CHAPTER XVII THE DECLARATION OF WAR On the 2d day of April, 1917, President Wilson appeared before the Congress of the United States and, after setting forth the lawless actions of the Imperial German Government and the impossibility of protecting the lives and property of his fellow countrymen engaged in pursuits which have always, "even in the darkest periods of modern history, been deemed innocent and legitimate," advised the Congress of the United States, in which body the power to declare war is vested by the Constitution, to declare the existence of a state of war between the Imperial German Government and the United States, saying: With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of the step I am taking and of the grave responsibilities which it involves, but in unhesitating obedience to what I deem my constitutional duty, I 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 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.' On the 6th day of April, 1917, the Congress, after grave deliberation and with a full sense of the responsibility which it would thus assume, declared a state of war to exist between the Imperial German Government and the United States, in the following terms: Whereas the Imperial German Government has committed repeated acts of war against the Government and the people of the United States of America: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state 1 Congressional Record, vol. 55, No. 1, p. 3. of war between the United States and the Imperial German Government which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and that the President be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial German Government; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.' What were the reasons which caused the President of the United States to advise the Congress to declare the existence of a state of war between the Imperial German Government and the United States; what were the reasons which caused the Congress to act upon the advice of the President to declare the existence of a state of war between the two countries; and what are the consequences which the President, the Congress, and the people of the United States consider as likely to follow from this state of war and its effective prosecution? We do not need to speculate as to the reasons, for the President himself has stated them, and if he had not they would be sufficiently in evidence, as the actions of Germany since the first day of August, 1914, in so far as the United States is concerned, speak louder than words; and we do not need to indulge in prophecy in order to forecast the consequences of this declaration on behalf of the United States, for the President himself has stated, in clear and unmistakable terms, that the autocracy which made these acts possible should end with the war. The first part of the President's address deals with the specific acts of the Imperial German Government as causes of the war. The second part deals with the motives and purposes of the United States in entering the war, for while the acts of the Imperial German Government would justify resistance on behalf of the United States, the President wished it clearly to be understood, and therefore he put it plainly, that the motive and purpose in entering the war which had been thrust upon the United States were not merely to secure redress for the loss of property, not even redress for the loss of human life, but to secure the repudiation of the Prussian conception of State and Government, which could force a people to commit such acts, and to secure some form of international organization calculated to guarantee peace among Nations through the administration of justice. 1 Congressional Record, vol. 55, No. 4, p. 183; Public Resolution No. 1, 65th Cong., 1st sess. As far as the United States is concerned, the cause of its war with the Imperial German Government is the submarine, for the disputes of a serious nature and of a kind calculated to produce war between the two Governments related to the conduct of the submarine, which, because Great Britain controlled the seas, was the only form of maritime warfare left to Germany; and Germany was apparently as unwilling to renounce maritime warfare as it was unwilling to allow its surface fleet to put to sea and to give battle to the British Navy. The United States did not object to the employment of the submarine. It recognized it as a vessel of war, possessed of all the rights of a vessel of war and subject to all the duties of a vessel of war. But the United States insisted from the beginning that the submarine should conform its actions to the rules of law to which vessels of war were subjected, and that, if it could not or would not conform its actions to such rules, it should not be used; for the law could not be changed to suit the submarine, which should itself be changed to meet the law if it could not, as then constructed, comply with the law as it then stood. The Imperial German Government, on the contrary, insisted that, because of its frailty, the submarine could not comply with the laws and customs of war controlling the acts of surface vessels, that it could not comply with the formalities of visit and search, because, to do so, it would have to comport itself as a surface vessel, and as a surface vessel it would endanger its existence if it approached within gunshot of ordinary surface vessels. The Imperial German Government claimed for the submarine the right to operate under the surface to protect itself from attack, and, thus protected, to attack any vessel approaching it because, under the surface, it could not distinguish the vessel of the enemy from the vessel of a friendly Power. It claimed the right to attack the vessel within range without warning because, if it gave warning, it exposed itself to danger. Finally, it claimed the right to torpedo and thus destroy the vessel without first putting its passengers and crew in a place of safety because the submarine was too small to take them on board. The contention of the United States was that the rules of law controlling the principal should also control the conduct of the agent; the contention of the Imperial German Government was that the rules of law controlling the principal should be subordinated to the convenience of the agent. If matters had rested here the question at issue between the two Governments would have been academic. But matters did not rest here, because the Imperial German Government put its conception of submarine warfare into practice, with the result, as the President informed the Congress in his address of the 2d of April, 1917, that "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 proscribed 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 principle."' In the report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives accompanying the text of the declaration of a state of war with the Imperial German Government, numerous instances are given justifying the President's indictment, and while these instances are but few of the many, they are given as a sample of the indiscriminate submarine warfare of the Imperial German Government. After a brief reference to the diplomatic correspondence between the two Governments, in which Germany stated that instructions had been given "to abstain from all violence against neutral vessels recognizable as such" and that "it is very far indeed from the intention of the German Government ever to destroy neutral lives and neutral property," the official report to which reference has been made continues: Nevertheless the German Government proceeded to carry out its plans of submarine warfare and torpedoed the British passenger steamer Falaba on March 27, 1915, when one American life was lost, attacked the American steamer Cushing April 28 by airship, and made submarine attacks upon the American tank steamer Gulflight May 1, the British passenger steamer Lusitania May 7, when 114 American lives were lost, and the American steamer Nebraskan on May 25, in all of which over 125 citizens of the United States lost their lives, not to mention hundreds of noncombatants who were lost and hundreds of Americans and noncombatants whose lives were put in jeopardy. The British mule boat Armenian was torpedoed on June 28, as a result of which twenty Americans are reported missing." Congressional Record, vol. 55, No. 1, p. 2. 2 Ibid., No. 4, p. 191. After a further reference to the diplomatic correspondence, the official report thus proceeds: Subsequently the following vessels carrying American citizens were attacked by submarines: British liner Orduna July 9. Russian steamer Leo July 9. American steamer Leelanaw July 25. British passenger liner Arabic August 19. British steamer Hesperian September 4. In these attacks twenty-three Americans lost their lives, not to mention the large number whose lives were placed in jeopardy." After another reference to diplomatic correspondence, citing German promises, the official report goes on to say: Following this accumulative series of assurances, however, there seems to have been no abatement in the rigor of submarine warfare, for attacks were made in the Mediterranean upon the American steamer Communipaw on December 3, the American steamer Petrolite December 5, the Japanese liner Yasaka Maru December 21, and the passenger liner Persia December 30. In the sinking of The Persia out of a total of some 500 passengers and crew only 165 were saved. Among those lost was an American consul traveling to his post.' After again referring to the correspondence between the two countries, continuing the assurance of the German Government, in the language of the report, "that neutral and enemy merchant vessels, passenger as well as freight ships, should not be destroyed except upon the passengers and crew being accorded safety," the official report thus chronicles the loss of life and property during the year 1916: On March 1, 1916, the unarmed French passenger steamer Patria, carrying a number of American citizens, was attacked without warning. On March 9 the Norwegian bark Silius, riding at anchor in Havre Rhodes, was torpedoed by an unseen submarine, and one of the seven Americans on board was injured. On March 16 the Dutch passenger steamer Tubantia was sunk in the North Sea by a torpedo. On March 16 the British steamer Berwindale was torpedoed without warning off Bantry Island with four Americans on board. On March 24 the British un 1 Congressional Record, vol. 55, No. 4, p. 192. |