13 FEBRUARY 1915, Page 15

[To roe EDITOR OF TEX . 1511LCUTOrt."] SIR,—Referring to the editorial,

"A Great Danger," in a recent number of the Spectator, and which appeared in several of our leading dailies, there can hardly be any sort of Com- parison between our " family quarrel" of '61 and the present spectacle of one Power trying to bully, dominate, and annihilate the major part of the world. The American people do not sympathize with "the German game." "Political expediency" may sometimes colour the " official" acts of the Government at Washington, just as it has affected the "official" acts of all Administrations dependent on the popular vote for continuance in power. In the writer's most humble opinion, neither of our great political parties is very anxious to antagonize the German-American (who said Brewery P) element of our voters, whose influence might throw the political balance one way or the other in several of our largest cities. According to Germany's American mouth- piece, Mr. Herman Ridder, the "laws of up-to-date war" include the following pleasantries in a conquered country: Destruction of every possible source of the people's income ; inflicting of fines and assessments enough to rob them of whatever they may have saved from the wreckage; enforce- ment, under pain of death, of a most worshipful respect for III.(?)11. the German Emperor as represented by his Army officers ; bombardment of sleeping villages from sea and air. Thin is the "German game" of "up-to-date war," and it is a most fortunate thing for Spain and Mexico that the American Government has never been "up-to-date" in its warfare.—!

am, Sir, Ac., REUBEN F. WATSON. Columbus, Ohio, January 25th.