Chapter VIII: America’s Protest Against Uncivilized Warfare

PRESIDENT WILSON’S GREAT RESPONSIBILITY -- THE NOTE TO GERMANY --
ATTACKS CALLED CONTRARY TO RULES OF WARFARE -- WARNING TO GERMANY
RECALLED -- SUBMARINE WARFARE ON COMMERCE CONDEMNED -- PUBLISHED
WARNING DECLARED NO EXCUSE FOR ATTACK -- PROMPT, JUST ACTION BY
GERMANY EXPECTED -- THE WHOLE NATION BEHIND THE PRESIDENT -- SOUTH AND
WEST RESOUNDED WITH APPROVAL.

Rarely has a man in any office of life had laid upon his shoulders so great a responsibility as was thrust upon President Wilson by the destruction of more than a hundred American lives in the Lusitania disaster. No heart was more sorely stricken than his by the dastardly calamity, and yet it is characteristic of the man, and to his everlasting credit, that when impetuous minds were urging him to hasty action, his reply was,

“We must think first of humanity.”

A man of lesser stature, mentally and spiritually, would have required a host of counselors. In the great crisis which he faced President Wilson assumed for himself full responsibility. There was the rare spectacle of a man great enough and sure enough to determine wholly within his own mind upon the action he should take. He sought no advice; he eschewed advisers. In solitude he evolved his supreme duty.

When, in the seclusion of his own soul, he had fixed upon his policy, he proceeded in the same way to put it into words. It is a thing perhaps without precedent before the administration of President Wilson that the note to the German government, which has become a historic document, was written originally by the President in shorthand. After he had set down the communication in this way he transcribed it on his own typewriter. No official or clerk of the White House had any part in the preparation of the document until after it had been presented to the members of the Cabinet. Not even Secretary Bryan saw it in advance of that time.

THE NOTE TO GERMANY

The full text of President Wilson’s note, dated May 13, and communicated over the name of Secretary of State Bryan, is as follows:

_“The Secretary of State to the American Ambassador at Berlin_:

“Please call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and after reading to
him this communication, leave with him a copy:

“In view of the recent acts of the German authorities in violation of
American rights on the high seas, which culminated in the torpedoing
and sinking of the British steamship Lusitania on May 7, 1915, by
which over one hundred American citizens lost their lives, it is
clearly wise and desirable that the government of the United States
and the imperial German government should come to a clear and full
understanding as to the grave situation which has resulted.

“The sinking of the British passenger steamship Falaba by a German
submarine on March 28, through which Leon C. Thresher, an American
citizen, was drowned; the attack on April 28 on the American vessel
Cushing by a German aeroplane; the torpedoing on May 1 of the American
vessel Gulflight by a German submarine, as a result of which two or
more American citizens met their death; and, finally, the torpedoing
and sinking of the steamship Lusitania, constitute a series of events
which the government of the United States has observed with growing
concern, distress and amazement.

ATTACKS CALLED CONTRARY TO RULES OF WARFARE

“Recalling the humane and enlightened attitude hitherto assumed by the
imperial German government in matters of international right, and
particularly with regard to the freedom of the seas; having learned to
recognize the German views and the German influence in the field of
international obligation as always engaged upon the side of justice
and humanity; and having understood the instructions of the imperial
German government to its naval commanders to be upon the same plane of
humane action prescribed by the naval codes of other nations, the
government of the United States was loath to believe--it cannot now
bring itself to believe--that these acts, so absolutely contrary to
the rules, the practices and the spirit of modern warfare, could have
the countenance or sanction of that great government. It feels it to
be its duty, therefore, to address the imperial German government
concerning them with the utmost frankness and in the earnest hope that
it is not mistaken in expecting action on the part of the imperial
German government which will correct the unfortunate impressions which
have been created and vindicate once more the position of that
government with regard to the sacred freedom of the seas.

WARNING TO GERMANY RECALLED

“The government of the United States has been apprised that the
imperial German government considered themselves to be obliged by the
extraordinary circumstances of the present war and the measures
adopted by their adversaries in seeking to cut Germany off from all
commerce, to adopt methods of retaliation which go much beyond the
ordinary methods of warfare at sea, in the proclamation of a war zone
from which they have warned neutral ships to keep away. This
government has already taken occasion to inform the imperial German
government that it cannot admit the adoption of such measures or such
a warning of danger to operate as in any degree an abbreviation of the
rights of American shipmasters or of American citizens bound on lawful
errands as passengers on merchant ships of belligerent nationality;
and that it must hold the imperial German government to a strict
accountability for any infringement of those rights, intentional or
incidental. It does not understand the imperial German government to
question those rights. It assumes, on the contrary, that the imperial
German government accept, as of course, the rule that the lives of
non-combatants, whether they be of neutral citizenship or citizens of
one of the nations at war, cannot lawfully or rightfully be put in
jeopardy by the capture or destruction of an unarmed merchantman, and
recognize, also, as all other nations do, the obligation to take the
usual precaution of visit and search to ascertain whether a suspected
merchantman is in fact of belligerent nationality or is in fact
carrying contraband of war under a neutral flag.

SUBMARINE WARFARE ON COMMERCE CONDEMNED

“The government of the United States, therefore, desires to call the
attention of the imperial German government with the utmost
earnestness to the fact that the objection to their present method of
attack against the trade of their enemies lies in the practical
impossibility of employing submarines in the destruction of commerce
without disregarding those rules of fairness, reason, justice and
humanity, which all modern opinion regards as imperative. It is
practically impossible for the officers of a submarine to visit a
merchantman at sea and examine her papers and cargo. It is practically
impossible for them to make a prize of her; and, if they cannot put a
prize crew on board of her, they cannot sink her without leaving her
crew and all on board of her to the mercy of the sea in her small
boats. These facts, it is understood, the imperial German government
frankly admit.

“We are informed that in the instances of which we have spoken time
enough for even that poor measure of safety was not given, and in at
least two of the cases cited not so much as a warning was received.
Manifestly, submarines cannot be used against merchantmen, as the last
few weeks have shown, without an inevitable violation of many sacred
principles of justice and humanity.

“American citizens act within their indisputable rights in taking
their ships and in traveling wherever their legitimate business calls
them upon the high seas, and exercise those rights in what should be
the well-justified confidence that their lives will not be endangered
by acts done in clear violation of universally acknowledged
international obligations, and certainly in the confidence that their
own government will sustain them in the exercise of their rights.

PUBLISHED WARNING DECLARED NO EXCUSE FOR ATTACK

“There was recently published in the newspapers of the United States,
I regret to inform the imperial German government, a formal warning,
purporting to come from the imperial German embassy at Washington,
addressed to the people of the United States, and stating in effect
that any citizen of the United States who exercised his right of free
travel upon the seas would do so at his peril if his journey should
take him within the zone of waters within which the imperial German
navy was using submarines against the commerce of Great Britain and
France, notwithstanding the respectful but very earnest protest of
this government, the government of the United States. I do not refer
to this for the purpose of calling the attention of the imperial
German government at this time to the surprising irregularity of a
communication from the imperial German embassy at Washington addressed
to the people of the United States through the newspapers, but only
for the purpose of pointing out that no warning that an unlawful and
inhumane act will be committed can possibly be accepted as an excuse
or palliation for that act, or as an abatement of the responsibility
for its commission.

“Long acquainted as this government has been with the character of the
imperial German government and with the high principles of equity by
which they have in the past been actuated and guided, the government
of the United States cannot believe that the commanders of the vessels
which committed these acts of lawlessness did so except under a
misapprehension of the orders issued by the imperial German naval
authorities. It takes it for granted that, at least within the
practical possibilities of every such case, the commanders even of
submarines were expected to do nothing that would involve the lives of
non-combatants or the safety of neutral ships, even at the cost of
failing of their object of capture or destruction.

“It confidently expects, therefore, that the imperial German
government will disavow the acts of which the government of the United
States complains; that they will make reparation so far as reparation
is possible for injuries which are without measure, and that they will
take immediate steps to prevent the recurrence of anything so
obviously subversive of the principles of warfare for which the
imperial German government have in the past so wisely and so firmly
contended.

PROMPT, JUST ACTION BY GERMANY EXPECTED

“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.

“BRYAN.”

THE WHOLE NATION BEHIND THE PRESIDENT

With anxiety, even if with confidence, the American people waited the publication of this note. Then they read, and the whole country resounded with enthusiastic support. More than at almost any previous period in the history of the United States, more certainly than at the outbreak of any previous foreign war, the nation stood solidly behind the President. According to the New York Tribune he “acted with calm statesmanlike directness, deserved well of his own nation and earned the respect of the world.” The New York Sun, commenting on the note, said: “The President has spoken firmly. The country, supporting him as firmly, awaits without passion the German reply,” and the New York Herald in an editorial declared that President Wilson had “expressed the unanimous voice of the great American republic.” “Everyone trusts the President because he has shown himself worthy of trust,” was the comment of the Philadelphia Public Ledger. “The Government’s position in this case is the country’s position. It is not extreme, yet it covers the ground,” spoke the Springfield Republican, and the Christian Science Monitor went so far as to state that there was “probably no body of opinion in the United States which will be dissatisfied either with the tone or temper of the message.”

An armored car is suspended by three cables from the Zeppelin airship to a distance of several thousand feet below the monster air-craft, which is concealed in the clouds above. (_Sphere copr._)]

This stirring picture represents a German aeroplane of the type called Aviatik, beaten in a fight high up in the air by the famous French Aviator Garros, plunging to earth in flames, turning and turning like a falling star.]

SOUTH AND WEST RESOUNDED WITH APPROVAL

No less enthusiastic was the approval of the press in the South and West. “The citizenry of this country is with Wilson,” stoutly declared the Baltimore Sun, and the Louisville Post maintained: “There are no neutrals in America now. We are all earnest supporters of the President, who by patience and fortitude has established his right to lead a free people.” The note, according to the Atlanta Journal, was “the voice of the American people proclaiming in terms unmistakable their conscience and their will.”

“Whatever the fate of our relations with Germany, the President undoubtedly has voiced the sentiment of the nation upon the use of the submarine and as to the rights of neutrals on the high seas,” was the comment of the Chicago Tribune. The note was described by the Cleveland News as “all that Americans could wish,” and according to the San Francisco Chronicle, it commended itself “to the common sense of people unafflicted with inflammable hatreds.” “It is probable that no document of state ever came nearer reflecting the sentiment of the American people,” commented the Denver Times, and the Indianapolis News proclaimed: “It is not simply the government, but the nation that speaks through the document. There is no one who does not hope for a peaceful adjustment of the difficulty.” The Minneapolis Journal, after analyzing the note and especially the last strong paragraph of protest, declared: “The American people will stand by these words.”

If no president of the United States ever faced so grave a crisis, certainly none ever received more unanimous support. If there were any murmurs of dissatisfaction they were too faint to be heard above the chorus of approval.