No more thrilling scene was ever witnessed in Congress than the one now seen. The only persons who did not join in storms of applause that broke out at frequent intervals were the Entente and neutral diplomats who were restrained by official etiquette from cheering, and Senators La Follette of Wisconsin, Stone of Missouri, and Lane of Oregon, three of the "wilful men" who, by filibustering on March 4 in the previous Congress, had helped to defeat the Armed Neutrality Bill. Visitors in the galleries, who are ordinarily prohibited from participating in any demonstration made on the floor of the House, chorused in with ringing patriotic cheers, waved their hand flags vigorously and provided every other form of indorsement that was possible. During the tense thirty-eight minutes occupied by the President in reading his address, there occurred scenes the like of which probably had never been seen in any modern legislative chamber. No one could have fully realized that the nation still had two political parties. Observers felt that the President, while reading his address, did not know how thoroughly the whole country not only sympathized with him in the great crisis, but voiced its sincere determination to support him, until he had heard the cheers that greeted a later passage as he delivered it slowly, almost haltingly at times, but with deep emphasis, as follows:

"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."

After the President had completed his address, Senator Lodge went forward and shook his hand warmly, saying: "Mr. President, you have exprest in the loftiest manner possible the sentiments of the American people." Every one of the Supreme Court Judges rose to his feet. Chief Justice

White smiled and vigorously clapped his hands, as did Justices Pitney and Clarke. As Lincoln said that this Republic could not exist half slave and half free, so in this issue had men perceived that the world could not exist half German and half free. We, as well as the Entente, had now for our task to put an end to the barbarous doctrine of a superior race and to the assertion that German necessity was above all law. For thirty-two months German armies had been

OUTSIDE THE MANSION HOUSE IN LONDON

Here the American flag was put out alongside the British soon after we declared war on Germany

going up and down Europe destroying the beautiful, abusing the weak, murdering the helpless, transforming some of the most beautiful places and regions in the world into deserts. Germans had harnessed science to barbarism and called it. "Kultur." They had joined organization to ruthlessness and called it "civilization." The United States could not now pause until Poland had been restored, Serbia liberated, Rou

mania freed, Belgium returned to her own people, AlsaceLorraine reunited to France, conspicuous symbols of German tyranny now to be obliterated. All these tyrannies were the handiwork of Germany written on the face of Europe. This country had enlisted, not in a war against the German people, but against a doctrine which the German people held to, and with the German people there could be no peace so long as they held to that doctrine. Our action was regarded as the natural sequence of Lexington.

Berlin, on receipt of the President's address, still declared that there would be no change in the German submarine policy, not even if Congress should adopt the President's views. Germany, moreover, would not declare war, nor would she take any step to wage war against the United States. The submarine war would be continued, as it had been conducted since February 1, but this, officials asserted, was not directed more against the United States than against any other neutral. Nor would there be any change in the treatment of American citizens in Germany, who still had the same freedom as all other neutrals.

A great storm of applause was evoked in the British House of Commons when first mention was made of the address. From the Prime Minister down, all ranks were stirred to the depths. They believed the President had given to Democracy an impetus which would carry it far toward shortening a 'war which was threatening to drag practically the whole world down to the point of ruin. No other subject was discust in the lobby of Parliament. The United States had gained immensely in prestige, had won a lasting friend and would now have a seat at the peace table. Her voice would be heard in all the Allied councils over postwar trade relations. All agreed that the war had been greatly shortened-not so much by the material assistance America would give, important as that was, as by the blow she had given to the morale of the German people. To Frenchmen, America's intervention appeared as the third big Allied event of the war. The battle of the Marne was the first; the Russian revolution was the second, and America's action the third. It was even greater than the stand made by France at Verdun.

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German papers commented on the message bitterly. The Hamburger Fremdenblatt, in a leading article, described it. as "opening in untruth, continuing in hypocrisy, and ending in blasphemy." The Berlin Morgen Post remarked that "just as the whole policy of this professor was insincere, insidious, and malicious from the beginning, so also was this speech with which he tried to plunge and had plunged his people into war." Perhaps no part of the message caused greater annoyance to the German press than the careful differentiation made between America's hostility to the German Government as distinct from its hostility to the German people. The semi-official Berlin Lokal-Anzeiger thought it "impossible that the ruler of a nation who has at his disposal the reports of his Ambassador and numerous other sources of information regarding the events of the early part of August, 1914, in Berlin, should really believe that this war was not begun with the assent of the German people." The Hannoverische Courier was inclined to doubt the President's veracity, and even went so far as to suggest a similar thought to its readers by heading its editorial "Wilson Lies." It remarked that the President "concealed his wolf nature in a sheep's clothing of peace." His acts and notes "always breathed so much hypocrisy and love of misrepresentation that it was not difficult to recognize his spiritual kinship to Great Britain.” His declaration of war was "alike dishonorable, impudent, and stupid." The Kölnische Zeitung thought us "less dangerous as an open enemy than as a neutral." It expected no results because "the American army is not sufficient even to defeat Mexico." The American declaration was "nothing but a gigantic bluff designed to save the sinking British friend, and the billions. with which the Entente horse has been backed.” The organ

of the Krupp firm, the Essen Rheinisch-Westfalische Zeitung, thought the war would be over before our troops could appear on the scene, altho if we should arrive in time a cordial welcome was assured us. Fresh ship-loads of ammunition. could not go from America to England "because submarines bar the way." New American gold would be thrown into the scales, "but we counter with a war-loan." The American fleet could not perform what the so-called ocean-dominat

ing British fleet had been unable to achieve. Submarines would continue "to hold England by the throat." A common remark among Germans was that America had only "a wooden sword."

Captain Persius, however, writing in the Berlin Tageblatt, criticized those who treated America's entry into the war lightly. "It would be a fatal mistake," he said, "to regard America's economic strength as the only important factor for an enemy." The military strength of the United States was not to be "met with a shrug of the shoulders." Otherwise Germany would "make the same mistake as we did about the military strength of Britain." Otto Hoetsch, a prominent political writer, in the Kreuz Zeitung, contended that Germany had a perfect right to make her own international law as far as submarines are concerned, and also in regard to neutrals, for whose future interests Germany was fighting. He charged that America had never been neutral from the beginning of the war, which would have been over long before if America had not abetted the Entente. Germany, in trying to avoid a conflict, had "played into the hands of her opponents." He blamed the

German Embassy in Washington for this. It was "the weakest spot in the whole diplomatic service." Apart from its glaring mistakes, the Embassy "lacked an understanding of American psychology, the best proof of this being the failure of the whole German propaganda." The writer declared that it was "to the Kaiser's lasting merit that he made every effort to hold America's friendship.' As for the German-Americans, they "must realize that the Fatherland had been deeply disappointed in them.

The Volks Zeitung, of Cologne, after abusing President Wilson, declared that Germany was "entitled to a thumping war indemnity from America, since other States, which had sacrificed immense sums, would be unable to pay it." Therefore, America, "which has earned thousands and millions through munitions and supplies, will have to unbutton its pockets." The Frankfurter Zeitung freely admitted that "saber rattling had been to a large extent the cause of world-wide hostility toward Germany." "History will condemn this deed of a stubborn fanatic," said the semi-official