WHO ARE THE HUNS?

American "Neutrality." 307
•national law, Germany possessed no right to enter a formal
legal protest against the delivery of munitions of war by neutral
private persons to its enemies. Therefore, as it is stated at
the close of the memorial, the United States must depend upon
its own initiative with regard to sxich deliveries oi munitions.
It goes without saying, however, that on a basis of international
law, the United States is likewise empowered, by the
passing of a prohibitive law against the export of munitions of
war, to suppress the entire traffic in contraband with all belligerent
states; especially as the international illicit trade in
weapons to England and France has taken on such dimensions
that the neutrality, not only of the American Government, but
of the whole American people has thereby been called into
question.
This interpretation is made the more applicable by the
fact that England will by no means allow the legal international
trade between America and Germany, to take its course, and
iurther, seizes the goods designed for the use of the economic
life of Germany in the most ruthless manner. We see that
the whole traffic with the belligerent nations resolves itself into
a one-sided transaction, benefiting only our opponents. Further
—and this weighs heaviest of all upon us—the providing of
our opponents with American weapons is the chief reason for
the lengthening of the war. This fact is in flagrant contradiction
to the repeated asseverations of the United States that they
wish to see the speedy re-establishment of peace, and to work
for that end. x
1 Not only German-Americans, but also genuine "real" Americans suspect
the short-sightedness of the policy which the United States Government is
-to-day pursuing. The learned statistician, Roger W. Bobson. in the "New
York Sun," a sheet which is anything but pro-German, rightly brands this
mean hypocrisy as follows:
"What implacable hatred must the Germans shortly feel against us,
when they hear that our government day after day permits munitions and
arms to be transported from America to England, Russia and France,
whereas Germany cannot even obtain from us the mere necessities of life !
This is sheer hypocrisy on our part, and the day will come when we shall
clearly have to pay for it. Even if we are not hurt in a worse place, we
have at least lost a good friend and customer in Germany."
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