_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.
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