It is a warfare against innocent men, women, and children
traveling on the ocean, and our own fellow-countrymen and countrywomen,
who are among the sufferers.
It seems inconceivable that we can refrain from taking action in this
matter, for we owe it not only to humanity, but to our own national
self-respect.
_On May 9 a Syracuse dispatch to_ THE NEW YORK TIMES _conveyed this
statement from Mr. Roosevelt:_
On the night of the day that the disaster occurred I called the
attention of our people to the fact that the sinking of the Lusitania
was not only an act of simple piracy, but that it represented piracy
accompanied by murder on a vaster scale than any old-time pirate had
ever practiced before being hanged for his misdeeds.
I called attention to the fact that this was merely the application on
the high seas, and at our expense, of the principles which when applied
on land had produced the innumerable hideous tragedies that have
occurred in Belgium and in Northern France.
I said that not only our duty to humanity at large but our duty to
preserve our own national self-respect demanded instant action on our
part and forbade all delay.
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