Life — May 11, 1916 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

888 The Issue of the Lusitania "PRE question of the Lusitania is whether anything can be wrong which Germany at any, time thinks necessary to success. By the usages of international law it is a crime to sink merchant or passenger ships with- out taking off their crews and passen- gers. In defiance of this rule, a Ger- man submarine, acting under govern- ment orders, sank the Lusitania, Over twelve hundred lives were lost, includ- ing many women and children and more than a hundred citizens of the United States. That happened on May 7th, a year ago, Our government did not break at once with Germany, but informed the German government that it would be held to strict accountability for this proceeding. It has been holding it to strict accountability ever since. It has exchanged notes with the German for- eign office, and then more notes. Ger- many partially agreed to abate her pi- ratical enterprises and conform to the rules of international law in warfare, but she has not kept her word. Her promises and professions, as our Presi- dent told Congress, have “in fact cen- stituted no check at all on the destruc- tion of ships of every sort.” Again and again, Mr. Wilson said, the German government has given our government its solemn assurances that at least passenger ships would not be destroyed with their passengers and crews aboard, “and yet it has again and again permitted its undersea com- manders to disregard these assurances with entire impunity.” Our people have been patient, with a patience that calls rather for explana- tion than for praise. Ten or twelve millions of us are of German deriva- tion and swayed by German sympa- thies. Of the rest, a serious proportion were opposed to war on any grounds, except in resistance to invasion. There remained, doubtless, a large majority ready, and more than ready, to support the government with all their energies, but bound to wait until the govern- ment's position was defined and they were called upon to back it. Month after month of negotiation passed, un- til the issue began to grow faint, and in the minds of those who felt it to be vital the fear began to stir that our ComNG, To Do Asour it? LUSITANIA MAY 7, 1915 AS IT Was Wee WHY DIDNT You DO SOMETHING AGour 37? LUSITANSA MAY 2, 1916 AS IT 18 case would be lost by default. Then there began a defection from Mr. Wil- son. In despair of his meeting the situation those of his supporters who wanted something done began to look about to see who else there might be to turn to. Still there are those who doubt that he has it in him to act with due vigor in a great world crisis. Nevertheless, his stand for military preparation, late as it was in coming, was right and was welcomed; his speech to Congress and his note to Ger- many on April roth were admirable, and it may be that the patience of his hackers is to be rewarded by seeing him come finally and powerfully to the scratch. So far as words go, he has come al- ready. Our position could hardly have been better put than he put it in his speech of April roth. Germany may back down, suspend her piratical war- fare, make amends, stay good in one comicbooks.com