Woodrow Wilson's pre-war speech to congress

Wilson's Speech

Before America joined the war President Wilson made a speech to congress. He was requesting that America be able to join the war. This post will be on the speech he gave.

Wilson begins his speech by addressing German U-boat warfare. He says that it is our duty to protect ourselves and our allies against such reckless hate shown by the Germans in their U-boat warfare. He says it is no longer a choice for us to be involved in the war but our duty. He then says that the Germans have attacked civilian craft as well as military craft, and they have done it in an unfair way. For a ship can run from another ship, but a submarine attacks without warning.

He then goes on to say that we are not enemies with the German people. We are enemies of their leaders who have misled them to achieve their own selfish ends. He also says that German Americans are our friends and are willing to help us in our efforts. He concludes by wishing America luck in her pursuit of liberty and justice.   

e. e. cummings and President Wilson

On June 6, 2014 an article by Sydney Lea was published by The New Hampshire Valley News. I am going to dedicate this post to that article. The article was titled How World War I Altered American Life and Letters. I am going to discuss the first part of the article. Mr. Lea says that he was attending a P.E.N (an organization that is against censorship and advocates for literary-political prisoners) meeting in early May, whose theme was “The Great War and Modern Literature.” The reason for that particular theme was that this year marks the 100^th anniversary of WWI. As an American representative he was asked to say a few words about the pertaining topic. He does this by discussing a pre war speech that was given by President Woodrow Wilson, and American poet e.e. cummings’s poetic response to it. Wilson’s speech tells America that America’s involvement in the war can and will only benefit America. e.e. cummings wrote a poem making fun of the speech, setting its rhythm to the beat of My Country ‘Tis of Thee. I will not repeat the poem here due to its length, but to sum it up cummings writes that the president was encouraging young men who did not know any better to rush to their deaths. He also says that the president did not mean what he said. He ends his poem with “He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water.” This is to say that the president did not mean what he said. The president did not actually drink a glass of water; this was merely cummings’s way of portraying the president’s ill conviction.   

e. e. cummings

 

Chemical warefare in the First World War

In the First World War poison gas was used by both sides. The French were the first to use gas, but they only used tear gas which was not poisonous. The Germans soon after started using gas which was poisonous. The use of poison gas was a war crime for the use of poison, or poisoned weapons was prohibited by the 1907 Hague convention on land warfare.

British gas victims

 A couple types of gas employed in the war were chlorine and mustard gas. Chlorine gas was invisible and attacked the eyes, nose, and lungs the effects of which could be avoided by wearing a gas mask. Mustard gas not only attacked the nose, eyes, and lungs, but the skin. While chlorine gas disperses rather rapidly after the initial attack, mustard gas lingers for hours and maybe even days. The over all effectiveness of gas in the First World War was rather small. Casualties due to it totaled only about four percent.