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hour, the speeches, limited to ten minutes by Speaker Clark, marched on, many making the same or similar points. Like La Follette and Norris, the antiwar minority argued that sinking a handful of ships and killing some American sailors did not constitute a cause for war. They pointed out that the Mexicans had killed far more Americans in Villa’s raids and skirmishes with the Punitive Expedition. Like Kitchin, they blamed the government and U.S. corporations for sending ships into the war zone declared by Berlin—while tamely submitting to the war zone declared by the English blockade of Germany.
    The pro-war speakers answered with outrage over Germany’s “barbaric tactics.” They descanted on how the British only violated property rights in their blockade, whereas the Germans were committing murder. They extended their oratory to a general denunciation of the way Germany was fighting the war in Europe, “raping” neutral Belgium and despoiling the large chunk of France it occupied. They exalted the purpose of the war, as defined by President Wilson. A war for democracy, for the rights of mankind.
    Among the orators who enjoyed the loudest applause was bearded eighty-one-year-old Joseph “Uncle Joe” Cannon of Illinois, for many years the Speaker of the House in its days of Republican majorities. He rose to dilate on the power and resources of the United States,“greater than any other nation on earth.” It was time to commit them to the cause of peace. Pounding on his desk, he roared,“I—shall—vote—for—this—resolution.” 85
    The antiwar representatives achieved some poignant (and totally forgotten) moments. Most notable was Edward J. King of Illinois. The lawmaker said that a vote for war on the president’s arguments, with conscription thrown in, would qualify an American soldier to join the men of other nations in W. K. Enwer’s heartbreaking poem “Five Souls”:
    First Soul.
I was a peasant of the Polish plain;
I left my plow because the message ran—
Russia in danger needed every man
To save her from the Teuton; and was slain
I gave my life for freedom—this I know
For those who bade me fight had told me so.
    Second Soul.
I was a Tyrolese, a mountaineer;
I gladly left my mountain home to fight
Against the brutal, treacherous Muscovite;
And died in Poland on a Cossack spear.
I gave my life for freedom—this I know,
For those who bade me fight had told me so.
    Third Soul.
I worked in Lyons at my weaver’s loom,
When suddenly the Prussian despot hurled
His felon blow at France and at the world;
Then I went forth to Belgium and my doom.
I gave my life for freedom—this I know
For those who bade me fight had told me so.
    Fourth Soul.
I owned a vineyard by the wooded Main
Until the fatherland begirt by foes
Lusting her downfall called me and I rose
Swift to the call, and died in fair Lorraine.
I gave my life for freedom, this I know
For those who bade me fight had told me so.
    Fifth Soul.
I worked in a great shipyard on the Clyde;
There came a sudden word of wars declared,
Of Belgium peaceful, helpless, unprepared
Asking our aid. I joined the ranks and died.
I gave my life for freedom—this I know
For those who bade me fight had told me so.
    King added to this tragic parade a sixth soul from America.
    Sixth Soul.
I worked upon a farm in Illinois.
The squad appeared; I marched away.
Somewhere in France, amid the trenches gray
I met grim death with many other boys.
I gave my life for freedom—this I know.
For he who bade me fight had told me so.
    America was going to war, King said, driven by “armed plutocracy crying ‘Onward Christian Soldiers.’” 86
    At 7 P.M., with no end of speakers in sight, Champ Clark said they would stay in session all night if necessary. At 9 P.M., Clark began to limit the speeches to five minutes. On went the oratory, until at 2:30 A.M. on April 6, the number of speeches had passed one hundred. At 2:45, the legislators at last