THIS DAY IN 1917 IN THE RECORD

Monday, Feb. 26, 1917

The United States heads closer to war with Germany as President Woodrow Wilson calls on Congress to authorize the arming of American merchant shipping against submarine attacks.

The President addresses a joint session of Congress this afternoon as details continue to arrive regarding the sinking of the British ocean liner Laconia off the coast of Ireland yesterday. There were at least six American passengers on board and 21 Americans in the ship’s crew, but initial reports indicate that everyone on board was rescued by another ship.

The Laconia reportedly was sunk without warning, in keeping with Germany’s policy of unrestricted submarine warfare against shipping bound for Great Britain or France. The Wilson administration considers the targeting of American ships a violation of the trade rights of a neutral nation, and has demanded guarantees from Germany of the safety of Americans on board passenger ships like the Laconia.

The President wants Congress to place the nation in a state of “armed neutrality,” but says Germany has not yet committed the “overt act” that would compel him to ask for a declaration of war.

“I am the friend of peace and mean to preserve it for America so long as I am able,” Wilson says, “I am not now proposing or contemplating war or any steps that need lead to it. I merely request that you will accord me by your own vote and definite bestowal the means and the authority to safeguard in practice the right of a great people who are at peace.

“We are speaking of no selfish material rights, but of rights which our hears support and whose foundation is that righteous passion for justice upon which all law, all structures alike of family, of state and of mankind must rest as upon the ultimate base of our existence and our liberty. I cannot imagine any man with American principles at his heart hesitating to defend these things.”

FOOD SHORTAGES

Mayor Cornelius F. Burns’ weekend investigation of food supplies in Troy shows that the city has “an ample supply apparently in the storage houses of the city of meats, butter, lard and flour,” The Record reports.

Food shortages have been reported amid surging prices throughout New York State. As president of the New York State Conference of Mayors, Burns has called on his colleagues to conduct inventories similar to his in Troy.

The survey does confirm a potato shortage caused by holding out for higher prices. The mayor’s investigation “has alarmed those who are holding back potatoes,” our reporter claims, and “a movement toward the selling market has begun.”