rnment, which for months past
had been sending the President private assurances of its hearty
approval of his efforts toward peace, had by its intrusion and its
refusal to deal openly wrecked those efforts when at last he had
brought them to a head. There was only one thing to do, and the
President did it. On Feb. 3 he announced to Congress the rupture of
diplomatic relations with Germany.

But breaking of relations did not mean war. The President told Congress
that if the threat against American lives and property conveyed by the
resumption of submarine war were followed by overt acts of actual
injury to Americans he would come before Congress once more and ask for
authority to take the necessary steps to protect American interests.
But for the moment he seems to have felt that only a warning was
necessary; that the Germans, if convinced that America meant business,
would reconsider their decision. And he added, "I take it for granted
that all neutral Governments will take the same course." Logically they
should have done so, since the proclamation of submarine war was
virtually a declaration of war on all neutrals; but the European
neutrals did not dare to run the risk even if they had been so minded.

The submarines set to work and more ships were sunk, some of them ships
with American passengers. The nation began to demand war to end an
impossible situation. For the moment the President's aspirations were
more moderate, and he asked Congress in the closing days of his first
term for authority to arm American merchant ships for defense against
submarines. The bill readily passed the House and commanded the support
of seven-eighths of the Senate; but a dozen pacifists, pro-Germans and
professional obstructionists, whom the President denounced as "a little
group of willful men," filibustered it to death in the Senate in the
last hours of the session. Almost the first act of the President after
his inauguration, however, was the preparation to arm the ships by
Executive authority.

_Rural Credits_

The farmers, it seems to me, have occupied hitherto a singular
position of disadvantage. They have not had the same freedom to get
credit on their real assets that others have had who were in
manufacturing and commercial enterprises, and while they sustained
our life, they did not in the same degree with some others share in
the benefits of that life.--_From President Wilson's remarks on