the titanic and the lusitania, article, jun 1912

8/3/2019 The Titanic and the Lusitania, article, jun 1912

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THE FORUMFOR JUNE 1915

T H E " T I T A N I C " A N D T H E " L U S I T A N I A "C H A R L E S V A L E

ON M ond ay, Apri l 15, 1912, the Titanic foundered onher maiden voyage, with a loss of 1,490 lives. I t wasa beautiful night, cloudless, with the stars shiningbrightly, wh en the iceberg tha t caused the catastro phe driftedacross the gr eat ship's course. W ith in twenty-four hou rs thewhole of the civilized world was mourning an unprecedenteddisaster. I t was not merely the recor d of death and strugg ling,or the destruction of property of huge value, that impresseditself upon men's minds and appealed so powerfully to theiremo tions. It was the sense of gigantic Contrasts, of all the elemen ts of suprem e trag edy . T h e vast f loating hotel, with itsmillionaires in their suites de luxe and its polyglot steerage population, with its helpless women and children, its trained officersand crew. Its complete organization, I ts promise of security andease under all conditionssuddenly one peril of the sea, foreseen, avoidable, but not avoided, had swept all this into the discard . In the gam e tha t nat ure continually plays with man , andman with nature , the Titanic had become simply an incident,instead of a t r iumph.

On Fr iday, May 7, 1915, the Lusitania was torpedoed offthe coast of Ireland, and sank within a few minutes, with a loss,appro xim ately, of 1,150 lives. T he attack was ma de in br oa ddaylig ht. T h e ship had passed over so man y hun dred s of milesof the high seas, only to meet her doom in sight of land andalmost within reach of the security of the port to which shewa s boun d. A nd once m ore , the whole of the civilized wo rldis mourning a disaster that has been excelled in the number offatalities, but has never been approached in the conditions of I ts

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67 4 T H E F O R U Moccurren ce. F or the loss of the Titanic may be said, in thelangua ge of the sea, to have been due to the act of God. T h edestruction of the Lusitania, with the murder of the men, womenand children who went down with her, was due to the act of man.It was deliberate, premeditated; unbelievable, yet true; unforgettable, unforgivab le. I t removes the Go vernm ent which perpetrated it, and now condones and justifies it, from the community of civilization. I t bran ds the nation which accepts i t ,and even, to some extent, rejoices in it, as a nation tainted witha strange madness and led utterly astray from its true traditionsand any present hope of the fulfilment of its natural ideals.After making every allowance for the spir it engendered by thedam nab le con ditions of a state of " civilized " w ar, afte r considering the sacrif ices that have been demanded from the Germanpeople, and their implicit belief, as a nation, in the justice of theircause and the necessity of their methods, it is not possible, and itwould not be r ight, to attempt to mitigate the heinousness of thiscrime.

T he pity of i t , and the shame of it! W itho ut the wa rningdem ande d by all the rules of wa rfare and all the dictates ofhumanity, women and children, and men who had done nothingto forfeit th eir lives, w ere sent cold-bloodedly t o de ath, no effortwhatever being made to give them assistance, or a chance toescape. I t was deliberate murde r, and no juggling with wo rdsor with the interpretation of legal rules can change the verdictor remove the guilt .

The German navy had a r ight to destroy the ship, whichbelon ged to an enemy and was flying the enemy 's flag. It ha dno shadow of r ight to attack without making every reasonableprovision for the safety of all the defenceless passengers onboa rd. Th ou gh new precedents have been set in this mo st horrible of all wars, such a precedent as this cannot, and shall not,be tole rate d. T h a t the outra ge was carefully planned, and carried into effect, throws a sinister light on the principles actuatingthe Ge rman Government . W hile Belgium was being m ar tyre d,America waited, unwilling to beheve the worst, familiar withthe exaggerations of war-times, keenly desirous to help all andto hu rt none. Bu t he re is no case of rum or, of unverified o r


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T H E " T I T A N I C " A N D T H E " L U S I T A N I A " 675doubtful statem ents of atrocities. I t is a clear, unm istakablechallenge to humanity from a Government which has becomedehum anized throu gh mil i tar ism. T h at is the most char i tableassumption tha t can be put forw ard. T o listen patiently, to suspend judgment, to keep the mind free from bias under conditionsso distressing and perplexing,all this may fairly be asked fromthose who believe in true neutrality, and in the ultimate value tothe wo rld of the services th at a neu tral can ren der. Bu t therecan be neither patience, nor suspension of judgment, when thecrime is obvious, the conditions admitted, the guilt gloried in.It remains for the President, in whose hands the country willwith supreme confidence leave its destinies, to determine thecourse of action that must be pursued, in conjunction with theother neutral nations which share the loss and the sorrow thathas stirred this country so profoundly: not merely because it isour loss, and our sorrow; not that we have been unconscious ofthe agony of Europe: but because now, without equivocation orqualification, an issue has been placed before us upon which weare not only entitled, but compelled, to take action.

But, while condemning Germany, utterly and unreservedly,it is necessary also to censure most severely the British Admiral ty. Full warnin g ha d been given by the Germ an Em bassyin Washington that the destruction of the Lusitania was beingplann ed. T h at warn ing does not in any degree release the German Government from its responsibility for deliberate murder,any more than the announced intention of the insane New York" Ripp er " to disembow el ano ther victim m akes his act permissible, on the groun d th at notice ha d been given. But howev erstrongly the British Admiralty may have felt that the advertisedannouncement was not to be taken seriously, that no Governmentcould descend to such depths of infamy, it was its duty to takethe fullest precautions. Am ericans booked their passage on theLusitania, trusting completely in the power of the British Admiralty to protect them from an avowed project of assassination.Th ey were not prote cted. T h e possibilities were not considered,the obvious precautions were not taken. M r. Win ston C hurchillmu st accept the responsibility, and the punishm ent. H e mayhave left the matter, as a detail, to the Sea Lords or their sub-


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676 T H E F O R U Mordina tes. H e had no r ight to do so without giving expHcitinstructions that all contingencies should be provided for andgua rde d against. N ot for the f irst t ime, he has m ade possible

'th e cha rge of ineptitud e and folly. Pe rh ap s his services as awhole may outweigh his mistakes: but i t would be well to make acareful investigation. An d why, also, was the vessel proceedingat moderate speed on a well-known course ?

Before this brief article appears, events may have marchedrapidly . Ye t i t is not the habit of Presiden t W ilson to act inhaste and repent at leisure. W ha tev er may be the atti tude , fromtime to time, of individual periodicals and associations, influencedby partisan considerations, he knows that there is no man whomthe country wou ld tru st as it trust s him, in a gra ve crisis. H ehas borne without flinching the criticism of the ignorant, here andin E ur op e. H e has fulfilled all the hope s th at he inspiredamo ngst those who looked to him for real leade rship. No w ,confronted with one of the most difficult of the problems that hisAdministration has faced, he can rely upon the united support ofthe nation, in whatever course he may feel compelled to take.There should be means, without resorting to the accursed savagery of war, to exact atonement for the crime that has beencomm itted, and to preve nt i ts repetition. But even wa r, forwhich we have not prepared, which we do not want, which, as anation, we loathe, may be necessary to enforce respect for theelemental principles of civilization and humanity.

the titanic and the lusitania, article, jun 1912

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