<Dl> <Dd> Isolated as we are, safe in our vastness, protected by a great navy, and possessed of an army sufficient for any emergency that may arise, we may disregard the lamentations and predictions of the militarists . </Dd> </Dl> <Dd> Isolated as we are, safe in our vastness, protected by a great navy, and possessed of an army sufficient for any emergency that may arise, we may disregard the lamentations and predictions of the militarists . </Dd> <P> German Americans by this time usually had only weak ties to Germany; however, they were fearful of negative treatment they might receive if the United States entered the war (such mistreatment was already happening to German - descent citizens in Canada and Australia). Almost none called for intervening on Germany's side, instead calling for neutrality and speaking of the superiority of German culture . As more nations were drawn into the conflict, however, the English - languages press increasingly supporting Britain, while the German - American media called for neutrality while also defending Germany's position . Chicago's Germans worked to secure a complete embargo on all arms shipments to Europe . In 1916, large crowds in Chicago's Germania celebrated the Kaiser's birthday, something they had not done before the war . German Americans in early 1917 still called for neutrality, but proclaimed that if a war came they would be loyal to the United States . By this point, they had been excluded almost entirely from national discourse on the subject . Once war started, they were harassed in so many ways that historian Carl Wittke noted in 1936, it was "one of the most difficult and humiliating experiences suffered by an ethnic group in American history ." German - American Socialists in Milwaukee, Wisconsin actively campaigned against entry into the war . </P> <P> Leaders of most religious groups (except the Episcopalians) tended to pacifism, as did leaders of the woman's movement . The Methodists and Quakers among others were vocal opponents of the war . President Wilson, who was a devout Presbyterian, would often frame the war in terms of good and evil in an appeal for religious support of the war . </P>

What was probably the greatest factor in americas entrance into the war