Evening star., 1939-09-23

Soys 0ermon kutnIesSnesS
And Not Profits Influenced
The United States
To the Editor Of The Star:
A local columnist in recent article
entitled "A Myth and Law" said:
"The basis Of all the recent clamor for
mandatory neutrality law Is the belief
held by many Americans that the United
States went to war in 1917 because of (a)
the munitions makers; 90 the Wall
Street bankers; (c) British propaganda
and the gullibility of Americans for that
propaganda; Cd the development Of
one-sided wartime trade with the entente
truly neutral, and (e) the allegedly un-
neutral conduct Of President Wilson, Sec
retary Lansing, Ambassador Page and
some other high officials Of the Gov
ernment"
This belief "held by many Americans"
has unfortunately been fostered by state
ments made in magazine articles and by
some members Of the Congress. Since
the armistice new generation of young
men and women has come into being, and
doubtless many of them are influenced
by some, If not all Of the reasons listed,
which probably are accepted without
taking the time or trouble to inform
themselves of the basic cause of entry by
the United States into the World War.
There has been little publicity given to
that cause, and too much publicity to the
supposed causes mentioned in the article
1t seems to me about time to turn to
the record for the particular benefit of
the present generation who were infants
in arms or unborn when the United
States declared war on Germany in
April, 1917. I, therefore, submit the fol-
lowing as setting forth the real and un-
deniable cause of our going into the war:
l. Excerpts from President Wilson's
address to the Congress which resulted
in the declaration of war He said
"" - On the Sd of February last
officially laid before you the extraordi-
nary announcement of the imperial Ger
man government that on and after the
1st day of February it was its purpose to
put aside all restraints of law or Of hui
manity and use its submarines to sink
every vessel that sought to approach
either the ports Of Great Britain and Ire
land or the western coasts of Europe or
any of the ports controlled by the enc
mics of Germany within the Mediter-
ranean 80
80 . The new policy has swept every
restriction aside. Vessels of every kind,
whatever their flag, their character, their
cargo, their destination, their errand,
have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom
without warning and without thought of
help or mercy for those on board, the
vessels of friendly neutrals along with
those OF belligerents. Even hospital ships
and ships carrying relief to the sorely
bereaved and stricken people of Belgium,
though the latter were provided with safe
conduct through the prescribed areas by
the German government itself and were
distinguished by unmistakable marks Of
identity, have been sunk with the same
reckless lack of compassion or of prin-
ciple = -
80 . = When I addressed the Congress
on the 26th Of February last I thought
that it would suffice to assert our neutral
rights with arms, our right to use the
seas against unlawful interference, our
right to keep our people safe against
unlawful violence. 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
publicist has ever before questioned their
right to defend. The intimation is con-
Veyed that the armed guards which we
nave placed on our merchant ships will
be treated as beyond the pale of law and
subject to be dealt with as pirates would
be. There is one choice we cannot
make, We are incapable of making: we
Will not choose the path OF submission
and suffer the most sacred rights of our
Nation and our people to be ignored or
violated. The wrongs against which we
now array ourselves are no common
wrongs; they cut to the very roots of
human life.
@, With profound sense of the solemn
and even tragical character of the stem
am taking and of the grave respon-
slbilltles which it involves, but in un-
hesitating obedience to what 1 deem nv
constitutional duty, advise that the
Congress declare 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 belligerent which has thus
been thrust upon it; and that it take
immediate steps not only to put the
country in more thorough state of de-
tense, 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.
90 We enter this war only where
we are clearly forced into it because
there are no other means of defending
our rights"
2. Excerpts from ar address by ex-
President Taft at Union College, Sche-
nectady, N. Y, on June 13, 1917, two
months after the declaration of war.
Germany has violated that rule.
1t has deliberately caused the death of
men, women and children on the high
seas, under the American flag, and
where they had right to be. Killing
against the law with deliberation is mur-
der and GERMANY has hoep o,,iltv of