■«=i. uV >i Book Copghtlv" _ii2lii:l;| K COFmiGIlT DEPOSIT. L THE MODERN LIBRARY OF THE world's BEST BOOKS SELECTED ADDRESSES AND PUBLIC PAPERS O F WOODROW WILSON THE MODERN LIBPtARY 05CAR Wilde Dorian Gray; Poems; Fairy Tales and Poems in Prose Str'.ndberg Married; Miss Julie and other plays Kipling Soldiers Three Stevenson Treasure Island Henrik Ibsen A Doll's House, Etc. ; HeddaGabler, Etc.; The Wild Duck; Rosmersholm; The League of Youth Anatole France The Red Lily; The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard De Maupassant T7ne Vie; Mademoiselle Fifi, Etc. DosTOYEVsKY Poor Pcoplc Mi»ETERLINCK A Miracle of St. Anthony, Etc. ScrfOPENHAUER Studies in Pessimism Samuel Butler The Way of All Flesh George Meredith Diana of the Crossways G. B, Shaw An Unsocial Socialist Geo. Moore Confessions of a Young Man Thomas Hardy Mayor of Casterbridge Thos. Seltzer Best Russian Stories Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil; Thus Spake Zarathustra; Genealogy of Morals Turgenev Fathers and Sons Swinburne Poems Wm. Dean Howells A Hazard of New Fortunes W. S. Gilbert The Mikado and other Plays Gustave Flaubert Madame Bovary James Stephens Mary, Mary Anton Chekhov Rothschild's Fiddle, Etc. Arthur Schnitzuer .\natol and other Plays; Bertha Garlan Sudermann Dame Care Lord Dunsany A Dreamer's Tales; The Book of Wonder G. K. Chesterton The Man Who Was Thursday Other Titles In Preparation Many volumes contain introduotioDH by well-known modern Anthors wrltt<»n specially for The Modern Library H. G. Wells The War in the Air; Ann Veronica Haeckel, Weismann, Etc. Evolution in Modern Thought Francis Thompson Complete Poems Rodin Art of Rodin Aubrey Beardsley Art of Aubrey Beardsley Balzac Short Stories Edward Carpenter Love's Coming of Age Leonid Andreyev The Seven that Were Hanged Maxim Gorky Creatures that Onoe Were Men Max Beerbohm Zuleika Dobson Max Stirner The Ego and His Own George Gissing Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft Voltaire Candide W. B. Yeats Irish Fairy and Folk Tales Theophile Gautier Mile. De Maupin WooDROW Wilson Addresses and Messages John Macy The Spirit-of American Literature Francois Villon Poetn« Ellen Key, Havelock Ellis, G. Lowes Dickinson, Etc. The Woman Question Frank Norris McTeague Henry James Daisy Miller and an Interna- tional Episode Leo Tolstoy The Death of Ivan Ilyitch and Other Stories Gabriele D'Annunzio The Flame of Life Modern Book of English Verse Edited by Richard LeGallienne Modern Book of American Vers* Edited by Richard LeGallienne May Sinclair The Belfry SELECTED ADDRESSES AND PUBLIC PAPERS OF WOOD ROW WILSON EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ALBERT BUSHNELL HART -i^\iia-«-^''*^-^ BONI AND LIVERIGHT, INC. PUBLISHERS NEW YORK Copyright, 1918, by Boni & Liveright, Inc. JAfJ -3!9!9' ©CI.A512108 ^ CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION i-v YEAR 1913 1-21 A New President's Principles (First Inaugural Ad- dress) — 1-5; Grover Cleveland (Letter on Dedication OF Cleveland's Birthplace) — 5-6; Reform of the Tariff (Address to Congress) — 6-8; The Tariff Lobby (Statement Given to the Press) — 9; The Nation and the Soldier (Address at Gettysburg) — 10-13 ; To THE Citizens of the Philippine Islands (Message Sent by Governor-General Harrison) — 13; Ideals of the College (Address at Swarthmore Col- lege) — 14-16; Relations with Latin America (Ad- dress Before the Southern Commercial Congress AT Mobile)— 16-21 YEAR 1914 22-60 Regulation of Trusts (Address to Congress) — 21-27; Tolls on the Panama Canal (Address to Congress) — 27-28 ; Patriotism and the Sailor (Address at the Unveiling of the Statue of Commodore John Barry) —38-32; The Men Who Fought for the Union At^EMORiAL Day Address at Arlington) — 32-34; Union of Spirit Between North and South (Ad- dress at a Monument in Memory of the Confeder- ate Dead at Arlington) — 34-36; The Naval Service (Address at the Naval Academy, Annapolis) — 36-39; America as a World Power (Address at Independ- ence Hall, Philadelphia) — 39-44; Neutrality of Feeling (A Presidential Proclamation) — 44-46; In- ternational and Municipal Law (Address Before the American Bar Association) — 46-48; The Young Men's Christian Association (Address Before the American Bar Association) — 49-55; Foreign Trade AND Ship Building (Address to Congress)— 55-60. YEAR 1915 61-94 The Democratic Party (Jackson Day Address at Indianapolis) — 61-67; Proper Tests of Immigrants (Veto Message of the Literacy Test Bill) — 67-70; National Commerce (Address to the United States Chamber of Commerce, at Washington)— 70-77; A Confused World at War (Address to the Confer- ence OF Methodist Protestant Church at Wash- CONTENTS PAGE ington)— 77-78; America First (Address at a Meet- ing OF THE Associated Press at New York) — 78-83; The Laws of Neutrality (Despatch Sent Through Secretary Bryan to Germany) — 83-85; Citizens of Foreign Birth (Address to Naturalized Citizens at Convention Hall, Philadelphia) — 85-89; Sinking of THE "LuSITANIA" (DESPATCH OF PROTEST ThROUGH SEC- RETARY Bryan to Germany) — 89-90; What the Flag Means (Address at Flag Day Exercises, Washing- ton)— 90-93; Preparedness for Defense (Address to the Civilian Advisory Board of the Navy at the White House)— 93-94. YEAR 1916 95-170 What Is Pan- Americanism ? (Address to Pan-Am- erican Scientific Congress at Washington) — 95-100; Need of an Army and Navy (Address at New York) — 100-105 ; How to Avoid War (Letter to Senator Stone) — 105-107; Basis of American Foreign Policy (Address to the Gridiron Club at Washington) — 107-109 ; Right of Americans to Traverse the Seas (Letter to Representative Pou on the McLemore Resolution) — 109-110; Expedition into Mexico (Statement to the Press) — 110-111; Ultimatum on Submarine Warfare (Address to Congress) — 111-116; Qualifications of a Supreme Court Justice (Let- ter to Senator Culberson on Mr. Brandeis) — 117- 120; German Abandonment of the Submarine Pol- icy (Despatch to the German Government Through Secretry Lansing) — 120-121 ; How to Enforce Peace (Address to the League to Enforce Peace at Wash- ington) ; 121-125; Preparedness to the Soldier (Ad- dress AT the Military Academy, West Point) — 125- 131; Democracy of Business (Address at Salesman- ship Congress, Detroit) — 132-137; Preparedness to Preserve Peace (Address at Toledo) — 138-139; Loy- alty (Address at Citizenship Convention, Wash- ington)— 139-143 ; An Eight-Hour Day for Railroad Men (Address to Congress) — 143-150; Abr.\ham Lin- coln (Address at the Lincoln Birthplace Farm, at Hodgenville) — 150-154; The Forces of Freedom (Address at Suffrage Convention, Atlantic City) — 154-157; World Business of America (Address to the Grain Dealers' Association, at Baltimore) — 157-162; A Society of Nations (Address at Cincin- nati)— 162-164; The End of Isolation (Address at Shadow Lawn) — 104-165; The Right Hand to La- bor (Address to the American Federation of Labor, AT the White House)— 165-166 ; The Way to Peace (Despatch Partly in Reply to German Proposition OF Peace, Through Secretary Lansing)— 167-170. CONTENTS PAGE YEAR 1917 171-240 Support for the Red Cross (Public Appeal as Presi- dent OF THE Red Cross)— 171-172; Conditions of Peace (Address to the Senate)— 172-179; Breach with Germany (Address to Congress)— 179-183 ; A Great Inventor (Letter to Thomas A. Edison on His 70th Birthday) — 183; Political Principles of Americans (Second Inaugural Address) — 184-188; Necessity of War Against Germany (Address to Congress) — 188-197; The American People Must Support the War (Public Appeal by the Presidpnt to His Fellow Countrymen) — 197-201; The Red Cross (Address at the Dedication of the Red Cross Building in Washington) — 202-204; Objects in Go- ing TO War (Letter to Representative Heflin) — 204-205 ; Need of a Censorship Law (Letter to Repre- sentative Webb) — 205-206; Friendship with Russia (Cablegram to Russia) — 206-208; Defenders of American Honor (Address at Arlington Cemetery)- — 209-210; Insults and Aggressions of Germany (Ad- dress ON Flag Day at Washington) — 210-211 ; Greet- ing TO French Democracy (Cablegram to the French C^overnment) — 217; The Bible and the Soldier (Message to Soldiers and Sailors)— 217-218 ; Patri- otic Teaching in Schools (Public Appeal to School Officers) — 218-219; Papal Propositions of Peace (Reply to the Pope Through Secretary Lansing) — 219-222; To the Soldiers of the National Army (Public Message to the Drafted Men) — 222-223; The Junior Red Cross (Proclamation to the School Children of the United States) — 223-224; Women AND the Suffrage (Reply to a Delegation from the New York State Woman's Suffrage Party, at the White House) — 224-226; Labor and the War (Ad- dress TO THE American Federation of Labor Conven- tion AT Buffalo) — 226-230; Universal Loyalty (Telegram to the Northwest Loyalty Meetings, St. Paul) — 231; Sympathy with the Belgians (Cablegram to King Albert of Belgium) — 231-232; Extension of the War to Austria-Hungary (Ad- dress to Congress) — 232-238; Government Control OF Railroads (Public Statement) — 238-240. YEAR 1918 . . . . * 241-289 Organization for the War (Address to Congress) — 241-244; Fourteen Conditions of Peace (Address to Congress)— 244-251; The Farmers' Patriotism (Mes- sage to the Farmers' Conference at Urbana, III.) — 251-255; HoNCR TO THE Red Cross (Address to the Public Meeting in New York, Opening a Campaign for the Second Red Cross Fund) — 256-260; War-Time CONTENTS PAGE Prohibition (Letter to Senator Sheppard) — 260-261; Disinterested Service to Latin America (Address to Mexican Editors at the White House)— 261-266; Four Factors of World Peace (Address at Mount Vernon)— 266-269; Lynching Is Unpatriotic (Pub- lic Address to Fellow Countrymen)— 270-271 ; Re- building OF Palestine (Letter to Rabbi Wise) — 272; German War Against Labor (Public Message to Labor on Labor Day)— 272-274; A Few Words to Austria (Despatch to the Austrian Government Through Secretary Lansing) — 275; Five Needs of Permanent Peace (Address to Public Meeting in New York, Opening the Fourth Liberty Loan) — 275-282; College Soldiers (Public Message to the Student Corps)— 282-283 ; Question of an Armistice (Despatch to the German Government Through Secretary Lansing)— 283-284; No Negotiated Peace with Germany (Despatch to the German Govern- ment Through Secretary Lansing)— 284-286 ; The Armistice with Germany (Address to Congress) — 286-289; Address Before Going Abroad (Address to Congress)— 289-303. INDEX . 305-316 INTRODUCTION This collection of the public communications of President Wilson to the American people can only be a selection, inasmuch as the space available is not sufficient for more than a third of the full text of the public materials pro- ceeding from Woodrow Wilson. The principles upon which the selection is m.ade should be made clear. Nothing ap- pears in this volume of earlier date than the first inaugura- tion of President Wilson; at the other time extremity, it is brought down as closely as possible to the date of publica- tion. Previous collections have been examined, but have no influence on the choice of pieces: naturally the most significant utterances of the President will find a place in any collection. The foundation for the text is a set of pamphlet editions of the President's public addresses oblig- ingly furnished to the pubHshers by the President's office, and referred to throughout, wherever used, as White House Pamphlet. Titles are inserted by the editor, since few of the documents were originally printed under subject captions. Many very characteristic addresses and letters, however, are not included in these printed materials, and have been searched for through the public records of Congress and the periodical and newspaper press. Indications of origin in pre\ious collections have furnished useful clues to some originals. Other pieces have been found through the pri- vate collections of the editor. He has had throughout the advantage of the professional skill of David M. Matteson, v/hosTnpathy and understanding does unite them, and I believe that by the new route that is just about to be opened, while we phys- ically cut two continents asunder, we spiritually unite them. It is a spiritual union which we seek. I wonder if you realize, I wonder if your imaginations have been filled with the significance of the tides of com- merce. Your governor alluded in very fit and striking Ji Oct. 27] RELATIONS WITH LATIN AMERICA 17 terms to the voyage of Columbus, but Columbus took his voyage under compulsion of circumstances. Constantinople had been captured by the Turks and all the routes of trade with the East had been suddenly closed. If there was not a v/ay across the Atlantic to open those routes again, they were closed forever; and Columbus set out not to discover America, for he did not know that it existed, but to discover the eastern shores of Asia. He set sail for Cathay and stum- bled upon America. With that change in the outlook of the world, what happened? England, that had been at the back of Europe with an unknown sea behind her, found that all things had turned as if upon a pivot and she was at the front of Europe; and since then all the tides of energy and enterprise that have issued out of Europe have seemed to be turned westward across the Atlantic. But you will notice that they have turned westward chiefly north of the Equator, and that it is the northern half of the globe that has seemed to be filled with the media of intercourse and of sympathy and of common understanding. Do you not see now wha^ is about to happen? These great tides which have been nmning along parallels of lati- tude will now swing southward athwart parallels of latitude, and that opening gate at the Isthmus of Panama will open the w^orld to a commerce that she has not known before, a commerce of intelligence, of thought and sympathy betw^een North and South. The Latin-American States which, to their disadvantage, have been off the main lines will now be on the main lines. I feel that these gentlemen honoring us with their presence to-day will presently find that some part, at any rate, of the center of gravity of the world has shifted. Do you realize that New York, for example, will be nearer the western coast of South America than she is now^ to the eastern coast of South America? Do you realize that a line drawn northw^ard parallel with the greater part of the w^estern coast of South America will run only about one hundred and fifty miles west of New" York? The great bulk of South America, if you will look at your globes (not at your Mercator's projection), lies eastward of the con- tinent of North America You will realize that when you i8 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1913 realize that the canal will run southeast, not southwest, and that when you get into the Pacific you will be farther east than you were when you left the Gulf of Mexico. These things are significant, therefore, of this, that we are closing one chapter in the history of the world and are opening an- other of great, unimaginable significance. There is one peculiarity about the history of the Latin- American States which I am sure they are keenly aware of. You hear of "concessions" to foreign capitalists in Latin America. You do not hear of concessions to foreign capital- ists in the United States. They are not granted concessions. They are invited to make investments. The work is ours, though they are welcome to invest in it. We do not ask them to supply the capital and do the work. It is an invita- tion, not a privilege; and States that are obliged, because their territory does not lie within the main field of modem enterprise and action, to grant concessions are in this con- dition, that foreign interests are apt to dominate their do- mestic affairs, a condition of affairs always dangerous and apt to become intolerable. What these States are going to see, therefore, is an emancipation from the subordination, which has been inevitable, to foreign enterprise and an asser- tion of the splendid character which, in spite of these diffi- culties, they have again and again been able to demonstrate. The dignity, the courage, the self-possession, the self-respect of the Latin-American States, their achievements in the face of all these adverse circumstances, deser\'e nothing but the admiration and applause of the world. They have had harder bargains driven with them in the matter of loans than any other peoples in the world. Interest has been exacted' of them that was not exacted ot anybody else, because the risk was said to be greater; and then securities were taken that destroyed the risk — an admirable arrangement for those who were forcing the terms! I rejoice in nothing so much as in the prospect that they will now be emancipated from these conditions; and we ought to be the first to take part in assisting in that emancipation. I think some of these gentlemen have already had occasion to bear witness that the Department of State in recent months has tried to serve Oct. 27] RELATIONS WITH LATIN AMERICA 19 them in that wise. In the future they will draw closer and closer to us because of circumstances of which I wish to speak with moderation and, I hope, without indiscretion. We must prove ourselves their friends and champions upon terms of equality and honor. You cannot be friends upon any other terms than upon the terms of equality. You cannot be friends at all except upon the terms of honor. We must show ourselves friends by comprehending their interest whether it squares with our OA^^l interest or not. It is a very perilous thing to determine the foreign policy of a nation in the terms of m.aterial interest. It not only is unfair to those with whom you are dealing, but it is degrad- ing as regards your own actions. Comprehension must be the soil in which shall grow all the fruits of friendship, and there is a reason and a com- pulsion lying behind all this which is dearer than anything else to the thoughtful men of America. I mean the develop- ment of constitutional liberty in the world. Human rights, national integrity, and opportunity as against material interests — that, ladies and gentlemen, is the issue which we now have to face. I want to take this occasion to say that ! the United States will never again seek one additional foot| of territory by conquest. She v/ill devote herself to showing \ that she knows how to make honorable and fruitful use of the territory she has, and she must regard it as one of the duties of friendship to see that from no quarter are material interests made superior to human liberty and national oppor- tunity. I say this, not with a single thought that anyone will gainsay it, but merely to fix in our consciousness what our real relationship with the rest of America is. It is the relationship of a family of mankind devoted to the develop- ment of true constitutional liberty. We know that that is the soil out of which the best enterprise springs. We know that this is a cause which Vv^e are making in common with our neighbors, because Vv-e have had to make it for ourselves. Reference has been made here to-day to some of the na- tional problems which confront us as a Nation. What is at the heart of all our national problems? It is that we have seen the hand of material interest sometimes about to close 20 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1913 upon our dearest rights and possessions. We have seen material interests threaten constitutional freedom in the United States. Therefore we will now know how to sympa- thize with those in the rest of America who have to contend with such powers, not only within their borders but from outside their borders also. I know what the response of the thought and heart of America will be to the program I have outlined, because America was created to realize a program like that. This is not America because it is rich. This is not America be- cause it has set up for a great population great opportuni- ties of material prosperity. America is a name which sounds in the ears of men everywhere as a synonjmi with individual opportunity because a synonym of individual liberty. I would rather belong to a poor nation that was free than to a rich nation that had ceased to be in love with liberty. But we shall not be poor if we love liberty, because the nation that loves liberty truly sets every man free to do his best and be his best, and that means the release of all the splendid energies of a great people who think for themselves. A nation of employees cannot be free any more than a nation of employers can be. In emphasizing the points which must unite us in sympathy and in spiritual interest with the Latin-American peoples we are only emphasizing the points of our own life, and we should prove ourselves untrue to our o\\ti traditions if we proved ourselves untrue friends to them. Do not think, therefore, gentlemen, that the questions of the day are mere questions of policy and diplomacy. They are shot through with the principles of life. We dare not turn from the principle that morality and not expediency is the thing that must guide us and that we will never condone iniquity be- cause it is most convenient to do so. It seems to me that this is a day of infinite hope, of confidence in a future greater than the past ha? been, for I am fain to believe that in spite of all the things that we wish to correct the nineteenth century that lies behind us has brought us a |ong stage toward the time when, slowly ascending the tedious climb that leads to the final uplands, we shall get our ultimate Oct. 2 7] RELATIONS WITH LATIN AMERICA 21 view of the duties of mankind. We have breasted a con- siderable part of that climb and shall presently — it may be in a generation or two — come out upon those great heights where there shines unobstructed the light of the justice of God. Congressional Record, L, 5845. YEAR 1914 9. REGULATION OF TRUSTS (January 20, 1914) Address to Congress In my report "on the state of the Union," which I had the privilege of reading to you on the 2d of December last, I ventured to reserve for discussion at a later date the sub- ject of additional legislation regarding the very difficult and intricate matter of trusts and monopolies. The time now seems opportune to turn to that great question; not only because the currency legislation, which absorbed your atten- tion and the attention of the country in December, is now disposed of, but also because opinion seems to be clearing about us with singular rapidity in this other great field of action. In the matter of the currency it cleared suddenly and very happily after the much-debated Act was passed; in respect of the monopolies which have multiplied about us and in regard to the various means by which they have been organized and maintained it seems to be coming to a clear and all but universal agreement in anticipation of our action, as if by way of preparation, mal-Jng the way easier to see and easier to set out upon with confidence and without con- fusion of counsel. * * * The great business men who organized and financed mo- nopoly and those who administered it in actual everyday transactions have year after year, until now, either denied its existence or justified it as necessary for the effective maintenance and development of the vast business processes of the country in the modem circumstances of trade and 22 Jan. 20] REGULATION OF TRUSTS 23 manufacture and finance; but all the while opinion has made head against them. The average business man is con- vinced that the ways of liberty are also the ways of peace and the ways of success as well; and at last the masters of business on the great scale have begun to yield their prefer- ence and purpose, perhaps their judgment also, in honorable surrender. What we are purposing to do, therefore, is, happily, not to hamper or interfere with business as enlightened business men prefer to do it, or in any sense to put it under the ban. The antagonism between business and government is over.r We are now about to give expression to the best business judgment of America, to what we know to be the business! of conscience and honor of the land. The Government andt business men are ready to meet each other half way in a common effort to square business methods with both public opinion and the law. The best informed men of the business world condemn the methods and processes and consequences of monopoly as we condemn them; and the instinctive judg- ment of the vast majority of business men everywhere goes with them. We shall now be their spokesmen. That is the strength of our position and the sure prophecy of what will ensue when our reasonable work is done. When serious contest ends, when men unite in opinion and purpose, those who are to change their ways of business joining with those who ask for the change, it is possible to effect it in the way in which prudent and thoughtful and patriotic men would wish to see it brought about, with as few, as slight, as easy and simple business readjustments as possible in the circumstances, nothing essential disturbed, nothing torn up by the roots, no parts rent asunder which can be left in wholesome combination. Fortunately, no measures of sweeping or novel change are necessary. It will be understood that our object is not to unsettle busi- ness or anysvhere seriously to break its established courses athwart. On the contrary, we desire the laws we are now about to pass to be the bulwarks and safeguards of industry against the forces that have disturbed it. What we have to do can be done in a new spirit, in thoughtful moderation, without revolution of any untoward kind. 24 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1914 ; We are all agreed that "private monopoly is indefensible and intolerable," and our programme is founded upon that ; conviction. It will be a comprehensive but not a radical or l unacceptable programme and these are its items, the changes which opinion deliberately sanctions and for which business waits: (It waits with acquiescence, in the first place, for laws which will effectually prohibit and prevent such interlock- ings of the personnel of the directorates of great corpora- tions — banks and railroads, industrial, commercial, and pub- . lie service bodies- — as in effect result in making those who borrow and those who lend practically one and the same, those who sell and those who buy but the same persons trading with one another under different names and in dif- ferent combinations, and those who affect to compete in fact partners and masters of some whole field of business. Suf- ficient time should be allowed, of course, in which to effect these changes of organization without inconvenience or confusion. Such a prohibition will work much more than a mere negative good by correcting the serious evils which have arisen because, for example, the men who have been the directing spirits of the great investment banks have usurped fhe place vrhich belongs to independent industrial manage- ment working in its own behoof. It will bring new m.en, new energies, a new spirit of initiative, new blood, into the management of our great business enterprises. It will open the field of industrial development and origination to scores of men who have been obliged to serve when their abilities entitled them to direct. It will immensely hearten the young men coming on and will greatly enrich the business activi- ties of the whole country. =5^ =5= * The business of the country awaits also, has long awaited and has suffered because it could not obtain, further and more explicit legislative definition of the policy and meaning of the existing antitrust lav;. Nothing hampers business like uncertainty. Nothing daunts or discourages it like the neces- sity to take chances, to run the risk of falling under the condemnation of the law before it can make sure just what the law is. Surely Vv-e are sufficiently familiar with the actual .in. 20] REGULATION OF TRUSTS 25 processes and methods of monopoly and of the many hurtful restraints of trade to make definition possible, at any rate up to the limits of \Yhat experience has disclosed. These practices, being now abundantly disclosed, can be explicitly and item by item forbidden by statute in such terms as will practically eliminate uncertainty, the law itself and the penalty being made equally plain. And the business men of the country desire something more than that the menace of legal process in these m.atters be made explicit and intelligible. They desire the advice, the definite guidance and information which can be supplied by an administrative body, an interstate trade commission. The opinion of the country would instantly approve of such a com.mission. It would not wish to see it empowered to make terms ^\^th m.onopoly or in any sort to assume con- trol of business, as if the Government m.ade itself responsible. It demands such a commission only as an indispensable in- strument of information and publicity, as a clearing house for the facts by which both the public mind and the managers of great business undertakings should be guided, and as an instmmentality for doing justice to business where the proc- esses of the courts or the natural forces of correction outside the courts are inadequate to adjust the remedy to the wTong in a way that will meet all the equities and circumstances of the case. Producing industries, for example, which have passed the point up to which combination may be consistent with the public interest and the freedom of trade, can not always be dissected into their component units as readily as railroad companies or similar organizations can be. Their dissolution by ordinary legal process may often-times involve financial consequences likely to ovenvhelm the security market and bring upon it breakdoA^Ti and confusion. There ought to be an administrative commission capable of directing and shap- ing such corrective processes, not only in aid of the courts but also by independent suggestion, if necessar}^ Inasmuch as cur object and the spirit of our action in these matters is to meet business half way in its processes of self-correction and disturb its legitimate course as little as possible, we ought to see to it, and the judgmxent of practical 2 6 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 14 and sagacious men of affairs everywhere would applaud us if we did see it, that penalties and punishments should fall, not upon business itself, to its confusion and interruption, but upon the individuals who use the instrumentalities of business to do things which public policy and soimd business practice condemn. Every act of business is done at the com- , mand or upon the initiative of some ascertainable person I or group of persons. These should be held individually re- ' sponsible and the punishment should fall upon them, not upon the business organization of which they make illegal use. It should be one of the main objects of our legislation to divest such persons of their corporate cloak and deal with them as with those who do not represent their corporations, but merely by deliberate intention break the law. Business men the country through would, I am sure, applaud us if we were to take effectual steps to see that the officers and directors of great business bodies were prevented from bring- ing them and the business of the country into disrepute and danger. Other questions remain which will need very thoughtful and practical treatment. Enterprises, in these modem days of great individual fortunes, are oftentimes interlocked, not by being under the control of the same directors, but by the fact that the greater part of their corporate stock is owned i by a single person or group of persons who are in some way 1 intimately related in interest. We are agreed, I take it, that holding companies should be prohibited, but what of the controlling private ownership of individuals or actually co- operative groups of individuals? Shall the private owners of capital stock be suffered to be themselves in effect holding companies? We do not wish, I suppose, to forbid the pur- chase of stocks by any person who pleases to buy them in such quantities as he can afford, or in any way arbitrarily to limit the sale of stocks to bona fide purchasers. Shall we require the owners of stock, when their voting power in several companies which ought to be independent of one another would constitute actual control, to make election in which of them they will exercise their right to vote? This question I venture for your consideration. * * * I have laid the case before you, no doubt as it lies in your Jan. 20] REGULATION OF TRUSTS 27 own mind, as it lies in the thought of the country. W^at must every candid man say of the suggestions I have laid before you, of the plain obligations of which I have reminded you? That these are new things for which the country is not prepared? No; but that they are old things, now fa- miliar, and must of course be undertaken if we are to square our laws with the thought and desire of the country. Until these things are done, conscientious business men the country over will be unsatisfied. They are in these things our men- tors and colleagues. We are now about to write the addi- tional articles of our constitution of peace, the peace that is honor and freedom and prosperity. White House Pamphlet. 10. TOLLS ON THE PANAMA CANAL (March 5, 1914) Address to Congress I have come to you upon an errand which can be very briefly performed, but I beg that you will not measure its importance by the number of sentences in which I state it. No communication I have addressed to the Congress carried with it graver or more far-reaching implications as to the interest of the country, and I come now to speak upon a mat- ter with regard to which I am charged in a peculiar degree, by the Constitution itself, with personal responsibility. I have come to ask you for the repeal of that provision of the Panama Canal Act of August 24, 1912, which exempts vessels engaged in the coastv/ise trade of the United States from payment of tolls, and to urge upon you the justice, the wisdom, and the large policy of such a repeal with the ut- most earnestness of w^hich I am capable. In my own judgment, very fully considered and maturely formed, that exemption constitutes a mistaken economic policy from every point of view, and is, moreover, in plain contravention of the treaty with Great Britain concerning the canal concluded on November 18, 1901. But I have not come to urge upon yoa my personal views. I have come to 28 ADDRESSES GF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 14 state to you a fact and a situation. Whatever may be our ovvn differences . of opinion concerning this much debated measure, its meaning is not debated outside the United States. Ever\'vvhere else the language of the treaty is given but one interpretation, and that interpretation precludes the exemption I am asking you to repeal. We consented to the treaty; its language we accepted, if we did not originate it; and we are too big, too powerful, too self-respecting a nation to interpret with a too strained or refined reading the words of our own promises just because we have power enough to give us leave to read them as we please. The large thing to do is the only thing w^e can afford to do, a voluntary with- drawal from a position everywhere questioned and misunder- stood. We ought to reverse our action without raising the question vrhether Ave were right or wrong, and so once more deserve our reputation for generosity and for the redemption of every obligation without quibble or hesitation. I ask this of you in support of the foreign policy of the administration. I shall not know how to deal with other mat- ters of even greater delicacy and nearer consequence if you do not grant it to me in ungrudging measure. White House Pamphlet. II. PATRIOTISM AND THE SAILOR ^ (May 16, 1914) j Address at the L^nveiling of the Statue of Commodore ^; John Barry ! I esteem it a privilege to be present on this interesting oc- ' casion, and I am very much tempted to anticipate some part ', of what the orators of the day will say about the character ' of the great man whose memory we celebrate. If I were to ! attempt an historical address, I might, however, be led too | far afield. I am going to take the liberty, therefore, of draw- ing a few inferences from the significance of this occa- ] sion. I think that we can never be present at a ceremony of ; May 1 6] PATRIOTISM AND THE SAILOR 29 this kind, whicli carries our thought back to the great Revo- lution, by means of which our Government was set up, without feeling that it is an occasion of reminder," of re- newal, of refreshment, w^hen we turn our thoughts again to the great issues which were presented to the little Nation which then asserted its independence to the world; to which it spoke both in eloquent representations of its cause and in the sound of arms, and ask ourselves w^hat it was that these men fought for. No one can turn to the career of Commo- dore Barry without feeling a touch of the enthusiasm with which he devoted an originating mind to the great cause which he intended to serve, and it behooves us, living in this age w^hen no man can question the power of the Nation, w^hen no man w^ould dare to doubt its right and its determination to act for itself, to ask what it was that filled the hearts of these m.en when they set the Nation up. For patriotism, ladies and gentlemen, is in my mind not merely a sentiment. There is a certain effervescence, I sup- pose, w^hich ought to be permitted to those who allow their hearts to speak in the celebration of the glory and majesty of their country, but the country can have no glory and no majesty unless there be a deep principle and conviction back of the enthusiasm. Patriotism is a principle, not a m.ere sen- timent. No man can be a true patriot who does not feel himself shot through and through with a deep ardor for w^hat his country stands for, AA-hat its existence means, what its purpose is declared to be in its history and in its policy. I recall those solemn lines of the poet Tennyson in which he tries to give voice to his conception of what it is that stirs within a nation: "Some sense of duty, something of a faith, some reverence for the laws ourselves have made, some patient force to change them when we will, some civic man- hood firm against the crow'd;" steadfastness, clearness of purpose, courage, persistency, and that uprightness w^hich comes from the clear thinking of men w^ho wish to serve not themselves but their fellow men. WHiat does the United StRtes stand for, then, that our hearts should be stirred by the memory of the men w^ho set her Constitution up? John Barrv fought, like every other man in the Revolution, in order that America might be free 30 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1914 to make her own life without interruption or disturbance from smy other quarter. You can sum the whole thing up in that, that America had a right to her own self-determined life; and what are our corollaries from that? You do not have to go back to stir your thoughts again \vith the issues of the Revolution. Some of the issues of the Revolution were not the cause of it, but merely the occasion for it. There are just as vital things stirring now that concern the existence of the Nation as were stirring then, and every man who worthily stands in this presence should examine himself and see whether he has the full conception of what it means that America should live her own life. Washington saw it when he wrote his farewell address. It was not merely because of passing and transient circumstances that Washington said that we must keep free from entangling alliances. It was because he saw that no country had yet set its face in the same direction in which America had set her face. We can not form alliances with those who are not going our way; and in our might and majesty and in the confidence and definiteness of our own purpose we need not and we should not form alliances with any nation in the world. Those who are right, those v/ho study their consciences in determin- ing their policies, those who hold their honor higher than their advantage, do not need alliances. You need alliances when you are not strong, and you are weak only when you are not true to yourself. You are weak only when you are in the wrong; you are weak only when you are afraid to do the right ; you are weak only when you doubt your cause and the majesty of a nation's might asserted. There is another corollary. John Barry was an Irishman, but his heart crossed the Atlantic with him. He did not leave it in Ireland. And the test of all of us — for all of us had our origins on tlie other side of the sea — is whether we will assist in enabling America to live her separate and in- dependent life, retaining our ancient affections, indeed, but determining everything that we do by the interests that exist on this side of the sea. Some Americans need hyphens in their names, because only part of them has come over; but when the whole man has come over, heart and thought and all, the hyphen drops of its own weight out of his name. May i6] PATRIOTISM AND THE SAILOR 31 This man was not an Irish-American; he was an Irishman who became an American. I venture to say if he voted he voted with regard to the questions as they looked on this side of the water and not as they affected the other side; and that is my infalHble test of a genuine American, that when he votes or when he acts or when he fights his heart and his thought are centered nowhere but in the emotions and the purposes and the policies of the United States. This man illustrates for me all the splendid strength which we brought into this country by the magnet of freedom. Men have been drawn to this country by the same thing that has made us love this country — by the opportunity to live their own lives and to think their own thoughts and to let their whole natures expand with the expansion of a free and mighty Nation. We have brought out of the stocks of all the world all the best impulses and have appropriated them and Americanized them and translated them into the glory and majesty of a great country. So, ladies and gentlemen, when we go out from this pres- ence we ought to take this idea with us that we, too, are devoted to the purpose of enabling America to live her own life, to be the justest, the most progressive, the most honor- able, the most enlightened Nation in the world. Any man that touches our honor is our enemy. Any man w^o stands in the way of the kind of progress which makes for human freedom can not call himself our friend. Any man who does not feel behind him the whole push and rush and compul- sion that filled men's hearts in the time of the Revolution is no American. No man who thinks first of himself and afterwards of his country can call himself an American. America must be enriched by us. We must not live upon her; she must live by means of us. I, for one, come to this shrine to renew the impulses of American democracy. I would be ashamed of myself if I went away from this place \^^thout realizing again that every bit of selfishness must be purged from our policy, that e\'ery bit of self-seeking must be purged from our individual con- sciences, cmd that we must be great, if we would be great at all, in the light and illumination of the example of men who 32 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 14 gave everything that they were and everything that they had to the glory and honor of America. White House Pamphlet. 12. THE MEN WHO FOUGHT FOR THE UNION (May 30, 1914) Memorial Day Address at Arlington I have not come here to-day with a prepared address. The committee in charge of the exercises of the day have graciously excused me on the grounds of public obligations from preparing such an address, but I will not deny myself the privilege of joining with you in an expression of grati- tude and admiration for the men who perished for the sake of the Union. They do not need our praise. They do not need tliat our admiration should sustain them. There is no immortality that is safer than theirs. We come not for their sakes but for our own, in order that we may drink at the same springs of inspiration from which they themselves drank. A peculiar privilege came to the men who fought for the Union. There is no other civil war in history, ladies and gentlemen, the stings of which vrere removed before the men who did the fighting passed from the stage of life. So that we owe these men something more than a legal reestablish- ment of the Union. W^e owe them the spiritual reestablish- ment of the Union as well ; for they not only reunited States, they reunited the spirits of men. That is their unique achievement, unexampled an\^vhere else in the annals of man- kind, that the very men whom they overcame in battle join in praise and gratitude that the Union was saved. There is something peculiarly beautiful and peculiarly touching about that. \\l^ene\Tr a man who is still trying to devote himself to the service of the Nation comes into a presence like this. or into a place like this, his spirit must be peculiarly moved. A mandate is laid upon him which seems to speak from the May 30] MEN WHO FOUGHT FOR THE UNION 33 very graves tliemselves. Those who serve this Nation, whether iPx peace or in war, should serve it without thought of themselves. I can never speak in praise of war, ladies and gentlemen; you would not desire me to do so. But there is this peculiar distinction belonging to the soldier, tiiat he goes into an enterprise out of which he himself can not get any- thing at all. He is giving everything that he hath, even his life, in order that others may live, not in order that he him- self may obtain gain and prosperity. And just so soon as the tasks of peace are performed in the same spirit of self- sacrifice and devotion, peace societies will not be necessary. The very organization and spirit of society will be a guar- anty of peace. Therefore this peculiar thing comes about, that we can stand here and praise the m.emory of these soldiers in the interest of peace. They set us the exam^ple of self-sacrifice, which if followed in peace will make it unnecessary that men should follow war any more. We are reputed to be somewhat careless in our discrimina- tion between words in the use of the English language, and yet it is interesting to note that there are some words about which we are very careful. We bestow the adjective "great'' somewhat indiscriminately. A man who has made conquest of his fellow men for his ov/n gain may display such genius in war, such uncommion qualities of organization and leader- ship that we may call him "great," but there is a word which we reser\^e for m.en of another kind and about which we are very careful; that is the word "noble." We never call a man "noble" v:ho serves only himself; and if you will look about through all the nations of the world upon the statues that men have erected — upon the inscribed tablets where they have wished to keep alive the memory of the citizens whom they desire most to honor — you v;ill find that almost with- out exception they have erected the statue to those who had a splendid surplus of energy and devotion to spend upon their fellow men. Nobility exists in America without patent. We have no House of Lords, but we have a house of fame to which we elevate those who are the noble men of our race, who, forgetful of themselves, study and sen^e the pub- 34 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1914 lie interest, who have the courage to face any number and any kind of adversary, to speak what in their hearts they believe to be the truth. We admire physical courage, but we admire above all things else moral courage. I believe that soldiers will bear me out in saying that both come in time of battle. I take it that the moral courage comes in going in the battle, and the physical courage in staying in. There are battles which are just as hard to go into and just as hard to stay in as the battles of arms, and if the man will but stay and think never of himself there will come a time of grateful recollection when men will speak of him not only with admiration but with that which goes deeper, with affection and with reverence. So that this flag calls upon us daily for service, and the more quiet and self-denying the service the greater the glory of the flag. We are dedicated to freedom, and that freedom means the freedom of the human spirit. All free spirits ought to congregate on an occasion like this to do homage to the greatness of America as illustrated by the greatness of her sons. It has been a privilege, ladies and gentlemen, to come and say these simple words, which I am sure are merely putting your thought into language. I thank you for the opportunity to lay this little wreath of mine upon these consecrated graves. White House Pamphlet. 13. UNION OF SPIRIT BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH (June 4, 1914) Address at a Monument in Memory of the Confed- erate Dead at Arlington I assure you that I am profoundly aware of the solemn significance of the thing that has now taken place. The Daughters of the Confederacy have presented a memorial of their dead to iht Government of the United States. I June 4] UNION OF NORTH AND SOUTH 35 hope that you have noted the history of the conception of this idea. It was suggested by a President of the United States who had himself been a distinguished officer in the Union Army. It was authorized by an act of Congress of the United States. The comer stone of the monument was laid by a President of the United States elevated to his posi- tion by the votes of the party w^ich had chiefly prided itself upon sustaining the war for the Union, and who, w^hile Sec- retary of War, had himself given authority to erect it. And, now, it has fallen to my lot to accept in the name of the great Government, which I am privileged for the time to rep- resent, this emblem of a reunited people. I am not so much happy as proud to participate in this capacity on such an oc- casion, — proud that I should represent such a people. Am I mistaken, ladies and gentlemen, in supposing that nothing of this sort could have occurred in anything but a democ- racy? The people of a democracy are not related to their rulers as subjects are related to a government. They are themselves the sovereign authority, and as they are neighbors of each other, quickened by the same influences and moved by the same motives, they can understand each other. They are shot through with some of the deepest and profoundest instincts of human sympathy. They choose their govern- ments; they select their rulers; they live their own life, and they will not have that life disturbed and discolored by fra- ternal misunderstandings. I know that a reuniting of spirits like this can take place more quckly in our time than in any other because men are now united by an easier transmission of those influences which make up the foundations of peace and of mutual understanding, but no process can work these effects unless there is a conducting medium. The conduct- ing medium in this instance is the united heart of a great iDeople. I am not going to detain you by trying to repeat any of the eloquent thoughts which have moved us this after- noon, for I rejoice in the simplicity of the task which is assigned to me. My privilege is this, ladies and gentlemen: To declare this chapter in the history of the United States closed and ended, and I bid you turn with me with your faces to the future, quickened by the memories of the past, but with nothing to do with the contests of the past, knowing, 36 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1914 as we have shed our blood upon opposite sides, we now face and admire one another. I do not know how many years ago it was that the Century Dictionary was pubUshed, but I remember one day in the Century Cyclopedia of Names I had occasion to turn to the name of Robert E. Lee, and I found him there in that book published in New York City simply described as a great American general. The generos- ity of our judgments did not begin to-day. The generosity of our judgment was made up soon after this great struggle was over. Men came and sat together again in the Con- gress and united in all the efforts of peace and of govern- ment, and our solemn duty is to see that each one of us is in his own consciousness and in his own conduct a replica of this great reunited people. It is our duty and our privilege to be like the country we represent and, speaking no word of malice, no word of criticism even, stand shoulder to shoulder to lift the burdens of mankind in the future and show the paths of freedom to all the w'orld. White House Pamphlet. 14. THE NAVAL SERVICE (June 5, 1914) Address at the Naval Academy, Annapolis During the greater part of my life I have been associated with young men, and on occasions it seems to me without number have faced bodies of youngsters going out to take part in the activities of the v/orld, but I have a consciousness of a different significance in this occasion from that which I have felt on ether similar occasions. "Wlien I have faced tlie graduating classes at universities I have felt that I was facing a great conjecture. They were going out into all sorts of pur- suits and with every degree of preparation for the particular thing they were expecting to do; some without any prepara- tion at all, for they did not know what the\^ expected to do. But in facing you I am facing men v/ho are trained for a sp>ecial thing. You know what you are going to do, and you June 5] THE NAVAL SERVICE 37 are under the eye of the whole Nation in doinfr it. For you, gentlemen, are to be part of the power of the Government of the United States. There is a very deep and solemn signifi- cance in that fact, and I am sure that every one of you feels it. The moral is perfectly obvious. Be ready and fit for anything that you have to do. And keep ready and fit. Do not grow slack. Do not suppose that your education is over because you have received your diplomas from the academy. Your education has just begun. jNIoreover, you are to have a very peculiar privilege which not many of your predecessors have had. You are yourselves going to become teachers. You are going to teach those 50,000 fellow coun- trymen of yours who are the enlisted men of the Navy. You are going to make them fitter to obey your orders and to serve the country. You are going to make them fitter to see what the orders mean in their outlook upon life and upon the service; and that is a great privilege, for out of you is going the energy and intelligence which are going to quicken the whole body of the United States Navy. * * * It ought to be one of your thoughts all the time that you are sample Americans — not merely sample Navy men, not merely sample soldiers, but sample Americans — and that you have the point of view of America with regard to her Navy and her Army; that she is using them as the instruments of civilization, not as the instruments of aggression. The idea of America is to serve humanity, and every time you let the Stars and Stripes free to the wind you ought to realize that that is in itself a message that you are on an errand Vv'hich other navies have sometimes forgotten; not an errand of conquest, but an errand of service. I always have the same thought when I look at the flag of the United States, for I know som.ething of the history of the struggle of mankind _ for liberty. When I look at that flag it seems to me as if the', white stripes were strips of parchm.ent upon which are writ-| ten the rights of man, and the red stripes the streams 01 blood by vrhich those rights have been made good. Then in the little blue firmament in the corner have swung out the stars of the States of the Am.erican Union. So, it is, as it were, a sort of floating charter that has come down to us from Runnymede, when men said, "We will not have mas- 38 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1914 ters; we will be a people, and we vnll seek our own liberty." You are not serving a government, gentlemen; you are serving a people. For we who for the time being constitute the Government are merely instruments for a little while in the hands of a great Nation which chooses whom it will to carry out its decrees and who invariably rejects the man who forgets the ideals which it intended him to serve. So that I hope that wherever you go you will have a generous, compre- hending love of the people you come into contact with,'^d will come back and tell us, if you can, what service the United States can render to the remotest parts of the world; tell us where you see men suffering; tell us w^here you think advice will lift them up; tell us where you think that the counsel of statesmen may better the fortunes of unfortunate men; ahvays having it in mind that you are champions of what is right and fair all 'round for the public welfare, no matter where you are, and that it is that you are ready to fight for and not merely on the drop of a hat or upon some slight punctillio, but that you are champions of your fellow men, particularly of that great body one hundred million strong whom you represent in the United States. * * * I challenge you youngsters to go out with these concep- tions, knowing that you are part of the Government and force of the United States and that men will judge us by you. I am not afraid of the verdict. I can not look in your faces and doubt what it will be, but I want you to take these great engines of force out onto the seas like adven- turers enlisted for the elevation of the spirit of the human race. For that is the only distinction that America has. Other nations have been strong, other nations have piled wealth as high as the sky, but they have come into disgrace because they used their force and their wealth for the op- pression of mankind and their own aggrandizement; and America v;ill not bring glory to herself, but disgrace, by fol- lowing the beaten paths of history. We must strike out upon new paths, and we must count upon you gentlemen to be the explorers who will carry this spirit and spread this message all over the seas and in every part of the civilized world. You see, therefore, why I said that when I faced you I felt there was .a special significance. I am not present on an June 5] THE NAVAL SERVICE 39 occasion when you are about to scatter on various errands. You are all going on the same errand, and I like to feel bound with you in one common organization for the glory of Amer- ica. And her glory goes deeper than all the tinsel, goes deeper than the sound of guns and the clash of sabers; it goes down to the very foundation of those things that have made the spirit of men free and happy and content. White House Pamphlet, 15. AMERICA AS A WORLD POWER (July 4, 1914) Address at Independence Hall, Philadelphla * * * In one sense the Declaration of Independence has lost its significance. It has lost its significance as a declara- tion of national independence. Nobody outside of America believed when it was uttered that we could make good our independence; now nobody anywhere would dare to doubt that we are independent and can maintain our independence. As a declaration of independence, therefore, it is a mere his- toric document. Our independence is a fact so stupendous that it can be measured only by the size and energy and variety and wealth and p)ower of one of the greatest nations in the world. But it is one thing to be independent and it is another thing to know what to do with your independence. It is one thing to come to your majority and another thing to know what you are going to do with your life and your ener- gies; and one of the most serious questions for sober-minded men to address themselves to in the United States is this: WTiat are v;e going to do with the influence and power of this great Nation? Are we going to play the old role of using that power for our aggrandizement and material benefit only? You know what that may mean. It may upon occa- sion mean that we shall use it to make the peoples of other nations suffer in the way in which we said it was intolerable to suffer when we uttered our Declaration of Independence. The Department of State at Washington is constantly called upon to back up the commercial enterprises and the 40 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1914 industrial enterprises of the United States in foreign coun- tries, and it at one time went so far in that direction that all its diplomacy came to be designated as "dollar di- plomacy." It was called upon to support every m.an w^ho w^anted to earn anything anywhere if he was an American. But there ought to be a limit to that. There is no m.an w^ho is more interested than I am in carrying the enterprise of American business men to every quarter of the globe. I was interested in it long before I v;as suspected of being a poli- tician. I have been preaching it year after year as the great thing that lay in the future for the United States, to show her wit and skill and enterprise and influence in every country in the world. But observe the limit to all that which is laid upon us perh?ps more than upon any other nation in the world. We set this Nation up, at any rate we professed to set it up. to vindicate the rights of men. We did not name any differences between one race and another. We did not set up any barriers against any particular people. We opened our gates to all the world and said, "Let all men who wish to be free come to us and they will be welcome." We said, "This independence of ours is not a selfish thing for our own exclusive private use. It is for everybody to whom we can find the m.eans of extending it." We can not with that oath taken in our youth, we can not with that great ideal set before us when we were a young people and numbered only a scant 3,000,000, take upon ourselves, now that we are 100,000.000 strong, any other conception of duty than we then entertained. If American enterprise in foreign countries, particularly in those foreign countries which are not strong enough to resist us, takes the shape of imposing upon and exploiting the mass of the people of that country it ought to be checked and not encouraged. I am willing to get anything for an American that money and enterprise can obtain except the suppression of the rights of other men. I ^^^ll not help an3^ man buy a power which he ought not to exercise over his fellow beings. You know, my fellow countrymen, what a big question there is in Mexico. Eighty-five per cent of the Mexican people have never been allowed to have any genuine partici- pation in their own Government or to exercise any substan- July 4] AMERICA AS A WORLD POWER 41 tial rights with regard to the very land they live upon. All the rights that men most desire have been exercised by the other 15 per cent. Do you suppose that that circumstance is not sometimes in my thought? I know that the American people have a heart that will beat just as stroncr for those millions in Mexico as it will beat, or has beaten, for any other millions elsewhere in the v/orld, and that when once they conceive what is at stake in Mexico they will know what ought to be done in Mexico. I hear a great deal said about the loss of property in Mexico and the loss of the lives of foreigners, and I deplore these things with all my heart. Undoubtedly, upon the conclusion of the present disturbed conditions in Mexico those who have been unjustly deprived of their property or in any wise unjustly put upon ought to be compensated. Men's individual rights have no doubt been invaded, and the invasion of those rights has been attended *by many deplorable circumstances which ought sometime, in the proper way, be accounted for. But back of it all is the struggle of a people to come into its ovv-n, and while we look upon the incidents in the foreground let us net forget the great tragic reality in the background which towers above the whole picture. A patriotic American is a man vrho is not niggardly and selfish in the things that he enjoys that make for human lib- erty and the rights of man. He wants to share them, wnth the whole world, and he is never so proud of the great flag under which he lives as when it comes to mean to other people as n-ell as to himself a symbol of hope and liberty. ' I would be ashamed of this flag if it ever did anything outside America that we would not permit it to do inside of America. The world is becoming more complicated ever\' da}^, my fellow citizens. No man ought to be foolish enough to think that he understands it all. And, therefore, I am glad that there are some simple things in the world. One of the simple things is principle. Honesty is a perfectly simple thing. It is hard for me to believe that in most circumstances when a man has a choice of vrays he does not know which is the right way and vrhich is the wrong way. No man who has chosen the wrong way ought even to com.e into Independence Square; it is holy ground which he ought not to tread upon. 42 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1914 He ought not to come where immortal voices have uttered the great sentences of such a document as this Declaration of Independence upon which rests the liberty of a w^hole nation. And so I say that it is patriotic sometimes to prefer the honor of the country to its material interest. Would you rather be deemed by all the nations of the world incapable of keeping your treaty obligations in order that you might have free tolls for American ships? The treaty under which we gave up that right may have been a mistaken treaty, but there was no mistake about its meaning. When I have made a promise as a man I try to keep it, and I know of no other rule permissible to a nation. The most distinguished nation in the world is the nation that can and will keep its promises even to its own hurt. And I want to say parenthetically that I do not think anybody was hurt. I can not be enthusiastic for subsidies to a monopoly, but let those who are enthusiastic for subsidies ask themselves whether they prefer subsidies to unsullied honor. The most patriotic man, ladies and gentlemen, is sometimes the man who goes in the direction that he thinks right even when he sees half the world against him. It is the dictate of patriotism to sacrifice yourself if you think that that is the path of honor and of duty. Do not blame others if they do not agree with you. Do not die with bitterness in your heart because you did not convince the rest of the w^orld, but die happy because you believe that you tried to serve your coun- try by not selling your soul. Those were grim days, the days of 1776. Those gentlemen did not attach their names to the Declaration of Independence on this table expecting a holiday on the next day, and that 4th of July was not itself a holiday. They attached their signatures to that significant document knowing that if they failed it was certain that every one of them would hang for the failure. They were committing treason in the interest of the liberty of 3,000,000 people in America. All the rest of the world was against them and smiled with cynical incredulity at the audacious under- taking. Do you think that if they could see this great Nation now they would regret anything that they then did to draw the gaze of a hostile world upon them? Every idea must be July 4] AMERICA AS A WORLD POWER 43 started by somebody, and it is a lonely thing to start any- thing. Yet if it is in you, you must start it if you have a man's blood in you and if you love the country that you pro- fess to be working for. I am sometimes very much interested when I see gentlemen supposing that popularity is the way to success in America. The way to success in this great country, with its fair jud'g- ments, is to show that you are not afraid of anybody except God and his final verdict. If I did not believe that, I would not believe in democracy. If I did not believe that, I would not believe that people can govern themselves. If I did not believe that the moral judgment would be the last judgment, the final judgment, in the minds of men as wtII as the tri- bunal of God, I could not believe in popular government. But I do believe these things, and, therefore, I earnestly believe in the democracy not only of America but of every awakened people that wishes and intends to govern and con- trol its ovm. affairs. It is very inspiring, my friends, to come to this that may be called the original fountain of independence and liberty in America and here drink draughts of patriotic feeling which seem to renew the very blood in one's veins. Dowti in Wash- ington sometimes when the days are hot and the business presses intolerably and there are so many things to do that it does not seem possible to do anything in the way it ought to be done, it is always possible to lift one's thoughts above the task of the m.oment and, as it were, to realize that great thing of v/hich we are all parts, the great body of American feeling and American principle. No man could do the work that has to be done in Washington if he allowed himself to be separated from that body of principle. He must make himself feel that he is a part of the people of the United States, that he is trying to think not only for them, but with them, and then he can not feel lonely. He not only can not feel lonely but he can not feel afraid of anything. iNIy dream is that as the years go on and the world knows more and more of America it will also drink at these foun- tains of youth and renewal ; that it also will turn to America for those moral inspirations which lie at the basis of all free- dom; that the world will never fear America unless it feels 44 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1914 that it is engaged in some enterprise which is inconsistent with the rights of humanity; and that America will come into the full light of the day when all shall know that she puts human rights above all other rights and that her flag is the flag not only of America but of humanity. What other great people has devoted itself to this exalted ideal? To what other nation in the world can all eyes look for an instant s}Tnpathy that thrills the whole body politic when men anywhere are fighting for their rights? I do not know that there will ever be a declaration of independence and of grievances for mankind, but I believe that if any such document is ever drawn it will be drawn in the spirit of the American Declaration of Independence, and that America has lifted high the light which will shine unto all generations and guide the feet of mankind to the goal of justice and liberty and peace. White House Pamphlet. 16. NEUTRALITY OF FEELING (August 18, 1914) A Presidential Proclamation I suppose that every thoughtful man in America has asked himself, during these last troubled weeks, what influence the European war may exert upon the United States, and I take the liberty of addressing a few words to you in order to point out that it is entirely within our o\\r\ choice what its effects upon us mil be and to urge ver}^ earnestly upon you the sort of speech and conduct which will best safeguard the Nation against distress and disaster. The effect of the war upon the United States will depend upon what American citizens say and do. Every man who really loves America will act and speak in the true spirit of neutrality, which is the spirit of impartiality and fairness and friendliness to all concerned. The spirit of the Nation in this i Aug. i8] NEUTRALITY OF FEELING 45 critical matter will be determined largely by what individuals and society and those gathered in public meetings do and say, upon what newspapers and magazines contain, upon what ministers utter in their pulpits, and men proclaim as their opinions on the street. The people of the United States are drawn from many nations, and chiefly from the nations now at war. It is natural and inevitable that there should be the utmost variety of sympathy and desire among them with regard to the issues and circumstances of the conflict. Some will wish one nation, others another, to succeed in the momentous struggle. It will be easy to excite passion and difficult to allay it. Those responsible for exciting it will assume a heavy responsibility, responsibility for no less a thing than that the people of the United States, whose love of their country and whose loyalty to its Government should unite them as Americans all, bound in honor and affection to think first of her and her interests, may be divided in camps of hostile opinion, hot against each other, involved in the war itself in impulse and opinion if not in action. Such divisions among us would be fatal to our peace of mind and might seriously stand in the way of the proper performance of our duty as the one great nation at peace, the one people holding itself ready to play a part of impar- tial mediation and speak the counsels of peace and accommo- dation, not as a partisan, but as a friend. I venture, therefore, my fellow countrymen, to speak a solemn word of warning to you against that deepest, most subtle, most essential breach of neutrality which may spring out of partisanship, out of passionately taking sides. The I United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name dur-l ing these days that are to try men's souls. We must be impartial in thought as well as in action, must put a curb upon our sentiments as well as upon every transaction that might be construed as a preference of one party to the strug- ^ gle before another. My thought is of America. I am speaking, I feel sure, the earnest wish and purpose of every thoughtful American that this great country of ours, which is, of course, the first in our thoughts and in our hearts, should show herself in this ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 14 jme of peculiar trial a Nation fit beyond others to exhibit the fine poise of undisturbed judgment, the dignity of self- control, the efficiency of dispassionate action; a Nation that neither sits in judgment upon others nor is disturbed in her own counsels and which keeps herself fit and free to do what is honest and disinterested and truly serviceable for the peace of the world. Shall we not resolve to put upon ourselves the restraints which will bring to our people the happiness and the great and lasting influence for peace we covet for them? Department of State, White Book, No. II, 17. 17. INTERNATIONAL AND MUNICIPAL LAW , (October 20, 19 14) , I Address before the American Bar Association ; * * * We stand now in a peculiar case. Our first thought, i I suppose, as lawyers, is of international law, of those bonds j of right and principle which draw the nations together and hold the community of the world to some standards of ac- I tion. We know that we see in international law, as it were, j the moral processes by which law itself came into existence. I know that as a lawyer I have myself at times felt that there i was no real comparison between the law of a nation and the 1 law of nations, because the latter lacked the sanction that • gave the former strength and validity. And yet, if you look - into the matter more closely, you vvill find that the two have ; the same foundations, and that those foundations are more i evident and conspicuous in our day than they have ever been j before. The opinion of the world .is the mistress of the world: and the processes of international law are the slow procesf^cs ] by which opinion works its ^vill. WTiat impresses me is the ; constant thought that that is the tribunal at the bar of which J Oct. 20] INTERNATIONAL AND MUNICIPAL LAW 47 we all sit. I would call your attention, incidentally, to the circumstance that it does not observe the ordinary rules of evidence; which has sometimes suggested to me that the or- dinary rules of evidence had shown some signs of growing antique. Everything, rumor included, is heard in this court, and the standard of judgment is not so much the character of the testimony as the character of the witness. The mo- tives are disclosed, the purposes are conjectured, and that opinion is finally accepted which seems to be, not the best founded in law, perhaps, but the best founded in integrity of character and of morals. That is the process which is slowly working its v;ill upon the world; and what we should be watchful of is not so much jealous interests as sound prin- ciples of action. The disinterested course is always the big- gest course to pursue not only, but it is in the long run the most profitable course to pursue. If you can establish your character, you can establish your credit. What I wanted to suggest to this association, in bidding them very hearty welcome to the city, is whether we suf- ficiently apply these same ideas to the body of municipal law which we seek to administer. Citations seem to play so much larger a role now than principle. There was a time when the thoughtful eye of the judge rested upon the changes of social circumstances and almost palpably saw the law arise out of human life. Have we got to a time when the only way to change law is by statute? The changing of law by statute seems to me like mending a garment with a patch, whereas law should grow by the life that is in it, not by the life that is outside of it. I once said to a lawyer with whom I was discussing some question of precedent, and in whose presence I was ventur- ing to doubt the rational validity, at any rate, of the particu- lar precedents he cited, "After all, isn't our object justice?" And he said, "God forbid! We should be very much con- fused if we made that our standard. Our standard is to find out what the rule has been and how the rule that has been applies to the case that is." I should hate to think that the law was based entirely upon "has beens." I should hate to tliink that the law did not derive its impulse from looking forward rather than from looking backward, or, rather, that 48 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1914 it did not derive its instruction from looking about and seeing what the circumstances of man actually are and what the impulses of justice necessarily are. Understand me, gentlemen, I am not venturing in this presence to impeach the law. For the present, by the force of circumstances, I am in part the em.bodiment of the law, and it would be very awkward to disavow^ myself. But I do wish to make this intimation, that in this time of world change, in this time when we are going to find out just how, in what particulars, and to what extent the real facts of human life and the real moral judgments of mankind prevail, it is worth while looking inside our municipal law and seeing whether the judgments of the law are made square with the moral judg- ments of mankind. For I believe that we are custodians, not of commands, but of a spirit. We are custodians of the spirit of righteousness, of the spirit of equal-handed justice, of the spirit of hope which believes in the perfectibility of the law with the perfectibility of human life itself. Public life, like private life, would be very dull and dry if it were not for this belief in the essential beauty of the human spirit and the belief that the human spirit could be translated into action and into ordinance. Not entire. You can not go any faster than you can advance the average m.oral judg- ments of the mass, but you can go at least as fast as that, and you can see to it that you do not lag behind the average moral judgments of the mass. I have in my life dealt with. all sorts and conditions of men, and I have found that the flame of moral judgment burned just as bright in the man of humble life and limited experience as in the scholar and the man of affairs. And I would like his voice always to be heard, not as a witness, not as speaking in his own case, but as if he were the voice of men in general, in our courts of justice, as well as the voice of the lawyers, remembering what the law has been. My hope is that, being stirred to the depths by the extraordinary circumstances of the time in which we live, we may recover from those depths something of a renew^aJ of that vision of the law with which men may be supposed to have started out in the old days of the oracles, who communed with the intimations of divinity. White House Pamphlet. J Oct. 24] YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 49 18. THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION (October 24, 19 14) Address Before the American Bar Association * * * I am interested in [this organization] * * * fQj- various reasons. First of all, because it is an association for young men. I have had a good deal to do with young men in my time, and I have formed an impression of them which I believe to be contrary to the general impression. They are generally thought to be arch radicals. As a matter of fact, they are the most conservative people I have ever dealt ^Yith. Go to a college community and try to change the least cus- tom of that little world and find how the conservatives will rush at you. Moreover, young men are embarrassed by hav- ing inherited their fathers' opinions. I have often said that the use of a university is to make young gentlemen as unlike their fathers as possible. I do not say that with the least disrespect for the fathers; but every man who is old enough to have a son in college is old enough to have become very seriously immersed in some particular business and is almost certain to have caught the point of view of that particular business. And it is very useful to his son to be taken out of that narrow circle, conducted to some high place where he may see the general map of the world and of the interests of mankind, and there shown how big the world is and how much of it his father may happen to have forgotten. It would be worth while for men, middle-aged and old, to detach them- selves more frequently from the things that command their daily attention and to think of the sweeping tides of hu- manity. Therefore I am interested in this association, because it is intended to bring young men together before any crust has formed over them, before they have been hardened to any particular occupation, before they have caught an inveterate point of view; while they still have a searchlight that they can swing and see what it reveals of all the circumstances of the hidden world. I am the more interested in it because it is an association 50 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 14 of young men who are Christians. I wonder if we attach sufficient importance to Christianity as a mere instrumental- ity in the Kfe of mankind. For one, I am not fond of think- ing of Christianity as the means of saving individual souls. I have always been very impatient of processes and institu- tions which said that their purpose was to put every man in the way of developing his character. My advice is: Do not think about your character. If you will think about what you ought to do for other people, your character will take care of itself. Character is a by-product, and any man who devotes himself to its cultivation in his own case will become a selfish prig. The only way your powers can become great is by exerting them outside the circle of your own narrow, special, selfish interests. And that is the reason of Chris- tianity. Christ came into the world to save others, not to save himself; and no man is a true Christian w^o does not think constantly of how he can lift his brother, how he can assist his friend, how he can enlighten mankind, how he can make virtue the rule of conduct in the circle in which he lives. An association merely of young men might be an association that had its energies put forth in every direction, but an as- sociation of Christian young men is an association meant to put its shoulders under the world and lift it, so that other men may feel that they have companions in bearing the weight and heat of the day; that other men may know that there are those who care for them, who would go into places of difficulty and danger to rescue them, who regard them- selves as their brother's keeper. And, then, I am glad that it is an association. Every word of its title means an element of strength. Young men are strong. Christian young men are the strongest kind of young men, and when they associate themselves together they have the incomparable strength of organization. The Young Men's Christian Association once excited, perhaps it is not too much to say, the hostility of the organized churches of the Christian world, because the movement looked as if it were so nonsectarian, as if it were so outside the ecclesiasti- cal field, that perhaps it was an effort to draw young men away from the churches and to substitute this organization for the great bodies of Christian people who joined them- Oct. 24] YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 51 selves in the Christian denominations. But after a while it appeared that it was a great instrumentality that belonged to all the churches; that it was a common instrument for send- ing the light of Christianity out into the world in its most practical form, drawing young men who were strangers into places where they could have companionship that stimulated them and suggestions that kept them straight and occupations that amused them \nthout vicious practice; and then, by sur- rounding themselves with an atmosphere of purity and of simplicity of life, catch something of a glimpse of the great ideal which Christ lifted when He was elevated upon the cross. I remember hearing a very wise man say once, a man grown old m the service of a great church, that he had never taught his son religion dogmatically at any time; that he and the boy's mother had agreed that if the atmosphere of that home did not make a Christian of the boy, nothing that they could say would make a Christian of him. They knew that Christianity was catching, and if they did not have it, it would not be communicated. If they did have it, it would penetrate while the boy slept, almost; while he was uncon- scious of the sweet influences that were about him, while he reckoned nothing of instruction, but m.erely breathed into his lungs the wholesome air of a Christian home. That is the principle of the Young Men's Christian Association — to make a place where the atmosphere makes great ideals contagious. That is the reason that I said, though I had forgotten that I said it, what is quoted on the outer page of the program — that you can test a modem community by the degree of its interest in its Young Men's Christian Association. You can test whether it knows what road it wants to travel or not. You can test whether it is deeply interested in the spiritual and essential prosperity of its rising generation. I know of no test that can be more conclusively put to a community than that. I want to suggest to the young men of this association that it is the duty of young men not only to combine for the things that are good, but to combine in a militant spirit. There is a fine passage in one of Milton's prose writings which I am sorry to say I can not quote, but tiie meaning of 52 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [igir, which I can give you, and it is worth hearing. He says that he has no patience with a cloistered virtue that does not go out and seek its adversary. Ah, how tired I am of the men who are merely on the defensive, \^^o hedge them- selves in, who perhaps enlarge the hedge enough to include their little family circle and ward off all the evil influences of the world from that loved and hallowed group. How tired I am of the men whose virtue is selfish because it is merely self-protective! How much I wish that men by the hundred m.ight volunteer to go out and seek an adversary and subdue him ! I have had the fortune to take part in affairs of a con- siderable variety of s us, and I have tried to hate as few persons as possible but there is an exquisite combination of contempt and hate that I have for a particular kind of person, and that is the moral coward. I \^ish we could give all cur cowards a perpetual vacation. Let them go off and sit on the side lines and see us play the game; and put them oft the field if they interfere with tne game They do nothing but harm, and they do it by that most subtle and fatal thinq^ of all, "that of taking tht momentum and the spirit and the forward dash out of things. A nian who is virtuous and a coward has no marketable virtue about him. The virtue, I repeat, which is merely self-defensive is not serviceable even, I suspect, to himself Fot how a man can swallow and not taste bad when he is a coward and thinking only of himself i can not imagine. Be militant! Be an organization that is going to do things! If you can find older men who will give you countenance and acceptable leadership follow them: but if you can not, organize separately and dispense with them. There are only two sorts of men worth associating with when something is to be done. Those are young men and men who never grow old. Now, if you find men who have gro\Mi old, about whom the crust has hardened, whose hinges are stiff, whose minds always have their eye over the shoulder thinking of things as they were done, do not have anything to do uith them. It would not be Christian to exclude them from your organi- zation, but merely used them to pad the roll. If you can find older men who will lead you acceptably and keep you in Oct. 24] YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 53 countenance, I am bound as an older man to advise you to follow them. But suit yourselves. Do not follow people that stand still. Just remind them that this is not a statical proposition; it is a movement, and if they can not get a move on them they are not serviceable. Life, gentlemen — the life of society, the life of the world — has constantly to be fed from the bottom. It has to be fed by those great sources of strength which are constantly rising in new generations. Red blood has to be pumped into it. New fiber has to be supplied. That is the reason I have always said that I believed in popular institutions. If you can guess beforehand whom your rulers are going to be, you can guess with a very great certainty that most of them will not be fit to rule. The beauty of popular institutions is that you do not know where the man is going to come from, and you do not care so he is the right man. You do not know whether he will come from the avenue or from the alley. You do not know whether he will come from the city or the farm. You do not know whether you will ever have heard that name before or not. Therefore you do not limit at any point your supply of new strength. You do not say it has got to come through the blood of a particular family or through the processes of a particular training, or by anything except the native impulses and genius of the man himself. The humblest hovel, therefore, may produce you your greatest man. A very humble hovel did produce you one of your greatest men. That is the process of life, this constant surging up of the new strength of unnamed, unrecognized, uncatalogued men who are just getting into the running, who are just coming up from the masses of the unrecognized multitude. You do not know when you will see above the level masses of the crowd some great stature lifted head and shoulders above the rest, shouldering its way, not violently but gently, to the front and saying, "Here am I; follow me." And his voice will be your voice, his thought will be your thought, and you will follow him as if you were following the best things in yourselves. "W^en I think of an association of Christian young men I wonder that it h2s not already turned the w^orld upside down. I wonder, not that it has done so much, for it has done a 54 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1914 great deal, but that it has done so little; and I can only conjecture that it does not realize its own strength. I can only imagine that it has not yet got its pace. I wish I could believe, and I do beHeve, that at 70 it is just reaching its majority, and that from this time on a dream greater even than George William.s ever dreamed will be realized in the great accumulating momentum of Christian men throughout the world. For, gentlemen, this is an age in which the principles of men who utter public opinion dominate the world. It makes no difference what is done for the time being. After the struggle is over the jury will sit, and nobody can corrupt that jury. * * * Eternal vigilance is the price, not only of liberty, but of a great many other things. It is the price of everything that is good. It is the price of one's own soul. It is the price of the souls of the people you love; and w^hen it comes down to the final reckoning you have a standard that is immutable. What shall a man give in exchange for his own soul? Will he sell that? Will he consent to see another man sell his soul? Will he consent to see the conditions of his community such that men's souls are debauched and trodden under- foot in the mire? What shall he give in exchange for his own soul, or any other man's soul? And since the world, the world of affairs, the world of society, is nothing less and nothing more than all of us put together, it is a great enter- prise for the salvation of the soul in this world as well as in the next. There is a text in Scripture that has always interested me profoundly. It says godliness is profitable in this life as well as in the life that is to come; and if 3^ou do not start it in this life, it will not reach the life that is to come. Your measurements, your directions, your whole momentum, have to be established before you reach the next world. This world is intended as the place in which we shall show that we know how to grow in the stature of manliness and of righteousness. I have come here to bid Godspeed to the great work of the Young Men's Christian Association. I love to think of the gathering force of such things as this in the generations to come. If a m.an had to measure the accomplishments of society, the progress of reform, the speed of the world's Oct. 24] YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 55 betterment, by the few little things that happened in his own life, by the trifling things that he can contribute to accomplish, he would indeed feel that the cost was much greater than the result. But no man can look at the past of the history of this world without seeing a vision of the future of the history of this world; and when you think of the accumulated moral forces that have made one age better than another age in the progress of mankind, then you can open your eyes to the vision. You can see that age by age, though with a blind struggle in the dust of the road, though often mistaking the path and losing its way in the mire, mankind is yet — sometimes with bloody hands and battered knees — nevertheless struggling step after step up the slow stages to the day when he shall live in the full light which shines upon the uplands, where all the light that illumines mankind shines direct from the face of God. White House Pamphlet. 19. FOREIGN TRADE AND SHIP BUILDING (December 8, 19 14) Address to Congress The session upon which you are now entering will be the closing session of the Sixty-third Congress, a Congress, I venture to say, which will long be remembered for the great body of thoughtful and constructive v/ork which it has done, in loyal response to the thought and needs of the country. I should like in this address to review the- notable record and try to make adequate assessment of it; but no doubt w'e stand too near the work that has been done and are ourselves too much part of it to play the part of historians toward it. Our program of legislation with regard to the regulation of business is now virtually complete. It has been put forth, as we intended, as a whole, and leaves no conjecture as to what is to follow. The road at last lies clear and firm before business. It is a road which it can travel without fear ^0 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 14 or embarrassment. It is the road to ungrudged, unclouded success. In it every honest man, every man who beheves that the public interest is part of his own interest, may walk with perfect confidence. Moreover, our thoughts are now more of the future than of the past. While we have worked at our tasks of peace the circumstances of the whole age have been altered by war. WTiat we have done for our own. land and our own people we did with the best that was in us, whether of character or of intelligence, with sober enthusiasm and a confidence in the principles upon which we were acting which sustained us at every step of the difficult undertaking; but it is done. It has passed from our hands. It is now an established part of the legislation of the country. Its usefulness, its effects will disclose themselves in experience. What chiefly strikes us now, as we look about us during these closing days of a year which will be forever memorable in the history of the world, is that we face new tasks, have been facing them these six months, must face them in the months to come, — face them without partisan feeling, like men who have forgotten everything but a common duty and the fact that we are representatives of a great people whose thought is not of us but of what America owes to herself and to all mankind in such circumstances as these upon which we look amazed and anxious. War has interrupted the means of trade not only but also the processes of production. In Europe it is destroying men and resources wholesale and upon a scale unprecedented and appalling. There is reason to fear that the time is near, if it be not already at hand, when several of the countries of Europe will find it difficult to do for their people what they have hitherto been always easily able to do, — many essential and fundamental things. At any rate, they will need our help and our manifold services as they have never needed them before; and we should be ready, more fit and ready than we have ever been. It is of equal consequence that the nations whom Europe has usually supplied ^\ith innumerable articles of manufac- ture and commerce of which they are in constant need and without which their economic development halts and stands Dec. 8] FOREIGN TRADE AND SHIPBUILDING 57 still can now get only a small part of what they formerly imported and eagerly look to us to supply their all but empty markets. This is particularly true of our own neighbors, the States, great and small, of Central and South America. Their lines of trade have hitherto run chiefly athwart the seas, not to our ports but to the ports of Great Britain and of the older continent of Europe. I do not stop to inquire why, or to make any comment on probable causes. What interests us just now is not the explanation but the fact, and our duty and opportunity in the presence of it. Here are markets which we must supply, and we must find the means of action. The United States, this great people for whom we speak and act, should be ready, as never before, to serv^e itself and to serve mankind; ready with its resources, its energies, its forces of production, and its means of dis- tribution. It is a very practical matter, a matter of ways and means. We have the resources, but are we fully ready to use them? And, if we can make ready what we have, have we the means at hand to distribute it? We are not fully ready; neither have we the means of distribution. We are willing, but we are not fully able. We have the wish to serve and to serve greatly, generously; but we are not prepared as we should be. We are not ready to mobilize our resources at once. We are not prepared to use them immediately and at their best, \^ithout delay and without waste. To speak plainly, we have grossly erred in the way in which we have stunted and hindered the development of our merchant marine. And now, when we need ships, we have not got them. We have year after year debated, without end or conclusion, the best policy to pursue with regard to the use of the ores and forests and water powers of our national domain in the rich States of the West, when we should have acted; and they are still locked up. The key is still turned upon them, the door shut fast at which thousands of vigorous men, full of initiative, knock clam- orously for admittance. The water power of our navigable streams outside the national domain also, even in the eastern States, where we have worked and planned for generations, is still not used as it might be, because we will and we won't; 58 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 14 because the laws we have made do not intelligently balance encouragement against restraint. We withhold by regu- lation, I have come to ask you to remedy and correct these mis- takes and omissions, even at this short session of a Congress which would certainly seem to have done all the work that could reasonably be expected of it. The time and the cir- cumstances are extraordinary, and so must our efforts be also. Fortunately, two great measures, finely conceived, the one to unlock, with proper safeguards, the resources of the national domain, the other to encourage the use of the navi- gable waters outside that domain for the generation of power, have already passed the House of Representatives and are ready for immediate consideration and action by the Senate. With the deepest earnestness I urge their prompt passage. In them both we turn our backs upon hesitation and make- shift and formulate a genuine policy of use and conservation, in the best sense of those words. We owe the one measure not only to the people of that great western country for whose free and systematic developrhent. as it seems to me, our legislation has done so little, but afeo to the people of the Nation as a whole; and we as clearly 0^ the other in fulfillment of our repeated promises that the water power of the country should in fact as well as in name be put at the disposal of great industries which can make economical and profitable use of it, the rights of the public being adequately guarded the while, and monopoly in the use prevented. To have begun such measures and not completed them would indeed mar the record of this great Congress very seriously. I hope and confidently believe that they will be completed. And there is another great piece of legislation which awaits and should receive the sanction of the Senate: I mean the bill which gives a larger measure of self-government to the people of the Philippines. How better, in this time of anxious questioning and perplexed policy, could we show our confidence in the principles of liberty, as the source as well as the expression of life, how better could we demonstrate our self-possession and steadfastness in the courses of justice and disinterestedness than by thus going calmly forward to fulfill Dec. 8] FOREIGN TRADE AND SHIPBUILDING 59 our promises to a dependent people, who will now look more anxiously than ever to see whether we have indeed the liber- ality, the unselfishness, the courage, the faith we have boasted and professed. I can not believe that the Senate will let this great measure of constructive justice await the action of another Congress. Its passage would nobly crown the record of these two years of memorable labor. But I think that you will agree with me that this does not complete the toll of our duty. How are we to carry our goods to the empty markets of which I have spoken if we have not the ships? How are we to build up a great trade if we have not the certain and constant means of trans- portation upon which all profitable and useful commerce depends? And how are we to get the ships if we wait for the trade to develop without them? To correct the many mistakes by which we have discouraged and all but de- stroyed the merchant marine of the country, to retrace the steps by which we have, it seems almost deliberately, with- drawn our flag from the seas, except where, here and there, a ship of war is bidden carry it or some wandering yacht displays it, would take a long time and involve many de- tailed items of legislation, and the trade which we ought immedately to handle would disappear or find other chan- nels while we debated the items. The case is not unlike that which confronted us when cur owTi continent was to be opened up to settlement and indus- try, and we needed long lines of railway, extended means of transportation prepared beforehand, if development was not to lag intolerably and wait interminably. We lavishly sub- sidized the building of transcontinental railroads. We look back upon that with regret now, because the subsidies led to many scandals of which we are ashamed; but we know that the railroads had to be built, and if we had it to do over again we should of course build them, but in another way. Therefore I propose another way of providing the means of transportation, which must precede, not tardily follow, the development of our trade with our neighbor states of America. It may seem a reversal of the natural order of things, but it is true, that the routes of trade must be actually opened — by many ships and regular sailings and moderate 6o ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1914 charges — before streams of merchandise will flow freely and profitably tlirough them. Hence the pending shipping bill, discussed at the last session but as yet passed by neither House. In my judg- ment such legislation is imperatively needed and can not wisely be postp>oned. The Government must open these gates of trade, and open them ^\ide; open them before it is altogether profitable to open them, or altogether reasonable to ask private capital to open them at a venture. It is not a question of the Government monopolizing the field. It should take action to make it certain that transportation at reasonable rates v/ill be promptly provided, even where the carriage is not at first profitable; and then, when the carriage has become sufficiently profitable to attract and engage pri- vate capital, and engage it in abundance, ^he Government ought to v.nthdrav/. I ven/ earnestly hope that the Congress will be of this opinion, and that both Houses will adopt this exceedingly important bill. * ''^ * I v/ould be negligent of a very manifest duty were I not to call the attention of the Senate to the fact that the pro- posed convention for safety at sea awaits its confirmation and that the limit fixed in the convention itself for its acceptance is the last day of the present m.onth. The con- ference in which this convention originated was called by the United States; the representatives of the United States played a very influential part indeed in framing the provi- sions of the proposed convention; and those provisions are in themselves for the most part admirable. It would hardly be consistent v/ith the part we have played in the whole matter to let it drop and go by the board as if forgotten and neglected. It was ratified in May last by the German Government and in August by the Parliament of Great Britain. It marks a most hopeful and decided advance in international civilization. We should show our earnest faith in a great matter by adding our own acceptance of it. * * * White House Pampldet. YEAR 1915 20. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY (January 8, 1915) Jackson Day Address at Indianapolis You have given me a most royal welcome, for which I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It is rather lonely living in Washington. I have been confined for two years at hard labor, and even now I feel that I am simply out on parole. You notice that one of the most distinguished Members of the United States Senate is here to see that I go back. And yet, with sincere apologies to the Senate and House of Representatives, I want to say that I draw more inspiration from you than I do from them. They, like myself, are only servants of the people of the United States. Our sinews consist in your sympathy and support, and our renewal comes from contact with you and with the strong movements of public opinion in the country. That is the reason why I for one would prefer that our thoughts should not too often cross the ocean, but should center themselves upon the policies and duties of the United States. If we think rightly of the United States, when the time comes we shall know how this country can serve the world. I will borrow a very interesting phrase from a dis- tinguished gentleman of my acquaintance and beg that you will "keep your moral powder dry." But I have come here on Jackson Day. If there are Republicans present, T hope they will feel the compelling influences of such a day. "^here was nothing mild about Andrew Jackson; that is the reason I spoke of the "com- pelling influences" of the day. Andrew Jackson was a 61 62 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [191 5 forthright man who believed everything he did believe ip fighting earnest. And really, ladies and gentlemen, in public life that is the only sort of man worth thinking about for a moment. If I was not ready to fight for everything I believe in, I v/ould think it my duty to go back and take a back seat. I like, therefore, to breathe the air of Jackson Day. I like to be reminded of the old militant hosts of Democracy which I believe have come to life again in our time. The United States had almost forgotten that it m.ust keep its fighting ardor in behalf of mankind when Andrew Jackson became President; and you will notice that whenever the United States forgets its ardor for mankind it is necessary that a Democrat should be elected President. The trouble with the Republican Party is that it has not had a new idea for thirty years. I am not speaking as a politician; I am speaking as an historian. I have looked for new ideas in the records and I have not found any proceed- ing irom the Republican ranks. They have had leaders from time to time vrho suggested new ideas, but they never did anything to carry them out. I suppose there was no harm in their talking, provided they could not do anything. There- fore, when it was necessary to say that we had talked about things long enough which it was necessary to do, and the time had come to do them, it was in d^'spen sable that a Democrat should be elected President. I would not speak with disrespect of the Republican Party. I always speak with great respect of the past. The past was necessary to the present, and was a sure prediction of the future. The Republican Party is still a covert and refuge for those vv'ho are afraid, for those who w^ant to con- sult their grandfathers about everything. You will notice that most of the advice taken by the Republican Party is taken from gentlemen old enough to be grandfathers, and that when they claim that a reaction has taken place, they react to the reelection of the oldest members of their party. They will not trust the youngsters. They are f raid the young- sters may have something up their sleeve. You will see, therefore, that I have come to you in the spirit of Jackson Day. I got very tired staying in Washing- ton and saying sweet things. I wanted to come out and get Jan. 8] THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY 63 contact with you once more and say what I really thought. My friends, what I particularly w^ant you to observe is this, that politics in this country does not depend any longer upon the regular members of either party. There are not enough regular Republicans in this country to take and hol(i national power; and I must immediately add there are not enough regular Democrats in this country to do it, either. This country is guided and its policy is determined by the independent voter; and I have come to ask you how we can best prove to the independent voter that the instrument he needs is the - Democratic Party, and that it would be hopeless for him to attempt to use the Republican Party. I do not have to prove it; I admit it. What seems to me perfectly evident is this: That if you! made a rough reckoning, you would have to admit that only about one- third of the Republican Party is progressive; and you would also have to admit that about two-thirds of the Democratic Party is progressive. Therefore, the independent progressive voter finds a great deal more company in the Democratic ranks than in the Republican ranks. I say a great deal more, because there are Democrats who are sitting on the breeching strap: there are Democrats who are holding back; there are Democrats who are nervous. I dare say they were bom with that temperament. And I respect the conservative temper. I claim to be an animated conservative myself, because being a conservative I understand to mean being a man not only who preserves w^hat is best in the Nation but who sees that in order to preserve it you dare not stand still but must move forward. The virtue of America is not statical; it is dynamic. All the forces of America are forces in action or else they are forces of inertia. What I want to point out to you — and I believe that this is what the whole country is beginning to perceive — is this, that there is a larger body of men in the regular ranks of the Democratic Party who believe in the progressive policies of our day and mean to see them carried forward and per- petuated than there is in the ranks of the Republican Party. How can it be otherwise, gentlemen? The Demo- cratic Party, and the only Democratic Party, has carried out the policies which the progressive people of this country have 64 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 15 desired. There is not a single great act of this present great Congress which has not been carried out in obedience to the public opinion of America; and the public opinion of America is not going to permit an}^ body of men to go backward with regard to these great matters. * * * But the Democratic Party is not to suppose that it is done with the business. The Democratic Party is still on trial. The Democratic Party still has to prove to the independent voters of the country not only that it believes in these things, but that it will continue to work along these lines and that it will not allow any enemy of these things to break its ranks. This country is not going to use any party that can not do continuous and consistent teamwork. If any group of men should dare to break the solidarity of the Democratic team for any purpose or from any motive, theirs v.ill be a most unenviable notoriety and a responsibility which will bring deep bitterness to them. The only party that is ser- viceable to a nation is a party that can hold absolutely to- gether and march with the discipline and with the zest of a conquering host. I am not saying these things because I doubt that the Democratic Party will be able to do this, but because I believe that as leader for the time being of that party I can promise the country that it vnll do these things. I know my colleagues at Washington; I know their spirit and their pur- pose; and I knov/ that they have the same emotion, the same high emotion of public service, that I hope I have. =*= =^' * There is one thing I have got a great enthusiasm about, I might almost say a reckless enthusiasm, and that is human liberty. The Governor has just now spoken about watchful waiting in Mexico. I want to say a v/ord about Mexico, or not so much about Mexico as about our attitude towards Mexico. I hold it as a fundamental principle, and so do you, that every people has the right to determine its own form of government; and until this recent revolution in Mexico, until the end of the Diaz reign, eighty per cent of the people of Mexico never had a "look in" in determining who should be their governors or what their government should be. Now, I am for the eighty per cent! It is none of my business, and it is none of your business, how long they Jan. 8] THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY 65 take in determining it. It is none of my business, and it is none of yours, how they go about the business. The country is theirs. The Government is theirs. The Hberty, if they can get it, and Godspeed them in getting it, is theirs. And so far as my influence goes while I am President nobody| shall interfere with them. That is what I mean by a great emotion, the great emotion of sympathy. Do you suppose that the Am^erican people are ever going to count a small amount of material benefit and advantage to people doing business in Mexico against the liberties and the permanent happiness of the Mexican people? Have not European nations taken as long as they wanted and spilt as much blood as they pleased in settling their affairs, and shall we deny that to Mexico because she is weak? No, I say! I am proud to belong to a strong nation that says, "This country which we could crush shall have just as much freedom in her owti affairs as we have." If I am strong, I am ashamed to bully the weak. In pro- portion to my strength is my pride in withholding that strength from the oppression of another people. And I know when I speak these things, not merely from the gen- erous response with which they have just met from you, but from my long-time knowledge of the American people, that that is the sentiment of this great people. With all due) respect to editors of great newspapers, I have to say to them that I seldom take my opinion of the American people from their editorials. WTien some great dailies not very far from' where I am temporarily residing thundered with rising scorn at watchful waiting, my confidence was not for a moment shaken. I Icnew what were the temper and principles of the American people. If I did not at least think I knew, I would emigrate, because I would not be satisfied to stay where I am. There may come a time when the American people will have to judge whether I know what I am talking about or not, but at least for two years more I am free to think that I do, with a great comfort in immimity in the time being. It is, by the way, a very comforting thought that the next Congress of the United States is going to be very safely Democratic and that, therefore, we can all together feel as 66 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 15 much confidence as Jackson did that we know what we are about. You know Jackson used to think that everybody who disagreed with him was an enemy of the country. I have never got quite that far in my thought, but I have ventured to think that they did not know what they were talking about, knowing that my fellow Democrats expected me to live up to the full stature of Jacksonian Democracy. I feel, my friends, in a very confident mood to-day. I feel confident that we do know the spirit of the American people, that we do know the program of betterment which it will be necessary for us to undertake, that we do have a very reasonable confidence in the support of the American people. I have been talking with business men recently about the present state of mind of American business. There is nothing the matter with American business except a state of mind. I understand that your chamber of commerce here in Indian- apolis is working now upon the motto "If you are going to buy it, buy it now." That is a perfectly safe maxim to act on. It is just as safe to buy it now as it ever will be, and if you start the buying there will be no end to it, and you will be a seller as well as a buyer. I am just as sure of that as I can be, because I have taken counsel with the men who know. I never was in business and, therefore, I have none of the prejudices of business. I have looked on and tried to see what the interests of the country were in busi- ness; I have taken counsel with men who did know, and their counsel is uniform, that all that is needed in America now is to believe in the future; and I can assure you as one of those who speak for the Democratic Party that it is perfectly safe to believe in the future. We are so much the friends of business that we were for a little time the enemies of those who were trying to control business. I say "for a little time" because we are now reconciled to them. They have graciously admitted that we had a right to do what we did do, and they have very handsomely said that they were going to play the game. I believe — I always have believed — that American business men were absolutely sound at heart, but men immersed in business do a lot of things that opportunity offers which in other circumstances they would not do; and I have thought Jan. 8] THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY 67 all along that all that was necessary to do was to call their / attention sharply to the kind of reforms in business which were needed and that they would acquiesce. Why, I believe they have heartily acquiesced. There is all the more reason, therefore, that, great and small, we should be confident in the, future. And what a future it is, my friends! Look abroad upon the troubled world! Only America at peace! Among all the great powers of the world only America saving her power for her ovm people! Only America using her great character and her great strength in the interests of peace and of pros- perity! Do you not think it likely that the world will some time turn to America and say, "You were right and we were wrong. You kept your head when we lost ours. You tried to keep the scale from tipping, and we threw the whole weight of arms in one side of the scale. Now, in your self- possession, in your coolness, in your strength, may we not turn to you for counsel and for assistance?" Think of the deep-wrought destruction of economic resources, of life, and of hope that is taking place in some parts of the world, and think of the reservoir of hope, the reservoir of energy, the reservoir of sustenance that there is in this great land of plenty! May we not look forward to the time when we shall be called blessed among the nations, because we suc- cored the nations of the world in their time of distress and of dismay? I for one pray God that that solemn hour may come, and I know the solidity of character and I know the exaltation of hope, I know the big principle with which the American people will respond to the call of the world for this service. I thank God that those who believe in America, who try to serve her people, are likely to be also what America herself from the first hoped and meant to be — the servant of mankind. White House Pamphlet, 21. PROPER TESTS OF IMMIGRANTS (January 28, 1915) Veto Message of the Literacy Test Bill It is with unaffected regret that I find myself constrained by clear conviction to return this bill (H. R. 6060, "An act 68 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1915 to regulate the immigration of aliens to and the residence of aliens in the United States") without my signature. Not only do I feel it to be a very serious matter to exercise the power of veto in any case, because it involves opposing the single judgment of the President to the judgment of a ma- jority of both the Houses of the Congress, a step which no man who realizes his own liability to error can take without great hesitation, but also because this particular bill is in so many important respects admirable, well conceived, and desirable. Its enactment into law would undoubtedly en- hance the efficiency and improve the methods of handling the important branch of the public service to which it relates. But candor and a sense of duty with regard to the responsi- bility so clearly im.pcsed upon me by the Constitution in matters of legislation leave me no choice but to dissent. In two particulars of vital consequence this bill embodies a radical departure from the traditional and long-established polic}^ of this country, a policy in which our people have conceived the very character of their Government to be ex- pressed, the very mission and spirit of the Nation in respect of its relations to the peoples of the v^^orld outside their bor- ders. It seeks to all but close entirely the gates of asylum which have always been open to those who could find no- "where else the right and opportunity of constitutional agita- tion for what they conceived to be the natural and inalienable rights of men; and it excludes those to w^om the oppor- tunities of elementary education have been denied, without regard to their character, their purposes, or their natural capacity. Restrictions like these, adopted earlier in our history as a Nation, would very materially have altered the course and cooled the humane ardors of our politics. The right of po- litical asylum has brought to this country many a man of noble character and elevated purpose who was marked as an outlaw in his own less fortunate land, and who has yet become an ornament to our citizenship and to our public councils. The children and the compatriots of these illus- trious Americans mr.st stand am.azed to see the representa- tives of their Nation now resolved, in the fullness of our national strength and at the maturity of our great institu- Jan. 28] THE PROPER TEST OF IMMIGRANTS 69 tions, to risk turning such men back from our shores without test of quality or purpose. It is difficult for me to believe that the full effect of this feature of the bill was realized when it was framed and adopted, cind it is impossible for me to assent to it in the form in w^hich it is here cast. The literacy test and the tests and restrictions which ac- company it constitute an even more radical change in the policy of the Nation. Hitherto we have generously kept our doors open to all who were not unfitted by reason of disease or incapacity for self-support or such personal records and antecedents as were likely to make them a menace to our peace and order or to the wholesome and essential relation- ships of life. In this bill it is proposed to turn away from tests of character and of quality and impose tests which exclude and restrict; for the new tests here embodied are not tests of quality or of character or of personal fitness, but tests of opportunity. Those who come seeking opportunity are not to be admitted unless they have already had one of the chief of the opportunities they seek, the opportunity of education. The object of such provisions is restriction, not selection. If the people of this country have made up their minds to limit the number of immigrants by arbitrary tests and so reverse the policy of all the generations of Americans that have gone before them, it is their right to do so. I am their servant and have no license to stand in their way. But I do not believe that they have. I respectfully submit that no one can quote their mandate to that effect. Has any political party ever avowed a policy of restriction in this fundamental matter, gone to the country on it, and been commissioned to control its legislation? Does this bill rest upon the conscious and universal assent and desire of the American people? I doubt it. It is because I doubt it that I make bold to dissent from it. I am willing to abide by the verdict, but not until it has been rendered. Let the platforms of parties speak out upon this policy and the people pronounce their wish. The matter is too fundamental to be settled otherwise. I have no pride of opinion in this question. I am not foolish enough to profess to knov; the wishes and ideals of America better than the body of her chosen representatives 70 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 15 , know them. I only want instruction direct from those whose \i fortunes, with ours and all men's, are involved. White House Pamphlet. \ 22. NATIONAL COMMERCE (February 3, 1915) Address to the United States Chamber of Commerce, AT Washington I feel that it is hardly fair to you for me to come in in this casual fashion among a body of men who have been seriously discussing great questions, and it is hardly fair to me, because I come in cold, not having had the advantage of sharing the atmosphere of your deliberations and catching the feeling of your conference. Moreover, I hardly know just how to express my interest in the things you are under- taking. When a man stands outside an organization and speaks to it he is too apt to have the tone of outside com- mendation, as who should say, "I would desire to pat you on the back and say 'Good boys; you are doing well!' " I would a great deal rather have you receive me as if for the time being I were one of your oAvn number. Because the longer I occupy the office that I now occupy the more I regret any lines of separation ; the more I deplore any feeling that one set of men has one set of interests and another set of men another set of interests; the more I feel the solidarity of the Nation — the impossibility of separating one interest from another ^^^thout misconceiving it; the necessity that we should all understand one another, in order that we may understand ourselves. There is an illustration which I have used a great many times. I will use it again, because it is the most serviceable to my owTi mind. We often speak of a man who cannot find his way in some jungle or some desert as having "lost him- self." Did you never reflect that that is the only thing he has not lost? He is there. He has lost the rest of the world. Feb. 3] NATIONAL COMMERCE 71 He has no fixed point bv which to steer. He does not know which is north, which is south, which is east, which is west; and if he did know, he is so confused that he would not know in which ol those directions his goal lay Therefore, follow- ing his heart, he walks in a great circle from right to left and comes back to where he started — to himself again. To my mind that is a picture of the world. If you have lost sight of other interests and do not know the relation of your own interests to those other interests, then you do not understand your own interests, and have lost yourself. WTiat you want is orientation, relationship to the points of the compass; lela- tionship to the other people in the world, vital connections which you have for the time being severea I am particularly glad to express my admiration for the kind of organization which you have drawn together. I have attended banquets of chambers of commerce in various pans of the country and have got the impression at each of those banquets that there was only one city in the country. It has seemed to me that those associations were meant in order to destroy men's perspective, in order to destroy their sen^e of relative proportions. Worst of all, if I may be permitted to say so, they were intended to boost something ir particular. Boosting is a very unhandsome thing. Ad- vancing enterprise is a very handsome thing, but to exag- gerate local merits in order to create disproportion in the general development is not a particularly handsome thing or a particularly intelligent thing. A city cannot grow on the face of a great state like a mushroom on that one spot. Its roots are throughout the state, and unless the state it is in, or the region it draws from, can itself thrive and pulse with life as a whole, the city can have no healthy growth. You forget the wide rootages of everything when you boost some particular region. There are dangers which probably you all understand in the mere practice of advertisement. When a man begins to advertise himself there are certain points that are somewhat exaggerated, and I have noticed that men who exaggerate most, most quickly lose any proper conception of what their own proportions are. Therefore, these local centers of enthusiasm may be local centers of mistake if they are not very wisely guided and if they do 72 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 15 not themselves realize their relations to the other centers of enthusiasm and of advancement. The advantage about a Chamber of Commerce of the United States is that there is only one way to boost the United States, and that is by seeing to it that the conditions under which business is done throughout the whole country are the best possible conditions. There cannot be any dis- proportion about that. If you draw your sap and your vitality from all quarters, then the more sap and vitality there is in you the m.ore there is in the commonwealth as a whole, and every time you lift at all you lift the whole level of manufacturing and mercantile enterprise. Moreover, the advantage of it is that you cannot boost the United States in that way without understanding the United States. You learn a great deal. I agreed with a colleague of mine in the Cabinet the other day that we had never attended in our lives before a school to compare with that we were new attending for the purpose of gaining a liberal educa- tion. Of course, I learn a great many things that are not so, but the interesting thing about that is this: Things that are not so do net m.atch. If you hear enough of them, you see there is no pattern whatever; it is a crazy quilt. Whereas, the truth always matches, piece by piece, with other parts of the truth. No man can lie consistently, and he cannot lie about everything if he talks to you long. I would guarantee that if enough liars talked to you, you would get the truth; because the parts that they did not invent would match one another, and the parts that they did invent would not match one another. Talk long enough, therefore, and see the connections clearly enough, and you can patch together a case as a whole. I had somev/hat that experience about Mexico, and that was about the only way in which I learned anything that was true about it. For there has been vivid imaginations and many special interests which depicted things as they wished me to believe them to be. Seriously, the task of this body is to match all the facts of business throughout the country and to see the vast and consistent pattern of it. That is the reason I think you are Feb. 3] NATIONAL COMMERCE 73 to be congratulated upon the fact that you can not do this thing without common counsel. There isn't any man who knows enough to comprehend the United States. It is a co- operative effort, necessarily. You can not perform the func- tions of this Chamber of Commerce without drawing in not only a vast number of men, but men, and a number of men, from every region and section of the country. The minute this association falls into the hands, if it ever should, of men from' a single section or men with a single set of interests most at heart, it will go to seed and die. Its strength must come from the uttermost parts of the land and must be compounded of brains and comprehensions of every sort. It is a very noble and handsome picture for the imagination, and I have asked myself before I came here to-day, what relation you could bear to the Government of the United States and what relation the Government could bear to you? There are two aspects and activities of the Government with which you will naturally come into most direct contact. The first is the Government's power of inquiry, systematic and disinterested inquiry, and its power of scientific assist- ance. You get an illustration of the latter, for example, in the Department of Agriculture. Has it occurred to you, I wonder, that we are just upon the eve of a time w^hen our Department of Agriculture will be of infinite importance to the w^hole world? There is a shortage of food in the world now. That shortage will be much more serious a few^ months from now than it is now\ It is necessary that we should plant a great deal more; it is necessary that our lands should yield more per acre than they do now; it is necessary that there should not be a plow or a spade idle in this country if the world is to be fed. And the methods of our farmers must feed upon the scientific information to be derived from the State departments of agriculture, and from that taproot of all, the United States Department of Agriculture. The object and use of that Department is to inform m.en of the latest developments and disclosures of science with regard to all the processes by which soils can be put to their proper use and their fertility made the greatest possible. Similarly with the Bureau of Standards. It is ready to supply those 74 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 15 things by which you can set norms, you can set bases, for all the scientific processes of business. I have a great admiration for the scientific parts of the Government of the United States, and it has amazed me that so few men have discovered them. Here in these de- partments are quiet men, trained to the highest degree of skill, serving for a petty remuneration along lines that are infinitely useful to mankind; and yet in some cases they waited to be discovered until this Chamber of Commerce of the United States was established. Coming to this city, officers of that association found that there were here things that wejre infinitely useful to them and with w^hich the whole United States ought to be put into communication. The Government of the United States is very properly a great instrum.entality of inquiry and information. One thing we are just beginning to do that we ought to have done long ago: We ought long ago to have had our Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. We ought long ago to have sent the best eyes of the Government out into the world to see where the opportunities and openings of Ameri- can commerce and American genius w^ere to be found — men who were not sent out as the commercial agents of any particular set of business men in the United States, but who were eyes for the w^hole business community. I have been reading consular reports for twenty years. In what I came to regard as an evil day the Congressman from my district began to send me the consular reports, and they ate up more and more of my time. They are very interesting, but they are a good deal like what the old lady said of the dictionary, that it was very interesting but a little disconnected. You get a picture of the world as if a spotlight were being dotted about over the surface of it. Here you see a glimpse of this, and here you see a glimpse of that, and through the medium of some consuls you do not see anything at all; because the consul has to have eyes and the consul has to know what he is looking for. A literary friend of mine said that he used to believe in the maxim that ''everything comes to the man who waits," but he discovered after awhile by practical experience that it needed an additional clause, "provided he knows what he is waiting for." Unless you jlFeb.a] NATIONAL COMMERCE 75 know what you are looking for and have trained eyes to see it when it comes your way, it may pass you unnoticed. We are just beginning to do, systematically and scientifically, what we ought long ago to have done, to employ the Govern- ment of the United States to survey the world in order that American commerce might be guided. But there are other ways of using the Government of the United States, ways that have long been tried, though not always with conspicuous success or fortunate results. You can use the Government of the United States by influencing its legislation. That has been a very active industry, but it has not always been managed in the interest of the whole people. It is very instructive and useful for the Govern- ment of the United States to have such means as you are ready to supply for getting a sort of consensus of opinion which proceeds from no particular quarter and originates with no particular interest. Information is the very founda- tion of all right action in legislation. * * * The trouble has been that when they [the men on the in- side of business] came in the past — for I think the thing is changing very rapidly — they came with all their bristles out; they came on the defensive; they came to see, not what they could •accomplish, but what they could prevent. They did not come to guide; they came to block. That is of no use what- ever to the general body politic. What has got to pervade us like a great motive power is that we cannot, and must not, separate our interests from one another, but must pool our interests. A man who is trying to fight for his single hand is fighting against the community and not fighting with it. There are a great many dreadful thing3 about war, as nobody needs to be told in this day of distress and of terror, but 4:here is one thing about war which has a very splendid side, and that is the consciousness that a whole nation gets that they must all act as a unit for a common end. And when peace is as handsome as war there will be no war. WTien men, I mean, engage in the pursuits of peace in the same spirit of self-sacrifice and of conscious service of the community with which, at any rate, the common soldier engages in war, then shall there be wars no more. You have moved the vanguard for the United States in the pur- 76 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1915 i poses of this association just a little nearer that ideal. That j is the reason I am here, because I believe it. =^ * * 1 There are thinking spaces in this countr\% and some of the » thinking done is very solid thinking indeed, the thinking ] - of the sort of men that we all love best, who think for them- selves, who do not see things as they are told to see them, j but look at them and see them independently; who, if they , are told they are white when they are black, plainly say , that they are black — men with eyes and with a courage 1 back of those eyes to tell what they see. The country is 1 full of those men. They have been singularly reticent some- j times, singularly silent, but the country is full of them, j And what I rejoice in is that you have called them into the j ranks. For your methods are bound to be democratic in | spite of you. I do not mean democratic v/ith a big "D," ' though I have a private conviction that you can not be | democratic with a small "d" long without becoming demo- i cratic with a big "D." Still that is just between ourselves. I The point is that when we have a consensus of opinion, when I we have this common counsel, then the legislative processes 1 of this Government will be infinitely illuminated. * * * That is the ideal of a government like ours, and an inter- esting thing is that if you only talk about an idea that will not work long enough, everybody will see perfectly plainly that it will not work; whereas, if you do not talk about it, and do not have a great many people talk about it, you are in danger of having the people who handle it think that it will work. Man}^ minds are necessary to compound a workable method of life in a various and populous country; and as I think about the whole thing and picture the pur- poses, the infinitely difficult and complex purposes which we must conceive and carry out. not only does it minister to my own modesty, I hope, of opinion, but it also fills me with a very great enthusiasm. It is a splendid thing to be part of a f^reat wide-awake nation. It is a splendid thing to Ivnow that your o^vn strength is infinitely multiplied by the strength of other men who love the country as you do. It is a splendid thing to feel that the wholesome blood of a great country can be united in common purposes, and that by frankly looking one another in the face and taking coun- iFeb. 3l NATIONAL COMMERCE 77 ^'■sel with one another, prejudices will drop away, handsome understandings will arise, a universal spirit of service will be engendered, and that with this increased sense of community of purpose will come a vastly enhanced individual power of achievement; for we will be lifted by the whole mass of which we constitute a part. Have you never heard a great chorus of trained voices lift the voice of the prim.a donna as if it soared with easy grace above the whole melodious sound? It does not seem to come from the single throat that produces it. It seems as if it were the perfect accent and crown of the great chorus. So it ought to be with the statesman. So it ought to be with every man who tries to guide the counsels of a great nation. He should feel that his voice is lifted upon the chorus and that it is only the crown of the common theme. Issued by the Chamber of Commerce. 23. A CONFUSED WORLD AT WAR (April 8, 1915) Address to the Conference of Methodist Protestant Church at Washington * * * These are days of very great perplexity, when a great cloud of trouble hangs and broods over the greater part of the world. It seems as if great, blind material forces had been released which had for long been held in leash and restraint. And yet, underneath that you can see the strong impulses of great ideals. It would be impossible for men to go through what men are going through on the battlefields of Europe — to go through the present dark night of their terrible struggle — if it were not that they saw, or thought that they saw, the broadening of light where the morning sun should come up, and believed that they were standing, each on his side of the contest, for some eternal principle for right. Then, aM about them, all about us, there sits the silent, 78 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 15 waiting tribunal which is going to utter the ultimate judg- ment upon this struggle, the great tribunal of the opinion of the world, and I fancy I see, I hope that I see, I pray that it may be that I do truly see great spiritual forces lying waiting for the outcome of this thing to assert themselves, and asserting themselves even now, to enlighten our judg- ment and steady our spirits. No man is wise enough to pronounce judgment, but we can all hold our spirits in readi- ness to accept the truth when it dawns on us and is revealed to us in the outcome of this titanic struggle. You will see that it is only in such general terms that one can speak in the midst of a confused world, because, as I have already said, no man has the key to this confusion. No man can see the outcome, but every man can keep his own spirit prepared to contribute to the net result when the outcome displays itself. * * * New York Times, April 9, 191 5. 24. AMERICA FIRST (April 20, 1915) Address at a Meeting of the Associated Press at New York I am deeply gratified by the generous reception you have accorded me. It makes me look back with a touch of regret to former occasions when I have stood in this place and enjoyed a greater liberty than is granted me to-day. There ) have been times when I stood in this spot and said what I really thought, and I can not help praying that those days of indulgence may be accorded me again. I have come here to-day, of course, somewhat restrained by a sense of respon- sibility which I cannot escape. For I take the Associated Press very seriously. I know the enormous part that you play in the affairs not only of this country but of the world. You deal in the raw material of opinion and, if my convic- tions have any validity, opinion ultimately governs the world. It is, therefore, of very serious things that I think as I Apr. 20] AMERICA FIRST 79 face this body of men. I do not think of you, however, as members of the Associated Press. I do not think of you as men of different parties or of different racial derivations or of different religious denominations. I want to talk to you as to my fellow citizens of the United States, for there are serious things which as fellow citizens we ought to con- sider. The times behind us, gentlemen, have been difficult enough; the times before us are likely to be more difficult still, because, whatever may be said about the present con- dition of the world's affairs, it is clear that they are drawing rapidly to a climax, and at the climax the test will come, not only for the nations engaged in the present colossal struggle — it will come to them, of course — ^but the test will come for us particularly. Do you realize that, roughly speaking, we are the only great Nation at present disengaged? I am not speaking, of course, with disparagement of the greatness of those nations in Europe which are not parties to the present war, but I am thinking of their close neighborhood to it. I am thinking how their lives much more than ours touch the very heart and stuff of the business, whereas we have rolling between us and those bitter days across the w^ater 3,000 miles of cool and silent ocean. Our atmosphere is not yet charged with those disturbing elements which must permeate every nation of Europe. Therefore, is it not likely that' the nations of the world will some day turn to us for the^ cooler assessment of the elements engaged? I am not now' thinking so preposterous a thought as that we should sit in judgment upon them — no nation is fit to sit in judgment upon any • other nation — but that we shall some day have to assist in reconstructing the processes of peace. Our re- f sources are untouched; we are more and more becoming by the force of circumstances the mediating Nation of the world in respect of its finance. We must make up our minds what are the best things to do and what are the best ways to do them. We must put our money, our ener,gy, our enthusiasm, our sympathy into these things, and we must have our judg- ments prepared and our spirits chastened against the coming of that day. So that I am not speaking in a selfish spirit when I say 8o ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1915 that our whole duty, for the present at any rate, is summed J up in this m.otto, '\^merica first." Let us think of America before we think of Europe, in order that America may be j fit to be Europe's friend when the day of tested friendship I comes. The test of friendship is not now sympathy with j the one side or the other, but getting ready to help both sides when the struggle is over. The basis of neutrality, gentlemen, is not indifference; it is not self-interest. The j basis of neutrality is sympathy for mankind. It is fairness, I it is good will, at bottom. It is impartiality of spirit and of ) judgment. I wish that all of our fellow citizens could realize Lthat. There is in some quarters a disposition to create dis- tempers in this body politic. Men are even uttering slanders against the United States, as if to excite her. Men are sajang that if we should go to war upon either side there would be a divided America — an abominable libel of igno- rance! America is not all of it vocal just now. It is vocal in spots, but I, for one, have a complete and abiding faith in that great silent body of Americans who are not standing up and shouting and expressing their opinions just now, but are waiting to find out and support the duty of America. I am just as sure of their solidity and of their loyalty and of their unanimity, if we act justly, as I am that the history of this country has at every crisis and turning point illus- trated this great lesson. We are the mediating Nation of the world. I do not mean that we undertake not to mind our own business and to mediate where other people are quarreling. I mean the word in a broader sense. We are compounded of the nations of the world; we mediate their blood, we mediate their traditions, we mediate their sentiments, their tastes, their passions, v/e are ourselves compounded of those things. We are, therefore, able to understand all nations; we are able to understand them in the compound, not separately, ao partisans, but unitedly as knowing and comprehending and embodying them all. It is in that sense that I mean that America is a mediating Nation. The opinion of x\merica, the action of America, is ready to turn, and free to turn, in any direction. Did you ever reflect upon how almost every other nation has through long centuries been headed in one Apr. 20] AMERICA FIRST 81 direction? That is not true of the United States. The United States has no racial momentum. It has no history- back of it which makes it run all its energies and all its ambitions in one particular direction. And America is par- ticularly free in this, that she has no hampering ambitions as a world power. We do not want a foot of anybody's territory. If we have been obliged by circumstances, or have considered ourselves to be obliged by circumstances, in the past, to take territory which we otherwise would not have thought of taking, I believe I am right in saying that we have considered it our duty to administer that territory, not for ourselves but for the people living in it, and to put this burden upon our consciences — not to think that this thing is ours for our use, but to regard ourselves as trustees of the great business for those to whom it does really belong, trustees ready to hand it over to the cestui que trust at any time when the business seems to make that possible and feasible. That is what I mean by saying we have no ham- pering ambitions. We do not want anything that does not belong to us. Is not a nation in that position free to serve other nations, and is not a nation like that ready to form some part of the assessing opinion of the world? My interest in the neutrality of the United States is not the petty desire to keep out of trouble. To judge by my experience, I have never been able to keep out of trouble. I have never looked for it, but I have always found it. I do not v/ant to walk around trouble. If any man wants a scrap that is an interesting scrap and worth while, I am his man. I v/arn him that he is not going to draw me into the scrap for his advertisement, but if he is looking for trouble that is the trouble of men in general and I can help a little, why, then, I am in for it. But I am interested in neutrality be-l cause there is something so much greater to do than fight; there is a distinction waiting for this Nation that no nation\ has ever yet got. That is the distinction of absolute self- control and self-mastery. Whom do you admire most among your friends? The irritable man? The man out of whom you can get a "rise" without trying? The man who will fight at the drop of the hat, whether he knows what the hat is dropped for or not? Don't you admire and don't you 82 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1915 fear, if you have to contest with him, the self-mastered man who watches you with calm eye and comes in only when you have carried the thing so far that you must be disposed of? That is the m.an you respect. That is the m.an who, you know, has at bottom a much more fundamental and ter- rible courage than the irritable, fighting man. Now, I covet for America this splendid courage of reser\^e moral force, and I wanted to point out to you gentlemen simply this: There is news and news. There is what is called news from Turtle Bay that turns out to be falsehood, at any rate in what it is said to signify, but which, if you could get the Nation to believe it true, might disturb our equi- librium and our self-possession. We ought not to deal in stuff of that kind. We ought not to permit that sort of thing to use up the electrical energy of the wires, because its energy is malign, its energy is not of the truth, its energy is of mischief. It is possible to sift truth. I have known some things to go out on the wires as true when there was only one man or one group of men who could have told the originators of that report whether it was true or not, and they were not asked whe^er it was true or not for fear it might not be true. That sort of report ought not to go out over the Vvdres. There is generally, if not always, somebody who knows whether the thing is so or not, and in these' days, above all other days, we ought to take particular pains to resort to the one small group of men, or to the one man if there be but one, who knows whether those things are true or not. The world ought to know the truth; the world ought not at this period of unstable equilibrium to be dis- turbed by rumor, ought not to be disturbed by imaginative combinations of circumstances, or, rather, by circumstances stated in combination which do not belong in combination. You gentlemen, and gentlemen engaged like 3'ou, are holding the balances in your hand. This unstable equilibrium rests upon scales that are in your hands. For the food of opinion, as I began by saying, is the news of the day. I have known many a man to go off at a tangent on information that was not reliable. Indeed, that describes the majority of men. The world is held stable by the man who waits for the next day to find out whether the report was true or not. Apr 2oJ AMERICA FIRST S We cannot afford, therefore, to let the rumors of irre- sponsible persons and origins get into the atmosphere of thf' United States We are trustees for what I venture to say IS the greatest heritage ih?.t any nation ever had, the love of justice and righteousness and human liberty. For, fundamentally, those are the things to which America is addicted and to which she is devoted. There are groups of selfish men in the United States, there are coteries, where sinister things are purposed, but the great heart of the American people is just as sound and true as it ever was. And it is a single heart; it is the heart of America. It is not a heart made up of sections selected out of other countries. What I try to remind myself of every day when I am almost overcome by perplexities, what I try to remember, is what the people at home are thinking about. I try to put myself in the place of the man who does not know all the things that I know and ask myself what he would like the policy of this country to be. Not the talkative man, not the partisan man, not the man who remembers first that he is a Republican or a Democrat, or that his parents were German or English, but the man who remembers first that the whole destiny of modern affairs centers largely upon his being an American first of all. If I permitted myself to be a | partisan in this present struggle, I would be unworthy to ' represent you. If I permitted myself to forget the people who are not partisans, I would be unworthy to be your spokesman. I am not sure that I am worthy to represent : you, but I do claim this degree of worthiness — that before i everything else I love America. Wllite House Pamphlet. 25. THE LAWS OF NEUTRALITY (April 21, 1915) Despatch Sent Through Secretary Bryan to Germany * * * In the first place, this Government has at no time and in no manner yielded any one of its rights as a neutral 84 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 15 to any of the present belligerents. It has acknowledged, as a matter of course, the right of visit and search and the right to apply the rules of contraband of war t6 articles of commerce. It has, indeed, insisted upon the use of visit and search as an absolutely necessary safeguard against mistak- ing neutral vessels for vessels o"v^Tied b}^ an enemy and against mistaking legal cargoes for illegal. It has admitted also the right of blockade if actually exercised and effectively maintained. These are merely the well-known limitations which war places upon neutral commerce on the high seas. But nothing beyond these has it conceded. I call Your Excellency's attention to this, notwithstanding it is already known to all the world as a consequence of the publication of our correspondence in regard to these matters with sev- eral of the belligerent nations, because I can not assume that you have official cognizance of it. In the second place, this Government attempted to se- cure from the German and British Governments mutual concessions with regard to the measures those Governments respectively adopted for the interruption of trade on the hiizh seas. This it did, not of right, but merely as exer- cising the privileges of a sincere friend of both parties and as indicating its im.partial good will. The attempt was un- successful; but I regret that Your Excellency did not deem it worthy of mention in modification of the impressions you expressed. We had hoped that this act on our part had shown our spirit in these times of distressing war as our diplomatic correspondence had shown our steadfast refusal to acknowledge the right of any belligerent to alter the accepted rules of war at sea in so far as they affect the rights and interests of neutrals. In the third place, I note with sincere regret that, in dis- cussing the sale and exportation of arms by citizens of the United States to the enemies of Germany, Your Excellency seems to be under the impression that it was within the choice of the Government of the United States, notwith- standing its professed neutrality and its diligent efforts to maintain it in other particulars, to inhibit this trade, and that its failure to do so manifested an unfar attitude toward Germany. This Government holds, as I believe Your Ex- Apr. 2i] THE LAWS OF NEUTRALITY 85 cellency is aware, and as it is constrained to hold in view of the present^indisputable doctrines of accepted international law, that any change in its own laws of neutrality during the progress of a war which would affect unequally the relations of the United States with the nations at war would be an unjustifiable departure from the principle of strict neutrality by which it has consistently sought to direct its actions, and I respectfully submit that none of the circum- stances urged in Your Excellency's memorandum alters the principle involved. The placing of an embargo on the trade in arm.s at the present time would constitute such a change and be a direct violation of the neutrality of the United States. It will, I feel assured, be clear to Your Excellency that, holding this view and considering itself in honor bound by it, it is out of the question for this Government to con- sider such a course. * * * Department of State, White Book, No. I, 74. 26. CITIZENS OF FOREIGN BIRTH (May 10, 1915) Address to Naturalized Citizens at Convention Hall, Philadelphia It warms my heart that you should give me such a recep- tion; but it is not of myself that I wish to think to-night, but of those who have just become citizens of the LTnited States. This is the only country in the world which experiences this constant and repeated rebirth. Other countries depend upon the multiplication of their own native people. This country is constantly drinking strength out of new sources by the voluntar}' association with it of great bodies of strong men and fop^.-ard-lookins; women out of other lands. And so by the gift of the free will of independent people it is being constantly renewed from generation to generation by the same process by which it was originally created. It is as if humanity had determined to see to it that this great 86 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1915 Nation, founded for the benefit of humanity, should not lack for the allegiance of the people of the world. » You have just taken an oath of allegiance to the United States. Of allegiance to whom? Of allegiance to no one, unless it be God — certainly not of allegiance to those who temporarily represent this great Government. You have taken an oath of allegiance to a great ideal, to a great body of principles, to a great hope of the human race. You have said, "We are going to America not only to earn a living, not only to seek the things which it was more difficult to obtain where we were born, but to help forward the great i enterprises of the human spirit — to let men know that every- i where in the world there are m.en who will cross strange i oceans and go where a speech is spoken which is alien to i them if they can but satisfy their quest for what their spirits : crave; knowing that whatever the speech there is but one 1 longing and utterance of the human heart, and that is for j liberty and justice.'' And while you bring all countries with ; you, you come with a purpose of leaving all other countries i behind you — bringing what is best of their spirit, but not I looking over your shoulders and seeking to perpetuate what ! you intended to leave behind in them. I certainly would not j be one even to suggest that a man cease to love the home j of his birth and the nation of his origin — these things are ! very sacred and ought not to be put out of our hearts — ' but it is one thing to love the place where you were born 1 and it is another thing to dedicate yourself to the place to 1 which you go. You can not dedicate yourself to America ] unless you becom.e in every respect and with every purpose | of your will thorough Americans. You can not become Americans if you think of yourselves in groups. America does not consist of groups. A man who thinks of himself as belonging to a particular national group in America has not yet become an American, and the man who goes among you to trade upon your nationality is no worthy son to live under the Stars and Stripes. My urgent advice to you would be, not only always to think first of America, but always, also, to think first of humanity. You do not love humanity if you seek to divide humanity into jealous camps. Humanity can be welded to- May lo] CITIZENS OF FOREIGN BIRTH 87 gether only by love, by sympathy, by justice, not by jeal- ousy and hatred. I am sorry for the man who seeks to make personal capital out of the passions of his fellow-men. He has lost the touch and ideal of America, for America was created to unite mankind by those passions which lift and not by the passions which separate and debase. We came to America, either ourselves or in the persons of our an- cestors, to better the ideals of men, to make them see finer things than they had seen before, to get rid of the things that divide and to make sure of the things that unite. It was but an historical accident no doubt that this great country was called the "United States"; yet I am very thankful that it has that word ''United" in its title, and the man who seeks to divide man from man, group from group, interest from interest in this great Union is striking at its very heart. It is a very interesting circumstance to me, in thinking of those of you who have just sworn allegiance to this great Government, that you were drawn across the ocean by some beckoning finger of hope, by some belief, by some vision of a new kind of justice, by some expectation of a better kind of life. No doubt you have been disappointed in some of us. Some of us are very disappointing. No doubt you have found that justice in the United States goes only with a pure heart and a right purpose as it does everywhere else in the world. No doubt what you found here did not seem touched for you, after all, with the complete beauty of the ideal which you had conceived beforehand. But remember this: If we had grown at all poor in the ideal, you brought some of it with you. A man does not go out to seek the thing that is not in him. A man does not hope for the thing he does not believe in, and if some of us have forgotten what America believed in, you, at any rate, imported in your own hearts a renewal of the belief. That is the reason that I, for one, make you welcome. If I have in any degree forgotten what America was intended for, I will thank God if you will remind me. I was born in America. You dreamed dreams of what America was to be, and I hope you brought the dreams with you. No man that does not see visions will ever realize any high hope or undertake any high enterprise. Just because you brought dreams with you, America is more 88 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1915 likely to realize dreams such as you brought. You are enriching us if you came expecting us to be better than we are. See, my friends, what that means. It means that Ameri- cans must have a consciousness different from the conscious- ness of every other nation in the world. I am not saying this with even the slightest thought of criticism of other nations. You know how it is with a family. A family gets centered on itself if it is not careful and is less interested in the neighbors than it is in its own members. So a nation that is not constantly renewed out of new sources is apt to have the narrow^ness and prejudice of a family; whereas, America must have this consciousness, that on all sides it touches elbows and touches hearts with all the nations of mankind. The example of America must be a special exam- ple. The example of America must be the example not merely of peace because it will not fight, but of peace because peace is the healing and elevating influence of the world and strife is not. There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right. You have come into this great Nation voluntarily seeking something that we have to give, and all that we have to give is this: We can not exempt you from work. No man is exempt from w^ork anywhere in the world. We can not exempt you from the strife and the heartbreaking burden of the struggle of the day — that is common to mankind every- where; we can not exempt you from the loads that you must carry. We can only make them light by the spirit in which they are carried. That is the spirit of hope, it is the spirit of liberty, it is the spirit of justice. WTien I was asked, therefore, by the INIayor and the com- mittee that accompanied him to come up from Washington to meet this great company of newly admitted citizens, I could not decline the invitation. I ought not to be away from Washington, and yet I feel that it has renewed my ' spirit as an American to be here. In Washington men tell you so many things every day that are not so, and I like to come and stand in the presence of a great body of my fellow- May lo] CITIZENS OF FOREIGN BIRTH 89 citizens, whether they have been my fellow-citizens a long time or a short time, and drink, as it were, out of the common fountains with them and go back feeling what you have so generously given me — the sense of your support and of the i living vitality in your hearts of the great ideals which have made America the hope of the world. White House Pamphlet. 17. SINKING OF THE ''LUSITANIA" (May 13, 1915) Despatch of Protest through Secretary Bryan to Germany * * * Recalling the humane and enlightened attitude hitherto assumed by the Imperial German Government in matters of international right, and particularly with regard to the freedom of the seas; having learned to recognize the German views and the German influence in the field of international obligation as always engaged upon the side of justice and humanity; and having understood the instruc- tions of the Imperial German Government to its naval com- manders to be upon the same plane of humane action pre- scribed by the naval codes of other nations, the Government of the United States was loath to believe — it can not now bring itself to believe — that these acts, so absolutely con- trary to the rules, the practices, and the spirit of modem • warfare, could have the countenance or sanction of that I great Government. It feels it to be its duty, therefore, to I address the Imperial German Government concerning them with the utmost frankness and in the earnest hope that it is not mistaken in expecting action on the part of the Imperial German Government which will correct the unfortunate impressions which have been created and vindicate once more the position of that Government with regard to the sacred freedom of the seas. The Government of the United States has been apprised that the Imperial German Government considered themselves to be obliged by the extraordinary circumstances of the 90 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 15 present war and the measures adopted by their adversaries in seeking to cut Germany off from all commerce, to adopt methods of retaliation which go much beyond the ordinary methods of warfare at sea, in the proclamation of a war zone from which they have warned neutral ships to keep away. This Government has already taken occasion to in- form the Imperial German Government that it can not admit ihe adoption of such measures or such a warning of danger to operate as in any degree an abbreviation of the rights of American shipmasters or of American citizens bound on law- ful errands as passengers on merchant ships of belligerent nationality; and that it must hold the Imperial German Government to a strict accountability for any infringement of those rights, intentional or incidental. It does not under- stand the Imperial German Government to question those rights. It assumes, on the contrary, that the Imperial Gov- ernment accept, as of course, the rule that the lives of non- combatants, whether they be of neutral citizenship or citi- zens of one of the nations at war, can not lawfully or right- fully be put in jeopardy by the capture or destruction of an unarmed merchantman, and recognize also, as all other na- tions do, the obligation to take the usual precaution of visit and search to ascertain whether a suspected merchantman is in fact of belligerent nationality or is in fact carrying con- traband of war under a neutral flag. * * * Department of State, White Book, No. I, 75. 28. WHAT THE FLAG MEANS (June 14, 191 5) Address at Flag Day Exercises, Washington I know of nothing more difficult than to render an adequate tribute to the emblem of our nation. For those of us who have shared that nation's life and felt the beat of its pulse it must be considered a matter of impossibility to express the great things which that emblem embodies. I venture to say that a great many things are said about the flag which very few people stop to analyze. For me the flag does not Jjune 14] WHAT THE FLAG MEANS 91 express a mere body of vague sentiment. The flag of the United States has not been created by rhetorical sentences in declarations of independence and in bills of rights. It has been created by the experience of a great people, and nothing is written upon it that has not been written by their life. It is the embodiment, not of a sentiment, but of a histor}% and no man can rightly serve under that flag who has not caught some of the meaning of that history. Experience, ladies and gentlemen, is made by men and women. National experience is the product of those who do the living under that flag. It is their living that has created its significance. You do not create the meaning of a national life by any literary exposition of it, but by the actual daily endeavors of a great people to do the tasks of the day and live up to the ideals of honesty and righteousness and just conduct. And as we think of these things, our tribute is to those men who have created this experience. Many of them are known by name to all the world, — statesmen, sol- diers, merchants, masters of industry, men of letters and of thought who have coined our hearts into action or into words. Of these men we feel that they have showTi us the way. They have not been afraid to go before. They have known that the}^ were speaking the thoughts of a great people w^hen they led that great people along the paths of achieve- ment. There was not a single swashbuckler among them. They were men of sober, quiet thought, the more effective because there was no bluster in it. They were men who thought along the lines of duty, not along the lines of self- aggrandizement. They were men, in short, who thought of the people whom they served and not of themselves. But while we think of these men and do honor to them as to those who have shown us the way, let us not forget that the real experience and life of a nation lies with the great multitude of unkno\\Ti men. It lies with those men whose names are never in the headlines of newspapers, those men who know the heat and pain and desperate loss of hope that sometimes comes in the great struggle of daily life; not the men who stand on the side and comment, not the men who merely try to interpret the great struggle, but the men who are engaged in the struggle. They constitute the body of the 92 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1915 nation. This flag is the essence of their daily endeavors. This flag does not express any more than what they are and what they desire to be. As I think of the life of this great nation it seems to me that we sometimes look to the wrong places for its sources. We look to the noisy places, where men are talking in the market place; we look to where men are expressing their individual opinions; we look to where partisans are express- ing passion: instead of trying to attune our ears to that voiceless mass of men who merely go about their daily tasks, try to be honorable, try to serve the people they love, try to live worthy of the great communities to which they belong. These are the breath of the nation's nostrils; these are the sinew of its mJght. How can any man presume to interpret the emblem of the United States, the emblem of what we would fain be among the family of the nations, and find it incumbent upon us to be in the daily round of routine duty? This is Flag Day, but that only means that it is a day when we are to recall the things which we should do every day of our lives. There are no days of special patriotism. There are no days when we should be more patriotic than on other days. We celebrate the Fourth of July merely because the great enterprise of liberty was started on the Fourth of July in America, but the great enterprise of liberty was not begun in America. It is illustrated by the blood of thousands of martyrs who lived and died before the great experiment on this side of the water. The Fourth of July merely marks the day when we consecrated ourselves as a nation to this high thing which we pretend to serve. The benefit of a day like this is merely in turning awa}^ from the things that distract us, turning away from the things that touch us personally and absorb our interest in the hours of daily work. We remind ourselves of those things that are greater than we are, of those principles by which we believe our hearts to be elevated, of the more difficult things that we must undertake in these days of perplexity when a man's judgment is safest only when it follows the line of principle. I am solemnized in the presence of such a day. I would not undertake to speak your thoughts. You must interpret June 14] WHAT THE FLAG MEANS 93 them for me. But I do feel that back, not only of every public official, but of every man and woman of the United States, there marches that great host which has brought us to the present day; the host that has never forgotten the vision which it saw at the birth of the nation ; the host vrhich always responds to the dictates of hum.anity and of liberty; the host that will always constitute the strength and the great body of friends of every man v/ho does his duty to the United States. I am sorry that you do not wear a little flag of the Union every day instead of some days. I can only ask you, if you lose tlie physical emblem, to be sure that you wear it in your heart, and the heart of America shall interpret the heart of the world. White House Pamphlet. 29. PREPAREDNESS FOR DEFENSE (October 6, 19 15) Address to the Civilian Advisory Board of the Navy AT THE White House * * * I think the whole nation is convinced that we ought to be prepared, not for war, but for defense, and very ade- quately prepared, and that the preparation for defense is not merely a technical matter, that it is not a matter that the Army and Navy alone can take care of, but a matter in which we must have the cooperation of the best brains and knowledge of the country, outside the official service of the Government, as well as inside. For my part, I feel that it is only in the spirit of a tme democracy that we get together to lend such voluntary aid, the sort of aid that comes from interest, from a knowledge of the varied circumstances that are involved in handling a nation. * * ^ I do not have to expound it to you; you know as well as I do the spirit of America. The spirit of America is one of peace, but one of independence. It is a spirit that is pro- I 94 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1915 1 foundly concerned with peace, because it can express itself best only in peace. It is the spirit of peace and good-will and of human freedom; but it is also the spirit of a nation that is self-conscious, that knows and loves its mission in the w^orld, and that knows that it must command the respect of the world. So it seems to me that we are not worldng as those who would change anything of America, but only as those who would safeguard everything in America. * * * New York Times, Oct. 7, 19 15. YEAR 1916 30. WHAT IS PAN-AMERICANISM? (January 6, 19 16) Address to Pan-American Scientific Congress at Washington It was a matter of sincere regret vdth me that I was not in the city to extend the greetings of the Government to this distinguished body, and I am very happy that I have re- turned in time at least to extend to it my fehcitations upon the unusual interest and success of its proceedings. I wish that it might have been my good fortune to be present at the sessions and be instructed by the papers that were read. I have somewhat become inured to scientific papers in the course of a long experience, but I have never ceased to be in- structed and to enjoy them. The sessions of this Congress have been looked forward to with the greatest interest throughout this country, because there is no more certain evidence of intellectual life than the desire of men of all nations to share their thoughts with one another. I have been told so much about the proceedings of this Congress that I feel that I can congratulate you upon the increasing sense of comradeship and intimate intercourse which has marked its sessions from day to day; and it is a very happy circumstance in our view that this, perhaps the most vital and successful of the meetings of this Congress, should have occurred in the Capital of our own country, be- cause we should wish to regard this as the universal place where ideas worth while are exchanged and shared. The drawing together of the Americas, ladies and gentlemen, has t 95 96 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 long been dreamed of and desired. It is a matter of peculiar gratification, therefore, to see this great thing happen; to see the Americas drawing together, and not drawing together upon any insubstantial foundation of mere sentiment. After all, even friendship must be based upon a perception of common sympathies, of common interests, of common ideals, and of common purposes. Men cannot be friends un- less they intend the sam.e things, and the Americas have more and more realized that in all essential particulars they intend the same thing vdth regard to their thought and their life and tlieir activities. To be privileged, therefore, to see this drawing together in friendship and comm.union, based upon these solid foundations, affords everyone w^ho looks on with open eyes peculiar satisfaction and joy; and it has seemed to me that the language of science, the language of impersonal thought, the language of those who think, not along the lines of individual interest but along what are in- tended to be the direct and searching lines of truth itself, was a very fortunate language in which to express this com- munity of interest and of sympathy. Science affords an international language just as commerce also affords a uni- versal language, because in each instance there is a universal purpose, a universal general plan of action, and it is a pleas- ing thought to those who have had something to do with scholarship that scholars have had a great deal to do with | sowing the seeds of friendship between nation and nation. " Truth recognizes no national boundaries. Truth permits no racial prejudices; and when men come to know each other and to recognize equal intellectual strength and equal intel- lectual sincerity and a common intellectual purpose, some of the best foundations of friendship are already laid. But, ladies and gentlemen, our thought cannot pause at the artificial boundaries of the fields of science and of com- merce. All boundaries that divide life into sections and in- terests are artificial, because life is all of a piece. You cannot treat part of it without by implication and indirection treating all of it, and the field of science is not to be distin- | guished from the field of life any more than the field of I commerce is to be distinguished from the general field of li life. No one who reflects upon the progress of science or ;i Jan. 6] WHAT IS PAN-AMERICANISM? 97 the spread of the arts of peace or tlie extension and perfec- tion of any of the practical arts of life can fail to see that there is only one atmosphere that these things can breathe, and that is an atmosphere of mutual confidence and of peace and of ordered political life among the nations. Amidst war and revolution even the voice of science must for the most part be silent, and revolution tears up the very roots of everything that makes life go steadily forward and the light grow from generation to generation. For nothing stirs passion like political disturbance, and passion is the enemy of truth. These things were realized with peculiar vividness and said with unusual eloquence in a recent conference held in this city for the purpose of considering the financial relations between the two continents of America, because it was per- ceived that financiers can do nothing without the coopera- tion of governments, and that if merchants would deal with one another, laws must agree with one another; that you cannot make laws vary without making them contradict, and that amidst contradictory laws the easy flow of commercial intercourse is impossible, and that, therefore, a financial congress naturally led to all the inferences of politics. For politics I conceive to be nothing more than the science of the ordered progress of society along the lines of greatest usefulness and convenience to itself. I have never in my own mind admitted the distinction between the other de- partments of life and politics. Some people devote them- selves so exclusively to politics that they forget there is any other part of life, and so soon as they do they become that thing which is described as a "mere politician." Statesman- ship begins where these connections so unhappily lost are reestablished. The statesman stands in the midst of life to interpret life in political action. The conference to which I have referred marked the consciousness of the two Americas that economically they are very dependent upon one another, that tliey have a great deal that is desirable they should exchange and share with one another, that they have kept unnaturally and unfortu- nately separated and apart when they had a manifest and obvious community of interest; and the object of that con- 9S ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [191 6 ference was to ascertain the practical means by which the commercial and practical intercourse of the continents could be quickened and facilitated. And where events move statesmen, if they be not indifferent or be not asleep, must think and act. For my own part I congratulate myself upon living in a time when these things, always susceptible of intellectual demonstration, have begun to be very widely and universally appreciated, and when the statesmen of the two American continents have more and more come into candid, trustful, mutual conference, comparing views as to the practical and friendly way of helping one another, and of setting forward every handsome enterprise on this side of the Atlantic. But these gentlemen have not conferred without realizing that back of all the material community of interest of which I have spoken there lies and must lie a community of political interest. I have been told a very interesting fact — I hope it is true — that while this Congress has been discussing science, it has been, in spite of itself, led into the feeling that behind the science there was some inference with regard to politics, and that if the Americans were to be united in thought they must in some degree sympathetically be united in action. What these statesmen, v/ho have been conferring from month to month in Washington, have come to realize, that back of the community of material interest there is a community of political interest. I hope I can make clear to you in what sense I use these words. I do not mean a mere partnership in the things that are expedient. I mean what I was trying to indicate a few moments ago, that you cannot separate politics from these things, that you cannot have reaJ intercourse of any kind amidst political jealousies, which is only another way of say- ing that you cannot commune unless you are friends, and that friendship is based upon your political relations with each other perhaps more than upon any other kind of re- lationship between nations. If nations are politically sus- picious of one another, all their intercourse is embarrassed. That is the reason, I take it, if it be true, as I hope it is, that your thoughts even during this Congress, though the questions you are called upon to consider are apparently so Jan. 6] WHAT IS PAN-AMERICANISM? 99 foreign to politics, have again and again been dra\\Ti back to the poHtical inferences. The object of American states- manship on the two continents is to see to it that American friendship is founded on a rock. The Monroe Doctrine was proclaimed by the United States on her own authority. It always has been maintained and always will be maintained upon her own responsibility. But the Monroe Doctrine demanded merely that European Gov- ernments should not attempt to extend their political systems to this side of the Atlantic. It did not disclose the use which the United States intended to make of her power on this side of the Atlantic. It was a hand held up in warning, but there was no promise in it of what America was going to do with the implied and partial protectorate which she apparently was trying to set up on this side of the water; and I believe you will sustain me in the statement that it has been fears and suspicions on this score w^hich have hitherto prevented the greater intimacy and confidence and trust betw^een the Americas. The States of America have not been certain what the United States would do with her power. That doubt must be removed. And latterly there has been a very frank interchange of views between the authorities in Wash- ington and those who represented the other States of this hemisphere, an interchange of views charming and hopeful, because based upon an increasingly sure appreciation of the spirit in which they were undertaken. These gentlemen have seen that if America is to come into her o";vn, into her legitimate own, in a world of peace and order, she must establish the foundations of amity so that no one will here- after doubt them. I hope and I believe that this can be accomplished. These conferences have enabled me to foresee how it will be ac- complished. It will be accomplished in the first place, by the States of America uniting in guaranteeing to each other absolutely political independence and territorial integrity. In the second place, and as a necessary corollary to that, guaranteeing the agreement to settle all pending boundary disputes as soon as possible and by amicable process; by agreeing that all disputes among themselves, should they unhappily arise, will be handled by patient, impartial in- TOO ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 vestigation, and settled by arbitration; and the agreement necessary to the peace of the Americas, that no State of either continent will permit revolutionary e>qDeditions against another State to be fitted out on its territory, and that they will prohibit the exportation of the munitions of war for the purpose of supplying revolutionists against neighboring Governments. You see what our thought is, gentlemen, not only the international peace of America but the domestic peace of America. If American States are constantly in ferment, if any of them are constantly in ferment, there will be a stand- ing threat to their relations with one another. It is just as much to our Interest to assist each other to the orderly proc- esses within our own borders as it is to orderly processes in our controversies with one another. These are very prac- tical suggestions which have sprung up in the minds of thoughtful men, and I, for my part, believe that they are going to lead the way to something that America has prayed for for many a generation. For they are based, in the first place, so far as the stronger States are concerned, upon the handsome principle of self-restraint and respect for the rights of everybody. They are based upon the principles of abso- lute political equality among the States, equality of right, not eauality of indulgence. They are based, in short, upon the solid eternal foundations of justice and humanity. No man can turn away from these things without turning away from the hope of the w^orld. These are things, ladies and gentlemen, for which the world has hoped and waited with prayerful heart. God grant that it may be granted to America to lift this light on high for the illumination of the world. jsfew York Times, Jan. 7, 19 16. 31. NEED OF AN ARMY AND NAVY (January 27, 19 16) Address at New York * * * I hear a great many thinc:5 predicted about the end of the war, but I do not know what is going to happen at Jan. 27] NEED OF AN ARMY AND NAVY loi the end of the war; and neither do you. There are two diametrically opposed views as to immigration. Some men tell us that at least a million men are going to leave the country and others tell us that many millions are going to rush into it. Neither party knows what they are talking about, and I am one of those prudent individuals who w'ould really like to know the facts before he forms an opinion; not out of wisdom but out of prudence. I have lived long enough to know that if I do not, the facts will get away with me. I have come to have a great and wholesome respect for the facts. I have had to yield to them sometimes before I saw them coming and that has led me to keep a weather eye open in order that I may see them coming. There is so much to understand that we have not the data to comprehend that I lor one would not dare, so far as my advice is concerned, to leave th^ Government without the adequate means of inquiry — but that is another parenthesis. \Vhat I am trying to impress upon you now is that the arcumstances of the world to-day • are not W'hat they were yesterday, or ever were in any of our yesterdays. And it is not certain what they will be to-morrow. I can not tell you what the international relations of this country will be to- morrow, and I use the w^ord literally; and I would not dare keep silent and let the country suppose that to-morrow was certain to be as bright as to-day. America will never be the aggressor. America will ahvays seek to the last point at which her honor is involved to avoid the things which disturb the peace of the world; but America does not control the circumstances of the world, and we must be sure that we are faithful servants of those things which we love, and are ready to defend them against every contingency that may affect or impair them. And, as I w^as saying a moment ago, we must seek the means which are consistent with the principles of our lives. It goes without saying, though apparently it is necessary to say it to some excited persons, that one thing that this country never will endure is a system that can be called militarism. But militarism consists in this, gentlemen: It consists in preparing a great machine whose only use is for war and giving it no use upon which to expend itself. Men 102 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 who are in charge of edged tools and bidden to prepare them for exact and scientific use grow very impatient if they are not permitted to use them, and I do not beheve that the creation of such an instrument is an insurance of peace. I believe that it involves the danger of all the impulses that skilful persons have to use the things that they know how to use. But we do not have to do that. America is always going to use her Army in two ways. She is going to use it for the purposes of peace, and she is going to use it as a nucleus for expansion into those things which she does believe in, namely, the preparation of her citizens to take care of themselves. There are two sides to the question of preparation; there is not merely the military side, there is the industrial side; and the ideal which I have in mind is this: We ought to have in this country a great system of industrial and voc'ational edu- cation under Federal guidance and with Federal aid, in which a very large percentage of the youth of this country will be given training in the skilful use and application of the principles of science in manufacture and business; and it will be perfectly feasible and highly desirable to add to that and combine with it such a training in the mechanism and care and use of arms, in the sanitation of camps, in the simpler forms of maneuver and organization, as will make these same men at one and the same time industrially efficient and immediately serviceable for national defense. The point about such a system will be that its emphasis will lie on the industrial and civil side of life, and that, like all the rest of America, the use of force will only be in the back- ground and as the last resort. Men will think first of their families and their daily w^ork, of their service in the economic ranks of the country, of their efficiency as artisans, and only last of all of their serviceability to the Nation as sol- diers and men at arms. That is the ideal of x\merica. But, gentlemen, you can not create such a s}/stem over- night; you can not create such a system rapidly. It has got to be built up, and I hope it will be built up, by slow^ and effective stages; and there is much to be done in the mean- time. We must see to it that a sufficient bod}^ of citizens is given the kind of training which will make them efficient now Jan. 2 7] NEED OF AN ARMY AND NAVY 103 if called into the field in case of necessitj^ It is discreditable to this country, gentlemen, for this is a country full of intelligent men, that we should have exhibited to the world the example we have sometimes exhibited to it, of stupid and brutal w^ste of force. Think of asking men who can be easily trained to come into the field, crude, ignorant, in- experienced, and merely furnishing the stuff for camp fever and the bullets of the enemy. The sanitary experience of our Army in the Spanish-American Vv-ar was merely an in- dictment of America's indifference to the manifest lessons of experience in the matter of ordinary, careful preparation. We have got the men to waste, but God forbid that we should waste them. Men who go as efficient instruments of national honor into the field afford a very handsome spectacle indeed. Men who go in crude and ignorant boys only indict those in authority for stupidity and neglect. So it seems to me that it is our manifest duty to have a proper citizen reserve. I am not forgetting our National Guard. I have had the privilege of being governor of one of our great States, and there I was brought into association with what I am glad to believe is one of the most efficient portions of the National Guard of the Nation. I learned to admire the men, to respect the officers, and to believe in the National Guard; and I believe that it is the duty of Congress to do very much more for the National Guard than it has ever done heretofore. I believe that that great arm of our national defense should be built up and encouraged to the utmost; but, you know, gentlemen, that under the Constitution of the United States the National Guard is under the direction of more than two- score States; that it is not permitted to the National Govern- ment directly to have a voice in its development and organization: and that onl}^ upon occasion of actual invasion has the President of the United States the right to ask those men to leave their respective States. I, for my part, am afraid, though some gentlemen differ with me, that there is no way in which that force can be made a direct resource as a national reser\^e under national authority. Wha.t we need is a body of men trained in association with units of the Army, a body of men organized under the im- mediate direction of the national authority, a body of men 104 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 subject to the immediate call to arms of the national author- ity, and yet men not put into the ranks of the Regular Army; men left to their tasks of civil life, men supplied with equip- ment and training, but not drawn away from the peaceful pursuits w^hich have made America great and must keep her great. I am not a partisan of any one plan. I have had too much experience to think that it is right to say that the plan that I propose is the only plan that will work, because I have a shrewd sirspicion that there may be other plans that will work. WTiat I am after, and what every American ought to insist upon, is a body of at least half a million trained citizens who will serve under co^iditions of danger as an im- mediately availa'ble national reserve. I am not saying anything about the Navy to-night, be- cause for some reason there is not the same controversy about tlie Navy that there is about the Army. The Navy is obvious and easily understood; the Army apparently is very difficult to comprehend and understand. We have a traditional prejudice against armies which makes us stop thinking calmly the minute we begin talking about them. We suppose that all armies are alike and that there can not be an American Army system, that it must be a European system, and that is what I for one am trying to divest my own mind of. The Navy is so obvious an instrument of national defense that I believe that, with differences of opin- ion about the detail, it is not going to be difficult to carry out a proper and reasonable program for the increase of the Nav}^ But that is another story; my theme to-night is national defense on land where we seem most negligent of it. And I do not want to leave in your minds the impression that I have any anxiety as to the outcome, for I have not the slightest. There is only one wa}^ for parties and individuals to win the confidence of this Nation and that is by doing the things that ought to be done. Nobody is going to be deceived. Speeches are not going to wnn elections. The facts are going to speak for themselves and speak louder than anybody who controverts them. No political party, no group of men, can afford to disappoint America. This is a year of political accounting, and the Americans in poli- Jan. 2 7] NEED OF AN ARMY AND NAVY 105 tics are rather expert accountants. They know what the books contain and they are not going to be deceived about them. No man is going to hide behind any excuse; the goods must be dehvered or the confidence will not be enjoyed. For my part, I hope that every man in public life will get what is coming to him. If this is true, gentlemen, it is because of things that lie much deeper than laughter, much deeper than cheers; lie down at the very roots of our life. America refuses to be deceived about the things that most concern her national honor and national safety, that lie at the foundation of every- thing that you love. It is the solemn time when men must examine not only their purposes but their hearts. Men must purge themselves of individual ambition, and must see to it that they are ready for the utmost self-sacrifice in the inter- ests of the common welfare. Let no man dare play the marplot. Let no man dare bring partisan passion into these great things. Let men honestly debate the facts and coura- geously act upon them. Then there will come that day when the world will say, "This America that we thought was full of a multitude of contrary counsels now speaks with the great volume of the heart's accord, and that great heart of America has behind it the supreme moral force of righteousness and hope and the liberty of mankind." White House Pamphlet. 32. HOW TO AVOID WAR (February 24, 19 16) Letter to Senator Stone I very warmly appreciate your kind and frank letter of to-day, and feel that it calls for an equally frank reply. You are right in assuming that I shall do everything in my power to keep the United States out of war. I think the country will feel no uneasiness about my course in that respect. Through many anxious months I have striven for that object, amid difficulties more manifold than can have been apparent upon the surface, and so far I have succeeded. I do not doubt that I shall continue to succeed. The course io6 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 -which the central European powers have announced their intention of follovving in the future with regard to undersea warfare seems for the moment to threaten insuperable obstacles, but its apparent meaning is so manifestly incon- sistent with explicit assurances recently given us by those powers with regard to their treatment of merchant vessels on the high seas that I must believe that explanations will presently ensue which will put a different aspect upon it. We have had no reason to question their good faith or their fidelity to their promises in the past, and I for one feel con- fident that we shall have none in the future. But in any event our duty is clear. No nation, no group of nations, has the right, while war is in progress, to alter or disregard the principles which all nations have agreed upon in mitigation of the horrors and sufferings of war; and if the clear rights of American citizens should very unhappily be 1 abridged or denied by any such action, we should, it seems to me, have in honor no choice as to what our own course should be. For my own part, I cannot consent to any abridgment of the rights of American citizens in any respect. The honor and self-respect of the Nation is involved. We covet peace, and shall preserve it at any cost but the loss of honor. To forbid our people to exercise their rights for fear we might be called upon to vindicate them would be a deep humilia- tion indeed. It would be an implicit, all but an explicit, acquiescence in the violation of the rights of mankind every- where and of \\'hatever nation or allegiance. It would be a deliberate abdication of our hitherto proud position as spokesmen, even amid the turmoil of war, for the law and the right. It would make everything this Government has attempted and everything that it has accomplished during this terrible struggle of nations meaningless and futile. It is important to reflect that if in this instance we allowed expediency to take the place of principle the door would inevitably be opened to still further concessions. Once ac- cept a single abatement of right, and many other humilia- tions would certainly follow, and the whole fine fabric of international law might crumble under our hands piece by piece. What we are contending for in this matter is of the Feb. 24] HOW TO AVOID WAR 107 very essence of the things that have made America a sovereign nation. She cannot yield them without conceding her own impotency as a Nation and making virtual surrender of her independent position among the nations of the world. I am speaking, my dear Senator, in deep solemnity, with- out heat, with a clear consciousness of the high responsi- bilities of my office and as your sincere and devoted friend. If we should unhappily differ, we shall differ as friends, but where issues so momentous as these are involved we must, just because we are friends, speak our minds without reservation. Congressional Record, LIII, 3318. ro- BASIS OF AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY (February 26, 1916) Address to the Gridiron Club at Washington * -:< ^ It is not a new feeling on my part, but one which I entertain with a greater intensity than formerly that a man who seeks the Presidency of the United States for any- thing that it will bring to him is an audacious fool. The responsibilities of the office ought to sober a man even before he approaches it. One of the difficulties of the office seldom appreciated, I dare say, is that it is very difficult to think while so many people are talking in a way that obscures counsel and is entirely off the point. The point in national affairs, gentlemen, never lies along the lines of expediency. It always rests in the field of prin- ciple. The United States was not founded upon any prin- ciple of expediency; it was founded upon a profound prin- ciple of human liberty and of humanity, and whenever it bases its policy upon any other foundations than those it builds on the sand and not upon the solid rock. * * * It seems to me that if you do not think of the things that lie beyond and away from and disconnected from this scene in which we attempt to think and conclude, you will mevitably be led astray. I would a great deal rather know what they are talking about around quiet firesides all over the country than what they are talking about in the cloakrooms of Con- io8 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 gress. I would a great deal rather know what the men on the trains and by the wayside and in the shops and on the farms are thinking about and yearning for than hear any of the vociferous proclamations of policy which it is so easy to hear and so easy to read by picking up any scrap of printed paper. There is only one way to hear these things, and that is constantly to go back to the fountains of American action. Those fountains are not to be found in any recently discovered sources. * * * America ought to keep out of this war. She ought to keep out of this war at the sacrifice of everything except this, single thing upon which her character and history are founded, her sense of humanity and justice. If she sacri- fices that, she has ceased to be America; she has ceased to entertain and to love the traditions which have made us proud to be Americans; and when we go about seeking safety at the expense of humanity, then I, for one, will be- lieve that I have always been mistaken in what I have con- ceived to be the spirit of American history. You never can tell your direction except by long measure- ments. You can not establish a line by two posts; you have got to have three at least to know whether they are straight with anything, and the longer your line the more certain your measurement. There is only one way in vrhich to determine how the future of the United States is going to be projected, and that is by looking back and seeing which way the lines ran which led up to the present moment of power and of opportunity. There is no doubt about that. There is no question what the roll of honor in America is. The roll of honor consists of the names of men who have squared their conduct by ideals of duty. There is no one else upon the roster; there is no one else whose name we care to remember when we measure things upon a national scale. And I wish that whenever an impulse of impatience comes upon us, whenever an impulse to settle a thing some short way tempts us, we might close the door and take down some old stories of what American idealists and statesmen did in the past, and not let any counsel in that does not sound in the authentic voice of American tradition. Then we shall be certain what the lines of the future are, because Feb. 26] BASIS OF AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY 109 we shall know we are steering by the lines of the past. We shall know that no temporary convenience, no temporary expediency will lead us either to be rash or to be cowardly. I would be just as much ashamed to be rash as I would to be a coward. Valor is self-respecting. Valor is circumspect. Valor strikes only when it is the right to strike. Valor with- J i holds itself from all small implications and entanglements and waits for the great opportunity when the sword will flash as if it carried the light of heaven upon its blade. Congressional Record, LIII, 3308. 34. RIGHT OF AMERICANS TO TRAVERSE THE SEAS (February 29, 1916) Letter to Representative Pou on the McLemore Resolution Inasmuch as I learn that Mr. Henry, the chairman of the Committee on Rules, is absent -in Texas, I take the liberty of calling your attention, as ranking member of the com- mittee, to a matter of grave concern to the country which can, I believe, be handled, under the rules of the House, only by that committee. The report that there are divided counsels in Congress in regard to the foreign policy of the Government is being made industrious use of in foreign capitals. I believe that report to be false, but so long as it is anywhere credited it can not fail to do the greatest harm and expose the country to the most serious risks. I therefore feel justified in asking that your committee will permit me to urge an early vote upon the resolutions with regard to travel on armed mer- chantmen which have recently been so much talked about, in order that there may be afforded an immediate opportunity; for full public discussion and action upon them and that all doubts and conjectures may be swept away and our foreign relations once more cleared of damaging misunderstandings. The matter is of so grave importance and lies so clearly within the field of Executive initiative that I venture to hope that your committee will not think that I am taking an un- no ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 warranted liberty in making this suggestion as to the business of the House; and I very earnestly commend it to their immediate consideration. Congressional Record, LIII, App. 681. 35. EXPEDITION INTO MEXICO (March 25, 19 16) Statement to the Press As has already been announced, the expedition into Mexico was ordered imder an agreement with the de facto Government of Mexico for the single purpose of taking the bandit Villa, whose forces had actually invaded the territory of the United States, and is in no sense intended as an invasion of that republic or as an infringement of its sovereignty. I have, therefore, asked the several news services to be good enough to assist the Administration in keeping this view of the expedition constantly before both the people of this country and the distressed and sensitive people of Mexico, who are very susceptible, indeed, to impressions received from the American press not only, but also very ready to believe that those impressions proceed from the views and objects of our Govemm.ent itself. Such con- clusions, it must be said, are not unnatural, because the main, if not the only, source of information for the people on both sides of the border is the public press of the United States. In order to avoid the creation of erroneous and danger- ous impressions in this way I have called upon the several news agencies to use the utmost care not to give news stories regarding this expedition the color of war, to withhold stories of troop movements and military preparations which might be given that interpretation, and to refrain from publishing unverified rumors of unrest in Mexico. I feel that it is most desirable to impress upon both our own people and the people of Mexico the fact that the expedition is simply a necessar>^ punitive measure, aimed solely at the elimination of the maurauders who raided ir. 2 5 ] EXPEDITION INTO MEXICO 1 1 1 Dolumbus and who infest an unprotected district near the )order, which they use as a base in making attacks upon the ives and property of our citizens within our own territory, [t is the purpose of our commanders to coooerate in every possible way with the forces of General Carranza in re- moving this cause of irritation to both Governments, and retire from Mexican territory so soon as that object is ac- :omplished. It is my duty to warn the people of the United States that there are persons all along the border who are actively aigaged in originating and giving as wide currency as they :an to rumors of the most sensational and disturbing sort, which are wholly unjustified by the facts. The object of this traffic in falsehood is obvious. It is to create intolerable friction between the Government of the United States and the de facto Government of Mexico for the purpose of Dimging about intervention in the interest of certain Ameri- can owners of Mexican properties. This object can not be attained so long as sane and honorable men are in control of this Government, but very serious conditions may be created, unnecessary bloodshed may result, and the relations between the two republics may be very much embarrassed. The people of the United States should know the sinister and unscrupulous influences that are afoot, and should be on their guard against crediting any story coming from the border; and those who disseminate the news should make it a matter of patriotism and of conscience to test the source and authenticity of every report they receive from that quarter. New York Times, March 26, 19 16. 36. ULTIMATUM ON SUBMARINE WARFARE (April 19, 1916) Address to Congress A situation has arisen in the foreign relations of the country of which it is my plain duty to inform you very frank] v. It will be recalled that in February, 1915, the Imperial German Government announced its intention to treat the waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland as embraced within the seat of war and to destroy all merchant ships 112 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [191 6 owned by its enemies that might be found within any part of that portion of the high seas, and that it warned all vessels, of neutral as well as of belligerent ownership, to keep out of the waters it had thus proscribed or else enter them at their peril. The Government of the United States earnestly pretested. It took the position that such a policy could not be pursued without the practical certainty of gross and palpable violations of the law of nations, particularly if submarine craft were to be employed as its instruments, inasmuch as the rules prescribed by that law, rules founded upon principles of humanity and established for the pro- tection of the lives of non-combatants at sea, could not in the nature of the case be observed by such vessels. It based its protest on the ground that persons of neutral nationality and vessels of neutral ownership would be exposed to extreme and intolerable risks, and that no right to close any part of the high seas against their use or to expose them to such risks could lawfully be asserted by any belligerent govern- ment. The law of nations in these matters, upon which the Government of the United States based its protest, is not of recent origin or founded upon merely arbitrary principles set up by convention. It is based, on the contrary, upon manifest and imperative principles of humanity and has long been established vath the approval and by the express assent of all civilized nations. Notwithstanding the earnest protest of our Government, the Imperial German Government at once proceeded to carry out the policy it had announced. It expressed the hope that the dangers involved, at any rate the dangers to neutral vessels, would be reduced to a minimum by the instructions v.hich it had issued to its subm.arine commanders, and assured the Government of the United States that it would take every possible precaution both to respect the rights of neutrals and to safeguard the lives of non-combatants. What has actually happened in the year which has since elapsed has shown that those hopes were not justified, those assurances insusceptible of being lulhlled. In pursuance of the policy of submarine warfare against the commerce of its adversaries, thus announced and entered upon by the Im- perial German Government m despite of the solemn protest Apr. 19] ULTIMATUM ON SUBMARINE 113 of this Government, the commanders of German undersea vessels have attacked merchant ships with greater and greater activity, not only upon the high seas surrounding Great Britain and Ireland but wherever they could encounter them, in a way that has grown more and more ruthless, more and more indiscriminate as the months have gone b}^, less and less observant of restraints of any kind and have delivered their attacks without compunction against vessels of every nationality and bound upon every sort of errand. Vessels of neutral ownership, even vessels of neutral ownership bound from neutral port to neutral port, have been destroyed along with vessels of belligerent ownership in constantly increasing numbers. Sometimes the merchantmen attacked has been warned and summoned to surrende" before being fired on or i torpedoed; sometimes passengers or crews have been vouch- safed the poor security of being allowed to take to the ship's boats before she was sent to the bottom. But again and again no warning has been given, no escape even to the ship's boats allowed to those on board. What this Government foresaw must happen has happened. Tragedy has followed tragedy on the seas in such fashion, with such attendant circumstances, as to make it grossly evident that warfare of such a sort, if warfare it be, cannot be carried on without the most palpable violation of the dictates alike of right and of humanity. Whatever the disposition and intention of the Imperial German Government, it has manifestly proved im- possible for it to keep such methods of attack upon the commerce of its enemies within the bounds set by either reason or the heart of mankind. In February of the present year the Imperial German Government informed this Government and the other neutral governments of the world that it had reason to believe that the Government of Great Britain had armed all merchant vessels of British ownership and had given them secret orders to attack any submarine of the enemy they might encounter upon the seas, and that the Imperial German Government felt justified in the circumstances in treating all armed mer- chantmen of belligerent ownership as auxiliary vessels of war, which it would have the right to destroy without warn- ing. The law of nations has long recognized the right of 114 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 merchantmen to carry arms for protection and to use them to repel attack, though to use them, in such circumstances, at their own risk; but the Imperial German Government claimed the right to set these understandings aside in circum- stances which it deemed extraordinary. Even the terms in which it announced its purpose thus still further to relax the restraints it had previously professed its willingness and desire to put upon the operations of its submarines carried the plain implication that at least vessels which v/ere not , armed would still be exempt from destruction without warn- ing and that personal safety v/ould be accorded their pas- sengers and crews; but even that limitation, if it was ever practicable to observe it, has in fact constituted no check at all upon the destruction of ships of every sort. Again and again the Imperial German Government has given this Government its solemn assurances that at least passenger ships would not be thus dealt v/ith, and yet it has again and again permitted its undersea commanders to dis- regard those assurances with entire im.punity. Great liners like the Lusttania and the Arabic and mere ferryboats like the Sussex have been attacked without a moment's warning, sometim.es before they had even become aware that they were in the presence of an armed vessel of the enemy, and the lives of non-combatnats, passengers and crew, have been sacrificed wholesale, in a manner which the Government of the United States can not but regard as wanton and without the slight- est color of justification. No limit of any kind has in fact been set to the indiscriminate pursuit and destruction of merchantmen of all kinds and nationalities within the waters, constantly extending in area, where these operations have been carried on; and the roll of Americans who have lost their lives on ships thus attacked and destroyed has groAvn month by month until the ominous toll has mounted into the hundreds. One of the latest and most shocking instances of this method of warfare was that of the destruction of the French cross-Channel steamer Sussex. It must stand forth, as the sinldng of the steamer Lusitania did, as so singularly tragical and unjustifiable as to constitute a truly terrible example of the inhumanity of submarine warfare as the comm.anders of Apr. 19 ] ULTIMATUM ON SUBMARINE iiS German vessels have for the past twelvemonth been conduct- ing it. If this instance stood alone, some explanation, some disavowal by the German Government, some evidence of criminal mistake or wilful disobedience on the part of the commander of the vessel that fired the torpedo might be sought or entertained ; but unhappily it does not stand alone. Recent events make the conclusion inevitable that it is only one instance, even though it be one of the most extreme and distressing instances, of the spirit and method of warfare which the Imperial German Government has mistakenly adopted, and v/hich from the first exposed that Government to the reproach of thrusting all neutral rights aside in pursuit of its immediate objects. The Government of the United States has been very pa- tient. At every stage of this distressing experience of tragedy after tragedy in which its own citizens were involved it has sought to be restrained from any extreme course of action or of protest by a thoughtful consideration of the extraordi- nary circumstances of this unprecedented war, and actuated in all that it said or did by the sentiments of genuine friend- ship w^hich the people of the United States have always entertained and continue to entertain tow^ards the German nation. It has of course accepted the successive explana- tions and assurances of the Imperial German Government as given in entire sincerity and good faith, and has hoped, even against hope, that it would prove to be possible for the Ger- man Government so to order and control the acts of its naval commanders as to square its policy with the principles of hu- manity as embodied in the law^ of nations. It has been willing to wait until the significance of the facts became absolutely unmistakable and susceptible of but one interpretation. That point has now unhappily been reached. The facts are susceptible of but one interpretation. The Imperial German Government has been unable to put any limits or restraints upon its warfare against either freight or passenger ships. It has therefore become painfully evident that the f)osition which this Government took at the very outset is inevitable, namely, that the use of submarines for the de- struction of an enemy's commerce is of necessity, because of the very character of the vessels employed and the very ii6 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [191 6 j methods of attack which their employment of course in- 1 volves, incompatible with the principles of humanity, the long established and incontrovertible rights of neutrals, and| . the sacred immunities of non-combatants. I have deemed it my duty, therefore, to say to the Imperial German Government that if it is still its purpose to prose- cute relentless and indiscriminate warfare against vessels of commerce by the use of submarines, notv;ithstanding the now demonstrated impossibility of conducting that warfare in accordance with what the Government of the United States ' must consider the sacred and indisputable rules of interna- tional law and the universally recognized dictates of human- ity, the Government of the United States is at last forced to the conclusion that there is but one course it can pursue; and that unless the Imperial German Government should now immediately declare and effect an abandonment of its present methods of v;arfare against passenger and freight carrying vessels this Government can have no choice but to L sever diplomatic relations w^ith the Government of the Ger- man Empire altogether. This decision I have arrived at with the keenest regret; the possibility of the action contemplated I am sure all thoughtful Americans will look forward to with unaffected reluctance. But we cannot forget that v;e are in some sort and by the force of circumstances the responsible spokesmen of the rights of humanity, and that we cannot remain silent while those rights seem in process of being swept utterly away in the maelstrom of this terrible war. We owe it to a due regard for our own rights as a nation, to our sense of duty as a representative of the rights of neutrals the world over, and to a just conception of the rights of mankind to take this stand now with the utmost solemnity and firmness. I have taken it, and taken it in the confidence that it will meet with your approval and support. All sober-minded men must unite in hoping that the Imperial German Govern- ment, which has in other circumstances stood as the champion of all that we are now contending for in the intere9t of humanity, may recognize the justice of our demands and meet them in the spirit in which they are made. Wliite House Pamphlet. Mays] QUALIFICATIONS OF A JUSTICE 117 37. QUALIFICATIONS OF A SUPREME COURT JUSTICE (May 5, 1916) Letter to Senator Culberson on Mr. Brandeis I am very much obliged to you for giving me an oppor- tunity to make clear to the Judiciary Committee my reasons for nominating. Mr. Louis D. Brandeis to fill the vacancy in the Supreme Court of the United States created by the death of Mr. Justice Lamar, for I am profoundly interested in the confirmation of the appointment by the Senate. There is probably no more important duty imposed upon the President in connection with the general administration of the Government than that of naming members of the Supreme Court; and I need hardly tell j^ou that I named Mr. Brandeis as a member of that great tribunal only be- cause I knew him to be singularly qualified by learning, by gifts, and by character for the position. Many charges have been made against Mr. Brandeis; the report of your subcommittee has already made it plain to you and to the country at large how unfounded those charges were. They threw a great deal more light upon the character and motives of those with whom they originated than upon the qualifications of Mr. Brandeis. I myself looked into them three years ago when I desired to make Mr. Brandeis a member of my Cabinet and found that they proceeded for the most part from those who hated Mr. Brandeis because he had refused to be serviceable to them in the promotion of their own selfish interests, and from those whom they had prejudiced and misled. The propaganda in this matter has been very extraordinary and very distressing to those who love fairness and value the dignity of the great professions. I perceived from the first that the charges were intrin- sically incredible by anyone who had really known Mr. Brandeis. I have known him. I have tested him by seeking his advice upon some of the most difficult and p)erplexing public questions about which it was necessary for me to form ii8 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 a judgrrient. I have dealt with him in matters where nice questions of honor and fair play, as well as large questions of justice and the public benefit, were involved. In every matter in which I have made test of his judgment and point of view I have received from him counsel singularly enlightening, singularly clear-sighted and judicial, and, above all, full of moral stimulation. He is a friend of all just men and a lover of right; and he knows more than how to talk about the right — he knows how to set it forward in the face of its enemies. I knew from direct personal knowledge of the man what I was doing v/hen I named him for the highest and most responsible tribunal of the Nation. Of his extraordinary ability as a lawyer no man who is ] competent to judge can speak ;vith anything but the highest j admiration. You will remember that in the opinion of the j late Chief Justice Fuller he was the ablest man who ever j appeared before the Supreme Court of the United States. ] "He is also," the Chief Justice added, "absolutely fearless j in the discharge of his duties." ] Those who have resorted to him for assistance in settling [ great industrial disputes can testify to his fairness and love : of justice. In the troublesome controversies between the i garment workers and manufacturers of New York City, for \ example, he gave a truly remarkable proof of his judicial ] temperament and had what must have been the great satis- j faction of rendering decisions which both sides were willfng 5 to accept as disinterested and even-handed. \ Mr. Brandeis has rendered many notable services to the '-. city and state with which his professional life has been j identified. He successfully directed the difficult campaign :* which resulted in obtaining cheaper gas for the city of Boston. 1 It was chiefly under his guidance and through his efforts 1 that legislation was secured in Massachusetts which author- ized savings banks to issue insurance policies for small sums i at much reduced rates. And some gentlemen who tried very ; hard to obtain control by the Boston Elevated Railroad - Company of the subways of the city for a period of ninety- j nine years can probably testify as to his ability as the peo- : pie's advocate when public interests call for an effective -^ Mays] QUALIFICATIONS OF A JUSTICE 119 champion. He rendered these services without compensation, and earned, whether he got it or not, the gratitude of every citizen of the state and city he served. These are but a few of the services of this kind he has freely rendered. It will hearten friends of community and public rights throughout the country to see his quality signally recognized by his elevation to the Supreme Bench; for the whole country is aware of his quality and is interested in this appointment. I did 'not in making choice of Mr. Brandeis ask for or depend upon ''endorsements." I acted upon public knowl- edge and personal acquaintance with the man, and preferred to name a lawyer for this great office whose abilities and character were so widely recognized that he needed no en- dorsement. I did, however, personally consult many men in whose judgment I had great confidence, and am happy to say was supported in my selection by the voluntary recom- mendation of the Attorney General of the United States, who urged Mr. Brandeis upon my consideration independently of any suggestion from me. Let me say by way of summing up, my dear Senator, that I nominated Mr. Brandeis for the Supreme Court because it v/as, and is, my deliberate judgment that, of all the men now at the bar whom it has been my privilege to observe, test, and know, he is exceptionally qualified. I cannot speak too highl}^ of his impartial, impersonal, orderly, and con- structive mind, his rare analytical powers, his deep human sympathy, his profound acquaintance with the historical roots of our institutions and insight into their spirit, or of the many evidences he has given of being imbued to the very heart with our American ideals of justice and equality of opportunity; of his knowledge of modern economic condi- tions and of the way they bear upon the masses of the people, or of his genius in getting persons to unite in common and harmonious action and look with frank and kindly eyes into each other's minds, who had before been heated antagonists. This friend of justice and of men will ornament the high court of which we are all so justly proud. I am glad to have had the opportunity to pay him this tribute of admiration and of confidence; and I beg that your committee will accept 120 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 this nomination as coming from me quick with a sense of public obligation and responsibility. Congressional Record, LIII, 7628. 38. GERMAN ABANDONMENT OF THE SUB- MARINE POLICY (May 8, 1916) Despatch to the German Government through Secretary Lansing The note of the Imperial German Government under date of May 4, 19 1 6, has received careful consideration by the Government of the United States. It is especially noted, as indicating the purpose of the Imperial Government as to the future, that it "is prepared to do its utmost to confine the operations of the war for the rest of its duration to the. fighting forces of the belligerents," and that it is determined to impose upon all its commanders at sea the limitations of the recognized rules of international law upon which the Government of the United States has insisted. Throughout the months which have elapsed since the Imperial Govern- ment announced, on February 4, 191 5, its submarine policy, now happily abandoned, the Government of the United States has been constantly guided and restrained by motives of friendship in its patient efforts to bring to an amicable settlement the critical questions arising from that policy. Accepting the Imperial Government's declaration of its aban- donment of the policy which has so seriously menaced the good relations between the two countries, the Government of the United States v>^ill rely upon a scrupulous execution henceforth of the now^ altered policy of the Imperial Govern- ment, such as will remove the principal danger to an inter- ruption of the good relations existing between the Ignited States and Germany. The Government of the United States feels it necessary to state that it takes it for granted that the Imperial Ger- man Government does not intend to imply that the main- May 8] SUBMARINE POLICY 121 tenance of its newly announced policy is in any way con- tingent upon the course or result of diplomatic negotiations between the Government of the United States and any other belligerent Government, notwithstanding the fact that cer- tain passages in the Imperial Government's note of the 4th instant might appear to be susceptible of that construction. In order, however, to avoid any possible misunderstanding, the Government of the United States notifies the Imperial Government that it cannot for a moment entertain, much less discuss, a suggestion that respect by German naval authori- ties for the rights of citizens of the United States upon the high seas should in any way or in the slightest degree be made contingent upon the conduct of any other Government affecting the rights of neutrals and non-combatants. Re- sponsibility in such matters is single, not joint; absolute, not relative. Department of State, White Book, No. Ill, 306. 39. HOW TO ENFORCE PEACE (May 27, 1916) Address to the League to Enforce Peace at Washington WTien the invitation to be here to-night came to me, I was glad to accept it, — not because it offered me an opportunity to discuss the programme of the League, — that you will, I am sure, not expect of me, — but because the desire of the whole world now turns eagerly, more and more eagerly, tovs^ards the hope of peace, and there is just rea^^on why we should take our part in counsel upon this great theme. It is right that I, as spokesmen of our Government, should attempt to give expression to what I believe to be the thought and purpose of the people of the L^nited States in this vital matter. This great war that broke so suddenly upon the world two years ago, and which has swept within its flame so great a part of the civilized world, has affected us very profoundly, 122 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [191 6 and we are not only at liberty, it is perhaps our duty, to speak very frankly of it and of the great interests of civiliza- tion which it affects. / With its causes and its objects we are not concerned. The " obscure fountains from which its stupendous flood has burst forth we are not interested to search for or explore. But so great a flood, spread far and wide to every quarter of the globe, has of necessity engulfed many a fair province of right that lies very near to us. Our own rights as a Nation, the liberties, the privileges, and the property of our people have been profoundly affected. We are not mere disconnected lookers-on. The longer the war lasts, the more deeply do w^e become concerned that it should be brought to an end and the world be permitted to resume its normal life and course again. And w^hen it does come to an end we shall be as much concerned as the nations at w^ar to see peace assume an aspect of permanence, give promise of days from which the anxiety of uncertainty shall be lifted, bring some assurance that peace and war shall always hereafter be reck- oned part of the common interest of mankind. We are par- ticipants, whether w^e would or not, in the life of the world. The interests of all nations are our o\mi also. We are part- ners with the rest. What affects mankind is inevitably our affair as well as the affair of the nations of Europe and of Asia. One observation on the causes of the present war we are at liberty to make, and to make it may throw some light forward upon the future, as well as backward upon the past. It is plain that this war could have come only as it did, suddenly and out of secret counsels, without warning to the world, v/ithout discussion, without any of the deliberate movements of counsel with which it would seem natural to approach so stupendous a contest. It is probable that if it had been foreseen just what would happen, just what alliances would be formed, just what forces arrayed against one another, those who brought the great contest on would have been glad to substitute conference for force. If we ourselves had been afforded some opportunity to apprise the belligerents of the attitude which it would be our duty to take, of the policies and practices against which we would May 27] HOW TO ENFORCE PEACE 123 feel bound to use all our moral and economic strength, and in certain circumstances even our physical strength also, our own contribution to the counsel which might have averted the struggle would have been considered v/orth weighing and regarding. And the lesson which the shock of being taken by sur- prise in a matter so deeply vital to all the nations of the world has made poignantly clear is, that the peace of the world must henceforth depend upon a new and more whole- some diplomacy. Only when the great nations of the world have reached some sort of agreement as to what they hold to be fundamental to their common interest, and as to some feasible method of acting in concert when any nation or group of nations seeks to disturb those fundamental things, can we feel that civilization is at last in a way of justifying its existence and claiming to be finally established. It is clear that nations must in the future be governed by the same high code of honor that we demand of individuals. We must, indeed, in the very same breath with which we avow this conviction admit that we have ourselves upon occasion in the past been offenders against the law of diplo- macy which we thus forecast; but our conviction is not the less clear, but rather the more clear, on that account. If this war has accomplished nothing else for the benefit of the world, it has at least disclosed a great moral necessity and set forward the thinking of the statesmen of the world by a whole age. Repeated utterances of the leading statesmen of most of the great nations now engaged in war have made it plain that their thought has come to this, that the prin- ciple of public right must henceforth take precedence over the individual interests of particular nations, and that the nations of the world must in some way band themselves to- gether to see that that right prevails as against any sort of selfish aggression; that henceforth alliance must not be set up against alliance, understanding against understanding, but that there must be a common agreement for a common object, and that at the heart of that common object must lie the inviolable rights of peoples and of mankind. The nations of the world have become each other's neighbors. It is to their interest that they should understand each other. In 124 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 order that they may understand each other, it is imperative that they should agree to cooperate in a common cause, and that they should so act that the guiding principle of that common cause shall be even-handed and impartial justice. This is undoubtedly the thought of America. This is what we ourselves will say when there comes proper occasion to say it. In the dealings of nations with one another arbitrary force must be rejected and we must move forward to the thought of the modern world, the thought of which peace is the very atmosphere. That thought constitutes a chief part of the passionate conviction of America. We believe these fundamental things: First, that every people has a right to choose the sovereignty under which they shall live. Like other nations, we have ourselves no doubt once and again offended against that principle when for a little while controlled by selfish passion, as our franker historians Lave been honorable enough to admit; but it has become more and more our rule of life and action. Second, that the small states of the world have a right to enjoy the same respect for their sovereignty and for their territorial integrity that great and powerful nations expect and insist upon. And, third, that the world has a right to be free from every disturbance of its peace that has its origin in aggression and disregard of the rights of peoples and nations. So sincerely do we believe in these things that I am sure that I speak the mind and wish of the people of America when I say that the United States is willing to become a partner in any feasible association of nations formed in order to realize these objects and make them secure against vio- lation. There is nothing that the United States wants for itself that any other nation has. We are willing, on the contrary, to limit ourselves along with them to a prescribed course of duty and respect for the rights of others which will check any selfish passion of our own, as it will check any aggressive impulse of theirs. If it should ever be our privilege to suggest or initiate a movement for peace among the nations now at war, I am sure that the people of the United States would wish their May 2 7] HOW TO ENFORCE PEACE 125 Government to move along these lines: First, such a settle- ment with regard to their own immediate interests as the belligerents may agree upon. We have nothing material of any kin(i to ask for ourselves, and are quite aware that we are in no sense or degree parties to the present quarrel. Our interest is only in^ peace and its future guarantees. Second, an universal association of the nations to maintain the inviolate security of the highway of the seas for the common and unhindered use of all the nations of the world, and to prevent any war begun either contrary to treaty covenants or without warning and full submission of the causes to the opinion of the w^orld, — a virtual guarantee of territorial integrity and political independence. ~~ But T did not come here, let me repeat, to discuss a programme. I came only to avow^ a creed and give expres- sion to the confidence I feel that the v»^orld is even now upon the ove of a great consummation, when some common force will be brought into existence w^hich shall safeguard right as tlie first and most fundamental interest of all peoples and all governments, when coercion shall be summoned not to the service of political ambition or selfish hostility, but to the service of a common order, a common justice, and a common peace. God grant that the dawn of that day of franli dealing and of settled peace, concord, and cooperation may be near at hand! White House Pamphlet. 40. PREPAREDNESS TO THE SOLDIER (June 13, 1916) Address at the Military Academy, West Point I look upon this body of men who are graduating to-day with a peculiar interest. I feel like congratulating them that they are living in a day not only so interesting, because so fraught with change, but also because so responsible. Days of responsibility are the only days that count in time, because they are the only days that give test of quality. 126 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 They are the only days when manhood and purp)ose is tried out as if by fire. I need not tell you young gentlemen that you are not like an ordinary graduating class of one of our universities. The men in those classes look forward to the life which they are to lead after graduation \^^th a great many questions in their mind. Most of them do not know exactly what their lives are going to develop into. Some of them do not know what occupations they are going to follow. All of them are conjecturing what will be the line of duty and advancement and the ultimate goal of success for them. There is no conjecture for you. You have enlisted in something that does not stop when you leave the Academy, for you then only begin to realize it, which then only begins to be filled with the full richness of its meaning, and you can look forw^ard with absolute certaint>' to the sort of thing that you \Aill be obliged to do. This has always been true of graduating classes at West Point, but the certainty that some of the older classes used to look forward to was a dull certainty. Some of the old days in the army, I fancy, were not very interesting days. Sometim.es men like the present Chief of Stafi', for example, could fill their lives v/ith the interest of really knowing and understanding the Indians of the Western plains, knowing what was going on inside their minds and being able to be the intermediary between them and those who dealt with them, by speaking their sign language, could enrich their lives; but the ordinary life of the average officer at a Western post can not have been very exciting, and I think with admiration of those dull years through which officers who had not a great deal to do insisted, nevertheless, upon being efficient and worth Vv'hile and keeping their men fit, at any rate, for the duty to which they were assigned. But in your case there are many extraordinary possi- bilities, because, gentlemen, no man can certainly tell you what the immediate future is going to be either in the history of this country or in the history of the world. It is not by accident that the present great war came in Europe. Every element was there, and the contest had to come sooner or later, and it is not going to be by accident that the results 1 June 13] PREPAREDNESS OF THE SOLDIER 127 axe worked out, but by purpose — by the purpose of the men who are strong enough to have guiding minds and indom- itable wills when the time for decision and settlement comes. And the part that the United States is to play has this dis- tinction in it, that it is to be in any event a disinterested part. There is nothing that the United States wants that it has to get by war, but there are a great many things that the United States has to do. It has to see that its life is not interfered with by anybody else who wants something. These are days when we are making preparation, when the thing most commonly discussed around every sort of table, in every sort of circle, in the shops and in the streets, is preparedness, and undoubtedly, gentlemen, that is the present imperative duty of America, to be prepared. But we ought to know what we are preparing for. I remember hearing a wise man say once that the old maxim that "every- thing comes to the man who waits" is all very well provided he knows what he is waiting for; and preparedness might be a very hazardous thing if we did not know what we wanted to do with the force that we mean to accumulate and to get into fighting shape. America, fortunately, does know what she wants to do ^vith her force. America came into existence for a par- ticular reason. WTien you look about upon these beautiful hills, and up this stately stream, and then let your imagina- tion run over the whole body of this great country from which you youngsters are drav/n, far and wide, you remem- ber that while it had aboriginal inhabitants, while there were people living here, there was no civilization which v;e dis- placed. It was as if in the Providence of God a continent had been kept unused and waiting for a peaceful people who loved lifeerty and the rights of men more than they loved anything else, to come and set up an unselfish common- wealth. It is a very extraordinary thing. You are so familiar with American history, at any rate in its general character — I don't accuse you of knowing the details of it, for I never found the youngster who did— but you are so familiar with the general character of American history that it does not seem strange to you, but it is a very strange history. There is none other like it in the whole annals of 128 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 mankind — of men gathering out of every civilized nation of the world on an unused continent and building up a polity exactly to suit themselves, not under the domination of any ruling dynasty or of the ambitions of any royal family; doing what they pleased with their owti life on a free space of land which God had made rich with every resource which was necessary for the civilization they meant to build up. There is nothing like it. Now, what we are preparing to do is to see that nobody mars that and that, being safe itself against interference from the outside, all of its force is going to be behind its moral idea, and mankind is going to know that when America speaks she means what she says. I heard a man say to another, "If you wish me to consider you witty, I must really trouble you to make a joke." We have a right to say to the rest of mankind, 'Tf you don't vrant to interfere with us, if you are disinterested, we must really trouble you to give evidence of that fact." We are not in for anything selfish, and we want the whole mighty power of America thrown into that scale and not into any other. You know that the chief thing that is holding many people back from enthusiasm for what is called preparedness is the fear of militarism. I want to say a word to you young gentlemen about militarism. You are not militarists because you are military. Militarism does not consist in the exist- ence of an army, not even in the existence of a very great army. Militarism is a spirit. It is a point of view. It is a system. It is a purpose. The purpose of militarism is to use armies for aggression. The spirit of militarism is the opposite of the civilian spirit, the citizen spirit. In a country where militarism prevails the military man looks down upon the civilian, regards him as inferior, thinks of him as intended for his, the military man's, support and use; and just so long as America is America that spirit and point of view is impossible with us. There is as yet in this countr>% so far as I can discover, no taint of the spirit of militarism. You younfij gentlemen are not preferred in promotion because of the families you belong to. You are not drawn into the Academy because you belong to certain influential circles. June 13] PREPAREDNESS OF THE SOLDIER 129 You do not come here with a long tradition of miUtary pride back of you. You are picked out from the citizens of the United States to be that part of the force of the United States which makes its poHt}^ safe against interference. You are the part of American citizens w^ho say to those who would interfere, ''You must not" and "You shall not." But you are American citizens, and the idea I want to leave with you boys to-day is this: No matter what comes, always remember that first of all you are citizens of the United States before you are officers, and that you are officers because you represent in your particular profession what the citizenship of the United States stands for. There is no danger of militarism if you are genuine Americans, and I for one do not doubt that \^ou are. W'Tien you begin to have the militaristic spirit — not the military spirit, that is all right — then begin to doubt whether yoij are Americans or not. You know that one thing in which our forefathers took pride was this, that the civil power is superior to the military power in the United States. Once and again the people of the United States have so admired some great military man as to make him President of the United States, when he became commander-in-chief of all the forces of the United States, but he was commander-in-chief because he was Presi- dent, not because he had been trained to arms, and his authority was civil, not military. I can teach you nothing of military power, but I am instructed by the Consitution to use you for constitutional and patriotic purposes. And that is the only use you care to be put to. That is the only use you ought to care to be put to, because, after all, what is the use in being an American if you do not know what it is? You have read a great deal in the books about the pride of the old Roman citizen, who always felt like drawing him- self to his full height when he said, 'T am a Roman," but as compared with the pride that must have risen to his heart, our pride has a new distinction, not the distinction of the mere imperial power of a great empire, not the distinction of being masters of the world, but the distinction of cariy- 130 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [191 6 ing certain lights for the world that the world has never so distinctly seen 'before, certain guiding lights of liberty and principle and justice. We have drawn our people, as you know, from ail parts of the world, and we have been some- what disturbed recently, gentlemen, because somiC of those — though I believe a very small number — whom we have drawn into our citizenship have not taken into their hearts the spirit of America and have loved other countries more than they loved the country of their adoption ; and we have talked a great deal about Americanism. It ought to be a matter of pride with us to know what Americanism really consists in. Americanism consists in utterly believing in the principles of America and putting them first as above anything that might by chance come into competition with it. And I, for my part, believe that the American test is a spiritual test. If a man has to make excuses for what he had done as an American, I doubt his Americanism. He ought to know at every step of his action that the motive that lies behind what he does is a motive which no American need be ashamed of for a moment. Now, we ought to put this test to every man we know. We ought to let it be known that nobody who does not put America first can consort with us. But we ought to set them the example. We ought to set them the example by thinking American thoughts, by entertaining American purposes, and those thoughts and purposes will stand the test of example anywhere in the world, for they are intended for the betterment of mankind. So I have come to say these few words to you to-day, gentlemen, for a double purpose; first of all to express my personal good wishes to you in your graduation, and my personal interest in you, and second of all to remind you how we must all stand together in one spirit as lovers and servants of America. And tliat means something more than lovers and servants merely of the United States. You have heard of the Monroe Doctrine, gentlemen. You know that we are already spiritual partners with both continents of this hemisphere and that America means something which is bigger even than the United States, and that we stand here with the glorious power of this country ready to swing it out into the field of action whenever liberty and inde- June 13] PREPAREDNESS OF THE SOLDIER 131 pendence and political integrity are threatened anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. And we are ready — nobody has authorized me to say this, but I am sure of it — we are ready to join with the other nations of the world in seeing that the kind of justice prevails everywhere that we believe in. So that you are graduating to-day, gentlemen, into a new distinction. Glory attaches to all these men whose names we love to recount who have made the annals of the Ameri- can Army distinguished. They played the part they were called upon to play with honor and with extraordinary char- acter and success. I am congratulating you, not because you will be better than they, but because you will have a wider world of thought and conception to play your part in. I am an American, but I do not believe that any of us loves a blustering nationality, a nationality with a chip on its shoulder, a nationality with its elbows out and its sv/agger on. We love that quiet, self-respecting, unconquerable spirit which does not strike until it is necessary to strike, and then strikes to conquer. Never since I was a youngster have I been afraid of the noisy man. I have always been afraid of the still man. I have always been afraid of the quiet man. I had a classmate at college who was most dangerous when he was most affable. When he was maddest he seemed to have the sweetest temper in the world. He would ap- proach you with the most ingratiating smile, and then you knew that every red corpuscle in his blood was up and shouting. If you work things off in your elbows, you do not work them off in your mind; you do not work them off in your purposes. So my conception of America is a conception of infinite dignity, along with quiet, unquestionable power. I ask you, gentlemen, to join with me in that conception, and let us all in our several spheres be soldiers together to realize it. New York Times, June 14, 19 16. 132 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT V^HLLSON [1916 41. DEMOCRACY OF BUSINESS (July 10, 1916) Address at Salesmanship Congress, Detroit * * * Some Democrats had noticed that the inclination to suppose that only some persons understood the business of America had a tendency to run into the assumption that the number of persons who understood that business was very small, and that there were only certain groups and asso- ciations of gentlemen who were entitled to be trustees of that business for the rest of us. I have never subscribed, in any walk of life, to the trustee theory. I have always been inclined to believe that the business of the w^orld was best understood by those men who were in the struggle for maintenance not only, but for success. The man who knows the strength of the tide is the man who is swimming against it, not the man who is floating with it. The man who is immersed in the beginnings of business, who is trying to get his foothold, who is trying to get other men to believe in him and lend him money and trust him to make profitable use of that money, is the man who knows what the business conditions in the United States are, and I would rather take his counsel as to what ought to be done for business than the counsel of any established captain of industry. The captain of industry is looking backward and the other man is look- ing forward. The conditions of business change with every generation; change with every decade; are now changing at an almost breathless pace, and the men who have made good are not feeling the tides as the other men are feeling them. The men who have got into the position of captaincy, unless they are of unusual fiber, unless they are of unusually catliolic sympathy, unless they have continued to touch shoulders with the ranks, unless they have continued to keep close communion with the men they are employing and the young men they are bringing up as their assistants, do not belong to the struggle in which we should see that every unreason- able obstacle is removed and every reasonable help afforded that public policy can afford. July lo] DEMOCRACY OF BUSINESS 133 So I invite your thoughts, in what I sincerely believe to be an entirely nonpartisan spirit, to the democracy of business. An act was recently passed in Congress that some of the most intelligent business men of this country earnestly op- posed, — men whom I knew, men whose character I trusted, men whose integrity I absolutely believed in. I refer to the Federal Reserve Act, by which we intended to take, and suc- ceeded in taking credit out of the control of a small number of men and making it available to everybody who had real commercial assets, and the very men who opposed that act, and opposed it conscientiously, now admit that it saved the country from a ruinous panic when the stress of war came on, and that it is the salvation of every average business man who is in the midst of the tides that I Have been trying to describe. WTiat does that mean, gentlemen? It means that you can get a settled point of view and can conscien- tiously oppose progress if you do not need progress yourself. That is what it means. I am not impugning the intelligence even of the men who opposed these things, because the same thing happens to every man if he is not of extraordinary make-up, if he can not see the necessity for a thing that he does not himself need. When you have abundant credit and control of credit, you, of course, do not need that the area should be broadened. The suspicion is beginning to dawn in many quarters that the average man knows the business necessities of the coun- try just as well as the extraordinary man does. I believe in the ordinary man. If I did not believe in the ordinary man I would m.ove out of a democracy and, if I found an en- durable monarchy, I would live in it. The very conception of America is based upon the validity of the judgments of the average man, and I call you to witness that tliere have not been many catastrophes in American history. I call you to witness that the average judgments of the' voters of the United States have been sound judgments. I call you to witness that this great impulse of the common opinion has been a lifting impulse, and not a depressing impulse. What is the object of associations like that which is gathered here to-day, this Salesmanship Congress? The moral of it is that a few men can not determine the interests of a large 134 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 body of men, and that the only way to determine them and advance them is to have a representative assembly chosen by themselves get together and take common counsel regarding them. And do you not notice that in every great occupa- tion in the United States there is beginning to be more and more of this common counsel? And have you not noticed that the more common counsel you have the higher the standards are that are insisted upon? I attended the other day the Congress of the Advertising Men, and their motto is ''Truth and fair dealing in what you represent your business to be and your goods to be." I have no doubt that in every association like this the prevailing sentiment is that only by the highest standards — I mean the highest moral standards — can you achieve the most perma- nent and satisfactory business results. Was that the preva- lent conception before these associations were drawn to- gether? Have you not found the moral judgment of the average man steady the whole process and clarify it? Do you not know more after every conference with your fellows than you did before? I never went into a committee of any kind upon any important public matter, or private matter so far as that is concerned, that I did not come out with an altered judgment and knowing much more about the matter than when I went in; and not only knowing much more, but knowing that the common judgment arrived at was better than I could have suggested when I went in. That is the universal experience of candid men. If it were not so, there would be no object in congresses like this. Yet whenever we attempt legislation, we find ourselves in this case: We are not in the presence of the many who can counsel wisely, but we are in the presence of the few who counsel too narrowly, and the means by which v;e have been trying to break away from that is not by excluding these gentlemen who constituted the narrow circles of advice, but by associating them with hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens. I have had some say that I was not accessible to them, and when I inquired into it I found they meant that I did not personally invite them. They did not know how to come without being invited, and they did not care to come July lo] DEMOCRACY OF BUSINESS 135 if they came upon the same terms with everybody else, knowing that everybody else was welcome whom I had time to confer with. Am I telling you things unobserved by you? Do you not know that these things are true? And do you not believe with me that the affairs of the Nation can be better con- ducted upon the basis of general counsel than upon the basis of special counsel? Men are colored and governed by their occupations and their surroundings and their habits. If I wanted to change the law radically, I would not con- sult a lawyer. If I wanted to change business methods radically, I would not consult a man who had made a con- spicuous success by using the present methods that I wanted to change. Not because I would distrust these men, but because I would know that they would not change their thinking over night, that they would have to go through a long process of reacquaintance with the circumstances of the time, the new circumstances of the time, before they could be converted to my point of view. You get a good deal more light on the street than you do in the closet. You get a good deal more light by keeping your ears open among the rank and file of your fellow citizens than you do in any private conference whatever. I would rather hear what the men are talking about on the trains and in the shops and by the fireside than hear anything else, because I want guidance and I know I could get it there, and what I am constantly asking is that men should bring me that counsel, because I am not privileged to determine things independently of this counsel. I am your servant, not your ruler. One thing that we are now trying to convert the small circles to that the big circles are already converted to is that this country needs a merchant marine and ought to get one. I have found that I had a great deal more resistance when I tried to help business than w^hen I tried to interfere with it. I have had a great deal more resistance of counsel, of special counsel, when I tried to alter the things that are established than w^hen I tried to do anything else. We call ourselves a liberal nation, whereas, as a matter of fact, we are one of the most conservative nations in the world. If you want to make enemies, try to change something. You 136 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 know why it is. To do things to-day exactly the way you did them yesterday saves thinking. It does not cost you anything. You have acquired the habit; you know the routine; you do not have to plan anything, and it frightens you with a hint of exertion to learn that you will have to do it a different way to-morrov/. Until I became a college teacher, I used to think that the young men were radical, but college boys are the greatest conservatives I ever tackled in my life, largely because they have associated too much with their fathers. What you have to do with them is to take them up upon some visionary height and show them the map of the world as it is. Do not let them see their father's factory. Do not let them see their father's counting- house. Let them see the great valleys teeming with labori- ous people. Let them see the great struggle of men in realms they never dreamed of. Let them see the great emo- tional power that is in the world, the great ambitions, the great hopes, the great fears. Give them some picture of mankind, and then their father's business and every other man's business will begin to fall into place. They will see that it is an item and not the whole thing; and they will sometimes see that the item is not properly related to the whole, and what they will get interested in will be to relate the item to the v/hole, so that it will form part of the force, and not part of the impediment. This country, above every country in the world, gentle- men, is meant to lift; it is meant to add to the forces that improve. It is meant to add to everything that betters the world, that gives it better thinking, more honest endeavor, a closer grapple of man with man, so that we will all be pulling together like one irresistible team in a single harness. That is the reason wh}^ it seemed wise to substitute for the harsh processes of the law, which merely lays its hand on your shoulder after you have sinned and threatens you with punishment, some of the milder and more helpful processes of counsel. That is the reason the Federal Trade Commission was established, — so that men would have some place where they could take counsel as to what the law was and what the law permitted; and also take counsel as to whether the law itself was right and advice had not better be taken as July lo] DEMOCRACY OF BUSINESS 137 to its alteration. The processes of counsel are the only processes of accommodation, not the processes of punish- ment. Punishment retards but it does not lift up. Punish- ment impedes but it does not imnrove. And we ought to substitute for the harsh processes of the law, wherever we can, the milder and gentler and more helpful processes of coimsel. * * * There is a task ahead of us of most colossal dif- ficulty. We have not been accustomed to the large world of international business and we have got to get accustomed to it right away. All provincials have got to take a back seat. All men who are afraid of competition have got to take a back seat. All men who depend upon anything except their intelligence and their efficiency have got to take a back seat. * * * We are done with provincialism in the statesmanship of the United States, and we have got to have a view now and a horizon as wide as the world itself. And when I look around upon an alert company like this, it seems to me in my imagination they are almost straining at the leash. They are waiting to be let loose upon this great race that is now going to challenge our abilities. For my part, I shall' look for^vard to the result with absolute and serene confi- dence, because the spirit of the United States is an inter- national spirit, if we conceive it right. This is not the home of any particular race of men. This is not the home of any particular set of political traditions. This is a home the doors of which have been opened from the first to man- kind, to everybody who loved liberty, to everybody whose ideal was equality of opportunity, to everybody whose heart was m.oved by the fundamental instincts and sympathies of humanity. That is America, and now it is as if the nations of the world, sampled and united here, were in their new union and new common understanding turning about to serve the world with all the honest processes of business and of enter- prise. I am happy that I should be witnessing the dawn of the day when America is indeed to come into her o^mi. White House Pamphlet. 138 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 42. PREPAREDNESS TO PRESERVE PEACE (July 10, 19 1 6) Address at Toledo This is an entire surprise party to me. I did not know I ] was going to have the pleasure of stopping long enough to address any number of you, but I am very glad indeed to give you m}' very cordial greetings and to express my very great interest in this interesting city. General Sherwood said that there were many things we agreed about, there is one thing we disagree about. General Sherwood has been opposing preparedness, and I have been advocating it, and I am very sorry to have found him on the other side. Because, I think, you will bear me witness, fellow citizens, that in advocating preparedness I have not been advocating hostility. You will bear me witness that I have been a persistent friend of peace and that nothing but unmistakable necessity will drive me from that position. I think it is a matter of sincere congratulation to us that our neighbor Republic to the south shows evidences of at last believing in our friendly intentions; that while we must pro- tect our border and see to it that our sovereignty is not impugned, we are ready to respect their sovereignty also, and to be their friends, and not their enemies. The real uses of intelligence, my fellow citizens, are the uses of peace. Any body of men can get up a row, but only an intelligent body of men can get together and cooperate. Peace is not only a test of a nation's patience; it is also a test of whether the nation knows how" to conduct its rela- tions or not. It takes time to do intelligent things, and it does not take any time to do unintelligent things. I can lose my temper in a minute, but it takes me a long tim.e to keep it, and I think that if you wTre to subject my Scotch-Irish blood to tlie proper kind of analj^sis, you would find that it was fighting blood, and that it is prett\5 hard for a man born that way to keep quiet and do things in the way in which his intelligence tells him he ought to do them. I know just as well as that I am standing here that I rep- July lo] PREPAREDNESS AxXD PEACE 139 resent and am the servant of a Nation that loves peace, and that loves it upon the proper basis; loves it not because it is afraid of anybody; loves it not because it does not under- stand and mean to maintain its rights, butt)ecause it knows that humanity is something in which we are all linked to- gether, and that it behooves the United States, just as long as it is possible, to hold off from becoming involved in a strife which makes it all the more necessary that some part of the world should keep cool while all the rest of it is hot. Here in America, for the time being, are the spaces, the cool spaces, of thoughtfulness, and so long as we are allowed to do so, we ^vill serve and not contend with the rest of our fellow men. We are the more inclined to do this because the very principles upon w^hich our Government is based are principles of common counsel and not of contest. So, my fellow citizens, I congratulate myself upon thisi opportunity, brief as it is, to give you my greetings and toi convey to you my congratulations that the signs that sur-/ round us are all signs of peace. White House Pamphlet. 43. LOYALTY (July 13, 1916) Address at Citizenship Convention, Washington I have come here for the simple purpose of expressing my very deep interest in what these conferences are intended to attain. It is not fair to the great multitudes of hopeful men and women w^ho press into this country from other countries that we should leave them without that friendly and inti- mate instruction which will enable them very soon after they come to find out what America is like at heart and what America is intended for among the nations of the world. I believe that the chief school that these people must attend after they get here is the school which all of us attend, which is furnished by the life of the communities in which we live and the nation to v/hich we belong. It has 140 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 been a very touching thought to me sometimes to think of tht hopes which have drawn these people to America. I have no doubt that many a simple soul has been thrilled by that great statue standing in the harbor of New York and seeming to lift the light of liberty for the guidance of the feet of men ; and I can imagine that they have expected here something ideal in the treatment that they will receive, something ideal in the laws which they would have to live under, and it has caused me many a time to turn upon myself the eye of examination to see whether there burned in me the true light of the American spirit which the\^ expected to find here. It is easy, my fellow-citizens, to communicate physical lessons, but it is very difficult to communicate spiritual les- sons. America was intended to be a spirit among the nations of the world, and it is the purpose of conferences like this to find out the best way to introduce the newcomers to this spirit, and by that very interest in them to enhance and purify in ourselves the thing that ought to make America great and not only ought to make her great, but ought to m?ke her exhibit a spirit unlike any other nation in the world. I have never been among those who felt comfortable in boasting of the superiority of America over other countries. The way to cure yourself of that is to travel in other coun- tries and find out how much of nobility and character and fine enterprise there is everywhere in the world. The most that America can hope to do is to show, it may be, the finest example, not the only example, of the things that ought to benefit and promote the progress of the world. So my interest in this movement is as much an interest in ourselves as in those vvhom we are trying to Americanize, because if we are genuine Americans they cannot avoid the infection; v/hereas, if we are not genuine Americans, there will be nothing to infect them with, and no amount of teach- ing, no amount of exposition of the Constitution, — which I find very fev; persons understand, — no amount of dwelling upon the idea of liberty and of justice will accomplish the object we have in view, unless we ourselves illustrate the idea of justice and of liberty. My interest in this move- ment is, therefore, a two-fold interest. I believe it will assist July 13] LOYALTY 141 us to become self-conscious in respect of the fundamental ideas of American life. When you ask a man to be loyal to a government, if 'he comes from some foreign countries, his idea is that he is expected to be loyal to a certain set of per- sons like a ruler or a body set in authority over him, but that is not the American idea. Our idea is that he is to be loyal to certain objects in life, and that the only reason he has a President and a Congress and a Governor and a State Legislature and courts is that the community shall have instrumentalities by which to promote those objects. It is a cooperative organization expressing itself in this Constitu- tion, expressing itself in these laws, intending to express itself in the exposition of those laws by the courts; and the idea of America is not so much that men are to be restrained and punished by the law as instructed and guided by the law. That is the reason so many hopeful reforms come to grief. A law cannot work until it expresses the spirit of the com- munity for which it is enacted, and if you try to enact into law what expresses only the spirit of a small coterie or of a small minority, you know, or at any rate you ought to know, beforehand that it is not going to work. The object of the law is that there, written upon these pages, the citizen should read the record of the experience of this state and nation; what they have concluded it is necessary for them to do because of the life they have lived and the things that they have discovered to be elements in that life. So that we ought to be careful to maintain a government at which the immigrant can look with the closest scrutiny and to which he should be at liberty to address this question: "You declare this to be a land of liberty and of equality and of justice; have you made it so by your law?" We ought to be able in our schools, in our night schools and in every other method of instructing these people, to show them that that has been our endeavor. We cannot conceal from them long the fact that we are just as human as any other nation, that we are just as selfish, that there are just as many mean people amongst us as anywhere else, that there are just as many people here who want to take advantage of other people as you can find in other countries, just as nmny cruel people, just as many people heartless when it comes to main- 142 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 taming and promoting their own interest; but you can show that our object is to get these people in harness and see to it that they do not do any damage and are not allowed to indulge the passions which would bring injustice and calam- ity at last upon a nation whose object is spiritual and not material. America has built up a great body of wealth. America has become, from the physical point of view, one of the most powerful nations in the world, a nation which if it took the pains to do so, could build that power up into one of the most formidable instruments in the world, one of the most formidable instruments of force, but which has no other idea than to use its force for ideal objects and not for self- aggrandizement. We have been disturbed recently, my fellow-citizens, by certain symptoms which have showed themselves in our body politic. Certain men, — I have never believed a great num- ber, — born in other lands, have in recent months thought more of those lands than they have of the honor and interest of the government under which they are now living. They have even gone so far as to draw^ apart in spirit and in organ- ization from the rest of us to accomplish some special object of their own. I am not here going to utter any criticism of these people, but I want to say this, that such a thing as that is absolutely incompatible with the fundamental idea of loyalty, and that loyalty is not a self-pleasing virtue. I am not bound to be loyal to the United States to please myself. I am bound to be loyal to the United States because I live under its laws and am its citizen, and whether it hurts me or whether it benefits me, I am obliged to be loyal. Loyalty means nothing unless it has at its heart the absolute principle of self-sacrifice. Loyalty means that you ought to be ready to sacrifice every interest that you have, and your life itself, if your country calls upon you to do so, and that is the sort of loyalty which ought to be inculcated into these newcomers, that they are not to be loyal only so long as they are pleased, but that, having once entered into this sacred relationship, they are bound to be loyal whether they are pleased or not ; and that loyalty which is merely self-pleasing is only self- indulgence and selfishness. No man has ever risen to the July 13] LOYALTY 143 real stature of spiritual manhood until he has found that it is finer to serve somebody else than it is to serve himself. These are the conceptions which we ought to teach the newcomers into our midst, and we ought to realize that the life of every one of us is part of the schooling, and that we cannot preach loyalty unless we set the example, that we cannot profess things with any influence upon others unless we practice them also. This process of Americanization is going to be a process of self-examination, a process of puri- fication, a process of rededication to the things v^hich America represents and is proud to represent. And it takes a great deal more courage and steadfastness, my fellow-citizens, to represent ideal things than to represent anything else. It is easy to lose your temper, and hard to keep it. It is easy to strike and sometimes very difficult to refrain from striking, and I think you will agree with me that we are most justified in being proud of doing the things that are hard to do and not the things that are easy. You do not settle things quickly by taking what seems to be the quickest way to settle them. You may make the complication just that much the more profound and inextricable, and, therefore, what I believe America should exalt above everything else is the sovereignty of thoughtfulness and sympathy and vision as against the grosser impulses of miankind. Xo nation can live without vision, and no vision will exalt a nation except the vision of real liberty and real justice and purity of con- duct. White House Pamphlet. 44. AN EIGHT-HOUR DAY FOR RAILROAD MEN (August 29, 19 1 6) Address to Congress I have come to you to seek your assistance in dealing with a very grave situation which has arisen out of the demand of the employees of the railroads engaged in freight train service that they be granted an eight-hour working day, 144 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 safeguarded by payment for an hour and a half of service for every hour of work beyond the eight. The matter has been agitated for more than a year. The public has been made familiar with the demands of the men and the arguments urged in favor of them, and even more familiar with the objections of the railroads and their counter demand that certain priviliges now enjoyed by their men and certain bases of payment worked out through many years of contest be reconsidered, especially in their relation to the adoption of an eight-hour day. The matter came some three weeks ago to a final issue and resulted in a complete deadlock between the parties. The means provided by law for the mediation of the controversy failed and the means of arbitra- tion for which the law provides were rejected. The represen- tatives of the railway executives proposed that the demands of the men be submitted in their entirety to arbitration, along with certain questions of readjustment as to pay and condi- tions of employment which seemed to them to be either closely associated with the demands or to call for reconsideration on their own. merits; the men absolutely declined arbitration, especially if any of their established privileges were by that means to be drawn again in question. The law in the matter put no compulsion upon them. The four hundred thousand men from whom the demands proceeded had voted to strike if their demands were refused; the strike was imminent; it has since been set for the fourth of September next. It affects the men who man the freight trains on practically every rail- way in the country. The freight service throughout the United States must stand still until their places are filled, if, indeed, it should prove possible to fill them at all. Cities will be cut off from their food supplies, the whole commerce of the nation will be paralyzed, men of every sort and occu- pation will be thrown out of employment, countless thousands will in all likelihood be brought, it may be, to the very point of starvation, and a tragical national calamity brought on, to be added to the other distresses of the time, because no basis of accommodation or settlement has been found. Just as soon as it became evident that mediation under the existing law had failed and that arbitration had been rendered impossible by the attitude of the men, I considered Ang. 29] EIGHT HOURS FOR RAILROAD MEN 145 it my duty to confer with the representatives of both the railways and the brotherhoods, and myself offer mediation, not as an arbitrator, but merely as spokesman of the nation, in the interest of justice, indeed, and as a friend of both parties, but not as judge, only as the representative of one hundred millions of men, w^omen, and children who would pay the price, the incalculable price, of loss and suffering should these few men insist upon approaching and concluding the matters in controversy between them merely as employers and employees, rather than as patriotic citizens of the United States looking before and after and accepting the larger re- sponsibility w^hich the public would put upon them. It seemed to me, in considering the subject-matter of the controversy, that the whole spirit of the time and the pre- ponderant evidence of recent economic experience spoke for the eight-hour day. It has been adjudged by the thought and experience of recent years a thing upon which society is justified in insisting as in the interest of health, efficiency, contentment, and a general increase of economic vigor. The whole presumption of modem experience w^ould, it seemed to me, be in its favor, whether there was arbitration or not, and the debatable points to settle were those w^hich arose out of the acceptance of the eight-hour day rather than those which affected its establishment. I, therefore, proposed that the eight-hour day be adopted by the railway managements and put into practice for the present as a substitute for the exist- ing ten-hour basis of pay and service; that I should appoint, with the permiission of the Congress, a small commission to observe the results of the change, carefully studying the fig- ures of the altered operating costs, not only, but also the conditions of labor under which the men worked and the operation of their existing agreements with the railroads, with instructfons to report the facts as they found them to the Congress at the earliest possible day, but without recom- mendation; and that, after the facts had been thus disclosed, an adjustment should in som.e orderly manner be sought of all the matters now left unadjusted between the railroad managers and the men. These proposals were exactly in line, it is interesting to note, with the position taken by the Supreme Court of the 146 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [191 6 United States when appealed to to protect certain litigants from the financial losses which they confidently expected if they should submit to the regulation of their charges and of their methods of service by public legislation. The Court has held that it would not undertake to form a judgment upon forecasts, but could base its action only upon actual ex- perience; that it must be supplied with facts, not with calcu- lations and opinions, however scientifically attempted. To undertake to arbitrate the question of the adoption of an eight-hour day in the lights of results merely estimated and predicted would be to undertake an enterprise of conjecture. No wise man could undertake it, or, if he did undertake it, could feel assured of his conclusions. I unhesitatingly offered the friendly services of the admin- istration to the railway managers to see to it that justice was done the railroads in the outcome. I felt warranted in assuring them that no obstacle of law would be suffered to stand in the way of their increasing their revenues to meet the expenses resulting from the change "So far as the develop- ment of their business and of their administrative efficiency did not prove adequate to meet them. The public and the representatives of the public, I felt justified in assuring them, were disposed to nothing but justice in such- cases and were willing to serve those who served them. The representatives of the brotherhoods accepted the plan ; but the representatives of the railroads declined to accept it. In the face of what I cannot but regard as the practical cer- tainty that they vAU be ultimately obliged to accept the eight-hour day by the concerted action of organized labor, backed by the favorable judgment of society, the representa- tives of the railway management have felt justified in de- clining a peaceful settlement which would engage all the forces of justice, public and private, on their*, side to take care of the event. They fear the hostile influence of ship- pers, who would be opposed to an increase of freight rates (for which, however, of course, the public itself would pay) ; they apparently feel no confidence that the Interstate Com- merce Commission could withstand the objections that would be made. They do not care to rely upon the friendly assur- ances of the Congress or the President. They have thought Aug. 29] EIGHT HOURS FOR RAILROAD MEN 147 it best that they should be forced to yield, if they must yield, not by counsel, but by the suffering of the country. Wliile my conferences with them were in progress, and when to all outward appearance those conferences had come to a stand- still, the representatives of the brotherhoods suddenly acted and set the strike for the fourth of September. The railway managers based their decision to reject my counsel in this matter upon their conviction that they must at any cost to themselves or to the country stand firm for the principle of arbitration which the men had rejected. I based my counsel upon the indisputable fact that there was no means of obtaining arbitration. The law supplied none; earnest efforts at mediation had failed to influence the men in the least. To stand firm for the principle of arbitration and yet not get arbitration seemed to me futile, and something more than futile, because it involved incalculable distress to the country and consequences in some respects worse than those of war, and that in the midst of peace. I yield to no man in firm adherence, alike of conviction and of purpose, to the principle of arbitration in industrial disputes; but matters have come to a sudden crisis in this particular dispute and the country had been caught unpro- vided with any practicable means of enforcing that conviction in practice (by w^hose fault we will not now stop to inquire). A situation had to be met whose elements and fixed condi- tions were indisputable. The practical and patriotic course to pursue, as it seemed to me, was to secure immediate peace by conceding the one thing in the demands of the men which society itself and any arbitrators who represented public sentiment were most likely to approve, and immediately lay the foundations for securing arbitration with regard to every- thing else involved. The event has confirmed that judgment. I was seeking to compose the present in order to safeguard the future; for I wished an atmosphere of -peace and friendly cooperation in which to take counsel with .the representa- tives of the nation with regard to the best means for provid- ing, so far as it might prove possible to provide, against the recurrence of such unhappy situations in the future, — the best and most practicable means of securing calm and fair arbitration of all industrial disputes in the days to come. 148 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 This is assuredly the best way of vindicating a principle, namely, having failed to make certain of its observance in the present, to make certain of its observance in the fu- ture. But I could only propose. I could not govern the will of others v^ho took an entirely different view of the circum- stances of the case, who even refused to admit the circum- stances to be what they have turned out to be. Having failed to bring the parties to this critical contro- versy to an accommodation, therefore, I turn to you, deeming it clearly our duty as public servants to leave nothing undone that we can do to safeguard the life and interests of the nation. In the spirit of such a purpose, I earnestly recom- mend the following legislation: First, immediate provision for the enlargement and admin- istrative reorganizaton of the Interstate Commerce Commis- sion along the lines embodied in the bill recently passed by the House of Representatives and now awaiting action by the Senate; in order that the Commission may be enabled to deal with the many great and various duties now devolving upon it with a promptness and thoroughness which are Avith its present constitution and means of action practically im- possible. Second, the establishment of an eight-hour day as the legal basis alike of work and of wages in the employment of all railway employees who are actually engaged in the work of operating trains in interstate transportation. Third, the authorization of the appointment by the Presi- dent of a small body of men to observe the actual results in experience of the adoption of the eight-hour day in railway transportation alike for the men and for the railroads; its effects in the matter of operating costs, in the application of the existing practices and agreements to the new conditions, and in all other practical aspects, with the provision that the investigators shall report their conclusions to the Congress at the earliest possible date, but without recommendation as to legislative action; in order that the public may learn from an unprejudiced source just what actual developments have ensued. Fourth, explicit approval by the Congress of the consider- Aug. 29] EIGHT HOURS FOR RAILROAD MEN 149 ation by the Interstate Commerce Commission of an increase of freight rates to meet such additional expenditures by the railroads as may have been rendered necessary by the adop- tion of the eight-hour day and which have not been offset by administrative readjustments and economies, should the facts disclosed justify the increase. Fifth, an amendment of the existing federal statute which provides for the mediation, conciliation, and arbitration of such controversies as the present by adding to it a provision that in case the methods of accommodation now provided for should fail, a full public investigation of the merits of every such dispute shall be institutea and completed before a strike or lockout may lawfully be attempted. And, sixth, the lodgment in the hands of the Executive of the power, in case of military necessity, to take control of such portions and such rolling stock of the railways of the country as may be required for military use and to operate them for military purposes, with authority to draft into the military service of the United States such train crews and administrative officials as the circumstances require for their safe and efficient use. This last suggestion I make because we cannot in any circumstances suffer the nation to be hampered in the essen- tial matter of national defense. At the present mom.ent cir- cumstances render this duty particularly obvious. Almost the entire military force of the nation is stationed upon the Mexican border to guard our territory against hostile raids. It must be supplied, and steadily supplied, with whatever it needs for its maintenance and efficiency. If it should be necessary for purposes of national defense to transfer any portion of it upon short notice to some other part of the country, for reasons now unforeseen, ample means of trans- portation must be available, and available without delay. The power confessed in this matter should be carefully and explicitly lim.ited to cases of military necessity, but in all such cases it should be cleam and ample. There is one other thing we should do if we are true cham- pions of arbitration. We should make all arbitral awards judgments by record of a court of law in order that their interpretation and enforcement may lie, not with one of the 150 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 parties to the arbitration, but with an impartial and authori- tative tribunal. These things I urge upon you, not in haste or merely as a means of meeting a present emergency, but as permanent and necessary additions to the law of the land, suggested, indeed, by circumstances we had hoped never to see, but im- perative as well as just, if such emergencies are to be pre- vented in the future. I feel that no extended argument is needed to commend them to your favorable consideration. They demonstrate themselves. The time and the occasion only give emphasis to their importance. We need them now and we shall continue to need them. White House Pamphlet. 45. ABRAHAM LINCOLN ' (September 4, 19 1 6) i Address at the Lincoln Birthplace Farm, at Hodgen- \ VILLE No more significant memorial could have been presented ■ to the nation than this. It expresses so much of what is \ singular and noteworthy in the history of the country; it ' suggests so many of the things that we prize most highly in ' our life and in our system of government. How eloquent this 1 little house within this shrine is of the vigor of democracy! There is nowhere in the land any home so remote, so humble, ' that it may not contain the power of m.ind and heart ?.nd i conscience to which nations yield and history submits its ! processes. Nature pays no tribute to aristocracy, subscribes I to no creed of caste, renders fealty to no monarch or master of any name or kind. Genius is no snob. It does not run • after titles or seek by preference the high circles of society. | It affects humble company as well as great. It pays no spe- | cial tribute to universities or learned societies or conventional , standards of greatness, but serenely chooses its own com- ' rades, its own haunts, its own cradle even, and its own life of adventure and of training. Here is proof of it. This little ' Sept. 4] ABRAHAM LINCOLN 151 hut was the cradle of one of the great sons of men, a man of singular, delightful, vital genius who presently emerged upon the great stage of the nation's history, gaunt, shy, ungainly, but dominant and majestic, a natural ruler of men, himself inevitably the central figure of the great plot. No man can explain this, but every man can see how it demonstrates the vigor of democracy, where every door is open, in every hamlet and countryside, in city and wilderness alike, for the ruler to emerge when he will and claim his leadership in the free life. Such are the authentic proofs of the validity and vital- ity of democracy. Here, no less, hides the mystery of democracy. Who shall guess this secret of nature and providence and a free polity? Whatever the vigor and vitality of the stock from which he sprang, its mere vigor and soundness do not explain where this man got his great heart that seemed to comprehend all mankind in its catholic and benignant sympathy, the mind that sat enthroned behind those brooding, melancholy eyes, whose vision swept many an horizon which those about him dreamed not of, — that mind that comprehended what it had never seen, and understood the language of affairs with the ready ease of one to the manner bom, — or that nature which seemed in its varied richness to be the familiar of men of every way of life. This is the sacred mystery of democ- racy, that its richest fruits spring up out of soils which no man has prepared and in circumstances amidst which they are the least experienced. This is a place alike of mystery and of reassurance. It is likely that in a society ordered otherwise than our own Lincoln could not have found himself or the path of fame and power upon which he walked serenely to his death. In this place it is right that we should remind ourselves of the solid and striking facts upon which our faith in democ- racy is founded. Many another man besides Lincoln has served the nation in its highest places of counsel and of action whose origins were as humble as his. Though the greatest example of the universal energy, richness, stimula- tion, and force of democracy, he is only one example among many. The permeating and all-pervasive virtue of the free- dom which diallenges us in America to make the most of 152 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 every gift and power we possess every page of our history serves to emphasize and illustrate. Standing here in this place, it seems almost the whole of the stirring story. Here Lincoln had his beginnings. Here the end and con- summation of that great life seem remote and a bit incredible. And yet there was no break anywhere between beginning and end, no lack of natural sequence anywhere. Nothing really incredible happened. Lincoln was unaffectedly as much at home in the White House as he was here. Do you share with me the feeling, I wonder, that he was permanently at home nowhere? It seems to me that in the case of a man, — I would rather say of a spirit, — like Lincoln the question where he was is of little significance, that it is always what he was that really arrests our thought and takes hold of our imagina- tion. It is the spirit alwa3^s that is sovereign. Lincoln, like the rest of us, was put through the discipline of the world, — a very rough and exacting discipline for him, an indispen- sable discipline for every man who would know what he is about in the midst of the world's affairs; but his spirit got only its schooling there. It did not derive its character or its vision from the experiences which brought it to its full revelation. The test of every American must always be, not where he is, but what he is. That, also, is of the essence of democracy, and is tlie moral of which this place is most gravely expressive. We would like to think of men like Lincoln and Washing- ton as tj^pical Americans, but no man can be typical who is so unusual as these great men were. It was t}'pical of Amer- ican life that it should produce such men with supreme in- difference as to the manner in which it produced them, and as readily here in this hut as amidst the little circle of culti- vated gentlemen to whom Virginia owed so much in leader- ship and example. And Lincoln and Washington were typical Americans in the use thty made of their genius. But there will be few such men at best, and v/e will not look into the m3^stery of how and Vv^hy they come. We will only keep the door open for them always, and a hearty welcome, — after we have recognized them. I have read many biographies of Lincoln; I have sought out with the greatest interest the many intimate stories that Sept. 4] ABRAHAM LINCOLN 153 are told of him, the narratives of nearby friends, the sketches at close quarters, in which those who had the privilege of being associated with him have tried to depict for us the very man himself "in his habit as he lived;" but I have nowhere found a real intimate of Lincoln's. I nowhere get the im- pression in any narrative or reminiscence that the writer had in fact penetrated to the heart of his mystery, or that any man could penetrate to the heart of it. That brooding spirit had on real familiars. I get the impression that it never spoke out in complete self -revelation, and that it could not reveal itself completely to anyone. It was a very lonely spirit that looked out from underneath those shaggy brows and comprehended men without fully communing with them, as if, in spite of all its genial efforts at comradeship, it dwelt apart, saw its visions of duty where no man looked on. There is a very holy and very terrible isolation for the con- science of every man who seeks to read the destiny in affairs for others as well as for himself, for a nation as well as for individuals. That privacy no man can intrude upon. That lonely search of the spirit for the right perhaps no man can assist. This strange child of the cabin kept company with invisible things, was bom into no intimacy but that of its own silently assembling and deploying thoughts. I have come here today, not to utter an eulogy on Lincoln ; he stands in need of none, but to endeavor to interpret the meaning of this gift to the nation of the place of his birth and origin. Is not this an altar upon which we may forever keep alive the vestal fire of democracy as upon a shrine at which some of the deepest and most sacred hopes of man- kind may from age to age be rekindled? For these hopes must constantly be rekindled, and only those who live can rekindle them. The only stuff that can retain the life-giving heat is the stuff of living hearts. And the hopes of mankind cannot be kept alive by w^ords merely, by constitutions and doctrines of right and codes of liberty. The object of democ- racy is to translate these into the life and action of society, the self-denial and self-sacrifice of heroic men and women willing to make their lives an embodiment of right and serv- ice and enlightened purpose. The commands of democracy are as imperative as its privileges and opportunities are wide 154 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 and generous. Its compulson is upon us. It will be great and lift a great light for the guidance of the nations only if we are great and carry that light high for the guidance of our own feet. We are not worthy to stand here unless we ourselves be in deed and in truth real democrats and servants of mankind, ready to give our very lives for the freedom and justice and spiritual exaltation of the great nation which shelters and nurtures us. White House Pamphlet. 46. THE FORCES OF FREEDOM (September 8, 19 16) Address at Suffrage Convention, Atlantic City I have found it a real privilege to be here to-night and to listen to the addresses which you have heard. Though you may not all of you believe it, I would a great deal rather hear somebody else speak than speak myself; but I should feel that I was omitting a duty if I did not address you to-night and say some of the things that have been in my thought as I realized the approach of this evening and the duty that would fall upon me. The astonishing thing about the movement which you represent is, not that it has grown so slowly, but that it has grown so rapidly. No doubt for those who have been a long time in the struggle, like your honored president, it seems a long and arduous path that has been trodden, but when you think of the cumulative force of this movement in recent decades, you must agree with me that it is one of the most astonishing tides in modern history. Two generations ago, no doubt Madam President will agree with me in saying, it was a handful of women who were fighting this cause. Now it is a great multitude of women who are fighting it. And there are some interesting historical connections which I would like to attempt to point out to you. One of the most striking facts about the history of the United States is that Sept. 8] THE FORCES OF FREEDOM 155 at the outset it was a lawyers' history. Almost all of the questions to which America addressed itself, say a hundred years ago, were legal questions, were questions of method, not questions of what you were going to do with your Gov- ernment, but questions of how you were going to constitute your Government, — how you were going to balance the powers of the States and the Federal Government, how you were going to balance the claims of property against the processes of liberty, how you were going to make your governments up so as to balance the parts against each other so that the legislature would check the executive, and the executive the legislature, and the courts both of them put together. The whole conception of government when the United States be- came a Nation was a mechanical conception of government, and the mechanical conception of government which underlay it was the Newtonian theory of the universe. If you pick up the Federalist, some parts of it read like a treatise on astron- omy instead of a treatise on government. They speak of the centrifugal an^ the centripital forces, and locate the Presi- dent somewhere in a rotating system. The whole thing is a calculation of power and an adjustment of parts. There was a time when nobody but a lawyer could know enough to run the Government of the United States, and a distinguished English publicist once remarked, speaking of the complexity of the American Government, that it was no proof of the excellence of the American Constitution that it had been successfully operated, because the Americans could run any constitution. But there have been a great many technical difficulties in running it. And then something happened. A great question arose in this country v/hich, though complicated with legal ele- ments, was at bottom a human question, and nothing but a question of humanity. That was the slavery question. And is it not significant that it was then, and then for the first time, that women becam.e prominent in politics in America? Not many women; those prominent in that day were so few that you can name them over in a brief catalogue, but, never- theless, they then began to play a part in writing, not only, but in public speech, which was a very novel part for women 156 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [191 6 to play in America. After the Civil War had settled some of what seemed to be the most difficult legal questions of our system, the life of the Nation began not only to unfold, but to accumulate. Life in the United States was a compara- tively simple matter at the time of the Civil War. There was none of that underground struggle which is now so manifest to those who look only a little way beneath the sur- face. Stories such as Dr. Davis has told to-night were uncommon in those simpler days. The pressure of low v/ages, the agony of obscure and unremunerated toil, did not exist in America in anything like the same proportions that they exist now. And as our life has unfolded and accumulated, as the contacts of it have become hot, as the populations have assembled in the cities, and the cool spaces of the country have been supplanted by the feverish urban areas, the whole nature of our political questions has been altered. They have ceased to be legal questions. They have more and more become social questions, questions with re- gard to the relations of human beings to one another. — not merely their legal relations, but their moral and spiritual relations to one another. This has been most characteristic of American life in the last few decades, and as these ques- tions have assumed greater and greater prominence, the movement which this association represents has gathered cumulative force. So that, if anybody asks himself, "What does this gathering force mean," if he knows anything about • the history of the country, he knows that it means something that has not only come to stay, but has come with conquering power. I get a little impatient sometimes about the discussion of the channels and methods by which it is to prevail. It is going to prevail, and that is a very superficial and ignorant view of it which attributes it to mere social unrest. It is not merely because the women are discontented. It is be- cause the women have seen visions of duty, and that is something which we not only can not resist, but, if we be true Americans, we do not wish to resist. America took its origin in visions of the human spirit, in aspirations for the deepest sort of liberty of the mind and of the heart, and as visions of that sort come up to the sight of those who are Sept. 8] THE FORCES OF FREEDOM 157 spiritually minded in America, America comes more and more into her birthright and into the perfection of her de- velopment. So that what we have to realize in dealing with forces of this sort is that we are dealing with the substance of life itself. I have felt as I sat here to-night the wholesome con- tagion of the occasion. Almost every other time that I ever visited Atlantic City, I came to fight somebody. I hardly know how to conduct myself when I have not come to fight against anybody, but with somebody. I have come to sug- gest, among other things, that when the forces of nature are steadily working and the tide is rising to meet the moon, you need not be afraid that it will not come to its flood. We feel the tide; we rejoice in the strength of it; and we shall not quarrel in the long run as to the method of it. Because, when you are working with masses of men and organized bodies of opinion, you have got to carry the organ- ized body along. The whole art and practice of government consists, not in moving individuals, but in moving masses. It is all very well to run ahead and beckon, but, after all, you have got to wait for the body to follow. I have not come to ask you to be patient, because you have been, but I have come to congratulate you that there was a force behind you that will beyond any peradventure be triumphant, and for which you can afford a little while to vvait. White House Pamphlet. 47. WORLD BUSINESS OF AMERICA (September 25, 1916) Address to the Grain Dealers' Association, at Baltimore * * * I have come to discuss the general relation of the United States to the business of the world in the decades immediately ahead of us. We have swung out, my fellow citizens, into a new business era in America. I suppose that there is no man connected with your association who does 158 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 not remember the time when the whole emphasis of Ameri- can business discussion w^as laid upon the domestic market. I need not remind you how recently it has happened that our attention has been extended to the markets of the world; much less recently, I need not say, in the matters with which you are concerned than in the other export interests of the country. But it happened that American production, not only in the agricultural field and in mining and in all the natural products of the earth, but also in manufacture, in- creased in recent years to such a volume that American busi- ness burst its jacket. It could not any longer be taken care of within the field of the domestic markets; and when that began to disclose itself as the situation, we also became aware that American business men had not studied foreign mar- kets, that they did not know the commerce of the world, and that they did not have the ships in which to take their proportionate part in the carrying trade of the world; that our merchant marine had sunk to a negligible amount, and that it had sunk to its lowest at the very time when the tide of our exports began to grow in most formidable volume. One of the most interesting circumstances of our business history is this: The banking laws of the United States, — I mean the Federal banking lav/s, — did not put the national banks in a position to do foreign exchange under favorable conditions, and it was actually true that private banks, and sometimes branch banks drawn out of other countries, notably out of Canada, were established at our chief ports to do what Am.erican bankers ought to have done. It was as if America was not only unaccustomed to touching all the nerves of the w^orld's business, but vras disinclined to touch them, and had not prepared the instrumentality by which it might take part in the great commerce of the round globe. Only in very recent years have we been even studying the problem of providing ourselves with the instrumentalities. Not until the recent legislation of Congress known as the Federal re- serve act were the Federal banks of this country given the proper equipment through which they could assist American commerce, not only in our own country, but in any part of the world where they chose to set up branch institutions. British banks had been serving British merchants all over Sept. 25] WORLD BUSINESS OF AMERICA 159 the world, German banks had been serving German mer- chants all over the world, and no national bank of the United States had been serving American merchants anywhere in the world except in the United States. We had, as it were, deliberately refrained from playing our part in the field in which we prided ourselves that we were most ambitious and most expert, the field of manufacture and of commerce. All that is past, and the scene has been changed by the events of the last two years, almost suddenly, and with a complete- ness that almost daunts the planning mind. Not only when this war is over, but now, America has her place in the world and must take her place in the world of finance and com- merce upon a scale that she never dreamed of before. My dream is that she will take her place in that great field in a new spirit which the world has never seen before ; not the spirit of those who would exclude others, but the spirit of those who would excel others. I want to see America pitted against the world, not in selfishness, but in brains. The first thing that brains have to feed upon is knowledge, and when I hear men proposing to deal with the business problems of the United States in the future as we dealt with them in the past, I do not have to inquire any further whether they are equipped with knowledge. I dismiss them from the reckon- ing, because I know that the facts are going to dominate and they know nothing about the facts. And the most that w^e can supply ourselves with just now is, not the detailed program of policy, but the instrumentalities of gaining thor- ough knowledge of what we are about. Every man of us must for some time to come be "from Missouri!" We must want to know what the facts are, and when we know what the facts are we shall know what the policy ought to be. * * * * * * It has always been a fiction, — I don't know who in- vented it or why he invented it, — that there was a contest between the law and business. There has always been a contest in every government between the law and bad busi- ness, and I do not want to see that contest softened in any way; but there has never been any contest between men who intended the right thing and the men who administered the law. * * * You know that we have just now done what it was common i6o ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 sense to do about the tariff. We have not put this into words, but I do not hesitate to put it into words: We have admitted that on the one side and on the other we v/ere talking theories and managing policies without a sufficient knowledge of the facts upon which we were acting, and, therefore, we have established v/hat is intended to be a non- partisan tariff commission to study the conditions with which legislation has to deal in the matter of the relations of Amer- ican with foreign business transactions. Another eye created to see the facts! And I am hopeful that I caji find the men who will see the facts and state them, no matter whose opinion those facts contradict. For an opinion ought always to have a profound respect for a fact; and when you once get the facts, opinions that are antagonistic to those facts are necessarily defeated. I have never found a really cour- ageous man who was afraid to put his opinion to the test of facts, or a morally sincere man who vms not ready to sur- render to the facts when they were contrary to his opinion. The Tariff Commission is going to look for the facts no matter who is hurt. We are creating one after another the instrumentalities of knowledge, so that the business men of this country shall know what the field of the world's business is and deal with that field upon that knowledge. Then, when the knowledge is obtained, what are we going to do? One of the things that interests me most about an association of this sort is that the intention of it is that the members should share a common body of information, and that they should concert among themselves those operations of business which are beneficial to all of them; that, instead of a large num.ber of dealers in grain acting separately and each fighting for his own hand, you are willing to come to- gether and study the problem as if you were partners and brothers and co-operators in this field of business. That has been going on in every occupation in the United States of any consequence. Even the men that do the advertising have been getting together, and they have made this startling and fundamental discovery, that the only way to advertise suc- cessfully is to tell the truth. There are n^any reasons for that. One of the chief reasons is that when you get found out, it is worse for you than it was before; but the great Sept. 25] WORLD BUSINESS OF AMERICA 161 reason, the sober reason, is that business must be founded on the truth, and you men get together in order to create a clearing house for the truth about your business. Very well ; that is a picture in small of what we must do in the large. We must cooperate in the whole field of busi- ness, the Government with the merchant, the merchant with his employee, the whole body of producers with the whole body of consumers, to see that the right things are produced in the right volume and find the right purchasers at the right place, and that, all working together, we realize that nothing can be for the individual benefit which is not for the common benefit. =^ * =5= And it is absolutely necessary now to make good our new connections. Our new connections are with the great and rich Republics to the south of us. For the first time in miy recollection they are beginning to trust and believe in us and want us, and one of my chief concerns has been to see that nothing was done that did not show friendship and good faith on our part. You know that it used to be the case that if you wanted to travel comfortably in your own person from New York to a South American port, you had to go by way of England or else stow yourself away in some uncomfortable fashion in a ship that took almost as long to go straight, and within v/hose bowels you got in such a temper before you got there that you did not care v/hether she got there or not. The great interesting geographical fact to me is that by the open- ing of the Panama Canal there is a straight line south from New York through the canal to the western coast of South America, which hitherto has been one of the most remote coasts in the world so far as we are concerned. The west coast of South America is now nearer to us than the eastern coast of South America ever was, though we have the open Atlantic upon which to approach the east coast. Here is the loom all ready upon which to spread the threads which can be worked into a fabric of friendship and wealth such as we have never known before! The real wealth of foreign relationships, my fellow-citizens, whether they be the relationships of trade or any other kind of intercourse, the real wealth of those relationships is the wealth of mutual confidence and understanding. If we do not 1 62 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [191 6 understand them and they do not understand us, we can not trade with them, much less be their friends, and it is only by weaving these intimate threads of connection that we shall be able to establish that fundamental thing, that psychologi- cal, spiritual nexus which is, after all, the real warp and woof of trade itself. We have got to have the knowledge, we have got to have the cooperation, and then back of all that has got to lie what America has in abundance and only has to release, that is to say, the self-reliant enterprise. There is only one thing I have ever been ashamed of about in America, and that was the timidity atnd fearfulness of Americans in the presence of foreign competitors. I have dwelt among Americans all my life and am an intense ab- sorbent of the atmosphere of America, and I know by per- sonal experience that there are as effective brains in America as anywhere in the world. An American afraid to pit Amer- ican business men against any competitors anywhere! En- terprise, the shrewdness which Americans have shown, the knowledge of business which they have shown, all these things are going to make for that peaceful and honorable conquest of foreign markets which is our reasonable ambition. * * * White House Pamphlet. 48. A SOCIETY OF NATIONS (October 26, 19 16) Address at Cincinnati * * * What I intend to preach from this time on is that America must show that as a member of the family of na- tions she has the same attitude toward the other nations that she wishes her people to have toward each other: That America is going to take this position, that she will lend her moral influence, not only, but her physical force, if other nations will join her, to see to it that no nation and no group of nations tries to take advantage of another nation or group of nations, and that the only thing ever fought for is the common rights of humanity. :J Oct. 26] A SOCIETY OF NATIONS 163 A great many men are complaining that we are not fight- ! ing now in order to get something — not something spiritual, not a right, not something, we could be proud of, but some- j thing we could possess and take advantage of and trade on j and profit by. They are complaining that the Government I of the United States has not the spirit of other Governments, which is to put the force, the army and navy, of that Gov- ernment behind investments in foreign countries. Just so certainly as you do that, you join this chaos of competing | and hostile ambitions. I Have you ever heard what started the present war? If/ j you have, I wish you would publish it, because nobody elsej i has, so far as I can gather. Nothing in particular started it,\ ] but everything in general. There had been growing up in ; Europe a mutual suspicion, an interchange of conjectures about what this Government and that Government was going ] to do, an interlacing of alliances and understandings, a com- | plex web of intrigue and spying, that presently was sure to entangle the whole of the family of mankind on that side of the water in its meshes. Now, revive that after this war is over and sooner or later you will have just such another w^ar, and this is the last war of the kind or of any kind that involves the world that the '' United States can keep out of. I say that because I believe that the business of neutrality '< is over; not because I want it to be over, but I mean this, that war now has such a scale that the position of neutrals sooner or later becomes intolerable. Just as neutrality v/ould ! be intolerable to me if I lived in a community where every- ; body had to assert his ow^n rights by force and I had to go around among my neighbors and say: "Here, this cannot last any longer; let us get together and see that nobody disturbs the peace any more." That is w^hat society is and we have ; not yet a society of nations. We must have a society of nations, not suddenly, not by insistence, not by any hostile emphasis upon the demand, but i by the demonstration of the needs of the time. The nations 1 of the world must get together and say, "Nobody can here- ] after be neutral as respects the disturbance of the world's} ; peace for an object which the world's opinion can not sane- \ '> 1 64 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [191 6 tion." The world's peace ought to be disturbed if the fun- damental rights of humanity are invaded, but it ought not to be disturbed for any other thing that I can think of, and America was established in order to indicate, at any rate in one Government, the fundamental rights of man. America must hereafter be ready as a member of the family of na- tions to exert her whole force, moral and physical, to the assertion of those rights throughout the round globe. * * * New York Times, Oct. 27, 19 16. 49. THE END OF ISOLATION (November 4, 19 16) Address at Shadov^^ Lav^tn * * * The world will never be again what it has been. The United States will never be again what it has been. The United States was once in enjoyment of what we used to call splendid isolation. The three thousand miles of the Atlan- tic seemed to hold all European affairs at arm's length from us. The great spaces of the Pacific seemed to disclose no threat of influence upon our politics. Now, from across the Atlantic and from across the Pacific we feel to the quick the influences v/hich are affecting our- selves, and, in die meantime, whereas we used to be always in search of assistance and stimulation from out of other countries, always in search of the capital of other countries to assist our investments, depending u|X)n foreign markets for the sale of our securities, now we have bought in more than 50 per cent of those securities; we have become not the debtors but the creditors of the world, and in what other nations used to play in promoting industries vrhich extended as wide as the world itself, we are playing the guiding part. We can determine to a large extent who is to be financed and who is not to be financed. That is the reason I say that the United States will never be again what it has been. So it does not suffice to look, as some gentlemen are looldng, back over their shoulders, to suggest that we do again what Nov. 4] THE END OF ISOLATION 165 we did when we were provincial and isolated and uncon- nected with the great forces of the w^orld, for now we are in the great drift of humanity which is to determine the poli- tics of every country in the w^orld. With this outlook, is it worth while to stop to think of party advantage? Is it worth stopping to think of how we have voted in the past? We are now going to vote, if we be men with eyes open that can see the world, as those who wish to make a new America in a new world mean the same old thing for mankind that it meant when this great Repub- lic was set up; mean hope and justice and righteous judgment and unselfish action. Why, my fellow-citizens, it is an un- precedented thing in the world that any nation in determining its foreign relations should be unselfish, and my ambition is to see America set the great example ; not only a great ex- ample morally, but a great example intellectually. * * * ' Every man who has read and studied the great annals of this country may feel h;s blood warm as he feels these great forces of humanity growing stronger and stronger, not only, but knowing better and better from decade to decade how to concert action and unite their strength. In the days to come men will no longer wonder how America is going to work out her destiny, for she will have proclaimed to them that her destiny is not divided from the destiny of the world ; that her purpose is justice and love of mankind. New York Times, Nov. 5, 19 16. 50. THE RIGHT HAND TO LABOR (November 18, 19 16) Address to the American Federation of Labor at the White House I need not say that, coming to me as you do on such an errand, I am very deeply gratified and very greatly cheered. It would be impossible for me off-hand to say just what thoughts are stirred in me by what Mr. Gompers has said to me as your spokesman, but perhaps the simplest thing I i66 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 can say is, after all, the meat of the whole matter. What I have tried to do is to get rid of any class division in this country, not only, but of any class consciousness and feeling. The worst thing that could happen to America would be that she should be divided into groups and camps in which there were men and women who thought that they were, at odds with one another, that the spirit of America was not ex- pressed except in them, and that possibilities of antagonism were the only things that we had to look forward to. As Mr. Gompers said, achievement is a comparatively small matter, but the spirit in which things are done is of the essence of the whole thing, and what I am striving for, and what I hope you are striving for, is to blot out all the lines of division in America, and create a unity of spirit and of purpose founded upon this, the consciousness that we are all men and women of the same sort, and that if we do not un- derstand each other we are not true Americans. If we cannot enter into each other's thoughts, if we cannot com- prehend each other's interests, if we cannot ser\'e each oth- er's essential welfare, then we have not yet qualified as repre- sentatives of the American spirit. Nothing alarms America so much as rifts, divisions, the drifting apart of elements among her people, and the thing we ought all to strive for is to close up every rift; and the only way to do it, so far as I can see, is to establish justice not only, but justice with a heart in it, justice with a pulse in it, justice with sympathy in it. Justice can be cold and forbidding, or can be warm and w^elcome, and the latter is the only kind of justice that Americans ought to desire. I do not believe I am deceiving myself when I say that I think this spirit is growing in America. I pray God it may con- tinue to grow, and all I have to say is to exhort every one whom my voice reaches here or elsewhere to come into this common movement of humanity. New York Times, Nov. 19, 19 16. Dec. i8] THE WAY TO PEACE 167 51. THE WAY TO PEACE (December 18, 19 16) Despatch Partly in Reply to German Proposition of Peace, through Secretary Lansing The President of the United States has instructed me to suggest to the [here is inserted a designation of the Gov- ernment addressed] a course of action with regard to the present war which he hopes that the * * * Government will take under consideration as suggested in the most friendly spirit, and as coming not only from a friend but also as coming from the representative of a neutral nation whose interests have been most seriously affected by the war and whose concern for its early conclusion arises out of a manifest necessity to determine how best to safeguard those interests if the war is to continue. The suggestion which I am instructed to make the Presi- dent has long had it in mind to offer. He is somewhat em- barrassed to offer it at this particular time because it may now seem to have been prompted by a desire to play a part in connection with the recent overtures of the Central Pow- ers. It has in fact been in no way suggested by them in its origin and the President would have delayed offering it until those overtures had been independently answered but for the fact that it also concerns the questions of peace and may best be considered in connection with other proposals which have the same end in view. The President can only beg that his suggestion be considered entirely on its own merits and as if it had been made in other circumstances. The President suggests that an early occasion be sought to call out from all the nations now at war such an avowal of their respective views as to the terms upon which the war might be concluded and the arrangements which would be deemed satisfactory as a guaranty against its renewal or the kindling of any similar conflict in the future as would make it possible frankly to compare them. He is indifferent as to the means taken to accomplish this. He would be i6S ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 happy himself to serve, or even to take the initiative in its accomplishment, in any way that might prove acceptable, but he has no desire to determine the method or the instru- mentality. One way will be as acceptable to him as another if only the great object he has in mind be attained. He takes the liberty of calling attention to the fact that the objects which the statesmen of the belligerents on both sides have in mind in this war are virtually the same, as stated in general terms to their own people and to the world. Each side desires to make the rights and privileges of weak peoples and small states as secure against aggression or denial in the future as the rights and privileges of the great and powerful states now at war. Each wishes itself to be made secure in the future, along with all other nations and peoples, against the recurrence of wars like this, and against aggression or selfish interference of any kind. Each would be jealous of the formation of any more rival leagues to preserve an uncertain balance of powxr amidst multiplying suspicions; but each is ready to consider the formation of a league of nations to insure peace and justice throughout the world. Before that final step can be taken, however, each deems it necessary first to settle the issues of the present war upon terms which will certainly safeguard the independence, the territorial integrity, and the political and commercial free- dom of the nations involved. In the measures to be taken to secure the future peace of the world the people and Government of the United States are as vitally and as directly interested as the Governments novv' at v/ar. Their interest, moreover, in the means to be adopted to relieve the smaller and weaker peoples of the world of the peril of wrong and violence is as quick and ardent as that of any other people or Government. They stand ready, and even eager, to coop.erate in the accomplish- ijient of these ends, when tlie war is over, with every influence • and resource at their command. But the war must first be concluded. The terms upon which it is to be concluded they are not at liberty to suggest; but the President does feel that it is his right and his duty to point out their inti- mate interest in its conclusion, lest it should presently be too late to accomplish the greater things which lie beyond Dec. i8] THE WAY TO PEACE 169 its conclusion, lest the situation of neutral nations, now ex- ceedingly hard to endure, be rendered altogether intolerable, and lest, more than all, an injury be done civilization itself which can never be atoned for or repaired. The President therefore feels altogether justified in sug- gesting an immediate opportunity for a comparison of views as to the terms which must precede those ultimate arrange- ments for the peace of the world, w^hich all desire and in which the neutral nations as v/ell as those at war are ready to play their full responsible part. If the contest must continue to proceed toward undefined ends by slow attrition until the one group of belligerents or the other is exhausted, if millions after millions of human lives must continue to be offered up until on the one side or the other there are no more to offer, if resentments must be kindled that can never cool and despairs engendered from which there can be no recovery, hopes of peace and of the willing concert of free peoples will be rendered vain and idle. The life of the entire world has been profoundly affected. Every part of the great family of mankind has felt the burden and terror of this unprecedented contest of arms. No nation in the civilized world can be said in truth to stand outside its influence or to be safe against its disturb- ing effects. And yet the concrete objects for which it is being waged have never been definitively stated. The leaders of the several belligerents have, as has been said, stated those objects in general terms. But, stated in general terms, they seem the same on both sides. Never yet have the authoritative spokesm.en of either side avowed the precise objects which would, if attained, satisfy them and their people that the war had been fought out. The world has been left to conjecture what definitive results, what actual exchange of guaranties, what political or terri- torial changes or readjustments, w^hat stage of military suc- ces_s even, would bring the war to an end. It may be that peace is nearer than we know; that the terms which the belligerents on the one side and on the other would deem it necessary to insist upon are not so irreconciliable as some have feared; that an interchaniie of views would clear the way at least for conference and make 170 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1916 the permanent concord of the nations a hope of the imme- diate future, a concert of nations immediately practicable. The President is not proposing peace; he is not even offering mediation. He is merely proposing that soundings be taken in order that we may learn, the neutral nations with the belligerent, how near the haven of peace may be for which all mankind longs with an intense and increasing longing. He believes that the spirit in which he speaks and the objects which he seeks will be understood by all concerned, and he confidently hopes for a response which will bring a new light into the affairs of the world. Congressional Record, LIV, App. 36. YEAR 1917 52. SUPPORT FOR THE RED CROSS (January 7, 19 17) Public Appeal as President of the Red Cross Another Winter closes around the great European struggle and, with the cold, there comes greater need among soldiers in the fighting line and in the hospitals, and still more among the women and children in ruined homes or in exile. This country, at peace, blessed with prosperity, can hardly imagine the needs, but it can help to meet them. Of great importance among the agencies which have ex- pressed our sympathy with suffering humanity among the belligerent nations has been the American Red Cross. This organization of our countrymen has brought relief to every nation in the great war. Its skilled workers have cared for ■ 1 1 the wounded in every army, have gone forth through the des- I olate Siberian plains to bring help to thousands of prisoners, I have fought disease in pestilence-ridden Serbia, and have |i brought hope to countless non-combatants, women, and chil- dren. Wherever these Red Cross men and women go, they are carrying:; the message that Americans cannot rest without i| seeking to relieve such suffering. Organized, persistent work, I i like that conducted by our American Red Cross, requires a '! great deal of money. Since the beginning of the war, money llhas come to us from men and women in all walks of life. ! We have received checks in five figures and pennies wrapped in smudged envelopes. WTiat we have done with the money is told in the accompanying statement. But now our funds are well-nigh exhausted. We find 171 172 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1917 ourselves at the point where activities must be seriously cur- tailed and we must turn away from the heart-breaking appeals brought by every European mail, unless by your contribu- tion you help us to continue. It is for you to decide whether the most prosperous nation in the world will allow its national relief organization to keep up its work or withdraw from a field where there exists the greatest need ever recorded in history. We leave the decision in your hands, confident of its outcome. N€w York Times, Jan. 8, 19 17. 53. CONDITIONS OF PEACE (January 22, 19 17) Address to the Senate On the eighteenth of December last I addressed an identic note to the governments of the nations now at war request- ing them to state, more definitely than they had yet been stated by either group of belligerents, the terms upon which they would deem it possible to make peace. I spoke on be- half of humanity and of tlie rights of all neutral nations like our own, many of whose most vital interests the war puts in constant jeapardy. The Central Powers united in a reply which stated merely that they were ready to meet their an- tagonists in conference to discuss terms of peace. The En- tente Powers have replied much more definitely and have stated, in general terms, indeed, but with sufficient definite- ness to imply details, the arrangements, guarantees, and acts of reparation which they deem to be the indispensable con- ditions of a sp.tisfactory settlement. We are that much nearer a definite discussion of the peace which shall end the present war. We are that much nearer the discussion of the inter- national concert which must thereafter hold the world at peace. In every discussion of the peace that must end this war it is taken for granted that that peace must be followed by some definite concert of power which will make it virtually impossible that any such catastrophe should ever overwhelm Jan. 22] CONDITIONS OF PEACE 173 us again. Every lover of mankind, every sane and thought- ful man must take that for granted. I have sought this opportunity to address you because I thought that I owed it to you, as the council associated with me in the fmal determination of our international obliga- tions, to disclose to you without reserve the thought and purpose that have been taking form in my mind in regard to the duty of our Government in the days to come when it will be necessary to lay afresh and upon a new plan the foundations of peace among the nations. It is inconceivable that the people of the United States should play no part in that great enterprise. To take part in such a service will be the opportunity for which they have sought, to prepare themselves by the very principles and pur- poses of their polity and the approved practices of their Government ever since the days when they set up a new nation in the high and honorable hope that it might in all that it was and did show mankind the way to liberty. They cannot in honor withhold the service to which they are now about to be challenged. They do not wish to withhold it. But they owe it to themselves and to the other nations of the world to state the conditions under which they will feel free to render it. That service is nothing less than this, to add their authority and their power to the authority and force of other nations to guarantee peace and justice throughout the world. Such a settlement cannot now be long postponed. It is right that before it comes this Government should frankly formulate the conditions upon which it would feel justified in asking our people to approve its formal and solemn adherence to a League for Peace. I am here to attempt to state those con- ditions. The present war must first be ended; but we owe it to candour and to a just regard for the opinion of mankind to say that, so far as our participation in guarantees of future peace is considered, it makes a great deal of difference in what way and upon what terms it is ended. The treaties and agreements which bring it to an end must embody terms which will create a peace that is worth guaranteeing and preserving, a peace that will win the approval of mankind, 174 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 17 not merely a peace that will sen-e the several interests and immediate aims of the nations engaged. We shall have no voice in determining what those terms shall be, but we shall, I feel sure, have a voice in determining whether they shall be made lasting or not by the guarantees of a universal cove- nant; and our judgment upon what is fundamental and es- sential as a condition precedent to permanency should be spoken now, not afterwards when it may be too late. No covenant of cooperative peace that does not include the peoples of the New World can suffice to keep the future safe against war; and yet there is only one sort of peace that the peoples of America could join in guaranteeing. The elements of that peace must be elements that engage the confidence and satisfy the principles of the American gov- ernments, elements consistent with their political faith and with the practical convictions which the peoples of America have once for all embraced and undertaken to defend. I do not mean to say that any American government would throw any obstacle in the way of any terms of peace the governments now at war might agree upon, or seek to upset them when made, whatever they might be. I only take it for granted that mere terms of peace between the belligerents vnll not satisfy even the belligerents themselves. Mere agree- ments may not make peace secure. It will be absolutely necessary that a force be created as a guarantor of the per- manency of the settlement so much greater than the force of any nation now engaged or any alliance hitherto formed or projected that no nation, no probable combination of na- tions could face or withstand it. If the peace presently to be made is to endure, it must be a peace m,ade secure by the organized major force of mankind. The terms of the immediate peace agreed upon will deter- mine whether it is a peace for which such a guarantee can be secured. The question upon which the whole future peace and policy of the world depends is this: Is the present war a struggle for a just and secure peace, or only for a new balance of power? If it be only a struggle for a new balance of power, who will guarantee, who can guarantee, the stable equilibrium of the new arrangement? Only a tranquil Europe Jan. 22] CONDITIONS OF PEACE 175 can be a stable Europe. There must be, not a balance of power, but a comniiirity of power; not organized rivalries, but an organized common peace. Fortunately we have received very explicit assurances on this point. The statesmen of both of the groups of nations now arrayed against one another have said, in terms that could not be misinterpreted, that it was no part of the pur- pose they had in mind to crush their antagonist?. But the implications of these assurances may not be equally clear to all, — may not be the same on both sides of the water. I think it will be serviceable if I attempt to set forth what we understand them to be. They imply, first of all, that it_must be a peace without victory^ It is not pleasant to say this. I beg that I may be pefmifted to put my own interpretation upon it and that it may be understood that no other interpretation was in my thought. I am seeking only to face realities and to face them without soft concealments. Victory would mean peace forced upon the loser, a victor's terms imposed upon the van- quished. It would be accepted in humiliation, under duress, at an intolerable sacrifice, and would leave a sting, a resent- ment, a bitter memory upon which terms of peace would rest, not permanently, but only as upon quicksand. .Only a peace between equals can last. Only a peace the very principle of which is equality and a common participation in a common benefit. The right state of mind, the right feeling between nations, is as necessary for a lasting peace as is the just settlement of vexed questions of territory or of racial and national allegiance. The equality of nations upon which peace must be founded if it is to last must be an equality of rights; the guarantees exchanged must neither recognize nor imply a difference between big nations and small, between those that are pow- erful and those that are weak. Right must be based upon the common strength, not upon the individual strength, of the nations upon whose concert peace will depend. Equality of territory or of resources there of course cannot be; nor any other sort of equality not gained in the ordinary peace- ful and legitimate development of the peoples themselves. 176 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1917 But no one asks or expects anything more than an equality of rights. Mankind is looking now for freedom of life, not for equipoises of power. And there is a deeper thing involved than even equality of right among organized nations. No peace can last, or ought to last, which does not recognize and accept the prin- ciple that governments derjve all their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that no right anywhere exists to hand peoples about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were property. I take it for granted, for instance, if I may venture upon a single example, that statesmen every- where are agreed that there should be a united, independent, and autonomous Poland, and that henceforth inviolable secur- ity of life, of worship, and of industrial and social develop- ment should be guaranteed to all peoples who have lived hitherto under the power of governments devoted to a faith and purpose hostile to their own. I speak of this, not because of any desire to exalt an abstract political principle which has always been held very dear by those who have sought to build up liberty in Amer- ica, but for the same reason that I have spoken of the other conditions of peace which seem to me clearly indispensable, — because I wish frankly to uncover realities. Any peace which does not recognize and accept this principle will ine\'itably be upset. It will not rest upon the affections or the con- victions of mankind. The ferment of spirit of whole popu- lations v/ill fight subtly and constantly against it, and all the world will sympathize. The world can be at peace only if its life is stable, and there can be no stability where the v/ill is in rebellion, where there is not tranquility of spirit and a sense of justice, of freedom, and of right. So far as practicable, moreover, every great people now struggling towards a full development of its resources and of its powers should be assured a direct outlet to the great hiirhways of the sea. Where this cannot be done by the cession of territory, it can no doubt be done by the neutralization of direct rights of way under the general guarantee which will assure the peace itself. With a right comity of arrange- ment no nation need be shut away from free access to the open paths of the world's commerce. Jan. 2 2 ] CONDITIONS OF PEACE 1 7 7 And the paths of the sea must alike in law and in fact be free. The freedom of the seas is the sine qua non of peace, equality, and cooperation. No doubt a somewhat radical reconsideration of many of the rules of international prac- tice hitherto thought to be established may be necessary in order to make the seas indeed free and common in practically all circumstances for the use of mankind, but the motive for such changes is convincing and compelling. There can be no trust or intimacy between the peoples of the world without them. The free, constant, unthreatened intercourse of na- tions is an essential part of the process of peace and of development. It need not be difficult either to define or to secure the freedom of the seas if the governments of the world sincerely desire to come to an agreement concerning it. It is a problem closely connected with the limitation of naval armaments and the cooperation of the navies of the world in keeping the seas at once free and safe. And the question of limiting naval armaments opens the wider and perhaps more difficult question of the limitation of armies and of all programmes of military preparation. Difficult and delicate as these questions are, tiiey must be faced with the utmost candour and decided in a spirit of real accommodation if peace is to come with healing in its wings, and come to ,stay. Peace cannot be had without concession and sacrifice. There can be no sense of safety and equality among the na- tions if great preponderating armaments are henceforth to continue here and there to be built up and maintained. The statesmen of the world must plan for peace and nations must adjust and accommodate their policy to it as they have planned for war and made ready for pitiless contest and rivalry. The question of armaments, whether on land or sea, is the most immediately and intensely practical question con- nected with the future fortunes of nations and of mankind. I have spoken upon these great matters without reserve and with the utmost explicitness because it has seemed to me to be necessary if the world's yearning desire for peace was anywhere to find free voice and utterance. Perhaps I am the only person in high authority amongst all the peoples of the 178 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1917 world who is at liberty to speak and hold nothing back. I am speaking as an individual, and yet I am speaking also, of course, as the responsible head of a great government, and I feel confident that I have said what the people of the United States would wish me to say. May I not add that I hope and believe that I am in effect speaking for liberals and friends of humanity in every nation and of every pro- gramme of liberty? I would fain believe that I am speaking for the silent mass of mankind everywhere who have as yet had no place or opportunity to speak their real hearts out concerning the death and ruin they see to have come already upon the persons and the homes they hold most dear. And in holding out the expectation that the people and Government of the United States will join the other civilized nations of the world in guaranteeing the permanence of peace upon such terms as I have named I speak mth the greater boldness and confidence because it is clear to every man who can think that there is in this promise no breach in either our traditions or our policy as a nation, but a ful- filment, rather, of all that we have professed or striven for. I am proposing, as it were, that the nations should with one accord adopt the doctrine of President Monroe as the doctrine of the world: that no nation should seek to extend its polity over any other nation or people, but that every people should be left free to determine its own polity, its own way of development, unhindered, unthreatened, unafraid, the little along with the great and powerful. I am proposing that all nations henceforth avoid entangling alliances which would draw them into competitions of power, catch them in a net of intrigue and selfish rivalry, and disturb their own affairs with influences intruded from without. There is no entangling alliance in a concert of power. When all unite to act in the sam.e sense and with the same purpose all act in the common interest and are free to live their own lives under a common protection. I am proposing government by the consent of the governed ; that freedom of the seas which in international conference after conference representatives of the United States have urged with the eloquence of those who are the convinced disciples of liberty; and that moderation of armament? Jan. 22] CONDITIONS OF PEACE 179 which makes of armies and navies a power for order merely, not an instrument of aggression or of selfish violence. These are American principles, American policies. We could stand for no others. And they are also the prin- ciples and policies of forward looking men and women everywhere, of every modem nation, of every enlightened community. They are the principles of mankind and must prevail. White House Pamphlet. 54. BREACH WITH GERMANY (February 3, 191 7) Address to Congress The Imperial German Government on the thirty-first of January announced to this Government and to the govern- ments of the other neutral nations that on and after the first day of February, the present month, it would adopt a policy with regard to the use of submarines against all shipping seeking to pass through certain designated areas of the high seas to which it is clearly my duty to call your attention. Let me remind the Congress that on the eighteenth of April last, in view of the sinking on the twenty- fourth of March of the cross-channel passenger steamer Sussex by a German submarine, without summons or warning, and the consequent loss of the lives of several citizens of the United States Avho were passengers aboard her, this Government addressed a note to the Imperial German Government in which it made the following declaration: *Tf it is still the purpose of the Imperial Government to prosecute relentless and indiscriminate warfare against ves- sels of commerce by the use of submarines without regard to what the Government of the United States must con- sider the sacred and indisputable rules of international law and the universally recognized dictates of humanity, the Government of the United States is at last forced to the conclusion that there is but one course it can pursue. Un- less the Imperial Government should now immediately de- i8o ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [191 7 dare and effect an abandonment of its present methods of submarine warfare against passenger and freight-carrying vessels, the Government of the United States can have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the German Empire altogether." In reply to this declaration the Imperial German Govern- ment gave this Government the following assurance: 'The German Government is prepared to do its utmost to confine the operations of war for the rest of its duration to the fighting forces of the belligerents, thereby also insuring the freedom of the seas, a principle upon which the German Government believes, now as -before, to be in agreement with the Government of the United States. ''The German Government, guided by this idea, notifies the Government of the United States that the German naval forces have received the following orders: In accord- ance with the general principles of visit and search and de- struction of merchant vessels recognized by international law, such vessels, both within and \^ithout the area declared as nav?J war zone, shall not be sunk \vithout warning and without saving human lives, unless these ships attempt to escape or offer resistance. "But," it added, "neutrals can not expect that Germany, forced to fight for her existence, shall, for the sake of neutral interest, restrict the use of an effective weapon if her enemy is permitted to continue to apply at will methods of war- fare violating the rules of international law. Such a demand would be incompatible with the character of neutrality, and the German Government is convinced that the Government of the United States does not think of m.aking such a de- mand, knoT\ing that the Government of the United States has ref)eatedly declared that it is determined to restore the principle of the freedom of the seas, from whatever quarter it has been violated." To this the Government of the United States replied on the eighth of May, accepting, of course, the assurances given, but adding, "The Government of the Uni^^^ed States feels it necessary to state that it takes it for granted that the Imperial German Government does not intend to imply that the maintenance Feb. 3] BREACH WITH GERMANY tS of its newly announced policy is in any way contingent upon the course or result of diplomatic negotiations between the Government of the United States and any other belligerent Government, notwithstanding the fact that certain passages in the Imperial Government's note of the 4th instant might appear to be susceptible of that construction. In order, however, to avoid any possible misunderstanding, the Gov- ernment of the United States notifies the Imperial Govern- ment that it can not for a moment entertain, much less discuss, a suggestion that respect by Germ.an naval authori- ties for the rights of citizens of the United States upon the high seas should in any way or in the slightest degree be made contingent upon the conduct of any other Govern- ment affecting the rights of neutrals and noncom.batants. Responsibility in such matters is single, not joint; absolute, not relative." To this note of the eighth of May the Imperial German Government made no reply. On the thirty-first of January, the Wednesday of the pres- ent week, the German Ambassador handed to the Secretary of State, along \\ith a formal note, a memiorandum which contains the following statement: "The Imperial Government, therefore, does not doubt that the Government of the United States will understand the situation thus forced upon Germany by the Entente-Allies' brutal methods of war and by their determination to destroy the Central Powers, and that the Government of the United States will further realize that the now openly disclosed intentions of the Entente-Allies give back to Germany the freedom of action which she reserved in her note addressed to the Government of the United States on May 4, 19 16. "Under these circumstances Germany w^ll meet the illegal measures of her enemies by forcibly preventing after Feb- ruary I, 191 7, in a zone around Great Britain, France, Italy, and in the Eastern Jvlediterranean all navigation, that of neutrals included, from and to England and from and to France, etc., etc. All ships met within the zone will be sunk." I think that you will agree with me that, in view of this declaration, which suddenly and without prior intimation of i82 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1917 any kind deliberately v/ithdraws the solemn assurance given in the Imperial Government's note of the fourth of May, 19 1 6, this Government has no alternative consistent with the dignity and honor of the United States but to take the course which, in its note of the eighteenth of April, 10 16, it announced that it would take in the event that the Gernmn Government did not declare and effect an abandonment of the methods of submarine warfare which it v/as then em- ploying and to which it now purposes again to resort. I have, therefore, directed the Secretary of State to an- nounce to His Excellency the German Ambassador that all diplomatic relations between the United States and the German Empire are severed, and that the American Ambas- sador at Berlin will immediately be withdrawn; and, in accordance with this decision, to hand to His Excellency his passports. Notwithstanding this unexpected action of the German Government, this sudden and deeply deplorable renunciation of its assurances, given this Government at one of the most critical moments of tension in tire relations of the two govern- ments, I refuse to believe that it is the intention of the German authorities to do in fact what they have warned us they will feel at liberty to do. I can not bring myself to believe that they will indeed pay no regard to the ancient friendship between their people and our own or to the solemn obligations which have been exchanged between them and destroy American ships and take the lives of American citizens in the wilful prosecution of the ruthless naval pro- gramme they have announced their intention to adopt. Only actual overt acts on their part can make me believe it even now. If this inveterate confidence on my part in the sobriety and prudent foresight of their purpose should unhappily prove unfounded; if American ships and American lives should in fact be sacrificed by their naval commanders in heedless contravention of the just and reasonable under- standings of international law and the obvious dictates of humanity, I shall take the liberty of coming again before the Congress, to ask that authority be given me to use any means that may be necessary for the protection of our sea- Feb. 3] BREACH WITH GERMANY 183 men and our people in the prosecution of their peaceful and legitimate errands on the high seas. I can do nothing , less. I take it for granted that all neutral governments will j take the same course. i We do not desire any hostile conflict with the Imperial German Government. We are the sincere friends of the German people and earnestly desire to remain at peace with the Government which speaks for them. We shall not be- lieve that they are hostile to us unless and until we are obliged to believe it; and we purpose nothing more than the reasonable defense of the undoubted rights of our people. We wish to serve no selfish ends. We ?eek merely to stand true alike in thought and in action to the immemorial prin- ciples of our people which I sought to express in my address to the Senate only two weeks ago, — seek merely to vindi- cate our right to liberty and justice and an unmolested life. These are the bases of peace, not war. God grant we may not be challenged to defend them by acts of wilful injustice on the part of the Government of Germany! White House Pamphlet. 55. A GREAT INVENTOR (February 10, 19 17) Letter to Thomas A. Edison on His 70TH Birthday I wish with all my heart that I might be present to take part in celebrating Mr. Edison's seventieth birthday. It would be a real pleasure to be able to say in public with what deep and genuine admiration I have followed his remarkable career of achievement. I was an undergraduate at the university when his first inventions captured the imagination of the world, and ever since then I have retained the sense of magic which what he did then created in my mind. He seems always to have been in the special confidence of Nature herself. His career already has made an indelible impression in the history of applied science, and I hope that he has many years before him in which to make his record still more remarkable. New York Times, Feb. 11, 191 7. i84 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1917 56. POLITICAL PRINCIPLES OF AMERICANS (March 5, 1917) Second Inaugural Address The four years which have elapsed since last I stood in this place have been crowded with counsel and action of the most vital interest and consequence. Perhaps no equal period in our history has been so fruitful of important re- forms in our economic and industrial life or so full of sig- nificant changes in the spirit and purpose of our political action. We have sought very thoughtfully to set our house in order, correct the grosser errors and abuses of our indus- trial life, liberate and quicken the processes of our national genius and energy, and lift our politics to a broader view of the people's essential interests. It is a record of singular variety and singular distinction. But I shall not attempt to review it. It speaks for itself and will be of increasing influence as the years go by. This is not the time for retro- spect. It is time, rather, to speak our thoughts and purposes concerning the present and the immediate future. Although we have centered counsel and action with such unusual concentration and success upon the great problems of domestic legislation to which we addressed ourselves four years ago, other matters have more and more forced them- selves upon our attention, matters lying outside our own life as a nation and over which we had no control, but which, despite our wish to keep free of them, have drawn us more and more irresistibly into their ovm current and influence. It has been impossible to avoid them. They have affected the life of the whole world. They have shaken men every- where Vv'ith a passion and an apprehension tliey never knew before. It has been hard to preserve calm counsel while the thought of our own people swayed this way and that under their influence. We are a composite and cosmopolitan peo- ple. We are of the blood of all the nations that are at war. The currents of our thoughts as well as the currents of our trade run quick at all seasons back and forth between us and them. The war inevitably set its mark from the first Mar. 5] AMERICAN POLITICAL PRINCIPLES 185 alike upon our minds, our industries, our commerce, our politics, and our social action. To be indifferent to it or independent of it was out of the question. And yet all the while we have been conscious that we were not part of it. In that consciousness, despite many- divisions, we have drawn closer together. We have been deeply wronged upon the seas, but we have not wished to wrong or injure in return; have retained throughout the consciousness of standing in some sort apart, intent upon an interest that transcended the immediate issues of the war itself. As some of the injuries done us have become intol- erable we have still been clear that we wished nothing for ourselves that we were not ready to demand for all man- kind, — fair dealing, justice, the freedom to live and be at ease against organized wrong. It is in this spirit and v\^ith this thought that we have gro\Mi more and more aware, more and more certain that the part we wished to play was the part of those who mean to vindicate and fortify peace. We have been obliged to arm ourselves to make good our claim to a certain minimum of right and of freedom of action. We stand firm in armed neutrality since it seems that in no other way can we demon- strate what it is we insist upon and cannot forego. We may even be drawn on, by circumstances, not by our own purpose or desire, to a more active assertion of our rights as we see them and a more immediate association with the great struggle itself. But nothing will alter our thought or our purpose. They are too clear to be obscured. They are too deeply rooted in the principles of our national life to be altered. We desire neither conquest nor advantage. We wish nothing that can be had only at the cost of another people. We have ahvays professed unselfish purpose and we covet the opportunity to prove that our professions are sincere. There are many things still to do at home, to clarify our own politics and give new vitality to the industrial processes of our own life, and we shall do them as time and oppor- tunity serve; but w^e realize that the greatest things that remain to be done must be done with the whole world for stage and in cooperation with the wide and universal forces i86 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1917 of mankind, and we are making our spirits ready for those things. They will follow in the immediate wake of the war itself and will set civilization up again. We are provincials no longer. The tragical events of the thirty months of vital turmoil through which we have just passed have made us citizens of the world. There can be no turning back. Our own fortunes as a nation are involved, whether we would have it so or not. And yet we are not the less Americans on that account. We shall be the more American if we but remain true to the principles in which we have been bred. They are not the principles of a province or of a single continent. We have known and boasted all along that they were the principles of a liberated mankind. These, therefore, are the things we shall stand for, whether in war or in peace: That all nations are equally interested in the peace of the world and in the political stability of free peoples, and equally responsible for their maintenance; That the essential principle of peace is the actual equality of nations in all matters of right or privilege; That peace cannot securely or justly rest upon an armed balance of power; That governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed and that no other powers should be supported by the common thought, purpose, or power of the family of nations. That the seas should be equally free and safe for the use of all peoples, under rules set up by common agreement and consent, and that, so far as practicable, they should be accessible to all upon equal terms; That national armaments should be limited to the necessi- ties of national order and domestic safety; That the community of interest and of power upon which peace must henceforth depend imposes upon each nation the duty of seeing to it that all influences proceeding from its owTi citizens meant to encourasie or assist revolution in other states should be sternly and effectually suppressed and prevented. I need not argue these principles to you, my fellow coun- trymen: they are your own, part and peircel of your own Mar. 5] AMERICAN POLITICAL PRINCIPLES 187 thinking and your own motive in affairs. They spring up native amongst us. Upon this as a platform of purpose and of action we can stand together. And it is imperative that we should stand together. We are being forged into a new unity amidst the fires that now blaze throughout the world. In their ardent heat we shall, in God's providence, let us hope, be purged of faction and division, purified of the errant humors of party cind of private interest, and shall stand forth in the days to come with a new dignity of national pride and spirit. Let each man see to it that the dedication is in his own heart, the high purpose of the Nation in his own mind, ruler of his own will and desire. I stand here and have taken the high and solemn oath to which you have been audience because the people of the United States have chosen me for this august delegation of power and have by their gracious judgment named me their leader in affairs. I know now what the task means. I realize to the full the responsibility which it involves. I pray God I may be given the wisdom and the prudence to do my duty in the true spirit of this great people. I am their servant and can succeed only as they sustain and guide me by their confidence and their counsel. The thing I shall count upon, the thing without which neither counsel nor action will avail, is the unity of America, — an America united in feeling, in purpose, and in its vision of duty, of oppor- tunity, and of service. We are to beware of all men who would turn the tasks and the necessities of the Nation to their outi private profit or use them for the building up of private power; beware that no faction or disloyal intrigue break the harmony or embarrass the spirit of our people; beware that our Government be kept pure and incorrupt in all its parts. United alike in the conception of our duty and in the high resolve to perform it in the face of all men, let us dedicate ourselves to the great task to which we must now set our hand. For myself I beg your tolerance, your countenance, and your united aid. The shadows that now lie dark upon our path will soon be dispelled and we shall walk with the light all about us if we be but true to our- selves, — to ourselves as we have wished to be known in the 1 88 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 17 counsels of the world and in the thought of all those who love liberty and justice and the right exalted. White House Pamphlet. 57. NECESSITY OF WAR AGAINST GERMANY (April 2, 191 7) Address to Congress I have called the Congress into extraordinary session be- cause there are serious, very serious, choices of policy to be made, and made immediately, which it was neither right nor constitutionally permissible that I should assume the respon- sibility of making. On the third cf February last I cfncidly laid before you the extraordinary announcement of the Imperial German Governm.ent that on and after the first day of February it was its purpose to put aside all restraints of law or of humanity and use its submarines to sink every vessel that sought to approach either the ports of Great Britain and Ireland cr the western coasts of Europe cr any of the ports controlled by the enemies of Germany within the Mediter- ranean. That had seemed to be the object of the German submarine warfare earlier in the war, but since April of last year the Im.perial Government had somewhat restrained the commanders of its undersea craft in conformity vrith its promise then given to us that passenger boats should not be sunk and that due warning would be given to all other vessels which its submarines might seek to destroy, w^hen no resist- ance was offered or escape attempted, and care taken that their crews were given at least a fair chance to save their lives in their open boats. The precautions taken were meagre and haphazard enough, as was proved in distressing instance after instance in the progress of the cruel and unmanly business, but a certain degree of restraint was observed. The new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, tjieir cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruth- Apr. 2] NECESSITY OF WAR AGAINST GERMANY 189 lessly sent to the bottom without warning and without thought of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents. Even hospital ships and ships carrying relief to the sorely bereaved and stricken people of Belgium, though the latter were pro-i vided with safe conduct through the proscribed areas by the, German Government itself and were distinguished by un- mistakable marks of identity, have been sunk with the sameaj reckless lack of compassion or of principle. J I was for a little while unable to believe that such things would in fact be done by any government that had hitherto subscribed to the humane practices of civilized nations. International law had its origin in the attempt to set up some law which would be respected and observed upon the seas, vrhere no nation had right of dominion and where lay the free highways of the world. By painful stage after stage has that law been built up, with meagre enough results, indeed, after all was accomplished that could be accom- plished, but alvv-ays with a clear view, at least, of what the heart and conscience of mankind demanded. This minimum of right the German Government has swept aside under the plea of retaliation and necessity and because it had no weapons which it could use at sea except these which it is impossible to employ as it is employing them without throw- ing to the vrinds all scruples of humanity or of respect for tlie world. I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction of the lives of non-com- batants, men, women, and children, engaged in pursuitkl which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern'" history, been deemed innocent and legitimate. Property can^ be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent people cannot be. The present German submarine warfare against com- merce is a warfare against mankind. It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of othe* neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There has been no dis- crimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation 190 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1917 must decide for itself how it will meet it. The choice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our char- acter and our motives as a nation. We must put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be revenge or the vic- torious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion. When I addressed the Congress on the twenty-sixth of February last I thought that it would suffice to assert our neutral rights with arms, our right to use the seas against unlawful interference, our right to keep our people safe against unlawful violence. But armed neutrality, it now appears, is impracticable. Because submarines are in effect outlaws when used as the German submarines have been used against merchant shipping, it is impossible to defend ships against their attacks as the laws of nations has assumed that merchantmen would defend themselves against priva- teers or cruisers, visible craft giving chase upon the open sea. It is common prudence in such circumstances, grim necessity indeed, to endeavor to destroy them before they have sho\Mi their own intention. They must be dealt with upon sight, if dealt with at all. The German Government denies the right of neutrals to use arms at all within the areas of the sea which it has proscribed, even in the defense of rights which no modern publicist has ever before questioned their right to defend. The intimation is conveyed that the armed guards which we have placed on our merchant ships will be treated as beyond the pale of law and subject to be dealt w^th as pirates would be. Armed neutrality is ineffectual enough at best; in such circumstances and in the face of such pretensions it is worse than ineffectual: it is likely only to produce what it was meant to prevent; it is practically certain to draw us into the war without either the rights or the effectiveness of belligerents. There is one choice we cannot make, we are incapable of makmg; we will not choose the path of submission and suffer the most sacred rights of our nation and our people to be ignored or violated. The wrongs against which we now array ourselves are no common wrongs; they cut to the very roots of human life. Apr. 2] NECESSITY OF WAR AGAINST GERMANY 191 With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of the step I am taking and of the s^rave respon- sibilities which it involves, but in unhesitating obedience to what I deem my constitutional dut}-, I advise that the Con- gress declare the recent course of the Imperial German Gov- ernment to be in fact nothing less than war against the government and people of the United States; that it for- mally accept the status of belligerent which has thus been thrust upon it; and that it take immediate steps not only to put the country in a more thorough state of defense but also to exert all its power and employ all its resources to bring the Government of the German Empire to terms and end the war. What this will involve is clear. It will involve the utmost practicable cooperation in counsel and action with the gov- ernments now at war with Germany, and, as incident to that, the extension to those governments of the most liberal financial credits, in order that our resources may so far as possible be added to theirs. It will involve the organiza- tion and mobilization of all the material resources of the country to supply the materials of war and serve the inci- dental needs of the nation in the most abundant and yet the most economical and efficient way possible. It will in- volve the immediate full equipment of the navy in all respects but particularly in supplying it with the best means of deal- ing with tlie enemy's submarines. It will involve the imme- diate addition to the armed forces of the United States already provided for by law in case of war at least five hundred thousand men, who should, in my opinion, be chosen upon the principle of universal liability to service, and also the authorization of subsequent additional increments of equal force so soon as they may be needed and can be handled in training. It will involve also, of course, the granting of adequate credits to the Government, sustained, I hope, so far as they can equitably be sustained by the present generation, by well conceived taxation. I say sustained so far as may be equitable by taxation/ because it seems to me that it would be most unwise to base the credits which will now be necessary entirely oii money borrowed. It is our duty, I most respectfully urge,\ 192 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [191 7 to protect our people so far as we may against the very serious hardships and evils which would be likely to arise out of the inflation which would be produced by vast loans. In carrying out the measures by which these things are to be accomplished we should keep constantly in mind the wisdom of interfering as little as possible in our o-\vn prepa- ration and in the equipment of our own military forces with the duty, — for it will be a very practical duty, — of supply- ing the nations already at war with Germany with the ma- terials which they can obtain only from us or by our assist- ance. They are in the field and we should help them in every way to be effective there. I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through the several J I executive departments of the Govemm.ent, for the considera- !j tion of your committees, measures for the accomplishment |i of the several objects I have mentioned. I hope that it will \\he your pleasure to deal with them as having been framed 1 1 after very careful thought by the branch of the Government jupon which the responsibility of conducting the war and /| safeguarding the nation will most directly fall. While we do these things, these deeply momentous tilings, let us be very clear, and make very clear to all the world what our motives and our objects are. My own thought has not been driven from its habitual and norm.al course by the unhappy events of the last two months, and I do not believe that the thought of the nation has been altered or clouded by them. I have exactly the same things in mind now that I had in mind when I addressed the Senate on the tvrenty-second of January last; the same that I had in mind when I addressed the Congress on the third of February and on the twenty-sixth of February. Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the world as against selfish and autocratic power and to set up amongst the really free and self-governed peoples of the world such a concert of purpose and of action as will henceforth ensure the observance of those principles. Neu- Itrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of the world is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and the menace to that peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic governments backed by organized force which is Apr. 2] NECESSITY OF WAR AGAINST GERMANY 193 controlled wholly by their will, not by the -will of their f people. We have seen the last of neutrality in such circum- i stances. We are at the beginning of an age in which it will be insisted that the same standards of conduct and of re- sponsibility for wrong done shall be observed among nations and their governments that are observed among the individ- ual citizens of civilized states. We have no quarrel with the German people. We have no feeling towards them but one of sympathy and friend- ship. It was not upon their impulse that their government f acted in entering this war. It was not with their previous knowledge or approval. It v/as a war determined upon as wars used to be determined upon in the old, unhappy days when peoples were nowhere consulted by their rulers and \ wars were provoked and waged in the interest of d3masties ) or of little groups of ambitious men who v\"ere accustomed to ' use their fellow men as pawnis and tools. Self-governed • nations do not fill their neighbor states with spies or set the course of intrigue to bring about some critical posture of affairs which will give them an opportunity to strike and make conquest. Such designs can be successfully worked out only under cover and where no one has the right to ask questions. Cunningly contrived plans of deception or ag- gression, carried, it m,ay be, from generation to generation,. can be v/orked out and kept from the light only within the privacy of courts cr behind the carefully guarded con- fidences of a narrow and privileged class. They are happily impossible where public opinion commands and insists upon full information concerning all the nation's affairs. A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained ex- f cept by a partnership of democratic nations. No autocratic r government could be trusted to keep faith within it or observe! its covenants. It must be a league of honor, a partnership of opinion. Intrigue would eat its vitals away; the plottings of inner circles w^ho could plan what they would and render account to no one would be a corruption seated at its very heart. Only free peoples can hold their purpose and their honor steady to a common end and prefer the interests of ■ mankind to any narrow interest of their owti. Does not every American feel that assurance has been 194 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1917 added to our hope for the future peace of the world by the wonderful and heartening things that have been happening within the last few weeks in Russia? Russia was known by those w'-o knew it best to have been always in fact demo- cratic at heart, in all the vital habits of her thought, in all the intimate relationships of her people that spoke their natural instinct, their habitual attitude towards life. The autocracy that crowned the summit of her political structure, long as it had stood and terrible as was the reality of its power, was not in fact Russian in origin, character, or pur- pose; and now it has been shaken off and the great, gen- erous Russian people have been added in all their naive majesty and might to the forces that are fighting for freedom in the world, for justice, and for peace. Here is a fit partner for a League of Honor. One of the things that has served to convince us that the Prussian autocracy was not and could never be our friend is that from the very outset of the present war it has filled our unsuspecting communities and even our offices of govern- ment with spies and set criminal intrigues everyvvhere afoot against our national unity of counsel, our peace ^^^thin and ■without, our industries and our commerce. Indeed it is now evident that its spies were here even' before the war began; and it is unhappily not a matter of conjecture but a fact proved in our courts of justice that the intrigues which have more than once come perilously near to disturbing the peace and dislocating the industries of the country have been car- ried on at the instigation, with the support, and even under the personal direction of official agents of the Imperial Government accredited to the Government of the United States. Even in checking these things and trying to extir- pate them we have sought to put the most generous inter- pretation possible upon them because we knew that their source lay, not in any hostile feeling or purpose of the Ger- man people towards us (who were, no doubt, as ignorant of them as we ourselves wTre), but only in the selfish designs of a Government that did what it pleased and told its people nothing. But they have played their part in serving to con- vince us at last that that Government entertains no real friendship for us and means to act against our peace and Apr. 2] NECESSITY OF WAR AGAINST GERMANY 195 security at its convenience. That it means to stir up enemies^ against us at our very doors the intercepted note to the ." German Minister at Mexico City is eloquent evidence. ' We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose because we know that in such a government, following such methods, we can never have a friend; and that in the presence of its organized power, always lying in wait to accomplish we know not what purpose, there can be no assured security for the democratic governments of the world. We are now about to accept gauge of battle with this natural foe to liberty and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the nation to check and nullify its pretensions and its power. We are glad, now that we see the facts with no veil of false pre- tense about them, to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its peoples, the German peo- ples included: for the rights of nations great and small and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and of obedience. The world must be made safe for democ- j^cy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We must have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemni- ties for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them. Just because we fight without rancor and without selfish object, seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to share with all free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, con- duct our operations as belligerents without passion and our- selves observe with proud punctilio the principles of right and of fair play we profess to be fighting for. I have said nothing of the governments allied \vith the Imperial Government of Germany because they have not made war upon us or challenged us to defend our right and our honor. The Austro-Hungarian Government has, indeed, avowed its unqualified endorsement and acceptance of the reckless and lawless submarine warfare adopted now without disguise by the Imperial German Government, and it has therefore not been possible for this Government to receive 196 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 17 Count Tarnowski, the Ambassador recently accredited to this Government by the Imperial and Royal Government of Austria-Hungary; but that Government has not actually engaged in warfare against citizens of the United States on the seas, and I take the liberty, for the present at least, of postponing a discussion of our relations with the authorities at Vienna. We enter this war only where we are clearly forced into it because there are no other means of defending our rights. It vdW be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as belligerents in a high spirit of right and fairness because we act without animus, not in enmity towards a people or with the desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon them, but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible government which has thrown aside all considerations of humanity and of right and is running amuck. We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of the German people, and shall desire nothing so much as the early reestablish men t of intimate relations of mutual advantage between us, — however hard it may be for them, for the time being, to believe that this is spoken from our hearts. We have borne with their present government through all these bitter months because of that friendship, — exercising a patience and forbearance which would othervvise have been impossible. We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friendship in our daily attitude and actions towards the millions of men and women of German birth and native sympathy who live amongst us and share our life, and we shall be proud to prove it towards all who are in fact loyal to their neighbors and to the Government in the hour of test. They are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans as if they had never knowTi any other fealty or allegiance. They will be prompt to stand vrith us in rebuking and restraining the few who may be of a different mind and purpose. If there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with with a firm hand of stern repression; but, if it lifts its head at all, it will lift it only here and there and without countenance except from a law- less and malignant few. It is a distressing and oppressive duty. Gentlemen of the Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. Apr. 2] NECESSITY OF WAR AGAINST GERMANY 197 There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacri- fice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disas- trous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance: But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts, — for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own. govern- ments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and every- thing that w^e have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come v»^en America is privileged to spend her blood and her mJght for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other. White House Pamphlet. 58. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE MUST SUPPORT THE WAR (April 16, 191 7) Public Appeal by the President to His Fellow Countrymen The entrance of our own beloved country into the grim and terrible war for democracy and human rights which has shaken the world creates so many problems of national life and action which call for immediate consideration and settle- ment that I hope you will permit me to address to you a few words of earnest counsel and appeal with regard to them. We are rapidly putting our navy upon an effective war footing and are about to create and equip a great army, but these are the simplest parts of the great task to which we have addressed ourselves. There is not a single selfish ele- ment, so far as I can see, in the cause we are fighting for. igS ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 17 We are fighting for what we believe and wish to be the rights of mankind and for the future peace and security of the world. To do this great thing worthily and successfully we must devote ourselves to the service without regard to profit or material advantage and with an energy and intelligence that will rise to the level of the enterprise itself. We must realize to the full how great the task is and how many things, and how many kinds and elements of capacity and service and self-sacrifice, it involves. These, then, are the things we must do, and do well, be- sides fighting, — the things without which mere fighting would be fruitless: We must supply abundant food for ourselves and for our armies and our seamen not only, but also for a large part of the nations with whom we have now made common cause, in whose support and by whose sides we shall be fighting; We must supply ships by the hundreds out of our ship- yards to carry to the other side of the sea, submarines or no submarines, what will every day be needed there, and abun- dant materials out of our fields and our mines and our factories with which not only to clothe and equip our own forces on land and sea but also to clothe and support our people for whom the gallant fellows under arms can no longer work, to help clothe and equip the armies with which we are cooperating in Europe, and to keep the looms and manufactories there in raw material; coal to keep the fires going in ships at sea and in the furnaces of hundreds of factories across the sea; steel out of which to make arms and ammunition both here and there; rails for worn-out railways back of the fighting fronts; locomotives and rolling stock to take the place of those every day going to pieces; mules, horses, cattle for labor and for military service; everything with which the people of England and France and Italy and Russia have usually supplied themselves but can not now afford the men, the materials, or the machinery to make. It is evident to every thinking man that our industries, on the farms, in the shipyards, in the mines, in the factories, must be made more prolific and more efficient than ever and that they must be more economically managed and Apr. 1 6] PEOPLE MUST SUPPORT THE WAR 199 better adapted to the particular requirements of our task than they have been; and what I want to say is that the men and the women who devote their thought and their energy to these things will be serving the country and con- ducting the fight for peace and freedom just as truly and just as effectively as the men on the battlefield or in the trenches. The industrial forces of the country, men and women alike, will be a great national, a great international, Service Army, — a notable and honored host engaged in the service of the nation and the world, the efficient friends and saviors of free men everywhere. Thousands, nay, hundreds of thousands, of men otherwise liable to military service will of right and of necessity be excused from that service and assigned to the fundamental, sustaining work of the fields and factories and mines, and they will be as much part of the great patriotic forces of the nation as the men under fire. I take the liberty, therefore, of addressing this word to the farmers of the country and to all who work on the farms: The supreme need of our own nation and of the nations with which we are cooperating is an abundance of supplies, and especially of food stuffs. The importance of an adequate food supply, especially for the present year, is superlative. Without abundant food, alike for the armies and the peoples now at war, the whole great enterprise upon which we have embarked will break down and fail. The world's food reserves are low. Not only during the present \ emergency but for some time after peace shall have come < both our own people and a large proportion of the people of Europe must rely upon the harvests in America. Upon the farmers of this country, therefore, in large measure, rests the fate of the war and the fate of the nations. May the nation not count upon them to omit no step that will increase the production of their land or that will bring about the most effectual cooperation in the sale and distribution of their products? The time is short. It is of the most im- perative importance that everything possible be done and , done immediately to make sure of large harvests. I call upon young men and old alike and upon the able-bodied boys of the land to accept and act upon this duty — to turn 200 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1917 in hosts to the farms and make certain that no pains and no labor is lacking in this great matter. I particularly appeal to the farmers of the South to plant abundant food stuffs as well as cotton. They can shovr their patriotism in no better or more convincing way than by resisting the great temptation of the present price of cotton and helping, helping upon a great scale, to feed the nation and the peoples everywhere who are fighting for their liberties and for our own. The variety of their crops will be the visible measure of their comprehension of their national duty. The Government of the United States and the govern- ments of the several States stand ready to cooperate. They will do everything possible to assist farmers in securing an adequate supply of seed, an adequate force of laborers when they are most needed, at harvest time, and the means of expediting shipments of fertilizers and farm machinery, as well as of the crops themselves when harvested. The course of trade shall be as unhampered as it is possible to make it and there shall be no unwarranted manipulation of the nation's food supply by those who handle it on its way to the consumer. This is our opportunity to demonstrate the efficiency of a gTeat Democracy and we shall not fall short of it! This let me say to the middlemen of every sort, whether they are handling our food stuffs or our raw materials of manufacture or the products of our mills and factories: The eyes of the country will be especially upon you. This is your opportunity for signal service, efficient and disinter- ested. The country expects you, as it expects all others, to forego profits, to organize and expedite shipments of sup- plies of every kind, but especially of food, -with an eye to the service you are rendering and in the spirit of those who enlist in the ranks, for their people, not for themselves. I shall confidently expect you to deserve and win the con- fidence of people of every sort and station. To the men who run the railways of the country, whether they be managers or operative employees, let me say that the railways are the arteries of the nation's life and that upon them rests the immense responsibility of seeing to it that those arteries suffer no obstruction of any kind, no Apr. 1 6] PEOPLE MUST SUPPORT THE WAR 2ci inefficiency or slackened power. Tj the merchant let me suggest the motto, "Small profits and quick service;" and to the shipbuilder the thought that the life of the war depends upon him. The food and the war iipplies must be carried across the seas no matter how many ships are sent to the bottom. The places of those that go down must be sup- plied and supplied at once. To the miner let me say that he stands where the farmer does: the work of the world waits on him. If he slackens or fails, armies and statesmen are helpless. He also is enilsted in the great Service Army. The manufacturer does not need to be told, I hope, that the nation looks to him to speed and perfect every process; , and I want only to remind his employees that their service is absolutely indispensable and is counted on by every man who loves the country and its liberties. Let me suggest, also, that everyone who creates or culti- vates a garden helps, and helps greatly, to solve the problem of the feeding of the nations; and that every housewife who practices strict economy puts herself in the ranks of those who serve the nation. This is the time for America to correct her unpardonable fault of wastefulness and extrava- gance. Let every man and every woman assume the duty of careful, provident use and expenditure as a public duty, as a dictate of patriotism which no one can now expect ever to be excused or forgiven for ignoring. In the hope that this statement of the needs of the nation and of the world in this hour of supreme crisis may stimu- late those to whom it comes and remind all who need re- minder of the solemn duties of a time such as the world has never seen before, I beg that all editors and publishers every- where will give as prominent publication and as wide circula- tion as possible to this appeal. I venture to suggest, also, to all advertising agencies that they would perhaps render a very substantial and timely service to the country if they would give it widespread repetition. And I hope that clergy- j men will not think the theme of it an unworthy or inappro- priate subject of comment and homily from their pulpits. I The supreme test of the nation has come. We must all/ speak, act, and serve together! IVMte House Pamphlet. 202 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1917 59. THE RED CROSS (May 12, 1917) Address at the Dedication of the Red Cross Building IN Washington It gives me a very deep gratification as the titular head of the American Red Cross to accept in the name of that association this significant and beautiful gift, the gift of the Government and of private individuals who have con- ceived their duty in a noble spirit and upon a great scale. It seems to me that the architecture of the building, to which the secretary alluded, suggests something very significant. There are few buildings in Washington more simple in their lines and in their ornamentation than the beautiful building w^e are dedicating this evening. It breathes a spirit of modesty and seems to adorn duty with its proper garment of beauty. It is significant that it should be dedi- cated tj women who serv^ed to alleviate suffering and com- fort those who were in need during our Civil War, because their thoughtful, disinterested, self-sacrificing devotion is the spirit which should always illustrate the services of the Red Cross. The Red Cross needs at this time more than it ever needed before the comprehending support of the American people and all the facilities w^hich could be placed at its disposal to perform its duties adequately and efficiently. I believe that the American people perhaps hardly yet realize the sacri- fices and sufferings that are before them. We thought the scale of our Civil War was unprecedented, but in compari- son with the struggle into which we have now entered the Civil War seems almost insignificant in its proportions and in its expenditure of treasure and of blood. And therefore it is a matter of the greatest importance that we should at the outset see to it that the i\merican Red Cross is equipped and prepared for the things that lie before it. It will be our instrument to do the works of alleviation and mercy which will attend this struggle. Of course, the scale upon which it shall act will be greater than the scale May 12] THE RED CROSS 203 of any other duty that it has ever attempted to perform. It is in recognition of that fact that the American Red Cross has just added to its organization a small body of men whom it has chosen to call its war council — not be- cause they are to counsel war, but because they are to serve in this special war those purposes of counsel which have become so imperatively necessary. Their first duty will be to raise a great fund out of which to draw the resources for the performance of their duty, and I do not believe that it will be necessary to appeal to the American people to re- spond to their call for funds, because the heart of this coun- try is in this war, and if the heart of the country is in the war, its heart will express itself in the gifts that will be poured out for these humane purposes. I say the heart of the country is in this w^ar because it would not have gone into it if its heart had not been prepared for it. It would not have gone into it if it had not first believed that here was an opportunity to express the character of the United States. We have gone in with no special grievance of our own, because we have always said that we were the friends and the servants of mankind. We look for no profit. We look for no advantage. We will accept no advantage out of this war. We go because we believe that the very principles upon which the American Republic was founded are now^ at stake and must be vindi- cated. In such a contest, therefore, we shall not fail to re- spond to the call to service that comes through the instru- mentality of this particular organization. And I think it not inappropriate to say this: There will be many expressions of the spirit of sympathy and mercy and philanthropy, and I think that it is very necessary that we should not disperse our activities in those lines too much; that we should keep constantly in view the desire to have the utmost concen- tration and efficiency of effort, and I hope the most, if not all of the philanthropic activities of this war may be exer- cised if not through the Red Cross, then through some already-constituted and experienced organization. This is no war for amateurs. This is no war for mere spontaneous impulse. It means grim business on every side of it, and it is the mere counsel of prudence that in our 204 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [191 7 philanthrop}'' as well as in our fighting we should act through the instrumentalities already prepared to our hand and already experienced in the tasks which are going to be assigned to them. This should be merely the expression of the practical genius of America itself, and I believe that the practical genius of America \^'ill dictate that the efforts in this war in this particular field should be con- centrated in experienced hands as our efforts in other fields will be. There is another thing that is significant and delightful to my thought about the fact that this building should be dedicated to the memory of the women both of the North and of the South. It is a sort of landmark of the unity to which the people have been brought, so far as any old ques- ■ tion which tore our hearts in days gone by is concerned; j and T pray God that the outcome of this struggle may be I that every other element of difference amongst us will be | obliterated and that some day historians will remember these momentous years as the years which made a single people out of the great body of those who call themselves Ameri- cans. The evidences are already many that this is happen- ing. The divisions which were predicted have not occurred and will no! occur. The spirit of this people is already united, and when effort and suffering and sacrifice have completed the union, men will no longer speak of any lines either of race or of association cutting athwart the great body of this Nation. So that I feel that we are now begin- ning the processes which will some day require another beautiful memorial erected to those whose hearts uniting united America. } Congressional Record, LV, 2500. | 60. OBJECTS IN GOING TO WAR : (May 22, 1917) ; Letter to Representative Heflin ^It is incomprehensible to me how any frank or honest person could doubt or question my position with regard to May 22] OBJECTS IN GOING TO WAR 205 the war and its objects. I have again and again stated the very serious and long-continued wrongs which the Imperial German Government has perpetrated against the rights, the commerce, and the citizens of the United States. The list is long and overwhelming. No nation that respected itself or the rights of humanity could have borne those wrongs any longer. Our objects in going into the war have been stated with equal clearness. The whole of the conception which I take to be the conception of our fellow countrymen with regard to the outcome of the war and the terms of its settlement I set forth with the utmost explicitness in an address to the Senate of the United States on the 2 2d of January last. Again, in my message to Congress on the 2d of April last those objects were stated in unmistakable terms. I can con- ceive no purpose in seeking to becloud this matter except the purpose of weakening the hands of the Government and making the part which the United States is to play in this great struggle for human liberty an inefficient and hesitating part. We have entered the war for our own reasons and with our own objects clearly stated, and shall forget neither the reasons nor the objects. There is no hate in our hearts for the German people, but there is a resolve which cannot be shaken even by misrepresentation to overcome the pre- tensions of the autocratic Government w^hich acts upon pur- poses to which the German people have never consented. Official Bulletin, May 23, 191 7. 61. NEED OF A CENSORSHIP LAW (May 22, 1917) Letter to Representative Webb I have been very much surprised to find several of the public prints stating that the administration had abandoned the position which it so distinctly took, and still holds, that authority to exercise censorship over the press to the extent that that censorship is embodied in the recent action of the 2o6 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 17 \ House of Representatives is absolutely necessary to the public safety. It, of course, has not been abandoned, because the reasons still exist why such authority is necessary for the protection of the Nation. I have every confidence that the great majority of the newspapers of the country will observe a patriotic reticence about everything whose publication could be of injury, but in every country there are some persons in a position to do mischief in this field who can not be relied upon and whose interests or desires will lead to actions on their part highly dangerous to the Nation in the midst of a war. I want to say again that it seems to me imperative that powers of this sort should be granted. Congressional Record, LV, 3144. 62. FRIENDSHIP WITH RUSSIA (May 26, 1917) Cablegram to Russia In view of the approaching visit of the American delega- tion to Russia to express the deep friendship of the Ameri- can people for the people of Russia and to discuss the best and most practical means of cooperation between the two peoples in carrying the present struggle for the freedom of all peoples to a successful consummation, it seems oppor- tune and appropriate that I should state again, in the light of this new partnership, the objects the United States has had in mind in entering the war. Those objects have been very much beclouded during the past few weeks by mis- taken and misleading statements, and the issues at stake are too momentous, too tremendous, too significant for the whole human race to permit any misinterpretations or mis- understandings, however slight, to remain uncorrected for a moment. The war has begun to go against Germany, and in their desperate desire to escape the inevitable ultimate defeat, those who are in authority in Germany are using every pos- May 26] FRIENDSHIP WITH RUSSIA 207 sible instrumentality, are making use even of the influence of groups and parties among their o\to subjects to whom they have never been just or fair, or even tolerant, to pro- mote a propaganda on both sides of the sea which will pre- serve for them their influence at home and their power abroad, to the undoing of the very men they are using. The position of America in this war is so clearly avowed that no man can be excused for mistaking it. She seeks no material profit or aggrandizement of any kind. She is fight- ing for no advantage or selfish object of her own, but for the liberation of peoples everywhere from the aggressions of autocratic force. The ruling classes in Germany have be- gun of late to profess a like liberality and justice of pur- pose, but only to preserve the power they have set up in Germany and the selfish advantages which they have wrongly gained for themselves and their private projects of power all the way from Berlin to Bagdad and beyond. Government after Government has by their influence, with- out open conquest of its territory, been linked together in a net of intrig-ue directed against nothing less than the peace and liberty of the world. The meshes of that intrigue must be broken, but can not be broken unless wrongs already done are undone, and adequate measures must be taken to prevent it from ever again being rewoven or repaired. Of course, the Imperial German Government and those whom it is using for their owti undoing are seeking to obtain pledges that the war will end in the restoration of the status quo ante. It was the status quo ante out of which this iniqui- tous war issued forth, the power of the Imperial German Gov- ernment within the Empire and its widespread domination and influence outside of that Empire. That status must be altered in such fashion as to prevent any such hideous thing from ever happening again. We are fighting for the liberty, the self-government, and the undictated development of all peoples, and every fea- ture of the settlement that concludes this war must be con- ceived and executed for that purpose. Wrongs must first be righted and then adequate safeguards must be created to prevent their being committed again. We ought not to consider remedies merely because they have a pleasing and 2o8 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDExNT WILSON [1917 sonorous sound. Practical questions can be settled only by- practical means. Phrases will not accomplish the result. Effective readjustments will, and whatever readjustments are necessary must be made. But they must follow a principle and that principle is plain. No people must be forced under sovereignty under which it does not ^^^sh to live. No territory must change hands except for the purpose of securing those who inhabit it a fair chance of life and liberty. No indemnities must be insisted on except those that constitute payments for manifest wrongs done. No readjustments of power must be made except such as will tend to secure the future peace of the world and the future welfare and happiness of its peoples. And then the free peoples of the world must draw to- gether in some common covenant, some genuine and prac- tical cooperation that will in effect combine their force to secure peace and justice in the dealings of nations with one another. The brotherhood of mankind must no longer be a fair but empty phrase; it must be given a structure of force and reality. The nations must realize their common life and effect a workable partnership to secure that life against the aggressions of autocratic and self-pleasing power. For these things we can afford to pour out blood and treasure. For these are the things we have always pro- fessed to desire, and unless we pour out blood and treasure now and succeed we may never be able to unite or show conquering force again in the great cause of human liberty. The day has come to conquer or submit. If the forces of autocracy can divide us they will overcome us; if we stand together victory is certain and the liberty which victory will secure. We can afford then to be generous, but we cannot afford then or now to be weak or omit any single guarantee of justice and security. Official Bulletin, June 9, 191 7. May 30] DEFENDERS OF AMERICAN HONOR 209 63. DEFENDERS OF AMERICAN HONOR (May 30, 191 7) Address at Arlington Cemetery The program has conferred an unmerited dignity upon the remarks I am going to make by calling them an address, because I am not here to deliver an address. I am here merely to show in my official capacity the sympathy of this great Government with the object of this occasion, and also to speak just a word of the sentiment that is in my own heart. Any Memorial Day of this sort is, of course, a day touched with sorrowful memory, and yet I for one do not see how we can have any thought of pity for the men whose memory we honor to-day. I do not pity them. I envy them, rather; because theirs is a great work for liberty accomplished and we are in the midst of a work unfinished, testing our strength where their strength already has been tested. There is a touch of sorrow, but there is a touch of reas- surance also in a day like this, because we know how the men of America have responded to the call of the cause of liberty and it fills our mind with a perfect assurance that that response will come again in equal measures, with equal majesty, and with a result w^hich will hold the attention of all mankind. When you reflect upon it, these men who died to preserve the Union died to preserve the instrument which we are now using to serve the world — a free Nation espousing the cause of human liberty. In one sense the great struggle into which we have now entered is an American struggle, because it is in the defense of American honor and American rights, but it is something even greater than that; it is a world struggle. It is the struggle of men who love liberty everywhere, and in this cause America will show herself greater than ever because she will rise to a greater thing. We have said in the beginning that we planted this great Government that men who wish freedom might have a place of refuge and a place where their hope could be realized, and now, having established such a Government, 2:0 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1917 having preserved such a Government, having vindicated the power of such a Government, we are saying to all mankind, "We did not set this Government up in order that we might have a selfish and separate liberty, for we are now ready to come to your assistance and fight out upon the field of the world the cause of human liberty." In this thing America attains her full dignity and the full fruition of her great purpose. No man can be glad that such things have happened as we have witnessed in these last fateful years, but perhaps it may be permitted to us to be glad that we have an oppor- tunity to show the principles that we profess to be living principles that live in our hearts, and to have a chance by the pouring out of our blood and treasure to vindicate the thing w^hich we have professed. For, my friends, the real fruition of life is to do the things we have said we wished to do. There are times when words seem empty and only action seems great. Such a time has come, and in the provi- dence of God America will once more have an opportunity to show to the world that she was born to serve mankind. Official Bulletin, May 31, 19 17. 64. INSULTS AND AGGRESSIONS OF GERMANY (June 14, 1917) Address on Flag Day at Washington My Fellow Citizens: We meet to celebrate Flag Day be- cause this flag w^hich we honor and under which w^e serve is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought and pur- pose as a nation. It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours. It floats in majestic silence above the hosts that exe- cute those choices, whether in peace or in war. And yet, though silent, it speaks to us, — speaks to us of the past, of the men and w^omen who went before us and of the records they wrote upon it. We celebrate the day of its birth; and from its birth until now it has witnessed a great history, has floated on high the symbol of great events, of a great June 14] GERMANY'S AGGRESSIONS 211 plan of life worked out by a great people. We are about to carry it into battle, to lift it where it will draw the fire of our enemies. We are about to bid thousands, hundreds of thousands, it may be millions, of our men, the young, the strong, the capable men of the nation, to go forth and die beneath it on fields of blood far away, — for what? For some unaccustomed thing? For something for which it has never sought the fire before? American armies were never before sent across the seas. Why are they sent now? For some new purpose, for which this great flag has never been carried before, or for some old, familiar, heroic purpose for which it has seen men, its own men, die on every battlefield upon which Americans have borne arms since the Revo- lution? These are questions which must be answered. We are Americans. We in our turn serve America, and can serve her with no private purpose. W^e must use her flag as she has always used it. We are accountable at the bar of history and must plead in utter frankness what purpose it is we seek to serve. It is plain enough how we were forced into the war. The extraordinary insults and aggressions of the Imperial Ger- man Government left us no self-respecting choice but to take up arms in defense of our rights as a free people and of our honor as a sovereign government. The military masters of Germ.any denied us the right to be neutral. They filled our unsuspecting communities with vicious spies and con- spirators and sought to corrupt the opinion of our people in their own behalf. When they found that they could not do that, their agents diligently spread sedition amongst us and sought to draw our own citizens from their allegiance, — and some of those agents were men connected with the official Em.bassy of the German Government itself here in our own capital. They sought by violence to destroy our industries and arrest our commerce. They tried to incite Mexico to take up arms against us and to draw Japan into a hostile alliance with her, — and that, not by indirection, but by direct suggestion from the Foreign Office in Berlin. They impudently denied us the use of the high seas and repeatedly executed their threat that they would send to their death 212 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1917 any of our people who ventured to approach the coasts of Europe. And many of our own people were corrupted. Men began to look upon their own neighbors with suspicion and to wonder in their hot resentment and surprise whetTier there was any community in which hostile intrigue did not lurk. VvTiat great nation in such circum.stances would not have taken up arms? Much as we had desired peace, it was denied us, and not of our own choice. This flag under which we serve would have been dishonored had we withheld our hand. But that is only part of the story. We know now as clearly as we knew before we were ourselves engaged that we are not the enemies of the German people and that they are not our enemies. They did not originate or desire this hideous war or wish that we should be drawn into it; and we are vaguely conscious that we are fighting their cause, as they will some day see it, as well as our own. They are themselves in the grip of the same sinister power that has now at last stretched its ugly talons out and drawn blood from us. The whole world is at war because the whole world is in the grip of that power and is trying out the great battle w^hich shall determine whether it is to be brought under its mastery or fling itself free. The war w^as begun by the military masters of Germany, who proved to be also the masters of Austria-Hungary. These men have never regarded nations as peoples, for whom governments existed and in w^hom governments had their life. They have regarded them merely as serviceable organi- zations which they could by force or intrigue bend or cor- rupt to their own purpose. They have regarded the smaller states, in particular, and the peoples who could be over- whelmed by force, as their natural tools and instruments of domination. Their purpose has long been avowed. The statesmen of other nations, to whom that purpose was in- credible, paid little attention; regarded what German pro- fessors expounded in their classrooms and German writers set forth to the world as the goal of German policy as rather the dream of minds detached from practical affairs, as pre- posterous private conceptions of German destiny, than as the actual plans of responsible rulers; but the rulers of Ger- June 14] GERMANY'S AGGRESSIONS 213 many themselves knew all the while what concrete plans, what well advanced intrigues lay back of what the pro- fessors and the writers were saying, and were glad to go forward unmolested, filling the thrones of Balkan states with German princes, putting German officers at the service of Turkey to drill her armies and make interest with her government, developing plans of sedition and rebellion in India and Egypt, setting their fires in Persia. The demands made by Austria upon Serbia were a mere single step in a plan which compassed Europe and Asia, from Berlin to Bagdad. They hoped those demands might not arouse Europe, but they m.eant to press them whether they did or not, for they thought themselves ready for the final issue of arms. Their plan was to throw a broad belt of German military power and political control across the very centre of Europe and beyond the Mediterranean into the heart of Asia; and Austria-Hungary was to be as much their tool and pawn as Serbia or Bulgaria or Turkey or the ponderous states of the East. Austria-Hungary, indeed, was to become part of the central German Empire, absorbed and dominated by the same forces and influences that had originally cemented the German states themselves. The dream had its heart at Berlin. It could have had a heart nowhere else! It rejected the idea of solidarity of race entirely. The choice of peoples played no part in it at all. It contemplated binding to- gether racial and political units which could be kept together only by force,— Czechs, Magyars, Croats, Serbs, Rouma- nians, Turks, Armenians,— the proud states of Bohemia and Hungary, the stout little commonwealths ot the Balkans, the indomitable Turks, the subtile peoples of the East. These peoples did not wish to be united. They ardently desired to direct their own affairs, would be satisfied only by undisputed independence. They could be kept quiet only by the presence or the constant threat of armed men. They vyould live under a common power only by sheer compul- sion and await the day of revolution. But the German military statesmen had reckoned with all that and were ready to deal with it in their own way. And they have actually carried the greater part of that 214 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1917 amazing plan into execution! Look how things stand. Austria is at their mercy. It has acted, not upon its own initiative or upon the choice of its own people, but at Berlin's dictation ever since the war began. Its people now desire peace, but cannot have it until leave is granted from Berlin. The so-called Central Powers are in fact but a single Power. Serbia is at its m.ercy, should its hands be but for a moment freed. Bulgaria has consented to its will, and Roumania is overrun. The Turkish armies, which Germans trained, are serving German}^, certainly not themselves, and the guns of German warships lying in the harbor at Constantinople re- mind Turkish statesmen every day that they have no choice but to take their orders from Berlin. From Hamburg to the Persian Gulf the net is spread. Is it not easy to understand the eagerness for peace that has been manifested from Berlin ever since the snare was set and sprung? Peace, peace, peace has been the talk of her Foreign Office for now a year and more; not peace upon her own initiative, but upon the initiative of the nations over which she now deems herself to hold the advantage. A little of the talk has been public, but most of it has been private. Through all sorts of channels it has come to me, and in all sorts of guises, but never with the term.s disclosed which the German Government would be willing to accept. That government has other valuable pawms in its hands besides those I have mentioned. It still holds a valuble part of France, though with slowly relaxing grasp, and practically the whole of Belgim. Its armies press close upon Russia and overrun Poland at their \\ill. It cannot go further; it dare not go back. It \vishes to close its bargain before it is too late and it has little left to offer for the pound of flesh it will demand. The militar}^ masters under whom Germany is bleeding see very clearly to what point Fate has brought them. If they fall back or are forced back an inch, their power both abroad and at home will fall to pieces like a house of cards. It is their power at home they are thinking about now more than their power abroad. It is that power which is trem- bling under their very feet; and deep fear has entered their hearts. They have but one chance to perpetuate their mili- June 14] GERMANY'S AGGRESSIONS 215 tary power or even their controlling political influence. If they can secure peace now with the immense advantages still in their hands which they have up to this point appar- ently gained, they will have justified themselves before the German people: they will have gained by force what they promised to gain by it: an immense expansion of German power, an immense enlargement of German industrial and commercial opportunities. Their prestige will be secure, and with their prestige their political power. If they fail, their people will thrust them aside; a government accountable to the people themselves will be set up in Germany as it has been in England, in the United States, in France, and in all the great countries of the modern time except Germany. If they succeed they are safe and Germany and the world are undone; if they fail Germany is saved and the world will be at peace. If they succeed, America will fall within the menace. We and all the rest of the world must remain armed, as they will remain, and must m.ake ready for the next step in their aggression; if they fail, the world may unite for -peace and Germany may be of the union. Do you not now understand the new intrigue, the intrigue for peace, and why the masters of Germany do not hesitate to use any agency that promises to effect their purpose, the deceit of the nations? Their present particular aim is to deceive all those who throughout the world stand for the rights of peoples and the self-government of nations; for they see what immense strength the forces of justice and of liberalism are gathering out of this war. They are employ- ing liberals in their enterprise. They are using men, in Germany and without, as their spokesmen whom they have hitherto despised and oppressed, using them for their own destruction, — socialists, the leaders of labor, the thinkers they have hitherto sought to silence. Let them once succeed and these men, now their tools, will be ground to powder beneath the weight of the great military empire they will have set up; the revolutionists in Russia will be cut off from all succor or cooperation in western Europe and a counter revo- lution fostered and supported; Germany herself will lose her chance of freedom; and all Europe will arm for the next, the final struggle. 2i6 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 17 The sinister intrigue is being no less actively conducted in this country than in Russia and in every country in Europe to which the agents and dupes of the Imperial German Government can get access. That government has many spokesmen here, in places high and low. They have learned discretion. They keep within the law. It is opinion they utter now, not sedition. They proclaim the liberal pur- poses of their masters; declare this a foreign war which can touch America with no danger to either her lands or her institutions; set England at the centre of the stage and talk of her ambition to assert economic dominion throughout the world; appeal to our ancient tradition of isolation in the politics of the nations; and seek to undermine the govern- ment with false professions of loyalty to its principles. But they will make no headway. The false betray them- selves always in every accent. It is only friends and par- tisans of the German Government whom we have already identified who utter these thinly disguised disloyalties. The facts are patent to all the world, and nowhere are they more plainly seen than in the United States, where we are accus- tomed to deal with facts and not with sophistries; and the great fact that stands out above all the rest is that this is a Peoples' War, a war for freedom and justice and self-gov- ernment amongst all the nations of the world, a war to make the world safe for the peoples who live upon it and have made it their own, the German people themselves included; and that with us rests the choice to break through all these hypocrisies and patent cheats and masks of brute force and help set the world free, or else stand aside and let it be domi- nated a long age through by sheer weight of arms and the arbitrary choices of self-constituted masters, by the nation which can maintain the biggest armies and the most irre- sistible armaments, — a power to which the world has afforded no parallel and in the face of which political freedom must wither and perish. For us there is but one choice. We have made it. Woe be to the man or group of men that seeks to stand in our way in this day of high resolution wiien every principle we hold dearest is to be vindicated and made secure for the salvation of the nations. We are ready to plead at the bar June 14] GERMANY'S AGGRESSIONS 217 of history, and our flag shall wear a new lustre. Once more we shall make good with our lives and fortunes the great faith to which we were bom, and a new glory shall shine in the face of our people. White House Pamphlet. 65. GREETING TO FRENCH DEMOCRACY (July 14, 1917) Cablegram to the French Government On this anniversary of the birth of democracy in France, I offer on behalf of my countr3mien, and on my own behalf, fraternal greeting as befits the strong ties that unite our peoples who to-day stand shoulder to shoulder in defense of liberty in testimony of the steadfast purpose of our two countries to achieve victory for the sublime cause of the rights of the people against oppression. The lesson of the Bastile is not lost to the world of free peoples. May the day be near when on the ruins of the dark stronghold of unbridled power and conscienceless autocracy, the nobler structure, upbuilt like your own. great Republic on the eternal foundation of peace and right, shall arise to gladden an en- franchised world. New York Times, July 17, 19 17. 66. THE BIBLE AND THE SOLDIER (August, 191 7) Message to Soldiers and Sailors The Bible is the word of life. I beg that you will read it and find this out for yourselves — read, not little snatches here and there, but long passages that will really be the road to the heart of it. You will find it full of real men and women not only but also of things you have wondered about 2i8 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 17 and been troubled about all your life, as men have been always; and the more you read the more it will become plain to you w^hat things are worth while and what are not, what things make men happy — loyalty, right dealings, speaking the truth, readiness to give everything for what they think their duty, and, most of all, the wish that they may have the real approval of the Christ, who gave everything for them — and the things that are guaranteed to make men unhappy — selfishness, cowardice, greed, and everything that is low and mean. When you have read the Bible you will know that it is the Word of God, because you will have found it the key to your own. heart, your own happiness, and your own duty. Congressional Record, LV, 6041. 67. PATRIOTIC TEACHING IN SCHOOLS (August 23, 1917) Public Appeal to School Officers The war is bringing to the minds of our people a new appreciation of the problems of national life and a deeper understanding of the meaning and aims of democracy. Mat- ters which heretofore have seemed commonplace and trivial are seen in a truer light. The urgent demand for the pro- duction and proper distribution of food and other national resources has made us aware of the close dependence of individual on individual and nation on nation. The effort to keep up social and industrial organizations in spite of the withdrawal of men for the army has revealed the extent to which modem life has become complex and specialized. These and other lessons of the war must be learned quickly if we are intelligently and successfully to defend our institu- tions. WTien the war is over we must apply the wisdom which we have acquired in purging and ennobling the life of the w^orld. In these vital tasks of acquiring a broader view of human possibilities the common school must have a large part. I Aug. 23] PATRIOTIC TEACHING IN SCHOOLS 219 urge that teachers and other school officers increase materi- ally the tinr"^ and attention devoted to instruction bearing directly on the problems of community and national life. Such a plea is in no way foreign to the spirit of American public education or of existing practices. Nor is it a plea for a temporary enlargement of the school program appro- priate merely to the period of the war. It is a plea for a realization in public education of the new emphasis which the war has given to the ideals of democracy and to the broader conceptions of national life. In order that there may be definite material at hand with which the schools may at once expand their teaching I have asked Mr. Hoover and Commissioner Claxton to organize the proper agencies for the preparation and distribution of suit- able lessons for the elementary grades and for the high school classes. Lessons thus suggested will serve the double purpose of illustrating in a concrete way what can be under- taken in the schools and of stimulating teachers in all parts of the country to formulate new and appropriate materials drawn directly from the communities in w^hich they live. Issued by U. S. Board of Education. 68. PAPAL PROPOSITIONS OF PEACE (August 27, 19 1 7) Reply to the Pope Through Secretary Lansing In acknowledgment of the communication of Your Holi- ness to the belligerent peoples, dated August i, 19 17, the President of the United States requests me to transmit the following reply: Every heart that has not been blinded and hardened by this terrible war must be touched by this moving appeal of His Holiness the Pope, must feel the dignity and force of the humane and generous motives which prompted it, and must fervently Vv'ish that we might take the path of peace he so persuasively points out. But it would be folly to take it if it does not in fact lead to the goal he proposes. Our response must be based upon the stem facts and upon 220 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1917 nothing else. It is not a mere cessation of arms he desires; it is a stable and enduring peace. This agony must not be gone through with again, and it must be a matter of very- sober judgment what will insure us against it. His Holiness in substance proposes that we return to the status quo ante bellum, and that then there be a general condonation, disarmament, and a concert of nations based upon an acceptance of the principle of arbitration ; that by a similar concert freedom of the seas be established; and that the territorial claims of France and Italy, the perplexing problem.s of the Balkan States, and the restitution of Poland be left to such conciliatory adjustments as ma}^ be possible in the new temper of such a peace, due regard being paid to the aspirations of the peoples whose political fortunes and affiliations will be involved. It is manifest that no part of this program can be success- fully carried out unless the restitution of the status quo ante furnishes a firm and satisfactory basis for it. The object of this war is to deliver the free peoples of the world from the menace of the actual power of a vast military establish- ment controlled by an irresponsible government which, hav- ing secretly planned to dominate the world, proceeded to carry the plan out ^^^thout regard either to the sacred obli- gations of treaty or the long-established practices and long- cherished principles of international action and honor; w^hich chose its owti time for the war; delivered its blow fiercely and suddenly; stopped at no barrier either of law or of mercy; swept a whole continent within the tide of blood — not the blood of soldiers only, but the blood of innocent women and children also and of the helpless poor; and now stands balked but not defeated, the enemy of four-fifths of the world. This power is not the German people. It is the ruthless master of the German people. It is no business of ours how that great people came under its control or sub- mitted with temporary zest to the domination of its purpose; but it is our business to see to it that the history of the rest of the world is no longer left to its handling. To deal with such a power by way of peace upon the plan proposed by His Holiness the Pope would, so far as we can see, involve a recuperation of its strength and a renewal of Aug. 27] PAPAL PROPOSITIONS OF PEACE 221 its policy; would make it necessary to create a permanent hostile combination of nations against the German people who are its instruments; and would result in abandoning the riewbom Russia to the intrigue, the mar.ifold subtle inter- ference, and the certain counter-revolution which would be attempted by all the malign influences to which the German Government has of late accustomed the world. Can peace be based upon a restitution of its power or upon any word of honor it could pledge in a treaty of settlement and ac- commodation? Responsible statesmen must now everywhere see, if they never saw before, that no peace can rest securely upon politi- cal or economic restrictions meant to benefit some nations and cripple or embarrass others, upon vindictive action of any sort, or any kind of revenge or deliberate injury. The Amer- ican people have suffered intolerable wrongs at the hands of the Imperial German Government, but they desire no reprisal upon the German people who have themselves suffered all things in this war which they did not choose. They believe that peace should rest upon the rights of peoples, not the rights of Governments — the rights of peoples great or small, weak or powerful — their equal right to freedom and security and self-government and to a participation upon fair terms in the economic opportunities of the world, the German peo- ple of course included if they will accept equality and not seek domination. The test, therefore, of every plan of peace is this: Is it based upon the faith of all the peoples involved or merely upon the word of an ambitious and intriguing government on the one hand and of a group of free peoples on the other? This is a test which goes to the root of the matter; and it is the test which must be applied. The purposes of the United States in this war are known to the whole world, to every people to whom the truth has been permitted to come. They do not need to be stated again. We seek no material advantage of any kind. We believe that the intolerable wrongs done in this war by the furious and brutal power of the Imperial German Govern- ment ought to be repaired, but not at the expense of the sov- ereignty of any people — rather a vindication of the sover- 222 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 17 eignty both of those that are weak and of those that are strong. Punitive damages, the dismemberment of empires, the establishment of selfish and exclusive economic leagues, we deem inexpedient and in the end worse than futile, no proper basis for a peace of any kind, least of all for an en- during peace. That must be based upon justice and fairness and the comm^on rights of mankind. We can not take the word of the present rulers of Ger- many as a guaranty of anything that is to endure, unless explicitly supported by such consclusive evidence of the will and purpose of the German people themselves as the other peoples of the world would be justified in accepting. With- out such guaranties treaties of settlement, agreements for disarmament, covenants to set up arbitration in the place of force, territorial adjustments, reconstitutions of small na- tions, if made with the German Government, no man, no nation could nov/ depend on. We must await some new evi- dence of the purposes of the great peoples of the Central Powers. God grant it may be given soon and in a way to restore the confidence of all peoples everyw^here in the faith of nations and the possibility of a covenanted peace. White House Pamphlet, 69. TO THE SOLDIERS OF THE NATIONAL ARMY (September 3, 191 7) Public Message to the Drafted Men You are undertaking a great duty. The heart of the whole country is with you. Everything that you do will be watched with the deepest interest and with the deepest solicitude, not only by those who are near and dear to you, but by the whole nation besides. For this great war draws us all together, makes us all comrades and brothers, as all true Americans felt themselves to be when we first made good our national in- dependence. The eyes of all the world will be upon you, because you Sept. 3] TO SOLDIERS OF THE NATIONAL ARMY 223 are in some special sense the soldiers of freedom. Let it be your pride, therefore, to show all men everywhere not only what good soldiers you are, but also what good men you are, keeping yourselves fit and straight in everything and pure and clean through and through. Let us set for ourselves a standard so high that it will be a glory to live up to it, and then let us live up to it and add a new laurel to the cro\Am of America. My affectionate confidence goes with you in every battle and every test. God keep and guide you! New York Times, Sept. 4, 19 17. 70. THE JUNIOR RED CROSS (September 15, 19 17) Proclamation to the School Children of the United States The President of the United States is also President of the American Red Cross. It is from these offices joined in one that I write you a word of greeting at this time, when so many of you are beginning the school year. The American Red Cross has just prepared a junior mem- bership with school activities, in which every pupil in the United States can find a chance to serve our country. The school is the natural centre of your life. Through it you can best work in the great cause of freedom to which we have all pledged ourselves. Our junior Red Cross will bring to you opporttmities of service to your community and to other communities all over the world and guide your service with high and religious ideals. It will teach you how to save in order that suffering children elsewhere may have the chance to live. It will teach you how to prepare some of the supplies which wounded sol- diers and homeless families lack. It will send to you through the Red Cross bulletins the thrilling stories of relief and rescue. And, best of all, more perfectly than through any of your other school lessons, you will learn by doing those kind things under your teacher's direction to be the fu- 2 24 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 17 ture good citizens of this great country which we all love. ^ And I commend to all school teachers in the country the simple plan which the American Red Cross has worked out to provide for your cooperation, knowing as I do that school children will give their best ser^ace under the direct fniidance and instruction of their teachers. Is not this perhaps the chance for which you have been looldng to give your time and efforts in some measure to meet our national needs? New York Times, Sept. 19, 19 17, 71. WOMEN AND THE SUFFRAGE (October 25, 191 7) Reply to a Delegation from the New York State Woman's Suffrage Party, at the White House It is with great pleasure that I receive you. I esteem it a privilege to do so. I know the difficulties which you have been laboring under in New York State, so clearly set forth by Mrs. Whitehouse, but in my judgment those difficulties cannot be used as an excuse by the leaders of any party or by the voters of any party for neglecting the question which you are pressing upon them. Because, after all, the whole world now is . witnessing a struggle betvv-een two ideals of government. It is a struggle w^hich goes deeper and touches more of the foundations of the organized life of men than any struggle that has ever taken place before, and no set- tlement of the questions that lie on the surface can satisfy a situation which requires that the questions which lie under- neath and at the foundation should also be settled and set- tled right. I am free to say that I think the question of woman suffrage is one of those questions which lie at the foundation. The world has witnessed a slow political reconstruction, and men have generally been obliged to be satisfied with the slowness of the process. In a sense it is wholesome that it should be slow, because then it is solid and sure. But I believe that this war is going so to quicken the convictions Oct. 25] WOMEN AND THE SUFFRAGE 225 and the consciousness of mankind with regard to political questions that the speed of reconstruction will be greatly increased. And I believe that just because we are quickened by the questions of this war, we ought to be quickened to give this question of woman suffrage our immediate con- sideration. — As one of the spokesmen of a great party, I would be do- ing nothing less than obeying the mandates of that party if I gave my hearty support to the question of woman suf- frage which you represent, but I do not vrant to speak merely as one of the spokesmen of a party. I want to speak for my- self, and say that it seems to me that this is the time for the States of this Union to take this action. I perhaps may be touched a little too much by the traditions of our politics, traditions which lay such questions almost entirely upon the States, but I want to see communities declare themselves quickened at this time and show the consequence of the quickening. I think the whole country has appreciated the way in v\rhich the women have arisen to this great occasion. They not only have done what they have been asked to do, and done it with ardor and efficiency, but they have sho\vn a power to organize for doing things of their own initiative, which is quite a different thing, and a very much more diffi- cult thing, and I think the whole country has admired the spirit and the capacity and the vision of the women of the United States. It is almost absurd to say that the country depends upon the women for a large part of the inspirations of its life. That is too obvious to say; but it is now depending upon the women also for suggestions of service, w^hich have been ren- dered in abundance and with the distinction of originality. I, therefore, am very glad to add my voice to those which are urging the people of the great State of New York to set a great example by voting for woman suffrage. It would be a pleasure if I might utter that advice in their presence. Inasmuch as I am bound too close to my duties here to make that possible, I am glad to have the privilege to ask you to convey that message to them. It seems to me that this is a time of privilege. All our 226 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1917 principles, all our hearts, all our purposes, are being searched; searched not only by our own consciences but searched by the world; and it is time for the people of the States of this country to show the world in what practical sense they have learned the lessons of democracy — that they are fighting for democracy because they believe it, and that there is no ap- plication of democracy which they do not believe in. I feel, therefore, that I am standing upon the firmest foundations of the age in bidding Godspeed to the cause which you represent and in expressing the ardent hope that the people of New York may realize the great occasion which faces them on Election Day and may respond to it in noble fashion. New York Times, Oct. 26, 191 7. 72. LABOR AND THE WAR (November 12, 1917) Address to the American Federation of Labor Con- vention, AT Buffalo I esteem it a great privilege and a real honor to be thus admitted to your public counsels. WTien your executive com- mittee paid me the compliment of inviting me here I gladly accepted the invitation because it seems to me that this, above all other times in our history, is the time for common coun- sel, for the drawing together not only of the energies but of the minds of the Nation. I thought that it was a welcome opportunity for disclosing to you some of the thoughts that have been gathering in my mind during these last momentous months. * * * The war was started by Germany. Her authorities deny that they started it, but I am willing to let the statement I have just made await the verdict of history. And tlie thing that needs to be explained is why Germany started the war. Remember what the position of Germany in the world was — as enviable a position as any nation has ever occupied. The whole world stood at admiration of her wonderful intellectual Nov. 12] LABOR AND THE WAR 227 and material achievements. All the intellectual men of the world went to school to her. As a university man I have been surrounded by men trained in Germany, men who had resorted to Germany because nowhere else could they get such thorough and searching training, particularly in the prin- ciples of science and the principles that underlie modem ma- terial achievement. Her men of science had made her industries perhaps the most competent industries of the world, and the label "Made in Germany" was a guarantee of good w^orkmanship and of sound material. She had access to all the markets of the world, and every other nation who traded in those markets feared Germany because of her effec- tive and almost irresistible competition. She had a "place in the sun." Why was she not satisfied? What more did she want? There was nothing in the world of peace that she did not already have and have in abundance. We boast of the ex- traordinary pace of American advancement. We show with pride the statistics of the increase of our industries and of the population of our cities. Well, those statistics did not match the recent statistics of Germany. Her old cities took on youth and grew faster than any American cities ever grew. Her old industries opened their eyes and saw a new world and went out for its conquest. And yet the authorities of Germany were not satisfied. You have one part of the answer to the question why she was not satisfied in her methods of competition. There is no important industry in Germany upon which the Govern- ment has not laid its hands, to direct it and, when necessity arose, control it; and you have only to ask any man whom you meet who is familiar with the conditions that prevailed before the war in the matter of national competition to find out the methods of competition which the German manufac- turers and exporters used under the patronage and support of the Government of Germany. You will find that they were the same sorts of competition that we have tried to prevent by law within our own borders. If they could not sell their goods cheaper than we could sell ours at a profit to themselves they could get a subsidy from the Government which made it possible to sell them cheaper anyhow, and the conditions of 2 28 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 17 competition were thus controlled in large measure by the German Government itself. But that did not satisfy the German Government. All the while there was lying behind its thought and in its dreams of the future a political control which would enable it in the long run to dominate the labor and the industry of the world. They were not content with success by superior achievement ; they wanted success by authority. I suppose very few of 370U have thought much about the Berlin-to-Bagdad Railv/ay. The Berlin-Bagdad Railway was constructed in order to run the threat of force down the flank of the industrial under- takings of half a dozen other countries; so that when German competition came in it would not be resisted too far, because there was always the possibility of getting German armies into the heart of that country quicker than any other armies could be got there. Look at the map of Europe now! Germany is thrusting upon us again and again the discussion of peace talks, — about what? Talks about Belgium; talks about northern France; talks about Alsace-Lorraine. Well those are deeply interest- ing subjects to us and to them, but they are not the heart of the matter. Take the map and look at it. Germany has absolute control of Austria-Hungary, practical control of the Balkan States, control of Turkey, control of Asia Minor. I sav; a map in which the whole thing was printed in appro- priate black the other day, and the black stretched all the way from Hamburg to Bagdad — ^the bulk of German povver inserted into the heart of the world. If she can keep that, she has kept all that her dreams contemplated when the war began. If she can keep that, her power can disturb the world as long as she keeps it, always provided, for I feel bound to put this proviso in — always provided the present influences that control the German Government continue to control it. I believe that the spirit of freedom can get into the hearts of Germans and find as flne a welcome there as it can nnd in any other hearts, but the spirit of freedom does not suit the plans of the Pan-Germans. Power can not be used with concentrated force against free peoples if it is used by free people.- * * * While we are fighting for freedom we must see, among Nov. 12] LABOR AND THE WAR 229 other things, that labor is free; and that means a number of interesting things. It means not only that we must do what we have declared our purpose to do, see that the conditions of labor are not rendered more onerous by the war, but also that we shall see to it that the instrumentalities by which the conditions of labor are improved are not blocked or checked. That we must do. That has been the matter about which I have taken pleasure in conferring from time to time with your president, Mr. Gompers; and if I may be permitted to do so, I vv'ant to express my admiration of his patriotic cour- age, his large vision, and his statesmanlike sense of what has to be done. I like to lay my mind alongside of a mind that knows how to pull in harness. The horses that kick over the traces will have to be put in corral. Now, to stand together means that nobody must interrupt the processes of our energy if the interruption can possibly be avoided without the absolute invasion of freedom. To put it concretely, that means this: Nobody has a right to stop the processes of labor until all the methods of conciliation and settlement have been exhausted. .. And I might as well say right here that I am not talking to you alone. You some- times stop the courses of labor, but there are others who do the same, and I believe I am speaking from my own experi- ence not only, but from the experience of others when I say that you are reasonable in a larger number of cases than the capitalists. I am not saying these things to them personally yet, because I have not had a chance, but they have to be said, not in an}'' spirit of criticism, but in order to clear the atmosphere and come down to business. Everybody on both sides has nov/ got to transact business, and a settlement is never impossible when both sides want to do the square and right thing. Moreover, a settlement is always hard to avoid when the parties can be brought face to face. I can differ from a man much more radically when he is not in the room than I can when he is in the room, because then the awkward thing is he can come back at me and answer what I say. It is always dangerous for a man to have the floor entirely to himself. Therefore, we must insist in every instance that the parties come into each other's presence and there discuss the issues 230 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 17 between them, and not separately in places which have no communication with each other. I always like to remind myself of a delightful saying of an Englishman of the past generation, Charles Lamb. He stuttered a little bit, and once when he was with a group of friends he spoke very harshly of some man who was not present. One of his friends said: "Why, Charles, I didn't know that you knew so and so." "0-o-oh," he said, "I-I d-d-don't; I-I can't h-h-hate a m-m^ man I-I know." There is a great deal of human nature, of very pleasant human nature, in the saying. It is hard to hate a man you know. I may admit, parenthetically, that there are some politicians whose methods I do not at all believe in, but they are jolly good fellows, and if they only would not talk the wrong kind of politics to me, I would love to be with them. So it is all along the line, in serious matters and things less serious. We are all of the same clay and spirit, and w^e can get together if we desire to get together. Therefore, my coun- sel to you is this: Let us shov/ ourselves Americans by show- ing that we do not w^ant to go off in separate camps or groups by ourselves, but that we want to cooperate with all other classes and all other groups in the common enterprise which is to release the spirits of the world from bondage. I w^ould be willing to set 'that up as the final test of an American. That is the meaning of democracy. I have been very much distressed, my fellow citizens, by some of the things that have happened recently. The mob spirit is displaying itself nere and there in this country. I have no sympathy with what some men are saying, but 1 have no sympathy with the men who take their punishm.ent into their o\\ti hands; and I want to say to every man who does join such a mob that I do not recognize him as worthy of the free institutions of the United States. There are some organizations in this country whose object is anarchy and the destruction of law, but I would not meet their efforts by m.aking myself partner in de- stroying the law. I despise and hate their purposes as much as any man, but I respect the ancient processes of justice; and I would be too proud not to see them done justice, how^- ever wrong they are. * * * White House Pamphlet. Nov. 1 6] UNIVERSAL LOYALTY 231 73. UNIVERSAL LOYALTY (November 16, 191 7) Telegram to the Northwest Loyalty Meetings, St. Paul Notliing could be more significant than your gathering to express the loyalty of the great Northwest. If it were pos- sible I should gladly be with you. You have come together as the representatives of that Western empire in which the sons of all sections of America and the stocks of all the na- tions of Europe have made the prairie and the forest the home of a new race and the temple of a new faith. The tim.e has come when that home must be protected and that faith affirmed in deeds. Sacrifice and service must come from every class, every profession, every party, every race, every creed, every section. This is not a banker's war or a farmer's war or a manufacturer's war or a laboring man's war — it is a war for every straight-out American whether our flag be his by birth or by adoption. We are to-day a Nation in arms, and we must fight and farm, mine and manufacture, conserve food and fuel, save and spend, to the one common purpose. It is to the great Northwest that the Nation looks, as once before in critical days, for that steadiness of purpose and firmness of deter- mination which shall see this struggle through to a decision that shall make the masters of Germany rue the day they unmasked their purpose and challenged our Republic. New York Times, Nov. 17, 191 7. 74. SYMPATHY WITH THE BELGIANS (November 16, 191 7) Cablegram to King Albert of Belgium I take pleasure in extending to Your Majesty greetings of friendship and good will on this your fete day. 232 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1917 For the people of the United States, I take this occasion to renew expressions of deep sympathy for the sufferings which Belgium has endured under the willful, cruel and bar- baric force of a disappointed Prussian autocracy. The people of the United States were never more in ear- nest than in their determination to prosecute to a successful conclusion this war against that power and to secure for the future obedience to the laws of nations and respect for the rights of humanity. New York Times, Nov. 17, 191 7. 75. EXTENSION OF THE WAR TO AUSTRIA- HUNGARY (December 4, 19 17) Address to Congress * * * I shall not go back to debate the causes of the war. The intolerable wrongs done and planned against us by the sinister masters of Germany have long since become too grossly obvious and odious to every true American to need to be rehearsed. But I shall ask you to consider again and with a very grave scrutiny our objectives and the measures by which we mean to attain them; for the purpose of dis- cussion here in this place is action, and our action must move straight towards definite ends. Our object is, of course, to win the war; and we shall not slacken or suffer ourselves to be diverted until it is won. But it is vrorth Vvhile asking and answering the question, When shall we consider the war won? From one point of view it is not necessary to broach this fundamental matter. I do not doubt that the American people know what the war is about and what sort of an out- come they will regard as a realization of their'purpose in it. As a nation we are united in spirit and intention. I pay little heed to those who tell me otherwise. I hear the voices of dissent, — who does not? I hear the criticism and the clamour of the noisily thoughtless and troublesome. 1 also \ i Dec. 4] WAR WITH AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 233 see men here and there fling themselves in impotent disloy- alty against the calm, indomitable power of the nation. I hear men debate peace who understand neither its nature nor the way in which we may attain it with uplifted eyes and unbroken spirits. But I know that none of these speaks for the nation. They do not touch the heart of anything. They may safely be left to strut their uneasy hour and be for- gotten. But from another point of view I believe that it is neces- sary to say plainly what we here at the seat of action consider the war to be for and what part we mean to play in the set- tlement of its searching issues. We are the spokesmen of the American people and they have a right to know whether their purpose is ours. They desire peace by the overcoming of evil, by the defeat once for all of the sinister forces that in- terrupt peace and render it impossible, and they wish to know how closely our thought runs with theirs and what action we propose. They are impatient with those who desire peace by any sort of compromise, — deeply and indignantly impatient, — but they will be equally impatient with us if we do not make it plain to them what our objectives are and what we are planning for in seeking to make conquest of peace by arms. I believe that I speak for them when I say two things: First, that this intolerable Thing of which the masters of Germany have shown us the ugly face, this menace of com- bined intrigue and force which we nov/ see so clearly as the German power, A Thing without conscience or honor or capacity for covenanted peace, must be crushed and, if it be not utterly brought to an end. at least shut out from the friendly intercourse of the nations; and, second, that when this Thing and its power are indeed defeated and the time comes that we can discuss peace, — when the German people have spokesmen whose word we can believe and when those spokesmen are ready in the name of their people to accept the common judgment of the nations as to what shall hence- forth be the bases of law and of covenant for the life of the world, — we shall be willing and glad to pay the full price for peace, and pay it ungrudgingly. We know what that price will be. It will be full, impartial justice, — justice done at 234 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDEx\T WILSON [19 17 every point and to every nation that the final settlement must affect, our enemies as well as our friends. You catch, with me, the voices of humanity that are in the air. They grow daily more audible, more articulate, more persuasive, and they come from the hearts of men every- where. They insist that the war shall not end in vindictive action of any kind; that no nation or people shall be robbed or punished because the irresponsible rulers of a single coun- try have themselves done deep and abominable wrong. It is this thought that has been expressed in the formula, "No an- nexations, no contributions, no punitive indemnities." Just because this crude formula expresses the instinctive judgment as to right of plain men everywhere it has been made diligent use of by the masters of German intrigue to lead the people of Russia astray — and the people of every other country their agents could reach, in order that a premature peace might be brought about before autocracy has been taught its final and convincing lesson, and the people of the world put in control of their own destinies. But the fact that a v/rong use has been made of a just idea is no reason why a right use should not be made of it. It ought to be brought under the patronage of its real friends. Let it be said again that autocracy must first be shown the utter futility of its claims to power or leadership in the mod- ern world. It is impossible to apply any standard of justice so long as such forces are unchecked and imdefeated as the present masters of Germany command. Not until that has been done can Right be set up as arbiter and peace-maker among the nations. But when that has been done, — as, God willing, it assuredly will be,— we must at last be free to do an unprecedented thing, and this is the time to avow our purpose to do it. We shall be free to base peace on generosity and justice, to the exclusion of all selfish claims to advantage on the part of the victors. Let there be no misunderstanding. Our present and im- mediate task is to win the war, and nothing shall turn us aside from it until it is accomplished. Every power and re- source we possess, whether of men, of money, or of materials, is being devoted and will continue to be devoted to that pur- pose until it is achieved. Those who desire to bring peace Dec. 4] WAR WITH AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 235 about before that purpose is achieved I counsel to carry their advice elsewhere. We will not entertain it. We shall regard the war as won only when the German people say to us, through properly accredited representatives, that they are ready to agree to a settlement based upon justice and the reparation of the wrongs their rulers have done. They have done a wrong to Belgium which must be repaired. They have established a power over other lands and peoples than their own, — over the great Empire of Austria-Hungary, over hith- erto free Balkan states, over Turkey, and within Asia, — which must be relinquished. * * "^ The peace we make must remedy that wrong. It must deliver the once fair lands and happy peoples of Bel- gium and northern France from the Prussian conquest and the Prussian menace, but it must also deliver the peoples of Austria-Hungary, the peoples of the Balkans, and the peoples of Turkey, alike in Europe and in Asia, from the im- pudent and alien dominion of the Prussian military and com- mercial autocracy. We owe it, however, to ourselves to say that we do not wish in any way to impair or to rearrange the Austro-Hun- garian Empire. It is no affair of ours what they do with their ovm life, either industrially or politically. We do not purpose or desire to dictate to them in any way. We only desire to see that their affairs are left in their own hands, in all matters, great or small. W'e shall hope to secure for the peoples of the Balkan peninsula and for the people of the Turkish Empire the right and opportunity to make their own lives safe, their ov.n fortunes secure against oppression or injOstTce and from the dictation of foreign courts or parties. And our attitude and purpose v/ith regard to Germany her- self are of a like kind. We intend no wrong against the German Empire, no interference with her internal affairs. We should deem either the one or the other absolutely un- justifiable, absolutely contrary to the principles we have professed to live by and to hold most sacred throughout our life as a nation. The people of Germany are being told by the men whom they now permit to deceive them and to act as their masters that they are fighting for the very life and existence of their 236 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1917 Empire, a war of desperate self-defense against deliberate aggression. Nothing could be more grossly or wantonly false, and we must seek by the utmost openness and candour as to our real aims to convince them of its falseness. We are in fact fighting for their emancipation from fear, along with our own, — from the fear as well as from the fact of unjust at- tack by neighbors or rivals or schemers after world empire. No one is threatening the existence or the independence or the peaceful enterprise of the German Empire. The worst that can happen to tlie detriment of the Ger- man people is this, that if they should still, after the war is over, continue to be obliged to live under ambitious and in- triguing masters interested to disturb the peace of the world, men or classes of men whom the other peoples of the world could not trust, it might be impossible to admit them to the partnership of nations which must henceforth guarantee the world's peace. That partnership must be a partnership of peoples, not a mere partnership of governments. It might be impossible, also, in such untoward circumstances, to admit Germany to the free economic intercourse which must inevi- tably spring out of the other partnerships of a real peace. But there would be no aggression in that; and such a situa- tion, inevitable because of distrust, would in the very nature of things sooner or later cure itself, by processes w^hich would assuredly set in. The wrongs, the very deep wrongs, committed in this war will have to be righted. That of course. But they cannot and must not be righted by the commission of similar wrongs against Germany and her allies. The world will not permit the com.mission of similar wrongs as a means of reparation and settlement. Statesmen must by this time have learned that the opinion of the v/orld is everywhere wide awake and fully comprehends the issues involved. No representative of any self -governed nation will dare disregard it by attempting any such covenants of selfishness and compromise as were entered into at the Congress of Vienna. The thought of the plain people here and everywhere throughout the world, the people who enjoy no privilege and have very simple and un- sophisticated standards of right and wrong, is the air all governments must henceforth breathe if they would live. It Dec. 4] WAR WITH AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 237 is in the full disclosing light of that thought that all policies j must be conceived and executed in this midday hour of the world's life. German rulers have been able to upset the peace of the world only because the German people were not suf- fered under their tutelage to share the comradeship of the other peoples of the world either in thought or in purpose. They were allowed to have no opinion of their owti which might be set up as a rule of conduct for those v/ho exercised f authority over them. But the congress that concludes this war will feel the full strength of the tides that run now in the hearts and consciences of free men everywhere. Its con- clusions will run with those tides. * * * From every point of view, therefore, it has seemed to be my duty to 'speak these declarations of purpose, to add these specific interpretations to what I took the liberty of saying to the Senate in January. Our entrance into the war has not altered our attitude towards the settlement that must come when it is over. VvTien I said in January that the nations of the world were entitled not only to free pathways upon the sea but also to assured and unmolested access to those path- w^ays I was thinking, and I am thinking now, not of the smaller and weaker nations alone, which need our counte- nance and support, but also of the great and powerful nations, and of our present enemies as well as our present associates in the war. I was thinking, and am thinking now, of Austria herself, among the rest, as well as of Serbia and of Poland. Justice and equality of rights can be had only at a great price. We are seeking permanent, not temporary, founda- tions for the peace of the w^orld and must seek them candidly and fearlessly. As always, the right will prove to be the expedient. What shall we do, then, to push this great war of freedom and justice to its righteous conclusion? We must clear away with a thorough hand all impediments to success and we must make every adjustment of law that will facilitate the full and free use of our whole capacity and force as a fighting unit. ^ One very embarrassing obstacle that stands in our way is that we are at war with Germany but not with her allies. I therefore very earnestly recommend that the Congress im- mediately declare the United States in a state of war with 238 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1917 Austria-Hungary. Does it seem strange to you that this should be the condusion of the argument I have just ad- dressed to you? It is not. It is in fact the inevitable logic of what I have said. Austria-Hungary is for the time being not her own mistress but simply the vassal of the German Govemm.ent. We must face the facts as they are and act upon them without sentiment in this stern business. The government of Austria-E^ungary is not acting upon its own initiative or in response to the wishes and feelings of its own peoples but as the instrument of another nation. We must meet its force with our own and regard the Central Powers as but one. The war can be successfully conducted in no other way. The same logic would lead also to a declaration of war against Turkey and Bulgaria. They also are the tools of Germany. But they are mere tools and do not yet stand in the direct path of our necessary action. We shall go wherever the necessities of this war carry us, but it seems to me that we should go only where immediate and practical considerations lead us and not heed any others. * * * White House Pamphlet. 76. GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF RAILROADS (December 26, 19 17) Public Statement I have exercised the powers over the transportation sys- tems of the country which were granted me by the act of Congress last August because it has become imperatively necessary for me to do so. This is a war of resources no less than of men, perhaps even more than of men, and it is necessary for the complete mobilization of our resources that the transportation systems of the country should be organized and employed under a single authority and a simplified method of coordination which have not proved possible under private management and control. The Committee of Railway Executives who have been co- Dec. 26] GOVERNMENT AND RAILROADS 239 operating with the Government in this all-important matter have done the utmost that it was possible for them to do; have done it with patriotic zeal and with great ability, but there were differences that they could neither escape nor neu- tralize. Complete unity of administration in the present cir- cumstances involves upon occasion and at many points a serious dislocation of earnings, and the committee was, of course, without power or authority to rearrange changes or effect proper compensations and adjustments of earnings. Several roads which were willingly and with admirable public spirit accepting the orders of the committee have already suffered from these circumstances, and should not be required to suffer further. In mere fairness to them the full authority of the Government must be substituted. The Government itself will thereby gain an immense increase of efficiency in the conduct of the war and of the innumerable activities upon which its successful conduct depends. The public interest must be first served, and, in addition, the financial interests of the Government and the financial in- terests of the railways must be brought under a common direction. The financial operations of the railways need not then interfere with the borrowings of the Government, and they themselves can be conducted at a great advantage. In- vestors in railway securities may rest assured that their rights and interests will be as scrupulously looked after by the* Government as they could be by the directors of the several raihvay systems. Immediately upon the reassembling of Congress I shall recommend that these definite guarantees be given. First, of course, that the railway properties will be maintained during the period of Federal control in as good repair and as com- plete equipment as when taken over by the Government, and, second, that the roads shall receive a net operating income equal in each case to the average net income of the three years preceding June 30, 191 7; and I am entirely confident that the Congress v/ill be disposed in this case, as in others, to see that justice is done and full security assured to the owners and creditors of the great systems which the Gov- ernment must now use under its own direction or else suffer serious embarrassment. 240 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [19 17 The Secretary of War and I are agreed that, all the cir- cumstances being taken into consideration, the best results can be obtained under the immediate executive direction of the Hon. William G. McAdoo, whose practical experience pe- culiarly fits him for the service and whose authority as Secretary of the Treasury will enable him to coordinate as no other man could, the many financial interests which will be involved and which might, unless systematically directed, suffer very embarrassing entanglements. The Government of the United States is the only great Government now engaged in the war which has not already assumed control of this sort. It was thought to be in the spirit of American institutions to attempt to do everything that was necessary through private management, and if zeal and ability and patriotic motive could have accomplished the necessary unification of administration, it would certainly have been accomplished; but no zeal or ability could over- come insuperable obstacles and I have deemed it my duty to recognize that fact in all candor, now that it is demon- strated, and to use without reserve the great authority re- posed in me. A great national necessity dictated the action, and I was therefore not at liberty to abstain from it. New York Times, Dec. 27, 19 17. YEAR 1918 77. ORGANIZATION FOR THE WAR (January 4, 19 18) Address to Congress I have asked the privilege of addressing you in order to report to you that on the twenty-eighth of December last, during the recess of the Congress, acting through the Secre- tary of War and under the authority conferred upon me by the Act of Congress approved August 29, 19 16, I took pos- session and assumed control of the railway lines of the coun- try and the systems of water transportation under their con- trol. This step seemed to be imperatively necessary in the interest of the public welfare, in the presence of the great tasks of war with which we are now dealing. As our own experience develops difficulties and makes it clear what they are, I have deemed it my duty to remove those difficulties wherever I have the legal power to do so. To assume control of the vast railway systems of the country is, I realize, a very great responsibility, but to fail to do so in the existing cir- cumstances would have been a much greater. I assumed the less responsibility rather than the v;eightier. I am sure that I am speaking the mind of all thoughtful Americans when I say that it is our duty as the representa- tives of the nation to do everything that it is necessary to do to secure the complete mobilization of the whole resources of America by as rapid and effective means as can be found. Transportation supplies all the arteries of mobilization. Un- less it be under a single and unified direction, the whole process of the nation's action is embarrassed. It was in the true spirit of America, and it was right, that 241 242 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 we should first try to effect the necessary unification under the voluntary action of those vvho were in charge of the great railway properties; and we did try it. The directors of the railways responded to the need promptly and generously. The group of railway executives who were charged with the task of actual coordination and general direction performed their difficult duties with patriotic zeal and marked ability, as was to have been expected, and did, I believe, everything that it was possible for them to do in the circumstances. If I have taken the task out of their hands, it has not been because of any dereliction or failure on their part but only because there vv'ere some things which the Government can do and private management cannot. We shall continue to value m-ost highly the advice and assistance of these gentle- men and I am sure we shall not find them withholding it. It had become unmistakably plain that only under gov- ernment administration can the entire equipment of the several systems of transportation be fully and unreservedly thrown into a common service Vvithout injurious discrimina- tion against particular properties. Only under government administration can an absolutely unrestricted and unembar- rassed common use be made of all tracks, terminals, terminal facilities and equipment of every kind. Only under that authority can new terminals be constructed and developed without regard to the requirements or limitations of particular roads. But under government administration all these things w^ill be possible, — not instantly, but as fast as practical dif- fulties, which cannot be merely conjured away, give way be- fore the new management. The common administration will be carried out with as little disturbance of the present operating organizations and personnel of the railways as possible. Nothing will be altered or disturbed which it is not necessary to disturb. We are serving the public interest and safeguarding the public safety, but we are also regardful of the interest of those by whom these great properties are owned and glad to avail ourselves of the experience and trained ability of those who have been managing them. It is necessary that the transportation of troops and of war materials, of food and of fuel, and of everything that is necessary for the full mobilization of the Jan. 4] ORGANIZATION FOR THE WAR 243 j energies and resources of the country, should be first con- ' sidered, but it is clearly in the public interest also that the , ordinary activities and the normal industrial and commercial life of the country should be interfered with and dislocated , as little as possible, and the public may rest assured that the • interest and convenience of the private shipper will be as ■ carefully served and safeguarded as it is possible to serve and safegard it in the present extraordinary circumstances. While the present authority of the Executive suffices for all j purposes of administration, and while of course all private j interests must for the present give way to the public neces- I sity, it is, I am sure you will agree with me, right and neces- | sary that the owners and creditors of the railways, the hold- j ers of their stocks and bonds, should receive from the Govern- ment an unqualified guarantee that their properties will be maintained throughout the period of federal control in as • good repair and as complete equipment as at present, and that I the several roads will receive under federal management such \ compensation as is equitable and just alike to their owners 1 and to the general public. I would suggest the average net i railway operating income of the three years ending June 30, 191 7. I earnestly recommend that these guarantees be given j by appropriate legislation, and given as promptly as circum- stances permit. I need not point out the essential justice of such guarantees and their great influence and significance as elements in the present financial and industrial situation of the country. In- deed, one of the strong arguments for assuming control of the railroads at this time is the financial argument. It is necessary that the values of raihvay securities should be justly and fairly protected and that the large financial oper- ations every year necessary in connection with the mainte- nance, operation and development of the roads should, during the period of the war, be wisely related to the financial operations of the Government. Our first duty is, of course, to conserve the common interest and the common safety and to make certain that nothing stands in the way of the suc- cessful prosecution of the great war for liberty and justice, but it is also an obligation of public conscience and of public honor that the private interests we disturb should be kept 244 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 ; safe from unjust injury, and it is of the utmost consequence j to the Government itself that all great financial operations ) should be stabilized and coordinated with the financial oper- 1 ations of the Government. No borrowing should run athwart ^ the borromngs of the federal treasury, and no fundamental j industrial values should anywhere be unnecessarily impaired. ' In the hands of many thousands of small investors in the \ country, as well as in national banks, in insurance companies, in savings banks, in trust companies, in financial agencies of j every kind, railway securities, the sum total of which runs ! up to some ten or eleven thousand millions, constitute a vital \ part of the structure of credit, and the unquestioned solidity of that structure must be maintained. ^ * * White House Pamphlet. 78. FOURTEEN CONDITIONS OF PEACE (January 8, 19 18) Address to Congress Once more, as repeatedly before, the spokesmen of the Central Empires have indicated their desire to discuss the objects of the war and the possible bases of a general peace. Parleys have been in progress at Brest-Litovsk between Rus- sian representatives and representatives of the Central Pow- ers to which the attention of all the belligerents has been invited for the purpose of ascertaining whether it may be possible to extend these parleys into a general conference with regard to terms of peace and settlement. The Russian representatives presented not only a perfectly definite state- ment of the principles upon which they would be willing to conclude peace but also an equally definite programme of the concrete application of those principles. The represen- tatives of the Central Powers, on their part, presented an outline of settlement which, if much less definite, seemed susceptible of liberal interpretation until their specific pro- gramme of practical terms was added. That programme pro- posed no concessions at all either to the sovereignty of Russia Jan. 81 FOURTEEN CONDITIONS OF PEACE 245 or to the preferences of the populations with whose fortunes it dealt, but meant, in a word, that the Central Empires were to keep every foot of territory their armed forces had occu- pied, — every province, every city, every point of vantage, — as a permanent addition to their territories and thei^ power. It is a reasonable conjecture that the general principles of settlement which they at first suggested originated with the more liberal statesmen of Germany and Austria, the men who have begun to feel the force of their own peoples' thought and purpose, while the concrete terms of actual settlement came from the military leaders who have no thought but to keep what they have got. The negotiations have been broken off. The Russian representatives were sincere and in earnest. They cannot entertain such proposals of conquest and domi- nation. The whole incident is full of significance. It is also full of perplexity. With v/hom are the Russian representatives dealing? For whom are the representatives of the Central Empires speaking? Are they speaking for the majorities of their respective parliaments or for the minority parties, that military and imperialistic minority w^hich has so far domi- nated their whole policy and controlled the affairs of Turkey and of the Balkan states v;hich have felt obliged to become their associates in this war? The Russian representatives have insisted, very justly, very wisely, and in the true spirit of modern democracy, that the conferences they have been holding with the Teutonic and Turkish statesmen should be held within open, not closed, doors, and all the w/orld has been audience, as w^as desired. To v^^hom have w^e been listening, then? To those w^ho speak the spirit and intention of the Resolutions of the German Reichstag of the ninth of July last, the spirit and intention of the liberal leaders and parties of Germany, or to those who resist and defy that spirit and intention and insist upon conquest and subjuga- tion? Or are we listening, in fact, to both, unreconciled and in open and hopeless contradiction? These are very serious and pregnant questions. Upon the answer to them, depends the peace of the world. But, whatever the results cf the parleys at Brest-Litovsk, whatever the confusions of counsel and of purpose in the ut- 246 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 terances of the spokesmen of the Central Empires, they have again attempted to acquaint the world with their objects in the war and have again challenged their adversaries to say what their objects are and what sort of settlement they would deem just and satisfactory. There is no good reason why that challenge should not be responded to, and responded to with the utmost candor. We did not wait for it. Not once, but again and again, we have laid our whole thought and purpose before the world, not in general terms only, but each time with sufficient definition to make it clear what sort of definitive terms of settlement must necessarily spring out of them. Within the last week Mr. Lloyd George has spoken with admirable candor and in admirable spirit for the people and Government of Great Britain. There is no confusion of counsel among the adversaries of the Central Powers, no un- certainty of principle, no vagueness of detail. The only secrecy of counsel,' the only lack of fearless frankness, the only failure to make definite statement of the objects of the war, lies with Germany and her Allies. The issues of life and death hang upon these definitions. No statesman who has the least conception of his responsibility ought for a mo- ment to permit himself to continue this tragical and appall- ing outpouring of blood and treasure unless he is sure beyond a peradventure that the objects of the vital sacrifice are part and parcel of the very life of Society and that the people for whom he speaks think them right and imperative as he does. There is, moreover, a voice calling for these definitions of principle and of purpose which is, it seems to me, more thrilling and more com.pelling than any of the many moving voices with which the troubled air of the world is filled. It is the voice of the Russian people. They are prostrate and all but helpless, it would seem, before the grim power of Germany, which has hitherto known no relenting and no pity. Their power, apparently, is shattered. And yet their soul is not subservient. They will not yield either in principle or in action. Their conception of what is right, of what it is humane and honorable for them to accept, has been stated with a frankness, a largeness of view, a generosity of spirit, and a universal human sympathy which must challenge the Jan. 8] FOURTEEN CONDITIONS OF PEACE 247 admiration of every friend of mankind; and the}' have re- fused to compound their ideals or desert others that they themselves may be safe. They call to us to say what it is that we desire, in what, if in anything, our purpose and our spirit differ from theirs; and I believe that the people of the United States would wish me to respond, with utter simplicity and frankness. Whether their present leaders believe it or not, it is our heartfelt desire and hope that some way may be opened whereby we may be privileged to assist the people of Russia to attain their utmost hope of liberty and ordered peace. It will be our wish and purpose that the processes of peace, when they are begun, shall be absolutely open and that they shall involve and permit henceforth no secret understandings of any kind. The day of conquest and aggrandizement is gone by; so is also the day of secret covenants entered into in the interest of particular governments and likely at some unlooked-for moment to upset the peace of the w^orld. It is this happy fact, now clear to the view of every public man whose thoughts do not still linger in an age that is dead and gone, which makes it possible for every nation whose pur- poses are consistent with justice and the peace of the world to avow now or at any time the objects it has in xiew. We entered this war because violations of right had oc- curred which touched us to the quick and made the life of our own people impossible unless they were corrected and the world secured once for all against their recurrence. UTiat we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to our- selves. It is that the world be made fit and safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation v/hich, like our owm, wishes to live its owm life, deter- mine its owTi institutions, be assured of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world as against force and selfish aggression. All the peoples of the w^orld are in effect partners in this interest, and for our own part v;e see very clearly that unless justice be ^one to others it will not be done to us. The programme of the world's peace, therefore, is our programme; and that programme, the only possible pro- gramme, as we see it, is this: I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which 248 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view. II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants. III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic bar- riers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance. IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent w^ith domestic safety. V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjust- ment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the govern- ment whose title is to be determined. VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the w^orld in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed op- portunity for the independent determination of her own political development and national policy and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations under insti- tutions of her own choosing; and, more than a w^elcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy. VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evac- uated and restored, without any attempt to limit the sov- ereignty which she enjoys in common wath all other free nations. Xo other single act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which the}' have themselves set and determined for the government of Jan. 8 I FOURTEEN CONDITIONS OF PEACE 249 their relations with one another. Without this heahng act the whole structure and validity of international law is for- ever impaired. VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 18 7 1 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may once more be made secure in the interest of all. IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality. X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity of autonomous development. XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evac- uated ; occupied territories restored ; Serbia accorded free and secure access to the sea; and the relations of the several Balkan states to one another determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and nation- alit}"; and international guarantees of the political and eco- nomic independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states should be entered into. XII. The Turkish portions of the present Ottoman Em- pire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are nov\' under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely un- molested opportunity of autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees. XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic inde- pendence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant. XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike. 250 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 In regard to these essential rectifications of wrong and assertions of right we feel ourselves to be intimate partners of all the governments and peoples associated together against the Imperialists. We cannot be separated in interest or di- vided in purpose. We stand together until the end. For such arrangements and covenants we are willing to fight and to continue to fight until they are achieved; but only because we wish the right to prevail and desire a just and stable peace such as can be secured only by removing the chief provocations to war, which this programme does remove. We have no jealousy of German greatness, and there is nothing in this programme that impairs it. We grudge her no achievement or distinction of learning or of pacific enterprise such as have made her record very bright and very enviable. We do not wish to injure her or to block in any way her legitimate influence or power. We do not wish to fight her either with arms or with hostile arrangements of trade if she is willing to associate herself with us and the other peace-loving nations of the world in covenants of jus- tice and law and fair dealing. We wish her only to accept a place of equality among the peoples of the world,- — the new world in which we now live, — instead of a place of mastery. Neither do we presume to suggest to her any alteration or modification of her institutions. But it is necessary, we must frankly say, and necessary as a preliminary to any intelli- gent dealings with her on our part, that we should know whom her spokesmen speak for when they speak to us, whether for the Reichstag majority or for the military party and the men whose creed is imperial domination. We have spoken now, surely, in terms too concrete to admit of any further doubt or question. An evident prin- ciple runs through the v;hole programme I have outlined. It is the principle of justice to all peoples and nationalities, and their right to live on equal terms of liberty and safety with one another, whether they be strong or weak. Unless this principle be made its foundation no part of the structure of international justice can stand. The people of the United States could act upon no other principle; and to the vindi- cation of this principle they are ready to devote their lives, their honor, and everything that they jx)ssess. The moral Jan. 8] FOURTEEN CONDITIONS OF PEACE 251 climax of this the culminating and final war for human liberty has come, and they are ready to put their own strength, their own highest purpose, their ovm integrity and devotion to the test. White House Pamphlet. 79. THE FARMERS' PATRIOTISM (January 31, 1918) Message to the Farmers' Conference at Urbana, Illinois I am very sorry indeed that I can not be present in person at the Urbana conference. I should like to enjoy the bene- fit of the inspiration and exchange of counsel which I know I should obtain, but in the circumstances it has seemed im- possible for m.e to be present, and therefore I can only send you a very earnest message expressing my interest and the thoughts which such a conference must bring prominently into every mind. I need not tell you, for I am sure you realize as keenly as I do, that we are as a Nation in the presence of a great task which demands supreme sacrifice and endeavor of every one of us. We can give everything that is needed with the greater willingness, and even satisfaction, because the object of the war in which we are engaged is the greatest that free men have ever undertaken. It is to prevent the life of the world from being determined and the fortunes of men every- where affected by small groups of military masters, who seek their ov^ti interest and the selfish dominion throughout the world of the Governments they unhappily for the moment control. You will not need to be convinced that it was neces- sary for us as a free people to take part in this war. It had raised its evil hand against us. The rulers of Germany had sought to exercise their pov/er in such a way as to shut off our economic life so far as our intercourse v/ith Europe was concerned, and to confine our people within the Western Hemisphere while they accomplished purposes which would 252 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 have permanently impaired and impeded every process of our national life and have put the fortunes of America at the mercy of the Imperial Government of Germany. This was no threat. It had become a reality. Their -hand of violence had been laid upon our own people and our own property in flagrant violation not only of justice but of the well-recognized and long-standing covenants of international law and treaty. We are fighting, therefore, as truly for the liberty and self-government of the United States as if the war of our ovv'n Revolution had to be fought over again; and every man in every business in the United States must know by this time that his whole future fortune lies in the balance. Our national life and our whole economic develop- ment will pass under the sinister influences of foreign control if we do not Vvin. We must win, therefore, and we shall win. I need not ask you to pledge your lives and fortunes with those of the rest of the Nation to the accomplishment of that great end. You will realize, as I think statesmen on both sides of the water realize, that the culminating crisis of the struggle has come and that the achievements of this year on the one side or the other must determine the issue. It has turned out that the forces that fight for freedom, the freedom of men all over the world as well as our own, depend upon us in an extraordinary and unexpected degree for sustenance, for the supply of the materials by w^hich men are to live and to fight, and it will be our glory when the war is over that w^e have supplied those m.aterials and supplied them abundantly, and it will be all the -more glory because in supplying them we have made our supreme effort and sacrifice. In the field of agriculture we have agencies and instrumen- talities, fortunately, such as no other government in the world can show. The Department of ^Agriculture is undoubtedly the greatest practical and scientific agricultural organization in the world. Its total annual budget of $46,000,000 has been increased during the last four years more than 72 per cent. It has a staff of 18,000, including a large number of highly trained experts, and alongside of it stands the unique land-grant colleges, which are without example elsewhere, and the 69 State and Federal experiment stations. These Jan. 31 ] THE FARMERS' PATRIOTISM 253 colleges and experiment stations have a total endowment of plant and equipment of $172,000,000 and an income of more than $35,000,000, \vith 10,271 teachers, a resident student body of 125,000, and a vast additional number receiving instruction at their homes. County agents, joint officers of the Department of Agriculture and of the colleges, are every- where cooperating with the farmers and assisting them. The number of extension workers under the Smith-Lever Act and under the recent emergency legislation has grown to. 5,500 men and women working regularly in the various communi- ties and taking to the farmer the latest scientific and practi- cal information. Alongside these great public agencies stand the very effec- tive voluntary organizations among the farmers themselves which are more and more learning the best methods of co- operation and the best methods of putting to practical use the assistance derived from governmental sources. Tho banking legislation of the last two or three years has given the farmers access to the great lendable capital of the country, and it has become the duty both of the men in charge of the Fed- eral Reserve Banking System and of the Farm Loan Banking System to see to it that the farmers obtain the credit, both short term and long term, to which they are not only entitled but which it is imperatively necessary should be extended to them if the present tasks of the country are to be adequately performed. Both by direct purchase of nitrates and by the establishment of plants to produce nitrates the Government is doing its utmost to assist in the problem of fertilization. The Department of Agriculture and other agencies are ac- tively assisting the farmers to locate, safeguard, and secure at cost an adequate supply of sound seed. The department has $2,500,000 available for this purpose now and has asked the Congress for $6,000,000 more. The labor problem is one of great difficulty, and some of the best agencies of the Nation are addressing them.selves to the task of solving it, so far as it is possible to solve it. Farmers have not been exempted from the draft. I know that they would not wish to be. I take it for granted they would not wish to be put in a class by themselves in this respect. But the attention of the War Department has been _54 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 very seriously centered upon the task of interfering with the labor of the farms as little as possible, and under the new draft regulations I believe that the farmers of the country will find that their supply of labor is very much less seriously dra\^'n upon than it was under the first and initial draft, made before we had our present full experience in these per- plexing matters. The supply of labor in all industries is a matter we must look to and are looking to with diligent care. And let me say that the situation of the agencies I have enumerated has been responded to by the farmers in splendid fashion. I dare say that you are aware that the farmers of this country are as efficient as any other farmers in the world. They do not produce more per acre than the farmers in Europe. It is not necessary that they should do so. It would perhaps be bad economy for them to attempt it. But they do produce by two to three or four times more per man, per unit of labor and capital, than the farmers of any Euro- pean country. They are more alert and use more labor- saving devices than any other farmers in the world. And their response to the demands of the present emergency has been in every way remarkable. Last spring their planting exceeded by 12,000,000 acres the largest planting of any previous year, and the yields from the crops were record- breaking 3delds. In the fall of 19 17 a wheat acreage of 42,170,000 was planted, which w^as 1,000,000 larger than for any preceding year, 3,000,000 greater than the next largest, and 7,000,000 greater than the preceding five-year average. But I ought to say to you that it is not only necessary that these achievements should be repeated, but that they should be exceeded. I know what this advice involves. It involves not only labor but sacrifice, the painstaking applica- tion of every bit of scientific knowledge and every tested practice that is available. It means the utmost economy, even to the point where the pinch comes. It means the kind of concentration and self-sacrifice which is involved in the field of battle itself, where the object always loom.s greater than the individual. And yet the Government will help and help in every way that is possible. The impression which prevails in some quarters that while the Government has sought to fix the prices of foodstuffs it has not sought to fix Jan.3i] THE FARMERS' PATRIOTISM 255 other prices which determine the expenses of the farmer is a mistaken one. As a matter of fact, the Government has ac- tively and successfully regulated the prices of many funda- mental materials underlying all the industries of the country, and has regulated them, not only for the purchases of the Government, but also for the purchases of the general public, and I have every reason to believe that the Congress will extend the powers of the Government in this important and even essential matter, so that the tendency to profiteering, ■which is showing itself in too many quarters, may be effec- tively checked. In fixing the prices of foodstuffs the Government has sincerely tried to keep the interests of the farmer as much in mind as the interests of the communities which are to be served, but it is serving mankind as w^ell as the farmer, and everything in these times of war takes on the rigid aspect of duty. I will not appeal to you to continue and renew and increase 3'our efforts. I do not believe that it is necessary to do so. I believe that you will do it without any w^ord or appeal from me, because you understand as well as I do the needs and opportunities of this great hour when the fortunes of mankind everywhere seem about to be determined and when America has the greatest opportunity she has ever had to make good her own freedom and in making it good to lend a helping hand to men struggling for their freedom everywhere. You remem- ber that it was farmers from w^hom came the first shots at Lexington, that set aflame the revolution that made America free. I hope and believe that the farmers of America will willingly and conspicuously stand by to win this w-ar also. The toil, the intelligence, the energy, the foresight, the self- sacrifice, and devotion of the farmers of America will, I believe, bring to a triumphant conclusion this great last war for the emancipation of men from the control of arbitrary government and the selfishness of class legislation and control, and then, when the end has come, w^e may look each other in the face and be glad that we are Americans and have had the privilege to play such a part. White House Pamphlet, 256 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 80. HONOR TO THE RED. CROSS (May 18, 1918) Address to the Public Meeting in New York, Opening A Campaign for the Second Red Cross Fund I should be very sorry to think that Mr. Davison in any degree curtailed his exceedingly interesting speech for fear that he was postponing mine, because I am sure you listened with the same intent and intimate interest with which I lis- tened to the extraordinarily vivid account he gave of the things which he had realized because he had come in contact with them on the other side of the water. We compassed them with our imagination. He compassed them in his per- sonal experience. I am not come here to-night to review for you the work of the Red Cross. I am not competent to do so, because I have not had the time or the opportunity to follow it in detail. I have come here simply to say a few w^ords to you as to what it all seems to me to mean. It means a great deal. There are two duties with which we are face to face. The first duty is to win the war. The second duty, that goes hand in hand with it, is to win it greatly and worthily, showing the real quality of our power not only, but the real quality of our purpose and of ourselves. Of course, the first duty, the duty that we must keep in the foreground of our thought until it is accomplished, is to win the war. I have heard gentlemen recently say that v.-e must get five million men ready. WTiy limit it to five million? I have asked the Congress of the United States to name no limit, because the Congress intends, I am sure, as we all in- tend, that every ship that can carry men or supplies shall go laden upon every voyage with every man and every supply she can carry. And we are not to be diverted from the grim purpose of winning the war by any insincere approaches upon the sub- ject of peace. I can say with a clear conscience that I have tested those intimations and have found them insincere. I now recognize them for what they are, an opportunity to May i8] HONOR TO THE RED CROSS 257 have a free hand, particularly in the East, to carry out pur- poses of conquest and exploitation. Every proposal with regard to accommodation in the West involves a reservation with regard to the East. Xow, so far as I am concerned, I intend to stand by Russia as well as France. The helpless and the friendless are the very ones that need friends and succor, and if any man in Germany thinks we are going to sacrifice anybody for our o\^ti sake, I tell them now they are mistaken. For the glory of this war, my fellow citizens, so far as we are concerned, is that it is, perhaps for the first time in history, an unselfish war. I could not be proud to fight for a selfish purpose, but I can be proud to fight for mankind. If they wish peace, let them come forward through accredited representatives and lay their terms on the table. We have laid ours, and they know what they are. But behind all this grim purpose, my friends, lies the op- portunity to demonstrate not only force, which will be dem- onstrated to the utmost, but the opportunity to demonstrate character, and it is that opportunity that we have most con- spicuously in the work of the Red Cross. Not that our men in arms do not represent our character, for they do, and it is a character which those who see and realize appreciate and admire, but their duty is the duty of force. The duty of the Red Cross is the duty of mercy and succor and friendship. Have you form.ed a picture in your imagination of Avhat this war is doing for us and for the world? In my own mind I am convinced that not a hundred years of peace could have I'nitted this Nation together as this single year of war has knitted it together; and better even than that, if possible, it is knitting the world together. Look at the picture! In the center of the scene, four nations engaged against the world, and at every point of vantage, showing that they are seeking selfish aggrandizement; and against them, twenty-three gov- ernments, representing the greater part of the population of the world, dra^^^l together into a new sense of community of interest, a new sense of community of purpose, a new sense of unity of life. The Secretary of War told me an interesting incident the other day. He said when he was in Italy a member of the Italian Government was explaining to him the many reasons why Italy felt near to the United States. 258 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSOX [1918 He said, "If 3^ou want to try an interesting experiment, go up to any one of these troop trains and ask in English how many of them have been in America, and see what happens." He tried the experiment. He went up to a troop train and he asked, "How many of you boys have been in America?" and he said it seemed to him as if half of them sprang up: "Me from San Francisco," "Me from New York," — all over. There was part of the heart of America in the Italian Army, — people that had been knitted to us by association, who knew us, v;ho had lived amongst us, who had worked shoulder to shoulder with us, and now, friends of America, were fight- ing for their native Italy. Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together. And this intimiate contact of the great Red Cross with the peoples who are suffering the terrors and depriva- tions of this war is going to be one of the greatest instrumen- talities of friendship that the world ever knew; and the cen- ter of the heart of it all, if we sustain it properly, will be this land that we so dearly love. My friends, a great day of duty has come, and duty finds a man's soul as no kind of work can ever find it. May I say this: The duty that faces us all now is to serve one another. No man can afford to make a fortune out of this war. There are men amongst us who have forgotten that, if they ever saw it. Some of you are old enough — I am old enough — to re- member men who made fortunes out of the CivilWar, and you know how they were regarded by their fellow citizens. That was a war to save one country. This is a war to save the world. And your relation to the Red Cross is one of the relations which will relieve you of the stigma. You cannot give anything to the Government of the United States. It will not accept it. There is a law of Congress against ac- cepting even services without pay. The only thing that the Government will accept is a loan and duties' performed, but it is a ^reat deal better to give than to lend or to pay, and your great channel for giving is the American Red Cross. DowTi in your hearts you can not take very much satisfaction in the last analysis in lending money to the Government of the United States, because the interest which you draw will burn your pockets. It is a commercial transaction; and some May i8] HONOR TO THE RED CROSS 259 men have even dared to cavil at the rate of interest, not knowing the incidental commentary that that constitutes upon their attitude. But when you give, something of your heart, something of your soul, something of yourself goes with the gift, particu- larly when it is given in such form that it never can come back by w^ay of direct benefit to yourself. You know there is the old cynical definition of gratitude, as "the lively ex- pectation of favors to come." Well, there is no expectation of favors to come in this kind of giving. These things are bestowed in order that the worW may be a fitter place to live in, that men may be succored, that homes may be restored, that suffering may'be relieved, that the face of the earth may have the blight of destruction removed from it, and that wherever force goes, there shall go mercy and helpfulness. And when you give, give absolutely all that you can spare, and do not consider yourself liberal in the giving. If you give with self-adulation, you are not giving at all, you are giving to your own vanity,. but if you give until it hurts, then your heart-blood goes into it. Think what we have here! We call it the American Red Cross, but it is merely a branch of a great international or- ganization which is not only recognized by the statutes of each of the civilized governments of the world, but is recog- nized by international agreement and treaty, as the recognized and accepted instrumentality of mercy and succor. And one of the deepest stains that rest upon the reputation of the German Army is that they have not respected the Red Cross. That goes to the root of the matter. They have not re- spected the instrum.entality they themselves participated in setting up as the thing which no man was to touch because it was the expression of common humanity. By being mem- bers of the American Red Cross, we are members of a great fraternity and comradeship which extends all over the world. This cross which these ladies bore to-day is an emblem of Christianity itself. It fills my imagination, ladies and gentlemen, to think of the women all over this country who are busy to-night, and are busy every night and every day, doing the work of the Red Cross, busy with a great eagerness to find out the most 26o ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 serviceable thing to do, busy with a forgetfulness of all the old frivolities of their social relationships, ready to curtail the duties of the household in order that they may contribute to this common work that all their hearts are engaged in and doing which their hearts become acquainted with each other. Wlien you think of this, you realize how the people ot the United States are being drawn together into a great intimate family whose heart is being used for the service of the soldiers not only, but for the service of civilians where they suffer and are lost in a maze of distresses and distractions. You have, then, this noble picture of justice and mercy as the two servants of liberty. For only where men are free do they think the thoughts of comradeship, only where they are free do they think the thoughts of s\Tnpathy, only where they are free are they mutually helpful, only where they are free do they realize their dependence upon one another and their comradeship in a common interest and common neces- sity. If you ladies and gentlemen could read some of the touching despatches which come through official channels, for even through those channels tHere come voices of human- ity that are infinitely pathetic: if you could catch some of those voices that speak the utter longing of oppressed and helpless peoples all over the world to hear something like the Battle H}Tnn of the Republic, to hear the feet of the great hosts of Liberty coming to set them free, to set their minds free, set their lives free, set their children free; you would know what comes into the heart of those who are trying to contribute all the brains and power they have to this great enterprise of Liberty. I summon you to the comradeship. I summon you in this next week to say how much and how sincerely and how unanimously you sustain the heart of the world. White House Pamphlet. 81. WAR-TIME PROHIBITION (May 28, 1918) Letter to Senator Sheppard Thank you very much for \our letter of the 26th. Frankly, I was very much distressed by the action of the House. I do May 28] WAR-TIME PROHIBITION 261 not think that it is \^^se or fair to attempt to put such com- pulsion on the Executive in a matter in which he has already acted almost to the limit of his authority. WTiat is almost entirely overlooked is that there are, as I am informed, very large stocks of whisky in this country, and it seems to me quite certain that if the brewing of beer were prevented en- tirely, along with all the other drinks, many of them harm- less, which are derived from food or food stuffs, the con- sumption of whisky would be stimulated and increased to a very considerable extent. My own judgment is that it is wise and statesmanlike to let the situation stand as it is for the present, until at any rate I shall be apprised by the Food Administration that it is necessary in the way suggested still further to conserve the supply of food and feed stuffs. The Food Administration has not thought it necessary to go any further than we have in that matter already gone. I thank you most cordially. Senator, for your kindness in consulting me in this matter, which is of very considerable importance, and has a very direct bearing upon many col- lateral questions. Congressional Record, LXI, 8033. 82. DISINTERESTED SERVICE TO LATIN AMERICA (June 7, 1918) Address to Mexican Editors at the White House I have never received a group of men who were more wel- come than you are, because it has been one of my distresses during the period of my Presidency that the Mexican people did not more thoroughly understand the attitude of the United States toward Mexico. I think I can assure you, and I hope you have had every evidence of the truth of my assurance, that that attitude is one of sincere friendship. And not merely the sort of friendship which prompts one not to do his neighbor any harm, but the sort of friendship which earnestly desires to do his neighbor service. 262 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 My own policy, the policy of my own administration, to- ward Mexico was at every point based upon this principle, that the internal settlement of the affairs of Mexico was none of our business: that we had no right to interfere with or to dictate to Mexico in any particular vrith regard to her own affairs. Take one aspect of our relations which at one time may have been difficult for you to understand: When we sent troops into Mexico, our sincere desire was nothing else than to assist you to get rid of a man who was making the settlement of your affairs for the time being impossible. We had no desire to use our troops for any other purpose, and I was in hopes that by assisting in that vvay and then im- mediately withdrawing, I might give substantial proof of the truth of the assurances that I had given your Government through President Carranza. And at the present time it distresses me to learn that cer- tain influences, which I assume to be German in their origin, are trying to make a wTong impression throughout Mexico as to the purposes of the United States, and not only a wrong impression, but to give an absolutely untrae account of things that happen. You know the distressing things that have been happening just off our coasts. You know of the vessels that have been sunk. I yesterday received a quota- tion from a paper in Guadalajara which stated that thirteen of our battleships had been sunk off the Capes of the Chesa- peake. You see how dreadful it is to have people so radically misinformed. It was added that our Navy Department was withholding the truth with regard to these sinkings. I have no doubt that the publisher of the paper published that in perfect innocence without intending to convey wrong im- pressions, but it is evident that allegations of that sort pro- ceed from those who wish to make trouble between Mexico and the United States. Now, gentlemen, for the time being at any rate, and I hope it will not be a short time, the influence of the United States is somewhat pervasive in the affairs of the world, and I believe that it is pervasive because the nations of the world which are less powerful than som.e of the greatest nations are coming to believe that our sincere desire is to do disinter- ested service. We are the champions of those nations which June 7] SERVICE TO LATIN AMERICA 263 have not had a military standing which would enable them to compete with the strongest nations in the world, and I look forward with pride to the time, which I hope will soon come, when we can give substantial evidence, not only that we do not want anything out of this war, but that we would not accept anything out of it, that it is absolutely a case of disinterested action. And if you \\ill watch the attitude of our people, \'0U will see that nothing stirs them so deeply as assurances that this war, so far as we are concerned, is for idealistic objects. One of the difficulties that I experienced during the first three j^ears of the war, the years when the United States was not in the war, was in getting the foreign offices of European nations to believe that the United States was seeking nothing for herself, that her neutrality was not selfish, and that if she came in, she would not come in to get anything substantial out of the war, any material object, any territory or trade or anything else of that sort. In some of the foreign offices there were men who personally knew me and they believed, I hope, that I was sincere in assuring them that our purposes were disinterested, but they thought that these assurances came from an academic gentleman removed from the ordinary sources of information and speaking the idealistic purposes of the cloister. They did not believe that I was speaking the real heart of the American people, and I knew all along that I was. Now I believe that everybody who comes into contact with the American people knows that I am speaking their purposes. The other night in New York, at the opening of the cam- paign for funds for our Red Cross, I made an address. I had not intended to refer to Russia, but I was speaking with- out notes and in the course of what I said my thought was led to Russia, and I said that we meant to stand by Russia just as firmly as we would stand by France or England or any other of the Allies. The audience to which I was speak- ing was not an audience from which I v/ould have expected an enthusiastic response to that. It was rather too well dressed. It was not an audience, in other words, made of the class of people whom you would suppose to have the most intimate feeling for the sufferings of the ordinary man in Russia; but that audience jumped into the aisles, the whole 264 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 audience rose to its feet, and nothing that I had said on that occasion aroused anything Hke the enthusiasm that that sin- gle sentence roused. Now, there is a sample, gentlemen. We cannot make anything out of Russia. We cannot make anything out of standing by Russia at this time, — the most remote of the European nations, so far as we are concerned, the one with which we have had the least connections in trade and advantage, — and yet the people of the United States rose to that suggestion as to no other that I made in that address. That is the heart of America, and we are ready to show you by any act of friendship that you may propose our real feelings toward Mexico. Some of us, if I may say so privately, look back with re- gret upon some of the more ancient relations that we have had with Mexico long before our generation; and America, if I may so express it, would now feel ashamed to take advan- tage of a neighbor. So, I hope that you can carry back to your homes something better than the assurances of words. You have had contact with our people. You know your own personal reception. You know how gladly we have opened to you the doors of every establish m.ent that you wanted to see and have shown you just what we were doing, and I hope you have gained the right impression as to why we were doing it. We are doing it, gentlemen, so that the world may never hereafter have to fear the only thing that any nation has to dread, the unjust and selfish aggression of another nation. Some time ago, as you probably all know, I proposed a sort of Pan-American agreement. I had per- ceived that one of the difficulties of our relationship with Latin America was this: The famous Monroe Doctrine was adopted without your consent, without the consent of any of the Central or South American States. If I may express it in terms that we so often use in this country, we said, '"We are going to be your big brother, whether you want us to be or not." We did not ask whether it was agreeable to you that we should be your big brother. We said we were going to be. Now, that was all very well so far as protecting you from aggression from the other side of the water was con- cerned, but there was nothing in it that protected you from aggression from us, and I have repeatedly seen the uneasy June 7] SERVICE TO LATIN AMERICA 265 feeling on the part of representatives of the states of Central and South America that our self-appointed protection might be for our own benefit and our own interests and not for the interest of our neighbors. So said T, ''Very well, let us make an arrangement by which we v/ill give bond. Let us have a common guarantee, that all of us will sign, of political inde- pendence and territorial integrity. Let us agree that if any one of us, the United States included, violates the political independence or the territorial integrity of any of the others, all the others will jump on her. I pointed out to some of the gentlemen who were less inclined to enter into this arrangement than others that that was in effect giving bonds on the part of the United States, that we would enter into an arrangement by which you v/ould be protected from us. Now, that is the kind of agreement that will have to be the foundation of the future life of the nations of the world, gentlemen. The whole family of nations will have to guar- antee to each nation that no nation shall violate its political independence or its territorial integrity. That is the basis, the only conceivable basis, for the future peace of the world, and I must admit that I was ambitious to have the states of the two continents of America show the way to the rest of the world as to how to make a basis of peace. Peace can come only by trust. As long as there is suspicion, there is going to be misunderstanding, and as long as there is mis- understanding there is going to be trouble. If you can once get a situation of trust, then you have got a situation of permanent peace. Therefore, everyone of us, it seems to rrie, owes it as a patriotic duty to his own country to plant the seeds of trust and of confidence instead of the seeds of suspicion and variety of interest. That is the reason that I began by saying to you that I have not had the pleasure of meeting a group of men who were more welcome than you are, because you are our near neighbors. Suspicion on your part or misunderstanding on your pare distresses us more than we would be distressed by similar feelings on the part of those less nearby. When you reflect how wonderful a storehouse of treasure Mexico is, \'ou can .see how her future must depend upon peace and honor, so that nobody shall exploit her. It must 266 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [191S depend upon every nation that has any relations with her, and the citizens of any nation that has relations with her, keeping within the bounds of honor and fair dealing and jus- tice, because so soon as you can admit your own capital and the capital of the world to the free use of the resources of Mexico, it will be one of the most wonderfully rich and prosperous countries in the world. And when 3^ou have the foundations of established order, and the world has come to its senses again, we shall, I hope, have the very best con- nections that will assure us all a permanent cordiality and friendship. The World Court, July, 19 18, pp. 445-447. ^^. FOUR FACTORS OF WORLD PEACE (July 4, 1918) Address at Mount Vernon I am happy to draw apart with you to this quiet place of old counsel in order to speak a little of the meaning of this day of our nation's independence. The place seems very still and remote. It is as serene and untouched by the hurry of the world as it was in those great days long ago when General Washington was here and held leisurely con- ference with the men who were to be associated with him in the creation of a nation. From these gentle slopes they looked out upon the world and saw it whole, saw it with the light of the future upon it, saw it with modern eyes that turned away from a past which men of liberated spirits could no longer endure. It is for that reason that we cannot feel, even here, in the immediate presence of this sacred tomb, that this is a place of death. It was a place of achieve- ment. A great promise that was meant for all mankind was here given plan and reality. The associations by which we are here surrounded are the inspiriting associations of that noble death which is only glorious consummation. From this green hillside we also ought to be able to see with comprehending eyes the world that lies around us and con- ceive anew the purpose that must set men free. July 4] FOUR FACTORS OF WORLD PEACE 267 It is significant — significant of their o\mi character and purpose and of the influences they were setting afoot — that Washington and his associates, like the Barons at Runny- mede, spoke and acted, not for a class, but for a people. It has been left for us to see to it that it shall be under- stood that they spoke and acted, not for a single people only, but for all mankind. They were thinking not of them- selves and of the material interests which centered in the little groups of landholders and merchants and men of affairs with whom they were accustomed to act, in Virginia and the colonies to the north and south of her, but of a people which wished to be done with classes and special interests and the authority of men whom they had not themselves chosen to rule over them. They entertained no private pur- pose, desired no peculiar privilege. They were consciously planning that men of every class should be free and America a place to which men out of every nation might resort who wished to share with them the rights and privileges of free men. And we take our cue from them — do we not? We intend w^hat they intended. We here in America believe our participation in this present war to be only the fruitage of what they planted. Our case differs from theirs only in this, that it is our inestimable privilege to concert with men out of every nation who shall make not only the liberties of America secure but the liberties of every other people as well. We are happy in the thought that we are permitted to do w^hat they would have done had they been in our place. There must now be settled, once for all, w^hat was settled for America in the great age upon whose inspiration w^e draw to-day. This is surely a fitting place from which calmly to look out upon our task, that we may fortify our spirits for its accomplishment. And this is the appropriate place from which to avow, alike to the friends v/ho look on and to the friends with whom we have the happiness to be associated in action, the faith and purpose with which we act. This, then, is our conception of the great struggle in which we are engaged. The plot is written plain upon every scene cmd every act of the supreme tragedy. On the one hand stand the peoples of the world — not only the peoples actually engaged, but many others, also, who suffer under 268 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 mastery but cannot act: peoples of many races and in every part of the world — the people of stricken Russia still, among the rest, though they are for the moment unorganized and helpless. Opposed to them, masters of many armies, stand an isolated, friendless group of Governments, who speak no common purpose, but only selfish ambitions of their own, by which none can profit but themselves, and whose peoples are fuel in their hands ; Governments which fear their people, and yet are for the time being sovereign lords, making every choice for them and disposing of their lives and fortunes as they will, as well as of the lives and fortunes of every people who fall under their power — Governments clothed with the strange trappings and the primitive authority of an age that is altogether alien and hostile to our own. The Past and the Present are in deadly grapple, and the peoples of the world are being done to death between them. There can be but one issue. The settlement must be final. There can be no compromise. No halfway decision would be tolerable. No halfway decision is conceivable. These are the ends for which the associated peoples of the world are fighting and which must be conceded them before there can be peace: I. — The destruction of every arbitrary power anywhere that can separately, secretly, and of its single choice disturb the peace of the world ; or, if it cannot be presently destroyed, at the least its reduction to virtual impotence. II. — The settlement of every question, whether of terri- tory, of sovereignty, of economic arrangement, or of political relationship, upon the basis of the free acceptance of that settlement by the people immediately concerned, and hot upon the basis of the m.aterial interest or advantage of any other nation or people which may desire a different settle- ment for the sake of its own exterior influence or mastery. III. — The consent of ail nations to be governed in their conduct toward each other by the same principles of honor and of respect for the common law of civilized society, that govern the individual citizens of ail modern States in their relations with one another; to the end that all promises and covenants may be sacredly observed, no private plots or conspiracies hatched, no selfish injuries wrought with im- July 4] FOUR FACTORS OF WORLD PEACE 269 punity, and a mutual trust established upon the handsome foundation of a mutual respect for right. IV — The establishment of an organization of peace which shall make it certain that the combined power of free nations will check every invasion of right and serve to make peace and justice the miore secure by affording a definite tribunal of opinion to which all must submit and by which every international readjustment that cannot be amicably agreed upon by the peoples directly concerned shall be sanctioned. These great objects can be put into a single sentence. What we seek is the reign of law, based upon the consent of the governed and sustained by the organized opinion of mankind. These great ends cannot be achieved by debating and seeking to reconcile and accommodate what statesmen may wish with their projects for balances of powder and of national opportunity. They can be realized only by the determina- tion of what the thinking peoples of the world desire, with their longing hope for justice and for social freedom and opportunity. I can fancy that the air of this place carries the accents of such principles with a peculiar kindness. Here were started forces which the great nation against which they were primarily directed at first regarded as a revolt against its rightful authority, but which it has long since seen to have been a step in the liberation of its own people as well as of the people of the United States; and I stand here now to speak — speak proudly and with confident hope — of the spread of this revolt, this liberation, to the great stage of the world itself! The blinded rulers of Prussia have roused forces they knew little of — forces which, once roused, can never be crushed to earth again; for they have at heart an inspiration and a purpose which are deathless and of the very stuff of triumph! The World Court, July, 1918. 270 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 84. LYNCHING IS UNPATRIOTIC (July 26, 1918) Public Address to Fellow Countrymen I take the liberty of addressing you upon a subject which so vitally affects the honor of the nation and the very char- acter and integrity of our institutions that I trust you will think me justified in speaking verA^ plainly about it. I allude to the mob spirit which has recently here and there very frequently shown its head among us, not in any single region but in man}^ and widely separated parts of the country. There have been many lynchings, and every one of them has been a blow at the heart of ordered law and humane justice. No man who loves America, no man who really cares for her fame and honor and character, or who is truly loyal to her institutions, can justify mob action while the courts of justice are open and the governments of the states and the nation are ready and able to do their duty. We are at this very moment fighting lawless passion. German}^ has outlav/ed herself among the nations because she has disregarded the sacred obligations cf law and has made lynchers of her armies. Lynchers emulate her dis- graceful example. I, for my part, am anxious to see every communit}^ in America rise above that level, with pride and a fixed resolution which no man or set of men can afford to despise. We proudly claim to be the champions of democracy. If we really are in deed and in truth let us see to it that we do not discredit our o\ati. I say plainly that every American who takes part in the action of a mob or gives any sort of countenance is no true son of this great democracy, but its betrayer, and does more to discredit her by that single dis- loyalty to her standards of law and right than the words of her statesmen or the sacrifices of her heroic bo}/s in the trenches can do to make suffering peoples believe her to be their savior. How shall we commend democracy to the acceptance of July 26] LYNXHING IS UNPATRIOTIC 271 other peoples if we disgrace our own by proving that it is, after all, no protection to the weak? Every mob contributes to German lies about the United States what her most gifted liars cannot improve upon by the w^ay of calumny. They can at least say that such things cannot happen in Germany except in times of revolution, when law is swept away ! I therefore very earnestly and solemnly beg that the governors of all the states, the law officers of every com- munity, and, above all, the men and women of every com- munity in the United States, all who revere America and wish to keep her name without stain or reproach, will co- operate — not passively merely, but actively and watchfully — to make an end of this disgraceful evil. It cannot live vrhere the community does not countenance it. I have called upon the nation to put its great energ>^ into this w^ar, and it has responded — responded with a spirit and a genius for action that has thrilled the world. I now call upon it, upon its men and women everyw'here, to see to it that its laws are kept inviolate, its fame untarnished. Let us show our utter contempt for the things that have made this war hideous among the wars of history by show- ing how those who love liberty and right and justice and are willing to lay down their lives for them upon foreign fields stand ready also to illustrate to all manldnd their loyalty to all things at home which they wish to see estab- lished everywhere as a blessing and protection to the peoples who have never known the privilege of liberty and self- government. I can never accept any man as a champion of liberty either for ourselves or for the world who does rot reverence and obey the laws of our own beloved land, whose laws we our- selves have made. He has adopted the standards of the ene- mies of his country, whom he affects to despise. New York Times, July 27, 19 18. 272 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 ) 85. REBUILDING OF PALESTINE ^ \ (August 31, 1918) C Letter to Rabbi Wise 1 I have watched with deep and sincere interest the recon- ; structive work which the Weizmann Commission has done , in Palestine at the instance of the British Government, and j I welcome an opportunity to express the satisfaction I have felt in the progress of the Zionist movement in the United ! States and in the allied countries since the declaration by i Mr. Balfour on behalf of the British Government of Great Britain's approval of the establishment in Palestine of a | national home for the Jewish people and his promise that | the British Government would use its best endeavors to 1 facilitate the achievement of that object, with the under- standing that nothing would be done to prejudice the civil ; and religious rights of non- Jewish people in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in other countries. I think that all Am.ericans will be deeply moved by the ; report that even in this time of stress the Weizmann Com- , mission has been able to lay the foundation of the Hebrew ! University at Jerusalem with the promise that that bears \ of spiritual rebirth. ^ New York Times, Sept. 5, 19 18. j 86. GERMAN WAR AGAINST LABOR (September i, 19 18) Public Message to Labor on Labor Day Labor day, 19 18, is not like any Labor day that we have known. Labor day was always deeply significant with us. Now it is supremely significant. Keenly as we were aware a year ago of the enterprise of life and death upon which the nation had em.barked, we did not perceive its meaning as clearly as we do now. J Sept. i] CxERMAN WAR AGAINST LABOR 273 We knew that we were all partners and must stand and strive together, but we did not realize as we do now that we are all enlisted men, members of a single army of many parts and many tasks, but commanded by a single obliga- tion, our faces set towards a single object. We now know that every tool in every essential industry is a weapon and a weapon wielded for the same purpose that an army rifle is wielded, a weapon which if we were to lay down, no rifle would be of any use. And a weapon for what? What is the war for? Why are we enlisted? Why should we be ashamed if w^e were not enlisted? At first it seemed hardly more than a war of defense against the military aggression of Germany. Bel- gium had been violated, France invaded and Germany was afield again, as in 1870 and 1866, to work out her ambi- tions in Europe and it was necessary to meet her force with force. But it is clear now that it is much more than a war to alter the balance of power in Europe. Germany, it is now plain, w^as striking at what free men everywhere desired and must have — the right to determine their own fortunes, to insist upon justice and to oblige gov- ernments to act for them and not for the private and selfish interest of a governing class. It is a war to make the nations and peoples of the world secure against every such power as the German autocracy represents. It is a war of emancipation. ISTot until it is won can m.en anywhere live free from constant fear or breathe freely while they go about their daily tasks and know that govern- ments are their ser\'ants, not their masters. This is, therefore, the war of all wars, w^hich labor should support with all its concentrated power. The world cannot be safe, the men's lives cannot be secure, no man's rights can be confidently and successfully asserted against the rule and mastery of arbitrary groups and special interests so long as governments like that which after long premeditation drew Austria and Germany into this w^ar are permitted to control the destinies and the daily fortunes of men and nations, plotting while honest men work, laying the fires of which innocent men, women and children are to be the fuel. You know the nature of this war. It is a war which 274 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 industry must sustain. The army of laborers at home is as important, as essential as the army of fighting men in the far fields of actual battle. And the laborer is not only needed as much as the soldier. It is his war. The soldier is his champion and representative. To fail to win would be to imperil everything that the laborer has striven for and held dear since freedom first had its da-wn and his struggle for justice began. The soldiers at the front know this. It steels their muscles to think of it. They are crusaders. They are fighting for no selfish advantage of their own. They would despise anyone who fought for the selfish advantage of any nation. They are giving their lives that homes everywhere as w^ell as the homes they love in America may be kept sacred and safe and men everywhere be free, as they insist upon being free. They are fighting for the ideals of their own land — great ideals, immortal ideals, ideals which shall light the way for all men to the places w^here justice is done and men live with lifted heads and emancipated spirits. That is the reason they fight with solemn joy and are invincible. Let us make this, therefore, a day of fresh comprehen- sion not onl}^ of what w^e are about and of renewed clear- eyed reason but a day of concentration also in which we devote ourselves without pause or limit to the great task of setting our own country and the v/hole w^orld free to render justice to all and of making it impossible for small groups of political rulers anyw^here to disturb our peace or the peace of the world or in any way to make tools and puppets of those upon w^hose consent and upon whose power their own authority and their own very existence depends. We may count upon each other. The nation is a single mind. It is taking counsel with no special class. It is serv- ing no private or single interest. Its o^^^l mind has been cleared and fortified by these days which burn the dross away. The light of a new conviction has penetrated to every class among us. We realize as we never realized before that we are comrades dependent upon one another, irresistible when united, powerless when divided. And so we join hands to lead the world to a new and better day. Boston Herald, Sept. 2, 19 18. Sept. 1 6] A FEW WORDS TO AUSTRIA 275 • 87. A FEW WORDS TO AUSTRIA (September 16, 19 18) Despatch to the Austrian Government Through Secretary Lansing The Government of the United States feels that there is only one reply which it can make to the suggestion of the Imperial Austro-Hungarian Government. It has repeatedly and with entire candor stated the terms upon which the United States would consider peace and can and will enter- tain no proposal for a conference upon a matter concern- ing which it has made its position and purpose so plain. New York Times j Sept. 17, 19 18. d>^. FIVE NEEDS OF PERMANENT PEACE (September 27, 19 18) Address to Public Meeting in New York, Opening the Fourth Liberty Loan I am not here to promote the loan. That will be done — ably and enthusiastically done — by the hundreds of thou- sands of loyal and tireless men and women who have under- taken to present it to you and to our fellow citizens through- out the country; and I have not the least doubt of their complete success; for I know their spirit and the spirit of the country. My confidence is confirmed, too, by the thoughtful and experienced cooperation of the bankers here and everywhere, who are lending their invaluable aid and guidance. I have come, rather, to seek an opportunity to present to you some thoughts which I trust will serve to give you, in perhaps fuller measure than before, a vivid sense of the great issues involved, in order that you may appreciate and accept with added enthusiasm the grave sig- nificance of the duty of supporting the Government by your men and your means to the utmost point of sacrifice and self-denial. No man or woman who has really taken in 276 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 what this war means can hesitate to give to the very limit of what they have; and it is my mission here to-night to try to make it clear once more what the war really means. You will need no other stimulation or reminder of your duty. At every turn of the war we gain a fresh consciousness of what \we mean to accomplish by it. When our hope and expectation are most excited we think more definitely than before of the issues that hang upon it and of the purposes w^hich must be realized by means of it. For it has positive and well-defined purposes which we did not determine and which we cannot alter. No statesman or assembly created them; no statesman or assembly can alter them. They have arisen out of the very nature and circumstances of the war. The most that statesmen or assemblies can do is to carry them out or be false to them^. They were perhaps not clear at the outset; but they are clear now. The war has lasted more than four years and the whole world has been drawn into it. The common will of mankind has been substituted for the particular purposes of individual States. Individual statesmen may have started the conflict, but neither they nor their opponents can stop it as they please. It has become a peoples' war, and peoples of all sorts and races, of every degree of power and variety of fortune, are involved in its sweeping processes of change and settlement. We came into it when its character had become fully defined and it was plain that no nation could stand apart or be indifferent to its outcome. Its challenge drove to the heart of every- thing we cared for and lived for. The voice of the war had become clear and gripped our hearts. Our brothers from many lands, as well as our ovm murdered dead under the sea, were calling to us, and we responded, fiercely and of course. The air was clear about us. We saw things in their full, convincing proportions as they were ; and we have seen them with steady eyes and unchanging comprehension ever since. We accepted the issues of the war as facts, not as any group of men either here or elsewhere had defined them, and we can accept no outcome which does not squarely meet and settle them. Those issues are these: Shall the military power of any nation or group of nations .1 Sept. 27] FIVE NEEDS OF PERMAXEXT PEACE 277 be suffered to determine the fortunes of peoples over whom they have no right to rule except the right of force? Shall strong nations be free to wrong weak nations and make them subject to their purpose and interest? Shall peoples be ruled and dominated, even in their own internal affairs, by arbitrary and irresponsible force or by their own will and choice? Shall there be a common standard of right and privilege for all peoples and nations or shall the strong do as they will and the weak suffer without redress? Shall the assertion of right be haphazard and by casual alliance or shall there be a common concert to oblige the observance of common rights? 'So man, no group of men, chose these to be the issues of the struggle. They are the issues of it; and they must be settled — by no arrangement or compromise or adjustment of interests, but definitely and once for all and with a full and unequivocal acceptance of the principle that the interest of the weakest is as sacred as the interest of the strongest. This is what we mean when we speak of a permanent peace, if we speak sincerely, intelligently, and with a real knowledge and comprehension of the matter we deal with. We are all agreed that there can be no peace obtained by any kind of bargain or compromise with the Governments of the Central Empires, because we have dealt with them already and have seen them deal with other Governments that were parties to this struggle, at Brest-Litovsk and Bucharest. They have convinced us that they are without honor and do not intend justice. They observe no cove- nants, accept no principle but force and their own interest. We cannot "come to terms" with them. They have made it impossible. The German people must by this time be fully aware that we cannot accept the word of those who forced this war upon us. We do not think the same thoughts or speak the same language of agreement. It is of capital importance that we should also be explicitly agreed that no peace shall be obtained by any kind of compromise or abatement of the prircinles we have avowed as the principles for which we are fighting. There should exist no doubt about that. I am, therefore, going to take 278 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 the liberty of speaking with the utmost frankness about the practical implications that are involved in it. If it be indeed and in truth the common object of the Governments associated against Germany and of the nations whom they govern, as I believe it to be, to achieve by the com.ing settlements a secure and lasting peace, it will be necessary that all who sit do\Mi at the peace table shall come ready and willing to pay the price, the only price, that will procure it; and ready and willing, also, to create in some virile fashion the only instrumentality by which it can be made certain that the agreements of the peace will be honored and fulfilled. That price is impartial justice in every item of the settle- ment, no matter whose interest is crossed; and not only impartial justice, but also the satisfaction of the several peo- ples whose fortunes are dealt with. That indispenasble in- strumentality is a League of Nations formed under cove- nants that will be efficacious. Without such an instru- m.entality, by which the peace of the world can be guaran- teed, peace will rest in part upon the word of outlaws, and only upon that word. For Germany will have to redeem her character, not by what happens at the peace table but by what follows. And, as I see it, the constitution of that League of Nations and the clear definition of its objects must be a part, is in a sense the most essential part, of the peace settlement itself. It cannot be formed now. If formed now, it would be merely a new alliance confined to the nations associated against a common enemy. It is not likely that it could be formed after the settlement. It is necessary to guarantee the peace; and the peace cannot be guaranteed as an afterthought. The reason, to speak in plain terms again, why it must be guaranteed is that there will be parties to the peace whose promises have proved untrustworthy, and means must be found in connection with the peace settlement itself to re- move that source of insecurity. It would be folly to leave the guarantee to the subsequent voluntary action of the Governments we have seen destroy Russia and deceive Rumania. But these general terms do not disclose the whole matter. Sept. 27] FIVE NEEDS OF PERMANENT PEACE 279 Some details are needed to make them sound less like a thesis and more like a practical program. These, then, are some of the particulars, and I state them with the greater confidence because I can state them authoritatively as rep- resenting this Government's interpretation of its own duty with regard to peace: First,- the impartial justice meted out must involve no discrimination between those to whom we wish to be just and those to whom we do not wish to be just. It must be a justice that plays no favorites and knows no standard but the equal rights of the several peoples concerned; Second, no special or separate interest of any single nation or any group of nations can be made the basis of any part of the settlement which is not consistent with the common interest of all; Third, there can be no leagues or alliances or special cove- nants and understandings within the general and common family of the League of Nations; Fourth, and more specifically, there can be no special, selfish economic combinations within the league and no em- ployment or any form of economic boycott or exclusion except as the power of economic penalty by exclusion from the markets of the world may be vested in the League of Nations itself as a means of discipline and control: Fifth, all international agreements and treaties of every kind must be made known in their entirety to the rest of the world. Special alliances and economic rivalries and hostilities have been the prolific source in the modern world of the plans and passions that produce war. It would be an insincere as well as an insecure peace that did not exclude them in definite and binding terms. The confidence with which I venture to speak for our people in these matters does not spring from our traditions merely and the well-known principles of international action which we have always professed and followed. In the same sentence in which I say that the United States will enter into no special arrangements or understandings with particular nations let me say also that the United States is prepared to assume its full share of responsibility for the maintenance 28o ADDRESSES OF PRESIDEXT WILSON [1918 of the common covenants and understandings upon which peace must henceforth rest. We still read Washington's immortal warning against "entangling alliances" with full comprehension and an answering purpose. But only special and limited alliances entangle; and we recognize and accept the duty of a new day in which we are permitted to hope for a general alliance which will avoid entanglements and clear the air of the world for common understandings and the maintenance of common rights. I have made this analysis of the international situation which the war has created, not, of course, because I doubted whether the leaders of the great nations and peoples with whom we are associated were of the same mind and enter- tained a like purpose, but because the air every now and again gets darkened by mists and groundless doubtings and mischievous perversions of counsel and it is necessary once and again to sweep all the irresponsible talk about peace intrigues and weakening morale and doubtful purpose on the part of those in authority utterly, and if need be uncere- moniously, aside and say things in the plainest words that can be found, even when it is only to say over again what has been said before, quite as plainly if in less unvarnished terms. As I have said, neither I nor any other man in govern- mental authority created or gave form to the issues of this war. I have simply responded to them with such vision as I could command. But I have responded gladly and v^ith a resolution that has grown warmer and more con- fident as the issues have grown clearer and clearer. It is now plain that they are issues which no man can pervert unless it be wilfully. I am bound to fight for them, and happy to fight for them as time and circumstance have revealed them to me as to all the world. Our enthusiasm for them grows more and more irresistible as they stand out in more and more vivid and unmistakable outline. And the forces that fight for them draw into closer and closer array, organize their millions into more and more un- conquerable might, as they become more and more distinct to the thought and purpose of the peoples engaged. It is the peculiarity of this great war that while statesmen have Sept. 27] FIVE NEEDS OF PERMANENT PEACE 281 seemed to cast about for definitions of their purpose and have sometimes seemed to shift their ground and their point of view, the thought of the mass of men, whom statesmen are supposed to instruct and lead, has gro\\Ti more and more unclouded, more and more certain of what it is that they are fighting for. National purposes have fallen more and more into the background and the common purpose of enlightened mankind has taken their place. The counsels of plain men have become on all hands more simple and straightforward and more unified than the counsels of sophis- ticated men of affairs, who still retain the impression that they are playing a game of power and playing for high stakes. That is why I have said that this is a peoples' war, not a statesmen's. Statesmen must follow the clarified common thought or be broken. I take that to be the significance of the fact that assem- blies and associations of many kinds made up of plain workaday people have demanded, almost every time they came together, and are still demanding, that the leaders of their Governments declare to them plainly what it is, exactly what it is, that they are seeking in this w^ar, and what they think the items of the final settlement should be. They are not yet satisfied \^ith what they have been told. They still seem to fear that they are getting what they ask for only in statesmen's terms, — only in the terms of territorial ar- rangements and divisions of power, and not in terms of broad-visioned justice and mercy and peace and the satis- faction of those deep-seated longings of oppressed and dis- tracted men and women and enslaved peoples that seem to them the only things worth fighting a war for that engulfs the world. Perhaps statesmen have not always recognized this changed aspect of the whole world of policy and action. Perhaps they have not always spoken in direct reply to the questions asked because they did not know how searching those questions were and what sort of answers they de- manded. But I, for one, am glad to attempt the answer again and again, in the hope that I may make it clearer and clearer that my one thought is to satisfy those who struggle in the ranks and are, perhaps above all others, entitled to a reply 282 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 whose meaning no one can have any excuse for misunder- standing, if he understands the language in which it is spoken or can get someone to translate it correctly into his own. And I believe that the leaders of the Governments with which we are associated will speak, as they have occasion, as plainly as I have tried to speak. I hope that they will feel free to say whether they think that I am in any degree mistaken in my interpretation of the issues involved or in my purpose with regard to the means by which a satisfactory settlement of those issues may be obtained. Unity of pur- pose and of counsel are as imperatively necessary in this war as was unity of command in the battlefield; and with perfect unity of purpose and counsel will come assurance of complete victory. It can be had in no other way. "Peace drives" can be effectively neutralized and silenced only by showing that every victory of the nations associated against Germany brings the nations nearer the sort of peace which will bring security and reassurance to all peoples and make the recurrence of another such struggle of pitiless force and bloodshed forever impossible, and that nothing else can. Germany is constantly intimating the "terms" she will accept; and always finds that the world does not want terms. It wishes the final triumph of justice and fair dealing. New York Times, Sept. 28, 19 18. 89. COLLEGE SOLDIERS (October i, 1918) Public Message to the Student Corps The step you have taken is a most significant one. By it you have ceased to be merely individuals, each seeking to perfect himself to win his own place in the world, and have become comrades in the common cause of making the world a better place to live in. You have joined yourselves to the entire manhood of the country, and pledged, as did your forefathers, "your lives, your fortunes and your sacred honor to the freedom of humanity." Oct. i] COLLEGE SOLDIERS 283 The enterprise upon which you have embarked is a hazardous and difficult one. This is not a war of words; this is not a scholastic struggle. It is a war of ideals, yet fought \Aith all the devices of science and with the power of machinery. To succeed, you must not only be inspired by the ideals for which this country stands, but you must also be masters of the technique with which the battle is fought. You must not only be thrilled with zeal for the common welfare, but you must also be master of the weapons of to-day. There can be no doubt of the issue. The spirit that is revealed and the manner in which America has responded to the call is indomitable. I have no doubt that you will use your utmost strength to maintain that spirit to carry it for- ward to the final victory that will certainly be ours. Boston Herald, Oct. 2, 19 18. 90. QUESTION OF AN ARMISTICE (October 8, 1918) Despatch to the German Government Through Secretary Lansing Before making reply to the request of the Imperial Ger- man Government and in order that that reply shall be as candid and straightforward as the momentous interests in- volved require, the President of the United States deems it necessary to assure himself of the exact meaning of the note of the Imperial Chancellor. Does the Imperial Chancellor mean that the Imperial Ger- man Government accepts the terms laid down by the Presi- dent in his address to the Congress of the United States on the 8th of January last and in subsequent addresses cmd that its object in entering into discussions would be only to agree upon the practical details of their application? The President feels bound to say with regard to the suggestion of an armistice that he would not feel at liberty to propose a cessation of arms to the governments with which 284 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [191S the government of the United States is associated against the Central Powers so long as the armies of those powers are upon their soil. The good faith of any discussion would manifestly depend upon the consent of the Central Powers immediately to withdraw their forces everjrwhere from invaded territory. The President also feels that he is justified in asking whether the Imperial Chancellor is speaking merely for the constituted authorities of the empire who have so far con- ducted the war. He deems the answer to these questions vital from every point of view. Boston Herald, Oct. 9, 1918. 91. NO NEGOTIATED PEACE WITH GERMANY (October 14, 19 18) Despatch to the German Government Through Secretary Lansing The unqualified acceptance by the present German Gov- ernment and by a large majority of the Reichstag of the terms laid down by the President of the LTnited States of America in his address to the Congress of the United States on the 8th of January, 19 18, and in his subsequent ad- dresses, justifies the President in making a frank and direct statement of his decision with regard to the communications of the German Government of the 8th and 12th of October, 1918. It must be clearly understood that the process of evacua- tion and the conditions of an armistice are matters which must be left to the judgment and advice of the military advisors of the Government of the United States and the Allied Governments, and the President feels it his duty to say that no arrangement can be accepted by the Govern- ment of the United States which does not provide abso- lutely satisfactory safeguards and guarantees of the main- tenance of the present military supremacy of the armies of the United States and the Allies in the field. Oct. 14] NO PEACE WITH GERMANY 285 He feels confident that he can safely assume that nothing but this will also be the judgment and decision of the Allied Governments. The President feels that it is also his duty to add that neither the Government of the United States nor, he is quite sure, the Governments with which the Government of the United States is associated as a belligerent, will consent to consider an armistice so long as the armed forces of Germany continue the illegal and inhumane practices which they still persist in. At the very time that the German Government approaches the Government of the United States with proposals of peace, its submarines are engaged in sinking passenger ships at sea, and not the ships alone, but the very boats in which their passengers and crew seek to make their way to safety; and in their present enforced withdrawal from Flanders and France the German armies are pursuing a course of wanton destruction which has always been regarded as in direct violation of the rules and practices of civilized warfare. Cities and villages, if not destroyed, are being stripped of all they contain, not only, but often of their very inhabitants. The nations associated against Germany cannot be expected to agree to a cessation of arms w^hile acts of inhumanity, spoliation and desolation are being continued w^hich they justly look upon with horror and with burning hearts. It is necessary, also, in order that there may be no pos- sibility of misunderstanding, that the President should very solemnly call the attention of the Government of Germany to the language and plain intent of one of the terms of peace which the German Government has now accepted. It is contained in the address of the President delivered at Mount Vernon on the Fourth of July last. It is as follows: 'The destruction of every arbitrary power anywhere that can separately, secretly and of its single choice disturb the peace of the world; or, if it cannot be presently destroyed, at least its reduction to virtual impotency. The power which has hitherto controlled the German nation is of the sort here described. It is within the choice of the German nation to alter it." The President's words just quoted naturally constitute a condition precedent to peace, if peace 286 ADDRESSES OF" PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 ' is to come by the action of the German people themselves. The President feels bound to say that the whole process of I peace will, in his judgment, depend ;upon the definiteness j and the satisfactory character of the guarantees which can i be given in this fundamental matter. It is indispensable \ that the Governments associated against Germany should 1 know beyond a peradventure with whom they are dealing. i Boston Herald, Oct 15, 19 18. j 92. THE ARMISTICE WITH GERMANY (November 11, 19 18) Address to Congress In these times of rapid and stupendous change it will in some degree lighten my sense of responsibility to perform in person the duty of communicating to you some of the larger circumstances of the situation with which it is necessary to deal. The German authorities, who have at the invitation 0^ the Supreme War Council been in communication with Marshal Foch, have accepted and signed the terms of armistice which he was authorized and instructed to communicate to them. These terms are as follows: * * * The war thus comes to an end ; for, having accepted these terms of armistice, it will be impossible for the German com- mand to renew it. It is not now possible to assess the consequences of this great consummation. We know only that this tragical war, whose consuming flames swept from one nation to another until all the world was on fire, is at an end and that it was the privilege of our own people to enter it at its most critical juncture in such fashion and in such force as to contribute, in a way of which we are all deeply proud, to the great result. We know, too, that the object of the war is attained; the object upon which all free men had set their hearts; and attained with a sweeping completeness which even now we do not realize. Armed imperialism such as Nov. ii] THE ARMISTICE WITH GERMANY 287 the men conceived who were but yesterday the masters of Germany is at an end, its illicit ambitions engulfed in black disaster. Who will now seek to revive it? The arbitrary power of the military caste of Germany which once could secretly and of its own single choice dis- turb the peace of the world is discredited and destroyed. And more than that — much m.ore than that — has been ac- complished. The great nations which associated themselves to destroy it have now definitely united in the common pur- pose to set up such a peace as will satisfy the longing of the whole world for disinterested justice, embodied in settlements which are based upon something much better and more last- ing than the selfish competitive interests of powerful States. There is no longer conjecture as to the objects the victors have in mind. They have a mind in the matter, not only, but a heart also. Their avowed and concerted purpose is to satisfy and protect the weak as well as to accord their just rights to the strong. The humane temper and intention of the victorious Gov- ernments have already been manifested in a very practical way. Their representatives in the Supreme War Council at Versailles have by unanimous resolution assured the peoples of the Central Empires that everything that is possible in the circumstances will be done to supply them with food and relieve the distressing want that is in so many places threatening their very lives; and steps are to be taken imme- diately to organize these efforts at relief in the same sys- tematic manner that they were organized in the case of Belgium. By the use of the idle tonnage of the Central Empires it ought presently to be possible to lift the fear of utter misery from their oppressed populations and set their minds and energies free for the great and hazardous tasks of political reconstruction which now face them on every hand. Hunger does not breed reform; it breeds madness and all the ugly distempers that make an ordered life impossible. For with the fall of the ancient Governments, which rested likei an incubus on the peoples of the Central Empires, has come political change not merely, but revolution; and revo- lution which seems as yet to assume no final and ordered form,, biit to run from one 'fluid change to another, until 288 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 thoughtful men are forced to ask themselves, with what gov- ernments and of what sort are we about to deal in the making of the covenants of peace? With what authority will they meet us, and with what assurance that their authority will abide and sustain securely the international arrangements into v/hich we are about to enter? There is here matter for no small anxiety and misgiving. When peace is made, upon whose promises and engagements besides cur own is it to rest? Let us be perfectly frank with ourselves and admit that these questions cannot be satisfactorily answered now or at once. But the moral is not that there is little hope of an early ansv;er that will suffice. It is only that we must be patient and helpful and mindful above all of the great hope and confidence that lie at the heart of what is taking place. Excesses accomplish nothing. Unhappy Russia has furnished abundant recent proof of that. Disorder immediately de- feats itself. If excesses should occur, if disorder should for a time raise its head, a sober second thought will follow and a day of constructive action, if we help and do not hinder. The present and all that it holds belongs to the nations and the peoples who preserve their self-control and the or- derly processes of their Governments; the future to those who prove themselves the true friends of mankind. To con- quer with arms is to make only a temporary conquest; to conquer the world by earning its esteem is to make perma- nent conquest. I am confident that the nations that have learned the discipline of freedom and that have settled with self-possession to its ordered practice are now about to make conquest of the world by the sheer power of example and of friendly helpfulness. The peoples who have but just come out from under the yoke of arbitrary government and who are now coming at last into their freedom will never find the treasures of liberty they are in search of if they look for them by the light of the torch. They mil find that every pathway that is stained with the blood of their own brothers leads to the wilderness, not to the seat of their hope. They are now face to face with their initial test. We must hold the light steady until tliey find themselves. And in the meantime, if it be possible, Nov. 1 1 ] THE ARMISTICE WITH GERMANY 289 we must establish a peace that will justly define their place among the nations, remove all fear of their neighbors and of their former masters, di.a eiia.b;e thc-ai lo live in security and contentment when they have 5.et their own affairs in order. I, for one, do not doubt their purpose or their capacity. There are some happy signs that they know and will choose the way of self-control and peaceful accommo- dation. If they do, we shall put our aid at their disposal in every way that we can. If '^nty do not. •■ e r- ■■-■.': .vv. :^: .vith patience and sympathy the awakening and recovery that will assuredly come at last. New York Times, Nov. 12, 19 18. 93. ADDRESS BEFORE GOING ABROAD* (December 2, 1918) Address to Congress The year that has elapsed since I last stood before you to fulfill my constitutional duty to give Congress from time to time information on the state of the Union has been so crowded vvith great events, great processes, and great results, that I cannot hope to give you an adequate picture of its transactions or of the far-reaching changes which have been wrought in the life of our nation and of the world. You have yourselves witnessed these things, as I have. It is too soon to assess them ; and we who stand in the midst of them and are part of them are less qualified than men of another generation will be to say what they mean, or even what they have been. But some great outstanding facts are unmis- takable, and constitute in a sense part of the public business with vrhich it is our duty to deal. To state them is to set the stage for the legislative and executive action which must grow out of them, and which we have yet to shape and determine. A year ago we had sent 145,198 men overseas. Since then * This message was added while this volume was partly in type. It is not referred to in any way in the Index. 290 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 we have sent 1,950,513, an average of 162,542 each month, the number, in fact, rising in May last to 245,951, in June to 278,850, in July to 307,182, and continuing to reach similar figures in August and September — in August 289,570, and in September 257,438. No such movement of troops ever took place before across 3,000 miles of sea, followed by adequate equipment and supplies, and carried safely through extraordinary dangers of attack — dangers which were alike strange and infinitely difficult to guard against. In all this movement only 758 men were lost by enemy attacks — 630 of whom were upon a single English transport which was sunk near the Orkney Islands. I need not tell you what lay back of this great movement of men and material. It is net invidious to say that back of it lay a supporting organization of the industries of the country and of all its productive activities more complete, more thorough in method and effective in results, more spirited and unanimous in purpose and effort than any other great belligerent had ever been able to effect. We profited greatly by the experience of the nations which had already been engaged for nearly three years in the exigent and exact- ing business, their every resource and every executive pro- ficiency taxed to the utmost. We were the pupils. But we learned quickly and acted with a promptness and readiness of cooperation that justify our great pride that we were able to serve the world with unparalleled energy and quick accom- plishment. But it is not the physical scale and executive efficiency of preparation, supply, equipment, and despatch that I would dwell upon, but the mettle and quality of the officers and men we sent over and of the sailors who kept the seas, and the spirit of the nation that stood behind them. No soldiers or sailors ever proved themselves more quickly ready for the test of battle or acquitted themselves with more splendid courage and achievement when put to the test. Those of us who played some part in directing the great processes by which the war was pushed irresistibly forward to the final triumph may now forget all that and delight our thoughts with the story of what our m.en did. Their officers under- stood the grim and exacting task they had undertaken and Dec. 2] ADDRESS BEFORE GOING \BROAD 291 performed it with an audacity, efficiency, and unhesitating courage tliat touch the story of convoy and battle with im- perishable distinction at every turn, whether the enterprises were great or small — from their chiefs, Pershing and Sims, down to the youngest lieutenant; and their men were worthy of them— such men as hardly need to be commanded, and go to their terrible adventure blithely and with the quick intel- ligence of those who know just w^hat it is they would accom- plish. I am proud to be the fellow-countryman of men of such stuff and valor. Those of us who stayed at home did our duty; the war could not have been won or the gallant men who fought it given their opportunity to \vin it other- wise, but for many a long day we shall think ourselves "accurs'd we w^ere not there, and hold our manhood cheap while any speaks that fought" with these at St. Mihiel or Thierry. The m.emory of those days of triumphant battle will go with these fortunate men to their graves; and each will have his favorite memory. "Old men forget; yes, all shall be forgot, but he'll remember with advantages w^hat feats he did that day." What we all thank God for with deepest gratitude is that our men went in force into the line of battle just at the critical moment when the whole fate of the world seemed to hang in the balance, and threw their fresh strength into the ranks of freedom in time to turn the whole tide and sweep of the fateful struggle — turn it once for all, so that thenceforth it was back, back for their enemies, always back, never again forward. After that it was only a scant four months before the commanders of the Central Empires knew themselves beaten, and now their very empires are in liquidation. And throughout it all, how fine the spirit of the nation was, what unity of purpose, what untiring zeal, what eleva- tion of purpose ran through all its splendid display of strength, its untiring accomplishment. I have said that those of us who stayed at home to do the work of organization and supply will always wish that we had been with the men whom we sustained by our labor; but we can never be ashamed. It has been an inspiring thing to be here in the midst of fine men who had turned aside from every private 292 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 interest of their own and devoted the whole of their trained capacity to the tasks that suppHed the sinews of the whole great undertaking. The patriotism, the unselfishness, the thoroughgoing devotion and distinguished capacity that marked their toilsome labors day after day, month after month, have made them fit mates and comrades of the men in the trenches and on the sea. And not the men here in Washington only. They have but directed the vast achieve- ment. Throughout innumerable factories, upon innumerable farms, in the depths of coal mines and iron mines and copper mines, wherever the stuffs of industry were to be obtained and prepared, in the shipyards, on the railways, at the docks, on the sea, in every labor that was needed to sustain the battle lines, men have vied \Yith each other to do their part, and do it well. They can look any man at arms in the face and say. We also strove to win and gave the best that was in us to rnake our fleets and armies sure of their triumph. And what shall we say of the women — of their instant intel- ligence, quickening every task that they touched ; their capac- ity for organization and cooperation, which gave their action discipline and enhanced the effectiveness of everything they attempted; their aptitude at tasks to which they had never before set their hands; their utter self-sacrifice alike in what they did and in what they gave? Their contribution to the great result is beyond appraisal. They have added a new lustre to the annals of American womanhood. The least tribute we can pay them is to make them the equals of men in political rights, as they have proved them- selves their equals in every field of practical work they have entered, whether for themselves or for their country. These great days of completed achievements would be sadly marred were we to omit that act of justice. Besides the immense practical services they have rendered, the women of the country have been moving spirits in the systematic economies by which our people have voluntarily assisted to supply the suffering peoples of the world and the armies of every front with food and everything else that we had that would ser\'e the common cause. The details of such a story can never be fully written, but we carry them at our hearts, and thank God that we can say that we are the kinsmen of such. Dec. 2] ADDRESS BEFORE GOING ABROAD 293 And now we are sure of the great triumph for which every sacrifice was made. It has come — come in its completeness, and with the pride and inspiration of these days of achieve- ment quick within us, we turn to the tasks of peace again — a peace secure against the violence of irresponsible monarchs and ambitious military coteries, and made ready for a new order, for new^ foundations of justice and fair dealing. We are about to give order and organization to this peace, not only for ourselves but for the other peoples of the world as well, so far as they will suffer us to serve them. It is international justice that we seek, not domestic safety merely. Our thoughts have dwelt of late upon Europe, upon Asia, upon the Near and the Far East, very little upon the acts of peace and accommodation that wait to be performed at our own doors. While w^e are adjusting our relations with the rest of the world, is it not of capital im.portance that w^e should clear aw^ay all grounds of misunderstanding with our immediate neighbors and give proof of the friendship we really feel? I hope that the m.embers of the Senate will permit me to speak once more of the unratified treaty of adjustment with the Republic of Colombia. I very earnestly urge upon them an early and favorable action upon that vital matter. I believe that they will feel, with me, that the stage of affairs is now set for such action as \^^ll be not only just but generous, and in the spirit of the new age upon which we have so happily entered. So far as our domestic affairs are concerned, the problem of our return to peace is a problem of economic and indus- trial readjustment. That problem is less serious for us than it may turn out to be for the nations which have suffered the disarrangements and the losses of the war longer than w^e. Our people, moreover, do not wait to be coached and led. They know their own business, are quick and resource- ful at every readjustment, definite in purpose, and self- reliant in action. Any leading strings we might seek to put them in would speedily become hopelessly tangled, because they would pay no attention to them, and go their own way. All that we can do as their legislative and executive servants is to mediate the process of change here, there, and else- where, as we may. I have heard much counsel as to the 294 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 \ i plans that should be formed, and personally conducted to a happy consummation, but from no quarter have I seen any general scheme of "reconstruction" emerge which 1 thought it likely we could force our spirited business men and self- reliant laborers to accept with due pliancy and obedience. While the war lasted we set up many agencies by which to direct the industries of the country in the services it was ; necessary for them to render, by which to make sure of an abundant supply of the materials needed, by which to check I undertakings that could for the time be dispensed with, and I stimulate those that were most ser\^iceable in war, by which I to gain for the purchasing departments of the government a certain control over the prices of essential articles and ma- terials, by Vv'hich to restrain trade with alien enemies, make the most of the available shipping, and systematize financial transactions, both public and private, so that there would be no unnecessary conflict or confusion — by which, in short, to put every material energy of the country in harness to draw the common load and make of us one team in the ac- | complishment of a great task. But the moment we knew | the armistice to have been signed we took the harness off. j Raw materials, upon which the Government had kept its hand for fear there should not be enough for the industries that supplied the armies, have been released and put into the general market again. Great industrial plants whose whole output and machinery had been taken over for the uses of the Government have been set free to return to the uses to which they were put before the war. It has not been pos- sible to remove so readily or so quickly the control of food- stuffs and of shipping, because the world has still to be fed from our granaries and the ships are still needed to send supplies to our men overseas, and to bring the men back as | fast as the disturbed conditions on the other side of the 1 v;ater permit. But even these restraints are being relaxed as | much as possible, and more and more as the weeks go by. j Never before have there been agencies in existence in this ^ country which knew so much of the field of supply, of labor, 1 and of industry as the War Industries Board, the War Trade Board, the Labor Department, the Food Administration, | and the Fuel Administration have known since the labors I Dec. 2] ADDRESS BEFORE GOLNG ABROAD 295 became thoroughly systematized, and they have not been iso- lated agencies. They have been directed by men that rep- resented the permanent departments of the Government, and so have been the centers of unified and cooperative action. It has been the policy of the Executive, therefore, since the armistice (which is in effect a complete submission of the enemy), to put the knowledge of these bodies at the disposal of the business men of the country, and to offer their intel- ligent mediation at every point and in every matter where it was desired. It is surprising how fast the process of re- turn to a peace footing has moved in the three weeks since the fighting stopped. It promises to outrun any inquiry that may be instituted and any aid that may be offered. It will not be easy to direct it any better than it will direct itself. The American business man is of quick initiative. The ordinary and normal processes of private initiative will not, however, provide immediate employment for all of the men of our returning armies. Those who are of trained ca- pacity, those who are skilled workmen, those who have ac- quired familiarity with established businesses, those who are ready and willing to go to the farms, all those whose apti- tudes are kno\ATi or will be sought out by employers, will find no difficulty, it is safe to say, in finding place and em- ployment. But there will be others who will be at a loss where to gain a livelihood unless pains are taken to guide them and put them in the way of work. There will be a large floating residuum of labor which should not be left wholly to shift for itself. It seems to me important, there- fore, that the development of public works of every sort should be promptly resumed, in order that opportunities should be created for unskilled labor in particular, and that plans should be made for such developments of our unused lands and our natural resources as we have hitherto lacked stimulation to undertake. I particularly direct your attention to the very practical plans which the Secretary of the Interior has developed in his annual report, and before your committees for the recla- mation of arid, swamp, and cut-over lands, which might, if the States were willing and able to cooperate, redeem some three hundred million acres of land for cultivation. There 296 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 are said to be fifteen or twenty million acres of land in the West, at present arid, for whose reclamation water is avail- able, if properly conserved. There are about two hundred and thirty m.illion acres from which the forests have been cut, but which have never yet been cleared for the plow, and which lie waste and desolate. These lie scattered all over the Union. And there are nearly eighty million acres of land that lie under swamps or subject to periodical overflow, or too wet for anything but grazing, which it is perfectly feasible to drain and protect and redeem. The Congress can at once direct thousands of the returning soldiers to the recla- mation of the arid lands which it has already undertaken, if it will but enlarge the plans and the appropriations which it has intrusted to the Department of the Interior. It is possible in dealing with our unused land to effect a great rural and agricultural development, which will afford the best sort of opportunity to men who want to help themselves, and the Secretary of the Interior has thought the possible methods out in a way which is worthy of your most friendly attention. I have spoken of the control which must yet for a while, perhaps for a long time, be exercised over shipping because of priority of service to which our forces overseas are entitled and which should also be accorded the shipments which are to save recently liberated peoples from starvation and many devastated regions from permanent ruin. May I not say a special word about the needs of Belgium and Northern France? No sums of money paid by way of indemnity will serve of themselves to save them from hopeless disadvantage for years to come. Something more must be done than merely find the money. If they had money and raw materials in abundance to- morrow, they could not resume their place in the industry of the world to-morrow — ^the very important place they held before the flame of war swept across them. Many of their factories are razed to the ground. Much of their machinery is destroyed or has been taken away. Their people are scattered, and many of their best workmen are dead. Their markets will be taken by others, if they are not in some spe- cial way assisted to rebuild their factories and replace their Dec. 2] ADDRESS BEFORE GOING ABROAD 297 lost instruments of manufacture. They should not be left to the vicissitudes of the sharp competition for materials and for industrial facilities which is now to set in. I hope, therefore, that the Congress will not be unwilling, if it should become necessary, to grant to some such agency as the War Trade Board the right to establish priorities of export and supply for the benefit of these people whom we have been so happy to assist in saving from the German terror and whom we must not now thoughtlessly leave to shift for themselves in a pitiless competitive market. For the steadying and facilitation of our own domestic business readjustments nothing is more important than the immediate determination of the taxes that are to be levied for 19 1 8, 19 19, and 1920. As much of the burden of tax- ation must be lifted from business as sound methods of fi- nancing the Government will permit, and those who conduct the great essential industries of the country must be told as exactly as possible what obligations to the Government they will be expected to meet in the years immediately ahead of them; it will be of serious consequence to the country to delay removing all uncertainties in this matter a single day longer than the right processes of debate justify. It is idle to talk of successful and confident business reconstruction before those uncertainties are resolved. If the war had continued it would have been necessary to raise at least $8,000,000,000 by taxation payable in the year 1 9 1 9 ; but the war . has ended and I agree with the Secretary of the Treasury that it will be safe to reduce the amount to six billions. An immediate rapid decline in the expenses of the Government is not to be looked for. Con- tracts made for war supplies will, indeed, be rapidly canceled and liquidated, but their immediate liquidation will make hea\y drains on the Treasury for the months just ahead of us. The maintenance of our forces on the other side of the sea is still necessary. A considerable proportion of those forces must remain in Europe during the period of occupa- tion, and those which are brought home will be transported and demobilized at heavy expense for months to come. The interest on our war debt must, of course, be paid and pro- 298 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 vision made for the retirement of the obligations of the Gov- ernment which represent it. But these demancfs will, of course, fall much below what a continuation of military oper- ations would have entailed, and six billions should suffice to supply a sound foundation for the financial operations of the year. I entirely concur with the Secretary of the Treasury in recommending that the two billions needed in addition to the four billions provided by existing law be obtained from the profits which have accrued and shall accrue from war con- tracts and distinctively war business, but that these taxes be confined to the war profits accruing in 19 18 or in 19 19 from business originating in war contracts. I urge your acceptance of his recommendation that provision be made now, not subsequently, that the taxes to be paid in 1920 should be reduced from six to four billions. Any arrange- ments less definite than these would add elements of doubt and confusion to the critical period of industrial readjust- ment through which the country must now immediately pass, and which no true friend of the nation's essential business interests can afford to be responsible for creating or pro- longing. Clearly determined conditions, clearly and simply charted, are indispensable to the economic revival and rapid industrial development which may confidently be expected, if we act now and sweep all interrogation points away. I take it for granted that the Congress will carry out the naval program which was undertaken before we entered the war. The Secretary of the Navy has submitted to your com^ mittees for authorization that part of the program which covers the building plans of the next three years. These plans have been prepared along the lines and in accordance with the policy which the Congress established, not under the exceptional conditions of the war, but with the intention of adhering to a definite method of development for the navy. I earnestly recommend the uninterrupted pursuit of that policy. It would clearly be unwise for us to attempt to adjust our program to a future world policy as yet undeter- mined. The question which causes me the greatest concern is the question of the policy to be adopted toward the railroads. I Dec. 2] ADDRESS BEFORE GOING ABROAD 299 frankly turn to you for counsel upon it. I have no confident judgment of my o\vc\. I do not see how any thoughtful man can have who knows anything of the complexity of the prob- lem. It is a problem which must be studied, studied immedi- ately, and studied without bias or prejudice. Nothing can be gained by becoming partisans of any particular plan of settlement. It was necessary that the administration of the railways should be taken over by the Government so long as the war lasted. It would have been impossible otherwise to establish and carry through under a single direction the necessary priorities of shipment. It would have been impossible other- wise to combine maximum production at the factories and mines and farms with the maximum possible car supply to move the products to the ports and markets; impossible to route troop shipments and freight shipments without regard to the ad\^antage of the roads employed; impossible to sub- ordinate, when necessary, all questions of convenience to the public necessity; impossible to give the necessary financial support to the roads from the public treasury. But all these necessities have now been served, and the question is, WTiat is best for the railroads and for the public in the future? Exceptional circumstances and exceptional methods of administration were not needed to convince us that the rail- roads were not equal to the immense tasks of transportation imposed upon them by the rapid and continuous develop- ments of the industries of the country. We knew that al- ready. And we knew that they w^ere unequal to it partly because their full cooperation was rendered impossible by law and their competition made obligatory, so that it has been impossible to assign to them severally the traffic which could best be carried by their respective lines in the interest of expedition and national economy. "We may hope, I believe, for the formal conclusion of the war by a treaty by the time Spring has come. The twenty- one months to which the present control of the railways is limited, after formal proclamation of peace shall have been made, will run at the farthest, I take it for granted, only to the January of 192 1. The full equipment of the railways which the Federal Administration had planned could not be 300 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 i completed within any such period. The present law does not permit the use of the revenues of the several roads for the execution of such plans except by formal contract with their Directors, some of whom will consent while some \\i\\ not, and therefore does not afford sufficient authority to under- take improvements upon the scale upon which it would be necessary to undertake them. Every approach to this diffi- cult subject-matter of decision brings us face to face, there- fore, with this unanswered question: What is it right that we should do v»dth the railroads, in the interest of the public and in fairness to their owners? Let me say at once that I have no answer ready. The only thing tiat is perfectly clear to me is that it is not fair either to the public or to the owners of the railroads to leave the question unanswered, and that it will presently become my duty to relinquish con- trol of the roads, even before the expiration of the statuory period, unless there should appear some clear prospect in the meantime of a legislative solution. Their release would at least produce one "element of a solution, namely, certainty and a quick stimulation of private initiative. I believe that it will be serviceable for me to set forth as explicitly as possible the alternative courses that lie open to our choice. We can simply release the roads and go back to the old conditions of private management, unrestricted com- petition, and multiform regulation by both State and Federal authorities; or we can go to the opposite extreme and estab- lish complete control, accompanied, if necessary, by actual Government ownership; or we can adopt an intermediate course of modified private control, under a more unified and affirmative public regulation and under such alterations of the law as will permit wasteful competition to be avoided and a considerable degree of unification of administration to be effected, as, for example, by regional corporations, under which the railways of definable areas would be in effect combined in single systems. The one conclusion that I am ready to state with confidence is that it would be a disservice alike to the country and to the owners of the railroads to return to the old conditions unmodified. Those are conditions of restraint without de- velopment. There is nothing affirmative or helpful about Dec. 2] ADDRESS BEFORE GOING ABROAD 301 them. WTiat the country chiefly needs is that all its means of transportation should be developed, its railways, its water- ways, its highways, and its countryside roads. Some new element of policy, therefore, is absolutely necessary — neces- sary for the service of the public, necessary for the release of credit to those who are administering the railways, neces- sary for the protection of their security holders. The old policy may be changed much or little, but surely it cannot always be left as it was. I hope that the Congress will have a complete and impartial study of the whole problem insti- tuted at once and prosecuted as rapidly as possible. I stand ready and anxious to release the roads from the present con- trol, and I must do so at a very early date, as by waiting until the statutory limit of time is reached I shall be merely prolonging the period of doubt and uncertainty which is hurtful to ever\r interest concerned. I welcome this occasion to announce to the Congress my purpose to join in Paris the representatives of the Govern- ments with which we have been associated in the war against the Central Empires for the purpose of discussing with them the main features of the treaty of peace. I realize the great inconveniences that will attend my leaving the country, par- ticularly at this time, but the conclusion that it was my para- mount duty to go has been forced upon me by considerations which I hope will seem as conclusive to you as they have seemed to me. The Allied Governments have accepted the bases of peace which I outlined to the Congress on the 8th of January last, as the Central Empires also have, and very reasonably desire my personal counsel in their interpretation and application, and it is highly desirable that I should give it in order that the sincere desire of our Government to contribute without selfish purpose of any kind to settlements that will be of common benefit to all the nations concerned may be made fully manifest. The peace settlements which are now to be agreed upon are of transcendent importance, both to us and to the rest of the world, and I know of no business or in- terest which should take precedence of them. The gallant men of our armed forces on land and sea have conspicuously fought for the ideals which they knew to be the ideals of 302 ADDRESSES OF PRESIDENT WILSON [1918 their country. I have sought to express those ideals; they have accepted my statements of them as the substance of their own thought and purpose, as the associated Govern- ments have accepted them; I owe it to them to see to it, so far as in me lies, that no false or mistaken interpretation is put upon them, and no possible effort omitted to realize them. It is now my duty to play my full part in making good what they offered their life's blood to obtain. I can think of no call to service which would transcend this. I shall be in close touch with you and with affairs on this side of the water, and you will know all that I do. At my request the French and English Governments have abso- lutely removed the censorship of cable news which until within a fortnight they had maintained, and there is now no censorship whatever exercised at this end, except upon at- tempted trade communications with enemy countries. It has been necessary to keep an open wire constantly available between Paris and the Department of State, and another be- tween France and the Department of War. In order that this might be done with the least possible interference with the other uses of the cables, I have temporarily taken over the control of both cables in order that they may be used as a single system. I did so at the advice of the most ex- perienced cable officials, and I hope that the results will justify my hope that the news of the next few months may pass with the utmost freedom, and with the least possible delay from each side of the sea to the other. May I now hope, gentlemen of the Congress, that in the delicate tasks I shall have to perform on the other side of the sea, in my efforts truly and faithfully to interpret the principles and purposes of the country we love, I may have the encouragement and the added strength of your united support? I realize the magnitude and difficulty of the duty I am undertaking. I am poignantly aware of its grave re- sponsibilities. I am the servant of the nation. I can have no private thought or purpose of my own in performing such an errand. I go to give the best that is in me to the common settlements which I must now assist in arriving at in con- ference with the other working heads of the associated Gov- ernments. I shall count upon your friendly countenance and Dec. 2] ADDRESS BEFORE GOING ABROAD 303 encouragement. I shall not be inaccessible. The cables and the wireless will render me available for any counsel or service you may desire of me, and I shall be happy in the thought that I am constantly in touch with the weighty matters of domestic policy vvith which we shall have to deal. I shall make my absence as brief as possible, and shall hope to return with the happy assurance that it has been possible to translate into action the great ideals for which America has striven. N^w York Times, December 3, 19 18. INDEX Agriculture, reform, 3-4; im- portance of, 252-253; De- partment, 73; war-time, 199- 201; message to farmers, 251-255 ; governmental war- time promotion, 252-253; or- ganizations, 253; loans, 253; fertilization and seed, 253; labor problem, 253-254; re- sponse to war demands, 254; further demands on, 254, 255 ; price regulation, 255. See also Industry. Albert of Belgium, message to, 231-232. Allegiance, meaning of oath, 86, 130. Alliances, American attitude, 30; and essentials of peace, 178, 279; entangling, and League of Nations, 280. See also League of Nations. Alsace - Lorraine, restoration to France, 249. America First, address on, 78-83. American Bar Association, address before, 46-48. American Federation of La- bor, address before, 226-230. American Revolution, prin- ciples, 28-32. Americanism, elements, 130. See also Democracy. Annapolis, address at, 36-39. "Arabic," sinking, 114. Arbitration, international, and Pan-Americanism, 99-100. Arbitration, labor, rejected in railroad question, 144, 147; limitations, 147; compulsory, 149; judicial enforcement of awards, 149-15© ; war-time, 229-230. Arlington, addresses at, 32-36, 209-210. Armaments, limitation in peace terms, 177, 186, 248. Armed merchantmen, travel on, 109; status and German policy, 113-114. Armed neutrality, policy, 182- 183, 185; impracticable, 190. Armistice, despatches on, 283- 286; withdrawal of German forces, 284 ; character of Ger- man government, 284-286 ; guarantee of military suprem- acy, 284; as military affair, 284; and inhumanity and devastation, 285 ; announce- ment to Congress, 286-289; finality, 286. Arms, exportation, and neu- trality, 84-85. Army, American, self-sacrifice and courage of soldier, 33- 34, 75; and industrial pre- paredness, 102; Mexican ex- pedition, 110-111; address to West Point graduates, 125- 131; former service of offi- cers, 126; possibilities of present service, 126, 131 ; and militarism, 128; officers as citizens, 129; officers and Americanism, 125-131 ; and World War, 197 ; message to 305 3o6 INDEX drafted men, 222-223; draft and farm labor, 253-254; message to student corps, 282-283. See also Arma- ments ; Militarism ; Prepar- edness. Associated Press, address be- fore, 78-83; power, 78; and public opinion, 82-83. Associated Workers of the World, and anarchy, 230. Atlantic City, address at, 154- 157. Austria - Hungary, American attitude toward, 195-196; as Germany's tool, 213, 214 ; and peace conditions, 235, 249; war with, advised, 237-238; rejection of conference pro- posed by, 275; revolution in, 287-289. See also Peace; World War. Autocracy, designs and World War, 193, 205, 212-214, 220, 273 ; and peace concert, 193 ; spies and intrigues, 194, 211- 212, 216; deceitful peace drives, 206-207, 214-216, 228, 234, 244, 256-257; and status quo ante, 207, 220-221; des- peration, 214-215 ; no peace with, 221-222; 233, 277, 284, 285 ; overthrow essential to peace, 268 ; as issue of the war, 276-277 ; overthrown, 287. See also Militarism. Balance of Power, and per- manent peace, 174-175, 186, 208. Balfour, Minister, and resto- ration of Palestine, 272. Balkans, deliverance, 235; in peace terms, 249. See also Middle Europe Empire; Na- tions by Name. Baltimore, address at, 157- 162. ''anking, American, reform, H ; Federal Reserve, 133, 136 ; and foreign exchange, 158- 159; loans to farmers, 253. See also Business; Finances. Barry, John, address at statue of, 28-32. Belgian relief, German viola- tions, 189. Belgium, message of sympa- thy, 231-232 ; reparation, 235 ; essentials in peace terms, 248- 249. See also Peace; World War. Berlin-Bagdad Railroad, pur- pose, 228. Bible, reading by soldiers, 217- 218. Bonds, purchase, 258 ; fourth loan, 275. See also Finances. Boundary disputes, and Pan- Americanism, 99. JBrandeis, L. D., qualifications for Supreme Court Justice, 117-120. Brest - Litovsk negotiations, 244. Bryan, Secretary, communica- tions through, 83-85, 89-90. Buffalo, address at, 226-230. Bulgaria, American attitude toward, 196, 238; as German tool, 213, 214. See also Bal- kans ; World War. Bureau of Foreign and Do- mestic Commerce, work, 74- 75. Bureau of Standards, impor- tance, 73. Business, reform, 3; work of Sixty-third Congress, 55-56; problems of neutral, 56-57; unlocking of resources, 57- 58; Democratic Party and interests, 66-67 ; democracy, 132-137 ; conservatism of leaders, 132-133, 135-136; need of common counsel, 133-135 ; American timidity in international, 137, 162; de- velopment of foreign, 157- 159; policy of future, 159; INDEX 307 and law, 159; Tariff Com- mission and facts, 160; co- operation, 160-161 ; with Latin-America, 161 ; war-time profits, 200. See also Bank- ing ; Commerce ; Finances ; Industry; Trusts. Censorship, need, 205-206. Chamber of Commerce of United States, address be- fore, 70-77. Christianity, reason, 50. Cincinnati, address at, 162- 164. Citizenship, address to natu- ralized citizens, 85-89. See also Immigration ; Loyalty ; Patriotism, Citizenship Convention, ad- dress at, 139-143. Civics, in schools, 218-219. Civil War, meaning of years since, 10; and present-day tasks, 10 ; veterans and spir- itual reunion, 32, 36 ; Con- federate monument at Ar- lington, 34-36 ; memorial to women, 202, 204. See also Memorial Day. Civilian Advisory Board of Navy, address to, 93-94. Class divisions, dangers and discredit, 166, 230. Claxton, Commissioner, and patriotic teaching in schools, 219. Cleveland, Grover, apprecia- tion, 5-6. Coal, war-time problem, 198. College, ideals, 14-16; and ideals of state, 15; character of training, 36, 126 ; and breadth of view, 49, 136; message to college soldiers, 282-283. Colonies. See Dependencies. Commerce, western outlook of world, 17 ; influence of Pan- ama Canal, 17-18 ; address on national, 70-77 ; cooperation, 70-73 ; governmental inquiry and scientific assistance, 73- 75; information and legisla- tion, 75-76 ; freedom as peace essential, 248, 279. See also Business ; Freedom of the Seas ; Merchant Marine ; Tariff. Committee of Railway Exec- utives, work, 238-239, 242. Compromise, none, in World War, 268, 277-278. See also Peace. Concessions in Latin Amer- ica, 18. Confederate monument at Arlington, address, 34-36. Congress, addresses to : on tariff, 6-8 ; on trusts, 22-27 ; on tolls on Panama Canal, 27-28; on foreign trade and shipping, 35-60; on eight- hour day for railroad men, 143-150 ; on submarine war- fare, 111-117; on conditions of peace, 172-179, 244-251; on breach with Germany, 179-183; on war with Ger- many, 188-197; on war with Austria-Hungary, 232-238 ; on government control of rail- roads, 241-244 ; on Armistice, 286-289; work of Sixty-third, 55-56; veto of immigration bill, 67-70. Conservation, need, 2-4. Conservatism, of Republican Party, 62-63; animated, 63; of leaders of business, 132- 133; American, 135-136. Consular reports, value, 74. Cooperation, in commerce and busTness, 70-73, 160-161. Courage, of soldier, 34. Culberson. Senator, letter to, 117-120. Currency, reform, 3; Federal Reserve, 133, 136. Dardanelles, in peace terms, 249. 3o8 INDEX Daughters of the Confeder- acy, and monument at Ar- lington, 34-36. Declaration of Independence, present significance, 39 ; and sacrifice, 42. Declaration of War, advised, against Germany, 191 ; against Austria-Hungary, 237-238. Defense, preparedness for, 93- 94. Democracy, America and world, 20-21, 266-267: and mutual understanding, 35 ; and international justice, 40- 44; and equality of opportu- nity, 53 ; enthusiasm, 64 ; and Democratic Party, 76; and purpose of United States, 83, 127, 129-130; of business, 132-137; vigor, 150-151; mys- tery, 151; justification of faith, 151-152; object and commands, 154 ; in peace terms, 176, 186, 236-237, 248; and League of Nations, 193 ; v^orld made safe for, 195 ; and American war objects, 192-193, 195, 197, 203, 207, 209-210 ; and woman suffrage, 224-226; meaning, 230; and international friendship, 260; and lynching, 270-271; as issue of the war, 277. See also Public Opinion. Democratic Party, meaning of control, 1-5 ; address on, 61- 67 ; progressiveness, 63 ; teamwork, 64; and business interests, 66-67 ; and democ- racy, 76; results of control, 184. See also Politics. Dependencies, policy, 13, 58-59, 81; principle, 124; in peace terms, 248. Detroit, address at, 132-137. Directorates, interlocking, 24. Dollar Diplomacy, 40. Drafted men, message to, 222- 223. Economy, war-time, 201. Edison, T. A., letter on TOth birthday, 183. Education. See College ; Schools. Egypt, German intrigue, 213. Eight-hour day, controversy on railroads, 143-150; just- ness, 145. Equality, of opportunity, 53; in foreign relations, 162; of nations in peace terms, 175- 176, 186, 250; of nations as issue of the war, 277. European War. See World War. Evolution, moral, 55. Exchange, foreign, and Amer- ican banks, 158-159. Expediency, war policy and American honor, 105-109. Facts, respect for, 101. Farm Loan Banking System, 253. Farmers. See Agriculture. Farmers' Conference, message to, 251-255. Federal Reserve, purpose and opposition, 133, 136; and ag- ricultural loans, 253. Federal Trade Commission, suggested, 25. Fertilization, government aid, 253. Filibustering, and Pan-Amer- icanism, 100, 186. _ Finances, of Latin-America, 18 ; United States as creditor nation, 79, 164; foreign ex- change, 158-159; war, 191; of government control of railroads, 243-244. See also Banking; Business. Flag, symbolism, 37; as em- bodiment of experience, 90- 92 ; as emblem, 210. Flag Day, addresses, 90-93; 210-217. Food, war-time problems, 198- 200, 252; price regulation, INDEX 309 255 ; for central peoples, 287. See also Agriculture. Foreign relations, meaning of isolation, 30; altruism, 37-39, 165; United States as world power, principles, 39-43, 107- 109 ; limit to dollar diplo- macy, 39-40; confidence in. 161-162; American, and equality, 162 ; society of na- tions, 162-164; end of isola- tion. 164-165, 280. See also Business ; League of Na- tions ; Pan - Americanism ; Peace ; World War. FoRTHRiGHTNESS, in public life, 62. Fourteen Conditions of Peace, 247-249. Fourth Liberty Loan, address at opening, 275-283. France, greeting to, 217 ; essen- tials in peace terms, 248. See also Peace ; World War. Frankness in peace terms, 246- 247, 280-282. Freedom. See Democracy. Freedom of the Seas, right of neutrals, 83-84 ; and subma- rine warfare, 89-90, 112-116; no abridgment, 106-107; travel on armed merchant- men. 109; war zones, 111-112; in peace terms, 177, 186, 248. See also Submarines. Freight rates, and eight-hour controversy, 146, 148. Friendship, as international ce- ment. 258 ; democracy and international, 2G0. Fuller, Chief-Justice, on Bran- deis, 118. Gardens, war, 201. Genius, and democracy, 150- 151. German-Americans, and war with Germany, 196. See also Hyphen. German people, and United States in World War, 193, 195, 196, 205, 212. 220, 228; and peace terms, 236, 277. Germany, antebellum, 226-228; internal affairs and peace terms, 250; revolution, 287- 289. See also Autocracy; German People; Middle PLu- rope Empire ; Peace ; World War. Gettysburg, address at, 10-13. Gompers, Samuel, tribute to, 229. Grain Dealers' Association, address before, 157-162. Great Britain, treaty and Pan- ama Canal tolls, 27-28. See also Peace ; W^orld War. Gridiron Dinner, address at, 107-109. Health, guarding of national, 4. Heflin, Representative, letter to, 204-205. Holidays, benefit, 92. Hoover, H. C, and patriotic teaching in school, 219. Hospital ships, sinking, 189. Hyphen, and Americanism, 30- 31, 130; and oath of allegi- ance. 86 ; and loyalty, 142 ; German-Americans and the war, 196. Immigration, and American- ism, 30-31, 87-88 ; veto of lit- eracy test bill, 67-70 ; strength from, 85, 88; expectations and results to immigrants, 88, 139-140; and World War, 101: allegiance. 130; policy. 137 ; influence of example on immigrants, 140-143. Imperialism. See Autocracy. Inaugural addresses, first, 1- 5 ; second, 184-188. Indemnities, and reparations, war, 208, 222. 235, 236, 248- 249. Independence, American, real- ity and use, 39-45. 310 INDEX India, German intrigue, 213. Indianapolis, address at, 61-67. Industry, preparedness, 102 ; war-time problems, 198-201; German antebellum subsidy, 227. See also Agriculture; Business ; Labor. International law, opinion and sanction, 46, 47 ; obedi- ence to, as peace term, 268- 269. See also Freedom of the Seas ; Neutrality. Interstate Commerce Commis- sion, proposed reorganiza- tion, 148. Intrigue, German, in United States, 194-195, 211-212, 216; in Mexico, 195, 211, 262. See also Autocracy ; World War. Inventor, Edison as, 183. Isolation, meaning, 30 ; end, 137, 164-165, 173, 178-179, 185- 186; and League of Nations, 280. Italy, essential peace terms, 249. See also Peace; World War. Jackson, Andrew, forthright- ness, 61-62, 66. Jackson Day address, 61-67. Japan, German intrigue, 211. Jews, restoration of Palestine, 272. Junior Red Cross, 223-224. Labor, hours in railway service, 143-150; justness of eight- hour day, 145 ; and class dis- tinction, 165-166; and the war, 229-230, 273-274; farm- ers' war problem, 253-254. Labor Day Message, 272-274. Lamb, Charles, anecdote, 230. Lansing, Secretary, communi- cations through, 120-121, 219- ^22, 275, 283-286. >in America, address on re- ions with, 16-21; and Pan- \ Canal, 16-18, 161; ad- verse circumstances, 18, 20; World War and commercial ! dependence, 57 ; business I with, 161 : disinterested serv- ] ice to, 261-266. See also i Mexico ; Monroe Doctrine ; I Pan-Americanism. ! Law, precedent and moral ' judgments, 47-48; purpose, 141 ; and commerce, 159. See ■ also International Law. Lawyers' history of the United States. 155. ^ ; Leaders, character of Ameri- can, 91, 108. ; League of Nations, in peace ' terms, 125, 208, 249, 265, 369, \ 278; United States and, 173, i 178-179, 279-280; as issue of | the war, 277. j League to Enforce Peace, ad- | dress to, 121-125. ! Lee, R. E., American, 36. ; Liberty. See Democracy. ,; Lincoln, Abraham, address at birthplace, 150-154 ; and de- mocracy. 151-152 ; isolation, 153. Lloyd-George, Premier, and [ peace, 246. ! Lobby, warning on tariff, 9. i Loyalty, oath of allegiance, 86, ; 130; address on, 139-143; ex- ample to immigrants, 139-141, i 143 ; basis, 141 ; and the hy- 1 phen, 142; meaning, 142. See \ also Hyphen; Patriotism; Unity. ^ , "Lusitania," protest on sink- ' ing, 89-90, 114. ; Lynching, denunciation. 230, \ 270-271. McAdoo, W. G., to control rail- ! roads, 240. ' McKinley, William, and pub- lic opinion, ii ; and Confed- \ erate monument at Arlington, ! 35. ., McLemore resolution, letter , on, 109. ^ INDEX 311 Mediation, position of United States, 80-81. Memorial Day addresses, 32- 34, 209-210. Merchant marine, need of ships, policy, 59-60. 135 ; con- vention for safety at sea, 60 ; decay, 158 ; war-time build- ing, 198, 201. Methodist Protestant Church, address at conference, 77-78. Mexican editors, address to, 261-266. Mexican War, regrets, 264. Mexico, internal conditions and foreign relations, 40-41 ; watchful waiting policy, 64- 66 ; facts, 72 ; expedition into. 110-111 ; trouble-makers. 111 ; attitude toward United States, 138 ; border expedition and control of railroads, 149 ; German intrigue, 195, 211, 262 ; attitude of disinterested service, 261-264 ; false news in, 262 ; peace and develop- ment, 265-266. See also Latin America ; Pan-Ameri- canism. Middle Europe Empire, and German peace drives, 207, 214-216, 228, 257 ; German de- signs and the war, 212-214, 228; overthrow essential to peace, 235. Middlemen, and war-time prof- its, 200. Militancy, extolled, 51-53. Militarism, and preparedness, 101-102, 104, 128-129: spirit, 128. See also Autocracy. Militia, and preparedness, 103. Milton, John, on militancy, 51- 52. Mob. See Lynching. Mobile, address at, 16-21. Monroe Doctrine, and Pan- Americanism, 99, 130, 264- 265; as world doctrine, 178, 263. Montenegro, in peace terms, 249. See also Balkans, World War. Morals, cowardice, 52 ; vigi- lance, 54 ; evolution. 55. Mount Vernon address, 266- 269. Nationality, recognition, in peace terms, 176, 186, 208, 221, 268 ; as issue of the war, 277. Naturalization, address to new citizens, 85-89 ; character of allegiance, 86. See also Immigration. Navy, address at Annapolis, 36- 39; education of officers, 36- 37; ideal of unselfish service, 37-39; no prejudice against, 104; and World War. 197. See also Armaments. Neutral trade. See Freedom of the Seas. Neutrality, American, appeal for, 44-46; basis, 79-80; United States as mediating nation, 80-81 ; and reserve moral force, 81-82, 131; rights, despatch to Germany, 83-85 ; and exportation of arms, 84-85 ; impossible in fu- ture, 163, 192-193. See also Freedom of the Seas ; Sub- marines ; World War. New York, addresses at, 100- 105, 256-260, 275-283. News, warning against false, 82-83 ; false, in Mexico, 262. See also Associated Press. Nobility, American, 33. Northwest Loyalty Meetings, message to, 231. Opportunity, equality in Amer- ica, 53 ; and immigration lit- eracy test, 68-69. Pacific railroad building, 59. Palestine, restoration for Jews, 272. Panama Canal, and outlook of world commerce, 17-18 ; que" 312 INDEX tion of tolls, 27-28, 42; and Latin America, 161. Pan - American Scientific Congress, address to, 95-100. Pan-Americanism, basis, 95- 100 ; essential unity of Amer- icas, 95-97 ; economic interde- pendence, 97-98; necessity of political harmony, 97-99 ; and Monroe Doctrine, 99, 130, 264-265 ; essentials of political amity, 99-100; and domestic peace, 100; proposed guaran- tee of territorial integrity, 264-265. See also Latin America. Patriotism, as a principle, 29; and honor and sacrifice, 41- 44; and holidays, 92; teach- ing in school, 218-219. See also Hyphen ; Loyalty. Peace, and self-sacrifice, 33, 75 ; and American principles, 88, 93-94, 101; enforcement of world, 121-125; American concern and attitude as neu- tral, 122, 124-125, 131, 168, 173-174 ; and open diplomacy, 122-123, 247-248, 279 ; and im- partial justice, 123-124, 278- 279, 287; fundamentals, 124; League, 125, 172-174, 178-179, 208, 249, 265, 269, 278-280; and preparedness, 138; justi- fiable breach of world, 164; request to belligerents to state terms, 167-170 ; replies, 172 ; address on conditions, while still neutral, 172-179; no balance of power, 174-175, 208 ; peace without victory, 175 ; equality of nations, 175- 176, 186, 250; democracy and recognition of nationality, 176, 186, 208, 221. 268 ; outlet to the sea, 176. 237 ; freedom of the seas, 177, 186. 248; Tjitation of armaments, 177, ^, 248 ; Americanism of es- ials. 177-179. 186-187. 236- \ concert and American war objects, 192; concert and democracy, 193 ; indemnity, reparation, 208. 222, 235, 236, 248, 249 ; German drives, ob- ject, 206-207, 214-216, 228, 234, 244, 256-257; objections to status quo ante, 207, 220-221; answer to Papal proposi- tions, 219-222; test, 221; none with autocracy, 221-222, 233, 277, 284, 285 ; first war state- ment of essentials, 233-237 ; no vindictive, 234. 236, 250, 279; and internal affairs of Cen- tral Powers, 235-236, 249, 250 ; Brest-Litovsk negotia- tions, 244-245 ; frankness, 246-247, 280-282; Russia and definition of terms, 246-247; fourteen conditions, 247-249 ; colonies, 248 ; conditions as to Russia, 248 ; as to Belgium, 248-249 ; as to France, 249 ; as to Italy, 249; as to Austria- Hungary. 249 ; as to Balkans, 249 ; as to Turkey, 249 ; as to Poland, 249 ; as to Germany, 250 ; four conditions, 268-269 ; overthrow of autocracy, 268; respect for international law, 268-269; rejection of Aus- tria's conference proposal, 275 ; no compromise. 277-278 ; five conditions, 279 ; commer- cial freedom, 279; basis of common interest of all, 279 ; question of armistice, 283- 286 ; German acceptance of conditions. 283-284 : armistice signed, effect. 286-289; relief of central peoples, 287; revo- lution in central governments, problem. 287-289. See also World War. "Peace without victory," 175. Penn. William, as spiritual knight, 14-15. People. See Democracy : Pub- lic opinion. Persia, German intrigue, 213. INDEX 313 Philadelphia, address at, 39- 44, 85-89. Philippines, larger self-gov- ernment. 13, 58-59. See also Dependencies. Pittsburgh, address at, 49-55. Poland, restoration, 176, 249. Politics, control by independ- ents, 63 ; defined, 97 ; and pre- paredness, 104-105. See also Democratic Party ; Republi- can Party. Pope, answer to peace proposi- tions of, 219-222. Pou, Representative, letter to, 100. Preparedness, for defense, 93- 94; address on, 100-105; and uncertainty of World War, 100-101; and militarism, 101- 102, 104, 128-129; military and industrial, 102 ; cruel waste in lack, 102-103 ; and militia, 103 ; immediate needs, 103-104 ; naval, 104 ; and poli- tics, 104-105; purpose, 127- 128 ; and peace, 138. Presidency, responsibility, 107. Prices, war-time regulation, 200, 255. Prohibition, war-time, 260-261. Property, protection, 4. Provincialism, outgrown, 137, 185-186. Prussia. See Autocracy ; World War. Public Opinion, and interna- tional law, 46-47 ; and munici- pal law, 47-48 ; as mainspring of administrative action, 61, 83, 88-89, 107-108; and false news, 82-83 ; and experience of the nation, 91-92 ; and con- ception of America, 133 ; as basis of legislation, 135; and reform, 141 ; and issues of the war, 281. See also Democ- racy : Leaders. Punishment, effect, 137. 143-150; legislation recom- mended, 148-149; proposed federal military operation (1910), 149; war-time prob- lems, 200 ; reasons for gov- ernment control, 238-244 ; work of Committee of Rail- way Executives, 238-239, 242 ; guarantees, 239. 243 ; finan- cial aspect of control, 243-244. Raw Material, war-time prob- lems, 198-201. Red Cross, American, appeal as neutral to support war work, 171-172 ; address at dedication of building, 202-204; import- ance of war work, 202-203; support, 203, 258-259; junior work, 223-224; address on honor to, 256-260; war work and American character, 257 ; and world friendship, 258 ; German violations, 259 ; work of women, 259-260. Reform, dependent on popular support, 141. Reparations. See Indemnity. Republican Party, unprogres- siveness, 62-64. See also Pol- itics. Resources, development and regulation, 57-58. Revolution, no external en- couragement, 100. 186 ; in cen- tral nations, 287-289. See also Russia. Rights, protection, 4. Roosevelt, Theodore, and pub- lic opinion, ii. Rumania, in peace terms, 249. See also Balkans. Russia, revolution, 194; mes- sage to. 206-208 ; German in- trigue, 234 ; Brest-Litovsk ne- gotiations. 244-245 ; condition and faith. 246-247 ; essentials in peace terms, 248 ; Ameri- can purpose to support, 257, 263-264, 268. Railroads, eight-hour question, Safety at sea, convention, 60. 314 INDEX Salesmanship Congress, ad- dress at, 132-137. Schools, patriotic teaching, 218-219; and Junior Red Cross. 223-224. ScoTT, H. L., Indian lore, 126. Sea, outlet to. in peace terms, 176, 237. See also Freedom of the seas; Merchant Ma- rine. Seed, supply by government, 253. Self-Determination of Amer- ican life, 30-32, 127-128. Serbia, in peace terms, 249. See also Balkans. Shadow Lawn, address at, 164- 165. Sheppard, Senator, letter to, 260-261. Sherman Antitrust Law, need of clarifying, 24-25. See also Trusts. Sherwood, General, and pre- paredness, 138. Shipping. See Merchant ma- rine. Slavery, women and question, 155. Smith-Lever Act, 253. Social questions, present, 4; rise, 156. Socialists, use by autocracy, 207. Soldier and self-sacrifice, 33, 75 ; courage, 34 ; Bible read- ing, 217-218. See also Army. South, self-expression. 16 ; and war-time agriculture, 200. Southern Commercial Con- gress, address before. 16-21. Spanish-American War, un- preparedness. 103. Spies. See Intrigue. Status Quo Ante Bellum, ob- jections to return to. 207, 220- 221. Stone, Senator, letter to, 105- 107. Strikes, war-time, 229. See also Labor. Submarines, sinking of Lusi- tania, illegality, 89-90: no submission to illegal warfare, 105-107; violation of faith, 106, li4. 115 ; ultimatum on warfare, 111-117, 179-186 ; German abandonment of pol- icy, 120-121, 180; contingency denied, 121, 180-181 ; renewal of unrestricted warfare, 181- 182, 188-190 ; protection against, 182-183 ; faith in abandonment policy, 188 ; im- practicability of armed neu- trality against, 190. See also Freedom of the Seas ; Neu- trality; World War. Subsidies, German industrial, 227. Supreme Court, qualifications of Brandeis. 117-120; on need of facts, 145-146. "Sussex," sinking, 114, 179. Swarthmore College, address at, 14-16. Taft, W. H.. and public opin- ion, ii ; and Confederate Monument at Arlington, 35. Tariff, need of reform, 3 : ad- dress on reform, 6-8 ; protec- tion as monopoly. 7 ; reform and competition, 8 ; construc- tive reform, 8 ; warning on lobby, 9. See also Commerce. Tariff Commission, and facts, 160. Tennyson, Lord, on patriotism, 29. Territory, no further aggran- dizement of American, 19, 81 ; integrity and Pan-Ameri- canism, 99. Toledo, address at, 138-139. Tolls, on Panama Canal, 27-28, 42. "Too Proud to Fight." 89. Trusts, regulation. 22-27 ; agreement of opinion on, 22- 23; constructive reform, 23; interlocking directorates, 24; INDEX clarifying antitrust law, 24- 25 ; administrative commis- sion, 25 ; punishment of indi- viduals, 25 ; interlocking individual control, 26. See also Business. Turkey, as German tool, 213, 214 ; American attitude to- ward, 196, 238; and peace terms, 235, 249. See also Middle Europe Empire ; World War. Union, restoration, 10, 32, 35. United States, elements of greatness, 2 ; of evil, 2-3 ; Civil War spirit and present tasks, 10-13; self-determined life, 30-32; purpose, 83, 87, 127, 129-130, 136; interna- tional spirit, 137, 140; power and its use, 142 ; rise of social questions, 156. Unity, American, and World War, 187, 203, 204, 209, 216, 231-233, 257, 274; war and world, 257-258, 260. See also League of Nations. Urbana, message to Farmers' Conference at, 251-255. Veto, of immigration test bill, 67-70. Villa, F., expedition against, no. Visit and Search, 84. See also Freedom of the Seas; Submarines. War, and national unity. See also Army; Militarism; Pre- paredness ; World War. War Zones, illegality, 90, 111- 112. See also Submarines. Washington, George, and na- tional self-determination, 30; as type, 152; and creation of nation, 266, 267. Waste in American life, 2-3, 201. Watchful waiting, 64-66. Water-Power, development and regulation, 57-58. Webb, Representative, letter to, 205-206. Weizmann Commission, 272. West Point, address at, 125- 131. Williams, George, and Y. M. C. A., 54. Wilson, Woodrow, forms of communication with people, ii-iii ; habits of speech, iv-v ; growth, V. Wise, Rabbi, letter to, 272. Woman Suffrage, address on, 154-157 ; growth, 154 ; and so- cial questions, 156; force, 156-157; method, 157; and principles of World War, 224-226. Women, memorial to Civil War workers, 202, 204 ; in Red Cross work, 259-260. See also Woman Suffrage. World power. United States as, 39-44, 81, 142. World War, Wilson's ad- dresses, iii-iv ; appeal for American neutrality, 44-46 ; effect on neutral industry, 56 ; and America at peace, 67 ; ideals and spiritual forces, 77-78 ; uncertainty at end, 100-101 ; American rights and principles, v ; expediency, 105-109, 117; ultimatum to Germany on submarines, 111-117, 179-180; German submission to ultimatum, 120- 121, 180-181, 188; American interest, 121-122, 127 and se- cret diplomacy, 122-123; in- evitable. 126 ; keeping out of, 138, 139, 183; origin, 163; severance of diplomatic rela- tions with Germany, 179-183, 188-190 ; unavoidable Ameri- can problems, 1S4-1S5; Amer- ican attitude, 185-ISfi; neces- sity of American unity to- ward, 187 ; war with Ger- 3i6 INDEX many, 188-197 ; American task, 191-192, 251, 272-273; American objects and altru- ism, 192-193, 195, 197, 198, 203, 205, 207-210, 216, 221- 222, 233, 247, 251-252, 257, 263 ; German designs and in- trigue, 193-195, 211-214, 216; United States and Germany's alfies, 195-196, 237-238 ; public appeal for support, 197-201; food problems, 198-201, 252; industrial problems, 198-201; economy, 201; grimness, 202- 204; American unity in, 203, 204, 209, 216, 231-233, 257, 274 ; censorship, 205-206; message to drafted men, 222-223; la- bor and, 229-230, 272-274; German aggression and pur- pose, 226-228; when won, 235-236; war with Austria- Hungary, 237-238 ; govern- ment control of railroads, 238-244 ; war-time agricul- ture, 251-255; duty to win, 256; and world unity, 257- 258, 260; prohibition during, 260-261; birth of United States and, 267 ; opposing ele- ments, 267-268; as war of emancipation, 273 ; purposes and issues, 276-277, 280 ; pub- lic understanding of issues, 280-281; people's war, 281; message to college corps, 282- 283 ; renewal impossible under armistice, 286; Ameri- can share, 286; object at- tained, 286-287. See also Armistice ; Autocracy ; Free- dom of the Seas ; Middle Eu- rope Empire; Neutrality; Peace ; Preparedness ; Red Cross ; Submarines. Young Men's Christian As- sociation, address on, 49-55; elements of stren^h, 49-51; atmosphere, 51 ; militancy, 51- 52; progressive leaders, 52- 53; progress, 53-54. Zionist Movement, 272. FEB 3 - 1319' ^i^y-"