Philadelphia Public Ledger: “As it stands the horror is almost inconceivable. There has been nothing like it before. One of the consequences of this war ought to be that nothing like it can ever happen again. Unless civilization is to relapse into barbarism, helpless non-combatants must not be exposed in such a fashion to the worst calamities of war.” Boston Transcript: “The torpedoing of the Lusitania was not battle--it was massacre. To destroy an enemy ship, an unarmed merchant vessel of great value and power, is an act of war; to sink her in such a manner as to send hundreds of her passengers, among them many neutrals, to their death, is morally murder, and no technical military plea will avail to procure any other verdict at the bar of civilized public opinion.” Boston Post: “The sinking of the British liner Lusitania by the torpedo of a German submarine with terrible loss of life, is the worst crime against civilization and humanity that the modern world has ever known. It is a reversion to barbarism that will set the whole world, save perhaps the little world of its perpetrators, aflame with horror and indignation.” Boston Traveler: “With the destruction of this queen of the ocean liners and the hundreds of lives of non-combatant men, women and children, also came the ruin of the last vestige of the structure of international law and humane consideration that through the centuries mankind has been striving to erect. The very life and honor of the nation depend upon the manner in which this attack upon its integrity is adjudicated, even if any adjudication of a civil nature will be deemed sufficient to permit of a peaceful, to say nothing of a friendly, adjustment.” Hartford Courant: “It is hard to find in the dictionary the words strong enough to fit such conduct, and the effect of the destruction of the ship and the loss of lives will be to turn public sentiment more than ever against the Germans.” Providence Journal: “Scores of Americans were murdered yesterday on the high seas, by order of the German government. Men and women, citizens of the United States, traveling peaceably on a merchant steamer, have been sent to their death by the deliberately planned act of Emperor William and his advisers.” Providence Evening Tribune: “The torpedoing of the Lusitania, in that it destroyed innocent American lives, was a capital crime committed by Germany against the United States. A capital crime is a crime punishable by death. And in the case of a nation punitive death is usually administered by the process of war.” THE WEST Chicago Herald: “International law contemplates the capture of merchant vessels. It contemplates their destruction under certain conditions. But it does not contemplate, provide for or justify destruction of the crews and passengers of such ships without giving them a chance for safety.”