The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-04-04

been recorded, the decision has been
made. It is war.
II cannot vote against war" Sena-
tor Hitchcock concluded without do
ing a vain and foolish thing. 1t would
only serve to weaken my country in
the face of the enemy and the world
when war is inevitable. I am ready
now to take my place with those who
will back up the president for the
honor and protection of the ma
tion"
Senator Swan Of Virginia, said the
German government had repeatedly
and grossly violated it's treaty obliga-
tions I'd us and wantonly broken SOL
emn assurances"
''The issue is not peace or war;
said Senator Swanson. War has al
ready been declared on us. The is
sue is whether we shall accept war or
abject and cowardly submission"
Senator Lodge ranking Republican
of the foreign relation committee,
Saids
'tNs one tss more conscious than I
that this is moment for action and
not for debate. but I wish briefly to
state why I support it with the great
est earnestness of which I am capa-
bile. @ ~
THE most momeptous power en-
trusted to. congress by the constitu-
ton is the authority to declare war,
and never has congress been called to
a more solemn exercise of this great
function than at this moment We
have submitted to wrongs and out
RACES from the Central powers of Eu-
rope with long patience. We have
borne and foreborne to the very limit
of endurance. Now the inevitable end
is here and we are about to declare
war against Germany.
Speaking for myself and, I hope, for
my associates generally on this side Of
the chamber, I desire to say that in
this crisis and when the country is at
war, party lines will disappear and
this disappearance of the party line
to the minority. Both Democrats and
Republicans must forget party in the
presence fthe common danger. This
is not and canont be a party war; 1t
is war in which all Americans must
be united and no one must ask loyal
citizen, high or low who seeks to serve
his country in the field or in civil life.
to what party he belongs, any more
than 1T would be possible to ask his
religion or his race. AS Americans we
shall all, I am sure, be prepared to
give to the executive money, men and
all the necessary powers for waging
war with energy and driving it for
ward to a successful conclusion"
1--WE have only a very small army
and we must proceed at once as rap
idly as possible to build up a large one
fit to defend the country in any emer-
gency. We must provide for the fu-
ture and for the supply of men for the
army by system Of universal mill
tary training.
'"The President has said that war
will involve the utmost practicable
cooperation in council 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
possible be added to theirs. I am not
only in full agreement with this policy
advised by the President but it seems
to me that nothing is more important
than to follow it out
az am a thorough believer in the
general policy laid down by Washing
ton when he advised the people of the
United States not to enter permanent
alliances; but the man who won the
American Revolution through the al
lance with France would have been
the last to lay down a hard and fast
eule that under no conditions and for
no purpose were we ever to ally our
selves with other nations. Far-seeing
and wise, he knew very well that
dangers might come which would
make a temporary alliance or agree
ment with foreign nations imperative.
That time has arrived. It would be
madness for us to attempt to make
war alone on Germany and find our
selves, perhaps, at the end left isolat-
ed, at war with that power, when all
the nations had made peace, because
we had not associated ourselves with
them. The Allies or the Entente, as
they are called, are fighting a common
foe and ther foe is now, ours. Wa
cannot send a great arm across the
ocean for we have no arm to send.
Yet I should be glad for one if we
could send 10000 men of our regular
troops, so that the flag of the United
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