Congress voted a declaration of war April 6. Only six senators out of a total of 96, and fifty representatives out of a total of 435, voted against it. Congress also, at the request of the President, voted for the creation of a national army and the raising to war strength of the National Guard, the Marine corps and the Navy. Laws were passed dealing with espionage, trading with the enemy and the unlawful manufacture and use of explosives. Provision was made for the insurance of soldiers and sailors, for priority of shipments, for the seizure and use of enemy ships in American harbors, for conserving and controlling the food and fuel supply of the country, for stimulating agriculture, for enlarging the aviation branch of the service, for extending credit to foreign governments, for issuing bonds and for providing additional revenues by increasing old and creating new taxes. The extra session of congress lasted a few days over six months. In that time it passed all the above measures and others of less importance. It authorized the expenditure of over nineteen billions of dollars ($19,321,225,208). Including the amount appropriated at the second session of the preceeding congress, the amount reached the unheard of total of over twenty-one billions of dollars ($21,390,730,940). German intrigues and German ruthlessness created an additional stench in the nostrils of civilization when on September 8, the United States made public the celebrated "Spurlos Versenkt" telegram which had come into its possession. It is a German phrase meaning "sunk without leaving a trace" and was contained in a telegram from Luxburg, the German minister at Buenos Aires. The telegram (of May 19, 1917) advised that Argentine steamers "be spared if possible or else sunk without a trace being left." The advice was repeated July 9. The Swedish minister at Buenos Aires sent these messages in code as though they were his own private dispatches. On August 26, the British Admiralty had communicated to the International Conference of Merchant Seaman, a statement of the facts in twelve cases of sinkings during the previous seven months in which it was shown how "spurlos versenkt" was applied. It was shown that in these cases the submarine commanders had deliberately opened fire on the crews of the vessels after they had taken to their small boats or had attempted to dispose of them in some other way.