all that the
Grand Admiral said it could do. They argued that inasmuch as the Allies
were borrowing money in the United States, obtaining food from the
United States and purchasing great quantities of munitions in the
United States Germany, by restricting submarine warfare in answer to
American protests, was paying an excessive price for what was in effect
a fictitious neutrality. In their opinion the United States as a
neutral was already doing more for the Allies than it could do as an
active belligerent if free scope were given to the U-boats. The
American Navy, they said, could be safely disregarded, because with
Germany already blockaded by the British Navy, and the German Grand
Fleet penned in, the addition of the American Navy, or a dozen navies
for that matter, would make little difference in respect to the actual
facts of sea power. On the other hand there was not enough shipping
available to feed the Allies and enable the United States to send an
army to Europe. If the United States tried to provide troops, the
British would starve. If the United States could not send troops,
Germany would be just as well off with the United States in the war as
out of the war, and would have the priceless additional advantage of
being able to employ her submarines as she saw fit, regardless of the
technicalities of international law.

In the fall of 1916 Mr. Wilson decided definitely that the relations
between the United States and Germany were approaching a climax. If the
war continued much longer the United States would inevitably be drawn
in. There was no prospect of a decision. The belligerent armies were
deadlocked. Unwilling to wait longer for events, Mr. Wilson made up his
mind that he would demand from each side a statement of its aims and
objects and compel each side to plead its own cause before the court of
the public opinion of the world. This was done on December 18, 1916, in
a joint note which was so cold and dispassionate in its terms that its
import was hardly understood.

_With Clean Hands_

The President said that the aims and objects of the war on both sides
"as stated in general terms to their own people and the world" seemed
to be "virtually the same," and he asked for a bill of particulars.
Instantly there was wild turmoil and recrimination on the part of the
Allies and their friends in the United States.

The President had declared, they said, that the Germans and the Allies
were fighting for the