Evening star. [volume], April 03, 1937, Page B-1, Image 17

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WASHINGTON, D. C., SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1937.___PAGE B—1
Buried in foreign soil. These are the lads who did not
come back.
FIVE FEVERISH DAYS
President Wilson’s Night Address to Con
gress Climaxed Unforgettable Preludes
to America’s Entry Into World War.
By William S. Odlin.
XACTLY two decades have
slipped by since Washington
was in the midst of drama
which to this day it has not
seen even approached. The events be
ginning April 2. 1917, and culminating
April 6. involved the very- lives of
millions of Americans and almost
Unaccountable money. The United
States was walking into war.
Two days before this date 20 years
ago President Woodrow Wilson, grim
faced after exhausting every other
means of inducing Germany to stop
killing Americans with its U-boats,
had personally appeared before Con
gress and informed it that a state of
war existed between this Government
and the Imperial German govern
ment. Two days hence, with no cere
mony and surrounded only by his
family, he had signed Congress' agree
ment with his assertion.
In the meantime the Capital seethed
With a succession of extraordinary and
history-making occurrences. It was
overrun with virtually every type of
human, ranging from "nuts” with
sure-fire inventions or ideas on how
to win the impending struggle to
sincere and level-headed patriots. And
very strongly and vociferously in evi
dence were the most war-like of
pacifists, determined to prevent Amer
ica from avenging the murder of its
people on the high seas. They paraded
and held meetings and threatened
members of Congress who would not
obey their orders. Some idea of the
lengths to which they went may be
gained from the fact that the cultured
and dignified Senator Henry Cabot
Lodge of that generation found it
necessary to smack down one of the
most bellicose of the pacifist tribe,
who had called him an offensive name
and struck him outside the door of
his own office in the Capitol.
The curtain rose on the drama Mon
day, April 2, when Congress met in
extraordinary session. The wave of
war sentiment which had been rising
all over the country for months be
cause of the unressricted submarine
warfare of Germany which had taken
»o many American lives had finally en
gulfed the White House. And the pa
tient President who had promised the
Kaiser that this Nation would hold
Germany to "strict accountability”
for repetitions of the Lusitania horror
was now prepared to make good. He
had called the extra session by a proc
lamation issued March 21 when he
abandoned hope of bringing Germany
to terms through any avenue except
war.
\\fAR plans were already In progress
when Congress met to hear Mr.
Wilson's excoriation of German war
methods and his recommendation that
the state of war be officially and
formally recognized. The air of
Washington was electric with patriotic
fervor in anticipation of his war mes
sage.
It had been expected he would ad
dress the combined branches of Con
gress late in the afternoon, but it
was well past 8 o'clock when he ar
rived. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania ave
nue was lined for hours with crowds
wanting to cheer him on his way to
the Capitol. But because of the spy
scare which pervaded all parts of the
country, and particularly Washington,
the Secret Service guard of the Presi
dent was taking no chances and
whisked him from the White House
to his destination by a circuitous route
north of the Capitol.
The scene there was memorable.
A Capitol bathed in light stood out in
the night. Two troops of cavalry from
Fort Myer clattered up and came to
attention as the President entered the
building. And a great crowd of peo
ple, held in check by scores of police,
watched solemnly.
Inside the Senators had found places
In the House chamber, and the justices
of the Supreme Court also were pres
ent, as was the cabinet. The Supreme
Court justices led the applause as
President Wilson made telling points
In his biting indictment of the masters
of war-time Germany.
In a hush that only the most mo
mentous of occasions could create, the
President, in a low voice, began:
“I have called the Congress into
extraordinary session because there
are choices of policy to be made, and
made immediately, which it was
neither right nor constitutionally per
missible that I should assume the re
aporisibility of making.”
Then the President’s voice rose per
ceptibly as he launched into a de
tailed account of the efforts he had
made to induce Germany to forego its
ruthless submarine campaign, of which
other neutrals as well as Americans
were being made victims.
'T'HE great assemblage, including vir
tually the entire diplomatic corps,
except the envoys of the central pow
r ers, who some time previously hyi
left the United States, listened with
the utmost attention. The President
described the failure of armed neu
trality, the providing of our mer
chant ships guns to repel U-boat at
tacks.
(Even while the President was de
livering his message word reached
Washington of still another attack by
Germany upon this country. It was
I the torpedoing of the steamship Aztec
of the Oriental Navigation Co., the
first armed American vessel to leave
an American port after defensive
armament was authorized by the Gov
ernment. There were 16 Americans in
her crew of 39 and several were killed
when the ship was attacked off
Brest. France.)
"When I addressed the Congress on
the 26th of February,” the President
continued, ‘‘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
I violence. But armed neutrality, it
1 now appears, is impracticable. * * *
I 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 no com
mon wrongs; they cut to the very roots
of human life.”
A murmur swept over the assem
blage. The President, who had kept
his own counsel although war seemed
inevitable, was at last going to recom
mend the fateful course.
' With a profound sense of the sol
emn and even tragical character of
the step I am taking and of the grave
responsibilities which it involves, but
in unhesitating obedience to what I
deem my constitutional duty, I advise
that the Congress declare the recent
course of the imperial German gov
ernment to be in fact nothing less
than war against the Government
and people of the United States: that
it formally accept the status of bel
ligerent 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 resources to bring the govern
ment of the German Empire to terms
and end the war!”
The die was cast! Hie United
States was going to war!
IMMEDIATELY there was a pande
monium of enthusiastic applause in
which even the dignified Justices of
(Above) President Wil
son delivering his jvar
message before the joint
session of Congress Mon
day evening, April 2, 1917.
(At right) The “scrap of
paper” which sent two
million American soldiers
to France and sealed the
doom of Imperial Ger
many.
the high court did not hesitate to par
ticipate. "Rebel yells” broke out here
and there in the great House cham
ber. The diplomatic gallery alone was
still, ambassadors and ministers sit
ting in unruffled silence, notwithstand
ing what might be their feelings about
the implications of the event unfold
ing before their eyes.
When a measure of decorum had
been restored Mr. Wilson continued,
describing what it all would involve.
All listened attentively and without
demonstration until he said "We have
no quarrel with the German people.”
and again Senators, Representatives,
justices, the cabinet and the throngs
1 in the public galleries registered their
approval.
"It was not upon their impulse that
their government acted in entering
this war,” he added as the applause
died down. ''It was not with their pre
vious knowledge or approval. It was a
war determined upon as war used to be
I determined upon in the old. unhappy
: days when peoples were nowhere con
sulted by their rulers and wars were
provoked and waged in the interest of
dynasties or of little groups of ambi
tious men who were accustomed to use
their fellow men as pawns and tools.”
The chamber throng alternately
listened and applauded as the Presi
dent elaborated his denunciation of
Prussian autocracy and its offenses
against mankind and particularly
when he declared:
‘‘We are accepting this challenge of
^irig-fiflb (Congrrss of tjit ®nitrt plaits of ^mtrica;
the Inrst .Session,
Beftm and bald at the City of Washington on Moodsv. the treoad day of April,
cm* thousand moe hundred and M'eotm.
and the Government and the people of the United Statea and making
provision to prosecute the same.
Whereas the Imperial German Government ha* committed repeal! act* c.f
war against the Government and the people of tbe United State* of
America; Therefore Ik* it
/«'< \nlml In/ the Si mitr nmf Hun>4 i.f ISjiivu-ntnltm nf the l’hil*l State*
nit n< n in f'oit*/retit awnihliil. That the Mate of war between the l nited
Slates and the liujnriai German tioveminent which has thua l»een thnj*t ii|»»ii
Ili<: United State* i* hereby format l\ declared; and that the President 1*-. and
he i» herehv, authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and in i I it.»r\
font** of the United Stale* and the* resourc e* *»f the Government to earn onw.tr
against the Ini|« rial German Government . and to bn*g the conflic t to a
r4o<cc»*ful termination all of the resourc e* of the country are herehv pledged la
the Congress of the I nited State-*.
S/nilrr 11j the House o f Rrjw ■* ntntu • *.
I ire President oj the Unite/ States unit
) Presuienl ij the Sr ft ah
!
hostile purpose because we know that
in such a government, following such
methods, we can never have a friend;
and that in the presence of its organ
ized power, always lying in wait to
accomplish we know not what pur
pose, there can be no assured security
for the democratic governments of the
world. We are now about to accept
gauge of battle with this natural foe
of liberty and 'shall, if necessary,
spend the whole force of the Nation
to checlc and nullify its pretentions
and its power."
Twenty years after! (At
top) Veterans of the
World War at Mount Alto
Hospital look back two
decades reviewing the
scenes of 1917-18. Thou
sands like them came
home, clinging to shatter
ed lives in the ranks of the
disabled.
Approval greeted the President's as
sertion:
''.Just because we fight without ran
cour and without selfish object, seek
ing nothing for ourselves but what
we shall wish to share wdth all free
people, we shall. I feel confident, con
duct our operations as belligerents
without passion and ourselves observe
with proud punctilio the principles of
right and of fair play we profess to be
fighting for."
There was an atmosphere of partly
suppressed emotion as the President
neared the end of his message, the
hundreds of men and women growing
in realization of what was transpiring.
“TT IS a distressing and oppressive
duty, gentlemen of the Congress,
which I have performed in thus ad
dressing you," rang his peroration in
their ears. “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 dis
astrous of all wars, civilization 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 democracy, 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 domin
ion of right by such a concert of free
peoples as shall bring peace and safe
(Continued on Page B-2.)
Killed, on the field of honor. These soldiers fell in battle.
A FEW SAID “NO!”
Legislators Who Voted Against War—All
That Are Left—to Hold "Do You
Remember?” Party.
By William A. Bell, Jr. 1
AIN was dripping from a night
sky, and in the United States
House of Representatives
there prevailed a solemnity
that matched the weather. The House
was debating the resolution which was
to throw this Nation into war against '
Germany.
The debate was somewhat one-sided,
for every one conceded the House
would pass that resolution. Yet, like
defenders of a surrounded fort, per
sisting in a no-surrender stand, though
defeat is inevitable, one-ninth of the
Houses membership battled with words i
against battle with weapons.
Champions of a lost cause, few ac
claimed the 49 men and one woman
who thus risked and suffered indig
nities, persecutions and. in some cases,
political disaster. Throughout the
country at large their courage was
interpreted as cowardice or pro-Ger
manism, and they were about as popu
lar as a dove at a convention of mu
nitions makers
Rising from his seat to oppose the
war resolution. Harry Hull of Iowa
addressed nearly 400 hostile colleagues.
"I shall be criticized.” he said, "and
the interests which are forcing this
country into war will cry, 'Dis
loyalty ! ’ ”
He paused. An unusual silence
cloaked the chamber.
‘T count it greater loyalty to vote
my convictions. I believe the ma
jority of the American people are
against going into this war. We are
told to stand by the President. But
I believe in standing by the Gov
ernment, which is the great Amer
ican people • *
Scarcely had he finished when a
dozen members were on their feet
to dispute him. Later. Ernest Lun
deen of Minnesota spoke against the
war resolution.
The House passed the war resolu
tion at 3:14 am.
! JN THE Senate, a day earlier, the
i same sort of debate went on. Here
[ the anti-war group was even smaller
i than in the House—six Senators out
; of 96, one-sixteenth of the member
ship. Vainly did they appeal for rea
son, matching their eloquence against
the calumny of their opponents.
"We are about to put the dollar
mark on the American flag,” said
George Norris of Nebraska.
"That grazes the very edge of trea
son,” shouted Senator Williams of
Mississippi.
“What would the Senator from Ne
braska say if I said that he and his
little band of friends were trying to
put the picture of the Kaiser on the
American flag?" sneered James of
Kentucky.
"Fighting Bob” La Follette took the
floor to plead for peace His speech,
said Senator James, was "pro-Ger
man, almost pro-vandal and pro
Goth, anti-President, anti-Congress,
anti-American."
And now, 20 years after that April
6 when the House passed the war
resolution and the President signed
it, all that are left of the men who
voted against it are to meet as a
group for the first time since they
stood together to keep their country
at peace. There are 25 of them, and
one woman, Miss Jeanette Rankin,
first woman member of Congress.
Only three of the anti-war vote
survivors still are in Congress: Sena
tor Norris, Representative Harold
Knutson of Minnesota and Senator
Lundeen. w ho was a member of the
lower house when war was declared.
They have invited the others to a
dinner at the Willard Hotel on Tues
day night. It will be an ofT-the
record gathering, intended only for
reminiscences of the tense days of
1917 and attended only by the anti
war voters and their wives.
A VERY different attitude from
* that of 20 years ago exists toward
the men who protested United State*
entry into the World War. As Rep
resentative Knutson put it in his let
ter of invitation to the dinner, "War
clouds hang low again over the trou
bled old world,” and the pacifists of
yesteryear have become the patriots
of today. Defeated for re-election to
the House in 1918 because of his anti
war stand, Lundeen nevertheless was
elected to the Senate in 1936 on a
platform which emphasized that item
in his record. His vote against the
war resolution was a principal point
in his successful campaign.
Edward Keating, founder-editor of
Labor, publication of railroad work
ers' unions, said. "We all feel mighty
glad we voted against war. We haven’t
changed our views." Keating was a
Representative from Colorado when
the vote was taken. He, too. was de
feated for re-election because of his
opposition to United States entry in
the World War.
"The 50 House members and 6 Sen
ators who voted against the resolution
represented every shade of political
opinion,” Keating said. "Socialist,
Progressive, liberal Democrat, con
servative Democrat, progressive Re
publican, ’machine’ Republican, they
never got together on any major prop
osition before or since, and I venture
to say that they wouldn't today—ex
cept on war.”
Keating remembers some of the
persecutions and indignities to which
the anti-war legislators were sub
jected. He himself was accused of
being pro-German, although hr has
not a drop of German blood and "de
spised the Kaiser as a dictator and de
stroyer of men.” Phil La Follette,
then a student at the University of
Wisconsin, left a class room one day
to find his father had been burned In
effigy on the university campus.
TEACUP ART BECOMES REALITY AT CHERRY BLOSSOM TIME
Gift Trees From Japan
A-bloom Draw Crowds
to Capital City.
By Mary Jane Moore.
ICTURE the mose delicately
beautiful of Japanese teacups
touched by the wizard's wand
and transformed in all its light
and airy fragility to gargantuan size,
its traditional cherry blossoms smiling
into the face of a warming Springtime
sun. its tinted lake dimpling and rip
pling beneath its vaulted bridges, its
smooth encircling walks alive with
eager throngs.
Imagine this pink and white and
blue teacup the thing of vivid and joy
ous life that the artist envisioned when
he fashioned the dainty scene; imag
ine that the good genii of old Japan
had muttered their sacred incanta
tions and breathed reality into its
chained beauty, and then had set it out
across the Western ocean to enrapture
all beholders, to keep them fast in its
tender embrace.
in America—in wasnmgton—tms
magic teacup has found a resting
place. To it as to a shrine at the
dawn of each Springtime there come
thousands to revel in the fresh, ver
dant beauty of the scene.
When the word goes out, by official
heralds of the United States Depart
ment of Agriculture, that the cherry
blossoms need but a scant few days
of benevolent sun to bring them forth,
there begins an hegira to Washington
which seems almost unbelieveable in
its immensity. Then the National
Capital becomes the goal of the motor
tourist, and the roads leading into the
District of Columbia are thickly spot
ted with automobiles from every sec
tion of the country.
They come to Washington in the
Springtime because the cherry blos
soms make a Springtime in Washing
ton “a thing of beauty and a joy for
ever,” to quote an immortal line from
the lyrical Keats which more than
aptly fits the theme.
First, the setting. Envision again
the teacup. .w
YlfHERE the shores of Washington
reach the broad Potomac and
its artificial basin there has been fash
ioned a splendid parkway, charted
with broad, winding roads, flanked by
walks and bridle paths, thus providing
ample room for all traffic, motorized,
pedestrian, and equestrian.
Of floral beauty in this parkway
there is great variety, but undisputed
queen of all reigns the Springtime
cherry blossoms, blooming on thou
sands of trees which line the basin, the
drives, and front upon the slowly
eddying waters of the Potomac.
Adjestical description of the beauty
of the scene which greets the visitor
when his glance first rests upon the
nodding mass of pink and white blos
soms, seems like a crude attempt at
painting the lily, and yet the desire to
give some faint impression of the
natural glory of the scene cannot be
gainsaid.
The pinkness of the pin’: blossoms,
and the whiteness of the white ones,
seem unlike those colors ordinarily.
Upon the sturdy Nipponese cherry
trees they achieve a softness, a smooth
ness, a blending harmony which no
where else is duplicated. Now we see
what the artist was striving for on
the teacup. Now we know why we
couldn't quite succeed in showing us
what Japan looked like when the
cherry blossoms were in bloom.
Such delicacy of shade, such light
ness, such elfin beauty, are in the seed
alone, and in the sun and earth and
perhaps a star or two has something
to do with it and maybe the moon on
windy nights or the whisper of a
thousand wavelets as Springtime
comes. Upon the palette they are not;
for colorings such as these a pilgrim
age to Washington in cherry blossom
time alone will suffice.
Here to Washington, thq \ Nation’s
i'
The Lincoln Memorial each Springtime is framed in a deli
cate garland of pink and white Japanese cherry blossoms. It is
the scene that ever remains a fragrant, glowing memory.
^ ■ . ---- - !—■■■■ . ■■■■— —
beautiful Capital City, is this garland
of Springtime beauty.
It is a garden of dreams come true,
and a journey of a thousand miles is not
too great a price to pay for an hour of
emotional revelry In its ^pidst. And
America’s beauty-loving motorists
yearly pay that price, and gladly.
Easter Sunday is often a gala day
among the cherry blossoms. On that
day, as if preordained, they are usually
at the finest—full blov|j, double and
single blooms alike. Nature does her
part to lend color to the scene—Wash
ington and the rest of the country do
their respective parts in due propor
tion.
Official Washington, headed by the
Japanese Ambassador and his family
and retinue, makes its annual pilgrim
age to the blossoms in large array.
Of course, the Japanese envoy is the
most important figure on this occasion
because it was through his govern
ment that the cherry trees came to
Washington. And thereby hangs an
interesting bit of history.
city of Tokio, as a token of
friendship, sent the first trees to
this country in the year 1909, How
ever, upon their arrival here it was
found that the trees were infected and
had to be destroyed. Another ship
ment of trees was received in February,
1912, and, since their condition was
superb, they immediately were planted.
Mrs. William Howard Taft, the then
first lady of the land, planted the first
tree while upon Mrs. Taft’s invitation
the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the
Japanese Ambassador, placed the sec
ond one into the ground. More than
3,000 trees were planted in the area
known as Potomac Park, and in the
number are Included single and double
blossoming varieties.
Every year countless thousands of
motor tourists file through the tree
flanked roadways. Every section of
the country is represented, as is indi
cated from even a cursory survey of
the many-hued license plates borne by
shining limousines, family sedans,
chic roadsters and all the other mani
fold varieties of cars which people the
Nation's highways.
Officialdom, foreign lega
Stunning Displays Are Fea
ture of Spring Along
Potomac.
tions and embassies, chiefs of the mili
tary establishments of the country,
representatives of the people in the
houses of Congress, and thousands
upon thousands of ‘‘plain citizens”
mingle in a huge concourse and for
the single purpose of paying homage
to nature in one of her most perfect
forms.
The names of the blossoms are espe
cially fitting and interesting. Fuku
rokuju, one of the most beautiful of
the pink varieties, is a name which
symbolizes happiness. Ariake means
“the dawn,” while Shirayuki is ‘'snow
flakes.” It should not have been diffi
cult to select the names for these de
lectable blossoms, so vividly does their
beauty match that of other, and lus
tier, natural wonders.
Washington, always the Mecca of
the motor tourist, always the goal of
travel-loving Americans come to tread
its historic ground, is doubly attrac
tive to this host when the Japanese
cherry blossoms spread their velvety
mantel of pink and white. They read
ily become an important part of the
Washington scene as characteristic as
the Washington Monument and the
Lincoln Memorial, both of which
gleaming white edifices stand in the
parkway where the cherry blossoms
hold their court.
There are many sights which the
motorized American should take the
opportunity to see. In every section of
the country there is at least one which
will impress itself Indelibly upon the
consciousness. North, East, South
and West—all of them have a chef
d’oeuvre to set before the owner of a
motor car.
A Japanese cherry blossom Spring
time in Washington is one of those
unique experiences the fragrant beauty
of which neither time nor other
charms ever can efface from one’s
book of happjrsjmemories.
' /
vyHERE are they now—those cour
* ageous few who fought the war
proposal a score of years ago? Thirty
are dead. In addition to the survivors
already mentioned there are the fol
lowing ;
Mark R. Bacon of Wyandotte. Mich.;
Edward E. Browne, now practicing
lawyer in Waupaca, Wise.: John R.
Connelly, publishing a newspaper in
Colby, Kans.; Fred H. Dominick,
Newberry. S. C.; James A Frear, prac
ticing law here in Washington; Wal
ter L. Hensley, lawyer in St. Iouis;
John M. Nelson, Madison. Wise.;
Charles H. Randall, business man in
Los Angeles; William A. Rodenburg,
Washington lawyer; William H. Staf
ford, Milwaukee lawyer; Fred A. Brit
ten, Chicago business man; Denver
Samuel Church, Fresno, Calif.; Clar
ence C. Dill, Washington lawyer; John
J. Esch, Washington lawyer; Everis A.
Hayes (nicknamed "Red" while in
Congress because of his shock of car
rot-colored hair, now white), San Jose,
Calif.; Benjamin C. Hilliard, justice
on Colorado Supreme Court; William
L. Igoe, a leading St. Louis lawyer
and reputed leader of the Democratic
"machine” there; Charles H. Sloan,
Geneva, Nebr., and Frank P. Woods,
Altadena. Calif.
Miss Rankin now interests herself
in peace organizations here in the
District. Hull is a business man here.
Royal Johnson still lives in South
Dakota.
Among those who died were Senator
Lane of Oregon and Senator Varda
man of Mississippi The former's
death was hastened bj the persecution
which resulted from his anti-war vote.
Vardaman, defeated for re-election on
the war Issue by Pat Harrison, was
renowned for his bravery, both physi
cal and mental. In addition to oppos
ing participation ‘n the wrar, he sup
ported such once unpopular issues aa
woman’s suffrage and banishment of
child labor. ^