15 APRIL 1916, Page 11

THE AMERICAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE AND THE WAR. tTo THE EDITOR

ON THE SPECTATOR:1

Bra,—I am enclosing with this papers issued by the American Rights -Committee. I should like to call the special attention of your readers to the resolutions adopted at the great meeting in Carnegie Hall on March 13th last. Mr. Putnam, who presided at the meeting, states that he has not seen a Now York audience so enthusiastic since the

days of the War of Secession.—I am, Sir, &O., Z.

"Resolved, That we, the members of the American Rights Committee and their friends, in general meeting assembled, hereby pledge our hearty support to the President of the United States in his firm stand in defence of the rights of American citizens, as announced by him in his letter of the 24th day of February, 1916, to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and we condemn all mam- ba= of the Congress of the United States who are willing to surrender those rights nutter the pressure of German threats."

"Whereas, We hold that Prussian Imperial Militarism has brought about the subjection of the people cd Genziany to an ambitious and

unscrupulous autocracy and the corruption of the ancient German ideals through a dream of World-dominion ; and whereas, We believe that the success of the schemes of this Prussian Autocracy means the crushing of friendly nations and the subjection of their peoples to a brutal and cruel military rule ; and whereas, We believe that, intoxi- cated with the military successes of 1864, 1866, and 1870, and by the wonderful development of the economic strength of the country, the ambitions of Prussian leaders have expanded until they have culminated in a World-war for Imperial domination ; and whereas, This war has been conducted by Prussia and her Allies with practices of unprece- dented barbarity, including the killing, under official orders, of thousands of non-combatants, women and children, and including the crowning atrocity of the Armenian massacres ; and whereas, We believe that the Monroe Doctrine and even the territories of our own country have been, and now are, an avowed aim of Prussian aggression, and that, in the event of the success of the Teutonic Powers, the next attack would be made against the United States ; and whereas, Without undertaking to approve all the acts of the Entente Allies in the present war, we hold that the Republicanism of France and the Democracy of England are united in contending for those rights of the people and those ideals of humanity which are essential to the preservation of civilization ; and whereas, We believe that neutral nations look to the United States as the leading Power that should maintain the principles of International Law and defend the sacred principles of humanity, that the peoples of those nations are convinced of the righteousness of the Allied cause, but hesitate to declare themselves, and that aotion by the United States would have a potent influence upon hesitant neutrals and would tend materially to shorten the war, to save further sacrifice of human life, and to assure the more speedy triumph of law and justice ; Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the safety and honour of the American people and their duty to defend and maintain the rights of humanity require us to approve the cause for which the Entente Allies are fighting, and to extend to these Allies by any means in our power, not only sympathy, but direct co-operation at the proper time, to the end that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth ; and Resolved further, That in spite of the unwarranted destruction of American lives, there should be between the American people and the German people no enmity, and that, when the Germans shall abjure, with the dream of empire, the pernicious ideals of their present rulers, the Americans will_rejoice to come again into fellowship with them in the work of advancing the true ideals of justice, humanity, and civilization."