--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Smedley, James, Jr. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 21 number: 10 published: 1918-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Smedley, James, Jr., "Why America Entered the War," *Improvement Era* 21, no. 10 (August 1918): 896–900.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera21010unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera21010unse start_page: 896 end_page: 900 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1918-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera21010unse publication_year: 1918 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1918, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Why America Entered the War 8<>8 IMPROVEMENT ERA democracy of the world at stake, but that autocracy was threatening an invasion of this country. We could see that we must fighl for ill" welfare of humanity and for the defense of our own homes. We watched the ruthless invasion of Belgium which opened the war. The action sent a chill over our nation. Belgium was a neutral. And we wondered, "Has Germany no regard for her own treaties?" But we said, "We are neutral; this is not our war." We tried to make ourselves believe in Germany, but our sense of right and wrong was injured. Unconsciously our sympathy went with the Allies, and it was hard to be a neutral. Following the invasion of Belgium came the report of attacks on women and children, and it seemed as if the German soldiers had no regard for the life or chas- tity of non-belligerents. We could notunderstand why men would do such things. We called the German sol- diers cowards. But we did not realize that such things were to be the common ac- tion of the German Imperial government. We blamed the soldiers, not the government, but blame whom we would, hatred began to grow, and it was still harder to be a neu- tral. Then Germany began W alter V. Fuhriman her first submarine warfare, a cruel and unmanly business. We saw ship after ship sent to the bottom; ships of mercy bound from American ports for starving Belgium; ships carrying the Red Cross and laden with the wounded of all nations; ships flying the Stars and Stripes; ships carrying food and clothing to friendly, harmless, terrorized people of Europe, sent to the bottom, hundreds of miles from the shore, manned by American seamen, murdered against all law without warning. Many were the ships that went to the bottom, the Lusitania is only the famous one of hundreds of examples. We then sent protests in the form of notes to Germany. We talked to Germany in the spirit of good faith and sincerity. We WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR 899 talked as honest men should talk. Germany then promised us that she would respect neutral flags and the rights of neutrals, so we held our anger and rage in check. But Germany did not live up to her promise, so we sent more notes of protest, until we discovered that the German Imperial government construed our notes as evidence that we were cowards. Germany's next step, in her effort to force us into the war, was the calling upon Mexico to invade us. But this did not make us fight, because we stood for peace. Germany then had our cities filled with paid spies. This propaganda was attempted to split our own nation asunder. Things were becoming intolerable. It began to dawn upon us that not only was Germany trying to force us to fight in the Great War in Europe, but that she was trying to force us to fight among ourselves. On February 1, 1917, or shortly prior thereto, when the German government, believing itself strong enough and in possession of a sufficient number of submarines, notified our government that it would ruthlessly destroy every neutral vessel that should venture into the seas surrounding England, France and Italy. This new policy of the German Imperial government swept every restriction aside. Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their destination, their errand, would ruthlessly be sent to the bottom; without warning and without thought of help or mercy for those on board. The vessels of friendly neutrals, along with those of the belligerents. When the Kaiser notified the government of the United States that he would sink at sight American vessels entering this States. When area, he virtually declared war against the United American vessels at sight as within that area he began sinking he had notified our government he would do, and killing Amer- American ican crews, and passengers sailing with them under the It was upon his part flag, he made war upon the United States. invasive war, war of conquest, precisely the same kind of war which he had made two and one-half years upon this country earlier upon Belgium and France. Before the declaration of war, and those acts of war, we had reason to fear the German government, we had reason for indignation, we had reason for resentment. We might have not was be- gone to war for no slight reasons; and that we did under an adminis- cause our government was then, as it still is, in the thoughts of war; it abhors tration which does not revel war. But when the German government advanced its invasive battle line out upon the open Atlantic in our direction, assert- ing its sovereigntythere as it was asserting it m Belgium and 900 IMPROVEMENT ERA northern France, and killing American citizens on American ships, under the American flag, upon water where they had as good a right to be as in their own cities, states or harbors, then a new element came into the case. Our republic was invasively and definitely put upon the defensive. The most pacific administration the United States has ever had could no longer keep us out of the war without putting us into national subjection to an alien power. The German government had left no alternative to this government but war or surrender. Our ships might indeed have stayed away from the ocean area over which the German government thus asserted ex- clusive sovereignty. Their crews and passengers might have remained at home in obedience to the Kaiser's command. In obedience to that command our govern- ment might have ordered them to do so. But none of this would have made any safer our independence, any more to the interest of peace between this country and Germany, or any more rea- sonable on any account than if the Kaiser had ordered us to stay off the ocean outside of our territorial waters, and we had obeyed. But we could not obey. Germany had declared war. George Blair Glade The Congress of the United States could do nothing but accept her challenge. There was no possible alternative. Germany of her own free will had become our enemy. Her policy was one of conquest, and following that policy she had invaded France and Belgium. She had disclosed her invasive intent toward us by her diplomatic negotiations with Mexico and her secret operations within the United States. She threw her invasive battle line out upon the Atlantic to the twentieth meridian, thus confirming her hostile intent toward this country. Her destruction of the American flag was the overt attack of aggressive war on her part. We might have assented to Germany's conquering the world, nation by nation, until our turn came. We were not confronted with the problem of war or no war. Our problem was one of WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR 801 resisting conquest now, in a war in Europe and with Allies, or later, in our own country and without allies. And as President Wilson has said: For us there is but one choice. We have made it. Woe be to the man or group of men that seek to stand in our way in this day of high resolution when every principle we hold dearest is to be vindicated and made sure for the salvation of the nations. We are ready to plead at the bar of history, and our flag shall wear a new luster. Once more we shall make good with our lives and fortunes the great faith to which we were born, and a new glory shall shine in the face of our people. Bountiful, Utah. The Cigarette There is everything to lose and nothing to gain by becoming a smoker. None can deny the essential truth of this statement. Notwithstanding, however, the young people of the nation, encouraged by their elders, go on selling their birthright of unimpaired physical and mental vigor for many packages of cigar- — ettes, billions of the deadly pills being consumed every year. Cigarette smoking lowers efficiency, wastes money, and encourages crime. Mr. Henry Ford's advice is wise "Don't burn your : money and your vitality at the end of a cigarette." What can we do to show that we are in earnest in this matter? Here are two things, at least, that can be done: first do not use tobacco; second, do not sell tobacco. Every Latter-day Saint should positively refuse to sell tobacco and cigarettes, or tobacco in any form. It is taken for granted that no mature Latter-day Saint uses tobacco. He should be just as determined not to tempt others to use it, or to place it in their way, as he is to set the proper example before the young people. His word of warning then becomes effective through example. No Latterday Saint feels quite justified in selling tobacco: first, for moral and religions reasons; and, second, for the reason that he desires to discourage such an expensive, useless, and dangerous habit as is smoking or chewing, or using any other stimulant, for that matter. Boys and girls should be told the truth about tobacco and the havoc it works. They should be taught by precept and example that it is not manly or womanly to use it. If it were manly to use tobacco, it certainly would be womanly, and yet ninety per cent of the readers of the Era would be horrified to think of the use of tobacco becoming as general among girls and women as it is among boys and men! Let us take care that no such conditions arise. Let us discourage the tobacco habit by refusing absolutely to place it before our communities in stores and business places under our ownership, management and control. Mental Influence By Joseph A. West Before entering upon a discussion of the Emmanuel movement, as promised in a former article, I wish to call attention to the influence of mind over body. Every person who has followed the well-known injunction, "Man, know thyself," must have discovered that the will to dare and to do is in itself half the battle won. Upon the mental poise of the individual mainly depends his success or failure. Everything that we do has its origin in the brain, and the weak and feeble, or vigorous and energetic manner in which any task is performed depends upon the manner in which the idea of doing it is conceived. May we not, therefore, also assume that the physical condition of the body may be likewise influenced, in the matter of health and disease? That such is the case is abundantly attested by the experience of the medical fraternity. I recently read of the experience of a celebrated physician and surgeon who had performed several thousand operations for appendicitis, and while a majority of such cases were diagnosed correctly, quite a number were not. In the latter the appendix was found to be in a healthy condition and therefore not the seat of the trouble. He selected ten of the most pronounced of these cases, and wrote the patients asking if the operation had been satisfactory and had produced the desired results ; to which all but two replied that it had. These two were not quite certain whether it had or not. Douglas Fairbanks, in one of his films, graphically depicts a woe-begone dispeptic in a sanitarium reading from an almanac all the distressful symptoms of her complaint, and finding them all in her case, when in reality they were phantoms of her mind. Having a sweetheart in the place, and being unable to induce her to leave, he bought the sanitarium and turned all the patients out to an open-air life, dispensing with medicine of every kind; and in an incredibly short time all were well, happy and hearty. In his excellent work, entitled Laugh and Live, he conclusively shows that the gospel of cheerfulness is the gospel of health; that cheerfulness is a product of the mind, and that it can be indulged in by the simple exercise of the will, even when everything in life seemingly "goes dead wrong." Dr. Hirschfield, in his excellent work on the Heart and