which nations may live, always
have stood for three great principles:
first, that nations have the right to
determine their own laws and govern
ment as the Monroe doctrine main
tains; second that the seas are to be
free: and third for arbitration
"Our disputes with England have in
volved no loss of life. A shipload OF
meat, which spoiled while English
shippers were holding the merchan-
disc informed, might cause a painful
wrangling in the merchants pocket
book, but that can be settled ten years
later If necessary" said Mr.. Bentley.
A matter that cannot be settled In
such a way, however, is the blood loss
Of lives which have been sacrificed,
when Germany steadily has refused
to srbitrate any matter with us, but
Mt all times has kept her hands free
for war
Concerning the freedom Of the seas
international law provides that sub
marine has perfect right to sink
battleships without warning, but 1t
never has been given the right to sink
a merchant ship unless it has first
been searched for contraband and then
has provided for the safety of the
crew.
even though the Lusitania had
been filled to the guards with war mu-
ntions, which ] do not believe IL
was" said Mr.. Bentley, those people
had a perfect right to sail from one
end of the sea to the other. and no
submarine ever had a right to sink
that ship without first providing for
every man, woman and child who was
on board.
Some one came out with the state
ment to the effect that if America had
been hemmed in on all sides, as Ger
many made out that she was, that we
would have done somewhat the same
thing. | should like to have shown
that reporter a few pages of Ameri-
can history" continued Mr. Bentley.
AT one time of the Civil War. when
the southerners were blockaded on
every side and starving, one ship I'M
der southern commander broke loose
and went ranging up and down the
coast sinking one northern ship after
another, but not one, not one, in the
whole history ever was sunk without
first saving the crew, and more than
that, history even shows that not once
but several times, ships were saved
because the Confederates had no
means of providing for the crews.
The South lost the war, but they did
not lose their honor, and today the
Southerners are everywhere held as
gentlemen CT the first water.
"As for arbitration, America is the
first nation ever to use and abide by
arbitration" stated Mr.. Bentley. 1--WE
invented arbitration" he said ''In-
deed, in one sense Of the word, our
whole constitution is one large arbi-
tration treaty between those first thir-
teen little independent nations. The
unity Of America is the miracle of ar
bitration, the first the world ever has
known"