claring
that neutrals entering the war zone do so at their own risk, and that
the Americans aboard the Lusitania "were shielding contraband goods with
their persons." The Berliner Tageblatt said:_

The demand of the Washington Government must be rejected. Indeed, the
whole note hardly merits serious consideration. Its "firm tone" is only
a cloak to hide America's consciousness of her own culpability. If
American citizens, in spite of the warnings of the German Admiralty,
intrusted themselves on the Lusitania, the blame for the consequences
falls on themselves and their Government.

Can the United States affirm that there were no munitions aboard? If
not, it has not the shadow of a right to protest.

GERMAN-AMERICAN PRESS COMMENTS.

_Under the heading "The President's Note," Herman Ridder, editor of the
New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, one of the leading German-American
newspapers, said in that publication on May 15:_

The attitude assumed by the President, in the note delivered yesterday
to the German Government, toward the infringement of our rights on the
seas is diplomatically correct and must compel the support of the entire
American people.

We have suffered grievously at the hands of more than one of the
belligerent nations, but for the moment we are dealing only with
Germany. The note recites a series of events which the Government of the
United States could not silently pass by, and demands reparation for
American lives lost and American property already destroyed and a
guarantee that the rights of the United States and its citizens shall be
observed in the future. All this the German Government may well grant,
frankly and unreservedly and without loss of honor or prestige. It
would be incomprehensible if it did not do so.

The note admits, as most diplomatic documents do, of two
interpretations. They will be applied to it variously, as the reader is
inclined to pessimism or to optimism. It is a document in which lies the
choice of war or peace evenly balanced. I prefer to read into it all the
optimism which can be derived from the knowledge that two nations,
historically like-minded and bound to one another by strong ties of
friendship, seldom go to war over matters which can be settled without
resort to the arbitrament of arms. There is no question outstanding
today between the United States and Germany which cannot be settled
through diplomatic channels. I am inclined all the more to this optimism
by the