Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights Part 50

"Just because we fight without rancour and without selfish object, seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to share with all free people, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our operations as belligerents without pa.s.sion and ourselves observe with proud punctilio the principles of right and of fair play we profess to be fighting for.

UNDISGUISED WARFARE.

"I have said nothing of the Governments allied with the Imperial Government of Germany because they have not made war upon us or challenged us to defend our right and our honor. The Austro-Hungarian Government has, indeed, avowed its unqualified indors.e.m.e.nt and acceptance of the reckless and lawless submarine warfare adopted now without disguise by the Imperial German Government, and it has, therefore, not been possible for this Government to receive Count Tarnowski, the Amba.s.sador recently accredited to this Government by the Imperial and Royal Government of Austria-Hungary; but that Government has not actually engaged in warfare against citizens of the United States on the seas, and I take the liberty, for the present at least, of postponing a discussion of our relations with the authorities at Vienna.

We enter this war only where we are clearly forced into it because there are no other means of defending our rights.

"It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as belligerents in a high spirit of right and fairness because we act without animus, not in enmity toward a people or with the desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon them, but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible Government which has thrown aside all considerations of humanity and of right and is running amuck.

"We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of the German people, and shall desire nothing so much as the early re-establishment of intimate relations of mutual advantage between us, however hard it may be for them, for the time being, to believe that this is spoken from our hearts.

"We have borne with their present Government through all these bitter months because of that friends.h.i.+p, exercising a patience and forbearance which would otherwise have been impossible. We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friends.h.i.+p in our daily att.i.tude and actions toward the millions of men and women of German birth and native sympathy who live among us and share our life, and we shall be proud to prove it toward all who are in fact loyal to their neighbors and to the Government in the hour of test.

TRUE AND LOYAL AMERICANS.

"They are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans as if they had never known any other fealty or allegiance. They will be prompt to stand with us in rebuking and restraining the few who may be of a different mind and purpose.

"If there should be disloyalty it will be dealt with with a firm hand of stern repression; but if it lifts its head at all it will lift it only here and there, and without countenance except from a lawless and malignant few.

"It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen of the Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great, peaceful people into war--into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance.

"But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts--for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.

"To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. G.o.d helping her, she can do no other."

While all the world knew that an actual state of war had existed between the two countries for months, the resolution declaring war as adopted by Congress on the plea of President Wilson and signed by the President shortly after 1 o'clock on the afternoon of April 6, 1917--Good Friday--was as follows:

"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

A WAR RESOLUTION.

"Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress a.s.sembled, that the state 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."

Immediately President Wilson issued a proclamation in which he called upon the people of the country to co-operate and give their support, pointing out the necessity for doing things other than putting men upon the firing line. And in his brief proclamation he outlined the entire comprehensive plan which, within a few months, was well under way.

The placing of the navy upon a war footing; the creating and equipping of an adequate army; the supplying of s.h.i.+ps; creating of loans; the financing of the Allies; the conservation of food products; the development of food and material resources; the providing of munitions and supplies for the fighting forces abroad--all of these things were pointed to as necessary in the President's proclamation.

Thus America, which had endeavored to remain neutral during months when Germany was arrogant and insulting, became aligned with the Allies in the struggle which for nearly three years had been waged in Europe.

NEGOTIATIONS CARRIED ON.

The negotiations between this country and Germany over the question of submarine warfare as affecting the lives of non-combatants and the rights of neutrals on the high seas in time of war had been carried on for two years. They had their origin on February 10, 1915, when, following the German announcement of February 4 that "the waters around Great Britain and Ireland, including the whole English Channel, are declared a war zone on and after February 18, 1915," William J. Bryan, then Secretary of State, sent the "strict accountability" note to Berlin.

Through successive stages the exchange of diplomatic papers continued, with growing feeling on both sides, because of the acts of German submarines, until the torpedoing of the cross-Channel steamer Suss.e.x, on March 24, 1916, when the lives of twenty-five American citizens were imperiled and several suffered bodily injuries or shock. This attack resulted in the "Suss.e.x note," or so-called "ultimatum" to Germany.

The Suss.e.x note, signed by Secretary Lansing, and sent to Germany April 19, 1916, concluded with the following declaration:

"Unless the Imperial Government should now immediately declare and effect an abandonment of its present methods of submarine warfare against pa.s.senger and freight-carrying vessels, the Government of the United States can have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the German Empire altogether."

QUESTIONS GERMANY'S RIGHT.

The first American note to the Imperial Government, of February 10, 1915, disputed the right of Germany to declare such a war zone as it had announced the week before, and contended for the international procedure of "visit and search" before attack on or capture of a neutral vessel.

It embodied this phrase:

"If such a deplorable situation should arise (wanton destruction of an American s.h.i.+p) the Imperial German Government can readily appreciate that the Government of the United States would be constrained to hold the Imperial German Government to a strict accountability for such acts of their naval authorities and to take any steps it might be necessary to take to safeguard American lives and property and to secure to Americans the full enjoyment of their acknowledged rights on the high seas."

In reply the German Government sent a note under date of February 16, 1915, setting forth that the war zone proclamation was in reprisal for the "blockade" of Great Britain and that if "at the eleventh hour" the United States should prevail upon Germany's enemies to abandon their methods of maritime warfare, Germany would modify its order. It charged misuse of neutral flags and the arming of merchant s.h.i.+ps by Great Britain.

On February 20, in an identic note to Germany and Great Britain, the American Government suggested that both Powers cease their illegal activities. Such an agreement this Government proposed as a "modus vivendi" giving opportunity for further discussion of the points in controversy. Berlin accepted this note as "new evidence of the friendly feelings of the American Government," but reserved a "definite statement" of the position of the Imperial Government until it learned "what obligations the British Government are on their part willing to a.s.sume."

Subsequently, on March 28, the British steams.h.i.+p Falaba was sunk, with the loss of 163 lives, including one American. On April 28 the American steams.h.i.+p Cus.h.i.+ng was attacked by an aeroplane, and on May 1 the American tanker Gulflight was attacked by a submarine and three United States citizens were lost.

On May 1, also, the German Emba.s.sy at Was.h.i.+ngton caused to be inserted in many of the leading American newspapers the now famous advertis.e.m.e.nt warning Americans and others from taking pa.s.sage on the Cunard liner Lusitania, intimating that it would be attacked. This was the day the Lusitania sailed on her ill-fated voyage. A number of the prominent pa.s.sengers received personal notes when they reached the pier, advising them not to go, but most of them scouted the thought of danger.

SUBMARINE ISSUE AND DIPLOMACY.

After the sinking of the Lusitania, on May 7, off Fastnet, Ireland, with the loss of more than 1100 persons, among them 115 Americans, the submarine issue a.s.sumed a large and gravely important place in the realm of diplomacy.

The acc.u.mulation of cases affecting Americans was taken up in the first "Lusitania note" to Germany, which was dispatched May 15, 1915. It characterized the attacks on the Falaba, Cus.h.i.+ng, Gulflight and Lusitania as "a series of events which the United States has observed with growing concern, distress and amazement." It pointed to Germany's. .h.i.therto expressed "humane and enlightened att.i.tude" in matters of international right, and expressed the hope that submarine commanders engaged in torpedoing peaceful s.h.i.+ps without warning were in such practice operating without the sanction of their Government. The note closed with these words:

"The Imperial German Government will not expect the Government of the United States to omit any word or act necessary to the performance of its sacred duty of maintaining the rights of the United States and its citizens and of safeguarding their free exercise and enjoyment."

On May 28, 1915, Germany replied with a note which covered a wide range of argument and was in every respect unsatisfactory. It alleged that the Lusitania had masked guns aboard; that she in effect was a British auxiliary cruiser; that she carried munitions of war; that her owning company, aware of the damages she risked in the submarine war zone, was in reality responsible for the loss of American lives, and referred to the fact that the British Admiralty had offered large rewards to s.h.i.+p captains who rammed or destroyed submarines.

PROMISED TO PAY DAMAGES.

The note met none of the contentions of the United States so far as the Lusitania and Falaba incidents were concerned, although a supplementary note did acknowledge that Germany was wrong in the attacks on the Cus.h.i.+ng and the Gulflight, expressed regret for these two cases and promised to pay damages. While the American reply to the note was being framed dissension in the Cabinet resulted in the resignation of Secretary Bryan, who contended for a policy of warning Americans off belligerent s.h.i.+ps. He resigned because he thought he could not sign the next note to Germany, which he feared would lead the United States into war.

Meanwhile several sensational incidents cropped up in connection with the negotiations, chief of which was the sending of a message to the Berlin Foreign Office by Doctor Dumba, the Austrian Amba.s.sador, afterward recalled at the request of President Wilson, which was represented as stating substantially that Mr. Bryan had intimated to the Amba.s.sador that the vigorous tone of the American notes should not be regarded in Berlin as too warlike.

Secretary Lansing took office as Mr. Bryan's successor, and his reply to the German note took issue with every contention Germany had set up in the Falaba and Lusitania cases, denied flatly the contention that the Lusitania was armed or was to be treated as other than a peaceful merchant s.h.i.+p.

The note averred that the declaration of a submarine war zone could not abbreviate the rights of Americans on lawful journeys, and added: "The Government of the United States therefore very earnestly and solemnly renews the representations of its note transmitted to the Imperial German Government on May 15, and relies in these representations upon the principles of humanity, the universally recognized understandings of international law and the ancient friends.h.i.+p of the German nation."

JAGOW'S EVASIVE ANSWER.

To that note Germany did not reply until July 8, and the German rejoinder was preponderately characterized by American newspapers not as a note, but as an address by Foreign Minister von Jagow to the American people. In official circles it was said to come no nearer to meeting the American contentions than did the former German note.

The nature of the reply was regarded officially as convincing evidence that Germany was holding the submarine warfare negotiations as a club over the United States to force this Government into some action to compel Great Britain to relax the food blockade. President Wilson steadfastly refused to permit the diplomatic negotiations of the United States with one belligerent to become entangled with the relations with another.

To that the United States replied on July 21 that the German note was "very unsatisfactory," because it failed to meet "the real differences between the two Governments." The United States, it declared, was keenly disappointed with Germany's att.i.tude. Submarine attacks without warning, endangering Americans and other neutrals, were characterized as illegal and inhuman and manifestly indefensible. The German retaliation against the British blockade, it maintained, must not interfere with the rights of neutrals, which the note declared were "based upon principles, not expediency, and the principles are immutable." It declared that the United States would continue to contend for the freedom of the seas "from whatever quarter violated, without compromise and at any cost."

The American note concluded with these words of warning: