America in World War 1 (2)

Up to the time when the United States declared war, two hundred and
twenty-six Americans, men, women, and infants, had met their death
through the sinking of ships, torpedoed without warning, under orders
of the German government. These people were peaceable travelers, going
about their business on the high seas in passenger steamers owned by
private companies. According to the law observed by all nations up to
this time there was no more reason for them to fear danger from the
Germans than if they had been traveling on trains in South America or
Spain, or any other country not at war. The attack upon these ships,
to say nothing about the brutal and inhuman method of sinking them
without warning, was an act of war on the part of Germany against any
country whose citizens happened to be traveling on these ocean
steamers. That the action of the United States in calling the
submarine attacks an act of war was only justice is proved by the fact
that several other nations, who had nothing to gain by going to war
and had earnestly desired to remain neutral, took the same stand.
Brazil, Cuba, and several other South and Central American republics
found that they could not maintain their honor without declaring war
on Germany. German ambassadors and ministers have been dismissed from
practically every capital in Spanish America.

In Europe, also, neutral nations like Holland, Denmark, and Norway saw
their ships sunk and their citizens drowned. In spite of their wrongs,
however, the first two did not dare to declare war on Germany, as the
Germans would be able to throw a strong army across the border and
overrun each of these two little countries before the allies could
come to their help. With the fate of Belgium and Serbia before them,
the Danes and the Dutch swallowed their pride and sat helplessly by
while Germany killed their sailors and defenseless passengers. After
the failure of the Entente to protect Serbia and Roumania, no one
could blame Denmark and Holland.

Norway, too, was exposed to danger of a raid by the German fleet.
Commanding the Skager Rack and Cattegat as they did, with the Kiel
Canal connecting them, the Germans could bombard the cities on the
Norwegian coast or even land an army to invade the country. The three
little countries together do not have an army any larger than that of
Roumania, and it would have been out of the question for them to
declare war on Germany without seeing their whole territory overrun
and laid waste.

Nevertheless public opinion in Norway was so strong against Germany
that the Norwegian government, on November first, 1917 sent a vigorous
protest to Berlin, closing with these words:

"The Norwegian government will not again state its views, as it has
already done so on several occasions, as to the violation of the
principles of the freedom of the high seas incurred by the
proclamation of large tracts of the ocean as a war zone and by the
sinking of neutral merchant ships not carrying contraband.

"It has made a profound impression on the Norwegian people that not
only have German submarines continued to sink peaceful neutral
merchant ships, paying no attention to the fate of their crews, but
that even German warships adopted the same tactics. The Norwegian
government decided to send this note in order to bring to the
attention of the German government the impression these acts have made
upon the Norwegian people."

The two arguments that the Germans used in trying to justify
themselves for their inhuman methods with the submarine are: (1) that
on these ships which were sunk were supplies for the French and
British armies, the arrival of which would aid them in killing
Germans, and (2) that the English, by their blockade of Germany, were
doing something which was contrary to the laws of nations and starving
German women and children, and, therefore, since England was breaking
some rules of the war game, Germany had the right to go ahead and
break others.

The trade of the United States in selling war supplies to France and
England was a sore spot with Germany. They claimed that the United
States was unfair in selling to the Entente and not to them. Of
course, this was foolish, as has been pointed out, for the United
States was just as ready to sell to Germany as to the Allies, as was
shown by the two voyages of the Deutschland. If our government had
forbidden our people to sell war supplies at all, and if other neutral
countries had done the same thing, then the result would be that all
wars would be won by the country which made the biggest preparation
for war in times of peace. A law passed by neutral countries
forbidding their merchants from selling munitions would leave a
non-military nation, which had not been getting ready for war,
absolutely at the mercy of a neighbor who for years had been storing
up shells and guns for the purpose of unrighteous conquest. So clear
was this right to sell munitions that Germany did not dare protest,
but ordered Austria to do so instead. In reply, our government was
able to point out cases where Austrian firms had sold guns, etc., to
Great Britain during the Boer War as you have already been told, and
Austria had no answer to give.