Widnes Examiner. — 1915-05-15 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

THE EXAMINER,  SATURDAY, MAY 15, 1915.  THE SUPER-CRIMINAL.  Germany has boasted of its super this and super that until there seemed to be few, if any, fields left to conquer; but she has within the last fortnight advanced substantially and has become herself the super-criminal of the world. No one can ever compete with her now in infamy if the earth lasts on into eternity. The horrors of Louvain, of Dinant, were glossed over—by lies we know—in convenient phrases about punishment for offences against the invading army; the shelling of Rheims Cathedral was excused by the allegation that the tower had been used for military purposes; even the raid upon Scarborough provided a morning's exercise for a fleet that was getting rusty for want of work. But the poisoning of wells, the gassing of men, and the sinking of a passenger steamer as a part of the set policy of a government and of the strategy of its naval commanders bring us face to face with a state of affairs that finally places Germany outside the pale of civilisation. When the Lusitania sank last Friday in circumstances so callous and inhuman that the wonder is that not more than 1,142 perished in a total of 1,906 on board, Germany, perjured Germany, struck harder than she knew—against herself. The Allies, strangely tolerant and strong in their belief in the justice of their cause, had  trusted that they knew the worst of the German character. By means of these two black crimes, the poison and the wholesale murder on thb high seas, Germany has not only convinced the Allies that she will stick at nothing, but will go to any diabolical length; but she has surely convinced the nations that are at present only spectators of the most ghastly war of all time that an enemy of mankind is afoot, and that unless that enemy is effectually scotched civilisation itself will stand in danger of annihilation.  Will the neutrals stand aside and let others fight their battle, or will they themselves lend a hand to strike for freedom? That is their own affair, of course; and appearances lead to the conclusion that we and France and Russia—with little Servia and Belgium in the foreground to show others the glorious heights to which even the smallest nations can attain—will have to trust to our own resources in order to win the measure of liberty which twelve months ago we fondly believed to have been firmly secured. The outrage, however, will have a tonic effect upon the peoples of the Allies, who will proceed with greater determination than ever towards the goal that means the total extermination of the Prussian military caste. That we shall have to apply ourselves with greater energy to the achievement of that great end becomes more clear as time goes/ on. It would be unwise to console ourselves in the belief that Germany having become desperate is running amok. What Germany is doing is clearly the result of well-thought-out plans—and she dare hardly have put them into practice had she feared an approaching day of reckoning with  her opponents. There is no " need for vain speculation on such remote points as these,  and we cannot afford to waste time upon them. All we know is that the news of tile sinking of the Lusitania was, according to the "Cologne Gazette," "received by the German people with unanimous satisfaction since it proves to England and the whole world that Germany is quite in earnest in regard to her submarine warfare." The only answer to a nation in that bloodthirsty frame  of mind can come from the recruiting offices and the workshops of this country; and that answer will undoubtedly be given.