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Show GERMANY'S CHALLENGE FORMAL-LY FORMAL-LY ACCEPTED WHEN PRESIDENT PRESI-DENT SIGNS RESOLUTION. Declares State of War Existing Between Be-tween United States and Germany and Calls Upon Citizens to Manifest Man-ifest Loyalty. Washington. The United States on April 6 accepted Germany's challenge to war and formally abandoned its place as the greatest neutral of a world in arms. President Wilson at 1:18 o'clock Friday afternoon signed the resolution of congress declaring the existence of a state of war and authorizing and directing the chief executive to employ em-ploy all the resources of the nation to prosecute hostilities against the German Ger-man government to a successful termination. ter-mination. The act was done without ceremony and only in the presence of members of the president's family. Word was flashed immediately to all army and navy stations and to vessels at sea, and orders for further precautionary steps were dispatched. By proclamation the president announced an-nounced the state of war, called upon e.11 citizens to manifest' their loyalty and assured Germans in this country that they would be unmolested as long as they behaved themselves. Orders were issued soon afterward for the arrest ar-rest of sixty ring leaders in German plot.?; and intrigues. Complete mobilization of the navy, calling all reserves and mritia to the colors, was ordered by Secretary Daniels Dan-iels as soon as the war resolution was signed. The war department, already having taken virtually every step contemplated con-templated before the raising of a real war army is authorized, waited on congress. .Secretary Baker conferred with Chairman Dent of the house military mil-itary committee and arranged to appear ap-pear before the committee to discuss the general staff army plans and consider con-sider the war budget of more than $3,000,000,000. The president went over the great preparatory measures with the cabinet, cabi-net, discussing what has been accomplished accom-plished and dwelling, it is understood upon arrangements for co-operation with the entente allies against the common enemy. Plans for co-operation are said to have taken very definite defi-nite shape, though there will be no announcement on the subject for the present. The seizure of German ships laid up in American harbors was the subject of interested comment, and legal officers offi-cers of the government began consideration consid-eration of the ,question of whether the United iStates can confiscate the ships outright or must pay for them after the war. In any event, as soon as fhey can 'be made seaworthy the (fine merchant fleet thus acquired will give America a merchant marine that could not be duplicated in several years and add more than 600,000 to the tonnage available for the transportation transpor-tation of supplies and munitions to the allies. |