841.857 L 97/138½
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections (Pomerene) to the Secretary of State
Dear Mr. Secretary: On the 20th of September, 1917, Honorable Robert M. La Follette made an address before the Non-Partisan [Page 50] League Convention at Saint Paul, Minnesota. This address is the subject matter of investigation by the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections. I enclose herewith a copy of the address. Page 6 of this address42 contains the following:
“Now, fellow citizens, we are in the midst of a war. For my own part I was not in favor of beginning the war. (Continued applause) I didn’t mean to say we had not suffered grievances. We had, at the hands of Germany, serious grievances; we had cause for complaining; they had interfered with the right of American citizens to travel upon the high seas on ships loaded with munitions for Great Britain. (Applause and yells.) And, gentlemen, I would not be understood as saying we didn’t have grievances; we did, and upon those grievances, which I have regarded as insufficient, considering the amount involved and the rights involved, which was the right to ship munitions to Great Britain with American passengers on board to secure a safe transit. (Laughter and applause) We had a right, a technical right, to ship munitions, and the American citizens had a technical right to ride on those vessels. I was not in favor of riding on them (laughter) because it seemed to me when the consequences resulting from any destruction of life that might occur would be so awful, I say (a voice: ‘Yellow’)—any man who says that in an audience where he can conceal himself is yellow himself. (Cries: ‘Put him out’.) I say this, that the comparatively small privilege of the right of an American citizen to ride on a munition-loaded ship flying a foreign flag is too small to involve this country in a loss of millions and hundreds of millions of lives. (Applause.)
“Now, fellow citizens, I didn’t believe we should have gone into this war for that poor privilege, the right of an American citizen to travel upon a foreign vessel loaded with munitions of war, because a foreign vessel loaded with munitions of war is technically foreign territory (applause), and an American citizen takes his own life in his own hands, just as much as he would if he were on the territory of France and camped in the neighborhood of an arsenal. Mr. President, it has sometimes occurred to me that the shippers of munitions of war, who are making enormous profits out of the business, should not have encouraged American citizens to ride on those ships in order to give a sort of semblance of safety to the passage of their profiteering cargo abroad. (Applause) But, Mr. President, we went into the war by the adoption by Congress of a declaration of war in constitutional form; therefore, we are in the war legally. I was not in favor of going into the war illegally; I resisted the right to arm merchantmen when I knew that that would result in producing a condition that would bring about war without a declaration by Congress, and the Constitution says that Congress, and not the acts of the President, shall bring on a war with a foreign Government. (Applause) But war is declared and lawfully declared; it was not brought about by unlawfully and tyrannically arming of merchant ships. I had a little bit to do with stopping that on the 4th of March, and I put it to my everlasting credit that I was able to do it. (Applause)”
And on page 7 occurs the following language:
“Ah! But somebody will tell you American rights are involved. What American rights? The right of some venturesome person to ride upon a munition-laden vessel in violation of an American statute that no vessel which carries explosives shall carry passengers. Four days before the Lusitania sailed President Wilson was warned in person by Secretary of State Bryan that the Lusitania had 6,000,000 rounds of ammunition on board, besides explosives, and that the passengers who proposed to sail on that vessel were sailing in violation of a statute of this country, that no passengers shall travel upon a railroad train or sail upon a vessel which carries dangerous explosives. (Applause) And Mr. Bryan appealed to President Wilson to stop passengers from sailing upon the Lusitania. I am giving you some history that maybe has not come to you heretofore—the grievances that carried this country into the war, into a war the results of which, as to the loss of life and burdens, financial burdens, that shall be laid upon us cannot be calculated by any mind. I say that the conditions that carried us into that war needed to be weighed carefully, for I annunciate no new doctrine, but the doctrine of Daniel Webster, who said when the Mexican War was on that it was the right of the people of this country to determine for themselves whether there has been a sufficient grievance of the people to incur all of the burdens and risks that go with a war of this kind.”
The Committee on Privileges and Elections of the Senate will be greatly obliged to you if you will furnish it at your earliest convenience with a complete statement of the facts concerning the Lusitania incident and of the law relating thereto, both so far as it affects our International relations and the rights of American citizens to travel upon the high seas on vessels of the character of the Lusitania.
The Committee desires especially to be advised:
First—Did the Lusitania have on board ammunition or explosives?
Second—Did the passengers aboard this vessel sail in violation of a statute of this country?
Third—Did Mr. Bryan or the Department of State appeal to President Wilson to stop passengers from sailing upon the Lusitania?
Fourth—To what extent did the grievances connected with the sinking of the Lusitania carry this country into the war?
Fifth—Kindly also give us the diplomatic correspondence relating to the sinking of the Lusitania.
Sincerely,
- The reference is to the committee print of the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections (65th Cong., 1st sess.).↩