ttsyfeKiyg iJfeiER-iirrADBLPHiA ftf6j&K&fe? September io'MT' an 7 , ,V,., t i U , fi RMANY &HE NFXT iFOURir - m - mwmiM m Coprlwlil, Tl)17, clcorite II, Dormi Comnnny. i J-ftf P'& k. ' 'f -r 1 1 V. ' itfWu ft.- fcr-. &), Ife V-W- K" &ii. Efk?. RlVl !.. m! 1 1 'resident Wilson Maintained a Policy of Disin terested Neutrality Toward All the Bellig erents in This War Until February, 1915, When the Von Tirpitz Submarine Blockade of England Was Proclaimed - a p lilt uj, 7ri IV Ackerman Reached the Lituc s ..!. n ntl,;, tit, Wnutiii That Neither the Officers Nor the People Were the "Huns and Barbarians" That They Had Been Pictured But That Was in 1915 PRESIDENT WILSON'S policy during the first six months of the A war was one of impartiality and neutrality. The first diplomatic representative in Washington to question the sincerity of the txecu tive was Dr. Constantlne Uumba, exiled Austro-Hunganan Ambassa dor whff was sent to the United States because he was not n noble, and therefore, better able to understand and interpret American '. ti oi,n,i , nni flav whether I thought Wilson was neutral. ' He said he had been told the President was pro-English. He believed, he said, that everything tne i-resiucm. nuu uu..c . .. .. . ympathized with the Entente. While we were talking I recalled what the President's stenographer, Charles L. Swem, said ope day when we were going to New York with the President: I am present at every conference the President holds. 1 take all his dictation. I think he is the most neutral man in America. I have never heard him express an opinion one way or the other, and if ho had 1 would surely know of it. I told Doctor Dumba this story, which interested him, and he made no comments. As 1 was at the White House nearly every day 1 had an op. " portunity to learn what the President would say to callers and friends, although I was seldom privileged to usp the information. Even now I do not recall a single statement which cer gave me the impression that the President sided with one gioup of bel ligerents. The President's sincerity and firm desiie for neutrality were mphasized in his appeal to "My Countrymen." "The people of the United States," ho said, "arc drawn from many nations, and chiefly from the nations now at war. It is nat ural and inevitable that there should be the utmost variety of sym pathy and desire among them with regard to the issues and circum stances of the conflict. Some will wish one nation, others another, to succeed in the momentous struggle. It will be easy to excite pas lion and difficult to allay it. Those losponsible for exciting it will assume a heavy responsibility, responsibility for no less a thing than that the people of the United States, whose love of their country and Whose loyalty to the Government should unite them ns Americans all, bound in honor and affection to think first of her and her interests, may be divided in camps of hostile opinion, hot against each other, Involved in the war itself in impulse and opinion, if not in action. . "My thought is of America. I am speaking, I feel sure, the earnest wish and purpose of every thoughtful American that this gieat country of ours, which is of course the first in our thoughts and in , our hearts, should show herself in this time of peculiar trial a nation fit beyond others to exhibit the fine poise of undisturbed judgment, the dignity of self-control, the efficiency of dispassionate action; a nation that neither sits in judgment upon others nor is disturbed in her own counsels and which keeps herself fit and free to do' what la honest and disinterested and truly serviceable for the peace of the World." Many Americans believed even early in the war that the United States should have protested against the invasion of Belgium. Otlfers thought the Government should prohibit the shipments of war sup plies to the belligerents. America was divided by the great issues in Europe, but the great majority of Americans believed with the President that the best service Uncle Sam could render would be to help bring about peace.' Until February, 1915, when the Von Tirpitz submarine blockade of England was proclaimed, only American interests, not American lives, had been drawn into the war. But when the German Admiralty announced that neutral as well as belligerent ships in British waters would be sunk without warning, there was a new and unexpected obstacle to neutrality. The high seas were as much American as British. The oceans were no nation's property nnd they could not justly be used as battle grounds for ruthless warfare by either bel ligerent. Germany, therefore, was the first to challenge American neu trality. Germany was the first to threaten American Ihes. Ger many, which was the first to show contempt for Wilson, forced the President, as well as the people, to alter policies and adapt Amer lean neutrality to a new and grate danger. On February 4, 1915, the Rcichsanzeiger, the official newspaper f Germany, published an announcement declaring that from the 17, 1013 J Ackerman .stepped into Germany Marclt eighteenth of February "all the waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland, as well as the entire English Channel, arc hereby de clared to be a war area. All ships of the enemy mercantile marine found in these waters will be destroyed, and it will not always be possible to avoid danger to the crews and passengers thereon. "Neutial shipping is also in danger in the war aica, as owing to the sccict order issued by the British Admiralty, January .'11, 1915, legarding the misuse of neutral flags, and the chances of naval warfaie, it can happen that attacks directed against enemy ships may damage neutral vessels. "The shipping route louiid the north of the Shctlands in the east of the North Sea and over a distance of thirty miles along the coast of the Netherlands will not bo dangerous." Although the announcement was signed by Admiral von Pohl, chief of the Admiralty staff, the real author of the blockade was Grand Admiral von Tirpitz. In explanation of the announcement the Teutonic-Allied, neutral and hostile Powers were sent a memor andum, which contained the following paragraph: The German Government announces its intention in good time so that hostile as well as neutral ships can take necessary precautions accordingly. Germany expects that the neutral Pow ers will show the same consideration for Germany's vital inter ests as for those of England, and will aid in keeping their citi zens and property from this area. This is the more to be ex pected, as it must be to the interests of the neutral Powers to see this destructive war end as soon as possible. On February 112 the American Ambassador, James W. Gerard, handed Secretary of State von Jagow a note, in which the United States said: This.Government views these possibilities with such grave con cern that it feels it to be its privilege, and indeed its duty in the circumstances, to request the Imperial German Government to consider before action is taken the critical situation in respect of the relations between this country and Germany which might arise were the German naval officers, in cairying out the policy foreshadowed in the Admiralty's proclamation, to destroy any merchant vessel of the United States or cause the death of American citizens. It 1S, of COUrSe. Unnccessnrv In lpmirwl (1, -!..,,.. .. ment that the sole right of a belligerent in dealing with neutral vessels on the high seas is limited to visit and search, unless a blockade is proclaimed and effectively maintained, which the Government of the United States does not understand to be pro posed in this case. To declare and exercise the right to attack and destroy any vessel entering a prescribed area of the high seas without first accurately determining its belligerent nation ality and the contraband character of its cargo would be an act f.o unprecedented in naval warfare that this Government is re luctant to believe that the Imperial German Government in this case contemplates it as possible. I sailed from New York February 13, 1915, on the first Ameri can passenger liner to iuii the Von Tirpitz blockade. On February 20 we passed Qucenslown and entered the Irish Sea at night. Al though it was moonlight nnd we could see for miles about us, every light on the ship, except the green and red port and starboard lan terns, was extinguished. As wo sailed across the Irish Sea, silently andcautiously as a muskrat swims on a moonlight night, we received a wireless message that a submarine, operating off the mouth of the Mersey River, had sunk an English freighter. The captain was asked by the British Admiralty to stop the engines and await orders. Within an hour a patrol boat approached and escorted us until the pilot came aboard early the next morning. No one aboard ship slept. Few expected to reach Liverpool alive, but the next afternoon we were safe in one of the numerous snug wharves of that great port. A few days later I arrived in London. As I walked through Fleet street newsboys were hurrying from the press rooms carrying orange colored placards with the words in big black type: "Pirates Sink An other Neutral Ship." Until the middle of March I remained in London, where the wild est rumors were afloat about the dangers off the coast of England, and where every one was excited and expectant over the reports that Ger many was starving. I was urged by friends and physicians not to go to Germany because it was universally believed in Great Britain that the war w0Uid be over in a very short time. On March 15 I crossed from Tilbury to Rotterdam. At Tilbury I saw pontoon bridges across the Thames, patrol boats and submarine chasers rushing back and forth watching for U-boats, which might attempt to come up the river. I hoarder! fJi Ttntovio tr ii i ,v. , . . r . a ii u iu . f . lu uv "'Knl ana ,eic ravesend at daylight the next mSrning for Holland. Every one was on deck look- In the Early Days of the War the Violent HatrM Toward President Wilson and the Atnerl3 reopiv nun iivwcuviy -fnaeit tsut if WmA Not Long Before the Munitions Interests a3l ine navy uui nuoy Jn CONGRESS. July 4. w I ijc uuautmoitTccfarrtf ton .... $toi ofrrwrifa ' ' "ttfM.XA-., )Lm ty L-w AU JvJ rffa & r JLUV 6fiiti - - . SC. t- ,-b-w...w -r-- ffb Mfc fT Mtt k - - i - J- i AtL. '--. .. , ilA.JJfJi.iA. .2. .l' l . jit y. . tfsziisZ2t&- Wtttai3a3t2z -.. Jw..-. ... ,f r-J'.f . Mf i fJXJUt. L Jin V.mBffifrif''ftj'f.' 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V .-..- A ... jLfe?.V& Aa&zi 4 'tZZ&r- 'i0f&Z--J- Z2if j&K.- ...i. .. r "The League of Truth" used this method to foster httnj kuiusl jiiiirm.i in viuiiuuui. iiiu uucuiueni snows me Ulf. uuii oi inut'iienaencc wnn me impnni oi a rca nana over it. int? for submarines ntirl ininps. Tno pVinnnol 1inf 1oi, ,n. ....t as a small lake, but the terrible expectation that submarines mijlt signt tne uutcii ship made every passenger feel that the submarini war was as real as it was norriDie. On March 17, arriving at the little German border town of BenU ncim, i met ior tne nrst time the people who were already branded! "Huns and Barbarians" by the British and French. Officers and pw. pie, however, were not what they had been pictured to me. Neithw was .Germany starving. The officials and inKnnrtnrs wn Mn-i.,.. and patient and permitted me to take into Germany not only British newspapers, nut placards wmch pictured the Germans as piraUl Two days later, while walking down Unter den Linden, poor old women, who wei e already taking the places of newsboys, sold Germu extras with streaming headlines: "British Shins Sunk. SnhnriM War Successful." In front of the Lokal Anzciger building stood i large crowci reading tne bulletins about the progress of the Va xirpiiz DiocKaac. For luncheon that day I had the choice of as many foods I nau Jinu in i.onuon. ine only tning missing was white bread, for Germany, at the beginning of the war, permitted only Kriegsbrot , iar Dreau; to De DaKcd. All Berlin streets were crowded and busy. Military automo biles, autotrucks, big moving vans, private automobiles, taxicabs anj r,"3 nurnea miner and thither. Soldiers and officers, seem. mgiy Dy tne thousands, were parading up and down. Stores weri nusy. uernn appeared to be as normal as any other capital. Eva the confidence of Germany in victory impressed me so that in'oneof,- '" mat, majiuicnes, i saui: "Germany today is more confident than ever that all effort! of her enemies to crush her mnef nrxvo i-. ,,!... mni. ii .u .. . t.w. .i mm. ii iiu a uireeioio ouea sive, in I- landers, in Galicia and in northwest Russia, being succea ' in.., Hiumeu, mere was a spirit of enthusiasm displayed hereia both military and civilian circles that exceeded even the stirring dan immediately following the outbreak of the war. "Flags are flying everywhere today; the imperial standards of Germany and Austria predominate, although there is a goodly show. ing of the Turkish Crescent. Bands are playing as regiment afUr ,. i , pasSCS u,rouSh tne c'ty to entrain for the front. Throurt 1 ., " " "" "" """ 1'iuvcu, mcir nats and guns decorated with fragrant flowers and with mothers, sisters and sweetheart! ""Kim; iu unu encouraging them. (CONTINUED TOMOnnOW) B " """ """ i"- 'lonana. tvery one was- on deck look- .?v., REMARKABLE CHANGE IN rTAL-XiOJdini ' h f'i. 'if i-JL " , .. BERLIN'S WAR-TIRED POPULACE vCPATHETIC AS TROOPS PAnAnVrom Und"W0(1 fndtr.ooj m. mm rM vhbfk u twr urnan r nnaa oan. . ant mm . j .i i. ' s-r . ----- "Mf Enthusiasm. Fta,. wa, MJIailHii'iiWi ii ii ' i""i' .4MSiM
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers