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Show WILSON ASKS FOR I HOMED POWER I PRE8IDENT DETERMINED TO H PROTECT AMERICAN LIVES H AGAINST SUBMARINES. H Violation of Rights and Intolerable M Blockade Brings Chief Executive Befor Congress Witt Appeal M for Authority to Act. M Washington - President Wilson, on M February Nth, asked congress for au M thorlty to use the forces of the Unit- M ed States to protect American ships H and lives against the Herman submit- H rlnn menace to put the nation in a H state of armed neutrality. H The Immediate response was the H introduction In the house of a bill, M approved In advance by the president, H empowering him to furnish guns and H gunners to American merchantmen H aud to "employ such other lnstru- H mentalities and methods" as may H become necessary; and providing for H a $100,000,000 bond Issue, to he used M In his discretion for war Insurance to H encourage American commerce to H brave the submarine peril. Hl The president's long-expected ac- H Hon. while received In the main with aaH expressions of support, threatens to M force an extra session of congress. M Standing at the clerk's desk In the H ball of the house, grave, calm, speak- H lug earnestly in the attitude now fa- H miliar, the president delivered his h address while congress sat in tense, M respectful silence, fully impressed M with the soberness of the occasion. M No cheers and applause such as have burst out before punctuated his sen- M tences. By common consent the mem- M bers refrained from demonstration. M There were vigorous nods of approval from Democrats and Republicans who M have been urging a forward course; M silence and indications of reserved ish thought from those opposed. M But at the conclusion of the ad- M dress, when the president spoke of the M fundamental rights on which are M tiased the structure of family, state M and liberty, and said, "1 cannot lmag- M lne a man with Amrelcan principles in M his heart hesitating to defend these M things," cheers resounded through the M chamber. M For four weeks an unrestricted M submarine warfare, the president told M congress, has seen the destruction of M at least two American ships, American M commerce driven In a large measure M from the seas through fear of the M underseas peril, and a resulting con- M gestlon of America's vital Industries, M growing more serious every day. The M fact that more American lives had not M been lost, he said, was due to the fact that German submarine com- M manders had exercised "an unexpect- M ed discretion and restraint," rather H than because of the lrstructlons under which they were acting. To be tin- H prepared, with congress out of ses- H slon, the president said, would be H "most Imprudent." Consequently he H asked for authority to act. H During the course of his address, H President Wilson told congress: 1 Jaej am not proposing nor contemplating H war or any etepa that might lead to H H War can only come by the wilful H acts and aggressions of others. H I must ask for your auporting au- WM thorlty In the most general tenns. We H must defend our commerce aud the H lives of our people with discretion, H but with clear and s:eadfast purpose H 1 I request that you will authorize fl me to supply our merchant ships with H defensive arms, should Uiat become H necessary, and witli the means of us- H Ing them, and to employ uny other In- H strumentalltles or methods that may H bo necessary and adequate to pro- H tect our ships and our people In their B legitimate und peaceful pursuits on H he seas. H I request also a sufficient credit to H enable me to provide adequate means H of protection, where they are lacking, H Including adequate insurance against 'M war risk. H 1 feel that I ought to obtain from you H full aud immediate assurance of the H authority which I may n. d at any H moment to exercise. No doubt I al- H ready possess that authority without H special warrant of law. H Our own commerce Is suffering rather in apprehension than in fact. jBB because so many 1 f our ships are llm- H Idly keeping to their home ports, than B by ships having been sunk. hJ This Itself mivlit presently nccom- H pllsh In etlect what, the new Herman H submarine orders were meant 10 - mH compllah, so tar as we are eonoornod Bfl The cane of the l.yman M. Law dis. SJ closed a ruthleaenea f method whtoh BJ ives grave condemnation, DUl Wl HJ iKcompaniod by no eiroumatancea H which in, gilt not havo been OXpci ted B at any time In connection with the 9J use of the submarine agnhUM 'u r Bj chantmen as tho German government HJ has usisl It. H There may b no recourse but to armed neutrality, which we shall now flj have to maintain and for whiib there t is abundant American precoli nt flj |