Philadelphia Public Ledger.
'The Administration has a duty in this matter which it should not overlook. Miss Cavell, as a British subject, was under the protection of the American Legation. The American Minister made both an official and a personal request that her life might be spared. This request was not only refused, it was treated with contempt. Mr. Gibson's report is scrupulously restrained in language, but his indignation may easily be read between the lines. The sentence was carried out with a haste that emphasizes the insults to the United States; the procedure from the beginning was marked by insolence to its representatives. To let the matter drop here would be a confession that this country can neither protect its citizens' interests, nor those of other nations whose interests it has undertaken to guard.'
The Baltimore Sun.
'It is difficult to speak in temperate language of the execution of Edith Cavell. ... The world will pronounce this one of the crowning atrocities of cold-blooded brutality. It is impossible to think of it without horror, to speak of it without execration.'
The Chicago Tribune.
'The execution of Edith Cavell should and may be the cause of mental awakening on the part of those who have hitherto remained obstinately secure in the face of a world of terrors.... Civilization is breaking faster and faster. How far the sword and torch will sweep no man can prophesy, but this we know—the American nation has given to the German Empire an offence greater than that furnished by Belgium, and has not as yet taken any step to protect itself from retribution.'