The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1916-04-27
Congress Is Told
of LAST Word"
Sent to Germany

Washington, April 20. President
Wilson's message to Congress, assem-
bled in joint session, In part, is as
follows:
Gentlemen of the Congress-: A sit
uation has arisen in the foreign rela-
tions of the country of which 1t is my
plain duty to inform you very frankly.
It will be recalled that in February,
1915, the imperial German government
announced it's intention to treat the
waters surrounding Great Britain and
Ireland as embraced within the seat
of war, and to destroy all merchant
ships owned by it's enemies that might
be found within any part Of that por-
ton OF the high seas, and that 1t
warned all vessels of neutral as we'll
as of belligerent ownership to keep
out of the waters j. had thus pro-
scribed, or else enter them at their
peril.
America Protested Earnestly.
The government Of the United
States earnestly protested.
It. based it's protest on the ground
that persons of neutral nationally and
vessels of neutral ownership would be
exposed to extreme and intolerable
risks, and that no right to close any
part of the high seas against their use
or to expose them to such risks could
lawfully be asserted by any belligerent
government.
Law Is Basis of Protest.
The law of nations In these matters,
upon which the government of the
United States based its protest, Is not
of recent origin or founded upon mere
ly arbitrary principles set up by con-
vention. It is based, on the contrary,
upon manifest and imperative princ1-
plies of humanity and has long been
established with the approval and by
the express consent of all civilized
nations.
Notwithstanding the earnest protest
of our government, the imperial Ger
man government at once proceeded to
carry out the policy it had announced.
Assurances Not Fulfilled.
What has actually happened in the
year which has since elapsed has
shown that those hopes were not JUS
tilted, those assurances insusceptible
of being fulfilled. In pursuance of the
policy Of submarine warfare against
announced and entered upon by the
imperial German government in de-
spite of the solemn protest OF this gov
eminent, the commanders of German
undersea vessels have attacked mer-
chant ships with greater and greater
activity, not only upon the high seas
surrounding Great Britain and Ireland,
but wherever they could encounter
them, in a way that has grown more
and more ruthless, more and more in
discriminate as the months have gone
. by, less and less observant Of re-
straints of any kind, and have deliv-
cred their attacks without compunc-
ton against vessels of every national
ity and bound upon every sort of er-
rand.
Great liners like the Lusitania and
the Arabic, and mere ferry boats like
the Sussex have been attacked with
out a moments warning, sometimes
before they had even become aware
that they were in the presence of an
armed vessel of the enemy, and the
lives of noncombatants, passengers
and crew, have been sacrificed whole
sale, in manner which the govern
ment of the United States cannot but
regard as wanton and without the
slightest color of justification.
No Limit to Destruction.
No limit of any kind has, in fact,
been set to the indiscriminate pursuit
and destruction of merchantmen of all
kinds and nationalities within the wa
ters, constantly extending in area,
where these operations have been car
ried on; and the roll of Americans who
have lost their lives on ships thus at
tackled and destroyed has grown month
by month until the ominous toll has
mounted into the hundreds.
Duty Is to Warn Germany.
have deemed it my duty, therefore,
to say to the imperial government that
if it is still it's purpose to prosecute
relentless and indiscriminate warfare
against vessels of commerce by the
use of submarines, Notwithstanding the
uOW uSlucuoI u dCCu AA1pOSSAUAAlSy VI SOA
Quoting that warfare in accordance
with what the government of the
United States must consider the sacred
and indisputable rules Of international
law and the universally recognized
dictates of humanity, the government
Of the United States is at last forced
to the conclusion that there ia but one
course it can pursue, and that. unless
the imperial German government
should now Immediately declare and
effect an abandonment of its present
methods of warfare against passenger
and freight-carrying vessels, this gov
eminent can have no choice but to
sever diplomatic relations with the
government of the German empire
altogether.
Fined Cents fer Whipping Girl.
Charlotte, Mich. April 21.-A. D..