h its
soldiers and sailors have fought in many causes--good, bad, and
indifferent; because they fought bravely took defeat resolutely, and
showed humanity after victory. The German method of conducting war
omits chivalry, mercy, and humanity, and thereby degrades the German
Nation and any other nation which sympathizes with it or supports its
methods. It is no answer to the world's objection to the sinking of the
Lusitania that Great Britain uses its navy to cut off from Germany food
and needed supplies for its industries, for that is a recognized and
effective method of warfare; whereas the sinking of an occasional
merchant ship with its passengers and crew is a method of warfare
nowhere effective, and almost universally condemned. If war, with its
inevitable stratagems, ambuscades, and lies must continue to be the
arbiter in international disputes, it is certainly desirable that such
magnanimity in war as the conventions of the last century made possible
should not be lost because of Germany's behavior in the present European
convulsion. It is also desirable to reaffirm with all possible emphasis
that fidelity to international agreements is the taproot of human
progress.

On the supposition that the people of the United States have learned the
lesson of the Lusitania, so far as an understanding of the issues at
stake in this gigantic war is concerned, can they also get from it any
guidance in regard to their own relation to the fateful struggle?
Apparently, not yet. With practical unanimity the American people will
henceforth heartily desire the success of the Allies, and the decisive
defeat of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey. With practical unanimity
they will support whatever action the Administration at Washington shall
decide to take in the immediate emergency; but at present they do not
feel that they know whether they can best promote the defeat of the
Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey by remaining
neutral or by taking active part in the conflict. Unless a dismemberment
of Austria-Hungary is brought about by Italy and Rumania or some other
Balkan State entering the war on the side of the Allies, it now seems as
if neither party would acknowledge defeat until exhausted or brought to
a sudden moral collapse. Exhaustion in war can best be prevented by
maintaining in activity the domestic industries and general
productiveness of the nation involved in war and those of the neutral
nations