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Show PUSHING WAR PREPARATIONS I SINKING OF ANOTHER , AMERICAN STEAMER ADDS TO GRAVE SITUATION Government Officials Doing Everything Possible fo Place Nation in Position to Meet War ConditionsPresident Con-ditionsPresident Giving Subject Undivided Attention. WASHINGTON'. March 23. Presi-I p f dent Wilson's address to congress was IF taken up in its Irritative form at to-dav's to-dav's cabinet mooting. While us exact ex-act nature will be determined by the developments of the next ten days, it 0 is expected to be specific in character j and probably will outline just what steps he believes congress should take ig. to meet the war like operations of Ger-1e. Ger-1e. man submarines. U, Administration officials realize thai, to during; the period of waiting, a sus-; 08 i tain"! effort is being made in Germany I (o place the responsibility for war on the United States. The hint of an of- fer of mediation is regarded as an added add-ed evidence of this movement, but the k president and all his advisers are determined de-termined that if war actually comes it shall be clear to the world that it ha? not been of America's choosing. The president, to keep in touch with army and navy preparations, cancelled practically all engagements today, ex-' cept one wita Governor McCall of i Massachusetts, who wanted to confer on ways in which the state might co- I operate with the federal government.' J I WASHINGTON, March 23. Sinking by a German submarine of the Araeri can steamer Healdton with the probable proba-ble loss of a score or more of her crew, many of whom were Americans, while another grave addition to the long list of German aggressions against Ameri-j can commerce, cannot cause any im-1 im-1 mediate change in the situation between be-tween the United States and Germany it was said here today. A virtual state , of war already exists, government officials of-ficials believe, and they are doing everything ev-erything possible to prepare the nation to meet that condition. The destruction of the Healdton. however, will he included by President Wilson in his summary of German attacks at-tacks on American commerce when he goes before congress, which meets in extraordinary session on April 2. , Ship Given No Warning. The pre sident received his first of-1 ! ficial reoprts on the incident early today. to-day. The news came in a cabled re-1 port last night from American Consul Mahin at Amsterdam after the president presi-dent had retired. The consul reported that the vessel, which was unarmed, was torpedo. d without warning off the coast of Hol-I Hol-I land on Wednesday. Thp president is devoting his almost undivided attention to preparations for national defense and it is expected that he will continue. to do so In the interval between now and the conen I ing of congress. Healdton Was Insured. WASHINGTON, March 23. The mrriran tanker Healdton, torpedoed and sunk off the Dutch coast Wednes- ' day night, was insured by the government's govern-ment's war risk bureau for $499,000. The loss of the Healdton is the greatest great-est yet sustained by the bureau. The next largest was the loss of the steamer steam-er Illinois, insured for 5250,000. Heavy Insurances Granted. Approximately $64,000,000 in insurance insur-ance has been issued by the bureau on American ships and cargoes within the last thirty days. Much of this j amount has been issued since the restriction re-striction against insuring contraband was removed. Total profits to the bur reau, it was said today, have approximated approxi-mated $4,000,000 since it began business busi-ness In September, 1914; losses have totaled about $1,000,000. The increased demand for government govern-ment insurance on American ships and cargoes of belligerent ports was maintained main-tained today. Another large number ,Jt applications was received by mail and telegraph. |