100 years ago: In response to submarine attacks, Woodrow Wilson warns Germany

From our archives, 100 years ago

President Woodrow Wilson delivered a final ultimatum to Germany: Abandon submarine warfare against passenger ships and freighters, or the U.S. would “sever diplomatic relations altogether.”

A front-page story noted that when such an action is taken, it “nearly always means war.”

The U.S. had remained out of the European war for nearly two years, but public opinion had swung toward war because of the German submarine campaign. The incident that prompted the ultimatum was the sinking of the “unarmed steamer Sussex, with 325 or more passengers on board, among whom were a number of American citizens.”

Wilson told the Germans that an impartial investigation revealed that the Sussex was torpedoed without warning.

From the education beat: The presidents of four major state universities in the Northwest – Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana – spoke at the Inland Northwest Teachers Association convention in Spokane.

President Henry Suzzallo of the University of Washington said he believed that the future of higher education included an innovative new idea: a two-year “junior college.”

“We must not sacrifice the many who, for economic reasons, cannot continue a four years’ preliminary cultural course,” he said.