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WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
Books by 
 WOODROW WILSON 
 
 WHY WE ARE AT WAR. 16mo 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 
 Profusely illustrated. 5 volumes. 8vo 
 Cloth 
 
 Three-quarter Calf 
 Three-quarter Levant 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON. Illustrated. 8vo 
 Popular Edition 
 
 WHEN A MAN COMES TO HIMSELF 
 16mo. Cloth. Leather 
 
 ON BEING HUMAN 
 
 16mo. Cloth. Leather 
 
 THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 
 16mo. Cloth. Leather 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK 
 
WHY 
 WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 MESSAGES TO THE CONGRESS 
 
 JANUARY TO APRIL, 1917 
 BY 
 
 WOODROW WILSON 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 
 WITH 
 
 THE PRESIDENT'S PROCLAMATION OP WAR 
 April 6, 1917 
 
 AND HIS 
 
 MESSAGE TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 
 April 15, 1917 
 
 HARPER fcf BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 
 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 

 *$*?] 
 
 1 
 
 Why We are at War 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 Published May, 191 7 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. A World League for Peace i 
 
 Message to the Senate, January 22, 191 7. 
 
 II. The Severance of Diplomatic Relations 
 
 with Germany 17 
 
 Message to the Congress, February 3, 191 7. 
 
 III. Request for a Grant of Power 27 
 
 Message to the Congress, February 26, 19 17. 
 
 IV. We Must Accept War 39 
 
 Message to the Congress, April 2, 1917. 
 
 V. A State of War 61 
 
 The President's Proclamation of April 6, 191 7. 
 
 VI. "Speak, Act, and Serve Together" ... 69 
 
 Message to the American people, April 15, 
 1917. 
 
PUBLISHERS' NOTE 
 
 This book presents in convenient form the 
 memorable messages to the Congress read by- 
 President Wilson in January, February, and 
 April, 191 7. They should be read together, 
 for only in this way is it possible to appreciate 
 both the forbearance and the logic of events 
 reflected in these consecutive chapters of his- 
 tory. While the great war message of April 
 2d is obviously the most momentous, its full 
 significance is not made clear unless it is read 
 as the climax of the preceding messages and 
 also in connection with the President's proc- 
 lamation of a state of war on April 6th and his 
 message to the American people of April 15th. 
 While the approval of President Wilson was 
 very naturally requested and obtained for 
 the publication of these messages in collected 
 form, the Publishers are responsible for the 
 title and for captions. They have felt that 
 they are rendering a service of permanent value 
 by collecting and presenting these historic 
 documents in the same form in which they 
 have published President Wilson's When a 
 Man Comes to Himself, On Being Human, and 
 The President oj the United States. 
 
I 
 
 A WORLD LEAGUE FOR PEACE 
 
 Message to the Senate 
 January 22, 1917 
 
WHY 
 WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 i 
 
 A WORLD LEAGUE FOR PEACE 
 
 Gentlemen of the Senate: 
 
 On the 1 8th of December last I addressed 
 an identic note to the Governments of the 
 nations now at war, requesting them to state, 
 more definitely than they had yet been stated 
 by either group of belligerents, the terms upon 
 which they would deem it possible to make 
 peace. I spoke on behalf of humanity and 
 of the rights of all neutral nations like our own, 
 many of whose most vital interests the war 
 puts in constant jeopardy. 
 
 The Central Powers united in a reply which 
 stated merely that they were ready to meet 
 3 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 their antagonists in conference to discuss terms 
 of peace. 
 
 ENTENTE REPLY WAS MORE DEFINITE 
 
 The Entente Powers have replied much more 
 definitely and have stated, in general terms, 
 indeed, but with sufficient definiteness to imply 
 details, the arrangements, guarantees, and acts 
 of reparation which they deem to be the indis- 
 pensable conditions of a satisfactory settle- 
 ment. 
 
 We are that much nearer a definite discussion 
 of the peace which shall end the present war. 
 We are that much nearer the discussion of the 
 international concert which must thereafter 
 hold the world at peace. 
 
 In every discussion of the peace that must 
 end this war it is taken for granted that that 
 peace must be followed by some definite con- 
 cert of power which will make it virtually im- 
 possible that any such catastrophe should ever 
 overwhelm us again. Every lover of mankind, 
 every sane and thoughtful man, must take that 
 for granted. 
 
 I have sought this opportunity to address 
 you because I thought that I owed it to you, 
 as the council associated with me in the final 
 determination of our international obligations, 
 
 4 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 to disclose to you, without reserve, the thought 
 and purpose that have been taking form in my 
 mind in regard to the duty of our Government 
 in these days to come when it will be necessary 
 to lay afresh and upon a new plan the founda- 
 tions of peace among the nations. 
 
 DECLARES PEACE IS NOT FAR OFF 
 
 It is inconceivable that the people of the 
 United States should play no part in that great 
 enterprise. ; To take part in such a service 
 will be the opportunity for which they have 
 sought to prepare themselves by the very 
 principles and purposes of their polity and 
 the approved practices of their Government, 
 ever since the days when they set up a new 
 nation in the high and honorable hope that 
 it might in all that it was and did show man- 
 kind the way to liberty. 
 
 They cannot, in honor, withhold the service 
 to which they are now about to be challenged. 
 They do not wish to withhold it. But they 
 owe it to themselves and to the other nations 
 of the world to state the conditions under 
 which they will feel free to render it. 
 
 That service is nothing less than this — to 
 add their authority and their power to the 
 authority and force of other nations to guar- 
 
 2 5 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 antee peace and justice throughout the world. 
 Such a settlement cannot now be long post- 
 poned. It is right that before it comes this 
 Government should frankly formulate the con- 
 ditions upon which it would feel justified in 
 asking our people to approve its formal and 
 solemn adherence to a league for peace. I am 
 here to attempt to state those conditions. 
 
 MUST NOT SERVE SELFISH AIMS 
 
 The present war must first be ended; but 
 we owe it to candor and to a just regard for 
 the opinion of mankind to say that so far as 
 our participation in guarantees of future peace 
 is concerned it makes a great deal of difference 
 in what way and upon what terms it is ended. 
 
 The treaties and agreements which bring it 
 to an end must embody terms which will 
 create a peace that is worth guaranteeing and 
 preserving, a peace that will win the approval 
 of mankind; not merely a peace that will 
 serve the several interests and immediate aims 
 of the nations engaged. 
 
 We shall have no voice in determining what 
 those terms shall be, but we shall, I feel sure, 
 have a voice in determining whether they 
 shall be made lasting or not by the guarantees 
 of a universal covenant, and our judgment 
 
 6 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 upon what is fundamental and essential as a 
 condition precedent to permanency should be 
 spoken now, not afterward, when it may be 
 too late. 
 
 No covenant of co-operative peace that does 
 not include the peoples of the New World can 
 suffice to keep the future safe against war, 
 and yet there is only one sort of peace that 
 the peoples of America could join in guaran- 
 teeing. 
 
 The elements of that peace must be elements 
 that engage the confidence and satisfy the 
 principles of the American Governments, ele- 
 ments consistent with their political faith and 
 the practical convictions which the peoples of 
 America have once for all embraced and under- 
 taken to defend. 
 
 WORLD ALLIANCE IS NECESSARY 
 
 I do not mean to say that any American 
 Government would throw any obstacle in the 
 way of any terms of peace the Governments 
 now at war might agree upon, or seek to upset 
 them when made, whatever they might be. 
 I only take it for granted that mere terms of 
 peace between the belligerents will not satisfy 
 even the belligerents themselves. 
 
 Mere agreements may not make peace se- 
 7 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 cure. It will be absolutely necessary that a 
 force be created as a guarantor of the perma- 
 nency of the settlement so much greater than 
 the force of any nation now engaged in any 
 alliance hitherto formed or projected that no 
 nation, no probable combination of nations, 
 could face or withstand it. 
 
 If the peace presently to be made is to en- 
 dure it must be a peace made secure by the 
 organized major force of mankind. 
 
 The terms of the immediate peace agreed 
 upon will determine whether it is a peace for 
 which such a guarantee can be secured. The 
 question upon which the whole future peace 
 and policy of the world depends is this: 
 
 Is the present war a struggle for a just and 
 secure peace or only for a new balance of 
 power? If it be only a struggle for a new bal- 
 ance of power, who will guarantee, who can 
 guarantee, the stable equilibrium of the new 
 arrangement ? 
 
 NO VICTORY FOR EITHER SIDE 
 
 Only a tranquil Europe can be a stable 
 Europe. There must be not only a balance of 
 power, but a community of power ; not organ- 
 ized rivalries, but an organized common peace. 
 
 Fortunately, we have received very explicit 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 assurances on this point. The statesmen of 
 both of the groups of nations now arrayed 
 against one another have said, in terms that 
 could not be misinterpreted, that it was no 
 part of the purpose they had in mind to crush 
 their antagonists. But the implications of 
 these assurances may not be equally clear to 
 all — may not be the same on both sides of the 
 water. I think it will be serviceable if I at- 
 tempt to set forth what we understand them 
 to be. 
 
 They imply, first of all, that it must be a 
 peace without victory. It is not pleasant to 
 say this. I beg that I may be permitted to 
 put my own interpretation upon it and that it 
 may be understood that no other interpretation 
 was in my thought. 
 
 I am seeking only to face realities and to 
 face them without soft concealments. Victory 
 would mean peace forced upon the loser, a 
 victor's terms imposed upon the vanquished. 
 It would be accepted in humiliation, under 
 duress, at an intolerable sacrifice, and would 
 leave a sting, a resentment, a bitter memory, 
 upon which terms of peace would rest, not 
 permanently, but only as upon quicksand. 
 
 Only a peace between equals can last; only 
 a peace the very principle of which is equality 
 and a common participation in a common 
 
 9 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 benefit. The right state of mind, the right 
 feeling between nations, is as necessary for a 
 lasting peace as is the just settlement of ques- 
 tions of territory or of racial and national 
 allegiance. 
 
 MUST EQUALIZE RIGHTS OF NATIONS 
 
 The equality of nations upon which peace 
 must be founded, if it is to last, must be an 
 equality of rights; the guarantees exchanged 
 must neither recognize nor imply a difference 
 between big nations and small, between those 
 that are powerful and those that are weak. 
 
 Right must be based upon the common 
 strength, not upon the individual strength, of 
 the nations upon whose concert peace will 
 depend. 
 
 Equality of territory or of resources there, 
 of course, cannot be; nor any other sort of 
 equality not gained in the ordinary peaceful 
 and legitimate development of the peoples 
 themselves. But no one asks or expects any- 
 thing more than an equality of rights. Man- 
 kind is looking now for freedom of life, not 
 for equipoises of power. 
 
 And there is a deeper thing involved than 
 even equality of rights among organized na- 
 tions. No peace can last, or ought to last, 
 10 
 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 which does not recognize and accept the princi- 
 ple that Governments derive all their just 
 powers from the consent of the governed, and 
 that no right anywhere exists to hand people 
 about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if 
 they were property. 
 
 I take it for granted, for instance, if I may 
 venture upon a single example, that statesmen 
 everywhere are agreed that there should be a 
 united, independent, and autonomous Poland, 
 and that henceforth inviolable security of life, 
 of worship, and of industrial and social devel- 
 opment should be guaranteed to all peoples 
 who have lived hitherto under the power of 
 Governments devoted to a faith and purpose 
 hostile to their own. 
 
 I speak of this, not because of any desire to 
 exalt an abstract political principle which has 
 always been held very dear by those who have 
 sought to build up liberty in America, but for 
 the same reason that I have spoken of the 
 other conditions of peace which seem to me 
 clearly indispensable — because I wish frankly 
 to uncover realities. 
 
 CRUSHED PEOPLES WILL REVOLT 
 
 Any peace which does not recognize and 
 accept this principle will inevitably be upset, 
 ii 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 It will not rest upon the affections or the con- 
 victions of mankind. The ferment of spirit of 
 whole populations will fight subtly and con- 
 stantly against it, and all the world will sym- 
 pathize. The world can be at peace only if its 
 life is stable, and there can be no stability 
 where the will is in rebellion, where there is not 
 tranquillity of spirit and a sense of justice, of 
 freedom, and of right. 
 
 So far as practicable, moreover, every great 
 people now struggling toward a full develop- 
 ment of its resources and of its powers should 
 be assured a direct outlet to the great high- 
 ways of the sea. Where this cannot be done 
 by the cession of territory, it can no doubt 
 be done by the neutralization of direct rights 
 of way under the general guarantee which will 
 assure the peace itself. With a right comity 
 of arrangement no nation need be shut away 
 from free access to the open paths of the 
 world's commerce. 
 
 And the paths of the sea must alike in law 
 and in fact be free. The freedom of the seas 
 is the sine qua non of peace, equality, and co- 
 operation. 
 
 No doubt a somewhat radical reconsidera- 
 tion of many of the rules of international 
 practice hitherto sought to be established may 
 be necessary in order to make the seas indeed 
 
 12 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 free and common in practically all circum- 
 stances for the use of mankind, but the motive 
 for such changes is convincing and compelling. 
 There can be no trust or intimacy between 
 the peoples of the world without them. 
 
 The free, constant, unthreatened intercourse 
 of nations is an essential part of the process of 
 peace and of development. It need not be 
 difficult to define or to secure the freedom of 
 the seas if the Governments of the world sin- 
 cerely desire to come to an agreement concern- 
 ing it. 
 
 REQUIRES LIMITATION OF ARMAMENTS 
 
 It is a problem closely connected with the 
 limitation of naval armaments and the co- 
 operation of the navies of the world in keeping 
 the seas at once free and safe. And the ques- 
 tion of limiting naval armaments opens the 
 wider and perhaps more difficult question of 
 the limitation of armies and of all programs 
 of military preparation. 
 
 Difficult and delicate as these questions are, 
 they must be faced with the utmost candor 
 and decided in a spirit of real accommodation 
 if peace is to come with healing in its wings 
 and come to stay. Peace cannot be had with- 
 out concession and sacrifice. There can be 
 13 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 no sense of safety and equality among the 
 nations if great preponderating armies are 
 henceforth to continue here and there to be 
 built up and maintained. 
 
 The statesmen of the world must plan for 
 peace, and nations must adjust and accommo- 
 date their policy to it as they have planned 
 for war and made ready for pitiless contest and 
 rivalry. The question of armaments, whether 
 on land or sea, is the most immediately and 
 intensely practical question connected with the 
 future fortunes of nations and of mankind. 
 
 I have spoken upon these great matters 
 without reserve and with the utmost explicit- 
 ness because it has seemed to me to be neces- 
 sary if the world's yearning desire for peace 
 was anywhere to find free voice and utterance. 
 Perhaps I am the only person in high authority 
 among all the peoples of the world who is at 
 liberty to speak and hold nothing back. 
 
 I am speaking as an individual, and yet I 
 am speaking also, of course, as the responsible 
 head of a great Government, and I feel con- 
 fident that I have said what the people of the 
 United States would wish me to say. May I 
 not add that I hope and believe that I am in 
 effect speaking for liberals and friends of hu- 
 manity in every nation and of every program 
 of liberty? 
 
 14 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 I would fain believe that I am speaking for 
 the silent mass of mankind everywhere who 
 have as yet had no place or opportunity to 
 speak their real hearts out concerning the death 
 and ruin they see to have come already upon 
 the persons and the homes they hold most dear. 
 
 SEES WORLD-WIDE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 And in holding out the expectation that the 
 people and Government of the United States 
 will join the other civilized nations of the world 
 in guaranteeing the permanence of peace upon 
 such terms as I have named, I speak with 
 the greater boldness and confidence because 
 it is clear to every man who can think that 
 there is in this promise no breach in either our 
 traditions or our policy as a nation, but a ful- 
 filment, rather, of all that we have professed 
 or striven for. 
 
 I am proposing, as it were, that the nations 
 should with one accord adopt the doctrine of 
 President Monroe as the doctrine of the 
 world; that no nation should seek to extend 
 its policy over any other nation or people, but 
 that every people should be left free to deter- 
 mine its own policy, its own way of develop- 
 ment, unhindered, unthreatened, unafraid, the 
 little along with the great and powerful. 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 I am proposing that all nations henceforth 
 avoid entangling alliances which would draw 
 them into competitions of power, catch them 
 in a net of intrigue and selfish rivalry, and dis- 
 turb their own affairs with influences intruded 
 from without. There is no entangling alliance 
 in a concert of power. When all unite to act 
 in the same sense and with the same purpose, 
 all act in the common interest and are free 
 to live their own lives under a common pro- 
 tection. 
 
 I am proposing government by the consent 
 of the governed; that freedom of the seas 
 which in international conference after con- 
 ference representatives of the United States 
 have urged with the eloquence of those who 
 are the convinced disciples of liberty; and 
 that moderation of armaments which makes 
 of armies and navies a power for order merely, 
 not an instrument of aggression or of selfish 
 violence. 
 
 These are American principles, American 
 policies. We can stand for no others. And 
 they are also the principles and policies of for- 
 ward-looking men and women everywhere, of 
 every modern nation, of every enlightened 
 community. They are the principles of man- 
 kind, and must prevail. 
 
II 
 
 THE SEVERANCE OF DIPLOMATIC 
 RELATIONS WITH GERMANY 
 
 Message to the Congress 
 February 3, igiy 
 
II 
 
 severance of relations 
 
 Gentlemen of the Congress: 
 
 The Imperial German Government, on the 
 31st of January, announced to this Govern- 
 ment and to the Governments of the other 
 neutral nations that on and after the first day 
 of February, the present month, it would 
 adopt a policy with regard to the use of sub- 
 marines against all shipping seeking to pass 
 through certain designated areas of the high 
 seas to which it is clearly my duty to call your 
 attention. 
 
 Let me remind the Congress that on the 
 1 8th of April last, in view of the sinking on the 
 24th of March of the cross- Channel passenger- 
 steamer Sussex by a German submarine, with- 
 out summons or warning, and the consequent 
 loss of the lives of several citizens of the United 
 States who were passengers aboard her, this 
 Government addressed a note to the Imperial 
 19 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 German Government in which it made the 
 following declaration: 
 
 If it is still the purpose of the Imperial German 
 Government to prosecute relentless and indiscriminate 
 warfare against vessels of commerce by the use of sub- 
 marines without regard to what the Government of the 
 United States must consider the sacred and indisputable 
 rules of international law and the universally recognized 
 dictates of humanity, the Government of the United 
 States is at last forced to the conclusion that there is but 
 one course it can pursue. Unless the German Govern- 
 ment should now immediately declare and effect an 
 abandonment of its present methods of submarine war- 
 fare against passenger and freight-carrying vessels the 
 Government of the United States can have no choice 
 but to sever diplomatic relations with the German 
 Empire altogether. 
 
 Germany's u-boat pledge 
 
 In reply to this declaration the German 
 Government gave this Government the fol- 
 lowing assurances : 
 
 The German Government is prepared to do its ut- 
 most to confine the operations of war for the rest of 
 its duration to the fighting forces of the belligerents, 
 thereby insuring the freedom of the seas, a principle 
 upon which the German Government believes, now 
 as before, to be in agreement with the Government 
 of the United States. 
 
 The German Government, guided by this idea, notifies 
 20 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 the Government of the United States that the German 
 naval forces have received the following orders: 
 
 In accordance with the general principles of visit and 
 search and destruction of merchant vessels recognized 
 by international law, such vessels, both within and with- 
 out the area declared as naval war zone, shall not be 
 sunk without warning and without saving human lives, 
 unless these ships attempt to escape or offer resistance. 
 
 But neutrals cannot expect that Germany, forced to 
 fight for her existence, shall, for the sake of neutral 
 interest, restrict the use of an effective weapon if her 
 enemy is permitted to continue to apply at will methods 
 of warfare violating the rules of international law. Such 
 a demand would be incompatible with the character of 
 neutrality, and the German Government is convinced 
 that the Government of the United States does not think 
 of making such a demand, knowing that the Government 
 of the United States has repeatedly declared that it is 
 determined to restore the principle of the freedom of 
 the seas from whatever quarter it has been violated. 
 
 HOW THE UNITED STATES REPLIED 
 
 To this the Government of the United 
 States replied on the 8th of May, accepting, 
 of course, the assurances given, but adding: 
 
 The Government of the United States feels it necessary 
 to state that it takes it for granted that the Imperial 
 German Government does not intend to imply that the 
 maintenance of its newly announced policy is in any 
 way contingent upon the course or result of diplomatic 
 negotiations between the Government of the United 
 
 3 21 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 States and any other belligerent Government, notwith- 
 standing the fact that certain passages in the Imperial 
 Government's note of the 4th instant might appear 
 to be susceptible to that construction. In order, however, 
 to avoid any possible misunderstanding, the Government 
 of the United States notifies the Imperial Government 
 that it cannot for a moment entertain, much less discuss, 
 a suggestion that respect by German naval authorities 
 for the rights of citizens of the United States upon the 
 high seas should in any way or in the slightest degree 
 be made contingent upon the conduct of any other Gov- 
 ernment affecting the rights of neutrals and non-com- 
 batants. Responsibility in such matters is single, not 
 joint; absolute, not relative. 
 
 To this note of the 8th of May the Imperial 
 German Government made no reply. 
 
 On the 31st of January, the Wednesday of 
 the present week, the German Ambassador 
 handed to the Secretary of State, along with a 
 formal note, a memorandum which contains 
 the following statement: 
 
 GERMANY S NEW POLICY 
 
 The Imperial Government, therefore, does not doubt 
 that the Government of the United States will under- 
 stand the situation thus forced upon Germany by the 
 Entente Allies' brutal methods of war and by their de- 
 termination to destroy the Central Powers, and that the 
 Government of the United States will further realize 
 that the now openly disclosed intentions of the Entente 
 Allies give back to Germany the freedom of action which 
 22 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 she reserved in her note addressed to the Government 
 of the United States on May 4, 1916. 
 
 Under these circumstances Germany will meet the 
 illegal measures of her enemies by forcibly preventing, 
 after February i, 191 7, in a zone around Great Britain, 
 France, Italy, and in the eastern Mediterranean all 
 navigation, that of neutrals included, from and to France, 
 etc. All ships met within the zone will be sunk. 
 
 I think that you will agree with me that, 
 in view of this declaration, which suddenly and 
 without prior intimation of any kind deliber- 
 ately withdraws the solemn assurance given 
 in the Imperial Government's note of the 
 4th of May, 1916, this Government has no 
 alternative consistent with the -dignity and 
 honor of the United States but to take the 
 course which, in its note of the 18th of April, 
 1 91 6, it announced that it would take in the 
 event that the German Government did not 
 declare and effect an abandonment of the 
 methods of submarine warfare which it was 
 then employing and to which it now purposes 
 again to resort. 
 
 ALL RELATIONS BROKEN OFF 
 
 I have, therefore, directed the Secretary of 
 State to announce to his Excellency the Ger- 
 man ambassador that all diplomatic relations 
 between the United States and the German 
 23 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 Empire are severed, and that the American 
 ambassador at Berlin will immediately be 
 withdrawn, and, in accordance with this deci- 
 sion, to hand to his Excellency his passports. 
 
 Notwithstanding this unexpected action of 
 the German Government, this sudden and 
 deeply deplorable renunciation of its assur- 
 ances, given this Government at one of the 
 most critical moments of tension in the rela- 
 tions of the two Governments, I refuse to 
 believe that it is the intention of the German 
 authorities to do in fact what they have warned 
 us they will feel at liberty to do. I cannot 
 bring myself to believe that they will indeed 
 pay no regard to the ancient friendship be- 
 tween their people and our own or to the sol- 
 emn obligations which have been exchanged 
 between them and destroy American ships 
 and take the lives of American citizens in the 
 wilful prosecution of the ruthless naval pro- 
 gram they have announced their intention to 
 adopt. 
 
 Only actual overt acts on their part can 
 make me believe it even now. 
 
 WILL PROTECT AMERICAN RIGHTS 
 
 If this inveterate confidence on my part in 
 the sobriety and prudent foresight of their 
 24 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 purpose should unhappily prove unfounded, 
 if American ships and American lives should, 
 in fact, be sacrificed by their naval commanders 
 in heedless contravention of the just and rea- 
 sonable understandings of international law 
 and the obvious dictates of humanity, I shall 
 take the liberty of coming again before the 
 Congress to ask that authority be given me 
 to use any means that may be necessary 
 for the protection of our seamen and our 
 people in the prosecution of their peaceful 
 and legitimate errands on the high seas. I 
 can do nothing less. I take it for granted 
 that all neutral Governments will take the 
 same course. 
 
 I do not desire any hostile conflict with the 
 Imperial German Government. We are the 
 sincere friends of the German people and 
 earnestly desire to remain at peace with the 
 Government which speaks for them. We shall 
 not believe that they are hostile to us until 
 we are obliged to believe it; and we purpose 
 nothing more than the reasonable defense of 
 the undoubted rights of our people. We wish 
 to serve no selfish ends. We seek merely to 
 stand true alike in thought and in action to 
 the immemorial principles of our people which 
 I sought to express in my address to the 
 Senate only two weeks ago — seek merely to 
 25 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 vindicate our right to liberty and justice and 
 an unmolested life. These are bases of peace, 
 not war. God grant we may not be challenged 
 to defend them by acts of wilful injustice on 
 the part of the Government of Germany. 
 
Ill 
 
 REQUEST FOR A GRANT OF POWER 
 
 Message to the Congress 
 February 26 ; , iqij 
 
Ill 
 
 request for a grant of power 
 
 Gentlemen of the Congress: 
 
 I have again asked the privilege of addressing 
 you because we are moving through critical 
 times, during which it seems to me to be 
 my duty to keep in close touch with the 
 Houses of Congress so that neither counsel nor 
 action shall run at cross-purposes between us. 
 
 On the 3d of February I officially informed 
 you of the sudden and unexpected action of 
 the Imperial German Government in declaring 
 its intention to disregard the promises it had 
 made to this Government in April last and 
 undertake immediate submarine operations 
 against all commerce, whether of belligerents 
 or of neutrals, that should seek to approach 
 Great Britain and Ireland, the Atlantic coasts 
 of Europe, or the harbors of the eastern Med- 
 iterranean, and to conduct those operations 
 without regard to the established restrictions 
 of international practice, without regard to 
 29 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 any considerations of humanity, even, which 
 might interfere with their object. 
 
 AMERICAN COMMERCE SUFFERS, BUT OTHER 
 NEUTRALS FARE WORSE 
 
 That policy was forthwith put into practice. 
 It has now been in active exhibition for nearly 
 four weeks. Its practical results are not fully 
 disclosed. The commerce of other neutral 
 nations is suffering severely, but not, perhaps, 
 very much more severely than it was already 
 suffering before the ist of February, when 
 the new policy of the Imperial Government 
 was put into operation. 
 
 We have asked the co-operation of the other 
 neutral Governments to prevent these depre- 
 dations, but I fear none of them has thought 
 it wise to join us in any common course of 
 action. Our own commerce has suffered, is 
 suffering, rather in apprehension than in fact, 
 rather because so many of our ships are tim- 
 idly keeping to their home ports than because 
 American ships have been sunk. 
 
 Two American vessels have been sunk, the 
 Housatonic and the Lyman M. Law. The case 
 of the Housatonic, which was carrying food- 
 stuffs consigned to a London firm, was essen- 
 tially like the case of the Frye, in which, it will 
 30 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 be recalled, the German Government admitted 
 its liability for damages, and the lives of the 
 crew, as in the case of the Frye, were safe- 
 guarded with reasonable care. 
 
 THE RUTHLESS SINKING OF SCHOONER 
 " LYMAN M. LAW" 
 
 The case of the Law, which was carrying 
 lemon-box staves to Palermo, disclosed a 
 ruthlessness of method which deserves grave 
 condemnation, but was accompanied by no 
 circumstances which might not have been ex- 
 pected at any time in connection with the use 
 of the submarine against merchantmen as the 
 German Government has used it. 
 
 In sum, therefore, the situation we find our- 
 selves in with regard to the actual conduct 
 of the German submarine warfare against 
 commerce and its effects upon our own ships 
 and people is substantially the same that it 
 was when I addressed you on the 3d of 
 February, except for the tying up of our ship- 
 ping in our own ports because of the unwilling- 
 ness of our ship-owners to risk their vessels at 
 sea without insurance or adequate protection, 
 and the very serious congestion of our commerce 
 which has resulted, a congestion which is grow- 
 ing rapidly more and more serious every day. 
 31 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 This in itself might presently accomplish, 
 in effect, what the new German submarine 
 orders were meant to accomplish, so far as we 
 are concerned. We can only say, therefore, 
 that the overt act which I have ventured to 
 hope the German commanders would in fact 
 avoid has not occurred. 
 
 SPARED BY CIRCUMSTANCES NOT BY 
 INSTRUCTIONS 
 
 But while this is happily true, it must be 
 admitted that there have been certain addi- 
 tional indications and expressions of purpose 
 on the part of the German press and the Ger- 
 man authorities which have increased rather 
 than lessened the impression that if our ships 
 and our people are spared it will be because of 
 fortunate circumstances or because the com- 
 manders of the German submarines which they 
 may happen to encounter exercise an unex- 
 pected discretion and restraint, rather than 
 because of the instructions under which those 
 commanders are acting. 
 
 It would be foolish to deny that the situation 
 is fraught with the gravest possibilities and 
 dangers. No thoughtful man can fail to see 
 that the necessity for definite action may come 
 at any time, if we are in fact, and not in word 
 32 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 merely, to defend our elementary rights as a 
 neutral nation. It would be most imprudent 
 to be unprepared. 
 
 I cannot in such circumstances be unmindful 
 of the fact that the expiration of the term of 
 the present Congress is immediately at hand 
 by constitutional limitation, and that it would 
 in all likelihood require an unusual length of 
 time to assemble and organize the Congress 
 which is to succeed it. 
 
 MAY NEED THE AUTHORITY TO ACT ANY MOMENT 
 
 I feel that I ought, in view of that fact, to 
 obtain from you full and immediate assurance 
 of the authority which I may need at any 
 moment to exercise. No doubt I already pos- 
 sess that authority without special warrant of 
 law by the plain implication of my constitu- 
 tional duties and powers, but I prefer in the 
 present circumstances not to act upon general 
 implication. I wish to feel that the authority 
 and the power of the Congress are behind me 
 in whatever it may become necessary for me 
 to do. We are jointly the servants of the 
 people and must act together and in their 
 spirit, so far as we can divine and interpret it. 
 
 No one doubts what it is our duty to do. 
 We must defend our commerce and the lives 
 33 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 of our people in the midst of the present trying 
 circumstances with discretion, but with clear 
 and steadfast purpose. Only the method and 
 the extent remain to be chosen upon the oc- 
 casion, if occasion should indeed arise. 
 
 Since it has unhappily proved impossible 
 to safeguard our neutral rights by diplomatic 
 means against the unwarranted infringements 
 they are suffering at the hands of Germany, 
 there may be no recourse but to armed neu- 
 trality, which we shall know how to maintain 
 and for which there is abundant American 
 precedent. 
 
 NOT CONTEMPLATING WAR, BUT WANTS TO BE 
 READY 
 
 It is devoutly to be hoped that it will not 
 be necessary to put armed forces anywhere 
 into action. The American people do not de- 
 sire it, and our desire is not different from 
 theirs. I am sure that they will understand 
 the spirit in which I am now acting, the pur- 
 pose I hold nearest my heart, and would wish 
 to exhibit in everything I do. I am anxious 
 that the people of the nations at war also 
 should understand and not mistrust us. 
 
 I hope that I need give no further proofs 
 and assurances than I have already given 
 34 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 throughout nearly three years of anxious pa- 
 tience that I am the friend of peace, and mean 
 to preserve it for America so long as I am able. 
 
 I am not now proposing or contemplating 
 war, or any steps that lead to it. I merely 
 request that you will accord me by your own 
 vote and definite bestowal the means and the 
 authority to safeguard in practice the right of 
 a great people, who are at peace and who are 
 desirous of exercising none but the rights of 
 peace, to follow the pursuit of peace in quiet- 
 ness and good-will — rights recognized time out 
 of mind by all the civilized nations of the world. 
 
 No course of my choosing or of theirs will 
 lead to war. War can come only by the wilful 
 acts and aggressions of others. 
 
 ASKS POWER TO ARM SHIPS AND TO USE OTHER 
 
 MEANS 
 
 You will understand why I can make no 
 definite proposals or forecasts of action now, 
 and must ask for your supporting authority in 
 the most general terms. The form in which 
 action may become necessary cannot yet be 
 foreseen. I believe that the people will be 
 willing to trust me to act with restraint, with 
 prudence, and in the true spirit of amity and 
 good faith that they have themselves displayed 
 35 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 throughout these trying months; and it is in 
 that belief that I request that you will author- 
 ize me to supply our merchant-ships with de- 
 fensive arms should that become necessary, 
 and with the means of using them, and to 
 employ any other instrumentalities or methods 
 that may be necessary and adequate to protect 
 our ships and our people in their legitimate and 
 peaceful pursuits of the seas. 
 
 I request also that you will grant me at the 
 same time, along with the powers I ask, a 
 sufficient credit to enable me to provide ade- 
 quate means of protection where they are 
 lacking, including adequate insurance against 
 the present war risks. 
 
 I have spoken of our commerce and of the 
 legitimate errands of our people on the seas, 
 but you will not be misled as to my main 
 thought, the thought that lies beneath these 
 phrases and gives them dignity and weight. 
 
 CIVILIZATION AT STAKE IN ATTACK ON HUMAN 
 RIGHTS 
 
 It is not of material interest merely that we 
 are thinking. It is, rather, of fundamental 
 human rights, chief of all the right of life itself. 
 I am thinking not only of the rights of Amer- 
 icans to go and come about their proper busi- 
 36 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 ness by way of the sea, but also of something 
 much deeper, much more fundamental than 
 that. I am thinking of those rights of human- 
 ity without which there is no civilization. My 
 theme is of those great principles of compassion 
 and of protection which mankind has sought 
 to throw about human lives — the lives of non- 
 combatants, the lives of men who are peace- 
 fully at work keeping the industrial processes 
 of the world quick and vital, the lives of 
 women and children, and of those who sup- 
 ply the labor which ministers to their suste- 
 nance. 
 
 We are speaking of no selfish material 
 rights, but of rights which our hearts support, 
 and whose foundation is that righteous passion 
 for justice upon which all law, all structures 
 alike of family, of state, and of mankind must 
 rest, and upon the ultimate base of our exist- 
 ence and our liberty. I cannot imagine any 
 man with American principles at his heart 
 hesitating to defend these things. 
 
IV 
 
 WE MUST ACCEPT WAR 
 
 Message to the Congress 
 April 2, IQ17 
 
IV 
 
 WE MUST ACCEPT WAR 
 
 Gentlemen of the Congress: 
 
 I have called the Congress into extraordinary 
 session because there are serious, very serious, 
 choices of policy to be made, and made imme- 
 diately, which it was neither right nor con- 
 stitutionally permissible that I should assume 
 the responsibility of making. 
 
 On the 3d of February last I officially laid 
 before you the extraordinary announcement of 
 the Imperial German Government that on 
 and after the first day of February it was its 
 purpose to put aside all restraints of law or of 
 humanity and use its submarines to sink every 
 vessel that sought to approach either the ports 
 of Great Britain and Ireland or the western 
 coasts of Europe or any of the ports controlled 
 by the enemies of Germany within the Med- 
 iterranean. That had seemed to be the object 
 of the German submarine warfare earlier in the 
 war, but since April of last year the Imperial 
 41 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 Government had somewhat restrained the 
 commanders of its undersea craft in conformity 
 with its promise then given to us that passen- 
 ger-boats should not be sunk, and that due 
 warning would be given to all other vessels 
 which its submarines might seek to destroy 
 when no resistance was offered or escape at- 
 tempted, and care taken that their crews were 
 given at least a fair chance to save their lives 
 in their open boats. 
 
 The precautions taken were meager and hap- 
 hazard enough, as was proved in distressing 
 instance after instance in the progress of the 
 cruel and unmanly business, but a certain 
 degree of restraint was observed. 
 
 GERMANY S RUTHLESS POLICY 
 
 The new policy has swept every restriction 
 aside. Vessels of every kind, whatever their 
 flag, their character, their cargo, their destina- 
 tion, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to 
 the bottom without warning, and without 
 thought of help or mercy for those oft 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 provided with safe conduct through the 
 42 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 proscribed areas by the German Government 
 itself and were distinguished by unmistakable 
 marks of identity, have been sunk with the 
 same reckless lack of compassion or of prin- 
 ciple. 
 
 I was for a little while unable to believe that 
 such things would, in fact, be done by any 
 Government that had hitherto subscribed to 
 the humane practices of civilized nations. 
 International law had its origin in the attempt 
 to set up some law which would be respected 
 and observed upon the seas, where no nation 
 had right of dominion, and where lay the free 
 highways of the world. By painful stage after 
 stage has that law been built up with meager 
 enough results, indeed, after all was accom- 
 plished that could be accomplished, but al- 
 ways with a clear view at least of what the 
 heart and conscience of mankind demanded. 
 
 This minimum of right the German Govern- 
 ment has swept aside under the plea of retalia- 
 tion and necessity, and because it had no 
 weapons which it could use at sea except these, 
 which it is impossible to employ as it is em- 
 ploying them without throwing to the winds 
 all scruples of humanity or of respect for the 
 understandings that were supposed to underlie 
 the intercourse of the world. 
 
 I am not now thinking of the loss of property 
 43 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 involved, immense and serious as that is, but 
 only of the wanton and wholesale destruction 
 of the lives of non-combatants, 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 peace- 
 ful and innocent people cannot be. 
 
 GERMAN WARFARE AGAINST MANKIND 
 
 The present German warfare against com- 
 merce is a warfare against mankind. It is a 
 war against all nations. American ships have 
 been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which 
 it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, but 
 the ships and people of other neutral and 
 friendly nations have been sunk and over- 
 whelmed in the waters in the same way. There 
 has been no discrimination. The challenge is 
 to all mankind. Each nation must decide for 
 itself how it will meet it. The choice we make 
 for ourselves must be made with a moderation 
 of counsel and a temperateness of judgment 
 befitting our character and our motives as a 
 nation. We must put excited feeling away. 
 
 Our motive will not be revenge or the vic- 
 torious assertion of the physical might of the 
 nation, but only the vindication of right, of 
 44 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 human right, of which we are only a single 
 champion. 
 
 When I addressed the Congress on the 
 26th of February last I thought that it would 
 suffice to assert our neutral rights with arms, 
 our right to use the seas against unlawful 
 interference, our right to keep our people safe 
 against unlawful violence. But armed neu- 
 trality, it now appears, is impracticable. Be- 
 cause submarines are in effect outlaws when 
 used as the German submarines have been 
 used against merchant shipping, it is impossi- 
 ble to defend ships against their attacks as the 
 law of nations has assumed that merchantmen 
 would defend themselves against privateers or 
 cruisers, visible craft giving chase upon the 
 open sea. 
 
 It is common prudence in such circum- 
 stances, grim necessity, indeed, to endeavor to 
 destroy them before they have shown their 
 own intention. They must be dealt with upon 
 sight, if dealt with at all. 
 
 The German Government denies the right 
 of neutrals to use arms at all within the areas 
 of the sea which it has proscribed, even in the 
 defense of rights which no modern publicist 
 has ever before questioned their right to de- 
 fend. The intimation is conveyed that the 
 armed guards which we have placed on our 
 45 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 merchant-ships will be treated as beyond the 
 pale of law and subject to be dealt with as 
 pirates would be. 
 
 Armed neutrality is ineffectual enough at 
 best ; in such circumstances and in the face of 
 such pretensions it is worse than ineffectual; 
 it is likely to produce what it was meant to 
 prevent; it is practically certain to draw us 
 into the war without either the rights or the 
 effectiveness of belligerents. 
 
 There is one choice we cannot make, we are 
 incapable of making: we will not choose the 
 path of submission and suffer the most sacred 
 rights of our nation and our people to be 
 ignored or violated. The wrongs against which 
 we now array ourselves are not common 
 wrongs; they reach out to the very roots of 
 human life. 
 
 BELLIGERENCY THRUST UPON US 
 
 With a profound sense of the solemn and 
 even tragical character of the step I am taking 
 and of the grave responsibilities which it in- 
 volves, 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 
 46 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 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 re- 
 sources to bring the Government of the German 
 Empire to terms and end the war. 
 
 WHAT THIS WILL INVOLVE 
 
 What this will involve is clear. It will in- 
 volve the utmost practicable co-operation in 
 counsel and action with the Governments now 
 at war with Germany, and as incident to that 
 the extension to those Governments of the 
 most liberal financial credits in order that our 
 resources may so far as possible be added to 
 theirs. 
 
 It will involve the organization and mobili- 
 zation of all the material resources of the 
 country to supply the materials of war and 
 serve the incidental needs of the nation in the 
 most abundant and yet the most economical 
 and efficient way possible. 
 
 It will involve the immediate full equipment 
 of the navy in all respects, but particularly in 
 supplying it with the best means of dealing 
 with the enemy's submarines. 
 47 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 It will involve the immediate addition to the 
 armed forces of the United States already pro- 
 vided for by law in case of war at least 
 500,000 men, who should, in my opinion, be 
 chosen upon the principle of universal liabil- 
 ity to service, and also the authorization of 
 subsequent additional increments of equal 
 force so soon as they may be needed and can 
 be handled in training. 
 
 It will involve also, of course, the granting 
 of adequate credits to the Government, sus- 
 tained, I hope, so far as they can equitably be 
 sustained by the present generation, by well- 
 conceived taxation. I say sustained so far as 
 may be equitable by taxation because it seems 
 to me that it would be most unwise to base 
 the credits which will now be necessary en- 
 tirely on money borrowed. 
 
 It is our duty, I most respectfully urge, to 
 protect our people so far as we may against 
 the very serious hardships and evils which 
 would be likely to arise out of the inflation 
 which would be produced by vast loans. 
 
 In carrying out the measures by which these 
 things are to be accomplished we should keep 
 constantly in mind the wisdom of interfering 
 as little as possible in our own preparation and 
 in the equipment of our own military forces 
 with the duty — for it will be a very practical 
 48 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 duty — of supplying the nations already at war 
 with Germany with the materials which they 
 can obtain only from us or by our assistance. 
 They are in the field and we should help them 
 in every way to be effective there. 
 
 I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through 
 the several executive departments of the Gov- 
 ernment, for the consideration of your com- 
 mittees measures for the accomplishment of 
 the several objects I have mentioned. I hope 
 that it will be your pleasure to deal with them 
 as having been framed after very careful 
 thought by the branch of the Government 
 upon which the responsibility of conducting 
 the war and safeguarding the nation will most 
 directly fall. 
 
 OUR MOTIVES AND OBJECTS 
 
 While we do these things, these deeply mo- 
 mentous things, let us be very clear and make 
 very clear to all the world what our motives 
 and our objects are. My own thought has 
 not been driven from its habitual and normal 
 course by the unhappy events of the last two 
 months, and I do not believe that the thought 
 of the nation has been altered or clouded by 
 them. 
 
 I have exactly the same thing in mind now 
 49 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 that I had in mind when I addressed the Senate 
 on the 2 2d of January last; the same that I 
 had in mind when I addressed the Congress 
 on the 3d of February and on the 26th of 
 February. 
 
 Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the 
 principles of peace and the justice in the life 
 of the world as against selfish and autocratic 
 power and to set up amongst the really free and 
 self-governed peoples of the world such a con- 
 cert of purpose and of action as will henceforth 
 insure the observance of those principles. 
 
 Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable 
 where the peace of the world is involved and 
 the freedom of its peoples, and the menace to 
 that peace and freedom lies in the existence 
 of autocratic Governments backed by organ- 
 ized force which is controlled wholly by their 
 will, not by the will of their people. We have 
 seen the last of neutrality in such circum- 
 stances. 
 
 We are at the beginning of an age in which 
 it will be insisted that the same standards of 
 conduct and of responsibility for wrong done 
 shall be observed among nations and their 
 Governments that are observed among the 
 individual citizens of civilized states. 
 
 We have no quarrel with the German peo- 
 ple. We have no feeling toward them but one 
 50 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 of sympathy and friendship. It was not upon 
 their impulse that their Government acted in 
 entering this war. It was not with their pre- 
 vious knowledge or approval. 
 
 It was a war determined upon as wars used 
 to be determined upon in the old, unhappy 
 days when peoples were nowhere consulted 
 by their rulers and wars were provoked 
 and waged in the interest of dynasties or 
 of little groups of ambitious men who were 
 accustomed to use their fellow-men as pawns 
 and tools. 
 
 Self-governed nations do not fill their neigh- 
 bor states with spies or set the course of 
 intrigue to bring about some critical post- 
 ure of affairs which will give them an op- 
 portunity to strike and make conquest. Such 
 designs can be successfully worked only under 
 cover and where no one has the right to ask 
 questions. 
 
 Cunningly contrived plans of deception or 
 aggression, carried, it may be, from generation 
 to generation, can be worked out and kept 
 from the light only within the privacy of 
 courts or behind the carefully guarded con- 
 fidences of a narrow and privileged class. They 
 are happily impossible where public opinion 
 commands and insists upon full information 
 concerning all the nation's affairs. 
 5i 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 PEACE THROUGH FREE PEOPLES 
 
 A steadfast concert for peace can never be 
 maintained except by a partnership of demo- 
 cratic nations. No autocratic Government 
 could be trusted to keep faith within it or ob- 
 serve its covenants. It must be a league of 
 honor, a partnership of opinion. Intrigue 
 would eat its vitals away, the plottings of inner 
 circles who could plan what they would and 
 render account to no one would be a corruption 
 seated at its very heart. Only free peoples can 
 hold their purpose and their honor steady to a 
 common end and prefer the interests of man- 
 kind to any narrow interest of their own. 
 
 Does not every American feel that assur- 
 ance has been added to our hope for the future 
 peace of the world by the wonderful and heart- 
 ening things that have been happening within 
 the last few weeks in Russia? 
 
 Russia was known by those who know it 
 best to have been always in fact democratic at 
 heart, in all the vital habits of her thought, in 
 all the intimate relationships of her people that 
 spoke their natural instinct, their habitual 
 attitude toward life. 
 
 Autocracy that crowned the summit of her 
 political structure, long as it had stood and 
 terrible as was the reality of its power, was 
 52 
 
Statement given to th 
 
 W 
 The Department of State 
 statement to all foreign mis< 
 information : 
 
 In view of the announcer) 
 Government on January 31, 
 neutrals included, met with 
 seas, would be sunk without 
 for the safety of the person 
 exercise of visit and search, t 
 States has determined to pi 
 chant vessels sailing throug 
 guard for the protection of 
 the persons on board. 
 
 85582—17 
 
>ress March 12, 1917, 
 
 PARTMENT OF STATE, 
 
 lington, March 12, 1917. 
 s to-day sent the following 
 as in Washington for their 
 
 Lt of the Imperial German 
 >17, that all ships, those of 
 certain zones of the high 
 ly precautions being taken 
 an board, and without the 
 Government of the United 
 b upon all American mer- 
 ihe barred areas an armed 
 le vessels and the lives of 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 not in fact Russian in origin, in character or 
 purpose; and now it has been shaken and the 
 great, generous Russian people have been 
 added, in all their native majesty and- might, to 
 the forces that are fighting for freedom in the 
 world, for justice and for peace. Here is a fit 
 partner for a league of honor. 
 
 One of the things that have served to con- 
 vince us that the Prussian autocracy was not 
 and could never be our friend is that from the 
 very outset of the present war it has filled our 
 unsuspecting communities and even our offices 
 of Government with spies and set criminal 
 intrigues everywhere afoot against our na- 
 tional unity of council, our peace within and 
 without, our industries and our commerce. 
 
 Indeed, it is now evident that its spies were 
 here even before the war began, and it is, un- 
 happily, not a matter of conjecture, but a fact 
 proved in our courts of justice, that the in- 
 trigues which have more than once come per- 
 ilously near to disturbing the peace and dislo- 
 cating the industries of the country have been 
 carried on at the instigation, with the support, 
 and even under the personal direction, of offi- 
 cial agents of the Imperial German Govern- 
 ment accredited to the Government of the 
 United States. 
 
 Even in checking these things and trying to 
 
 5 S3 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 extirpate them we have sought to put the most 
 generous interpretation possible upon them be- 
 cause we knew that their source lay, not in 
 any hostile feeling or purpose of the German 
 people toward us (who were, no doubt, as 
 ignorant of them as we ourselves were), but 
 only in the selfish designs of a Government that 
 did what it pleased and told its people nothing. 
 But they have played their part in serving to 
 convince us at last that that Government 
 entertains no real friendship for us and means 
 to act against our peace and security at its 
 convenience. That it means to stir up enemies 
 against us at our very doors the intercepted 
 note to the German Minister at Mexico City 
 is eloquent evidence. 
 
 A CHALLENGE OF HOSTILE PURPOSE 
 
 We are accepting this challenge of hostile 
 purpose because we know that in such a Gov- 
 ernment, following such methods, we can never 
 have a friend; and that in the presence of its 
 organized power, always lying in wait to ac- 
 complish we know not what purpose, there 
 can be no assured security for the democratic 
 Governments of the world. 
 
 We are now about to accept the gage of 
 battle with this natural foe to liberty, and shall, 
 54 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 if necessary, spend the whole force of the 
 nation to check and nullify its pretensions and 
 its power. We are glad, now that we see the 
 facts with no veil of false pretense about them, 
 to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the 
 world and for the liberation of its peoples, 
 the German people included; for the rights 
 of nations great and small and the privilege of 
 men everywhere to choose their way of life 
 and of obedience. The world must be made 
 safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted 
 upon the trusted foundations of political 
 liberty. 
 
 We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire 
 no conquest, no dominion. We seek no in- 
 demnities for ourselves, no material compen- 
 sation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. 
 We are but one of the champions of the rights 
 of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those 
 rights have been made as secure as the faith 
 and the freedom of the nation can make them. 
 
 Just because we fight without rancor and 
 without selfish objects, seeking nothing for 
 ourselves but what we shall wish to share with 
 all free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, con- 
 duct our operations as belligerents without 
 passion and ourselves observe with proud punc- 
 tilio the principles of right and of fair play we 
 profess to be fighting for. 
 55 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 I have said nothing of the Governments al- 
 lied 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 in- 
 deed avowed its unqualified indorsement and 
 acceptance of the reckless and lawless sub- 
 marine warfare adopted now without disguise 
 by the Imperial German Government, and it 
 has therefore not been possible for this Govern- 
 ment to receive Count Tarnowski, the am- 
 bassador recently accredited to this Govern- 
 ment 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. 
 
 OPPOSITION TO THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT 
 FRIENDSHIP TOWARD THE GERMAN PEOPLE 
 
 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 
 56 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 right and fairness because we act without ani- 
 mus, 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 inti- 
 mate 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 friendship — exercising a pa- 
 tience and forbearance which would otherwise 
 have been impossible. 
 
 We shall, happily, still have an opportunity 
 to prove that friendship in our daily attitude 
 and actions toward the millions of men and 
 women of German birth and native sympathy 
 who live amongst 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. 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 
 57 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 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. 
 
 RIGHT MORE PRECIOUS THAN PEACE 
 
 It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gen- 
 tlemen of the Congress, which I have per- 
 formed in thus addressing you. There are, it 
 may be, many months of fiery trial and sacri- 
 fice 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, civili- 
 zation 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 de- 
 mocracy, for the right of those who submit to 
 authority to have a voice in their own govern- 
 ments, 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 
 58 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 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. God helping her, she can do no 
 other. 
 

V 
 
 A STATE OF WAR 
 
 The President's Proclamation of 
 April d, 1917 
 
THE PRESIDENT'S PROCLAMATION OF A STATE 
 OF WAR 
 
 Whereas, The Congress of the United States, 
 in the exercise of the constitutional authority 
 vested in them, have resolved by joint reso- 
 lution of the Senate and House of Representa- 
 tives, bearing date this day, that a state of war 
 between the United States and the Imperial 
 German Government, which has been thrust 
 upon the United States, is hereby formally 
 declared ; 
 
 Whereas, It is provided by Section 4067 
 of the Revised Statutes as follows: 
 
 Whenever there is declared a war between the United 
 States and any foreign nation or Government, or any 
 invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted 
 or threatened against the territory of the United States 
 by any foreign nation or Government, and the President 
 makes public proclamation of the event, all natives, 
 citizens, denizens or subjects of a hostile nation or 
 Government being male of the age of fourteen years and 
 upward who shall be within the United States and not 
 
 63 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 actually naturalized shall be liable to be apprehended, 
 restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies. 
 
 The President is authorized in any such 
 event, by his proclamation thereof or other 
 public acts, to direct the conduct to be ob- 
 served on the part of the United States 
 toward the aliens who become so liable; the 
 manner and degree of the restraint to which 
 they shall be subject and in what cases and 
 upon what security their residence shall be 
 permitted and to provide for the removal of 
 those who, not being permitted to reside within 
 the United States, refuse or neglect to depart 
 therefrom, and to establish any such regula- 
 tions which are found necessary in the prem- 
 ises and for the public safety; 
 
 Whereas, By Sections 4068, 4069, and 4070 
 of the Revised Statutes further provision is 
 made relative to alien enemies; 
 
 Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, Presi- 
 dent of the United States of America, do 
 hereby proclaim to all whom it may concern 
 that a state of war exists between the United 
 States and the Imperial German Government, 
 and I do specially direct all officers, civil or 
 military, of the United States that they exer- 
 cise vigilance and zeal in the discharge of the 
 duties incident to such a state of war, and I 
 do, moreover, earnestly appeal to all American 
 64 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 citizens that they, in loyal devotion to their 
 country, dedicated from its foundation to the 
 principles of liberty and justice, uphold the 
 laws of the land and give undivided and willing 
 support to those measures which may be 
 adopted by the constitutional authorities in 
 prosecuting the war to a successful issue and 
 in obtaining a secure and just peace; 
 
 And acting under and by virtue of the 
 authority vested in me by the Constitution of 
 the United States and the said sections of the 
 Revised Statutes: 
 
 I do hereby further proclaim and direct that 
 the conduct to be observed on the part of the 
 United States toward all natives, citizens, 
 denizens, or subjects of Germany, being male, 
 of the age of fourteen years and upward, who 
 shall be within the United States and not 
 actually naturalized, who for the purpose of 
 this proclamation and under such sections of 
 the Revised Statutes are termed alien enemies, 
 shall be as follows : 
 
 All alien enemies are enjoined to preserve the peace 
 toward the United States and to refrain from crime 
 against the public safety and from violating the laws of 
 the United States and of the States and Territories 
 thereof, and to refrain from actual hostility or giving in- 
 formation, aid or comfort to the enemies of the United 
 States, and to comply strictly with the regulations which 
 are hereby or which may be from time to time promul- 
 
 65 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 gated by the President, and so long as they shall conduct 
 themselves in accordance with law they shall be undis- 
 turbed in the peaceful pursuit of their lives and occupa- 
 tions and be accorded the consideration due to all 
 peaceful and law-abiding persons, except so far as re- 
 strictions may be necessary for their own protection and 
 for the safety of the United States, and toward such alien 
 enemies as conduct themselves in accordance with law 
 all citizens of the United States are enjoined to preserve 
 the peace and to treat them with all such friendliness as 
 may be compatible with loyalty and allegiance to the 
 United States. 
 
 And all alien enemies who fail to conduct themselves 
 as so enjoined, in addition to all other penalties pre- 
 scribed by law, shall be liable to restraint or to give 
 security or to remove and depart from the United States 
 in the manner prescribed by Sections 4069 and 4070 of 
 the Revised Statutes and as prescribed in the regulations 
 duly promulgated by the President. 
 
 And, pursuant to the authority vested in 
 me, I hereby declare and establish the following 
 regulations, which I find necessary in the 
 premises and for the public safety: 
 
 First. An alien enemy shall not have in his possession 
 at any time or place any firearms, weapons, or imple- 
 ment of war, or component parts thereof; ammunition, 
 Maxim or other silencer, arms or explosives or material 
 used in the manufacture of explosives. 
 
 Second. An alien enemy shall not have in his possession 
 
 at any time or place, or use or operate, any aircraft 
 
 or wireless apparatus, or any form of signaling device, 
 
 or any form of cipher code or any paper, document 
 
 66 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 or book written or printed in cipher, or in which there 
 may be invisible writing. 
 
 Third. All property found in the possession of an alien 
 enemy in violation of the foregoing regulations shall be 
 subject to seizure by the United States. 
 
 Fourth. An alien enemy shall not approach or be 
 found within one-half of a mile of any Federal or State 
 fort, camp, arsenal, aircraft station, Government or 
 naval vessel, navy-yard, factory or workshop for the 
 manufacture of munitions of war or of any products for 
 the use of the army or navy. 
 
 Fifth. An alien enemy shall not write, print or publish 
 any attack or threat against the Government or Con- 
 gress of the United States, or either branch thereof, or 
 against the measures or policy of the United States, or 
 against the persons or property of any person in the 
 military, naval or civil service of the United States, or 
 of the States or Territories, or of the District of Columbia, 
 or of the municipal governments therein. 
 
 Sixth. An alien enemy shall not commit or abet any 
 hostile acts against the United States, or give informa- 
 tion, aid or comfort to its enemies. 
 
 Seventh. An alien enemy shall not reside in or continue 
 to reside in, to remain in or enter any locality which the 
 President may from time to time designate by an execu- 
 tive order as a prohibitive area in which residence by an 
 alien enemy shall be found by him to constitute a danger 
 to the public peace and safety of the United States except 
 by permit from the President and except under such lim- 
 itations or restrictions as the President may prescribe. 
 
 Eighth. An alien enemy whom the President shall 
 have reasonable cause to believe to be aiding or about to 
 aid the enemy, or to be at large to the danger of the 
 public peace or safety of the United States, or to have 
 violated or to be about to violate any of these regulations, 
 
 6 7 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 shall remove to any location designated by the President 
 by executive order, and shall not remove therefrom with- 
 out permit, or shall depart from the United States if so 
 required by the President. 
 
 Ninth. No alien enemy shall depart from the United 
 States until he shall have received such permit as the 
 President shall prescribe, or except under order of a 
 Court, Judge or Justice, under Sections 4069 and 4070 
 of the Revised Statutes. 
 
 Tenth. No alien enemy shall land in or enter the 
 United States except under such restrictions and at such 
 places as the President may prescribe. 
 
 Eleventh. If necessary to prevent violation of the 
 regulations, all alien enemies will be obliged to register. 
 
 Twelfth. An alien enemy whom there may be reason- 
 able cause to believe to be aiding or about to aid the 
 enemy, or to be at large to the danger of the public 
 peace or safety, or who violates or who attempts to 
 violate or of whom there is reasonable grounds to believe 
 that he is about to violate any regulation to be promul- 
 gated by the President or any criminal law of the United 
 States or of the States or Territories thereof, will be 
 subject to summary arrest by the United States, by the 
 United States Marshal or his deputy or such other officers 
 as the President shall designate, and to confinement in 
 such penitentiary, prison, jail, military camp, or other 
 place of detention as may be directed by the President. 
 
 This proclamation and the regulations herein 
 contained shall extend and apply to all land 
 and water, continental or insular, in any way 
 within the jurisdiction of the United States. 
 
VI 
 
 "SPEAK, ACT AND SERVE 
 TOGETHER' ' 
 
 Message to the American People 
 April 15, 1917 
 
VI 
 
 "speak, act and serve together" 
 
 My Fellow-Countrymen: 
 
 The entrance of our own beloved country 
 into the grim and terrible war for democracy 
 and human rights which has shaken the world 
 creates so many problems of national life and 
 action which call for immediate consideration 
 and settlement that I hope you will permit me 
 to address to you a few words of earnest 
 counsel and appeal with regard to them. 
 
 We are rapidly putting our navy upon an 
 effective war footing and are about to create 
 and equip a great army, but these are the 
 simplest parts of the great task to which we 
 have addressed ourselves. There is not a 
 single selfish element, so far as I can see, in 
 the cause we are fighting for. We are fighting 
 for what we believe and wish to be the rights 
 of mankind and for the future peace and se- 
 curity of the world. To do this great thing 
 worthily and successfully we must devote our- 
 7i 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 selves to the service without regard to profit 
 or material advantage and with an energy 
 and intelligence that will rise to the level of the 
 enterprise itself. We must realize to the full 
 how great the task is and how many things, 
 how many kinds and elements of capacity and 
 service and self-sacrifice it involves. 
 
 WHAT WE MUST DO 
 
 These, then, are the things we must do, and 
 do well, besides fighting — the things without 
 which mere fighting would be fruitless : 
 
 We must supply abundant food for ourselves 
 and for our armies and our seamen, not only, 
 but also for a large part of the nations with 
 whom we have now made common cause, in 
 whose support and by whose sides we shall be 
 fighting. 
 
 We must supply ships by the hundreds out 
 of our shipyards to carry to the other side of 
 the sea, submarines or no submarines, what 
 will every day be needed there, and abundant 
 materials out of our fields and our mines and 
 our factories with which not only to clothe 
 and equip our own forces on land and sea, but 
 also to clothe and support our people, for 
 whom the gallant fellows under arms can no 
 longer work; to help clothe and equip the 
 72 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 armies with which we are co-operating in 
 Europe, and to keep the looms and manu- 
 factories there in raw material; coal to keep 
 the fires going in ships at sea and in the fur- 
 naces of hundreds of factories across the sea; 
 steel out of which to make arms and ammuni- 
 tion both here and there; rails for wornout 
 railways back of the fighting fronts; locomo- 
 tives and rolling-stock to take the place of 
 those every day going to pieces; mules, 
 horses, cattle for labor and for military service ; 
 everything with which the people of England 
 and France and Italy and Russia have usually 
 supplied themselves, but cannot now afford 
 the men, the materials or the machinery to 
 make. 
 
 GREATER EFFICIENCY 
 
 It is evident to every thinking man that our 
 industries, on the farms, in the shipyards, in 
 the mines, in the factories, must be made more 
 prolific and more efficient than ever, and that 
 they must be more economically managed and 
 better adapted to the particular requirements 
 of our task than they have been; and what I 
 want to say is that the men and the women 
 who devote their thought and their energy to 
 these things will be serving the country and 
 conducting the fight for peace and freedom 
 73 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 just as truly and just as effectively as the 
 men on the battle-field or in the trenches. 
 The industrial forces of the country, men and 
 women alike, will be a great national, a great 
 international, service army — a notable and 
 honored host engaged in the service of the 
 nation and the world, the efficient friends and 
 saviors of free men everywhere. Thousands, 
 nay, hundreds of thousands, of men otherwise 
 liable to military service will of right and of 
 necessity be excused from that service and 
 assigned to the fundamental sustaining work 
 of the fields and factories and mines, and they 
 will be as much part of the great patriotic 
 forces of the nation as the men under fire. 
 
 I take the liberty, therefore, of addressing 
 this word to the farmers of the country and to 
 all who work on the farms : The supreme need 
 of our own nation and of the nations with 
 which we are co-operating is an abundance of 
 supplies, and especially of foodstuffs. The im- 
 portance of an adequate food-supply, especially 
 for the present year, is superlative. Without 
 abundant food, alike for the armies and the 
 peoples now at war, the whole great enterprise 
 upon which we have embarked will break down 
 and fail. The world's food reserves are low. 
 Not only during the present emergency, but 
 for some time after peace shall have come, 
 74 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 both our own people and a large proportion of 
 the people of Europe must rely upon the 
 harvests in America. 
 
 THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE FARMERS 
 
 Upon the farmers of this country, therefore, 
 in large measure rests the fate of the war and 
 the fate of the nations. May the nation not 
 count upon them to omit no step that will 
 increase the production of their land or that 
 will bring about the most effectual co-operation 
 in the sale and distribution of their products? 
 The time is short. It is of the most imperative 
 importance that everything possible be done, 
 and done immediately, to make sure of large 
 harvests. I call upon young men and old alike 
 and upon the able-bodied boys of the land to 
 accept and act upon this duty — to turn in 
 hosts to the farms and make certain that no 
 pains and no labor is lacking in this great 
 matter. 
 
 I particularly appeal to the farmers of the 
 South to plant abundant foodstuffs, as well as 
 cotton. They can show their patriotism in no 
 better or more convincing way than by resist- 
 ing the great temptation of the present price 
 of cotton and helping, helping upon a great 
 scale, to feed the nation and the peoples every- 
 75 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 where who are fighting for their liberties and 
 for our own. The variety of their crops will be 
 the visible measure of their comprehension of 
 their national duty. 
 
 The Government of the United States and 
 the Governments of the several States stand 
 ready to co-operate. They will do everything 
 possible to assist farmers in securing an ade- 
 quate supply of seed, an adequate force of 
 laborers when they are most needed, at har- 
 vest-time, and the means of expediting ship- 
 ments of fertilizers and farm machinery, as 
 well as of the crops themselves when harvested. 
 The course of trade shall be as unhampered as 
 it is possible to make it, and there shall be no 
 unwarranted manipulation of the nation's food- 
 supply by those who handle it on its way to 
 the consumer. This is our opportunity to 
 demonstrate the efficiency of a great democ- 
 racy, and we shall not fall short of it! 
 
 THE DUTY OF MIDDLEMEN 
 
 This let me say to the middlemen of every 
 sort, whether they are handling our foodstuffs 
 or the raw materials of manufacture or the 
 products of our mills and factories: The eyes 
 of the country will be especially upon you. 
 This is your opportunity for signal service, 
 76 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 efficient and disinterested. The country ex- 
 pects you, as it expects all others, to forego 
 unusual profits, to organize and expedite ship- 
 ments of supplies of every kind, but especially 
 of food, with an eye to the service you are 
 rendering and in the spirit of those who enlist 
 in the ranks, for their people, not for them- 
 selves. I shall confidently expect you to 
 deserve and win the confidence of people of 
 every sort and station. 
 
 THE MEN OF THE RAILWAYS 
 
 To the men who run the railways of the 
 country, whether they be managers or opera- 
 tive employees, let me say that the railways are 
 the arteries of the nation's life and that upon 
 them rests the immense responsibility of seeing 
 to it that those arteries suffer no obstruction 
 of any kind, no inefficiency or slackened power. 
 To the merchant let me suggest the motto, 
 "Small profits and quick service," and to the 
 shipbuilder the thought that the life of the 
 war depends upon him. The food and the war 
 supplies must be carried across the seas, no 
 matter how many ships are sent to the bottom. 
 The places of those that go down must be 
 supplied, and supplied at once. To the miner 
 let me say that he stands where the farmer 
 77 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 does: the work of the world waits on him. 
 If he slackens or fails, armies and statesmen 
 are helpless. He also is enlisted in the great 
 Service Army. The manufacturer does not 
 need to be told, I hope, that the nation looks 
 to him to speed and perfect every process; 
 and I want only to remind his employees that 
 their service is absolutely indispensable and is 
 counted on by every man who loves the coun- 
 try and its liberties. 
 
 Let me suggest also that every one who 
 creates or cultivates a garden helps, and helps 
 greatly, to solve the problem of the feeding of 
 the nations; and that every housewife who 
 practises strict economy puts herself in the 
 ranks of those who serve the nation. This is 
 the time for America to correct her unpardon- 
 able fault of wastefulness and extravagance. 
 Let every man and every woman assume the 
 duty of careful, provident use and expenditure 
 as a public duty, as a dictate of patriotism 
 which no one can now expect ever to be ex- 
 cused or forgiven for ignoring. 
 
 THE SUPREME TEST 
 
 In the hope that this statement of the needs 
 of the nation and of the world in this hour of 
 supreme crisis may stimulate those to whom it 
 78 
 
WHY WE ARE AT WAR 
 
 comes and remind all who need reminder of 
 the solemn duties of a time such as the world 
 has never seen before, I beg that all editors 
 and publishers everywhere will give as promi- 
 nent publication and as wide circulation as 
 possible to this appeal. I venture to suggest 
 also to all advertising agencies that they would 
 perhaps render a very substantial and timely 
 service to the country if they would give it 
 widespread repetition. And I hope that clergy- 
 men will not think the theme of it an unwor- 
 thy or inappropriate subject of comment and 
 homily from their pulpits. 
 
 The supreme test of the nation has come. 
 We must all speak, act and serve together! 
 
 Woodrow Wilson. 
 
 THE END 
 
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