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Show GERMAN COMPLAINTS. German papers have soiled upon the death of Kiffen Rockwell, the. American aviator who ; was killed in France, to express lugubrious regrets that the United Unit-ed States is able to restrict Teutouic submarine warfare while permitting continued con-tinued breaches of American neutrality. Because Americans are fighting in the ranks of the allies the United States ! is unneutral, so the" argument runs. The only reason why thousands of Americans are not fighting in the German Ger-man armies is that they caunot got to Germany. When the Balkan war broke out American citizens of .Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian nativity returned to fight for those' countries and no hue and cry was raised. '. We recall reading many stories out of Germany about officers and soldiers who told correspondents thatr they hid lived in this or that city of the United States for years. One says lie was an architect in New York, another that Iowa, and the correspondent finds a (j group discussing enthusiastically the 9 business prospects of Davenport now 8 that the water power on the Mississippi has tjeen harnessed. These arc plain indications that many German-Americans are fighting in the kaiser's army. It is absurd, therefore, to complain because be-cause some other Americans are' fighting fight-ing in the armies of the French republic repub-lic or in the English army. The Germans in this country have not always respected the neutrality of the United States. They furnished coal and and some engaged in bomb plots to blow 1 up munitions ships. We are not argu- ing that all of them were American 1 citizens; perhaps very few of them had 1 foresworn allegiance to the kaftser, but I we call attention to these cases to show I that the Germans in the fatherland are 9 much more sensitive about American neutrality than some Germans who live among us. An American correspondent writes that he met a few days ago on the Somme front Captain von Pnpen, th German attache, who, while stationed in B this country, brazenly violated American Ameri-can neutrality. And, although our government gov-ernment "had the goods" on Von Papen, although there was no question about his guilt, we find him .-joking with the correspondent in the following strain: "Who do you blame everything in general on, now that I and Boy-ed are not in New York? Wno brought the scourge of infantile paralysis? I hope the Giants are doing well, but if they S suffer occasional defeats, what con- spirators aro responsible now?" Despite the fact that he' was involved in plots of violence while in this country coun-try when bound in honor to respect our neutrality, he thinks so lightly of his offendiug that he jeers at us in a talk with a correspondent. Perhaps the opponents of Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg employ the Rockwell case merely as a political device de-vice to embarrass him. Perhaps they are perfectly aware that their complaints com-plaints are shallow and perhaps they are merely striving by whatevermeans may be at hand to prejudice the cause of the chancellor, who forced the military and naval clique to abandon lawless submarine subma-rine warfare. At the j same time, the complaints are apt to arouse ill feeling in this countn- and it 'is fitting to point out that if there is any breach of neutrality neu-trality in the action of Kiffeu Rockwell Rock-well and his associates there have boen breaches just as serious by friends of 2j Germany in this country. 3 |