THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 1917. AMERICA ON THE BRINK.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16964, 28 March 1917, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 1917. AMERICA ON THE BRINK.

Recent developments accentuate the probability that the United States will be involved in the war before the world is very much older. In the face of German provocation it seems impossible that the United States Government can go on pi%tending that its honour is vindicated by an attitude of armed neutrality. •The narrowest possible margin now stands between the United States and war, and the indications suggest that it may be overstepped at any moment. The mood of Germany is such that she seems at no pains to avoid action of a kind that would relieve President Wilson of any necessity of declaring a state of war to exist between the two countries and of making America a belligerent, unprepared as she is. In the light of the present situation it is interesting and rather curious to observe how influential American papers were agreed a few weeks ago in the view that pacifism had rendered war inevitable. Thus the North American, interpreting pacifism as the bas?, immoral, and utterly fallacious theory that acquiescence in wrong is the best way to avoid strife-—that abandonment of challenged rights brings safety and submissiveness turns aside aggression,— goes on to observe that to Americans of rational understanding and unimpaired memory the assertion that the pacifist theory governed the Administration during the controversy with Germany, and that it encouraged the aggression which has culminated in the present outlook, will need no further proof than reference. to the record. The answer to Germany's first threat of murderous submarine warfare was to notice that "strict accountability" would be exacted. If it cannot be demonstrated that the issue would have been peaceably and permanently settled by an immediate enforcement of the demand after the first outrage, it is logijcally arguable that such a course would not have been more fatal than that which was pursued'. But these plain words, susceptible of only one meaning, were not made good. Each successive attack was followed by the pacifist substitute for action, and notable diplomatic victories" were won. But with every move the credit of the United States became more impaired, its demands less impressive, the contempt of Germany more open. " Pacifism," forcibly concludes the North American, " has accomplished, by its senseless infatuation, the evil result which it professes to combat. Even if it tended to ignore the possibility of war it would still be odious, for it ignores justice. But, while mouthagainst a mythical militarism in this country, it has encouraged aggression from a real militarism abroad; while paralysing the defences of America it has strengthened the arm of an enemy; while chattering of the blessings of peace it has, by urging national abasement, taken the surest means of inviting war. Foi' it has taught Germany to despise the United States as both feeble and false, and a nation with that repute can never know security in this world." This is a strong indictment of President Wilson's policy in relation to Germany, but that it. strikes shrewdly cannot be denied.

The New York Times of a recent date devoted a lengthy leading article to demonstrating the danger of a policy of keeping out of the war at all costs. " We have no doubt," says this journal, "that the chief danger of war with Germany at the present moment arises from the activities and the propaganda of the pacifists. We know the effect of their propaganda abroad. It immensely strengthens the hands of the pa-rty of ruthlessness in Germany. . . . The pacifist agitation leads along the straight road to war.' 1 Americans cannot and do not take pride, declares the New York Times, in their present position. They are humiliated and ashamed, and detest even a merely consenting collusion with Germany in the purposes for which she is fighting. " We have been put down," it continues, "trodden upon, bullied; we have been subjected to outrage, insult, and humiliation such as no nation can bear without loss of self-respect. We have been humbled in the eyes of the world and in our own eyes, and the longer we wait the greater the certainty that the last fatal provocation will be given." Such passages are typical of many powerful admonitions in which an influential section of the American press lias urged Mr Wilson to turn from the counsels of the pacifists. But now that the United States finds herself, despite streuuous efforts to avoid war, and without doubt in no inconsiderable mfea<iuxe owiaff- to the

nature of those efforts, on the brink of conflict, she is greatly troubled by another consideration—namely, her unpreparedness. For her anxiety connected with, this she again owes much to the pa-cifists. Her very weakness, so far from conducing to peace, has had a contrary result. Had Germany a greater respect for the armed strength of the United States she would be ' much less anxious to o.Ter it provocation. If America had the military force to back it, her voice as a neutral would have earned greater weight and would have commanded a respect which Germany has not accorded it. A sufficiently powerful United States might with much less loss of dignity have much more successfully held a neutral course. The- pacifist policy that is re-sponsible both for her military weakness and for her humiliation at the hands of Germany has only brought her to the point which the pacifists have been most anxious to avoid. That such a national jo ticy mijsfc be attended with such l'esults involves no new discovery. Americans may appropriately rail ember that the first President of the United States warned his countrymen against the very danger of which a powerful section of them today have been too heedless. "To be prepared for war," said Washington in his first address to Congress, " is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." X;n a later address he declared: "There is a rank due tp +h n United States among nations which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If wo desire to avoid insult we must be able to repel it; if we desire to -oeure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that at all times we are ready for war." If such words, from the logic of which there is no appeal, had been made more consistently a watchword for the American nation the United States Government would have been able to adopt a policy in its present relations with Germany the results of which would have given it much less cause for uneasiness.