But while this is happily true, it must be admitted that there have
been certain additional indications and expressions of purpose on the
part of the German press and the German authorities which have
increased rather than lessened the impression that if our ships and
our people are spared it will be because of fortunate circumstances or
because the commanders of the German submarines which they may happen
to encounter exercise an unexpected discretion and restraint, rather
than because of the instructions under which those commanders are
acting.
It would be foolish to deny that the situation is fraught with the
gravest possibilities and dangers. No thoughtful man can fail to see
that the necessity for definite action may come at any time, if we are
in fact, and not in word merely, to defend our elementary rights as a
neutral nation. It would be most imprudent to be unprepared.
I cannot in such circumstances be unmindful of the fact that the
expiration of the term of the present Congress is immediately at hand
by constitutional limitation, and that it would in all likelihood
require an unusual length of time to assemble and organize the Congress
which is to succeed it.