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GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAY. Submitted to the special session of Congress by the committee in charge, was the following: "Joint resolution declaring that ■ state of war exists batereaa the imperial flnmaa government and the government and people of the 1nited States and making provision to prosecute the same: "Whereas, the recent acts of the imperial German government are acts of war against the government and people of the United States: "Resolved. by the senate and house of representatives of the 1nited States of America, in congress assembled. that the state of war between the 1nited States and the imperial German government which has thus been thrust upon the 1nited States is hereby formally declared; and "That the president be and is hereby authorized and directed to take immediate steps not only to put the country in a thorough state of defense but also to exert all of its power and employ all of its resources to carry on war against the imi erial German government and to bring the conflict to a successful termination." That a state of war exists between Tnited States and Germany and that it had already existed in fact, in spite of the absence of a formal declaration, was the gist of the message to Congress as given by President Wilson before thnt body Monday afternoon. In announcing the policy of the Inited States government in the decision to enter the war on the side of the Allies, the President first called attention to the .act that it was a war aganst the Prussian form of militarism and wot against the German nation as a great body of people. That the war as waged from the Prussian standpoint was against visible laws of civilization, seemed to be a firmly fixed opinion in the mind of the President,
