declared with indignation that "a little group of wilful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great Government of the United States helpless and contemptible."

The little group included five, Democrats and seven Republicans. Some of these declared afterward that they were not opposed to the passage of a bill permitting the President to arm ships, but that they were opposed to certain provisions of the bill in question. This, for instance, was the defense made by Senator O'Gorman, of New York. Senator Stone, of Missouri, and Senator La Follette, of Wisconsin, who were concerned in the obstruction. Men who regarded Germany's actual and avowed attitude toward our citizens on the high seas as one of virtual warfare saw in these filibusterers men who, in the very moment of attack, had snatched a weapon of defense from the hand of their Government. Those, on the other hand, who regarded armed neutrality as an invitation to war rather than a defense against it, and who considered no price too high if it brought peace, did not hesitate to make dark allusions to British gold, to a subsidized press, and to the greed of munition-makers.

ALFRED ZIMMERMANN

Colonel Henry Watterson's Louisville Courier-Journal consigned the obstructionists to an "eternity of execration," and the Chicago Herald saw them "damned to everlasting fame." One of the Senators was hanged in effigy in a State near his own. Another received as a gift thirty pieces of silver. To a third was sent from his own State an iron cross weighing forty pounds made by a blacksmith and bearing an inscription, "Lest the Kaiser forget." State legislatures passed resolutions of condemnation similar in intention

to that of the Kentucky Senate, which denounced filibusterers as "disloyal, traitorous, and cowardly." At a patriotic mass-meeting held in New York under the auspices of the American Rights League, the venerable Lyman Abbott was greeted with roars of approval when he called the filibustering Senators "Germany's allies," saying "Germany has made and is making war upon America and her allies in the United States Senate have violated the unwritten law of all honorable assemblages. They have violated their trust to their country and have done their best to deprive us of our rightful protection. "Traitors! Hang them!" shouted back men in the audience. Whatever may have been the motives of the filibusterers, their action evoked much enthusiasm in the German press. The Frankfurter Zeitung hailed them as "fine Americans who remained uncontaminated by Wilson's blind devotion to England." On Senator Stone and Senator La Follette special condemnation was bestowed for having helped to frustrate what critics called President Wilson's plan to "wrest from Congress privileges vested in it by the Constitution.'

This episode was often cited afterward, by friends of Mr. Wilson, as justification for his course in dealing with Germany after the Lusitania was sunk-a period now of almost two years. Had Mr. Wilson sent Bernstorff home in May, 1915, and had he asked Congress to declare war on Germany when the Arabic was sunk three months afterward, it was clear to many minds that the country would not have been with him-and notably the Middle West would not. That he had been wise in delaying action until he was certain of support from the whole country the filibustering episode made clearer. When at last war was declared, what remained of a former rather formidable group of pacifists had been rapidly dwindling into a scattered body of ineffective and helpless apologists for their own acts.

What President Wilson would do in the emergency raised by the Senate remained for some days in doubt. At last, by advice from official sources, he decided that merchant ships should be armed even tho the bill had failed. War "within a month" was predicted by former Attorney General Wickersham as a result of arming our merchant ships.

"Thrilling events may follow shortly," said the Cleveland Leader, for "any day may witness a fight to the death between a German submarine and an American ship carrying guns supplied by the United States Navy and manned by naval gunners," and Germany "would doubtless declare war." Germany's attitude was disclosed by Foreign Secretary Zimmermann: "We are determined to carry through the submarine war to the end," said he, "and have spoken our last word; the decision is in President Wilson's hands.' The President's act "will cause a thrill of patriotic enthusiasm throughout the land," said the Philadelphia Public Ledger. He has done right and acted wisely," remarked the Utica Press; while the Albany Knickerbocker Press believed his action "well considered and thoroughly justified." The Boston Herald hoped there would be "no further faltering." The Springfield Republican put the case in these words: "Either the United States must stay on the seas or get off the seas; if it is to stay on the seas further delay in arming merchantmen can scarcely be tolerated."

On March 12 "armed neutrality" became the settled purpose of the Government. All the world was to be officially informed of it as soon as notifications delivered to the Embassies and Legations of Foreign Governments represented in Washington could be transmitted. The German Government was to be notified through the Swiss Government, which was representing German interests in the United States. The formal notice read as follows:

"In view of the announcements of the Imperial German Government on January 31, 1917, that all ships, those of neutrals included, met within certain zones of the high seas, would be sunk without any precaution taken for the safety of the persons on board, and without the exercise of visit and search, the Government of the United States has determined 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."

By repeated acts Germany thus created a state of war between herself and the United States. Her acts in fact were not to be looked upon as provocation to war; they were war itself. Reports came late in March of the sinking of three

more American ships by German submarines-the Vigilancia, the City of Memphis, and the Illinois, two of which were westward bound in ballast. All were trading vessels of American ownership and registry and manned by Americans. Some parts of the crews were saved but many men were missing. The destruction of these ships, after the warnings we had given by word and act, dispelled all doubt as to Germany's intentions. It was impossible longer to entertain a belief that she would try to avoid war with the United States. She was firing upon our ships, she was sinking them, and destroying or endangering the lives of our citizens, which was the essence of war, such acts being incompatible with a wish to avoid it.

When German U-boats had thus added five to their already heavy toll of American lives, official Washington realized that we had passed, by the inexorable logic of events, from "armed neutrality" to "a state of war." That was the view taken by the Cabinet in its meeting of March 20. The following day the President issued a second call to Congress to meet on April 2, two weeks earlier than the date named in his first summons, "to receive a communication concerning grave matters of national policy which should be taken immediately under consideration." These "grave matters" related to Germany's attacks upon American ships and American citizens. A state of war between Germany and the United States actually existed, said Vice-President Marshall in a speech at Montgomery, Ala., on the 20th. This opinion was echoed by Charles E. Hughes, Elihu Root; and Theodore Roosevelt. "There is now a state of war, and the people of the United States should recognize the fact." said Mr. Hughes. "Germany is making war on us and our reply must be either' war or submission," affirmed Mr. Root. Colonel Roosevelt, after pointing out that Germany "had steadily waged war upon us" ever since her declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare on January 31, added: "Let us face the accomplished fact, admit that Germany is at war with us, and in turn wage war on Germany with all our energy and courage and regain the right to look the whole world in the eyes without flinching."

More than twenty American ships had now been attacked