New Britain herald., 1917-04-03
DECLARATION OF STATE OF WAR ASKED .BYhPRESDENT

outlaws whom used as the German submarines have been used again1t merchant shipping. 1t is impossible to defend ships against their attacks as the law of nations has assumed that merchantmen would defend them selves against privateers or cruisers. visible craft giving chase upon the open sea.
 'It Is common prudence in such circumstances, 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
 ''The German government denies the right of neutrals to use arms at all within the areas of the sea which 1t has prescribed, even in the defense of rights which no modern publictst has ever before questioned their right to defend. The intimation is con. veyed 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 theNface of such pretensions it is worse than ineffec- tual: 1t is likely once to produce what was meant to prevent it: it is prac- >tically 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 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 I am taking and of the grave responsibilities which 1t in- wolves. but in unhesitating obedience to what I deem my constitutional duty, I advise that the congress de- clare the recent course of the imperial 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 belligerents which has thus been thrust upon 1t and that it take immediate 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 Cor man empire to terms and end the war. ;, t.
 ,''What. this will involve Is clear It will involve the utmost practicable cooperation: in counsel and action with the governments now at wal with Germany and, as incident to that, the extension to those govern. ments of the most liberal financial credits, in order that our resources may. so far as possible, be added tt theirs :.
 ''It will involve the organization and mobilization of all the material resources of the country to supply the materials of war and serve the inci- dental needs of the nation in the most abundant, and yet the most eco- nomfcal and efficient. way possible.
 ''It will involve the immediate full equipment of the navy in all respects, but particularly in supplying it with the best means of dealing with the enemy's submarines. It will involve the immediate addition to the armed forces of the United States already provided for by law, in case of war, at least 800, ,O00 men, who should, in
 
 ciple of universal liability to service and also the authorization of subse- quent additional increments of equal force so soon as they may be needed and can be handled in training. g'It will involve also. of course, the granting of adequate credits to the government, sustained, I hope, so fal as they can equitably be sustained by the present generation, by we'll con. ceived taxation. I say sustained SC far as may be equitable by taxation because it seems to me that it would be most unwise to..base the credits which will now be necessary entirely Eon money borrowed. It Is our duty. respectfully urge, to protect oul people so far as we may against the very serious hardships and evils which would be likely to arise out o1 the imitation which would be produced by vast loans.
 'In carrying out the measure by which these things are to be- accom- plished We should keep constantly In mind the. wisdom of interfering as little as possible in our own prepar- ation and in the equipment of our own military forces with the duty for it will be very practical duty of supplying the nations already al war with Germany with the mater ials which they can obtain only from us or by our assistance. They are in the field and.we should help them in every way to be effective there. T shall take the liberty of sug. gesting, through the several executive departments of the government. fol the consideration of your committees measures for the accomplish 'nent of the several objects have mentioned. hope that 1t will be your pie asure te deal with them as having been framed after very careful thought by the branch of the government upon which the responsibility of conducting the war and safeguarding the nation will most directly fall.