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CHAPTER XVI

THE WAR MESSAGE

Its Dramatic Setting-Chief Justice White's ApprovalMethods of Meeting Crisis-Organization of the Food Supplies of the Country

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ONDAY evening, April 2d, will stand out in my mind as the date of the most dramatic scene I ever witnessed and of the most historic episode in which I ever had any part. That evening, the President, at half-past eight o'clock, appeared before the Joint Session of Congress to advise that body to declare that the recent course of Germany was nothing less than war against the government and the people of the United States.

The Hall of the House of Representatives was crowded. The floor was occupied by the members of the House and the Senate, the Diplomatic Corps, the Supreme Court, and the Cabinet. The Cabinet was seated as usual in the front seats at the left side of the Speaker's desk and the diplomats were placed immediately back of the Cabinet. Seats for the Supreme Court had been placed in the pit in a half circle just in front of the Speaker; and the members of that body were in their places on either side of the Chief Justice. The galleries were packed. There was an air of tenseness and expectancy. The President had been escorted to the Capitol by a body of cavalry to protect him from possible annoyance by paci

fists who had tried to bank themselves around the approaches to the Capitol. This was a very unusual incident and added to the tenseness of the occasion.

As the President entered, he was given an ovation. As I was standing with the others while the demonstration lasted, I glanced around and bowed to Spring-Rice and Jusserand, who were expectant and happy.

The President began reading as soon as quiet prevailed; and, as he proceeded, I found myself watching Chief Justice White, who sat a very short distance in front and to the left of me. I knew what his reaction would be, but I did not anticipate that he would show his emotions so strikingly. Several times I had talked to him about the war. Shortly after England entered the war, he came up to me one evening at a social gathering, put his hand on my shoulder, and said in a low voice: "I wish I were thirty years younger. I would go to Canada and volunteer." He listened with interest to the President's review of the submarine controversy. When the President said: "The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind," he gave a vigorous nod. He repeated it when the President added: "It is a war against all nations. The challenge is to all mankind.” He listened with evident satisfaction to the statement characterizing armed neutrality as ineffectual, as "likely only to produce what it was meant to prevent," and as practically certain to draw us into the war without either the rights or the effectiveness of belligerents. But when the President said: "There is one choice we cannot make, we are incapable of making: We will not choose the path of submission," he did not wait to hear the rest of the sentence. He was on his feet instantly leading the Supreme

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Court and the entire assembly. His face was a study. It worked almost convulsively and great tears began to roll down his cheeks. From that moment to the end he was vigorously applauding everything. He had a profound realization of the issues at stake and particularly of the part England had played in the world, of the meaning of her institutions, and of the menace to the world of her overthrow by Germany. He knew what war meant, having been a soldier in the Civil War, and he was willing and anxious to stand the horrors of war again for vital principles.

From time to time, also, I looked at the next most interesting figure in the audience, John Sharp Williams. He, too, was a study. He sat, huddled up, listening attentively and approvingly, with one hand to his ear, removing it frequently for an instant, just long enough to give a single clap, for fear of missing something. And he was well advised, for no other address to a legislative body was ever better worth listening to. Its words rang then and they will continue ringing for many years to

come.

The President did not omit to indicate methods and measures. In particular he approved the "principle of universal liability to service" and the meeting of the expenses so far as was equitable “by the present generation, by well-conceived taxation. 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 inflation which would be produced by vast loans." He drew a distinction between the German people and their government just as he had between the Mexicans and theirs; and he found added hope

for future peace in the heartening things that had happened in Russia in the few preceding weeks.

It was particularly interesting to me to hear him say that his own thought had not "been driven from its habitual and normal course by the unhappy events of the last two months" and that he "had exactly the same things in mind" that he had when he addressed the Senate in January. He had been preparing to meet the change in circumstances and had systematically indulged in a campaign of education of this nation and of the world.

This message was striking in its boldness and completeness. It was obvious that it would greatly impress and stimulate our people and hearten the Allies. It was worth many battalions.

As I passed the President, after the session had adjourned, I congratulated and thanked him and remarked that if it was any comfort to him I could tell him that I had been watching the Supreme Court, that it had on the spot unanimously given him a favourable verdict as to the constitutionality of his proposal and as to the righteousness of his cause, and that it would give a favourable verdict on any proposal necessary and designed to beat the Germans. He smiled, thanked me, and passed

on.

When, on April 6, 1917, the existence of a state of war with Germany was declared by Congress, this country was facing an unsatisfactory situation in respect to its supply of foods and feedstuffs. The production in 1916 of the leading cereals, corn, wheat, oats, barley, rye, buckwheat, rice, and kafir was comparatively low, aggregating 4,806,000,000 bushels, as against 6,010,000,000 for 1915, 4,983,000,000 for 1914, and 4,884,000,000, the annual

average for 1910-1914. The wheat crop of 1916 especially was strikingly small. It was only 639,886,000 bushels as compared with the record production for 1915 of 1,026,000,000, with 891,000,000 for 1914, and with the average for the five years 1910-1914 of 728,000,000. It was certain, too, that on account of adverse weather conditions, the output of winter wheat for 1917 would be greatly curtailed. The world production of wheat for 1916 also was unsatisfactory, and the prospects for the ensuing year were not good. The situation was no better in respect to another conspicuously important food product, the Irish potato. The yield of this crop for 1916 in the United States was only 285,437,000 bushels, while for 1915 and 1914, respectively, it was 359,721,000 and 409,921,000. For the period 1910-1914 it averaged 360,772,000.

Even in normal times public attention fixes itself particularly on the supply of wheat. In time of war it does so much more intensely. Wheat is peculiarly important from a military point of view. Because of the wheat shortage here and elsewhere and of the large foreign demand, apprehension and, in some quarters, hysteria developed. The supply of meats and of poultry and dairy products was somewhat larger than in the years immediately preceding, but the foreign demand was great and increasing, and exports were steadily rising. It was obvious that the supply of feedstuffs would not be normally abundant, and that it would be difficult to maintain the usual number of live stock and practically impossible within a reasonable time to increase it. Then, too, competitive purchasing by foreign agencies on a large scale of all food products was prevalent, and speculation was

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