prevented. A single member can stand in the way of action, if he have but the physical endurance. The result in this case is a complete paralysis alike of the legislative and of the executive branches of the Government. This inability of the Senate to act has rendered some of the most necessary legislation of the session impossible at a time when the need of it was most pressing and most evident. The bill which would have permitted such combinations of capital and of organization in the export and import trade of the country as the circumstances of international competition have made imperative-a bill which the business judgment of the whole country approved and demanded-has failed. The opposition of one or two Senators has made it impossible to increase the membership of the Interstate Commerce Commission to give it the altered organization necessary for its efficiency. The Conservation bill, which should have released for immediate use the mineral resources which are still locked up in the public lands, now that their release is more imperatively necessary than ever, and the bill which would have made the unused water power of the country immediately available for industry have both failed, though they have been under consideration throughout the sessions of two Congresses and have been twice passed by the House of Representatives. The appropriations for the army have failed, along with the appropriations for the civil establishment of the Government, the appropriations for the Military Academy at West Point and the General Deficiency bill. It has proved impossible to extend the powers of the Shipping Board to meet the special needs of the new situations into which our commerce has been forced or to increase the gold reserve of our national banking system to meet the unusual circumstances of the existing financial situation. It would not cure the difficulty to call the Sixty-fifth Congress in extraordinary session. The paralysis of the Senate would remain. The purpose and the spirit of action are not lacking now. The Congress is more definitely united in thought and purpose at this moment, I venture to say, than it has been within the memory of any men now in its membership. There is not only the most united patriotic purpose, but the objects members have in view are perfectly clear and definite. But the Senate cannot act unless its leaders can obtain unanimous consent. Its majority is powerless, helpless. In the midst of a crisis of extraordinary peril, when only definite and decided action can make the nation safe or shield it from war itself by the aggression of others, action is impossible. Although, as a matter of fact, the nation and the representatives of the nation stand back of the Executive with unprecedented unanimity and spirit, the impression made abroad will, of course, be that it is not so and that other Governments may act as they please without fear that this Government can do anything at all. We cannot explain. The explanation is incredible. The Senate of the United States is the only legislative body in the world which cannot act when its majority is ready for action. A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great Government of the United States helpless and contemptible. The remedy? There is but one remedy. The only remedy is that the rules of the Senate shall be so altered that it can act. The country can be relied upon to draw the moral. I believe that the Senate can be relied on to supply the means of action and save the country from disaster. Supplementary Statement At the same time the President authorized the further statement that what rendered the situation even more grave than had been supposed, was the discovery that, while the President under his general constitutional powers could do much of what he had asked Congress to empower him to do, it had been found that there were certain old statutes as yet unrepealed which might raise insuperable practical obstacles and nullify his power. Popular Indignation A wave of indignant protest swept the country. Legislatures of many States passed resolutions denouncing the filibustering Senators and pledging support to the President; mass meetings were held in many cities, and at some places the opposing Senators were hanged in effigy. Telegrams of protest poured in from all parts of America and resolutions of protest were passed by important bodies and associations throughout the country. The Senate had been convened in extra session, as is the custom after the inauguration of the President, to act upon nominations. As soon as the body convened steps were taken to amend the rules so that there could never be a repetition of such a filibuster. An amendment was agreed upon by the Democratic and Republican caucuses, and on March 8 it was adopted by a vote of 76 to 3, the three negative votes being cast by Senators La Follette, Gronna, and Sherman of Illinois. This rule provides that a twothirds vote of the Senators present may bring a measure to a vote, and thereafter each Senator may debate the measure only one hour, when it is to be put upon its passage without any dilatory motions or further debate being in order. This rule is regarded as the most farreaching change in the procedure of the Senate since the organization of our PR Government. The adoption of the rule, as was anticipated, removed all obstacles to the effectiveness of an extra session of Congress, and President Wilson therefore called such a session by proclamation on March 9, summoning the body to meet on April 16, 1917. Sinking of the Laconia and Algonquin RESIDENT WILSON declared in his address of Feb. 3, in which he severed diplomatic relations with Germany, that "only actual overt acts" of German submarines against American citizens and ships on the high seas could change the situation into one of war. The succeeding weeks brought a growing list of acts of that nature. On Feb. 3 the German submarine U-53 sank the American freight steamer Housatonic, bound from Galveston to Liverpool with grain. On Feb. 12 the American sailing schooner Lyman M. Law, en route with lumber from Maine to Italy, was destroyed by a submarine off the coast of Sardinia. Five Norwegian steamers with Americans on board were sunk without adequate warning in the next ten days. The first American to perish by submarine attack after the break with Germany was Robert A. Haden, a missionary, traveling from China on the French steamer Athos, which was carrying Senegalese troops and colonial laborers. The Athos was torpedoed 210 miles east of Malta on Feb. 17. Mr. Haden perished while trying to aid the Chinese on board. Two American members of the crew of the British bark Calgorm Castle were reported lost after the torpedoing of that vessel in British waters on Feb. 27. The Laconia Disaster A far graver case, however, occurred at 10:30 o'clock Sunday night, Feb. 27, when the Cunard liner Laconia, 18,000 tons burden, carrying seventy-three passengers-men, women, and children-of whom six were American citizensmanned by a mixed crew of 216, bound from New York to Liverpool and loaded with foodstuffs, cotton, and war material, was torpedoed without warning by a German submarine 150 miles off the Irish coast. The vessel sank in about forty minutes. Twelve persons perished in the bitter weather before the survivors in open boats were rescued by British patrol vessels. Two of the dead were American citizens-Mrs. Mary E. Hoy and her daughter, Miss Elizabeth Hoy, of Chicago. Both were in a lifeboat that was swamped, and, though taken into another open boat, they died of exposure and were buried at sea. The Rev. Dunstan Sargent of Grenada, British West Indies, a passenger on the Laconia, who administered the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church to seven persons who perished, gave the following account of tragic events in his boat: "Mrs. Hoy died in the arms of her daughter. Her body slipped off into the sea out of her daughter's weakened arms. The heartbroken daughter succumbed a few minutes afterward, and her body fell over the side of the boat as we were tossed by the huge waves. "In icy water up to her knees for two hours, the daughter all the time bravely supported her aged mother, uttering words of encouragement to her. From the start both were violently seasick, which, coupled with the cold and exposure, gradually wore down their courage. They were brave women. "The first to die in our boat was W. Irvine Robinson of Toronto. After his body had been consigned to the sea we tossed about for an hour, getting more and more water until the gunwales were almost level with the sea. Then Cedric P. Ivatt of London, who was not physically strong, succumbed in the arms of his fiancée, who was close beside him, trying in vain to keep him warm by throwing her wealth of hair about his neck. Even after he died she refused to give him up, and, although the additional weight made the situation more dangerous for us all, we yielded to her pitiful pleading and allowed her to keep the body. It was taken aboard the rescuing patrol, from which it was buried. "The Hoys were the next to pass away after Mr. Ivatt. Then a fireman died, and later two others of the crew who were too thinly clad to resist exposure. Altogether, we were in the boat ten hours. We were rescued in the middle of the morning." Word Picture of Scene One of the survivors, Floyd P. Gibbons, has placed on record this picture of the last moments of the Laconia: The torpedo had struck at 10:30 P. M., according to our ship's time. It was thirty minutes afterward that another dull thud, which was accompanied by a noticeable drop in the hulk, told its story of the second torpedo that the submarine had dispatched through the engine room and the boat's vitals from a distance of 200 yards. We watched silently during the next minute, as the tiers of lights dimmed slowly from white to yellow, then to red, and nothing was left but the murky mourning of the night, which hung over all like a pall. A mean, cheese-colored crescent of a moon revealed one horn above a rag bundle of clouds low in the distance. A rim of blackness settled around our little world, relieved only by general leering stars in the zenith, and where the Laconia's lights had shown there remained only the dim outlines of a blacker hulk standing out above the water like a jagged headland, silhouetted against the overcast sky. The ship sank rapidly at the stern until at last its nose stood straight in the air. Then it slid silently down and out of sight like a piece of disappearing scenery in a panorama spectacle. As the vessel was sinking, the submarine that had done the deed suddenly rose out of the sea within a few feet of a boatload of passengers, and a German voice demanded the name of the ship, its tonnage and cargo, and the whereabouts of the Captain. When he had received civil answers the German commander remarked: “Well, you'll be all right. A British patrol will soon pick you up. Good night!" Then he and his ship vanished, and the lifeboats full of shivering victims were left weltering on the empty sea until picked up the next morning by patrol boats. The sinking of the Laconia furnished the overt act which the President had indicated would call for a more vigorous policy, but it rested with Congress to determine the extent of the warlike step to be taken. On Feb. 28 President Wilson made public the following cablegram which he had received from Austin Y. Hoy, whose mother and sister had perished through the act of a German submarine: I am an American citizen, representing the Sullivan Machinery Company of Chicago, living abroad, not as an expatriate, but for the promotion of American trade. I love the flag. believing in its significance. My beloved mother and sister, passengers on the Laconia, have been foully murdered on the high seas. As an American citizen outraged and as such fully within my rights and as an American son and brother bereaved, I call upon my Government to preserve its citizens' self-respect and save others of my countrymen from such deep grief as I now feel. I am of military age, able to fight. If my country can use me against these brutal assassins, I am at its call. If it stultifies my manhood and my nation's by remaining passive under outrage, I shall seek a man's chance under another flag. German Government officials regarded the Laconia case as the climax of the situation, and expected the United States to act, but added that there "could be no going back" in their submarine policy. Sinking of the Algonquin The next act seriously affecting the relations of the two countries was the sinking of the American steamship Algonquin, bound from New York to London with foodstuffs. The Algonquin was attacked without warning at 6 o'clock on Monday morning, March 12, by a German submarine, which sank her with shellfire and bombs. After twenty-seven hours in open boats the crew of twentysix men reached Scilly. Captain A. Nordberg gave the following account of the event: Just after daylight I was on the bridge. It was the mate's watch. I saw two steamers, apparently colliers, steaming west, one on the starboard and the other on the port side. Two minutes later the mate called my attention to another object and at once I said, "I think that is a submarine." The submarine was about three miles distant, as were also the steamers. Immediately I saw a flash of a gun and a shell fell short. At once I stopped the engines and then went full speed astern, indicating this by three blasts on the whistle. The submarine kept on firing, the fourth shot throwing up a column of water which drenched me and the man at the wheel. It was a close thing. The fifth shot struck the ship's side and the next went aft. The submarine was using two guns. Twenty shots were fired at us. I ordered the crew to the boats, and we pulled away two ship's lengths. All this time the submarine was firing at us. Some of the shots came very close. Once we were in the boats the Germans ceased firing and the submarine dived. Later we saw the periscope, which circled the Algonquin half a dozen times. Then, finding her abandoned, the submarine came to the surface and a boat's crew boarded the steamer. The first thing done was to lower the American flag. Then I concluded they were going to sink my ship. Ten minutes after I heard the crackle of an explosion and saw smoke. They had blown the ship up with bombs. In fifteen minutes the Algonquin had sunk. The submarine was flying the German ensign. Her commander asked me the name, nationality, destination, and cargo of the ship, which had the American colors painted on her side and flew the American flag day and night. I asked him to tow us toward land, but he refused, saying: "I'm too busy. I expect a couple of other steamers." The Algonquin, as it happened, changed owners after its departure from New York, but the fact was unknown alike to the Captain and crew and to the German submarine commander. Fourteen members of the crew were Americans, and Captain Nordberg was a Norwegian who had become a naturalized American citizen. Ships Armed by Presidential Proclamation RESIDENT WILSON issued PRE on March 9 the proclamation calling Congress in extra session April 16, 1917, without specifying any particular purpose, but the following statement announcing the President's determination to arm merchant vessels was given out at the White House: Secretary Tumulty stated in connection with the President's call for an extra session of Congress that the President is convinced that he has the power to arm American merchant ships and is free to exercise it at once. But so much necessary legislation is pressing for consideration that he is convinced that it is for the best interests of the country to have an early session of the Sixty-fifth Congress, whose support he will also need in all matters collateral to the defense of our merchant marine. The President decided to act at once, and on March 12 formal notice was given to the world of this decision. The following statement, prepared by Secretary of State Lansing, after a conference with President Wilson, was sent out by the State Department on the 12th to all members of the Diplomatic Corps in Washington: In view of the announcement of the Imperial German Government of Jan. 31, 1917, that all ships, those of neutrals included, met within certain zones of the high seas would be sunk without any precautions being taken for the safety of the persons on board, and without the exercise of visit and search, the Government of the United States has de termined to place upon all American merchant vessels sailing through the barred areas an armed guard for the protection of the vessels and the lives of the persons on board. Legal Basis of Action In arriving at the decision that he had legal authority to furnish armament to merchantmen President Wilson was guided by the advice of both Secretary Lansing and Attorney General Gregory. Mr. Lansing had had no doubt from the first of the President's power to take means for the defense of American ships and American lives on the seas. Others thought, however, that a law enacted in 1819 prohibited the President from permitting any merchant vessel of American register to use force against the ships of a nation with which the United States was not actually and officially at war. This law specified that armed merchant vessels should not use their guns against national vessels of a Government with which the United States was in amity. Secretary Lansing held that this statute had been enacted with particular reference to protection against pirates, and that it had no application whatever to the present situation. It could not properly be construed, he contended, to apply to the use of arms by an American merchant vessel to protect itself against the unlawful attack of a German submarine. To make assurance doubly sure President Wilson referred the question of the interpretation of the law to Attorney General Gregory, who sustained the Secretary of State, holding that the law of 1819 had reference to conditions when the seas were infested with piratical craft, and was not a bar to a ship protecting herself from the effort of a German submarine to sink her without warning. The President, therefore, felt that no occasion existed for postponing the issuance of an order to furnish Government armament to merchant vessels. Although the Armed Ship bill, which failed of passage in the Senate, provided for a bond issue of $100,000,000 to pay the expenses of armed neutrality, the Government has sufficient money available for its immediate purposes. gress will be asked to provide more when the extra session convenes. Crux of the Situation Con Under a bill passed during the last days of the last Congress, the funds at the disposal of the Federal War Risk Bureau to insure American ships was increased to $15,000,000. Armed neutrality is expected to remove the practical blockade of American ports and place the issue of eventual war squarely upon Germany. An attack upon an armed American vessel would precipitate a fight if the ship got sight of the submarine, and an unwarned attack would be regarded by the United States as an act of war. Germany and Austria both have declared armed merchantmen war vessels. These declarations were based largely, however, upon the charge that British merchant ships used their armament offensively, and it remains to be seen whether Germany will so class and treat American craft with defensive arms. The whole German press comment and unofficial utterances since the question was raised in this country have indicated the conviction that any armed vessel should be considered hostile and sunk in the same way as a belligerent war vessel. There has been no official expression on the subject. The guns defending American merchantmen will be in charge of gunners belonging to the United States Navy. The official instructions to these men have not been made public, but reliable correspondents have asserted with an air of authority that in view of the warnings by the German Government, the discovering of a submarine in the war zone by an armed ship would presuppose that it had hostile intent, and that it would be fired upon on sight. German official opinion as quoted by the German press asserts that the firing upon a German submarine by an armed American merchantman would be regarded by that country as an act of war. The Secretary of the Navy issued a formal request to American newspapers and news agencies to refrain from publishing the departure of any American ships from American or foreign ports, and to exclude any information regarding the arming of ships. It is known that six-inch guns were placed upon a large number of American ships in the week ended March 17, 1917, and it was understood that several large freighters and at least one American passenger liner, fully equipped fore and aft with six-inch guns, left American ports for the barred zone during the week named. No official announcement of the sailings was permitted. Armed neutrality became the status of the United States the moment the first merchant ship under the American flag put to sea with a gun mounted for defense. President Wilson clearly forecast this fact in his address to Congress on Feb. 26. Writers on international law have held that armed neutrality consisted in placing the country in a position to defend itself and its neutrality against threatened attacks or inroads by belligerents. This state of preparedness may last an indefinite length of time, through good fortune in avoiding contact with belligerent forces afloat or ashore, or through the design of the belligerent to confine its declaration of purpose to infringe the neutrality of a country to mere threats unsupported by action. On the other hand, the status of armed neutrality |