Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1917 — UNDERSTANDING GERMANY [ARTICLE]

UNDERSTANDING GERMANY

We are now told that the Berlin opinion is- that “President Wilson has failed to grasp the real significance of affairs in Europe and has misinterpreted Germany’s position and intentions.” The Lokal Anzeiger says:'' - President Wilson has failed to judgfe’the—skuation from the lofty heights of non-partisanship and is unwilling to co-operate in (preventing further misery and sacrifice. He has shut his eyes to all the motives which, after maty re deliberation, caused Germany to employ the most - effective weapon in her power against the enemy. i Which means, if it means any-, thing, that President Wilson should have permitted and without protest, the destruction of American citizens, going their lawful business, by German submarines whenever the imperial government should decide that such action was “necessary” to prevent “misery and sacrifice.” In other words, an American President was expected to permit “misery and sacrifice’’ to be imposed, wholly without warrant Of law, on American' citizens in order to save the German people from the “misery and sacrifice” imposed on them by a government that deliberately brought on the war! The same paper says:

It is scarcely believable that President Wilson does not believe in the seriousness of our decision. If he really expects that we will draw back, if he really believes that the breach of domestic relations will cause us to. change our mind, he embraces an error which may have the most dangerous conIf Germany proposes to go to ■war in defense of the sacred-right to destroy non-combatants and neutrals, so be it. She must be mad to think that the American people will ever consent to navigate the high seas only under a permit granted by the German ambassador who has recently been dismissed by our government. Yet that is the demand made by the imperial government. The question is now, as it has been since .the beginning of the war, one of making official Germany understand the feeling of the neutral world. President Wilson has shown a patience and forbearance that have subjected him to severe criticism-at the hands of his fellow-citizens. He has honestly tried to be fair —-and more than fair —to Germany, even suggesting that it would be better for -the world to have a “peace without victory.” Yet now he is told that he. does not understand the situation, and that he has “misinterpreted Germany’s position and intentions.’’ No- one seems'tp be able to “understand” Germany except Germany herself. It has been so ever since the criminal assault on Belgium. We did not, “understand” Germany. so we were told, when she murdered more -than a hundred Americans on . the Lusitania. We fear that there is no possibility, of £2. * understanding Germany. The President has done his best, but he has found the task quite impossible. —lndianapolis News.