Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-04-03

rights Which no modern publicist has
ever questioned their right to defend.
The intimation is conveyed that the
armed guards which we have placed on
our merchantships will be treated as
beyond the pale of law and subject to
be dealt with as pirates would be.
Armed neutrality is Intellectual enough
at best; in such circumstances and in
the face of such pretensions it is worse
than Intellectual; it is likely once 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.
We Will Not Submit
There is one choice we cannot
make, we are incapable of making.
We will not choose the oath of. sub
mission and suffer the most sacred
rights of our nation and our people
to be ignored or violated. The wrongs
against which we now array our
selves are not common wrongs; they
cut to the very roots of human life.
with a profound sense of the
solemn and even tragical character
of the step l am taking and of the
grave responsibilities which it in
wolves, but in unhesitating obedience
to what deem my constitutional
duty, l advise that the Congress de-
clare the recent course of the I'M
perial 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 Immediately steps not only to put
the country in a more thorough state
of defense, but also to exert all its
power and employ all its resources to
bring the government of the German
empire to terms and end the war.
U. S. to Cooperate
What this will involve is clear. 1t
will involve the utmost practicable
cooperation in counsel and action
with the governments now at war with
Germany, and, as incident to that, the
extension 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 in
volve the organization and mobiliza-
ton of all the material resources of
the country to supply the materials of
war and serve the incidental needs of
the nation in the most abundant, and
yet the most economical and efficient
way possible. 1t will involve the imme-
diate full equipment of the navy in
all respects but particularly in sup
plying 1t with the best means of deal
Need 100000 Men
ut will involve the immediate ad-
dition to the armed forces of the
United States already provided for by
law in case of war, at least 500, 900
men, who should, in my opinion, be
chosen upon the principle of universal
liability to service, and also the au-
thorization of subsequent additional
increments of equal force so soon as
they may be needed and can be
handled in training.
To Lend Allies Money
"It will involve also, of course, the
granting of adequate credits to the
government, sustained, hope, so far
as they can equitably be sustained by
the present generation. by we'll con-
ceived taxation. 1 say sustained so
far as may be equitable by taxation
because it seems to me that it would
be most unwise to oase the credits
which will now be necessary entirely
on money borrowed. 1t is our duty,
1 most respectfully urge, to protect
our people so far as we may against
the very serious hardships and evils
which would be likely to arise out of
the imitation which would be pro-
duced by vast loans.
Aid For Entente,
"In carrying out the measures by
which these things are to be ac-
complished we should keep constantly
in mind the wisdom of interfering as
little as possible in our own prepara-
tion and in the equipment of our own
military forces with the duty-for II
will be very practical duty-of sup
plying the nations already at war with