AMERICAN LETTER

Otago Witness, Issue 3275, 20 December 1916, Page 7

AMERICAN LETTER

(From Oub Own NEW YORK CITY, October 20. Less than three weeks before the national election, the Wilson Administration is naturally extremely sensitive on the subject of the Lusitania murders, for, alter a year and a-half, our claims against Germany are still unsettled. Though greatly agitated by its publication, the Slbate Department refuses either to confirm or deny a itory that, _ in its linal note responding to a communication from the German Ambassador to '.Secretary of State Lansing, on February 16, 1916, the United States "recognises that the attack of the German submarine commander on the Lusitania was justifiable." In the absence of Secretary Lansing, Counsellor Prank L. Polk spoke'for the department, emphatically declaring that the reply would not be given publicity at this time. "The Note has not been accepted," he declared, "and it v/ill not be given publicity, nor will it be given out. The State Department will not per/nit itself to be drawn into this discussion at this time." The political importance of the truth regarding the final opinion and action of the President in the Lusitania is not underestimated anywhere, least of all in the State Department, where an obvious effort is made to give the impression that an issue is being created at this time expressly to embarrass the President in his campaign for re-election. Friends of the President are much concerned over tho publication of the gravest charge that could be made in connection with the controversy with Germany over the submarine warfare, and are divided in their opinion as to whether the President should be "vindicated" by the immediate publication of the reply to the Bernstorff note. Evidently, it is the feeling in the State Department that the motive would be misconstrued by Germany were tho text of the reply to be made public now. The phrase, "We have not accepted the German note," used by Mr Polk, may be regarded in a measure as technical, for in the procedure of diplomacy acceptance is not complete until publication is made of the correspondence. It is a fact that the reply of the United States to the German note, setting forth the claim that the sinking of the Lusitania was justifiable in view of what Germany regarded as an illegal blockade by the British, has been completed, and awaits only acceptance and publication by the United States, if no further change is to be made in it. Tho story that the United States admits that Germany "was justified in sinking tho Lusitania" is not the first one of this character. Not long ago the story was circulated that tho United States admitted that the act was justifiable, but that the sacrificing of American lives was not, and that the question now between this country and Germany was the fixing of a suitable reparation and indemnity for the loss of American lives. This story went so far as to say that the indemnity Germany would pay would be 5000 dollars for each American male passenger lost, 3000 dollars for each female, and IQ3O dollars tor each child. This story was characterised as absurd by the State Department at the time. It was made pretty plain in Administration circles here to-day that, no matter what the nature of the stories published in regard to the case of the Lusitania, the attitude of the Government would be ono of silence until after Election Day. Some of tho Administration leaders favoured the publication of the Lusitania correspondence several weeks ago, but in this they were overruled by Secretary Lansing. It is announced in Washington that the United States will not feel called upon to make public any statement on the raid of tho German submarine U 53, which sank live ships off tho Now England coast last week, or on tho submarine situation in general, as a consequence of the statement in Parliament, by Viscount Grey, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, that his Government would not make any official representations to this country till such announcement is mado here. This Government, it was said, would not feel itself more called upon to make a statement to the Allies about German belligerent operations olf the American coast than it_ would to report to Germany the recent visit of the French cruiser Amiral Aubo to an American port, or other Allied operations on this side of the Atlantic. Information would bo probably supplied, however, if requested. At present the State Department is making a study of the whole submarine situation, but is not now contemplating the issuance 0 f m.„i >,-d reflations F.uch as have horn . ,] jili Km i ipen n < \\i\\ iis \vlii< h 1 the que; t ■• : > before -, ! em < tnph he i; ' >n lation i'b now in tho hands of tho department as to the sinking of tho live i hips by

the U 53, but no announcement is expected before it has had an opportunity to__ study the. details carefully. Rear-admiral Knight, at Newport, has sent on statements of the ship captains and of American naval officers on tho scene, with their opinions ns to the precautions taken for the safety of passengers. The only phase of the situation where completo detail is lacking is as to what information tho submarine captain may have secured when in Newport Harbour. Tins is still being investigated, especially in view of Viscount Grey's intimation that it might bo made a base of claims against this country. In a similar case, Spam has been pressed for damages by Franco for information gained by a U boat at Cartagena, which resulted in the loss of French shins immediately after the vessel left port. It ia reported from Rochester, Minnesota, that Dr Edward C. Rosenow, head of the bacteriological department of tho .Mayo Foundation at that place, has isolated the germ that is the cause of infantile paralysis. This news is of special interest here at this time, as an eoidemio of infantile paralysis has 'been sweeping over the country, and sinco early summer New York City alone has had 10,000 cases. Even laymen nave come to know something of tho importance of tho isolation of the germ of a battling disease. Isolation does not necessarily mean that a preventive will soon bo found; but tho history of medicine does show that once the causative germ of diphtheria, typhoid fever, scarlet fever, and other diseases had been isolated a successful preventive measure for the disease was perfected almost immediately. One very important result of Dr Rosenow's work during tho past summer was the discovery that invariably tho germ which he has isolated was found in the tonsils of children suffering from infantile paralysis, tho inference being that the tonsil_ plays an important part in the contraction of tho disease. Naturally, the question has arisen therefore, in medical minds since hearing of Dr Roaenow's discoveries, whether or not tho removal of the tonsils of children might not prevent infantue paralysis. Dr Rosenow's experiments here showed that children suffering from poliomyelitis who were not making a good recovery showed striking improvement after tho tonsils had been removed. Of 121 cases of infantile paralysis treated at tho JNew York Hospital's branch hospital in East Fifty-ninth street by Dr Rosenow and his assistants, there was only one child whose tonsils had been removed before infantile paralysis had been contracted, and in the case where tho single patient had contracted the disease after the tonsils had been removed, the child showed only a mild form of the disease, and did not suffer from paralysis. But physicians believe, and doubtless Dr Rosenow would agree with them if it were possible to get him to talk for publication on the subject, that a greater number than 121 cases would have to bo observed before any hard and fast dictum should be pronounced, or, what is more important, beforo a general removal of tonsils from healthy children should bo countenanced. Previous to Dr Rosenow's experiments here Dr Floxnor (of the Rockefeller Institute) and Dr Landssteiner and Dr Lcvaditi-abroad had succeeded in inoculating monkeys with infantile paralysis, " but had been _ unable to introduce the disease into any lower order of animals. Dr Rosenow, however, has been able to reproduce the disease by means of the organism he has isolated not only in 30 monkeys, but in cats, dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, altogether in more than 200 small animals. Until Dr Rosenow announced his discoveries to the Minnesota physicians it had been believed bv pathologists generally that infantile paraiysis was an infection due to what medical men know as " IJlterable virus," or an infcctvng agent so extremely small that it will pass through filters of stone or clay and is invisible, or at least seen with great difficulty only, through the lenses of the very strongest miseroscopes But Dr Rosenow, in his paper, tells of h : s success in isolating from tho tonsils and adenoids of living cases and from the brain and spinal cord at autopsies, 52 cases in all, germs which are not only small enough to bo "filterable," but also a largo and especially virulent form of the germ which belongs to the group of germs too large to pass through clay filters. _ And this germ, when inoculated not only into monkeys but the varieties of smaller animals mentioned previously, caused paralysis.

Elimination of the word "obey'' in the promise of the woman in the marriage service was recommended in a minority report of the joint commission on common prayer, submitted to the House of Deputies of the Protestant Episcopal General Convention. The House referred it back to the commission on prayer book, on the ground that the iiresent convent'on _ does not have time to give proper attention to all proposed changes in the marriage ceremony, in the catechism, and in the institution of clergymen. These questions cannot_ come before the General Convention again for three years. The minority report recommended that the present injunction beginning "Wilt thou obey him and serve him?" be changed to "Wilt thou love him, comfort him, honour and keep him, in sickness and in health; and. forsaking all others, keep thee only unto him so long as ye shall live?" The minority report suggested also the omission of the words " and with all my worldly goods I thee endow " in the service. An argument advanced was that the expression "endow" is a relic of old English law, under which the dower rights of women were guaranteed, and that to-day the question involved is. a civil one to be taken for granted. It also was proposed to expunge the expression " as Isaac and Rebecca lived faithfully together," etc., and merely fay "living faithfully together.'' Numbers of changes were suggested in the majority report. Among them were the shortening of the Ten Commandments as read in the communion service, the elimination of a specific prayer for Jews and Turks, it being argued that the present prayer for Jews and Turks in connection with infidels is disrespectful and inaccurate, " because it is clear Mohammedans are meant instead of Turks." It was proposed to eliminate portions of the first five commandments so that they would read as follow: (1) Thou shalt havo no other Gods but Me. (2) Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven imago, nor the likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth; thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them. (3) Thou shalt not take the name of tho Lord thy God in vain. (4) Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath Day. (5) Honour thy father and thy mother. Richard Olney, who was Secretary of State under President Cleveland, recently out with .in nlnhnrnt-.n rli-fenco nf the vVilson .' m : uH n h l-o '' ■■ c ■ 'is, oj man ■ I hi ■ ; ' ■ ■"■- • ' ■ - '■'-■ week a spi: 1 ••; b to M Olney U published from formex Senator George E. Ed-

munds, who, when Cleveland was President, was the most distinguished Republican in tho Senate. After referring to Cleveland's -ultimatum to Great, Britain in the Venezuelan controversy, Mr Edmunds says: "It was not with him a matter of tho danger of warfare, but a matter of national honour and duty to speak plainly, no mattor what might, be tho risks of > military collision. In the face of this position tho imminence of war faded and vanished, as sometimes dors a storm-cloud in our north country disappear beforo a steady west wind. 'These historio facts compel a contrast between the Administration of which Mr Olnoy was a very eminent member and tho conduct of tho present Administration, which has chiefly distinguished itself by absolute silence, miscalled neutrality. When the innocent and peaceful people of Belgium were made tho victims of sudden war, deliberately commenced by Germany, and carried on with atrocities then hitherto unknown among nations that even called themselves civilised, there was never a remonstrance by our Government to its iriend and associate "in tho brotherhood of nations, but it stood by it like Paul at the martyrdom of Stephen 'consenting.' We thus became in real effect an ally of Germany whom she intended to retain, and has .sAnco retained, by skill in endless discussions. Had this Administration spoken, as I have no doubt every member of it would have wished to speak, Germany and her allies would have been told that we could have no intercourse with nations that disregarded tho settled principles of international law as well as of humanity, and had they continued in such a courso their representatives would have been sent home and our Ministers recalled Such action would have been in no sense any cause for war. In President Cleveland's Administration _ we compelled the recall of the British Minister for having advised an ' English-Ameri-can' to voto tho Democratic ticket at an election. It would havo been ridiculous folly for Germany to declare war aganst tho United States, but if she had done so wo should have been compelled to become a belligerent, which would have put Germany and very likely all her allies, including the Turks, in the attitude of making voluntary and deliberate aggressive war upon us for having felt and expressed horror at their conduct with Belgium. Mr Olney's observations upon the danger of this country from the Gorman submarines need no comment in view of tho experience Germany herself has had with them in attempted commercial intercourse with this country. When the deliberate murder of the passengers on tho Lusitania occurred tho present Administration did complain, whilo in Germany celebrations, etc., took place in honour of tho awful crime, and nothing whatever was done by our Administration except to talk, which must havo been delightful to the Germans, for nothing, apparently, could _be done, it was thought, until tho discussions came to a close—as they have not yet done. Tho President was respectfully urged by some, probably many, citizens to suspend intercourse with Germany, recall our diplomatic representatives, and give the German Ambassador here his passports. Nothing was done but continued and recontinued discussions. The historic facts I havo alluded to, though many others could be cited, are enough to justify and demand a change of Administration."