Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1917 — AMERICA’S CAUSE FOR WAR [ARTICLE]

AMERICA’S CAUSE FOR WAR

“The new German policy swept every restriction Aside. Vessels of ev,ery kind, whatever their flag, tbfeir 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 pr >- vided 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 lack • of compassion or of principle. * * * “I 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 noncombatants, men, women and children, engaged in pursuits 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 can not be. The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind.’ ’ —President Wilson.