"DARE TO REMAIN NEUTRAL AND YOU STARVE"
"Dare to Remain Neutral and You Starve" Word Given Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland and Switzerland I ON THE 9TH OF JULY, President Wilson issued a proclamation placing an embargo upon the...
...Commercially, Germany offers the best, fiela for commercial intercourse with Switzerland, because her people need the products that Switzerland could furnish, and which Germany could pay for, just as the munitions manufacturers of the United States found it most to their advantage to furnish military supplies to Great Britain...
...It would require very little outside pressure to bring about these exchanges which offer such commercial advan-tage to both countries...
...Should Holland, Switzerland and the Scandinavian governments be forced into the war by the pressure made upon them by this government under the embargo act, it is extremely likely, indeed practically certain, that the four countries will be driven by the policy of the iron hand into the war on the side of Germany, and for the following reasons: Should Holland join the entente, it would mean the loss of her independence, since she would be quickly overrun and conquered by Germany...
...If it is true that the real force and effect of this proposition is to coerce weaker nations into doing things that they would not otherwise do, into an abandonment of free independent governmental action, then we depart from the high ideals that we held aloft as the reason for our entering this world conflict.'" VI Prompted by a determination to prevent the abuse of this embargo power, I offered an amendment in the Senate, the purpose of which was to place a strict limitation upon the President's use of that power...
...SINCE WE ARE OURSELVES AT WAR, WE ARE NOW EMPLOYING EMBARGO POWER AS A MEANS OF FORCING NEUTRAL NATIONS, BORDERING ON OR NEAR TO GERMANY, EITHER TO MAKE WAR UPON HER COMMERCIALLY OR BY ARMED FORCE...
...THE MEETINGS WERE FOR THE PURPOSE OF MAKi ING ARRANGEMENTS TO JOINTLY STAY OUT OF THE WAR AS LONG AS THEY POSSIBLY COULD...
...While she has a surplus of cattle, she is in dire need of coaL Germany has within her military lines, a superabundance of coal...
...NOR IS THERE ANY LIKELIHOOD THAT SWEDEN AND NORWAY WILL PERMIT RUSSIA A FREE ROAD OVER THE NORTHERN PART OF SWEDEN AND NORWAY INTO ALTEN-FJORD OR LOFOTONSEN...
...In substance he said that Holland was well stocked with cattle, but short of food for them...
...It has no precedents...
...That is the real meaning of the embargo proclamation of President Wilson issued on the 9th day of July...
...Realizing that such action upon their part must inevitably mean war, with all its horrors, augmented and intensified by the fact that their homes and lands would at once become the battlefields of the.devastating army, they respectfully refused to follow the lead of the United States...
...As a belligerent on the side of Germany, she would furnish the best possible route for an attack upon that flank, and the result of any such attack would seem to be most disastrous...
...FURTHERMORE, THE LOGIC OF THE ENTIRE SITUATION MUST INEVITABLY HOLD NORWAY IN THE ALLIANCE WITH SWEDEN AND DENMARK...
...that it will not be invoked for the purpose of conserving the food or reducing the cost of the American people...
...I quote from' his instructions to Mr...
...II As neutral nations, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and Switzerland have a right to preserve friendly relations with all belligerents...
...Now, that we ourselves are engaged in war, we ought not to attempt, to coerce neutral countries into violating their neutrality...
...My amendment was defeated...
...Should she join the central powers, it would mean the loss of her colonies—Java, Sumatra, and other overseas possessions, since they would be seized by Japan and England...
...And (2) that our foodstuffs shipped to a neutral so located, even if consumed in a neutral country would enable such neutral to sell like foodstuffs of its own production to Germany...
...Assuming that Norway might be inclined for domestic reasons, and because of her lack of food, to break away from the Scandinavian combination, she is utterly unprepared with that Swedish army...
...with reference to Swidish, the of the Swedish people as a result of centuries of struggle with Russia, would not tolerate an alliance with Russia under any circumstances...
...Mr...
...Holland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland through the war have had, and still have, the same, undisputed right as neutral nations to trade with Germany, which the United States claimed for itself as a neutral nation in trading with England...
...III England, in her war with France in 1793, desiring to starve her adversary, attempted to make this government a party to her wholesale murder of the French people, by forcing us to give up our neutral rights to trade with France...
...And we are determined by denying them food grains, flour, meal and meat products to starve them into submission...
...Such policy found no favor with the present administration...
...NO SURER POLICY COULD BE DEVISED OF INEVITABLY FORCING THE SCANDINAVIAN PEOPLE INTO THE WAR WITH GERMANY, AND AGAINST THE UNITED STATES, THAN THE RUTHLESS, BLUNDERING, STUPID POLICY OF AN ULTIMATUM OF STARVATION WHICH DECLARES, "FIGHT WITH US, OR WE WILL STARVE YOU TO IT...
...We will not spare even your women and your little children...
...They asserted their fixed determination to maintain a position of neutrality and to preserve peace for their people...
...The advocates of the policy of starving Norw.ay, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and Switzerland into the war on the side of the allies may drive them into the war into support of Germany...
...NOT THE HEALTHY BUT THE INFIRM, THE OLD, THE YOUNG— THE TENDER LITTLE ONES...
...Dare to maintain your neutral rights and you shall starve...
...This doctrine we have maintained by an unbroken line of decisions under all administrations down to the present one...
...TO JOINTLY GO INTO THE WAR IF THEY WERE COMPELLED TO DO SO, AND UNDER NO CLRCUM-STANCES TO FIGHT AGAINST EACH OTHER...
...As neutral nations they have the same right to trade with Germany through any open port, that they have to trade with England, through any open port...
...It is stated that we are fighting this war for the cause of democracy, and that the weaker nations of the world shall be secure in their rights...
...It was so held by our Supreme Court when England as a neutral prosecuted her trade with the confederates...
...A wise statesmanship would admonish us to weigh the possibility of that result...
...They have universal military training and service...
...It is difficult to conceive of Japan's overlooking the opportunity for the expansion which she is seeking in various directions, for she holds at this time a position of vantage when her aid is so urgently needed by the Allies, and would not be slow to force the acquisition of Java and Sumatra, They are practically today under the guns of her navy...
...What a mockery of that profession this proposed action makes...
...IT MEANS DELIBERATELY TO KILL BY SLOW STARVATION, NOT SOLDIERS,— BUT CIVILIANS...
...Like the others, she has preserved her neutrality under conditions due to immediate contact with the warring territory, which has rendered the preservation of such neutrality extremely difficult...
...It is not the devastation of a belt of enem> country which is subsisting an enemy army whence the non-combatants may find sustenance in neighboring sections of their own land...
...Her right to do so was tried out in our courts and affirmed...
...He proclaimed the American doctrine for the protection of the commercial rights of neutrals, which was ultimately accepted by all nations...
...Clearly Switzerland, as well as Holland, Sweden Norway and Denmark, will remain neutral until the end of the war, if permitted to do so...
...In order to make certain "that succor shall be prevented from reaching the enemy.'' "Join with us in war against Germany, and you shall have rations...
...VIII The representatives of the three Scandinavian countries have had three meetings at Mal-moe, Sweden, since the war began — one, shortly after the beginning of the war, the last at a comparatively recent date...
...From that reply I quote the following: "When goods are clearly intended to become incorporated in the mass of merchandise for sale in a neutral country, it is an UNWARRANTED and INQUISITORIAL proceeding to detain shipments for examination as to whether these goods are ULTIMATELY DESTINED for .the ENEMY'S COUNTRY or USE...
...NOT THE STRONG BUT THE WEAK...
...that they shall be protected in their national ideals in the governments which they have set up for themselves...
...Pinckney the following: "When two nations go to war those who chose to live in peace retain their national right to carry the produce of their industry for exchange to all nations, belligerent as well as neutral, and to go and come freely without injury, or molestation...
...The Supreme Court: "Neutral trade to or from a blockaded country by inland navigation or transportation is lawful...
...Norway has an army in the neighborhood of 300,000 properly trained and equipped...
...Other countries were included in the proclamation of embargo, but it is designed to apply particularly to the small neutral nations—near neighbors to Germany...
...She is therefore in a position to offer to Holland the coal which Holland needs, in exchange for the cattle which Germany needs...
...but that it may be used for the purpose of coercing neutral countries into a participation in this war...
...Norway has a population of about three and one-quarter millions...
...he has asked all of the nations of the world to join with us in preserving it...
...The brutality of this embargo policy is only equalled by its illegality and folly...
...THE VERY LIFE OF DENMARK DEPENDS UPON HER NOT ENTERING THE WAR AGAINST GERMANY, AND LIKEWISE THE VERY LIFE OF SWEDEN DEPENDS UPON NEVER PERMITTING RUSSIA A FOOTHOLD ON ITS SOIL...
...IX Consider now the situation of Switzerland...
...During our civil war England, claiming to be a neutral nation, insisted on her right to trade with our enemy the confederates...
...Fourth, we would be obliged to depend upon sailors who are citizens of countries with which we would then be at war, to transport food and munitions to our own troops in France, and more important still, we would have to depend upon such seamen to man the ships which carried our vast army over thousands of miles of dangerous seas to the continent of Europe, or we would have to discharge or intern more than one-half the seamen in our service and replace them as best we could, if we could replace them at all...
...It would be well to heed the suggestion made by a high officer of the government of Holland, in discussing publicly the effects of the embargo upon her destinies...
...NOR SHALL SUCH POWER SO CONFERRED UPON THE PRESIDENT BE USED TO INTERFERE WITH THE NEUTRAL RIGHTS OF ANY NEUTRAL NATION OR TO COERCE THE GOVERNMENT OF SUCH NEUTRAL NATION DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, TO ENGAGE OR PARTICIPATE IN THE EXISTING WAR...
...President, I cannot vote for such a measure as that...
...Second, England would at once lose a vast quantity of food which she now obtains from Holland, Denmark and Norway...
...and Germany would gain accordingly...
...And this system is to be extended by our government...
...She shipped her merchandise to Matamoras, Mexico, just across the Rio Grande from Texas with intent to supply from Matamoras goods to Texas...
...TO RECAPITULATE, THERE IS, THEREFORE, NO LIKELIHOOD, SCARCELY A POSSIBILITY, THAT NORWAY, DENMARK AND SWEDEN WILL DIVIDE IN THE EVENT OF EITHER OF THE COUNTRIES BEING FORCED INTO THIS WAR...
...Immediately after the President severad diplomatic relations with Germany, he sought to induce these neutral nations to join with the United States in breaking off all diplomatic relations with Germany...
...Jefferson further declared: "That if one belligerent should adopt the policy of starving an enemy nation she can have no right of doing it at our loss, nor of making us the instrument of it" (American Foreign Relations, volume 1, page 239...
...THESE WILL BE THE FIRST TO DIE BY THIS TWENTIETH CENTURY WAR SYSTEM...
...First, they would add as Allies the soldiers of Norway, Sweden and Denmark, aggregating at least a million highly trained men, and a population which can furnish easily at ieast an additional one million of trained reserves...
...To this claim on the part of England, President Wilson directed Mr...
...Third, and most important yet, the countless harbors and inland water passages of Norway, Germany Navy and submarine bases...
...Fine phrases...
...the President has invoked it...
...Switzerland as a neutral country serves as a protection to the right flank of the allied armies...
...Now that we have become one of the warring nations of the world, the desire to win, it would appear, reacts upon us as upon every government that appeals to force to settle its international disputes...
...I submit facts worthy of the considerate judgment of the American people in this great crisis...
...IV This embargo act, and the proclamation based upon it, mean just one thing...
...She set up the claim (1) Our foodstuffs shipped to a neutral nation, (which, because of its geographical location and unrestricted commerce with Germany) might become incorporated with the mass of merchandise for sale in the neutral country and be re-sold and shipped to Germany...
...Switzerland bordering on France, Italy, Austria-Hungary and Germany, would offer through her mountain passes an easy avenue of attack upon one or more of the contiguous countries...
...Notwithstanding the separation of the two governments of Norway and Sweden, they arc one in sentiment as to foreign csuntries, and stronger in combination, though independent in government, than they were under the old regime...
...On the 21st of October, while we were playing the role of a neutral government, England attempted to interfere with our trade with these same neutral nations...
...The same is true of those sailing the Pacific, except that in the specific commerce under the American flag there are a larger number of Finns...
...It is not th > dege of a fortified city from which the civilian population are given the opportunity to withdraw...
...IT IS THE DESTRUCTION OF A PEOPLE...
...We propose to use the embargo as our weapon to deprive Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Holland and Switzerland of their neutral rights...
...The amendment which I offered was as follows: "PROVIDED FURTHER, That the power herein conferred upon the President to place an embargo upon the export of any article or articles from the United States to any foreign country shall in no case be used to prohibit such exports to any for-, eign country whose government is at peace with the United States, when such article or articles are for the use and consumption of and within such foreign country, unless such article or articles in the judgment of the President to be so declared in his proclamation be required for domestic use and consumption by the people of the United States, or for the use of the government of the United States in its prosecution of the war...
...We have stood for neutrality...
...Sweden now has a first-class army of about 600,000 men...
...THEY BELIEVE ' THAT RUSSIA ONCE IN, CAN NEVER EE FORCED OUT...
...HENCE ANY POLICY PROSECUTED BY THE UNITED STATES OR THE ALLIES, WHICH WOULD RESULT IN FORCING SWITZERLAND INTO THE GERMANIC ALLIANCE, WOULD BE LITTLE MORE THAN A FATAL BLUNDER...
...The announced purpose of the President's proclamation of embargo just issued, is—quoting his exact words—to make certain "THAT SUCCOR SHALL BE PREVENTED FROM REACHING THE ENEMY...
...AND WE ARE TO HAVE THIS SYSTEM STAMPED WITH THE APPROVAL OF THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT...
...If the embargo policy of this government should force Norway, Sweden and Denmark into the war on Germany's side, what then would be the result as to Germany and the Central Powers...
...Lansing to reply...
...And so the Senate voted that the President should have the power through embargo to interfere with the neutral rights of any neutral nation at peace with the United States, and that it should have the right to use the embargo power to coerce the government of such neutral nation and force it into the existing war...
...The trade of these neutral nations with Germany is a lawful trade...
...In fact, Germany would be compelled to do that the very moment that there was any indication that Denmark would join the entente Allies, because of the danger to her Kiel canal...
...I do not believe that that kind of a war can result in good to the world...
...Germany employed the submarine to deprive us of our neutral rights...
...STARVATION BY PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATION...
...And now we are to apply the deadly policy of starving the people of an entire nation, not alone an enemy nation: but friendly neutral nations, "small nations" whose "right and liberties" we en-tered this war to "fight for" observing with "proud punctilio the principle of right and fair play...
...Dare to Remain Neutral and You Starve" Word Given Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland and Switzerland I ON THE 9TH OF JULY, President Wilson issued a proclamation placing an embargo upon the shipment of all food grains, flour, meal, meat, fats, food, fodder, coal, and a great variety of other products to Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Holland and Switzerland...
...AND SO WE FOLLOWING THESE UNLAWFUL AND RUTHLESS EXAMPLES ARE NOW DETERMINED TO STOP NEUTRAL TRADING BETWEEN THESE NEUTRAL NATIONS AND GERMANY...
...It was on the 2nd day'of April in his message urging Congress to declare war that President Wilson said: "We shall fight for our rights and liberties of small nations and ourselves observe with proud punctilio the principles of right and fair play.'' Fair words...
...Diplomatic pressure having failed to draw the neutrals of Northern Europe into the conflict, the ban of embargo is to be laid upon their receiving food, fuel, and other supplies from this country...
...She destroyed our ships and drowned our people...
...X If President Wilson would obey the rule that Thomas Jefferson declared, and which I am proud to say we have always heretofore maintained,—then he would not seek by embargo to restrain Denmark, Sweden, Holland and Switzerland from exercising their ancient right to trade with Germany through her open ports or by inland transportation...
...That is a matter with which the neutral vendor has to concern and which can in no way affect his rights of trade.'' If we were within our neutral rights in selling grain and meats INTO THE GENERAL STOCK OF MERCHANDISE of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Holland and Switzerland even though those products "were ultimately destined for Germany's use"—as declared by President Wilson's Secretary of State in answer to England, and if we were right in denouncing as "ILLEGAL and UNJUSTIFIABLE any attempt of a belligerent (England) to interfere with that right" then these neutral countries are being wronged by this government —as a belligerent is attempting to do the same "illegal and unjustifiable" thing in using the embargo to "interfere with that right" belonging to these neutral nations...
...It was maintained by Secretary Lansing when it was for our commercial advantage to trade with Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and Switzerland...
...The Swedish army was recently reorganized as a result of the fear of Russia, and the Russian border fortified...
...The United States MAINTAINS the RIGHT to sell gocds into the general stock of a NEUTRAL COUNTRY and DENOUNCES as ILLEGAL and UNJUSTIFIABLE, any attempt of a belligerent to interfere with that right, on the ground that it suspects that the previous supply of such goods in the neutral country, which the imports renew or replace, has been sold to an enemy...
...But there js another momentous consequence which may result from this ruthless policy with these neutral nations, demanding the gravest, the most serious consideration...
...Denmark could not possibly join the entente Allies because Jutland would be overrun by German troops in probably less than two weeks...
...It declares in plain terms to these governments so unfortunately situated: "Surrender your neutral rights to trade with Germany, aid us to starve her people, her civil population, regardless of age or sex, or this rich and powerful government will starve your people...
...VII I have discussed the moral and legal right of this government to employ the drastic and horrifying policy of starving by embargo Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Holland and Switzerj land into giving up their rights of neutral trade with Germany, thereby aiding this government to starve the German people...
...If President WiLson would follow Jefferson's humane example, he would not commit this government to the murdsrous policy set up by England and pursued by Germany—the object of which is to starve the people of an entire country...
...I quote the following from Senator Town-send 's speech: "My understanding is now that this section will not be used for the purpose of protecting the American consumer, no matter what the needs of our people may be...
...More than fifty per cent of the seamen, and practically all of the skilled men in the deck crews, on the Atlantic sailing under the American flag, are citizens of Germany, Holland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark...
...And Switzerland, as well as each of the other neutral countries under discussion, has traded with the belligerents in the exercise of her neutral rights just as the people of our own country have exercised their privilege of trading with one or the other of the belligerents...
...Jefferson gave England to understand that the American government would maintain her rights within the following rule...
...Therefore, if denied food for her cattle, which she would import from this country, she would be compelled to make some disposition of her cattle, rather than permit them to be starved...
...The only exception being (1) that the attempt to ship merchandise to a blockade port of a belligerent and (2) the shipment of "Implements of War" would in either case be subject to seizure...
...Before we entered the war appeal was often made to this government to place an embargo upon the export of arms and ammunition—the things that kill, as a means of inducing the belligerent nations to end the war...
...Thomas Jefferson was then secretary of state...
...He then denounced as "Illegal and Unjustifiable" England's attempt to stop our selling goods into the general stock of merchandise belonging to these neutral countries, even though our goods "ULTIMATELY" reached "THE ENEMY COUNTRY" but just as England tried to interfere with our neutral rights to trade with the neutral neighbors of Germany and with Germany through her open ports and by inland navigation or transportation, and unlawfully sowed the open sea with deadly mines to finally accomplish the destruction of our commercial rights—so Germany wrongfully attempted to prevent us, a neutral nation, from trading with England...
...The Washington Post with frank brutality clearly interprets the proclamation to these nations as follows: "Kill Germany or die yourselves," V During the consideration of the bill, of which the embargo section was a part, Senator Townsend, of Michigan, opposed the barbarous purpose to clothe the President with power to deny our food products to a neutral nation, in order to starve her people into joining with us in a commercial or military war upon Germany...
...THAT IS THE BARBAROUS MANDATE OF THIS CHRISTIAN GOVERNMENT TO THE SMALL DEFENSELESS NATIONS — NORWAY, DENMARK, SWEDEN, HOLLAND AND SWITZERLAND...
...It will therefore be seen that her position is an extremely critical one from any standpoint...
Vol. 9 • June 1917 • No. 7
