Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-04-02


which it is impossible to employ as
it is employing them without throw
ing to the winds all scruples of hu-
manity or of respect of the under
standings that were supposed to un-
derlie the intercourse of the world.
Il am not now thinking of the loss
of property involved. immense and
serious as that is, but only of the
Wanton and wholesale destruction of
the lives of non-com batants, men,
women and children, engaged in pur-
suits which have always, even in the
darkest periods of modern history
been deemed innocent and legitimate
Property can be paid for; the lives of
peaceful and innocent people cannot
be.
Against Mankind
THE present German submarine
warfare against commerce is war
fare against mankind. 1t is a war
against all nations. American ships
have been sunk, American lives taken,
in ways which it has stirred us very
deeply to learn of, but the ships and
people of other neutral and friendly
nations have been sunk and over
whelmed in the waters in the same
way. Therehas been no discrimina-
ton. The challenge is to all mankind.
Each nation must decide for it.
self how it will meet it. The choice we
make for ourselves must be made with
moderation of counsel and a temper
ateness of judgment befitting our char
acter and our motives as a nation. We
must put excited feeling away. Our
motive will not be revenge or the VIC
torious assertion of the physical might
of the nation, but only the vindication
fNf -afrI,f rNFl L. ~l.A
are only a single champion.
when I addressed the Congress on
the twenty-sixth of February last, 1
thought it would suffice to assert our
neutral rights with arms, our right to
use the seas against unlawful interfer-
ence, our right to keep our people
safe against unlawful violence.
But armed neutrality it now ap-
pears is impracticable. Because SUBJ
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 pru-
dence in such circumstances, grim
necessity indeed. to endeavor to de-
stroy 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 it
has prescribed, even in the defense of
rights which no modern publicist has
ever questioned their right to defend.
The intimation is conveyed that the
armed guards which wehave placed on
our merchantships 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 pretensions it is worse
than ineffectual; it is likely once to
produce what 1T was meant to prevent; /;
1t is practically certain to draw us
into the war without either the rights
or the effectiveness of belligerents.
We Will Not Submit
There is one choice we cannot
make, we are incapable of making
We will not choose the oath 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.
Nllh ii DTOlOunu sense Ine
solemn and even tragical character
of the step / am taking and of the
grave responsibilities which 1t in
wolves. but in unhesitating obedience
to what | deem my constitutional
duty, | advise that the Congress de-
clare the recent course of the Inn
perial 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 belligerent which has
thus been thrust upon it and that 1t
take Immediately 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 German
empire to terms and end the war.
U. S. to Cooperate
What this will involve is clear. II
will 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
that our resources may. so far as pos
sible, be added to theirs. 1t will in
volve the organization and mobilizar
tion of all the material resources of