The Benson signal., 1917-04-07


against all nations. American ships
have been sunk, American lives taken,
in ways which it has stirred us very
deeply to learn of, but the ships and
people of other neutral and friendly
nations have been sunk and over
whelmed in the waters in the same
way. There has been no discrimina-
ton. The challenge is to all mankind.
Each nation must decide for itself
how it will meet it. The choice we
make for ourselves must be made with
a consideration of counsel and tenn
perateness of judgment befitting our
character and our natives as ma
ton.
We must put excited feeling away.
Our motive will not be revenge or the
victorious assertion of the physical
might of the nation, but only the vim
dication of right, of human right, OF
which we are only single champion.
When l addressed the Congress on
the twenty-sixth of February last
thought that it would suffice to as
sert our neutral rights with arms, our
right to use the seas against unlaW-
full interference, our right to keep our
people safe against unlawful violence.
But armed neutrality, it now ap-
pears, is impractical. Because subma-
rines are in effect outlaws when used
as the German submarines have been
used against merchant shipping, it is
impossible to defend ships against
their attacks as the law OF nations
has assumed that merchantmen would
defend themselves against privateers
or cruisers, visible craft giving chase
upon the open sea.
It is common prudence in such cir
cumstances, grim necessity indeed, to
endeavor to destroy them before they
have shown their own intention. They
must be dealt with upon sight, II
dealt with at all.
The German government denies the
right of neutrals to use arms at all
within the areas of the sea which 1T
has prescribed, even in the defense
OF rights whichz no modern publicist
has ever before observation-disclosures right
TO defend. The intimation is con-
veyed that the armed guards which
we have placed on our merchant
ships will be treated as beyond the
pale OF law and subject to be dealt
with as pirates would be.
Armed neutrality is Intellectual
at best; IN such circumstances and
in the face of such pretensions it is
worse than Intellectual; it is likely
to produce what it was meant
to prevent; it is practically certain
to draw us into the war without
either the rights or the effectiveness
of belligerents.
There is one choice we cannot make,
we are incapable of making. We will
not choose the path of submission
and suffer the most sacred rights OF
our nation and our people to be lg-
nored or violated The wrongs against
which we now array ourselves are not
common wrongs; they cut to the very
roots of human life.
With a profound sense of the sell
emn and even tragical character of
the step l am taking and of the grave
responsibilities which it involves, but
in unhesitating obedience to what l
deem my constitutional duty, | advise
that the Congress declare the recent
course of the German government to
be in fact nothing less than war
against the government and people OF
the United States; that it formally
accept the status of belligerent which
has thus been thrust upon it, and that
it take immediate steps not only to
put the country on more thorough
state of defense, but also to exert all it's
power and employ all it's resources to
bring the government of the German
empire to terms and end the war.
Advises Cooperation With Allies.
What this will involve is clear. 1t
will involve the utmost practicable CO.
operation in counsel and action with
the governments now at war with Ger
many, and, as incident to that, the ex-
tension to those governments of the
most liberal financial credits, in order
that our resources may, so far as pos
sible, be added to theirs.
1t will involve the organization and
mobilization of all the material re-
sources of the country to supply the
materials of war and serve the Incl
dental needs of the nation in the most
abundant, and yet the most economi-
cal and efficient way possible.
1t will involve the immediate full
equipment of the navy in all respects,
but particularly in supplying it with
the best means of dealing with the en-
emy's submarines.
1t will involve the immediate addi-
tion to the armed forces of the United
States already provided for by law in
case of war, at least 100000 men, who
should, in my opinion, be chosen upon
the principle of universal liability to
service, and also the authorization of
subsequent additional increments Of
equal force so soon as they may be
needed and can be handled in train
ing.
1t will involve, of course, the grant
ing of adequate credits to the govern
ments, sustained, hope, so far as they
can equitably be sustained, by the
present generation, by well-conceived
taxation. l say sustained so far as
may be equitable by taxation because
it seems to me that it would be most
unWise to base the credits which will
now be necessary entirely on money
borrowed.