1917] Declaration of War 



military forces of the United States and the resources of the 

 Government to carry on war against the Imperial German 

 Government; and to bring the conflict to a successful termina- 

 tion, all the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the 

 Congress of the United States. 



Technically and in accordance with recognized law TWO points 

 and precedent, the injuries done to American ship- f view 

 ping amply justified the declaration. But if that were 

 the sole real issue, the crisis seemed to me to call for 

 further deliberation in view of enormous considerations 

 - the certainty of terrible loss, suffering, and social 

 and financial disintegration on the part of our country 

 sure to follow entrance into war. Triumph and 

 defeat, as Kipling has indicated, are twin "impostors 

 who must be treated alike." 



As a matter of fact, however, Wilson spoke and the 

 nation followed for humanity's sake. With essentially 



undivided front." This view influenced a large number of others, being indeed 

 based on practical sense. 



On the other hand, a well-known member, a retired colonel of the Spanish 

 war, told me that when leaving his home in the West he was fully prepared to 

 vote for war, but on hearing the arguments current in the East and the " hulla- 

 baloo" along the seaboard, he became dead set against it and voted accordingly. 



Previously, as legislators arrived, Miss Frances M. Witherspoon, daughter 

 of a prominent Congressman recently deceased, made a personal canvass, finding 

 less than half of the Senate really convinced of the necessity of war, and about 

 sixty per cent of the House decidedly opposed; approximately twenty-five per 

 cent of the others were strong for war, the remainder more or less uncertain. 

 But only fifty negative votes were cast in the House, several of those most 

 strongly opposed adopting Kenyon's view. Concerning this matter one of the 

 dissenters said to me that if certain leading Representatives in each party had 

 voted "in accordance with their personal views as did Claude Kitchin, the 

 Democratic floor leader, they would have carried the majority with them." 

 This would, however, have brought about a confusing and almost impossible 

 situation, with the President and Senate having declared the existence of war 

 and the House refusing to recognize it. 



In the Senate, on April 3, Norris of Nebraska, a sturdy representative of the 

 "plain people," made a vigorous arraignment of certain sordid war motives, 

 thus calling out a bitter retort by Reed of Missouri, a new member already fast 

 acquiring a reputation of common scold. 



c 733:1 



