The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-02-27
ARMED NEUTRALITY.


In his address to the joint session of congress
yesterday the president asks that he be given power
to take such steps necessary to place the
United States in 4 state of armed neutrality to
sist the German submarine menace
Technically speaking he asks congress to empower
the executive to merchant vessels and to use
the navy in conveying American ships through the
war zone prescribed by the German war office.
AS the president of the United States has the i'm
Piled power to do these very things, without act
OF congress- the speech really appeal for the
moral support Of congress and the nation in any
undertaking that the future exigencies of the oc-
casion seem to demand.
OF course congress will give the president all the
legal, financial and moral support necessary for
the preservation of American rights on the high
seas The dilly daying that has been dignified by
the namo of our foreign policy has been largely re-
sponsible for our present troubles.
If the president had on the morning after the
sinking of the Lusitania taken the action that
he did yesterday, We would have escaped the accu-
mulated humiiatons that have been heaped upon
us during the past IS months.
Either the United States must enforce, with all
of the power at its command. its announced posi-
ton of July, 1915 or we must haul down our flag
from the and close ports to all foreign
commerce.
We indulge in all the pipe dreams Of peace
that have sounded pleasant to ears. but there
is no peace. This nation is confronted by actuali-
te nv
phraseology.
American shipping is hudded in our ports. The
American flag has disappeared from the Atlantic
ocean. We must now either disavow national SOW
ereignty must protect and defend the right of
the stars and stripes to navigate the high
Confronted by these conditions, there is no ques-
ton as to the decision that can no longer be post
poned Some of these mornings will read the
head lines announcing the fact that fleet of Amer
lean merchantmen has passed out beyond Sand,
Hook, under convoy of an American battle fleet.
\ few mornings later, will probably read tht
story that some of these ships have been sunk b,
German submarines off the western coast of Eu
rope Then the present apparent lothargy will sud
denly give way to outb,rrst of popular ndigpa
ton that will sweep aside the fiction of armed ncu
trality.
= = y y
Armed neutrality is pleasing phrase that nation
have INDUCED in than occasion. Dur
ing American revolutionary days whc
England and France were struggling for the mas
terry. the northern states Of Europe assumed
threatening position of armed ncutrali,y,' Will
they were arming for the conflict Again in tn
earlier days of the Napoeonic wars. some of IL.
tralty" for a while, until they all swept int
the maelstrom of a continental debacle.
In 1851. the state of Kentucky, divided it wa
between Blue Grass secessionists and mountaines
Union men, at first sought to escape civil war by
fcially proclaiming position of armed neutrality
which at last was exchanged for a stand for IL
Union. E-, .--..
Unless the German war office shall recede fro
its intoIerabe announced intention of sinking. witt
out warning, any neutral ship that dares approa'
the waters OF the eastern half of the Atlantic ocea
this present pleasing fiction of armed neutralit
will be a thing OF the past, within the next 80 da!
The disappearance of the American flag floati
from the masthead of American battieship und
the waters OF the Atlantic, off the coast France
England. viii be the end Of armed neutrality