than fight; because there is something, there is a distinction waiting for this nation that no nation has ever yet got."

And that distinction was to come from self-control and self-mastering. In concluding this address he warned the newspaper men against sending out sensational dispatches hastily and without sufficient regard for the truth. He intimated that some of them had already been too careless, and he pointed out the dangers that might arise at this period of unstable equilibrium by a conscienceless disregard of the truth or a morbid curiosity for the sensational.

"If I permitted myself to be a partisan in this present struggle," he concluded, "I would be unworthy to represent you. If I permitted myself to forget the people who are not partisans, I would be unworthy to represent you. I am not saying that I am worthy to represent you, but I do claim this degree of worthiness that, before everything else, I love America."

The American people paused to read this address and to discuss it. It had the effect of drawing out the heretofore non vocal part of the American people, and while the two great partisan factions were saying wild and extravagant things about England or Germany and

prophesying that this country would be plunged into war, this great silent but serious element of the nation responded to the President's temper and showed unmistakably that he was not alone in following an exalted ideal.

The country was gradually adjusting itself to the new conditions made necessary on account of the war. Business had come back with a sharp rebound. The unemployed were finding new opportunities to labor. Factories became alive night and day. Trade began to follow many of the old accustomed routes and American commerce began to seek new fields. From every section of the country the President received assurance that this country was sound and the people in the main were thinking of "America First," some from selfish motives, others from a high moral standpoint. But apparently the great majority had at last caught the direction that the President pointed out in the beginning, and they were at last holding America first not only in their affections but in their thoughts.

However, this rebound of business and this returning buoyancy of life came none too soon. The spring of 1915 opened with ominous clouds far above the horizon. England, the mistress of the seas, was making it less and less possible for trading vessels of neutral nations to enter European ports. Germany, finding in these acts an excuse to retaliate, began a submarine warfare that threatened every crew, passenger, cargo, and vessel

that entered the waters adjacent to Europe, and America passed from the period of proclaimed neutrality to that of defending that neutrality, and holding the nations of Europe to some ethical standard.

In the attempt, therefore, to keep America first in the minds of the citizens of this nation and to hold the nations of Europe to some ethical standard, new issues were born or became prominent that eclipsed all former issues and set this nation forward on a new journey.

In his attempts to guide the nation in this new journey, Mr. Wilson kept the watchword, "America First," always before the people. When certain hyphenated American citizens seemed for the time to be losing their loyalty, he sent a challenge to "every man and woman who thinks first of America to rally to the standards of our life;" and groups of foreign born citizens formed patriotic societies and pledged their loyalty anew to America. And when it appeared that all patience had been exhausted and that America would break with Germany, "America First" was the talisman that calmed the emotions and gave the heart courage.

CHAPTER XV

HOLDING THE WORLD TO SOME STANDARD

The American government contended from the first for the rights of all neutrals and sought a common understanding between the allies and the central powers. The effort, however, to hold the world to some ethical standard was apparently ineffective. The slow but calculating Englishman, with disregard for previous rules of conduct, continued to widen the war zone, to increase the number of contraband articles, and to capture American vessels. The infuriated German, going the Englishman one better, marked off another war zone, called it a closed sea, and showed a determination "to exact the utmost quantity of destruction and killing from the allies, no matter what happened to innocent subjects of the allies, and no matter what absolutely innocent neutrals suffered."

It was not until America "had its own list of outrages" that this government undertook with any convincing power to bring the warring nations to some ethical standard. These outrages had already begun in April when the President, in speaking to the Press Association, declared that if any nation "wants a scrap,

an interesting scrap that is worth while, I'm his man.' Within less than a week from that day the American Oil Tank Steamer Cushing was damaged by a mine or submarine, later (May 1) the Steamer Gulflight, another American vessel, was sunk off the Scilly Islands, with a loss of three lives. But on May 7 the greatest tragedy of the war occurred. The great transatlantic liner, the Lusitania, bound from New York to Liverpool, carrying an enormous quantity of war material and having a passenger list of 2,104 men, women, and children, including 187 Americans, was sunk by a German submarine, and about 1,500 passengers were lost, including over a hundred Americans.

It really appeared at the time that one nation, at least, was looking "for a scrap" with this country. And these tragedies, culminating in the sinking of the Lusitania, aroused the war spirit in this country almost beyond the control of the few cool heads who were endeavoring to keep the government steady in the great crisis.

The American people at once indicted the whole German nation for the willful, brutal murder of innocent men, women, and children. The English nation was already convicted of forcible trespass; but, before the bar of public opinion, the trial for murder superseded all other cases on the docket, the verdict was announced simultaneously with the drawing of the indictment and summary punishment was demanded. But since the