MAY 19, 1915 Offices, 381 Fourth Avenue, New York Address all mail communications to The Outlook Company, Box 37, Madison Square Branch P. O., New York City THE LUSITANIA MASSACRE I-WHAT SHOULD AMERICA DO? HE sinking of the Lusitania was not an act of war, it was a crime-the crime of murder. "War is a public armed contest between nations, under the sanction of international law, to establish justice between them." In the sinking of the Lusitania there was no armed contest, and the fundamental moralities of international law were violated. War is cruel; but it is not lawless. It is killing; but it is not murder. No such wholesale massacre of unarmed and defenseless victims has been perpetrated in modern warfare since Bonaparte's massacre of defenseless prisoners on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea at Jaffa. Has America any duty to disown this crime against itself, against the civilized world, against humanity? We have seen American men murdered and American women violated in Mexico, and done nothing. We have seen the neutrality of weak nations violated, private property destroyed, defenseless cities bombarded, churches and hospitals, which civilized warfare has always regarded as sacred, demolished, and have said nothing. We have seen one American ship on the high seas bombarded from the air, and another torpedoed from the sea,. and have declared that if another American life is lost we shall call the assailant to a strict accountability." Now over a hundred American lives are lost. What shall we do? What ought we to do? Does America owe any duty of protection to its citizens in foreign lands and on the high seas? Patient waiting has done nothing. Protesting words have done nothing. In the presence of wholesale assassination The Outlook is not neutral. We believe the time has come for National action. In such a crisis courage is a duty and timidity a crime. We need not wait for official investigation. The murder is exultantly avowed. We need not wait for judicial investigation of the defenses offered. The War Zone? No nation has a right to put an invisible fence around a section of the open sea and warn all neutral nations off as trespassers, at the peril of their lives. Warning given? When did warning of an intent to commit murder serve as an excuse for the murder perpetrated? The Lusitania was armed? She was not armed; but she had a right to be. The Constitution of the United States recognizes the right of peaceable citizens to bear arms; international law recognizes to a similar reasonable degree the right of peaceable vessels to bear arms. She was carrying contraband? Then she might be sunk; but not until the safety of her crew and passengers was assured. Great Britain is starving Germany, therefore Germany has a right to murder American citizens? A strange logic! But Great Britain is not starving Germany. The laws of war forbid the murder of the unarmed, but they also declare in explicit terms that "it is lawful to starve a hostile belligerent, armed or unarmed, so that it leads to the speedier subjection of the enemy." The invention of air-ships and submarines has changed international law? John Bassett Moore is our authority for saying that it has not changed international law. Certainly it has not changed the Ten Commandments. The use of a novel instrument does not change the nature of the crime. Murder is still murder; and killing unarmed noncombatants in cold blood the conscience of all civilized nations still condemns as murder. The time for words has passed; the time for National action has come. What action? Any action which vigorously and effectively disowns all fellowship with a nation which commits wholesale piracy on the high seas. The action which we hope will have been taken by the United States Government before this number reaches our readers is this: We would have our Government at once call upon Germany to disown and repudiate her present practice of sinking merchant vessels without warning and without regard for safety of passengers and crew, and notify Germany that so long as she continues to disregard the rights of neutrals and the fundamental principles of humanity the United States will have no intercourse with her. We would have our Government give the German Ambassador his passport and call home from Germany the American Ambassador. We would publicly request by cable all the neutral Powers of the world to unite with us in this action; if they decline, we would still take the action alone. This does not mean war against Germany. But if, as a result, Germany declared war against us, we would have America meet the peril with the same spirit of courage with which our fathers met a greater peril in 1776 and in 1812. To this action there are objections. There are objections to any action. But there are still greater objections to inaction, for inaction means America's acquiescence in Germany's continuing policy of international crime. Not the We do not know the individual who is responsible for this piracy on the high seas. German people. It is not their act. Germany is not a republic. Her Government is not responsible to her people. They have not directed its policy. They could not change it if they.would; they cannot even give free expression to their opinions respecting it. Speech and press are free in America; they are free in England; they are not free in Germany. And where opinions cannot be freely expressed public opinion does not exist. It is created by expression. This piracy should stir no hate against the German people-only compassion and a new hope that they may become free. It is not for us to judge even the director of these acts of barbaric brutality-whoever he may be. He will be self-judged. The time will come when will pass away the burning fever of war which now blinds the eyes and hardens the heart, and the ghosts of his murdered victims, innocent of wrong, will surround with their accusing voices this now exultant assassin. We do not judge him. We leave this modern Richard III to his own selfjudgment. "I hate myself For hateful deeds committed by myself! I am a villain: yet I lie, I am not. Fool, of thyself speak well: fool, do not flatter. THE PRESIDENT'S NOTE The Outlook Office, The foregoing editorial went to press yesterday morning. We stop the press to say that the President's message, to the Imperial German Government is published this morning.. The country has looked forward to it with mingled feelings of eagerness, anxiety, and confidence. Every patriotic American will greet it with hearty approval and satisfaction. In accordance with diplomatic conventions it is signed by the Secretary of State, but manifestly it is written by the hand of the President himself. For style, spirit, courtesy, vigor, and the principles it expresses, it will take a high place among the state papers of our Government. The President narrates the series of violations of American rights which culminated in the sinking of the Lusitania; assumes that "these acts, so absolutely contrary to the rules, the practices, and the spirit of modern warfare," are not approved by the Imperial German Government; asserts that Americans have the right to travel on merchant ships even when these ships are owned by belligerents; states as undebatable the fact that submarine warfare against merchant ships violates many sacred principles of justice and humanity;" informs 1915 * PUBLIC MBRARE IANTA ROSA, CAR. THE LUSITANIA MASSACRE 105 the Imperial German Government that the German Embassy at Washington printed a warning to the people of the United States in a newspaper advertisement, which was not only an act of diplomatic discourtesy, but which cannot possibly "be accepted as an excuse that the commanders of the submarines who have torpedoed non-combatants acted "under or palliation" for the death-dealing destruction of the Lusitania; takes it for granted confident expectation that the Imperial German Government will make reparation, in so misapprehension of the orders" of the Imperial German Government; expresses the reparation for injuries which cannot be measured may be made, and will immediately Steps to prevent the recurrence of such injuries; and, finally, in the following striking passage states the intention of the Government of the United States to support its demands for justice by acting, if action is necessary: The Government and people of the United States look to the Imperial German Government for just, prompt, and enlightened action in this vital matter with the greater confidence, because the United States and Germany are bound together not only by special ties of friendship, but also by the explicit stipulations of the Treaty of 1828, between the United States and the Kingdom of Prussia. Expressions of regret and offers of reparation in case of the destruction of neutral ships sunk by mistake, while they may satisfy international obligations, if no loss of life results, cannot justify or excuse a practice the natural and necessary effect of which is to subject neutral nations and neutral persons to new and immeasurable risks. The Imperial German Government will not expect the Government of the United States to omit any word or any act necessary to the performance of its sacred duty of maintaining the rights of the United States and its citizens and of safeguarding their free exercise and enjoyment. The President's ultimatum is the first step in the procedure which we advocate in the editorial preceding this statement. He has cleared the atmosphere and made the issue plain. Every loyal American should support the President in his hope that Germany will accede to his just demands. unhappily, Germany decides against us, every loyal American, whatever his ancestry of his sacred duty of aiding the Government of the United States to protect its citizens, to justice, and to preserve the foundations of its institutions. II-THE STORY N Monday of last week a British cor- steamship Lusitania, declared: "The jury finds this appalling crime was contrary to international law and the conventions of all civilized nations, and we therefore charge the officers of the submarine and the German Emperor and. the Government of Germany, under whose orders. they acted, with the crime of willful and wholesale murder." What was this crime, thus characterized? OF THE CRIME New York City bound for Queenstown and Liverpool. Built eight years ago at a cost of seven and a half million dollars, she was one of the Cunard Line's famous trio of the largest, finest, and fastest British ships afloat-the Lusitania, Mauretania, and Aquitania. Aboard her were over two thousand men, women, and children. The day before she sailed the German Embassy issued a printed warning to Americans to the effect that if they sailed the high seas on British passenger ships they did so at the peril of their lives. It is said that individuals |