841.857 L 97/139½
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections (Pomerene) to the Secretary of State
My Dear Mr. Secretary: On the 29th of September, 1917, certain resolutions adopted by the Minnesota Commission of Public Safety, [Page 54] asking that proceedings be instituted looking to the expulsion of Honorable Robert M. La Follette, a Senator from the State of Wisconsin, were laid before the Senate, together with a copy of a speech delivered by him in St. Paul, Minn., on the 20th day of September, 1917, in which sentiments were expressed recited in the resolutions to be “disloyal and seditious.”
These resolutions with the accompanying report of the speech were referred by the Senate to the Committee on Privileges and Elections, which Committee appointed a Sub-Committee charged with the duty of investigating the accuracy of statements made by Senator La Follette in the speech referred to.
In the speech referred to, copy of which is herewith transmitted to you, among other things, Senator La Follette said:
[Here follow extracts from the speech similar to those quoted in Senator Pomerene’s letter of October 9, 1917, page 49.]
These and similar assertions in the speech appear to the Committee to amount to a statement to the effect that this country went to war, and is engaged in the present war, to vindicate the right and because of the violation by Germany of the right of American citizens to travel on foreign vessels carrying munitions of war.
The Committee would like to have you attend before it at some date in the near future to submit to it such diplomatic correspondence and other public documents available to you, and to make such statement of facts, as may serve to demonstrate the accuracy or inaccuracy of the assertion thus made, and clearly to point out the real cause of our engaging in the present war.
Likewise, at the same time, the Committee will be glad to hear from you touching the following statement made in the speech referred to, namely:
“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.”
The Committee would like to be advised:
- (1)
- Whether the Lusitania did carry 6,000,000 rounds of ammunition at the time she was sunk; or any ammunition?
- (2)
- Whether she carried explosives in addition to such, or any, ammunition, and what explosives, if any?
- (3)
- Whether President Wilson was warned by Secretary of State Bryan that the Lusitania had such ammunition and explosives on board, or any munitions or explosives of war?
- (4)
- Whether Mr. Bryan appealed to President Wilson to stop passengers from sailing upon the Lusitania, and,
- (5)
- Whether any representative of the State Department gave such information or made such appeal to President Wilson.
Will you kindly advise us whether you can serve the Committee in this way.
Very sincerely,