ntrigues. "I am sorry to say that the gravest
threats against our national peace and safety have been uttered within
our own borders. There are citizens of the United States ... who have
poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national
life; who have sought to bring the authority and good name of our
Government into contempt, to destroy our industries wherever they thought
it effective for their vindictive purposes to strike at them, and to
debase our politics to the uses of foreign intrigue." His attack drew
forth the bitter resentment of the foreign language press, but was hailed
with delight in the East, where German intrigues aroused as great
excitement against the Fatherland as the submarine campaign. Nor was it
calmed by the continuance of fires and explosions and the evident
complicity of German officials. During the spring of 1916 a German agent,
von Igel, who occupied the former offices of von Papen, was arrested, and
the activities of Franz von Rintelen, who had placed incendiary bombs on
vessels leaving New York with food and supplies for the Allies, were
published. Taken in conjunction with the sinking of the _Sussex_, German
plots were now stimulating the American people to a keen sense of their
interest in the war, and preparing them effectively for a new attitude
toward foreign affairs in general.

It was inevitable that such revelations should have created a widespread
demand for increased military efficiency. The nation was approaching the
point where force might become necessary, and yet it was in no way
prepared for warfare, either on land or sea. During the first months of
the war the helplessness of the United States had been laid bare by
General Leonard Wood, who declared that we had never fought a really
first-class nation and "were pitifully unprepared, should such a calamity
be thrust upon us." The regular army "available to face such a crisis"
would be "just about equal to the police forces of Boston, New York, and
Philadelphia." The "preparedness movement" thus inaugurated was
crystallized by the formation of the National Security League, designed
to organize citizens in such a way "as may make practical an intelligent
expression of public opinion and may ensure for the nation an adequate
system of national defense." Pacifists and pro-Germans immediately
organized in opposition; and the movement was hampered by President
Wilson's unwillingness to cooeperate in any way. He