However, in spite of Germany’s solemn promise that nothing of the sort would happen again, similar incidents kept occurring, although on a smaller scale.  The American steamers Falaba and Gulflight were torpedoed without warning, in each case with the loss of one or two lives.  Finally, the steamer Sussex, crossing the English Channel, was hit by a torpedo which killed many of the passengers.  As several Americans lost their lives, once more the United States warned Germany that this must not be repeated.  Germany acknowledged that her submarine commander had gone further than his orders allowed him and promised that the act should not be repeated—­provided that the United States should force England to abandon what Germany called her illegal blockade.  The United States in reply made it plain that while the English blockade was unpleasant to American citizens, still it was very different from the brutal murder of women and children on the high seas.  England, when convinced that an American ship was carrying supplies which would be sold in the end to Germany, merely took this vessel into an English port, where a court decided what the cargo was worth and ordered the British government to pay that sum to the (American) owners.

This was resented by the American shippers, but it was not anything to go to war over.  The United States gave warning that she would hold Germany responsible for any damage to American ships or loss of American lives.

All of this time the Germans were accusing the United States of favoring the nations of the Entente because they were selling munitions of war to them and none to Germany.  They said that it was grossly unfair for neutral nations to sell to one side when, owing to the blockade, they could not sell to the other also.  When a protest was made by Austria, the United States pointed out that a similar case had come up in 1899.  At that time the empire of Great Britain was at war with two little Dutch Republics in South Africa.  The Dutch, completely blockaded, could not buy munitions in the open market.  Nevertheless, this fact did not prevent both Austria and Germany from selling guns and ammunition to Great Britain. (It must be made plain that the United States government was not selling munitions of war to any of the warring nations.  What Germany wanted and Austria asked was that our government should prevent our private companies, as, for example our steel mills, from shipping any goods which would eventually aid in killing Germans.  The United States made it plain that our people had no feeling in the matter—­that they were in business, and would sell to whomsoever came to buy; that it was not our fault that the British navy, being larger than the German, prevented Germany from trading with us.)

In the meanwhile explosions kept occurring in the many munition factories in the United States that were turning out shells and guns for the Allies.  Several hundred Americans were killed in these explosions, and property to the value of millions of dollars was destroyed.  It was proved that the Austrian ambassador and several of the German diplomats had been hiring men to commit these crimes.  They were protected from our courts by the fact that they were representatives of foreign nations, but the President insisted that their governments recall them.