eager to receive the Armed-Ship Bill when it was
reported on February 28, 1917, by the Foreign Affairs Committee, which
had occupied a couple of days in shaping it. A stirring debate on the
bill took place the next day (March 1) under cloture rule, and before
the House adjourned that night it had passed the measure by a
substantial vote of 403 to 13. The bill was at once sent to the
Senate, and was substituted for the Senate Committee's bill, whose
provisions conferred larger powers on the President. Expecting the
Senate to pass its own bill as a substitute, it was the intention of
the House leaders to accept the Senate's measure when it came to them
for passage. The measure, however, never passed the Senate. Through
the wide latitude allowed for unlimited debate a handful of Senators
opposed to any action against Germany succeeded in effectually
blocking the bill. The Senate sat late into the night of February 28,
1917, and took up the Armed-Ship Bill the next day. Senator La
Follette, who led the successful filibuster against the bill, objected
to its consideration, and, under the rule of unanimous consent, would
only allow the bill to proceed on condition that no attempt was made
to pass it before the next day. A precious day was lost, which sealed
the fate of the measure. The bill came before the Senate for
continuous debate on March 2, 1917, when it got into a parliamentary
tangle. Debate was resumed on Saturday, March 3, 1917. Only a day and
a half of the session now remained. Senator Stone who, though in
charge of the bill, was opposed to it, found his position untenable
and surrendered its conduct to Senator Hitchcock. This course enabled
him to join the opponents of the bill openly by contending for an
amendment excluding munition ships from armed protection--a revival of
the arms embargo he had urged before. But the main obstruction to the
bill came from a group of Western senators, who balked every effort
for limiting debate or setting a time for a vote. As midnight neared
the Administration's supporters saw that its chances of passing before
Congress expired at noon the next day, Sunday, March 4, 1917, were of
the slightest, and, anxious that the country should know where they
stood, these senators, to the number of seventy-five, signed a
manifesto reading as follows:

"The undersigned, United States senators, favor the passage of Senate
bill 8322, to authorize the President of the United States to arm
Ame