to receive Count
Tarnowski, the ambassador recently accredited to this Government by
the Imperial and Royal Government of Austria-Hungary; but that
Government has not actually engaged in warfare against citizens of the
United States on the seas, and I take the liberty, for the present at
least, of postponing a discussion of our relations with the
authorities at Vienna. We enter this war only where we are clearly
forced into it, because there are no other means of defending our
right."

Under German dictation, however, Austria-Hungary and Turkey broke
relations with the United States on April 9 and April 21, 1917,
respectively. Bulgaria took no action. The American war declaration
thus solely applied to Germany.

CHAPTER LXVI

BUILDING THE WAR MACHINE

The United States entered the war as a member of the Allied
belligerents in their fight for civilization against Germany at 1.18
on the afternoon of April 8, 1917, at which time President Wilson
signed the resolution empowering him to declare war as passed by
Congress.

The nation set about girding on its armor. A message was flashed to
the great naval radio station at Arlington, Va., which repeated it to
the extent of its carrying radius of 3,000 miles, notifying all
American ships at foreign stations and the governors and military
posts of American insular possessions in the Pacific and in the
Antilles.

Orders were issued by the Navy Department for the mobilization of the
fleet, and the Naval Reserve was called to the colors. The navy also
proceeded to seize all radio stations in the country.

An emergency war fund of $100,000,000 was voted by Congress for the
use of the President at his discretion.

The Allied warships which had been patrolling the Atlantic coast
outside American territorial waters since the war began, to prevent
the German ships in American ports from escaping, were withdrawn.
There was no need of further vigilance, as one of the first acts of
the Government was to seize every German and Austrian vessel which had
lain safe under the protection of the Stars and Stripes. There were
ninety-one German ships, several of them interned men-o'-war,
aggregating 629,000 gross tonnage. The largest group were moored in
New York Harbor, numbering 27, and included leviathans like the
_Vaterland_, (54,282 gross tons), _George Washington_ (25,570 tons),
and _Kaiser Wilhelm II_ (19,361 tons). Six were in Boston Harbor,
among them the _Amerika_ (2