upid offenses
against international law--by which the Potsdam gang directly assailed
the sovereignty and neutrality of the United States and forced us to
choose between the surrender of our national integrity and a frank
acceptance of the war which Germany was waging, not only against our
principles and interests, but against the things which in our judgment
were essential to the welfare of mankind and to the existence of
honorable and decent relations among the peoples of the world.

The first of these offenses was the cynical and persistent attempt to
take advantage of the good nature and unsuspiciousness of the United
States for the establishment of an impudent system of German espionage;
to use our territory as a base of conspiracy and treacherous hostilities
against countries with which we were at peace; and to lose no
opportunity of mobilizing the privileges granted by "these idiotic
Yankees" (quotation from the military attache of the Imperial German
Embassy at Washington)--including, of course, the diplomatic
privilege--to make America unconsciously help in playing the game of the
Potsdam gang.

The second of these offenses was the illegal, piratical submarine
warfare which the Potsdam gang ordered and waged against the merchant
shipping of the world, thereby destroying the lives and the property of
American citizens and violating the most vital principle of our
steadfast contention for the freedom of the sea.

The message of the President to Congress on April 2, 1917, marked these
two offenses as the main causes which made it impossible for the United
States to maintain longer an official attitude of neutrality toward the
German Government, which "did what it pleased and told its people
nothing." The President generously declared that the source of these
offenses "lay not in any hostile feeling or purpose of the German people
toward us." That was a magnanimous declaration, and we sincerely hope it
may prove true.

But practically the difficulty lies in the fact that at the present hour
several millions of the German people stand in arms, on land that does
not belong to them, to maintain the purpose and continue the practices
of the Potsdam gang. It is a pity, but it is true. The only way to get
at the gang which chose and forced this atrocious war is to go through
the armed people who still defend that choice and the atrocities which
have emphasized it.

Forgiveness must wait upon repentance. Repentance m