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WiC Ta Vs 
March 9, 1917. No. 10 
WAR NOTES 
XX. 
When little fellows scratch and bite 
We interfere and stop the fight. 
When nations warringly contend 
It surely were no more than right 
The world, both parties to befriend, 
Should interfere and make an end— 
Should stay the strife, suspend the spite, 
And stop the fight. 
If but the world were pledged to peace 
Then wars would cease. 
—JOSEPH A. TORREY. 
Ir Was A Custom in the days gone by for the town 
meetings assembled to pass resolutions on issues being dis- 
cussed by the nation and this year for the first time in 
many years the towns have seized the occasion to stand 
by the President and his work. Topsfield has distin- 
guished itself in adopting some resolutions that are 
worthy of the best inheritance of the North Shore. 
As the descendants and successors of the 
men of one of the group of little communities 
surrounding Salem Bay, which, during the 
Revolutionary War and the early days of the 
Republic, sent out innumberable armed ships to 
defend American rights on the high seas, it is 
hereby 
Resoivep, That we, the citizens of Tops- 
field, indorse the action of the President of the 
United States in dismissing the German Am- 
bassador. ‘ 
RESOLVED, That we urge the immediate call- 
ing of an extra session of Congress and the use 
of the full power of the nation in defence of 
American rights, American lives and American 
honor on the high seas. 
Resoivep, That we pledge our loyalty and 
our support to the President for this purpose. 
Tue Events oF tHE Last Four Yrars have demon- 
started the desirability of affording every Vice Presi- 
dent of the United States a larger opportunity for the 
development of his powers and for the gaining of experi- 
ence. Our system of government is particulary weak at 
just this point in form and practice. In practice the 
great parties have been too often content to select a vice 
president, with the view of placating the voters of a 
strong state rather than with the purpose solely of select- 
ing a man of ability to succeed the president in case of 
death, disability or assasination. | 
Tur Great Events transpiring in Washington are 
evident by simple incidents; for the first time in seven- 
teen years Senator Lodge has declined to return home to 
serve as moderator of the town meeting in Nahant. 
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE were stunned last week by 
the announcement that overtures had been made to Mex- 
ico, and through Mexico to Japan to make war on the 
United States in the event of hostilities being declared by 
our Government against Germany. The press reports 
were naturally credited by the reading public, but the 
formal announcement through the Secretary of State that 
the papers were in hand to prove the facts left no doubt. 
To make certain the fact the German government ac- 
knowledges the plan and wonders how this government 
came into possession of the papers. But the unvarnished 
facts remain. The incident is one of no mean importance 
because it has revealed, first, that the President has had 
possession of facts unknown to many concerning the 
great world struggle; second, it explains his great caution 
in not becoming involved in a Mexican war; third, it 
shows to what depths of chicanery the German powers 
have been willing to go; fourth, it has nipped the “yellow 
peril” propaganda in the making and once and for all 
time has shown that it was fiction “made in Germany”; 
fifth, it shows that despite our protestation against foreign 
interference on American shores that the Monroe Doc- 
trine has never been accepted by Germany and never will 
be and that the American continent will not be free from 
European aggression and plotters after the war, and 
finally, it has shown the necessity of arming the Panama 
Canal. 
It Now Appears that the “mouse in the grain chest” 
that caused our government so much irritation concern- 
ing the adjustment of the Colombia claims for damages 
for the construction of the Panama Canal was Germany. 
The agencies that have been causing trouble in Mexico, 
stirring up strife in Cuba, supporting a yellow peril pro- 
paganda and embarrassing our government in the Philip- 
pines are those back of the claims of Colombia. Colom- 
bia had an opportunity, but by machinations to obtain a 
greater price lost the whole. ‘Colombia has only herselt 
and Germany to blame. Hay and Roosevelt beat the 
wily Colombians and the shrewd over-the-sea agencies in 
their insidious attempts to thwart the government plans. 
This is the position which William Roscoe Thayer has 
taken after careful study of the case in all its phases and 
his position seems well defended. There are those who 
still feel that it would have been better for the United 
States government to have paid the bill years ago and put 
an end to this endless bickering over the affair. It was 
worth all the Colombians desired and we can well afford 
it recognizing, of course the injustice and illegality of the 
claims made. 
THE TRUSTEES OF CoLuMBIA UNIVERsITy have risen 
loyally to the occasion and have determined to give no 
reasons for offence to anyone and to set at naught the 
criticisms that have been made of the institution. In a 
patriotic resolution it has appointed a special committee 
to make investigations of the instruction of the institution 
with the view not of suppressing free speech, but of pre- 
venting the dissemination of doctrines disloyal to the 
Government of the United States. Columbia may be 
depended upon to clean house effectually if it be neces- 
sary. The very investigation, while apparently an indica- 
tion of a need, is primarily an evidence of a loyal spirit, 
that is stirred by any implication of disloyalty, quick to 
resent an imputation. 
Onr oF THE LAst Acts of the Congress adjourned 
was to pass the dry bill for the District of ‘Columbia and 
the “bone dry” mail bill. There is no discountenancing 
the apparent facts that the Prohibition cause is moving 
forward, 
March 9, 1917. 
ts i ies 
