The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-04-03

ting our character aud our mo-
tiveS as a nation. We must put
excited feeling away. Our motive
will not be revenge or. the victor
ious assertion of the physical
might Of the nation, but only a
vindication of right, of human
right, of which we are only
single champion.
when I advised the Congress
on the 26th of February last I
thought it would suffice to assert
our neutral rights with arms, our
right to use the seas against I'M,
lawful interference, our right to
keep our people safe against I'M
lawful violence. But armed neu-
trality. it now appears, is i'm
practicable. liz
Because submarines are in eff
feet outlaws when used as the
German submarines have been
used against merchant shipping,
it is impossible to defend ships
against their attacks as the law of
nations has assumed that mer-
chantmen would defend them
selves against privateers or crui-
sers, visible craft giving chase up
on the open sea.
''It is common prudence in such
circumstances, grim necessity in
deed, 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 de-
MES 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 neu-
trality 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 was meant
to prevent; is practically certain
to draw us into the war without
either the rights or the effective
ness of helligerents. n
There is one choice we cannot
ing; we will not choose the path
Of submission and suffer the most
sacred rights Of our nation and
our people to be ignored or vio-
lated. The wrongs against, which
we now array ourselves are not
common wrongs; they cut to the
very roots of human life.
with profound sense of the
solemn and even tragical charac-
ter of the step am taking and of
the grave responsibilities which it
involves, but in unhesitating Obe-
dience to what / deem my con-
6titutionaI duty, 1 advise that the
Congress declare the recent course
of the Imperial German govern
ment 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 it and that it
take immediate steps not only to
put the country in more thor
ough state of defense, but also to
exert all it's power and employ all
it's resources to bring. the gov
eminent of the German Empire
to terms and end the war.
what this will involve is clear.
It will involveN the utmost prac-
ticabIe 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
possible, be added to theirs. 1t
will involve the organization and
mobilization of all the material
resources of the country to sup
ply, the materials Of war and
serve the incidental needs of a
nation in the most abundant, and
yet the most economical and eff
ficient way possible.
cit will involve the immediate
full equipment of the navy in all
respects, but particularly in sup
plying it with the best means of
dealing with the enemy's subma-
rines. It will involve the imme-
date addition to the armed forces
Of the United States already pro-
yided for by law, in case of war.
at least 5OO,00O men, who should
I'm my opinion, be chosen upon the
principle of universal liability to
service, and also the authorize
ton of subsequent additional in
crements of equal force SO soon as
they may be needed and can be
handled in training.
cit will involve also, of course,
the, granting of adequate credits
to the government, sustained, I
hope, SO far as they can equitably
be sustained, by the present gen.
Grafton, by we'll conceived taxa
ton. say sustained so far as
may be equitable by taxation be-
cause it seems to me that it would
be most unWise to base the credits