Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/846

632 General History of Europe painted with bright stripes of color and carried no contraband. By these measures Germany reserved a vast area of the high seas for her murderous enterprises, utterly regardless of every recognized right of neutral nations (see map, p. 631). 1143. The United States enters War with Germany, April 6, 1917. On February i, 1917, the Germans opened their un- restricted submarine warfare in this great barred zone, and many vessels were sunk. President Wilson broke off diplomatic relations with the German government February 3. The sinkings went on, and popular opinion was more and more aroused against Germany. It was finally evident that war was unavoidable. President Wilson summoned a special session of Congress and on April 2, 1917, read a memorable address to its members in which he said that Germany had to all intents and purposes declared war on the United States. "Our object," he maintained, "is to vin- dicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the world, as against selfish and autocratic power." The free and self- governed peoples of the world must combine, he urged, "to make the world safe for democracy," for otherwise no perma- nent peace is possible. He proposed that the United States should fight side by side with Germany's enemies and aid them with liberal loans. Both Houses of Congress approved by large ma- jorities the proposed resolution that the United States had been forced into war. Provisions were made for borrowing vast sums ; old forms of taxation were greatly increased and many new ones added. In May, 1917, conscription was introduced, and all able- bodied men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one were declared liable to military service. Preparations were made for training great bodies of troops to be sent across the Atlantic to aid the cause of the Allies and measures were taken for building ships to replace those destroyed by German submarines. The peo- ple of the United States showed themselves eager to do their part in the war on autocracy and militarism ( 1157). 1144. Increase of Belligerents. One result of the entrance of the United States into the war was a great increase in the number of Germany's enemies during the year 1917. Cuba and