AMERICA REVOLTED AND APPALLED
The indignation and the revulsion of Americans against Germany because of the destruction of the Lusitania with the appalling loss of life was a surprise to the Kaiser and his war staff. They apparently had believed that the warning contained in the official announcement of Germany, declaring the waters about the British Islands a war zone, and the advertisement published would be sufficient excuse, and that their act would be accepted calmly by America. They were not prepared for Colonel Roosevelt’s invective stigmatizing the act as piracy, or the editorial denunciation throughout the country. Their effrontery was displayed by one of their agents, who announced that American ships also would be sunk. But this agent’s removal from the country and mob violence threatened other agents was emphatic proof of America’s state of mind.
Immediately Germany turned as a defence to the argument that the Lusitania carried munitions of war and other contraband in violation of the United States Federal statute. But the American laws were quoted to Ambassador von Bernstorff to prove to him that cartridges could be transported in a passenger ship. That argument proved of no avail.
Secretary Bryan’s note, written by President Wilson, and forwarded to Berlin, demanded a disavowal of the sinking of the Lusitania, an apology and reparation for the lives lost. But Germany sought to parley with a reply that would lay the blame on Great Britain, and asserting that the Lusitania had been an armed auxiliary cruiser, requested an investigation of these alleged facts, and refused to stop her submarine warfare until England changed her trade policy. But this note again aroused the wrath of Americans.