The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1916-04-19
TEXT OF PRESIDENT
WILSON'S ADDRESS

been destroyed along with vessels of
Eelligerent ownership in constantly in
CT easing numbers. Sometimes the
II erchantman STACKED has been
warned and summoned to surrender
be fore being fired or torpedoed,
sometimes hi, passengers and crew
Rave been vouchsafed the poor secur-
ity of being allowed to take to the
ships boats baeore she was sent to
II q bottom. But again and again no
" aiming has be en- given, no escape
ever to the ships boats allowed to
tnose on bo1rd. What this govern
1nent foresaW must happen has hap
pened. Tragedy has followed tragedy
on the seas in such fashion, with such
attendant circumstances as to make it
grossly evident that warfare of such a
sort, IL warfare it be, cannot be car
fried on without the most palpable
violation Of the dictates alike of right
and of humanity.
Whatever the disposition and in
tention of the Imperial German gov
eminent, it has manifestly proved i'm
possible for it to keep such methods
of attack upon the commerce of its
enemies within the bounds set by
either the reason or the heart of man
kind. In February of the present
year, the Imperial German govern
ment informed this government and
the other neutral governments of the
world that it had reason to believe
InaC Lne government OF Great Britain
had armed all merchant vessels of
British ownership and had given
them secret orders to attack any sub
marine of the enemy they might en-
counter upon the seas and that the
Imperial German government felt jus
titled in the circumstances in treat
ing all armed merchantmen of beIIi-
gerent ownership as auxiliary vessels
of war, which it would have the right
to destroy without warning.
1.-The law of nations has Ions re-
cognized the right Of merchantmen to
carry arms for protection and to use
them to repe1 attack, though t. use
/ JFem in such circumstances, at their
| own risk; but the Imperial German
government claimed the right to set
these understandings a=-de in circum-
| stances which it deemed extra ordi-
nary. Even the terms in which it
| announced it's purpose thus still fur
Their to relax the restraints it had
previously protested it's willingness
and desire to put upon the, operations
of its submarines carried the plain i'm
plcation that at least vessels which
i were not armed would still be exempt
/ from destruction without warning
| and that personal safety would be ac-
| corded their passengers and crews;
/ but even that Irritation if it vas
ever practicable to observe it, has in
Ifoct constituted no check at ali upon
the destruction of ships of every
sort.
"Again and again the Imperial Ger
i man government has given this gov
4 eminent it's solemn assurances that
thus dealt with and yet it has again
i and again permitted its undersea COM
manders to disregard these assur-
ances with entire impunity.
i Great liners like the Lusitania and
the Arabic, and mere tferryboats like
4 S11sa
out a moments warning, sometimes
| before they had even become aware
that they were in the presence of an
i armed vessel of tn enemy, and lives of
Inon-combatants, passengers and crew,
have been sacrificed wholesale, in a
manner which the government or the
/ United States cannot but regard as
/ wanton and without the slightest color
! of justification. No limit of any kind
has in fact been set to the indiscrim-
mate pursuit and destruction of mer-
chantmen of all kinds and nationals
ties within the waters. constantly ex-
tending In area, where these opera
+ lions have been carried on; and the
roll Of Americans who have lost their
lives on ships thus attacked and des-
troyed, have grown month by month
until the oninous toll has mounted
( into the hundreds.
zone Of the latest and most shock
fare was that of the destruction of the
French cross-channel steamer Sus-
sex. 1t must stand forth, as the sink
ing of the steamer Lusitania did, as so
singularly tragica1 and unjustif1abIe
as to constitute g. truly terrible ex-
ample of the fnhumanity of submarine
warfare as the commanders of Ger
/ man vessels have for the past twelve
month been conducting it. If this in
stance stood alone, some explanation,
! some disavowal by the German gov
eminent, some evidence of criminal
mistake or wilfu1 disobedience on the
part of the commander of the vessel
that fired the torpedo, might be sought
or entertained: but unhappiIy it does
not stand alone. Recent events make
the conclusion inevitable that it is
only one instance even though it be
one of the most extreme and distress
! ing instance, of the spirit and method
/ of the warfare which the Imperial
German government has mistakenly
adopted and which from the first ex-
posed that government to the re-
, proaoh of thrusting all neutral rights
, aside in pursuit of it's immediate OBJ
. jects.
.aThe government of the United
States has been very patient. At cv-
cry stage of this Distressing expert
? ence of tragedy after tragedy in which
its own citizens were involved, it has
sought to be restrained from any ex-
, IRENE course. of action, and actuated
, In all that it said or did by the senti-
| ments of genuine friendship which
the people of the United States have
: always entertained and continue to en-
: terrain towards the German nation Il
: has, of course, accepted the successive
explanations and assurances of the
Imperial German government as gIve1
t in entire, sincere and good faith and
} hos boDed even against hope that i
would prove to be possible for the
German government so to order an6
control the acts of it's naval COIN
manders as to square it's policy with
the principles of humanity as embod-
led in the law of nations. It, has beer
---.1,:..<- siec1ai r,c.k