The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1915 PRINCIPLES OR PELF.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 61, 10 November 1915, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1915 PRINCIPLES OR PELF.

Even making fullest allowance for the •fact that every, neutral nation has the right to protect its trade interests ill every honorable and legitimate way, the conclusion is forced home to the most liberal-minded by America's lat est Note to Britain that there is, 01 the part of the Government at least the inclination to set commercial in terests much above the high mor al aspects of the position Germany lias brought about. .Much frothy tall of liberty is heard from the Unitec States, and the Government's Noli • to Britain actually goes so far as t( tell us that the United States "un hesitatingly assumes the task oi championing neutral rights"—so i'ai as trade is concerned might well have been added. But after all, supposi Britain ignores, as she has a perfect right to do, this suddenly virtuous trade attitude, what is America going to do about it? A recently published English trade journal remarks quite truly that the role played In America in the war so far, J.ias been difficult to understand in the countries of the i.Allies. Although American lives and property have been lost by the piratical acts of a savage nation, the American people, apparently, reap consolation by the fact that the war is far distant from their shores. and that trade is good. It is also brought to mind that when the Government at Washington mor;' than forty years ago, apparently leaned inwards the French nation in its hour of trial, such sympathy in a remote quarrel only amounted to an abstracl expression of opinion. At the commencement of the 1870 war, the Prussian Government made a cheap hid for American approval by renouncing the right—which, by the way. could not bo conveniently exercised while lacking in ships of war—of interfering with commercial vessels. What a contrast is thus furnished to the wanton destruction of commercial vessels by these same Germans. Ii is pointed out in the journal referred to above that even in 1870 it was a matter ol quite general acceptance in the United States that Germany, if ever that ambitions nation became a maritime Power, would most certainly rcveri to the old-time law of the sea in warlime, and would ruthlessly interfere with commerce as it suited her. To-,

day it is due to the more intelligent portions of the American community in admit i hat their sympathies in the war are largely determined by t' ' justice (it the quarrel. The shameless cynicism of tile pretext wliieh was iisetl by Germany to bring about the rupture, excited general indignation among all right-minded Americans. Certain German-fed newspapers in America, say that the Cuited States is not inspired purely hy love of dollars, hut hy a genuine desire to uphold tlie rights of neutrals. Hut what about the futile and timid attitude which failed to spare Belgium one pang of the agony she suffered, or the fact that America could only feebly protest at the murder of her own citizens? The Baltimore American is brutally frank when it says that "Elitain has indulged in no murderous work, but she has destroyed millions of dollars' worth of American property. This is the gravest charge we can bring against her, but it is a iniglitly serious charge, and mas endang .' the friendship ol two great V. gli !: speaking nations.'' Not all the :ress of the States is so unasham-j ed, for the New York Herald has the grace and courage to recall the Lusitania outrage and to ask: "What reparation has Gei'inany made for the wanton murder of American passengers? Does-Washington imagine thai America is more concerned with the products of the Beef Trust than the lives of its citizens.'' It is indeed lamentable that President Wilson's Government should apparently be so unaffected by the magnitude of the real principles of the great struggle for world freedom which the Allies are engaged upon, and yet should be so seriously concerned lest, in the effort to strangle the enemy of all humanity. Britain's action might turn aside a few dollars from the overflowing coffers of American trade.