of the menace to American life, formed the
crux of the various crises between the United States and Germany, and
the sinking of the _California_, as an "overt act," therefore brought
the breaking point nearer and nearer. The loss of life was forty-one,
thirteen passengers and twenty-eight of the crew being drowned. The
vessel sank in nine minutes and the submarine made no effort to save
the lives of its victims.

The loss of two British steamers, the _Japanese Prince_ and the
_Mantola_, sunk without warning, added to the growing indictment
against Germany in the consequent jeopardizing of American lives.
There were thirty American cattlemen on board the _Japanese Prince_.
With the remainder of the crew they took to the boats, and after
drifting about for several hours were saved by a passing ship. An
American doctor on board the _Mantola_ was among the latter's
survivors.

The next attack on American shipping was the sinking of the _Lyman M.
Law_, a sailing vessel loaded with lumber from Maine to Italy, by a
submarine off the coast of Sardinia in the Mediterranean. The crew,
seven of whom were American, were saved. There was no warning; the
crew were ordered to debark, a bomb was placed on board, and the
vessel was blown up and sank in flames.

The destruction of the Cunard liner _Laconia_, without warning,
followed. Three American passengers were lost, two of them women,
mother and daughter, who died from exposure in one of the boats. The
vessel was torpedoed in the Irish Sea at 10.30 p. m. on February 25,
1917, and it was not until 4 o'clock the next morning that the
survivors, scantily clad, were rescued in a heavy sea.

All these outrages were readily chargeable as overt acts, any single
one of which could have constituted a cause for war, if the
Administration was looking for one. But Germany's offenses, viewed
singly, were passed over; it was their cumulative force that was
providing the momentum to hostilities.

Two American freighters, the _Orleans_ and the _Rochester_, left New
York on February 9, 1917, without guns or contraband, bound for
Bordeaux, France, and were the first craft to leave an American port
after Germany issued her terrifying order condemning all neutral
vessels found in the new danger zone.

Meantime the barometer at Washington was ominous. The _California_
sinking, then the _Laconia_, proved how slender was the thread that
held the sword of Damocles over the heads of the American peo