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Show THE LAW SURVIVES. . Any time within 'the last eighteen months Count von Bernstorff has had warrant for issuing the appeal which he has just made to German subjects in this country to obey strictly all the laws of the United States. Consequently moat Americans will feel that his instructions in-structions are somewhat belated. In the day of their maximum power the Germans followed a policy of military mili-tary reprisal not only against foes, but against neutrals. The sinking of the Lusitania, the attack on the Gulflight and many other lawless naval acts were directed against the United States as well as against Great Britain and her allies. Because we were furnishing munitions to the allies and Germany could not avail herself of our markets because of the British blockade, Germany Ger-many decided to retaliate upon England and upon the United States. Editor Harden has told us as much. Such a policy was all very well when Germany ' was half-convinced that she could whip ; the world, but declining power lias de veloped a conscience among the war ; lords.; Now Germany needs our friend ship for use in the days when peace negotiations are under way. Berlin i'ecls ( that a defeated Germany or a Germany , unable to obtain anything better than a draw will need a powerful friend and, ' strange as it may seem, the United States is the only powerful friend she i has left in the wide world. ' Both sides have practiced the anarchy of reprisal. Germany frankly appealed to the supposed moral law of necessity. ' Great Britain, with the well-cultivated t insincerity of old-school diplomacy, tried to demonstrate that her acts were in conformity with the accepted standards of law and morality. In viow of. this wide- spread disregard of international law, it ; . is singular that the law survives, but that it does survive is obvious and one , of the signs of its survival is the action ; of Count Bernstorff. One of the remarkable effects of re- taliation in this war has been its in direct support of international law at the time when it appeared to be making absolutely ruinous assaults upon that law. Reprisal is a two-edged sword. ', The one who uses it must be careful not to wound himself. Reprisals aro at-' tempted, therefore, when one belligerent believes that the enemy can make no adequate replv. This has had the effect of upholding many of the laws of war. For' example, when Germany established estab-lished her submarine blockade of the British isles she violated the old law of visit and search and sank ships without warning and without insuring the safety of passengers and crew. She knew that Great Britain 's only possible mode cf retaliation would be a starvation blockade, block-ade, and in those days Germany did not fear such a blockade. But suppose that Great Britain, infuriated by Germany's naval warfare, had furnished her army in France with explosive bullets for the purpose of making more certain the : death of German soldiers, what would have been the consequence ? Germany would have replied with explosive bul-lrt. bul-lrt. equally destructive. AVhen Germany introduced poisonous gases she knew t hat the allies could not reply with a similar weapon and if they at tempted to retaliate by killing prisoners Germany Ger-many would have killed twice as many prisoners. "When Germany invaded Belgium Bel-gium she practiced many atrocities which she more or less promptly abandoned aban-doned after the battle of the Marne. icaring rei aii.uiuu. ; In a word, fear has been a potent supporter sup-porter of international law. In the high tide of her success Germany felt no fear. She was willing to smash neutrals as well as belligerents. Her mailed fist i. ' was to make tiio world tremble while t-he stood as firm as the mountains. Her vision was turned unwaveringly toward the goal of victory, she saw. nnd exulted exult-ed as she saw. the farmsteads and the cities of her foes in flames, enemy ships torn asunder and sinking with mangled men, womeu and children into the ensanguined en-sanguined seay, but her vision was blurred with blood and she could not see into the future ; she could not see the skeleton bands of her subjects raied Hppenli:ily for foo.i, the defeat at the Marne. the tragic check at Verdun, nor finally the fastening of the iron ring about her brow, the iron rin-' with which her enemies hope to crush her to death. ' Germany's tempex has become more ' rational and once more she bows to ' national law. " 'Thou hast conquered, f 0 pale G til i lean, thou hast conquered he said it and died. ' ' After the. war international law will b reconstructed to meet the now demands de-mands of warfare and yet preserve the principles of humanity. And when the international law congress meets great will be the credit of the United Statns for what it did, even though it .did not do its utmost, to prevent the ; law of nations from being annihilated 1 utterly. |
