n attacking the United States.

[Sidenote: Sinister German intrigues in the New World.]

In the new year of 1917, as through our acceptance of world
responsibilities so plainly indicated in the President's utterances in
regard to a league of nations we felt ourselves now drawing nearer to a
full accord with the Powers of the Entente; and, as on the other hand,
we found ourselves more and more outraged at the German Government's
methods of conducting warfare and their brutal treatment of people in
their conquered lands; as we more and more uncovered their hostile
intrigues against the peace of the New World; and, above all, as the
sinister and anti-democratic ideals of their ruling class became
manifest in their manoeuvres for a peace of conquest--the Imperial
German Government abruptly threw aside the mask.

[Sidenote: The new submarine war zone proclaimed.]

On the last day of January, 1917, Count Bernstorff handed to Mr. Lansing
a note, in which his Government announced its purpose to intensify and
render more ruthless the operations of their submarines at sea, in a
manner against which our Government had protested from the beginning.
The German Chancellor also stated before the Imperial Diet that the
reason this ruthless policy had not been earlier employed was simply
because the Imperial Government had not then been ready to act. In
brief, under the guise of friendship and the cloak of false promises, it
had been preparing this attack.

[Sidenote: Count Bernstorff receives his passports.]

This was the direct challenge. There was no possible answer except to
hand their Ambassador his passports and so have done with a diplomatic
correspondence which had been vitiated from the start by the often
proved bad faith of the Imperial Government.

On the same day, February 3, 1917, the President addressed both houses
of our Congress and announced the complete severance of our relations
with Germany. The reluctance with which he took this step was evident in
every word. But diplomacy had failed, and it would have been the
hollowest pretense to maintain relations. At the same time, however, he
made it plain that he did not regard this act as tantamount to a
declaration of war. Here for the first time the President made his sharp
distinction between government and people in undemocratic lands:

[Sidenote: American attitude toward the German people.]

"We are the sincere friends of the German people," he said, "and
ear