Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1917 — CONGRESS TOLD THAT WAR EXISTS [ARTICLE]

CONGRESS TOLD THAT WAR EXISTS

President Urges Cooperation With the Entente Allies. WANTS AN ARMY OF 500,000 Based on the Universal Service Plan With the Second 500,000 Held in Reserve. Washington, D. C., April 2.—President Wilson tonight urged congress, assembled in joint session, to declare a state of war existing between the United States and Germany. In a dispassionate but ured denunciation of the course of the imperial German government, which he characterized as a challenge to all mankind and A warfare against all nations, the President declared that neutrality no longer was feasible or desirable where the peace of the world was involved; that armed neutrality had become ineffectual enough at best and was likely to produce what it was meant to prevent, and urged that congress accept the gauge of battle with all the resources of the nation. “I advise that the congress declare the recent course of the imperial German government to be in fact nothfng less than war against the government and people of the United States,” said the President, “that it formally accept the status of belligerent which has thus been thrust -upon it and take 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.” When the President had finished speaking resolutions to declare a state of war existing were duced in both houses of congress, referred to appropriate committees and will be debated tomorrow. There is no doubt of their passage. The objects of the United States

in entering the war, the President said, were to vindicate the principles of peace and justice against "selfish and autocratic power,” Without selfish ends, for conquest or dominion, seeking no indemnities or material compensations for the sacrifices it shall make, the United States must enter the war, the President said, to make the * world safe for democracy, as only one of the champions of the rights of mankind, and would be satisfied when those rights were as secure as the faith and freedom of nations could make them. The President’s address was sent in full to Germnay by a German official news agency for publication in that country. The text also went to England and a summary of its contents was sent around the world to other nations. To carry on an effective warfare

against the- German government, which 'he characterized as - a “natural foe to liberty,” the President recommended: Utmost practical co-operation in counsel and action with the governments already at war with Germany. ' Extension of liberal financial credits to thosa governments, so that the resources bf America may be added, so far ap possible, to theirs. Organization and mobilization of all the material resources of the country. * Full equipment of the navy, particularly for mea;ißr>o.f dealing with submarine warfare. An army of at least 500,000 men, based on the principle of universal, liability to service and the authorization of additional increments of 500,000 when they are needed or-can be handled in training. • •* Raising necessary money for- the United States government,. .. so far as possible without borrowing and on the basm of equitable taxation. All preparations, the President urged, should be made in such a way, sp as not to check the flow of war supplies to nations already in the field against Germany. Measures to -accomplish all these ends, the President told congress, : would be .presented • with the best thought of the executive depart-' ments which will bo charged with the conduct of the war and he besought consideration for them in that light. While the President was speaking, word of the torpedoing without warning of the, American steamer Aztec, the first American armed ship to be .attacked in the barred zone, was passed from mouth to mouth, but the President did not know of it until he had finished.

While congress works on the war resolution the cabinet will hold a war session to which Major General Scott, chief of staff of the army, and Admiral Benson, chief of operations, of the navy, may be invited. Meanwhile, many days of hurried preparation for the eventuality which now confronts the nation have borne their fruit and remain only to be carried further. The nation is on a war footing, declaring war upon no other; only girding itself to take up the gauntlet that had been so ruthlessly thrown down. It is made plain that our entrance into the war drama is not prompted by hope of gain, ambition, or lust of conquest. The President even goes so far as to renounce all thought of indemnity when peace terms are concluded. Whatever contribution the United States may make in the way of life and treasure and sacrifice is given I freely in behalf of humanity and world order. The high purpose that actuates the nation is set forth with clearness in the following excerpts, which, taken in connection with the discussion of conditions in Russia, may be interpreted as sounding the knell of monarchial rule as an important factor in world affairs;

“Our object * * * is to vindicate the principles of peace and the justice in the lief of the world against selfish and autocratic power and to set up amongst the really free and self-governed peoples of the world such a concern of purpose and of actions as will henceforth ensure the observance of these principles. Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peacs of the world is involved and the freedom of their peoples ariji the menace to that peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic governments backed by organized force which is controlled wholly by their will, not by the will of their people. We have seen the last of neutrality in such circumstances. “We are at the beginning of an age in which it will be insisted that the same standards of canduct and* of responsibility for wrong done shall be observed among nations and their governments that are observed among the individual citizens of civilized states.

“We have no quarrel with the German people. We have no feeling towards them, but one of sympathy and friendship. It was not upon their impulse Jhat their government acted in entering this war. It was not with their previous knowledge or approval. . “It was a war determined upon as wars used to be determined upon in the old unhappy days when peoples were nowhere consulted by their rulers and wars were pro-, voked and waged in the interest of dynasties or of little groups of ambitious men who were accustomed to use their fellow-men as pawns and tools.’*