Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 98, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 March 1916 — IN RETROSPECT. [ARTICLE]

IN RETROSPECT.

ror more than a year our government has been engaged in diplomatic 4 orre-..ondenc e wit i.i. the belligerent nations of Europe, a correspondence' .dealing with many important sub jcftts, and oi ten with the ftm da mental principles of public law. There tte doubtless many who, if % they could or would read it. would be surprised at the entire correctness assumed by this government cn all the issues involved. It is not believed that the President lias in one case gone beyond the limits of American rights under the hiw. i fcere is no illegal act or policy that ;:as not been protested againdt. no exception that lias not been saved. On the questions of war zones, blpck-•■-n.es, submarine warfare, armed nter- < h; ntinen and many others, the state department has appealed solely to 'he law, and it is on the law that it has taken its stand. Out of the many notes it would be possible to recon--truct the law of nations as it bears f -jj the relations between belligerents and neutrals. There has of late been a feeling m certain quarters that the President had in some cases made demands that were unusual, extraordinary, and often extreme. Nothing more is needed to dispel this impression than a study of the correspondence. Indeed, there are many who thought that often the President did not sufficiently press American rights, and that he sometimes understated the American case. Reflection along this line is suggested as possibly profitable at a time when there has been an effort to show that Mr. Wilson was deliberately seeking war. Nothing could be falser, as the correspondence abundantly proves. From the outset the President’s idea seems to have been, not merely to stand for American ( rights hut to rave for the future, as far as one nation In the midst of such a war as this co i d, the great body of International law. We can go into the next congress of nations with a clear conscience and a clean and consistent, record. And it may be that the time will come when the world will gratefully acknowledge its obligation to this

people and their government for the the great service which they have performed. The American appeal has been, not to Caesar, but to that law by which even Caesar must ultimately be judged.—lndianapolis News.