The white race has often been proud of the way in which its
soldiers and sailors have fought in many causes--good, bad, and
indifferent; because they fought bravely took defeat resolutely, and
showed humanity after victory. The German method of conducting war
omits chivalry, mercy, and humanity, and thereby degrades the German
Nation and any other nation which sympathizes with it or supports its
methods. It is no answer to the world's objection to the sinking of the
Lusitania that Great Britain uses its navy to cut off from Germany food
and needed supplies for its industries, for that is a recognized and
effective method of warfare; whereas the sinking of an occasional
merchant ship with its passengers and crew is a method of warfare
nowhere effective, and almost universally condemned. If war, with its
inevitable stratagems, ambuscades, and lies must continue to be the
arbiter in international disputes, it is certainly desirable that such
magnanimity in war as the conventions of the last century made possible
should not be lost because of Germany's behavior in the present European
convulsion. It is also desirable to reaffirm with all possible emphasis
that fidelity to international agreements is the taproot of human
progress.
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