Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1917-04-06

I e. ||||
way. There has been no discrimina
ton. The challenge is to all mankind
Urges Temperate Judgment.
Each nation must decide for Itself
how 1t will meet it. The choice we
make for ourselves must be made with
. moderation of counsel and a tenn
perateness of judgment betting our
character and our motives as a nation.
1--WE must put excited feeling away.
Our motive will not be revenge or the
victorious assertion Of the physical
might Of the nation, but only the win.
dication Of right, Of human right, OF
which we are only a single champion.
when I addressed the congress on
the 26th Of February, last, I thought
that 1t would suflce to assert our neu.
trail rights with arms, our right to use
the seas against unlawful Interference,
our right to keep our people safe
against unlawful violence.
"But armed neutrality, 1t now ap.
pears, is impracticable. Because sub.
marines are in effect outlaws, when
used as the German submarines have
been used against merchant shipping,
1t is impossible to defend ships against
their attacks, as the law of nations has
assumed that merchantmen would de-
fend themselves against privateers or
cruisers, visible craft giving chase
upon the open sea. ..-. -
1t is common prudence in such cir.
cumstances, grim necessity indeed, to
endeavor to destroy them before they
have shown their own intention. They
must be dealt with upon sight, If dealt
with at all
Neutral Rights Are Denied.
1.-THE, German government denies the
right Of neutrals to use arms at all
within the areas of the sea which It
has prescribed, 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 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 pretentions it
is worse than ineffectual; it is likely
once to produce what it was meant
to prevent: it is practically certain
to draw us into war without either the
right or the effectiveness of belliger-
ents. /
There Is one choice we cannot
make, we are incapable Of making. We
will not choose the path of submits
sion and suffer the most sacred rights
of our nation and our people to be ig.
nored or violated.
"The wrongs against which we now
array ourselves are not common
wrongs; they cut to the very roots of
human life.
= Recommends Making War.
with profound sense of the SOL
emn and even tragical character of
the step am taking and Of the grave
which it involves, but
in unhesitating obedience to what L /
deem my constitutional duty, I advise
hat the congress declare the recent
course of the imperial German govern.
nent to be in fact nothing less than !
war against the government and peo-
pie of the United States; that it for
nally accept the status of a belliger-
ent which has thus been thrust upon !
t and that 1t take immediate steps not !
'nly to put the country in a more !
thorough state of defense, but also to |
exert all its powers and employ all its !
'esources to bring the government Of
he German empire to terms and end |
he war.
What this will involve is clear. It |
VIII 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
hat our resources may, so far as pos
ible, be added to theirs. -~
1T will involve the organization and
mobilization of all the material re-
ources Of the country to supply the
materials of war and serve the Incl.
lental needs Of the nation in the most
bundant, and yet the most economic
i and efficient way possible.
1T will involve the immediate full
quipment of the navy in all respects,
u: particularly in supplying it with
he best means of dealing with the
nemy's submarines.
1T will involve the immediate I'D.
ition to the armed forces Of the Unit