Connecticut western news., 1917-04-05

teers or cruisers, visible craft, giving chase upon the open sea.
 It is common prudence in such circum- 5tances-grim necessity, indeed-to en- deavor to destroy them before they have shown their own intention. They must be dealt with upon sight if dealt with at all
 The German government denies the right of neutrals to use arms at all with In the areas of the sea which it has pro- scribed, even in the defense of rights which no modern publicist has ever before questioned their right to defend.
 The intimation is conveyed that the armed guards which we have placed on our merchant ships will be treated as be- yond the pale of law and subject to be dealt with as pirates would be. Armed neutrality is inefficient enough at best. Tn such circumstances and in the face of such pretensions 1t is worse than ineffec- tual 1t 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.
 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 ignored 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 solemn and even tragical character of the step am taking and of the grave responsiblt- ties which it involves, but in unhesitat- ing obedience to what I deem my cohsti- tutional duty, l advise that the congress declare the recent course of the impe rial German government to be in fact nothing less than war against the gov ernment and people of the United States; that it formally accept the status of belIigerent which has thus been thrust upon it and that it take inn mediate steps not only to put the coun- try in a more thorough state of de- fense, but also to exert all it's power and employ all its resources to bring the government of the German empire to terms and end the war.
 What this will involve is clear. It will involve the utmost practicable co-opera- tion in counsel and action with the gov ernments now at war with Germany and incident to that the extension to those governments of the most liberal financial credits, in orderl that our resources may, so far as possible, be added to theirs. It will involve the organization and mobili- zation of all the material resources of the country to supply the materials of war and serve the incidental needs of the na- ton in the most abundant and yet the most economical and efficient way pos sible.
 Calls For 5oo,ooo Men.
 It will involve the immediate full equip ment of the navy in all respects, but par ticularly in supplying it with the best means of dealing with the enemy's sub marines. It 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 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 as soon as they may be needed and can be handled in training.
 It will involve also, of course, the grant ing of adequate credits to the government. sustained, hope, so far as they can equi
 tably be sustained by the present genera tion by well conceived taxation. I say sustained so far may be equitable by taxation because 1t seems to me that it
 would be most unwise to base the credits which will not be necessary entirely on
 money borrowed. It is duty, I 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 produced by vast loans.
 In carrying out the measures by which these things are to be accomplished we | should keep constantly in mind the wis | dom of interfering as little as possible in ] our own preparation. and in the equipment
 of our own military forces with the duty | for it will be a very practical duty-of | supplying the nations already at war with l Germany with the materials which they | can obtain only from or by our assist 1 ance. They are in the field, and we should | help them in every way to be effective l there
 | While we do these things-these deeply
 momentous things-let us be very clear | and make very clear to all the world what
 our motives and our objects are. My own | thought has not been driven from its ha-
 bitual and normal course by the unhappy
 events of the last two months, and do
 not believe that the thought of the nation
 has been altered or clouded by them. | Neutrality Is no longer feasible or de-
 sirable where the peace of the world Is in-
 volved and the freedom of its peoples, and | the menace to that peace and freedom lies | ln the existence of autocratic governments
 backed by organized force which Is con-
 trolled wholly by their will. not by the