Evening star., 1917-12-08
SOCIALIST IS SOLE
OPPONENT OF: WAR
Declaration Is Made by Con.
gress and Signed by Presi-
dent-La Toilette Absent.

War against Austria was formally
declared at 500 o'clock yesterday aft
ernoon, when President Wilson signed
the joint resolution which had been
put through both houses Of Congress
earlier in the afternoon with but sin
gle vote cast against 1t.
The vote against the resolution was
cast by Representative Meyer London
of New York. socialist.
La Toilette Explains Absence.
Senator La Toilette of Wisconsin.
one Of those who voted against war
with Germany, was absent from the
| Senate chamber at the time the vote
| was taken in that body. He announced
on the floor of the Senate later that he
had gone to his room to draft an
amendment providing that the United
States should not observe any agree
| ment Of the entente allies to deprive
of any territory which she held August
| l. 1914. He said that he did not hear
] the summons to vote.
/ If his amendment had been adopted.
| Senator La Toilette said. he would
have voted for the resolution. Without
1t he would have voted against the res
olution. His amendment would without
doubt have been defeated, members of
| the senate SAID To-Day.
The vote in the House, which was
| taken some two hours after the Senate
had adopted the resolution by "a to O..
| was 361 in favor of the resolution and
one against it.
| Miss Rankin Of Montana voted for
the resolution. She shed tears when
the vote on the resolution declaring
war with Germany was taken and de-
clared that while she desired to sup
port her country she could not vote for
In pv a a n
war with Austria. Miss Rankin said
she still believed war stupid" She
supported the resolution because it
was merely a technicality in the prose-
cution of war already declared.
Signed by the President.
AS soon as the resolution was signed
by the Speaker and Nice-President it
was sent to the White House for the
Presidents approval He signed the
resolution without ceremony as il he
were signing any ordinary routine
measure. and a moment later it was
on it's way to the State Department to
rest among the other archives of the
government.
Turkey and Bulgaria, Germanys other
allies, was left to the future.
Text Of Resolution.
The text of the resolution declaring
war on Austria is as follows:
Whereas the imperial and royal
Austro- Hungarian government has
committed repeated acts of war
against the government and the peo-
pie of the United States of America:
Therefore be it
Resolved by the Senate and House
of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress as
sembled, That state of war is here
by declared to exist between the
United States of America and the
imperial and royal Austro-Hun-
garian government; and that the.
President be, and he is hereby, au.
thoriZed and directed to employ tho
entire naval and military forces OF
the United States and the resources
of the government to carry on war
against the imperial and royal Aus
tro-HungariaE government: and to
bring the conflict to successful
termination all the resources of the
country are hereby pledged by the
Congress Of the United States
Senate and House Adjourn.
After passing the war resolution yes
terday both the Senate and House ad-
journed until next week, the former un-
til Monday and the latter until Tues
day, to give committees and leaders
time to work on appropriation bills and
other legislation.