ere followed another
interchange of notes, but the usual German efforts to deny and evade
were somewhat more clumsy than usual. On April 19 the President came
before Congress and announced that "unless the Imperial Government
should now immediately declare and effect an abandonment of its present
methods of submarine warfare against passenger and freight carrying
vessels" diplomatic relations would be broken off. The threat had its
effect; the Germans yielded, grudgingly and in language that aroused
much irritation, but on the main question they yielded none the less,
and promised to sink no more merchantmen without warning.

During this crisis the President had had to contend with a serious
revolt in Congress, which took the form of the Gore Resolution in the
Senate and the McLemore resolution in the House, warning American
citizens off armed merchantmen. The President took the position that
this was a surrender of American rights, and upon his insistence both
resolutions were brought to a vote and defeated. The Lusitania question
was still unsettled, but on the general issue of submarine war the
Germans had at last given way to the President's demand, and through
most of 1916 the submarine issue was in the background.

During the year there was a continuation of diplomatic action against
the British Government's interference with neutral commerce and with
neutral mails. But, aside from the comparative unimportance of these
issues beside the submarine assassinations, the Lusitania and similar
episodes had stirred up so much indignation that not many Americans
were seriously interested in action against England which could only
work to the advantage of Germany. The year saw the institution of the
Shipping Board, which was to look after the interests of the American
merchant marine brought into being by the war, and also some efforts to
extend American commerce in South America. Of more eventual importance
for Latin-American relations was the necessity for virtually
superseding the Government of the Dominican Republic, which had become
involved in civil war and financial difficulties, by an American Naval
Administration, as had been done in Haiti the year before.

The principal domestic event of the year was the threatened railroad
strike, which came at the end of the Summer. The President summoned the
heads of the four railroad brotherhoods and the executives of the
railroad lines to Washington for a conference in Aug