country, however, there were evidences that the prevailing sentiment was overwhelmingly for war. Many States took steps toward defense and appropriated large sums to provide the measures.

Preliminary Call for Men

On March 25 President Wilson signed an order authorizing an increase in the enlisted strength of the navy to 87,000 men, being an addition of 26,000, and the War Department issued orders calling out units of the National Guard in nine Eastern States and the District of Columbia for police purposes. The order was regarded as indicating extensive precautions to forestall any outbreak by enemy agents upon the expected declaration of a state of war. Munitions plants, bridges, railroads, and all other important public property which might be in danger of attack upon the outbreak of war were to be carefully guarded.

The first call affected 13,000 men; on March 26 units from eighteen Western States, affecting 25,000 additional men, were called, and this was followed by other calls, so that by April 12 60,000 National Guardsmen had been called out.

Policy Toward Germans

To allay unrest and apprehension of Germans residing in the United States, it was announced at Washington on the 20th that there would be no general internment of German citizens or German reservists resident in this country in the event of war between the United States and Germany. Secretary of War Baker authorized the formal statement that "everybody of every nationality who conducts himself in accordance with American law will be free from official molestation, both now and in the future." He declared that rumors that the department had plans for the internment of resident aliens had no foundation in fact. It was during this period of excitement that the arrival was announced of the first armed American steamship at a European port. The American liner St. Louis left New York March 17, with two guns forward and one aft and with a detail of crack marksmen of the United States Navy; she reached Liverpool with

out encountering any hostile submarines, on Monday, March 26. During the same period merchantmen of various other lines were equipped with guns and departed daily from various American ports.

The

The period between the President's call and the assembling of Congress was full of excitement throughout the country. Every department of the Government was keyed up to the highest pitch of energetic preparation for war. mustering out of National Guardsmen who had been on duty on the Mexican border was stopped, and 22,000 guardsmen who were about to be relieved were retained in the ranks. The navy intensified its recruiting work and the Cabinet held daily sessions to discuss questions of war policy and of ways and means.

German Chancellor's Speech

The first official word that came from Germany after it was clear that President Wilson had decided to ask Congress to declare war was made public March 30 in the form of a dispatch from Berlin, transmitted by the semi-official news agency, giving the text of a speech delivered in the German Reichstag March 29 by Chancellor von Bethmann Hollweg. He proceeded to review the causes which led up to the unrestricted use of submarines by Germany as a matter, he said, of self-defense. Then he added:

Within the next few days the directors of the American Nation will be convened by President Wilson for an extraordinary session of Congress in order to decide the question of war or peace between the American and German Nations.

Germany never had the slightest intention of attacking the United States of America, and does not have such intention now. never desired war against the United States of America and does not desire it today.

It

How did these things develop? More than once we told the United States that we made unrestricted use of the submarine weapon, expecting that England could be made to observe, in her policy of blockade, the laws of humanity and of international agreements. This blockade policy (this I expressly recall) has been called illegal and indefensible (the Imperial Chancellor here used the English words) by President Wilson and Secretary of State Lansing.

Our expectations, which we maintained during eight months, have been disappointed completely. England not only did not give up

her illegal and indefensible policy of blockade, but uninterruptedly intensified it. England, together with her allies, arrogantly rejected the peace offers made by us and our allies and proclaimed her war aims, which aim at our annihilation and that of our allies.

Then we took unrestricted submarine warfare into our hands; then we had to for our defense.

If the American Nation considers this a cause for which to declare war against the German Nation with which it has lived in peace for more than 100 years, if this action warrants an increase of bloodshed, we shall not have to bear the responsibility for it. The German Nation, which feels neither hatred nor hostility against the United States of America, shall also bear and overcome this.

Among the speeches of party leaders commenting on the Chancellor's address those of Dr. Gustav Stresemann, National Liberal, and Count von Westarp, Conservative, were the most important. Herr Stresemann remarked:

"A declaration of war by America will be possible only because American public opinion has been misled."

Count von Westarp alluded briefly to America, saying:

"We can await the decision of America with complete calm, and the execution of our operations in the barred zone will not be changed thereby."

Lord Cecil's Bitter Reply

This declaration of the Imperial Chancellor was bitterly attacked the next day by Lord Robert Cecil, the British Blockade Minister, in the following formal statement:

The German Chancellor claims that Germany in the past renounced the unrestricted use of her submarine weapon in the expectation that Great Britain could be made to observe in her blockade policy the laws of humanity and international agreements. It is difficult to say whether this statement is the more remarkable for its hypocrisy or for its falseness. It would hardly seem that Germany is in a position to speak of humanity or international agreements, since she began this war by deliberately violating the international agreement guaranteeing the neutrality of Belgium, and has continued it by violating all the dictates of humanity.

Has the Chancellor forgotten that the German forces have been guilty of excesses 'n Belgium, unparalleled in history, culminating in the attempted enslavement of a dauntless people, of poisoning wells, of bombarding open towns, torpedoing hospital ships and sinking other vessels with total disregard for the safety of noncombatants on board, with

the result that many hundreds of innocent victims, including both women and children, have lost their lives?

The latest manifestation of this policy is to be seen in the devastation and deportations carried out by the Germans in their force retreat on the western front.

The Chancellor states that it is because the Allies have not abandoned their blockade and have refused the so-called peace offer of Germany that unrestricted submarine warfare is now decided on. As to this I will do no more than quote what the Chancellor himself said in the Reichstag, when announcing the adoption of unrestricted submarine war.

He said that as soon as he himself, in agreement with the supreme army command, reached the conviction that ruthless U-boat warfare would bring Germany nearer to a victorious peace, then the U-boat warfare would be started. He continued:

"This moment has now arrived. Last Autumn the time was not ripe, but today the moment has come when, with the greatest prospect of success, we can undertake this enterprise. We must not wait any longer. Where has there been a change? In the first place, the most important fact of all is that the number of our submarines has been very considerably increased as compared with last Spring, and thereby a firm basis has been created for success.

Does not this prove conclusively that it was not any scruple or any respect for international law or neutral rights that prevented unrestricted warfare from adopted earlier, but merely a lack of means to carry it out?

being

I think it may be useful once again to point out that the illegal and inhuman attack on shipping by the Germans cannot be justified as a reprisal for the action of Great Britain in attempting to cut off from Germany all imports.

The submarine campaign was clearly contemplated as far back as December, 1914, when Admiral von Tirpitz gave an indication to an American correspondent in Berlin of the projected plan.

As for the plea that the Allies are aiming at the annihilation of Germany and her allies and that ruthless warfare is, therefore, justified, it is sufficient in order to refute this to quote the following passage from the Allies' reply of Jan. 10, 1917, to President Wilson's note:

the House, contains 43,000 voters, of whom 32,000 are Republicans. Mr. Schall is a blind man. He spoke from the front of the House, leaning on a cane. The pith of Mr. Schall's speech was that both parties should sink partisanship and co-operate with the President, and that the best way to do it was to give him a Congress controlled by his own party.

"I, with my sightless eyes," he said, "would be of little use to my country on the field of battle, but I can cast my vote to help it. I know of no better way to stand by the President than to return his party to the control of the House."

James R. Mann was nominated by the Republicans. The vote stood: Clark, 217; Mann, 205; six Republicans declined to vote for Mr. Mann. The organization of the House was completed by 5 o'clock and adjournment was then taken until 8:30 to meet in joint session with the Senate to receive the President's address.

President Wilson came to the Capitol escorted by a squadron of cavalry.

The House an hour before had taken a recess. When it met again it was in a scene that the hall had never presented before. Directly in front of the Speaker and facing him sat the members of the Supreme Court without their gowns. Over at one side sat the members of the Diplomatic Corps in evening dress. It was the first time any one could remember when the foreign envoys had ever sat together officially in the Hall of Representatives.

Then the doors opened, and in came the Senators, headed by Vice President Marshall, each man wearing or carrying a small American flag.

There were three

or four exceptions, including Senators La Follette and Vardaman, but one had to look hard to find them, and Senator Stone was no exception. It was at 8:32 that they came in, and five minutes later the Speaker announced:

"The President of the United States."

President Delivers Address

As he walked in and ascended the speakers' platform he got such a reception as Congress had never given him before in any of his visits to it. The

Supreme Court Justices rose from their chairs, facing the place where he stood, and led the applause, while Representatives and Senators not only cheered, but yelled. It was two minutes before he could begin his address.

When he did begin it, he stood with his manuscript before him typewritten on sheets of note paper. He held it in both hands, resting his arm on the green baize covered desk, and at first he read without looking up, but after a while he would glance occasionally to the right or the left as he made a point, not as if he were trying to see the effect but more as a sort of gesture-the only one he employed.

Congress listened intently and without any sort of interruption while he recited the German crimes against humanity, his own and his country's effort to believe that the German rulers had not wholly cut themselves off from the path which civilized nations follow, and how the truth has been forced upon unwilling minds. Congress was waiting for his conclusions, and there was no applause or demonstration of any kind for the recital.

But when he finished his story of our efforts to avoid war and came to the sentence "armed neutrality, it now appears, is impracticable because submarines are in fact outlaws when used as the German submarines are used," the close attention deepened into a breathless silence, so painfully intense that it seemed almost audible.

The President ended at 9:11, having spoken thirty-six minutes. Then the great scene which had been enacted at his entrance was repeated. The diplo mats, Supreme Court, the galleries, the House and Senate, Republicans and Democrats alike, stood in their places and the Senators waved flags they had brought in with them. Those who were wearing, not carrying, flags tore them from their lapels or their sleeves and waved with the rest, and they all cheered wildly.

Senator Robert Marion La Follette, however, stood motionless with his arms folded tight and high on his chest, so

The President walked rapidly out of the hall, and when he had gone the Senators and the Supreme Court and the diplomats went their ways.

[The address of the President appears in preceding pages.]

After the departure of the President both houses of Congress were assembled and resolutions were introduced in each house embodying the President's recommendations that the state of war with Germany be declared. The resolutions were introduced in the House by Chairman Flood of the Foreign Relations Committee, and in the Senate by Senator Martin, both of Virginia, and at once referred to the respective committees, and the two houses thereupon adjourned. [The text of the joint resolution is printed on page 198.]

Debate in the Senate

The war resolution was passed by the Senate at 11:11 P. M. Wednesday, April 4, after thirteen hours' debate, by a vote of 82 to 6, eight Senators being unavoidably absent-all the absentees favored the resolution, hence the true sentiment of the Senate was 90 to 6. The six Senators who voted nay were La Follette of Wisconsin, Gronna of North Dakota, Norris of Nebraska, Stone of Missouri, Lane of Oregon, and Vardaman of Mississippi, the first three being publicans, the last three Democrats.

Re

The opening speech was delivered by Senator Hitchcock of Nebraska, who was in charge of the resolution in substitution for Chairman Stone of the Foreign Relations Committee, who was in opposition. In his address the Senator said that Germany's resumption of submarine activity was not a violation of her word, but a revocation of it, a step taken in desperation.

It was not intended to provoke war with us, but it was followed by acts of war upon us. They were not made for the deliberate purpose of injuring us but rather to starve the English people. The effect, however, was the same. We were ordered off the high seas. We could not submit; no great nation could remain great and independent, if it did so.

No great nation could maintain its place in history if it permitted another to order it off the sea, if it permitted another to bottle up its commerce, if it permitted another to dictate to it in the exercise of its unquestioned right and to impose the penalty of murder of its citizens in case of refusal.

Words of Senator Lodge

Senator Lodge of Massachusetts, who had been precipitated into a personal affray in the Senate corridor the day before by a committee of pacifists and had knocked down one who attacked him, in the course of his remarks, said:

We have never been a military nation. We are not prepared for war in the modern sense; but we have vast resources and unbounded energies and the day when war is declared we should devote ourselves to calling out those resources and organizing those energies so that they can be used with the utmost effect in hastening the complete victory. The worst of all wars is a feeble war. War is too awful to be entered upon halfheartedly. If we fight at all, we must fight for all we are worth. It must be no weak, hesitating war. The most merciful war is that which is most vigorously waged and which comes most quickly to an end.

But there are, in my opinion, some things worse for a nation than war. National degeneracy is worse; national cowardice is worse. The division of our people into race groups, striving to direct the course of the United States in the interest of some other country when we should have but one allegiance, one hope, and one tradition-all these dangers have been gathering about us and darkening the horizon during the last three years. Whatever suffering and misery war may bring, it will at least sweep these foul things away. It will unify us into one

nation.

This war is a war against barbarism, panoplied in all the devices for destruction of human life which science, beneficent science, can bring forth. We are resisting an effort to thrust mankind back to forms of government, to political creeds, and methods of conquest which we had hoped had disappeared forever from the world. We are fighting

against a nation which, in the fashion of centuries ago, drags the inhabitants of conquered lands into slavery; which carries off women and girls for even worse purposes; which in its to mad desire conquer mankind and trample them under foot has stopped at no wrong, has regarded no treaty.

The work that we are called upon to do when we enter this war is to preserve the principles of human liberty, the principles of democracy, and the light of modern civilization; all that we most love, all that we hold dearer than life itself. We wish only to preserve our own peace and our own security, to uphold the great doctrine which