At the dinner of Methodist laymen in New York on May 14, 1915, following the publication of President Wilson’s note to Germany, ex-President Taft said:

“Admirable in tone, moderate in the judicial spirit that runs through the entire communication, dignified in the level that the writer takes with respect to international obligations, accurate in its statement of international law, he puts the case of the United States in a way that may well call for our earnest concurrence and confirmation.”

Another View

By Beatrice Barry.

“When the torch is near the powder”—­when a boat, f’r instance, sinks,
And the “hyphens” raise a loud hurrah and blow themselves to drinks;
When ’bout a hundred neutral lives are snuffed out like a torch,
An’ “hyphens” read the news an’ smoke, a-settin’ on the porch—­
Well, it’s then the native’s kind o’ apt to see a little red,
An’ it’s hardly fair to criticise the burning things he sed. 
For since the eagle’s not a bird that thrives within a cage,
One kind o’ hears with sympathy his screams of baffled rage.

There’s something sort o’ horrible, that catches at the breath,
To visualize some two score babes most foully done to death;
To see their fright, their struggles—­to watch their lips turn blue—­
There ain’t no use denyin’, it will raise the deuce with you. 
O yes, God bless the President—­he’s an awful row to hoe,
An’ God grant, too, that peace with honor hand in hand may go,
But let’s not call men “rotters,” ’cause, while we are standing pat,
They lose their calm serenity, an’ can’t see things like that!

In the Submarine War Zone

[By The Associated Press.]

LIVERPOOL, May 16.—­The passengers on board the American Line steamer Philadelphia, which arrived here today from New York, the steamer docking at 1 P.M., experienced during the voyage much anxiety.  On Friday afternoon, out in the Atlantic off the west coast of Ireland, a cruiser appeared and approached the liner.  The chief topic of conversation during the voyage had been about the German submarine activities, and the sight of the warship caused some alarm.  The cruiser approached near enough to the steamer to exchange signals with her.

A number of passengers spent last night on deck in their chairs with lifebelts beside them in case of danger.  The boats of the Philadelphia were ready for use.  The steamer kept a course much further out from the Irish coast than the Lusitania was traversing when she was torpedoed.

The port officials subjected the passengers of the Philadelphia to a careful examination to discover if there were any spies on board, but nobody was detained.  By reason of this precaution it was more than an hour after the steamer arrived before her passengers began to debark.