Uncle Sam weighs the lives lost in the German sinking of the Lusitania (and other ships, as seen on the horizon) to his cash flow from selling weapons and other supplies to the combatants, particularly the allies. The moneybags have tipped the scales. A 1916 postcard by Em. Dupuis.
A l'ombre, de la LibertéIn the Shadow of LivertyOn the coffin and the ship in the distance, 'Lusitania'
"At sea, German submarine sinkings were continuous: on October 28 the British liner Marina was torpedoed without warning off the Fastnet Rock. Eighteen passengers were drowned, among them six Americans. A United States steamer, the Lanao, was also sunk by a German submarine that day, off Portugal. Many observers wondered how long it would be before these sinking forced the United States to declare war on Germany. Two days earlier President Wilson had told the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce: 'I believe that the business of neutrality is over. The nature of modern war leaves no State untouched.'"
In 1916 Germany's submarine warfare sank not only ships of its enemies, but also those within the war zone around the United Kingdom that Germany had declared on February 4, 1915. In some cases, the ships were neutral, but Germany claimed Britain false-flagged its ships, flying those of neutral countries. When he spoke in Cincinnati, President Woodrow Wilson was in the last days of a presidential campaign, and would be re-elected on November 7. Fastnet Rock is 13 kilometers off county Cork, the southwestern coast of Ireland.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 292, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
1916-10-26, October, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson, Woodrow Wilson, President Wilson, Wilson, submarine, neutral United States
