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 THE EAGLE LIBRARY. 
 
 SPEECHES 
 
 OF 
 
 WOODROW WILSON 
 
 Notable Addresses by the President on Great 
 Public Occasions, Including 
 Messages to Congress 
 
 Current History as Reflected in the Public Utterances of the 
 Nation’s Chief Executive, Revealing His Broad Statesman- 
 ship, Idealism and Superb Literary Ability. 
 
 Official Text of Third U. S. Note to Germany and Germany’s Reply b 
 
 OFFICE OF PITBL.ICATIO’V 
 
 EAGLE BUILDING, BROOKLYN, N. Y. 
 
 Entered at the Brooklyn-New York Post Office as second-class matter. Vol. XXX, No. 10, 
 of The Eagle Library. Serial No. 191, August, 1915. Trademark, "Eagle Library,” 
 registered. Yearly subscription, $1.50. Almanac Number, $1.00. 
 
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 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
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The Eagle Library, ~ 1 % 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 HE public speeches of Woodrow Wilson since 
 be became President of the United States are 
 not many, nor are they long. Yet they have 
 made a distinct impression on the public 
 mind. There is a widespread idea that, at 
 least from the standpoint of literature and 
 lofty ideals, these speeches outrank those of 
 *ny President since the days of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 They represent a comparatively new side of Woodrow Wil- 
 son; certainly they have within the past two years revealed 
 that side to the people of the United States for the first time. 
 Mr. Wilson’s professional training and life were never those of 
 the orator. He was, rather, a student in seclusion. For many 
 years a master of pure English, it was the English of the 
 writer rather than of the speaker. Not until Mr. Wilson be- 
 came a candidate for the governorship of New Jersey did the 
 revelation come that he was a platform speaker of rare skill 
 and felicity; that the “college professor” could strike the human 
 note with extraordinary force and that the man of the class- 
 room could go before the people of the country and “think on 
 his feet.” 
 
 During his term as Governor of New Jersey Mr. Wilson 
 added greatly to his reputation as a public speaker. Even 
 then, as now, he was not given to many speeches. But when 
 he talked he had something to say, he knew how to say it and 
 when to say it; he displayed a keen realization of the fact 
 that a long speech is seldom a great speech, and he had the 
 faculty of putting his ideas into words, phrases and sentences 
 that have steadily given emphasis to the belief that he creates 
 literature almost offhand. 
 
 After he became President his audience automatically in- 
 creased. It included not only the people of all States, but of 
 all political parties. Mr. Wilson, however, did not increase his 
 output because of that fact. Rather, he curtailed it. By com- 
 parison with other Presidents of recent years, he speaks seldom 
 and invariably more briefly. Because of this, the audience 
 never seems to tire. It is eager to listen and to read. 
 
 — President Wilson’s speeches tduring the past two yearsj fall 
 into two classes — his formal addresses to Congress and his ad- 
 dresses to meetings of citizens. The method of preparation is 
 
 C Sifferent in each case. Mr. Wilson writes and reads his ad- 
 * J dresses to Congress. His other speeches are made without 
 —written preparation. 
 
 ~ the case of his addresses to Congress, when he revived 
 . _ithe custom established by George Washington of reading them 
 
 — in person, Mr, Wilson has invariably read from .manuscript. 
 n It can be saii>of these addresses that they d<j not possess the 
 "5 charm or spontaneity of his other speeches. But there is a 
 
 sound reason for reading them. They are, in a peculiar sense, 
 
 official documents. Every word must be weighed for its ef- 
 fect, every idea set forth with a view to the fact that it is being 
 submitted to another branch of the government for formal 
 consideration. His speeches outside of Congress possess less of 
 an official character, despite the fact that it is, of course, im- 
 possible to separate a Bfcesident from his office when he opens 
 bis lips to speak. ^ 
 
 His mind is always prepared. He has trained it to be or- 
 derly, precise and attentive to the matter in hand. It is his 
 alert obedient servant. He does not talk on subjects of which 
 he has no knowledge, so that always there is a solid foundation 
 for what he says. 
 
 Usually the President makes some notes of what he pro- 
 poses to say. Knowing his subject generally, he subdivides it. 
 He gets clearly in his mind the chief points that he proposes 
 to make and he sets down a memorandum of them. Beyond 
 that, he depends upon himself and the occasion, The President 
 is not a slave to his notes. Rather, he is apt to regard 
 voluminous notes as a handicap; he is restive under the re- 
 strain they impose. He prefers to be unleashed when he talks. 
 
 Mr. Wilson thinks quickly when facing n public audience 
 ind apparently with the same ease and freedom as when sit- 
 ting in his library. He does not hesitate for words. 
 
 He is exceptionally alert in accommodating himself to cir- 
 cumstances. An instance of this took place when he was 
 Governor of New Jersey. He was invited to address a public 
 meeting on the subject of conservation. Governor Wilson pre- 
 pared, in notes, the outline of an address on conservation of 
 natural resources. He arrived upon the platform of the meet- 
 ing to discover that he was facing an audience met to consider 
 the conservation of human resources. The situation did not 
 dismay him nor embarrass him. He had some ideas upon 
 human as well as natural resources. He proceeded to state 
 them, after he had been set right upon his topic, with an ease 
 and continuity that suggested to all who heard him a carefully 
 prepared address. Yet it was prepared only in the sense that 
 the man’s mind was prepared by native ability and long train- 
 ing for just such a situation. 
 
 The President, like other speakers who do not prepare an 
 exact copy in advance, runs the risk of uttering an inadvertent 
 or unwise phrase. Yet he rarely meets with the pitfaTl. 
 
 A mind less accurately trained would run great risks in 
 following the method pursued by the President in his average 
 public speech. In his case the risk is small. And, in addi- 
 tion fo the well trained mind, (he President has always at his 
 command a vocabulary of clear and correct English which he 
 calls into play with a naturalness au<i case that- constitutes 
 much of the charm and distinctive character- of his public 
 speeches. 
 
 P 394*4 
 
The Eagle Library. 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 SPEECHES AND MESSAGES 
 
 Page 
 
 On Welfare and Progress of the Nation.... 5 
 
 Inaugural Address - 7 
 
 On Tariff Alterations 8 
 
 On Banking and Currency System 9 
 
 Gettysburg July 4th Speech „ . . 10 
 
 On Mexican Affairs 11 
 
 Occasion of Rededication of Congress Hall 12 
 
 At Swarthmore College 13 
 
 Southern Commercial Congress, at Mobile, Ala 14 
 
 On Trusts and Monopolies 15 
 
 On the “Flag Incident” in Mexico 17 
 
 Services in Memory of Those Who Lost Their Lives at Vera 
 
 Cruz, Mexico 18 
 
 On Unveiling of the Statue to the Memory of Commodore 
 
 John Barry 18 
 
 Memorial Address at Arlington, Pa „ 19 
 
 To Graduating Class of U. S. Naval Academy 20 
 
 r v — — 1 - i 
 
 When you want a special treat without 
 paying an extravagant price for it, take 
 home a box of 
 
 • WALLACE’S 
 
 CHOCOLATES 
 
 You will instantly appreciate their su- 
 periority over other kinds. 
 
 “Candies of Character” 
 
 ,, , .i They sweeten life. 
 
 * & Said In boxes at 
 
 60c., 80c., $1.00 the Box 
 
 Your local dealer should have them. 
 Ask for and insist upon getting. 
 
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 discriminating public. 
 
 r Washington and Park Aves., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 Pag* 
 
 Accepting the Monument in Memory of Confederate Dead at 
 
 Arlington National Cemetery 21 
 
 July 4th Anniversary at Independence Hall 21 
 
 War Emergency Tax 23 
 
 Letter to Hon. Oscar Underwood 24 
 
 Before American Bar Association 26 
 
 Pittsburg Y. M. C. A. Celebration 26 
 
 Jackson Day at Indianapolis, Ind 28 
 
 Message to Congress Relative to Immigration of Aliens 31 
 
 Mid-Year Conference of American Electric Railway Association 32 
 
 United States Chamber of Commerce 34 
 
 At Associated Press Luncheon 37 
 
 On Citizenship — At Convention Hall, Philadelphia 38 
 
 On American Neutrality, An Appeal 39 
 
 Official Text of Third U. S. Note to Germany and Text of j 
 
 German Pledge Sent by Count von Bernstorff to Secretary ^ 
 Lansing in reply 40 
 
 The Brooklyn Daily 
 
 EAGLE 
 
 Is the Home Newspaper 
 of Brooklyn and Long Island 
 
 Strictly in the interest of the public 
 welfare and a loyal representative 
 of the community in which it is 
 published. 
 
 The Eagle is the only Brooklyn paper 
 having Associated Press service. 
 
 An Institutional Newspaper. 
 ESTABLISHED IN 1841 
 
The Eagle Library. 
 
 SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 ADDRESS OF THE 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATS 
 
 DELIVERED AT A JOINT SESSION OF THE 
 TWO HOUSES OF CONGRESS 
 
 DECEMBER 2, 1913 
 
 ON THE WELFARE AND PROGRESS OF THE NATION 
 
 ENTLEMEN of the Congress: 
 In pursuance of my consti- 
 tutional duty to “give to the 
 Congress information of the 
 state of the Union,” I take 
 the liberty of addressing you on sev- 
 eral matters which ought, as it seems 
 to me, particularly to engage the at- 
 tention of your honorable bodies, as of 
 all who study the welfare and prog- 
 ress of the nation. 
 
 I shall ask your indulgence if I 
 venture to depart in some degree from 
 the usual custom of settling before 
 you in formal review the many mat- 
 ters which have engaged the attention 
 and called for the action of the sev- 
 eral departments of the Government 
 or which look to them for early treat- 
 ment in the future, because the list is 
 long, very long, and would suffer in 
 the abbreviation to which I should 
 have to subject it. I shall submit to 
 you the reports of the heads of the 
 several departments, in which these 
 subjects are set forth in careful detail 
 and beg that they may receive the 
 thoughtful attention of your commit- 
 tees and of all members of the Con- 
 gress who may have the leisure to 
 study them. Their obvious impor- 
 tance, as constituting the very sub- 
 stance of the business of the Govern- 
 ment, makes comment and emphasis 
 on my part unnecessary. 
 
 The country, I am thankful to say, 
 Is at peace with all the world, and 
 many happy manifestations multiply 
 about us of a growing cordiality and 
 sense of community of interest among 
 the nations, foreshadowing an age of 
 settled paace and good will. More 
 and more readily e-tiiEh decade do the 
 nations manifest their willingness to 
 bind themselves by solemn treaty to 
 the processes of peace, the processes 
 of frankness and fair concession. So 
 far the United States has stood at the 
 front of such negotiations. She will, 
 I earnestly hope and confidently be- 
 lieve, give fresh proof of her sincere 
 adherence to the cause of interna- 
 
 tional friendship by ratifying the sev- 
 eral treaties of arbitration awaiting 
 renewal by the Senate. In addition to 
 these, it has been the privilege of the 
 Department of State to gain the as- 
 sent, in principle, of no less than 
 thirty-one nations, representing four- 
 fifths of the population of the world, 
 to the negotiation of treaties by which 
 it shall be agreed that whenever dif- 
 ferences of interest or of policy arise 
 which cannot be resilved by the or- 
 dinary processes of diplomacy they 
 shall be publicly analyzed, discussed, 
 and reported upon by a tribunal 
 chosen by the parties before either 
 nation determines its course of action. 
 
 There is only one possible standard 
 by which to determine controversies 
 between the United States and other 
 nations, and that is compounded of 
 these two elements: Our own honor 
 and our obligations to the peace of 
 the world. A test so compounded 
 ought easily to be made to govern 
 both the establishment of new treaty 
 obligations and the interpretation of 
 those already assumed. 
 
 There is but one cloud upon our 
 horizon. That has shown itself to the 
 south of us, and hangs over Mexico. 
 There can be no certain prospect of 
 £>eace in America until General 
 Huerta has surrendered his usurped 
 authority in Mexico: until it is under- 
 stood on all hands, indeed, that such 
 pretended governments will not be 
 countenanced or dealt with by the 
 Government of the United States. We 
 are the friends of constitutional gov- 
 ernment in America: we are mere 
 than its friends, we are its cham- 
 pircas; became in no other way can 
 our neighbors, to whom we would 
 wish in every way to make proof of 
 our friendship, work out their own 
 development in peace and liberty. 
 Mexico has no government. The at- 
 tempt to maintain one at the City of 
 Mexico has broken down, and a mere 
 military despotism has been set up 
 which has hardly more than the sem- 
 
 blance of national authority. It orig- 
 inated in the usurpation of Victoriano 
 Huerta, who, after a brief attempt to 
 play the part of constitutional presi- 
 dent, has at last cast aside even the 
 pretense of legal right and declared 
 himself dictator. As a consequence, a 
 condition of affairs now exists in 
 Mexico which has made it doubtful 
 whether even the most elementary 
 and fundamental rights either of her 
 own people or of the citizens of other 
 countries resident within her territory 
 can long be successfully safeguarded, 
 and which threatens, if long con- 
 tinued, to imperil the interests of 
 peace, order, and tolerable life in the 
 lands immediately to the south of us. 
 Even if the usurper had succeeded in 
 his purposes, in despite of the consti- 
 tution of the republic and the rights 
 of its people, he would have set up 
 nothing but a precarious and hateful 
 power, which could have lasted but 
 a little while, and whose eventual 
 downfall would have left the country 
 in a more deplorable condition than 
 ever. But he has not succeeded. He 
 has forfeited the respect and the 
 moral support even of those who were 
 at one time willing to see him suc- 
 ceed. Little by little he has been 
 completely isolated. By a little every 
 day his power and prestige are crum- 
 bling and the collapse is not far away. 
 We shall not, I believe, be obliged to 
 alter our policy of watchful waiting. 
 And then, when the end comes, we 
 shall hope to see constitutional order 
 restored in distressed Mexico by the 
 concert and energy of such of her 
 j leaders as prefer the liberty of their 
 people to their own ambitions. 
 
 I turn to matters of domestic con- 
 cern. You already have under con- 
 sideration a bill for the reform of our 
 system of banking and currency, for 
 which the country waits with impa- 
 tience, as for something fundamental 
 to its whole business life and neces- 
 sary to set credit free from arbitrary 
 and artificial restraints. I need not 
 say how earnestly I hope for its early 
 enactment into law. I take leave to 
 beg. that the whole energy and atten- 
 tion of the Senate be concentrated 
 upon it till the matter is successfully 
 disposed of. And 5><r i 1 feel 
 request is not needed — that the mem- 
 bers of that great House need no urg- 
 ing in this service to the country. 
 
 I present to you, in addition, the 
 urgent necessity that special provis- 
 ion be made also for facilitating the 
 credits needed by the farmers of the 
 country. The pending currency bill 
 
6 
 
 Eagle Library— -SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 does the farmers a great service. It 
 puts them upon an equal footing with 
 other business men and masters of en- 
 terprise, as it should; and upon its 
 passage they will find themselves quit 
 of many of the difficulties which now 
 hamper them in the field of credit. 
 The farmers, of course, ask and 
 should be given no special privilege, 
 such as extending to them the credit 
 of the Government itself. What they 
 need and should obtain is legislation 
 which will make their .own abundant 
 and substantial credit resources avail- 
 able as a foundation for joint, con- 
 certed local action in their own behalf 
 in getting the capital they must use. 
 It is to this we should now address 
 ourselves. 
 
 It has, singularly enough, come to 
 pass that we have allowed the indus- 
 try of our farms to lag behind the 
 other activities of the country in its 
 development. I need not stop to tell 
 you know fundamental to the life of 
 the nation is the production of its 
 food. Our thoughts may ordinarily 
 be concentrated upon the cities and 
 the hives of industry, upon the cries 
 of the crowded market place and the 
 clangor of the factory, but It is from 
 the quiet interspaces of the open val- 
 leys and the free hillsides that we 
 draw the sources of life and of pros- 
 perity, from the farm and the ranch, 
 from the forest and th^ mine. With- 
 out these every street would be silent, 
 every office deserted, every factory 
 fallen into disrepair. And yet the 
 farmer does not stand upon the same 
 footing with the forester and the 
 miner in the market of credit. He is 
 the servant of the seasons. Nature 
 determines how long he must wait for 
 his crops, and will not be hurried in 
 her processes. He may give his note, 
 but the season of its maturity depends 
 upon the season when his crop ma- 
 tures, lies at the gates of the market 
 where his products are sold. And the 
 security he gives is of a character not 
 known in the broker's office or as fa- 
 miliarly as it might be on the counter 
 of the banker. 
 
 The Agricultural Department of the 
 Government is seeking to assist as 
 never before to make farming an ef- 
 ficient business, of wide co-operative 
 effort, in quick touch with the mar- 
 kets for foodstuffs. The farmers and 
 •.tie Government will henceforth work 
 together as real partners in this field, 
 where we now begin to see our way 
 very clearly and where many intelli- 
 gent plans are already being put into 
 execution. The Treasury of the United 
 States has, by a timely and well con- 
 sidered distribution of its deposits, 
 facilitated the moving of ^he crops in 
 the present season and prevented the 
 scarcity of available funds too often 
 experienced at such time. But we 
 must not allow ourselves to depend 
 upon extraordinary expedients. We 
 must add the means by which the far- 
 mer may make his credit constantly 
 and easily available and command 
 when he will the capital by which to 
 support and expand his busiftess. We 
 lag behind many other great countries 
 of the modern world in attempting 
 to do this. Systems of rural credit 
 
 have been studied and developed on 
 the other side of the water while we 
 left our farmers to shift for them- 
 selves in the ordinary money market. 
 You have but to look about you in any 
 rural district to see the result, the 
 handicap and embarrassment which 
 have been put upon those who pro- 
 duce our food. 
 
 Conscious of this backwardness 
 and neglect on our part, the Congress 
 recently authorized the creation of 
 a special commission to study 
 the various systems of rural credit 
 which have been put into operation 
 in Europe, and this commission is al- 
 ready prepared to report. Its report 
 ought to make it easier for us to de- 
 termine what methods will be best 
 suited to our own farmers. I hope 
 and believe that the committees of 
 the Senate and House will address 
 themselves to this matter with the 
 most fruitful results, and I believe 
 that the studies and recently formed 
 plans of the Department of Agricul- 
 ture may be made to serve them very 
 greatly in their work of framing ap- 
 propriate and adequate legislation. It 
 would be indiscreet and presumptuous 
 in anyone to dogmatize upon so great 
 and many-sided a question, but I feel 
 confident that common counsel will 
 produce the results we must all de- 
 sire. 
 
 Turn from the farm to the world of 
 business which centers in the city and 
 in the factory, and I think that all 
 thoughtful observers will agree that 
 the immediate service we owe the 
 business communities of the country 
 is to prevent private monopoly more 
 effectually than it has yet been pre- 
 vented. I think it will be easily 
 agreed that we should let the Sher- 
 man anti-trust law stand, unaltered, 
 as it is, with its debatable ground 
 about it, but that we should as much 
 as possible reduce the area of that 
 debatable ground by further and 
 more explicit legislation; and should 
 also supplement that great act by 
 legislation which will not only clarify 
 it but also facilitate its administra- 
 tion and make it fairer to all con- 
 cerned. No doubt we shall all wish, 
 and the country will expect, this to be 
 the central subject of our delibera- 
 tions during the present session; but 
 it is a subject so many-sided and so 
 deserving of careful and discriminat- 
 ing discussion that I shall take the 
 liberty of addressing you^ upon it in 
 a special message at a later date 
 than this. It is of capital impor- 
 tance that the business men of this 
 country should be relieved of all un- 
 certainties of law with regard to their 
 enterprises and investments and a 
 clear path indicated which they can 
 travel without anxiety. It is as im- 
 portant that they should be relieved 
 of embarrassment and set free to 
 prosper as that private monopoly 
 should be destroyed. ■ The ways of 
 action should be thrown wide open. 
 
 I turn to a subject which I hope 
 can be handled promptly and with- 
 out serious contfoversy of any kind. 
 I mean the method of selecting nomi- 
 nees for the Presidency of the United 
 States. I feel confident that I do not 
 misinterpret the wishes or the ex- 
 
 pectations of the country when I urge 
 the prompt enactment of legislation 
 which will provide for primary elec- 
 tions throughout the country at which 
 the voters of the several parties may 
 choose their nominees for the Presi- 
 dency without the intervention of 
 nominating conventions. I venture 
 the suggestion that this legislation 
 should provide for the retention of 
 party conventions, but only for the 
 purpose of declaring and accepting 
 the verdict of the primaries and for- 
 mulating the platforms of the parties; 
 and I suggest that these conventions 
 should consist not of delegates chosen 
 for this single purpose, but of the 
 nominees for Congress, the nominees 
 for vacant seats in the Senate of the 
 United States, the Senators whose 
 terms have not yet closed, the na- 
 tional committees, and the candidates 
 for the Presidency themselves, in or- 
 der that platforms may be framed by 
 those responsible to the people for 
 carrying them into effect. 
 
 These are all matters of vital do- 
 mestic concern, and besides them, out- 
 side the charmed circle of our own 
 national life in which our affections 
 command us, as well as our con- 
 sciences, there stand out our obliga- 
 tions toward our territories over sea. 
 Here we are trustees. Porto Rico, 
 Hawaii, the Philippines, are ours, in- 
 deed, but not ours to do what we 
 please with. Such territories, once 
 regarded as mere possessions, are no 
 longer to be selfishly exploited; they 
 are part of the domain of public con- 
 science and of serviceable and en- 
 lightened statesmanship. We must 
 administer them for the people who 
 live in them and with the same sense 
 of responsibility to them as toward 
 our own people in our domestic af- 
 fairs. No doubt we shall successfully 
 enough bind Porto Rico and the 
 Hawaiian Islands to ourselves by ties 
 of justice and interest and affection, 
 but the performance of our duty 
 toward the Philippines is a more diffi- 
 cult and debatable matter. We can 
 satisfy the obligations of generous 
 justice toward the people of Porto 
 Rico by giving them the ample and 
 familiar rights and privileges accord- 
 ed our own citizens in our own terri- 
 tories and our obligations toward the 
 people of Hawaii by perfecting the 
 provisions for self-government already 
 granted them, but in the Phillippines 
 we must go further. We must hold 
 steadily in view their ultimate inde- 
 pendence and we must move toward 
 the time of that independence as 
 steadily as the way can be cleared and 
 *he foundations thoughtfully and per- 
 manently laid. 
 
 Acting under the authority con- 
 ferred upon the President by Con- 
 gress, I have already accorded the 
 people of the islands a majority in 
 both houses of their legislative body 
 by appointing five instead of four 
 native citizens to the membership of 
 the Commission. I believe that in 
 this way we shall make proof of their 
 capacity in counsel and their sense of 
 responsibility in the exercise of po- 
 litical power, and that the success of 
 this step will be sure to clear our 
 view for the steps which are to fol- 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 low. Step by step we should extend 
 and perfect the system of self-gov- | 
 ernment in the islands, making test of I 
 them and modifying them as experi- 
 ence discloses their successes and their 
 failures; that we should more and 
 more put under the control of the 
 native citizens of the archipelago the 
 essential instruments of their life, 
 their local instrumentalities of gov- 
 ernment, their schools, all the com- 
 mon interests of their communities, 
 and so by counsel and experience set 
 up a government which all the world 
 will see to be suitable to a people 
 whose affairs are under their own 
 control. At last, I hope and believe, 
 we are beginning to gain the confi- 
 dence of the Filipino peoples. By 
 their counsel and experience, rather 
 than by our own, we shall learn how 
 best to serve them and how soon it 
 will be possible and wise to withdraw 
 our supervision. Let us once find the 
 path and set out with firm and con- 
 fident tread upon it and we shall not 
 wander from it or linger upon it. 
 
 A duty faces us with regard to 
 Alaska which seems to me very press- 
 ing and very imperative; perhaps I 
 should say a double duty, for it con- 
 cerns both the political and the ma- 
 terial development of the Territory. 
 The people of Alaska should be given 
 the full Territorial form of govern- 
 ment, and Alaska, as a storehouse, 
 should be unlocked. One key to it is a 
 system of railways. These the Gov- 
 ernment should itself build and ad- 
 minister, and the ports ar.d terminals 
 it should itself control in the interest 
 of all who wish to use them for the 
 service and development of the coun- 
 try and its people. 
 
 But the construction of railways is 
 only the first step; is only thrusting 
 in the key to the storehouse and 
 throwing back the lock and opening 
 the door. How the tempting re- 
 sources of the country are to be ex- 
 ploited is another matter, to which I 
 shall take the liberty of from time 
 to time calling your attention, for it 
 is a policy which must be worked 
 out by well-considered stages, not 
 upon theory, but upon lines of prac- 
 tical expediency. It is part of our ' 
 general problem of conservation. We 
 have a freer hand in working out 
 the problem in Alaska than in the 
 States of the Union; and yet the prin- 
 ciple and object are the same, wher- 
 ever we touch it. We must use the 
 resources of the country, not lock 
 them up. There need be no conflict 
 or jealousy as between State and Fed- 
 eral authorities, for there can be no 
 essential difference of purpose be- 
 tween thefn. The resources in ques- 
 tion must be used, but not destroyed 
 or wasted; used, but not monopolized 
 upon any narrow idea of individual 
 rights as against the abiding interests 
 of communities. That a policy can 
 be worked out by conference and con- 
 cession which will release these re- 
 sources and yet not jeopard or dissi- 
 pate them, I for one have no doubt; ! 
 and it can be done on lines of regu- I 
 lation which need be no less accept- 
 able to the people and governments 
 of the States concerned than to the 
 people and Government of the nation 
 at large, whost heritage these re- 
 sources are. We must bend our coun- 
 sels to this end. A common purpose 
 ought to make agreement easy. 
 
 Three or four matters of special im- 
 portance and significance I beg that 
 you will permit me to mention in clos- j 
 ing. 
 
 Our Bureau of Mines ought to be ! 
 equipped and empowered to render 
 even more effectual service than it 
 renders now in improving the condi- 
 tions of mine labor and making the 
 mines more economically productive 
 as well as more safe. This is an all- 
 important part of the work of con- 
 serration; and the conservation of hu- , 
 
 man life and energy lies even nearer 
 to our interest than the preservation 
 from waste of our material resources. 
 
 We owe it, in mere justice to the 
 railway employees of the country, to 
 provide for them a fair and effective 
 employers liability act; and a law that 
 we can stand by in this matter will 
 be no less to the advantage of those 
 who administer the railroads of the 
 country than to the advantage of 
 those whom they employ. The ex- 
 perience of a large number of the 
 States abundantly proves that. 
 
 We ought to devote ourselves to 
 meeting pressing demands of plain 
 justice like this as earnestly as to the 
 accomplishment of political and eco- 
 nomic reforms. Social justice comes 
 first. Law is the machinery for its 
 realization and is vital only as it ex- 
 presses and embodies it. 
 
 An international congress for the I 
 discussion of all questions that affect 
 safety at sea is now sitting in London 
 at the suggestion of our own Govern- 
 ment. So soon as the conclusions of 
 that congress can be learned and con- 
 sidered we ought to address ourselves, 
 among other things, to the prompt 
 
 alleviation of the very unsafe, unjust, 
 and burdensome conditions Which now 
 surround the employment of sailors 
 and render it extremely difficult to 
 obtain the services of spirited and 
 competent men such as every ship 
 needs If it is to be safely handled and 
 brought to port. 
 
 May I not express the very real 
 pleasure I have experienced in co- 
 operating with this Congress and 
 sharing with it the labors of common 
 service to which it has devoted itself 
 so unreservedly during the past seven 
 months of uncomplaining concentra- 
 tion upon the business of legislation? 
 Surely it is a proper and pertinent 
 part of my report on “the state of the 
 Union” to express my admiration for 
 the diligence, the good temper, and 
 the full comprehension of public duty 
 which has already been manifested by 
 both the Houses; and I hope that it 
 may not be deemed an impertinent 
 Intrusion of myself into the picture if 
 I say with how much and how con- 
 stant satisfaction I have availed my- 
 self of the privilege of putting my 
 time and energy at their disposal 
 alike in counsel and in action. 
 
 INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 OF 
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE CAPITOL, MARCH 4, 1913 
 
 INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 T 
 
 HERE has been a change of 
 government. It began two 
 years ago, when the House of 
 Representatives became Dem- 
 ocratic by a decisive major- 
 ity. It has now been completed. The 
 Senate about to assemble will be Dem- 
 ocratic. The offices of President and 
 Vice President have been put into the 
 hands of Democrats. What does the 
 change mean? That is the question 
 that is uppermost in our minds today. 
 That is the question I am going to 
 try to answer, in order, if I may, to 
 interpret the occasion. 
 t^It means much more than the mere 
 success of a party. The success of a 
 party means little except when the 
 Nation is using that party for a large 
 and definite purpose.) No one can mis- 
 take the purpose for which the Nation 
 now seeks to use the Democratic Party. 
 It seeks to use it to interpret a change 
 in its own plans and point of view. 
 Some old things with which we had 
 grown familiar, and which had begun 
 to creep into the very habit of our 
 thought and of our lives, have altered 
 their aspect as we have latterly looked 
 critically upon them, with fresh, awak- 
 ened eyes; have dropped their dis- 
 guises and shown themselves alien and 
 sinister. Some new things, as we look 
 frankly upon them, willing to compre- 
 hend their real character, have come 
 to assume the aspect of things long 
 believed in and familiar, stuff of our 
 own convictions. We have been re- 
 freshed by a new insight into our own 
 life. 
 
 We see that in many things that life 
 is very great. It is incomparably great 
 in its material aspects, in its body of 
 wealth, in the diversity and sweep of 
 
 its energy, in the industries which have 
 been conceived and built up by the 
 genius of individual men and the limit- 
 less enterprise of groups of men. It is 
 great, also, very great, in its moral 
 force. Nowhere else in the world have 
 noble men and women exhibited in 
 more striking forms the beauty and 
 the energy of sympathy and helpful- 
 ness and counsel in their efforts to 
 rectify wrong, alleviate suffering, and 
 set the weak in the way of strength 
 and hope. We have built up, more- 
 over, a great system of government, 
 which has stood through a long age as 
 in many respects a model for those 
 who seek to set liberty upon founda- 
 tions that will endure against fortu- 
 itous change, against storm and acci- 
 dent. Our life contains every great 
 thing, and contains it in rich abun- 
 dance. 
 
 But the evil has come with the good, 
 and much fine gold has been corroded. 
 With riches has come inexcusable 
 waste. We have squandered a great 
 part of what we might have used, and 
 have not stopped to conserve the ex- 
 ceeding bounty of nature, without 
 which our genius for enterprise would 
 have been worthless and Impotent, 
 scorning to be careful, shamefully 
 prodigal as well as admirably efficient. 
 We have been proud of our indus- 
 trial achievements, but we have not 
 hitherto stopped thoughtfully enough 
 to count the humin cost, the cost of 
 lives snuffed out, of energies over- 
 taxed and broken, the fearful physical 
 and spiritual cost to the men and 
 women and children upon whom the 
 dead weight and burden of it all has 
 fallen pitilessly the years through. 
 The groans and agony of it all had 
 
8 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 not yet reached our ears, the solemn, 
 moving undertone of our life, com- 
 ing up out of the mines and factories 
 and out of every home where the 
 struggle had its intimate and familiar 
 seat. With the great Government 
 went many deep secret things which 
 we too long delayed to look into and 
 scrutinize with candid, fearless eyes. 
 The great Government we loved has 
 too often been made use of for private 
 and selfish purposes, and those who 
 used it had forgotten the people. 
 
 At last a vision has been vouchsafed 
 us of our life as a whole. We see the 
 bad and the good, the debased and de- 
 cadent with the sound and vital. With 
 this vision we approach new affairs. 
 Our duty is to cleanse, to reconsider, 
 to restore, to correct the evil without 
 impairing the good, to purify and 
 humanize every process of our com- 
 mon life without weakening or senti- 
 mentalizing it. There has been some- 
 thing crude and heartless and unfeel- 
 ing in our haste to succeed and be 
 great. Our thought has been “Let 
 every man look out for himself, let 
 every generation look out for itself,” 
 while we reared giant machinery 
 which made it impossible that any but 
 those who stood at the levers of con- 
 trol should have a chance to look out 
 for themselves. We had not forgot- 
 ten our morals. We remembered Well 
 enough that we had set up a policy 
 which was meant to serve the hum- 
 blest as well as the most powerful, with 
 an eye single to the standards of jus- 
 tice and fair play, and remembered it 
 with pride. But we were very heed- 
 less and in a hurry to be great. 
 
 We have come now to the sober 
 second thought. The scales of heed- 
 lessness have fallen from our eyes. We 
 have made up our minds to square 
 every process of our national life 
 again with the standards we so proud- 
 ly set up at the beginning and have 
 always carried at our hearts. Our 
 work is a work of restoration. 
 
 We have itemized with some de- 
 gree of paticularity the things that 
 ought to be altered and here are some 
 of the chief items: A tariff which cuts 
 
 us off from our proper part in the 
 commerce of the world violates the 
 juct principles of taxation, and makes 
 the Government a facile instrument in 
 the hands of private interests; a bank- 
 ing and currency system based upon 
 the necessity of the Government to sell 
 its bonds fifty years ago and perfect- 
 ly adapted to concentrating cash and 
 restricting credits; an industrial sys- 
 tem which, take it on all its sides, 
 financial as well as administrative, 
 holds capital in leading strings, re- 
 stricts the liberties and limits the op- 
 portunities of labor and exploits with- 
 out renewing or conserving the na- 
 tural resources of the country; a body 
 of agricultural activities never yet 
 given the efficiency of great business 
 undertakings or served as it should be 
 through the instrumentality of science 
 taken directly to the farm, or afford- 
 ed the facilities of credit best suited 
 to its practical needs; watercourses 
 undeveloped, waste places unre- 
 cbaifned, forests untended, fast disap- 
 pearing without plan or prospect of 
 renewal, unregarded waste heaps at 
 every mine. We have studied as per- 
 haps no other nation has the most ef- 
 fective means of production, but we 
 have not studied cost or economy as 
 we should either as organizers of in- 
 dustry, as statesmen, or as individuals. 
 
 Nor have we studied and perfected 
 the means by which Government may 
 be put at the service of humanity, in 
 safeguarding the health of the Nation, 
 the health of its men and its women 
 and its children, as well as their rights 
 in the struggle for existence. This is 
 no sentimental duty. The firm basis 
 of Government is justice, not pity. 
 These are matters of justice. Thera 
 can be no equality or opportunity, the 
 
 first essential of justice in the body 
 politic, if men and women and chil- 
 dren be not shielded in their lives, 
 their very vitality, from the con- 
 sequences of great industrial and so- 
 cial processes which they can not 
 alter, control, or singly cope with. So- 
 ciety must see to it that it does not 
 itself crush or weaken or damage its 
 own constituent parts. The first duty 
 of law is to keep sound the society it 
 serves. Sanitary laws, pure food laws, 
 and laws determining conditions of 
 labor which individuals are powerless 
 to determine for themselves are inti- 
 mate parts of the very business of Jus- 
 tice and legal efficiency. 
 
 These are some of the things we 
 ought to do, and not leave the others 
 undone, the old-fashioned, never-to- 
 be-neglected, fundamental safeguard- 
 ing of property and of individual right. 
 This is the high enterprise of the new 
 day: To lift everything that concerns' 
 
 our life as a Nation to the light that 
 shines from the hearthfire of every 
 man’s conscience and vision of the 
 right. It is inconceivable that we 
 should do this as partisans; it is in- 
 conceivable we should do it in ignor- 
 ance of the facts as they are or in blind 
 haste. We shall restore, not destroy. 
 We shall deal with our economic sys- 
 tem as it is and as it may be modified, 
 not as it might be if we had a clean 
 sheet of paper to write upon; and step 
 by step we shall make it what it should 
 be, in the spirit of those who question 
 their own wisdom and seek counsel 
 
 ’ R. SPEAKER, Mr. President, 
 
 Gentlemen of the Congress — 
 tegggg I am very glad, indeed, to 
 have this opportunity to ad- 
 dress the two Houses directly 
 and to verify for myself the impres- 
 sion that the President of the United 
 States is a person, not a mere depart- 
 ment of the Government hailing Con- 
 gress from some isolated island of 
 jealous power, sending messages, not 
 speaking naturally and with his own 
 voice — that he is a human being try- 
 ing to co-operate with other human 
 beings in a common service. After 
 this pleasant experience I shall feel 
 quite normal in all our dealings with 
 one another. 
 
 I have called the Congress together 
 in extraordinary session because a 
 duty was laid upon the party now In 
 power at the recent elections which 
 it ought to perform promptly, in order 
 that the burden carried by the people 
 under existing law may be lightened 
 as soon as possible and in order, also, 
 that the business interests of the coun- 
 try may not be kept too long in sus- 
 pense as to what the fiscal changes 
 are to be to which they will be re- 
 quired to adjust themseles. t is 
 clear to the whole country that the 
 tariff duties must be altered. They 
 must be changed to meet the radical 
 
 and knowledge, not shallow self-satis- 
 faction or the excitement of excur- 
 sions whither they cannot tell. Jus- 
 tice, and only justice, shall always be 
 our motto. 
 
 And yet it will be no cool process 
 of mere science. The Nation has 
 been deeply stirred, stirred by a 
 solemn passion, stirred by the knowl- 
 edge of wrong, of ideals lost, of gov- 
 ernment too often debauched and 
 made an instrument of evil. The feel- 
 ings with which we face this new age 
 of right and opportunity sweep 
 across our hearstrings like some air 
 out of God’s own presence, where Jus- 
 tice and mercy are reconciled and the 
 judge and the brother are one. We 
 know our task to be no mere task of 
 politics but a task which shall search 
 us through and through, whether we 
 be able to understand our time and 
 the need of our people, whether we 
 be indeed their spokesmen and inter- 
 preters, whether we have the pure heart 
 to comprehend and the rectified will 
 to choose our high course of action. 
 
 This is not a day of triumph; it is a 
 day of dedication. Here muster, not 
 the forces of the party, but the forces 
 of humanity. Men's hearts wait upon 
 us; men’s lives hang in the balance; 
 men’s hopes call upon us to say what 
 we will do. Who shall live up to the 
 great trust? Who dares fail to try? 
 I summon all honest men, all patriotic, 
 all forward-looking men, to my side, 
 God helping me, I will not fail them, if 
 they will but counsel and sustain me! 
 
 alteration in the conditions of our 
 economic life which the country has 
 witnessed within tbe last generation. 
 While the whole face and method of 
 our industrial and commercial life 
 were being changed beyond recog- 
 nition the tariff schedules have re- 
 mained what they were before the 
 change began, or have moved in the 
 direction they were given when no 
 large circumstance of our industrial 
 development was what it is today. Our 
 task is to square them with the actual 
 facts. The sooner that is done the 
 sooner we shall escape from suffering 
 from the facts and the sooner our 
 men of business will be free to thrive 
 by the law of nature (the nature of 
 free business) instead of by the law 
 of legislation and artificial arrange- 
 ment. 
 
 We have seen tariff legislation wan- 
 der very far afield in our day — very 
 far, indeed, from the field in which 
 our prosperity might have had a nor- 
 mal growth and stimulation. No one 
 who looks the facts squarely in the 
 face or knows anything that lies be- 
 neath the surface of action can fall 
 to perceive the principles upon which 
 recent tariff legislation has been 
 based. We long ago passed beyond 
 the modest notion of “protecting” the 
 industries of the country and moved 
 
 ADDRESS OF THE 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 DELIVERED AT A JOINT SESSION OF THE TWO HOUSES OF CONGRESS AT 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE FIRST SESSION OF THE 63D CONGRESS 
 
 APRIL 8, 1913 
 
 ON TARIFF ALTERATIONS 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 9 
 
 boldly forward to the idea that they i 
 were entitled to the direct patronage 
 of the Government. For a long time 
 • — a time so long that the men now ac- j 
 tive in public policy hardly remember I 
 the conditions that preceded it T — we 
 have sought in our tariff schedules to i 
 give each group of manufacturers or i 
 producers what they themselves 
 thought that they needed in order to 1 
 maintain a practically exclusive mar- i 
 ket as against the rest of the world. : 
 Consciously or unconsciously, we have 
 built up a set of privileges and ex- 
 emptions from competition behind 
 which it was easy by any, even the 
 crudest, forms of combination to or- 
 ganize monopoly; until at last nothing 
 Is normal, nothing is obliged to stand 
 the tests of efficiency and economy, in 
 our world of big business, but every- 
 thing thrives by concerted arrange- 
 ment. Only new principles of action 
 will 6ave us from a final hard crys- 
 tallization of monopoly and a com- 
 plete loss of the influences that 
 quicken enterprise and keep inde- 
 pendent energy alive. 
 
 It is plain what those principles 
 must be. We must abolish every- 
 thing that bears even the semblance 
 of privilege or of any kind of arti- 
 ficial advantage, and put our business 
 men and producers under the stimu- 
 lation of a constant necessity to be 
 efficient, economical and enterprising, 
 masters of competitive supremacy, 
 better workers and merchants than 
 any in the world. Aside from the 
 duties laid upon articles which we do 
 not, and probably cannot, produce, 
 therefore, and the duties laid upon 
 luxuries and merely for the sake of 
 the revenues they yield, the object of 
 the tariff duties henceforth laid must 
 be effective competition, the whetting 
 of American wits by contest with the 
 wits of the rest of the world. 
 
 It would be unwise to move toward 
 this end headlong, with reckless haste, 
 or with strokes that cut at the very 
 roots of what has grown up among 
 us by long process and at our own 
 invitation. It does not alter a thing 
 to upset it and break it and deprive 
 it of a chance to change. It destroys 
 it. We must make changes in our 
 fiscal laws. In our fiscal system, whose 
 
 object is development, a more free 
 and wholesome development, not rev- 
 olution or upset or confusion. We 
 must build up trade, especially for- 
 eign trade. We need the outlet and 
 the enlarged field of energy more than 
 we ever did before. We must build 
 up industry as well, and must adopt 
 freedom in the place of artificial stim- 
 ulation only so far as it will build, not 
 pull down. In dealing with the tariff 
 the method by which this may be done 
 will be a matter of judgment, exer- 
 cised item by item. To some not ac- 
 customed to the excitements and re- 
 sponsibilities of greater freedom our 
 methods may in some respects and at 
 some points seem heroic, but remedies 
 may be heroic and yet be remedies. 
 It is our business to make sure that 
 they are genuine remedies. Our ob- 
 ject is clear. If our motive is above 
 just challenge and only an occasional 
 error of judgment is chargeable against 
 us. we shall be fortunate. 
 
 We are called upon to render the 
 country a great service in more mat- ! 
 ters than one. Our responsibility 
 should be met and our methods should I 
 be thorough, as thorough as moderate 
 and well considered, based upon the 
 facts as they are, and not worked out 
 as if we were beginners. We are to 
 deal with the facts of our own day, 
 with the facts of no other, and to 
 make laws which square with those 
 facts. It is best, indeed it is neces- 
 sary, to begin with the tariff. I will 
 urge nothing upon you now at the 
 opening of your session which can 
 obscure the first object or divert our 
 energies from that clearly defined 
 duty. At a later time I may take the 
 liberty of calling your attention to re- 
 forms which should press close upon 
 the heels of the tariff changes, if not 
 accompany them, of which the chief 
 is the reform of our banking and cur- 
 rency laws; but just now I refrain. 
 For the present, I put these matters 
 on one side and think only of this one 
 thing — of the changes in our fiscal 
 system ■which may best serve to open 
 once more the free channels of pros- 
 perity to a great people whom we 
 -would serve to the utmost and 
 throughout both rank and file. 
 
 I thank you for your courtesy. 
 
 ADDRESS OF THE 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 DELIVERED AT A JOINT SESSION OF THE 
 TWO HOUSES OF CONGRESS 
 
 JUNE 23, 1913 
 
 ON THE BANKING AND CURRENCY SYSTEM 
 
 Speaker, Mr. President, 
 Gentlemen of the Congress — 
 It is under the compulsion 
 of what seems to me a clear 
 and Imperative duty that I 
 have a second time this session sought 
 the privilege of addressing you in per- 
 son. I know, of course, that the 
 heated season of the year is upon us, 
 that work in these chambers and in 
 the committee rooms Is likely to be- 
 come a burden as the season length- 
 ens, and that every consideration of 
 personal convenience and personal 
 comfort, perhaps, in the cases of some 
 of us, considerations of personal 
 health even, dictate an early conclu- 
 sion of the deliberations of the ses- 
 sion; but there are occasions of public 
 
 duty when these things which touch 
 us privately seem very small; when 
 the work to be done is so pressing 
 and so fraught with big consequence 
 that we know that we are not at lib- 
 erty to weigh against it any point of 
 personal sacrifice. We are now in the 
 presence of such an occasion. It is 
 absolutely imperative that we should 
 give the business men of this country 
 a banking and currency system by 
 means of which they can make use of 
 the freedom of enterprise and of in- 
 dividual initiative which we are about 
 to bestow upon them. 
 
 We are about to set them free; we 
 must not leave them without the tools 
 of action when they are free. We are 
 about to set them free by removing 
 the trammels of the protective tariff. 
 Ever since the Civil War they have 
 
 waited for this emancipation and for 
 the free opportunities it will bring 
 with it. It has been reserved for us to 
 give it to them. Some fell in love, in- 
 deed, with the slothful security of 
 their dependence upon the Govern- 
 ment; some took advantage of the 
 shelter of the nursery to set up a 
 mimic mastery of their own within its 
 walls. Now both the tonic and the 
 discipline of liberty and maturity are 
 to ensue. There will follow a period 
 of expansion and new enterprise, 
 freshly conceived. It is for us to de- 
 termine now whether it shall be rapid 
 and facile and of easy accomplish- 
 ment. This it can not be unless the 
 resourceful business men who are to 
 deal with the new circumstances are 
 to have at hand and ready for use the 
 instrumentalities and conveniences of 
 free enterprise which independent 
 men need when acting on their own 
 initiative. 
 
 It is not enough to strike the 
 shackles from business. The duty of 
 statesmanship is not negative merely. 
 It is constructive also. We must show 
 that we understand what business 
 needs and that we know how to sup- 
 ply it. No man, however casual and 
 superficial his observation of the con- 
 ditions now prevailing in the country, 
 can fail to see that one of the chief 
 things business needs no-.v, and will 
 need increasingly as it gains in scope 
 and vigor in the years immediately 
 ahead of us, is the proper means by 
 which readily to vitalize its credit, 
 corporate and individual, and its origi- 
 native brains. What will it profit us 
 to be fret if we are not to have the 
 best and most accessible instrumen- 
 talities of commerce and enterprise? 
 What will it profit us to be quit of 
 one kind of monopoly if we are to 
 remain in the grip ol another and 
 more effective kind? l-Iow are we to 
 gain and keep the confidence of the 
 business communityy unless we show 
 that we know how both to aid and 
 to protect it? What shall we say if 
 we make fresh enterprise necessary 
 and also make it very difficult by leav- 
 ing all else except the tariff just as we 
 found it? The tyrannies of business, 
 big and little, lie within the field of 
 credit. We know that. Shall we not 
 act upon the knowledge? Do we not 
 know how to act upon it? If a man 
 can not make his assets available at 
 pleasure, his assets of capacity and 
 character and resource, what satisfac- 
 tion is it to him to see opportunity 
 beckoning to him on every hand, when 
 others have the keys of credit in their 
 pockets and treat them as all but their 
 own private possession? "It is per- 
 fectly clear that it is our duty to sup- 
 ply the new banking and currency 
 system the country needs, and it will 
 need it immediately more than it has 
 ever needed it before. 
 
 The only question is, when shall we 
 supply it — now, or later, after the de- 
 mands shall have become reproaches 
 that we were so dull and so slow? 
 Shall we hasten to change the tariff 
 laws and then be laggards about mak- 
 ing it possible and easy for the coun- 
 try to take advantage of the change? 
 There can be only one answer to tb«. » 
 question. We must act now, at what- 
 ever sacrifice to ourselves. It is a duty 
 which the circumstances forbid us to 
 postpone. I should be recreant to my 
 deepest convictions of public obliga- 
 tion did I not press it upon you with 
 solemn and urgent insistence. 
 
 The principles upon which we 
 should act are also clear. The coun- 
 try has sought and seen its path in 
 this matter within the last few years 
 — sees it more clearly now than it ever 
 saw it before — much more clearly 
 than when the last legislative propos- 
 als on the subject were made. We 
 must have a currency, not rigid as 
 now, but readily, elastically responsive 
 to sound credit, the expanding and 
 
10 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 
 contracting credits of everyday trans- 
 actions, the normal ebb and flow o». 
 personal and corporate dealings. Our 
 banking laws must mobilize reserves; 
 must not permit the concentration 
 anywhere in a few hands of the mone- 
 tary resources of the country or their 
 use for speculative purposes in such 
 volume as to hinder or impede or 
 Stand in the way of other more legiti- 
 mate, more fruitful uses. And the 
 control of the system of banking and 
 of issue which our new laws are to set 
 up must be public, not private, must 
 be vested in the Government itself, so 
 that the banks may be the instru- 
 ments, not the masters, of business 
 and of individual enterprise and initia- 
 tive. 
 
 The committees of the Congress to 
 which legislation of this character is 
 
 referred have devoted careful and dis- 
 passionate study to the means of ac- 
 complishing these objects. They have 
 honored me by consulting me. They 
 are ready to suggest action. I have 
 come to you, as the head of the Gov- 
 ernment and the responsible leader of 
 the party in power, to urge action 
 now, while there is time to serve the 
 country deliberately and as we should, 
 in a clear air of common counsel. I 
 appeal to you with a deep conviction 
 of duty. I believe that you share this 
 conviction. I therefore appeal to you 
 with confidence. I am at your service 
 without reserve to play my part in any 
 way you may call upon me to play it 
 in this great enterprise of exigent re- 
 form which it will dignify and dis- 
 tinguish us to perform and discredit 
 us to neglect. 
 
 were, a nation embattled, the leaders 
 and the led, and may know, if you 
 will, how little except in form its ac- 
 tion differs in days of peace from its 
 action in days of war. 
 
 May we break camp now and be at 
 ease? Are the forces that fight for the 
 nation dispersed, disbanded, gone to 
 their homes forgetful of the common 
 cause? Are our forces disorganized, 
 without constituted leaders and the 
 might of men consciously united be- 
 cause we contend, not with armies, 
 but with principalities and powers and 
 wickedness in high places?? Are we 
 content to lie still? Does our union 
 mean eympathy, our peace content- 
 ment, our vigor right action, our ma- 
 turity self-comprehension and a clear 
 confidence in choosing what we shall 
 do? War fitted us for action, and 
 action never ceases. 
 
 1 have been chosen the leader of 
 the nation. I can not justfy the choice 
 by any qualities of my own, but so it 
 has come about, and here I stand. 
 
 ADDRESS OF 
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON 
 
 DELIVERED AT GETTYSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, 
 
 JULY 4, 1913 
 
 RIENDS and fellow citizens — ■ 
 I need not tell you what the 
 Battle of Gettysburg meant. 
 These gallant men in blue 
 and gray sit all about us 
 Manv of them met upon this 
 
 here. 
 
 ground in grim and deadly struggle. 
 Upon these famous fields and hillsides 
 their comrades died about them. In 
 their presence it were an impertinence 
 to discourse upon how the battle went, 
 how it ended, what it signified! But 
 fifty years have gone by since then, 
 and I crave the privilege of speaking 
 to you for a few minutes of what those 
 fifty years have meant. 
 
 What have they meant? They have 
 meant peace and union and vigor, and 
 the maturity and might of a great 
 nation. How wholesome and healing 
 the peace has been! We have found 
 one another again as brothers and 
 comrades in arms, enemies no longer, 
 generous friends rather, our battles 
 long past, the quarrel forgotten — ex- 
 cept that we shall not forget the 
 splendid valor, the manly devotion of 
 the men then arrayed against one an- 
 other, now grasping hands and smil- 
 ing into each other’s eyes. How com- 
 plete the union has become and how 
 dear to all of us, how unquestioned, 
 how benign and majestic, as State 
 after State has been added to this our 
 great family of free men! How hand- 
 some the vigor, the maturity, the 
 might of the great nation we love with 
 undivided hearts; how full of large 
 and confident promise that a life will 
 be wrought out that will crown its 
 strength with gracious justice and 
 with a happy welfare that will touch 
 all alike with deep contentment! We 
 are debtors to those fifty crowded 
 years; they have made us heirs to a 
 mighty heritage. 
 
 But do we deem the nation com- 
 plete and finished? These venerable 
 men crowding here to this famous 
 field have set us a great example of 
 devotion and utter sacrifice. They 
 were willing to die that the people 
 might live. But their task is done. 
 
 Their day is turned into evening. They 
 look to us to perfect what they estab- 
 lished. Their work is handed on to 
 us, to be done in another way but not 
 in another spirit. .Our day is not over; 
 i it is upon us in full tide. 
 
 Have affairs paused? Does the na- 
 tion stand still? Is what the fifty years 
 have wrought since those days of bat- 
 tle finished, rounded out, and com- 
 pleted? Here is a great people, great 
 with every force that has ever beaten 
 in the lifeblood of mankind. And it is 
 secure. There is no one within its bor- 
 ders, there is no power among the na- 
 tions of the earth, to make it afraid. 
 But has it yet squared itself with its 
 own great standards set up at its birth, 
 when it made that first noble, naive 
 appeal to the moral judgment of man- 
 kind to take notice that a government 
 had now at last been established 
 which was to serve men, not masters? 
 It is secure in everything except the 
 satisfaction that its life is right, ad- 
 justed to the uttermost to the stand- 
 ards of righeousness and humanity. 
 The days of sacrifice and cleansing 
 are not closed. We have harder 
 things to do than were done in the 
 heroic days of war, because harder 
 to see clearly, requiring more vision, 
 more calm balance of judgment, a 
 more candid searching of the very 
 springs of right. 
 
 Look around you upon the field of 
 Gettysburg! Picture the array, the 
 fierce heats and agony of battle, col- 
 umn hurled against column, battery 
 bellowing to battery! Valor? Yes! 
 Greater no man shall see in war; and 
 self-sacrifice, and loss to the utter- 
 most: the high recklessness of exajted 
 devotion which does not count the 
 cost. We are made by these tragic, 
 epic things to know what it costs to 
 make a nation — the blood and sacri- 
 fice of multitudes of unknown men 
 lifted to a great stature in the view 
 of all generations by knowing no limit 
 to their manly willingness to serve. In 
 armies thus marshaled from the 
 ranks of free men you will see, as it 
 
 Whom do I command? The ghostly 
 hosts who fought upon these battle- 
 fields long ago and are gone? These 
 gallant gentlemen stricken in years 
 whose fighting days are over, their 
 glory won? What are the orders for 
 them, and who rallies them? I have 
 in my mind another host, whonf'these 
 set free of civil strife in order that j 
 they might work out in days of peace 
 and settled order the life of a great 
 nation. That host is the people them- 
 selves, the great and the small, with- 
 out class or difference of kind or race 
 or origin; and undivided in interest, 
 if we have but the vision to guide and 
 direct them and order their lives 
 aright in what we do. Our constitu- 
 tions are their articles of enlistment. 
 The orders of the day are the laws 
 upon our statute books. What we 
 strive for is their freedom, their right 
 to lift themselves from day to day and 
 behold the things they have hoped for, 
 and so make way for still better days 
 for those whom they love who are to 
 come after them. The recruits are the 
 little children crowding in. The quar- 
 termaster’s stores are in the mines and 
 forests and fields, in the shops and 
 factories. Every day something must 
 I be done to push the campaign for- 
 ward; and it must be done by plan 
 and with an eye to some great destiny. 
 
 How shall we hold such thoughts in 
 our hearts and not be moved? I would 
 not have you live even today wholly in 
 the past, but would wish to stand with 
 you in the light that streams upon us 
 now out of that great day gone by. 
 Here is the nation God has builded by 
 our hands. What shall we do with it? 
 Who stands ready to act again and 
 always in the spirit of this day of re- 
 union and hope and patriotic fervor? 
 The day of our country’s life has but 
 broadened into morning. Do not put 
 uniforms by. Put the harness of the 
 present on. Lift your eyes to the great 
 tracts of life yet to be conquered in the 
 interest of righteous peace, of that 
 prosperity which lies in a people's 
 hearts and outlasts all wars and er- 
 i rors of men. Come, let us be com- 
 rades and soldiers yet to serve our 
 fellow men in quiet counsel, where 
 the blare of trumpets is neither heard 
 nor heeded and where the things are 
 done which make blessed the nations 
 of the world in peace and righteous- 
 ness and love. 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 11 
 
 ADDRESS OF THE 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 DELIVERED AT A JOINT SESSION OP THE 
 TWO HOUSES OP CONGRESS 
 
 AUGUST 27, 1913 
 
 MEXICAN AFFAIRS 
 
 pacification by the authorities at the 
 capital is evidently impossible by any 
 other means than force. Difficulties 
 more and more entangle those who 
 claim to constitute the legitimate gov- 
 ernment of the republic. They have 
 not made good their claim in fact. 
 Their successes in the field have proved 
 only temporary. War and disorder, 
 devastation and confusion, seem to 
 threaten to become the settled fortune 
 
 of the distracted country. As friends 
 we could wait no longer for a solution w & s possible and proper to assist the 
 which every week seemed further administration chosen and set up in 
 
 G “' 1ENTLEMEN of the Congress anxiety, for the conditions there to im- 
 — It is clearly mv duty to P™ve. and the >' have not improved. 
 ... „ They have grown worse, rather. The 
 
 ay ^ e ^ ore y° u - ver y fully ; territory in some sort controlled by 
 and without reservation, the; the provisional authorities at Mexico 
 facts concerning our present I City has grown smaller, not larger, 
 relations with the republic of Mexico. Th e prosfiect of the pacification of the 
 
 „ ■ country, even by arms, has seemed to 
 The deplorable posture of affairs n 1 grow more and more remote; and its 
 Mexico I need not describe, but I deem 
 it my duty to speak very frankly of 
 what this Government has done and 
 should seek to do in fulfillment of its 
 obligation to Mexico herself, as a 
 friend and neighbor, and to American 
 citizens whose lives and vital interests 
 are daily affected by the distressing 
 conditions which now obtain beyond 
 our southern border. 
 
 Those conditions touch us very 
 nearly. Not merely because they lie at 
 our very doors. That, of course, makes 
 us more vividly and more constantly 
 conscious of them, and every instinct 
 of neighborly interest and sympathy is 
 aroused and quickened by them; but 
 that is only one element in the deter- 
 mination of our duty. We are glad 
 to call ourselves the friends of Mex- 
 ico, and we shall, I hope, have many 
 an occasion, in happier times, as well 
 as in these days of trouble and confu- 
 sion, to show that our friendship is 
 genuine and disinterested, capable of 
 sacrifice and every generous manifes- 
 tation. The peace, prosperity and 
 contentment of Mexico mean more, 
 much more, to us than merely an en- 
 larged field for our commerce and en- 
 terprise. They mean an enlargement 
 of the field of self-government and the 
 realization of the hopes and rights of 
 a nation with ^hose best aspirations, 
 so long suppressed and disappointed, 
 we deeply sympathize. We shall yet 
 prove to the’ Mexican people that we 
 know how to serve them without first 
 thinking how we shall serve ourselves. 
 
 But we are not the only friends of 
 Mexico. The whole world desires her 
 peace and progress; and the whole 
 world is interested as never before. _ 
 
 Mexico lies at last where all the world are expected by the powers of the 
 looks on. Central America is about to v/orld to act as Mexico’s nearest friend, 
 be touched by the great routes of the 1 “We wish to act in these circum- 
 world’s trade and intercourse running stances in the spirit of the most ear- 
 free from ocean to ocean at the Isth- '• nest and disinterested friendship. It 
 mus. The future has much in store j s 0 ur purpose in whatever we do or 
 for Mexico, as for all the States of propose in this perplexing and 
 Central America; but the best gifts distressing situation not only 
 can come to her only if she be ready to pay the most scrupulous 
 and free to receive them and to enjoy regard to the sovereignty and inde- 
 them honorably. America in particu- pendence of Mexico— that we take as a 
 
 l ar America north and south and up- matter of course to which we are 
 
 on both continents — waits upon the bound by every obligation of right and 
 development of Mexico; and that de- honor — but also to give every possible 
 velopment can be sound and lasting evidence that we act in the interest of 
 only if it be the product of a genuine Mexico alone, and not in the interest 
 freedom, a just and ordered govern- Q f any person or body of persons who 
 ment founded upon law. Only so can may have personal or property claims 
 it be peaceful or fruitful of the bene- j n Mexico in which they may feel that 
 fits of peace. Mexico has a great and they have the right to press. We are 
 enviable future before her, if only she seeking to counsel Mexico for her own 
 choose to attain the paths of honest good and in the interest of her own 
 
 I peace, and not for any other purpose 
 
 whole people are involved. It is act- 
 ing as its friendship for Mexico, not as 
 any selfish interest, dictates. 
 
 "The present situation in Mexico is 
 incompatible with the fulfillment of 
 international obligations on the part of 
 Mexico, with the civilized development 
 of Mexico herself, and with the main- 
 tenance of tolerable political and eco- 
 nomic conditions in Central America. 
 It is upon no common occasion, 
 therefore, that the United States offers 
 her counsel and assistance. All Amer- 
 ica cries out for for a settlement. 
 
 "A satisfactory settlement seems to 
 us to be conditioned on — - 
 
 ‘‘Cal An immediate cessation of fight- 
 ing throughout Mexico, a definite ar- 
 mistice solemnly entered into and 
 scrupulously observed; 
 
 “(b) Security given for an early and 
 free election in which all will agree to 
 take part; 
 
 “(c) The consent of General Huerta 
 to bind himself not to be a candidate 
 for election as President of the repub- 
 lic at this election; and 
 
 “(d) The agreement of all parties to 
 abide by the results of the election and 
 co-operate in the most loyal way in or- 
 ganizing and supporting the new ad- 
 ministration. 
 
 "The government of the United States 
 will be glad to play any part in this 
 settlement or in its carrying out 
 which it can play honorably and con- 
 sistently with international right. It 
 pledges itself to recognize and in every 
 
 away. It was our duty as least to vol- 
 unteer our good offices — to offer to as- 
 sist, if we might, in effecting some ar- 
 rangement which would bring relief 
 and peace and set up a universally ac- 
 knowledged political authority there. 
 
 Accordingly, I took the liberty of 
 sending the Hon. John Lind, formerly 
 Governor of Minnesota, as my personal 
 spokesman and representative, to the 
 City of Mexico, with the following in- 
 structions: 
 
 “Press very earnestly upon the atten- 
 tion of those who are now exercising 
 authority or wielding influence in 
 Mexico the following considerations 
 and advice; 
 
 “The government of the United States 
 does not feel at liberty any longer to 
 stand inactively by while it becomes 
 daily more and more evident that no 
 real progress is being made toward 
 the establishment of a government at 
 the City of Mexico which the country 
 will obey and respect. 
 
 "The government of the United States 
 does not stand in the same case with 
 the other great governments of the 
 world in respect of what is happening 
 or what is likely to happen in Mexico. 
 We offer our good offices, not only be- 
 cause of our genuine desire to play the 
 part of a friend, but also because we 
 
 constitutional government. 
 
 The present circumstances of the re- j whatever. The government of the 
 public, I deeply regret to say, do not | United States would deem itself dls- 
 Beem to promise even the foundations ; credited if it had any selfish or ulterior 
 of such a peace. We have waited purpose in transactions where the do? Clearly, everything that wo do 
 
 many months, months full of peril and peace, happiness and prosperity of a must be rooted In patience and don* 
 
 Mexico in the way and on the condi- 
 tions suggested. 
 
 "Taking all the existing conditions 
 into consideration, the government of 
 the United States can conceive of no 
 reasons sufficient to justify those who 
 are now attempting to shape the pol- 
 icy or exercise the authority of Mexico 
 in declining the offices of friendship 
 thus offered. Can Mexico give the civ- 
 ilized world a satisfactory reason for 
 rejecting our good offices? If Mexico 
 can suggest any better way in which 
 to show our friendship, serve the peo- 
 ple of Mexico and meet our interna- 
 tional obligations, we are more than 
 willing to consider the suggestion.” 
 
 Mr. Lind executed his delicate and 
 difficult mission with singular tact, 
 firmness and good Judgment, and made 
 clear to the authorities at the City of 
 Mexico not only the purpose of his 
 visit, but also the spirit in which It 
 had been undertaken. But the popos- 
 als he submitted were rejected, in a 
 note the full text of which I take the 
 liberty of laying before you. 
 
 I am led to believe that they were 
 rejected partly because the authorities 
 at Mexico City had been grossly mis- 
 informed and misled upon two points. 
 They did not realize the spirit of the 
 American people in this matter, their 
 earnest friendliness and yet sober de- 
 termination that some Just solution be 
 found for the Mexican difficulties; and 
 they did not believe that the present 
 administration spoke, through Mr, 
 Lind, for the people of the United 
 States. The effect of this unfortunate 
 misunderstanding on their part is to 
 leave them singularly isolated and 
 without friends who can effectually 
 aid them. So long as the misunder- 
 standing continues we can ohfy await 
 the time of their awakening to a real- 
 ization of the aotual facts. We can- 
 not thrust our good offices upon them. 
 The situation must be given, a little 
 more time to work itself out in the 
 new circumstances; and I believe that 
 only a little while will be necessary. 
 For the circumstances are new. The 
 rejection of our friendship makes 
 them new and will inevitably bring its 
 own alterations in the whole aspect of 
 affairs. The actual situation of the 
 authorities at Mexico City will pres- 
 ently be revealed. 
 
 Meanwhile, what is it our duty to 
 
r 12 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 with calm and disinterested deliber- 
 ation. Impatience on our part would 
 be childish, and would be fraught with 
 every risk of wrong and folly. We can 
 afford to exercise the self-restraint of 
 a really great nation which realizes 
 its own strength and scorns to misuse 
 it. It was our duty to offer our active 
 assistance. It is now our duty to show 
 what true neutrality will do to enable 
 the people of Mexico to set their af- 
 fairs in order again and wait for a fur- 
 ther opportunity to offer our friendly 
 counsels. The door is not closed 
 against the resumption, either upon 
 the initiative of Mexico or upon our 
 own, of the effort to bring order out 
 of the confusion by friendly co-opera- 
 tive action, should fortunate occasion 
 offer. 
 
 While we wait the contest of the 
 rival forces will undoubtedly for a lit- 
 tle while be sharper than ever, just 
 because it will be plain that an end 
 must be made of the existing situation, 
 and that very promptly; and with the 
 increased activity of the contending 
 factions will come, it is to be feared, 
 increased danger to the non-combat- 
 ants in Mexico as well as to those ac- 
 tually in the field of battle. The po- 
 sition of outsiders is always particu- 
 larly trying and full of hazard where 
 there is civil strife and a whole coun- 
 try is upset. We should earnestly 
 urge all Americans to leave Mexico at 
 once, and should assist them to get 
 away in every way possible — not be- 
 cause we would mean to slacken in the 
 least our efforts to safeguard their 
 lives and their interests, but because 
 it is imperative that they should take 
 no unnecessary risks when it is physi- 
 cally impossible for them to leave the 
 country. We should let everyone who 
 assumes to exercise authority in any 
 part of Mexico know in the most un- 
 equivocal way that we shall vigilantly 
 watch the fortunes of those Americans 
 who cannot get away, and shall hold 
 those responsible for their sufferings 
 and losses to a definite reckoning. 
 That can be and will be made plain 
 beyond the possibility of a misunder- 
 standing. 
 
 For the rest, I deem it my duty to 
 exercise the authority conferred upon 
 me by the law of March 14, 1912, to 
 see to it that neither side to the strug- 
 gle now going on in Mexico receive any 
 assistance from this side of the border. 
 I shall follow the best practice of na- 
 tions in the matter of neutrality by 
 forbidding the exportation of arms or 
 munitions of war of any kind from the 
 United States to any part of the Re- 
 public of Mexico — a policy suggested 
 by several interesting precedents and 
 certainly dictated by many manifest 
 considerations of practical expediency. 
 We cannot in the circumstances be 
 the partisans of either party to the 
 contest that now distracts Mexico, or 
 constitute ourselves the virtual um- 
 pire between them. 
 
 I am happy to say that several of the 
 great governments of the world have 
 given this Government their generous 
 moral support in urging upon the pro- 
 visional authorities at the City of Mex- 
 ico the acceptance of our proffered 
 good offices in the spirit in which they 
 were made. We have not acted in this 
 matter und6r the ordinary principles of 
 international obligation. All the world 
 expects us in such circumstances to act 
 as Mexico’s nearest friend and Intimate 
 adviser. This is our immemorial rela- 
 tion toward her. There is nowhere any 
 serious question that we have the 
 moral right in the case or that we are 
 acting in the interest of a fair settle- 
 ment and of good government, not for 
 the promotion of some selfish interest 
 of our own. If further motive were 
 necessary than our own good will to- 
 ward a sister Republic and our own 
 deep concern to see peace and order 
 prevail in Central America, this con- 
 sent of mankind to what we are at- 
 
 tempting, this attitude of the great na- 
 tions of the world toward what we 
 may attempt in dealing with this dis- 
 tressed people at our doors, should 
 make us feel the more solemnly bound 
 to go to the utmost length of patience 
 and forbearance in this painful and 
 anxious business. The steady pressure 
 
 of moral force will before many days 
 break the barriers of pride and preju- 
 dice down, and we shall triumph as 
 Mexico’s friends sooner than we could 
 triumph as her enemies — and how 
 much more handsomely, with how 
 much higher and finer satisfactions of 
 conscience and of honor! 
 
 ADDRESS OF THE 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 AT PHILADELPHIA, PA., OCTOBER 25, 1913 
 
 ON THE OCCASION OF THE REDEDICATION OF CONGRESS HALL 
 
 Y OUR Honor, Mr. Chairman, 
 Ladies and Gentlemen — No 
 American could stand in this 
 place today and tm-n-k M: rhe 
 circumstances which we are 
 come together to celebrate without 
 being most profoundly stirred. There 
 has come over me since I sat down 
 here a sense of deep solemnity, be- 
 cause it has seemed to me that I saw 
 ghosts crowding— a great assemblage 
 of spirits, no longer visible, but whose 
 influence we still feel as we feel the 
 molding power of history itself. The 
 men who sat in this hall, to whom we 
 now look back with a touch of deep 
 sentiment, were men of flesh and 
 blood, face to face with extremely 
 difficult problems. The population of 
 the United States then was hardly 
 three times the present population of 
 the City of Philadelphia, and yet that 
 was a Nation as this is a Nation, and 
 the men who spoke for it were setting 
 their hands to a work which was to 
 last, not only that their people might 
 be happy, but that an example might 
 be lifted up for the instruction of the 
 rest of the world. 
 
 I like to road the quaint old ac- 
 counts, such as Mr. Day has read to 
 us this afternoon. Strangers came 
 then to America to see what the young 
 people that had sprung up here were 
 like, and they found men in counsel 
 who knew how to construct govern- 
 ments. They found men deliberating 
 here who had none of the appearance 
 of novices, none of the hesitation of 
 men who did not know whether the 
 work they were doing was going to 
 last or not; men who addressed them- 
 selves to a problem of construction as 
 familiarly as we attempt to carry out 
 the traditions of a Government estab- 
 lished these 137 years. 
 
 I feel today the compulsion of these 
 men, the compulsion of examples 
 which were set up in this place. And 
 of what do tlieir examples remind us? 
 They remind us not merely of public 
 service, but of public service shot 
 through with principle and honor. 
 They were not histrionic men. They 
 did not say: 
 
 “Look upon us as upon those who 
 shall hereafter be illustrious.’’ 
 
 They said; 
 
 “Look upon us who are doing the 
 first free work of constitutional liberty 
 in the world, and who must do it in 
 soberness and truth, or it will not 
 last.” 
 
 Politics, ladies and gentlemen, is 
 made up in just about equal parts of 
 comprehension and sympathy. No 
 man ought to go into politics who does 
 
 I not comprehend the task that he is 
 ' going to attack. He may comprehend 
 it so completely that it daunts him; 
 that he doubts whether his own spirit 
 is stout enough and his own mind able 
 enough to attempt its great under* 
 takings; but unless he comprehend it, 
 he ought not to enter it. After he has 
 comprehended it, there should come 
 into his mind those profound impulses 
 of sympathy which connect him with 
 the rest of mankind, for politics is a 
 business of interpretation, and no men 
 are fit for it who do not see and seek 
 more than their own advantage and 
 interest. 
 
 We have stumbled upon many un- 
 happy circumstances in the hundred 
 years that have gone by since the 
 event that we are celebrating. Almost 
 all of them have come from self-cen- 
 tered men, men who saw in their own 
 interest the interest of the country, 
 and who did not have vision enough 
 to read it in wider terms, in the uni- 
 versal terms of equity and justice and 
 the rights of mankind. I hear a great 
 many people at Fourth of July cele- 
 brations laud the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence who in between Julys shiver 
 at the plain language of our bill of 
 rights. The Declaration of Independ- 
 ence was, indeed, the first audible 
 breath of liberty, but the substance of 
 liberty is written in such documents 
 as the declaration of rights attached, 
 for example, to the first Constitution 
 of Virginia, which was a model for the 
 similar documents read elsewhere into 
 our great fundamental charters. That 
 document speaks in very plain terms. 
 The men of that generation did not 
 hesitate to say that every people has 
 a right to choose its own forms of gov- 
 ernment — not once, but as often as it 
 pleases — and to accommodate those 
 forms of government to its existing 
 interests and circumstances. Not only 
 to establish, but to alter, is the funda- 
 mental principle of self-government. 
 
 We are just as much under com- 
 pulsion to study the particular circum- 
 stances of our own day as the gentle- 
 men were who sat in this hall and set 
 us precedents, not of what to do, but 
 of how to do it. Liberty inheres in the 
 circumstances of the day. Human 
 happiness consists of the life which 
 human beings are leading at the time 
 that they live. I can feed my mem- 
 ory as happily upon the circumstances 
 of the Revolutionary and Constitu- 
 tional period as you can, but I cannot 
 feed all my purposes with them in 
 Washington now. Every day prob- 
 lems arise which wear some new 
 phase and aspect, and I must fall 
 back, if I would serve my conscience, 
 upon those things which are funda- 
 mental rather than upon those things 
 which are superficial, and ask myself 
 this question: How are you going to 
 
 assist in some small part to give the 
 American people, and, by example, the 
 peoples of the world, more liberty, 
 more happiness, more substantial pros- 
 
Eagle Library* — SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 13 
 
 perity; and how are you going to make 
 that prosperity a common heritage in- 
 stead of a selfish possession? I came 
 here today partly In order to feed my 
 own spirit. I did not come in compli- 
 ment. When I was asked to come, I 
 knew immediately upon the utterance 
 of the invitation that I had to come; 
 that to be absent would be as if I re- 
 fused to drink once more at the origi- 
 nal fountains of inspiration for our 
 own Government. 
 
 The men of the day which we now 
 celebrate had a very great advantage 
 over us, ladies and gentlemen, in this 
 one particular. Life was simple in 
 America then. All men shared the 
 same circumstances in almost equal 
 degree. We think of Washington, for 
 example, as an aristocrat, as a man sep- 
 arated by training, separated by family 
 and neighborhood tradition, from the 
 ordinary people of the rank and file 
 of the country. Have you forgotten 
 the personal history of George Wash- 
 ington? Do you not know that he 
 struggled as poor boys now struggle 
 for a meager and imperfect educa- 
 tion; that he worked at his surveyor’s 
 tasks in the lonely forests; that he 
 knew all the roughness, all the hard- 
 ships, all the adventure, all the va- 
 riety of the common life of that day; 
 that if he stood a little stffiy in this 
 place, if he looked a little aloof, it 
 was because life had dealt hardly with 
 him? All his sinews had been stiffened 
 by the rough work of making Amer- 
 ica. He was a man of the people, 
 whose touch had been with them since 
 the day he saw the light first in the 
 old Dominion of Virginia. And the 
 men who came after him, men, some 
 of whom had drunk deep at the sources 
 of philosophy and of study, were, 
 nevertheless, also men who on this 
 side of the water knew no complicated 
 life but the simple life of primitive 
 neighborhoods. Our task is very much 
 more difficult. That sympathy which 
 alone interprets public duty is more 
 difficult for a public man to acquire 
 now than it was then, because we live 
 in the midst of circumstances and 
 conditions infinitely complex. 
 
 No man can boast that he under- 
 stands America. No man can boast 
 that he has lived the life of America, 
 as almost every man who sat in this 
 hall in those days could boast. No 
 man can pretend that except by com- 
 mon counsel he can gather into his 
 consciousness what the varied life of 
 this people is. The duty that we have 
 to keep open eyes and open hearts 
 and accessible understandings is a 
 very much more difficult duty to per- 
 form than it was in their day. Vet 
 how much more important that it 
 should be performed, for fear we 
 make infinite and irreparable blunders. 
 The City of Washington is in some 
 respects self-contained, and it is easy 
 there to forget what the rest of the 
 United States is thinking about. I 
 count it a fortunate circumstance that 
 almost all the windows of the White 
 House and its offices open upon un- 
 occupied spaces that stretch to the 
 banks of the Potomac and then out 
 Into Virginia and on to the heavens 
 themselves, and that as I sit there I 
 can constantly forget Washington and 
 remember the United States. Not 
 that I would Intimate that all of the 
 United States lies south of Washing- 
 ton, but there is a serious thing back 
 of my thought. If you think too much 
 about being re-elected, it is very diffi- 
 cult to be worth re-electing. You are 
 so apt to forget that the compara- 
 tively small number of persons, nu- 
 merous as they seem to be when they 
 swarm, who come to Washington to 
 ask for things, do not constitute an 
 important proportion of the popula- 
 tion of the country, that it is con- 
 stantly necessary to come away from 
 Washington and renew one’s contact 
 with the people who do not swarm 
 there, who do not ask for anything, 
 
 but who do trust you without their 
 personal counsel to do your duty. Un- 
 less a man gets these contacts he 
 grows weaker and weaker. He needs 
 them as Hercules needed the touch 
 of mother earth. If you lift him up 
 too high or he lifts himself too high, he 
 loses the contact and therefore loses 
 the inspiration. 
 
 I love to think of those plain men, 
 however far from plain their dress 
 sometimes was, who assembled in this 
 hall. One is startled to think of the 
 variety of costume and color which 
 would now occur if we were let loose 
 upon the fashions of that age. Men’s 
 lack of taste is largely concealed now 
 by the limitations of fashion. Yet 
 these men, who sometimes dressed like 
 the peacock, were, nevertheless, of the 
 ordinary flight of their time. They 
 were birds of a featner; they were 
 birds come from a very simple breed- 
 ing; they were much in the open 
 heaven. They were beginning, when 
 there was so little to distract their 
 attention, to show that they could live 
 upon fundamental principles of gov- 
 ernment. We talk those principles, 
 but we have not time to absorb them, i 
 
 We have not time to let them into 
 our blood, and thence have them 
 translated into the plain mandates of 
 action. 
 
 The very smallness of this room, the 
 very simplicity of it all, all the sug- 
 gestions which come from its restora- 
 tion, are reassuring things — things 
 which it becomes a man to realize. 
 Therefore my theme here today, my 
 only thought, is a very simple one. 
 Do not let us go Dack to the annals 
 of those sessions of Congress to find 
 out what to do, because we live in 
 another age and the circumstances are 
 absolutely different; but let us be men 
 of that kind; let us feel at every turn 
 the compulsions of principle and of 
 honor which they felt; let us free our 
 vision from temporary circumstances 
 and look aDroad at the horizon and 
 take into our lungs the great air of 
 freedom which has blown through this 
 country and stolen across the seas and 
 blessed people everywhere; and, 
 looking east and west and north and 
 south, let us remind ourselves tha\: 
 we are the custodians, in some degree, 
 of the principles which have made 
 i men free and governments just. 
 
 “ ADDRESS OF 
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON 
 
 DELIVERED AT SWATHMORE COLLEGE 
 
 SWARTHMORE, OCTOBER 25, 1913 
 
 OUR Excellency, Mr. Clothier 
 Mr. President — That greet 
 5ng sounds very familiar, 
 and I am reminded of an 
 anecdote told of that good 
 artist, but better wit, Oliver Herford. 
 On one occasion, being seated at his 
 club at lunch, a man whose manners 
 he did not very much relish came up 
 to him and slapped him on the back 
 and said, “Hello, Ollie, old boy, how 
 are you?” He looked up at the man 
 somewhat coldly and said, “I don’t 
 know your name and I don’t know 
 your face, but your manners are verj 
 familiar/’ The manners exemplified 
 in that cheer are delightfully familiar. 
 
 I find myself unaffectedly embar- 
 rassed today. I want to say, in sincere 
 compliment, that I do not like to at- 
 tempt an extemporaneous address 
 following so finished an orator as the 
 one who has just taken his seat. 
 Moreover, I am somewhat confused 
 as to my identity. I am told by psy- 
 chologists that I would not know who 
 I am today if I did not remember who 
 I was yesterday; but when I recollect 
 that yesterday I was a college presi - 1 
 dent, that does not assist me in es- 
 tablishing my identity today. On the 
 contrary, this very presence, the char- 
 acter of this audience, this place with 
 its academic memories, all combine to 
 remind me that the greater part of 
 my active life has been spent in com- 
 panies like this, and it will be difficult 
 for me in what follows of this address 
 to keep out of the old ruts of admoni- 
 tion which I have been accustomed 
 to follow in the role of college presi- 
 dent. 
 
 No one can stand in the presence of 
 a gathering like this, on a day sug- 
 gesting the memories which this day 
 suggests, without asking himself what 
 a college is for. There have been 1 
 
 times when I have suspected that cer- 
 tain undergraduates did not know. I 
 remember that in days of discourage- 
 ment as a teacher I gratefully recalled 
 the sympathy of a friend of mine in 
 the Yale faculty, who said that after 
 twenty years of teaching he had come 
 to the conclusion that the human mind 
 had infinite resources for resisting the 
 introduction of knowledge. Yet I have 
 my serious doubts as to whether the 
 main object of a college is the intro- 
 duction of knowledge. It may be the 
 transmission of knowledge through 
 the human system, but not much of it 
 sticks. Its introduction is temporary; 
 it is for the discipline of the hour. 
 Most of what a man learns In college 
 he assiduously forgets afterward. Not 
 because he purposes to forget it, but 
 because the crowding events of the 
 days that follow seem somehow to 
 eliminate it. 
 
 What a man ought never to forget 
 with regard to a college is that it is 
 a nursery of principle and of honor. 
 I cannot help thinking of William 
 Penn as a sort of spiritual knight who 
 went out upon his adventures to carry 
 the torch that had been put in his 
 hands, so that other men might have 
 the path illuminated for them which 
 led to justice and to liberty. I cannot 
 admit that a man establishes his right 
 to call himself a college graduate by 
 showing me his diploma. The only 
 way he can prove it is by showing 
 that his eyes are lifted to some horizon 
 which other men less instructed than 
 he have not been privileged to see. 
 Unless he carries freight of the spirit 
 he has not been bred where spirits are 
 bred. 
 
 This man Penn, representing the 
 sweet enterprise of the quiet and pow- 
 erful sect that called themselves 
 Friends, proved his right to the title 
 by being the friend of mankind. He 
 crossed the ocean, not merely to es- 
 tablish estates in America, but to set 
 up a free commonwealth in America 
 and to show that he was of the lineage 
 of those who had been bred in the best 
 traditions of the human spirit. I 
 would not be Interested in celebrating 
 I the memory of .William P&nn if him 
 
14 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 conquest had been merely a material 
 one. Sometimes we have been laughed 
 at — by foreigners in particular— for 
 boasting of the size of the American 
 Continent, the size of our own domain 
 as a nation; for they have, naturally 
 enough, suggested that we did not 
 make it. But I claim that every race 
 and every man is as big as the thing 
 that he takes possession of, and that 
 the size of America is in some sense a 
 standard of the size and capacity of 
 the American people. And yet the 
 mere extent of the American conquest 
 is not what gives America distinction 
 in the annals of the world, but the 
 professed purpose of the conquest 
 which was to see to it that every foot 
 of this land should be the home of 
 free, self-governed people, who should 
 have no government whatever which 
 did not rest upon the consent of the 
 governed. I would like to believe that 
 all this hemisphere is devoted to the 
 Bame sacred purpose and that nowhere 
 can any government endure which is 
 stained by blood or supported by any- 
 thing but the consent of the governed. 
 
 The spirit of Penn will not be stayed. 
 You cannot set limits to such knightly 
 adventurers. After their own day is 
 gone their spirits stalk the world, 
 carrying inspiration everywhere that 
 they go and reminding men of the 
 lineage, the fine lineage, of those who 
 have sought justice and right. It is 
 no small matter, therefore, for a col- 
 lege to have as its patron saint a man 
 who went out upon such a conquest. 
 What I would like to ask you young 
 people today is; How many of you 
 have devoted yourselves to the like 
 adventure? How many of you will 
 volunteer to carry these spiritual 
 messages of liberty to the world? How 
 many of you will forego anything ex- 
 cept your allegiance to that which is 
 
 just and that which is right? We die 
 but once, and we die without distinc- 
 tion if we are not willing to die the 
 death of sacrifice. Do you covet 
 honor? You will never get it by serv- 
 ing yourself. Do you covet distinc- 
 tion? You will get it only as the ser- 
 vant of mankind. Do not forget, 
 then, as you walk these classic places, 
 why you are here. You are not here 
 merely to prepare to make a living. 
 You are here in order to enable the 
 world to live more amply, with greater 
 vision, with a finer spirit of hope and 
 achievement. You are here to enrich 
 the world, and you impoverish your- 
 self if you forget the errand. 
 
 It seems to me that there is no great 
 difference between the ideals of the 
 college and the ideals of the State. 
 Can you not translate the one into the 
 other? Men have not had to come to 
 college, let me remind you, to quaff 
 the fountains of this inspiration. You 
 are merely more privileged than they. 
 Men out of every walk of life, men 
 without advantages of any kind, have 
 seen the vision, and you, with it writ- 
 ten large upon every page of your 
 studies, are the more blind if you do 
 not see it when it is pointed out. You 
 could not be forgiven for overlooking 
 i it. They might have been. But they 
 did not await instruction. They 
 simply drew the breath of life into 
 their lungs, felt the aspirations that 
 must come to every human soul, 
 looked out upon their brothers, and 
 felt their pulses beat as their fellows' 
 beat, and then sought by counsel and 
 action to move forward to common 
 ends that would be crowned with 
 honor and achievement. This is the 
 only glory of America. Let every gen- 
 eration of Swarthmore men and wom- 
 en add to the strength of that lineage 
 and the glory of that crown of life! 
 
 ADDRESS OF 
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 SOUTHERN COMMERCIAL CONGRESS, HELD AT MOBILE, ALA., 
 
 OCTOBER 27, 1913 
 
 OUR Excellency, Mr. Chair- 
 man-rrrlt is with unaffected 
 pleasure that I find myself 
 here today. I once before 
 had the pleasure in another 
 Southern city of addressing the 
 Southern Commercial Congress. I 
 then spoke of what the future seemed 
 to hold in store for tlrig region, which 
 so many of us love and toward the 
 future of which we all look forward 
 with so much confidence and hope. 
 But another theme directed me here 
 this time, d do not need to speak of 
 the South. She has, perhaps, acquired 
 the gift of speaking for herself. I 
 come because I want to speak of our 
 present and prospective relations with 
 our neighbors to the south. I deemed 
 it a public duty, as well as a personal 
 pleasure, to be here to express for 
 myself and for the Government I rep- 
 resent the welcome we all feel to 
 those who represent the Latin-Ameri- 
 can States. 
 
 The future, ladies and gentlemen, is 
 going to he very different for this 
 hemisphere from the past. These 
 States lying to the south of us, which 
 have always been our neighbors, will 
 
 now be drawn closer to us by innumer- 
 able ties, and, I hope, chief of all, by 
 the tie of a common understanding of 
 each other. Interest does not tie na- 
 tions together; it sometimes separates 
 them. But sympathy and understand- 
 ing does unite them, and I believe that 
 by the new route that is Just about to 
 be opened, while we physically 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 tidea of 
 commerce. Your governor alluded in 
 very fit and striking terms to the voy- 
 age of Columbus, but Columbus took 
 his voyage under compulsion of cir- 
 cumstances.- 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 
 way across the Atlantic to open those 
 routes again, they were closed for- 
 ever, and Columbus set out not to dis- 
 cover America, for he difi hot know 
 that It existed, but to discover the 
 eastern shores of Asia. He set salt 
 for Cathay and stumbled 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 aerosa 
 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 haa 
 seemed to be filled with the media of 
 intercourse and of sympathy and of 
 common understanding. 
 
 Do you not see now what is about 
 to happen? These great tides which 
 have been running along parallels of 
 latitude will now swing southward 
 athwart parallels of latitude, and that 
 opening gate at the Isthmus of Pana- 
 ma will open the world to commerce 
 that she has not known before, a com- 
 merce of intelligence, of thought and 
 sympathy between 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 find that some part, at any 
 rate, of the center of gravity of the 
 world has shifted. Do you realize that 
 New Y r ork, 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 northward parallel with 
 the greater part of the western coast 
 of South America will run only about 
 150 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 continent of North America. 
 You will realize that when you 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 signifi- 
 cant, therefore, of this, that we are 
 closing one chapter in the history of 
 the world and are opening another, 
 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-Ameri- 
 ca. You do not hear of concessions to 
 foreign capitalists in the United States. 
 They are not granted concessions. 
 They are invited to make investments. 
 The work is ours, though they are wel- 
 come to invest in it. We do not ask 
 them to supply the capital and do the 
 work. It is an invitation, not a privi- 
 lege; and States that are obliged, be- 
 cause their territory does not lie with- 
 in the main field of modern enterprise 
 and action, to grant concessions are 
 in this condition, that foreign interests 
 are apt to dominate their domestic af- 
 fairs, a condition of affairs always 
 dangerous and apt to become Intoler- 
 able. What these States are going to 
 see, therefore, is an emancipation 
 from the subordination, which has 
 been inevitable, to foreign enterprise 
 and an assertion of the splendid char- 
 acter which, in spite of these difficul- 
 ties, 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, deserve 
 nothing but the admiration and ap- 
 plause 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 of anybody else, because the 
 risk was said to be greater;. and then 
 securities were taken that destroyed 
 ! the risk — an admirable arrangement 
 l for those who were forcing the terms I 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 15 ’ 
 
 I rejoice in nothing so much as in the 
 prospect that they will now be eman- 
 cipated 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 re- 
 cent months has tried to serve 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 can not be 
 friends upon any other terms than 
 upon the terms of equality. You can 
 not be friends at all except upon the 
 terms of honor. We must show our- 
 selves friends by comprehending their 
 interest whether it squares with our 
 own interest or not. It is a very peril- 
 ous thing to determine the foreign 
 policy of a nation in the terms of ma- 
 terial interest. It not only is unfair 
 to those with whom you are dealing, 
 but it is degrading as regards your 
 
 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 them- 
 selves. A nation of employees can 
 not 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 em- 
 phasizing the points of our own life, 
 and we should prove ourselves untrue 
 to our own 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 prin- 
 ciples of life. We dare not turn from 
 the principle that morality and not ex- 
 
 pediency is the thing that must guide 
 us and that we will never condone in- 
 iquity because 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 has been, 
 for I am fain to believe that in spite 
 of all the things that we wish to cor- 
 rect the Nineteenth Century that now 
 lies behind us has brought us a long 
 stage toward the time when, slowly 
 ascending the tedious climb that leads 
 to the final uplands, we shall get our 
 ultimate view of the duties of man- 
 kind. We have breasted a consider- 
 able part of that climb and shall pres- 
 ently — it may be in a generation or 
 two — come out upon those great 
 heights where there shines unob- 
 structed the light of the justice of 
 God. 
 
 ADDRESS OF THE 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 own actions. 
 
 Comprehension must be the soil in 
 which shall grow all the fruits of 
 friendship, and there is a reason and 
 a compulsion lying behind all this 
 which is dearer than anything else 
 to the thoughtful men of America. I 
 mean the development of constitu- 
 tional liberty in the world. Human 
 rights, national integrity, and oppor- 
 tunity as against material interests — 
 that, ladies and gentlemen, is the issue 
 which we new 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 con- 
 quest. She will devote herself to 
 showing that she knows how to make 
 honorable and fruitful use of the ter- 
 ritory she has, and she must regard 
 it as one of the duties of friendship 
 to see that from no quarter are ma- 
 terial interests made superior to hu- 
 man liberty and national opportunity. 
 
 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 
 development 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 we are making in common with 
 our neighbors, because we have had 
 to make it for ourselves. 
 
 Reference has been made here to- 
 day to some of the national problems 
 which confront us as a nation. What 
 is at the heart of all our national prob- 
 lems? It is that we have seen the 
 hand of material interest sometimes 
 about to close upon our dearest rights 
 and possessions. We have seen ma- 
 terial interests threaten constitutional 
 freedom in the United States. There- 
 fore, we will now know how to sym- 
 pathize with those in the rest of 
 America who have to contend with 
 such powers, not only within their 
 borders, but from outside their bor- 
 ders also. 
 
 I know what the response or the 
 thought and heart of America will l)e 
 t6 the program I have outlined, be- 
 cause America was created to realize 
 a program like that. This is not 
 America because it- is rich. This is 
 not America because it has set up for 
 a great population great opportunities 
 of material prosperity. America is a 
 name which sounds in the ears of men 
 everywhere as a synonym with indi- 
 vidual 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 
 
 DELIVERED AT A JOINT SESSION OP THE 
 TWO HOUSES OF CONGRESS 
 
 JANUARY 20, 1914 
 
 ON TRUSTS AND MONOPOLIES 
 
 BNTLEMEN of the Congress — 
 In my report “on the state of 
 the Union,” which I had the 
 privilege of reading to you 
 on December 2 last, I ven- 
 tured to reserve for discussion 
 at a later date the subject of additional 
 legislation regarding the very diffi- 
 cult and intricate matter of trusts and 
 monopolies. The time now seems op- 
 portune to turn to that great question; 
 not only because the currency legis- 
 lation, which absorbed your attention 
 and the attention of the country in 
 December, is now disposed of, but 
 also because opinion seems to be clear- 
 ing about us with singular rapidity in 
 this other great field of action. In the 
 matter of the currency it cleared sud- 
 denly and very happily after the 
 much-debated Act was passed; in re- 
 spect to the mopopolies 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 anticipa- 
 tion of our action, as if by way of 
 preparation, making the way easier to 
 see and easier to set out upon with 
 confidence and without confusion of 
 counsel. 
 
 Legislation has its atmosphere like 
 everything else, and the atmosphere 
 of accommodation and mutual under- 
 standing which we now breathe with 
 so much refreshment is matter of sin- 
 cere congratulation. It ought to make 
 our task very much less difficult and 
 embarrassing than it would have been 
 had we been obliged to continue to act 
 amidst the atmosphere of suspicion 
 and antagonism which has so long 
 made it impossible to approach such 
 questions with dispassionate fairness. 
 Constructive legislation, when success- 
 ful, is always the embodiment of con- 
 vincing experience, and the mature 
 
 public opinion which finally springs 
 out of that experience. Legislation is 
 a business of interpretation, not of 
 origination; and it is now plain what 
 the opinion is to which we must give 
 effect in this matter. It is not recent 
 or hasty opinion. It springs out of the 
 experience of a whole generation. It 
 has clarified itself by long contest, and 
 those who for a long time battled with 
 it and sought to change it are now 
 frankly and honorably yielding to it 
 and seeking to conform their actions 
 to it. 
 
 The great business men who organ- 
 ized and financed monopoly and those 
 who administered it in actual every- 
 day transactions have year after year, 
 until now, either denied its existence 
 or justified it as necessary for the ef- 
 fective maintenance and development 
 of the vast business processes of the 
 country in the modern circumstances 
 of trade and manufacture and finance; 
 but all the while opinion has made 
 head against them. The average busi- 
 ness man is convinced 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 
 preference and purpose, perhaps their 
 judgment also, in honorable surrender. 
 
 What we are purposing to do, there- 
 fore, is, happily, not to hamper or in- 
 terfere with business as enlightened 
 business men prefer to do it, or in any 
 sense to put it under the ban. The an- 
 tagonism between business and gov- 
 ernment is over. We are now about 
 to give expression to the best business 
 judgment of America, 'yhat we 
 know to be the business conscience and 
 honor of the land. The Government 
 and business men are ready to meet 
 each other half way in a common ef- 
 fort to square business methods wren 
 b£th public opinion and the law. The 
 
 
IS 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 best informed men of the business 
 world condemn the methods and proc- 
 esses and consequences of monopoly as 
 we condemn them; and the instinctive 
 judgment of the vast majority of busi- 
 ness 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 en- 
 sue 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. Fortunate- 
 ly, no measures of sweeping or novel 
 change are necessary. It will be un- 
 derstood that our object is not to un- 
 settle business or anywhere 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 in- 
 dustry against the forces that have 
 disturbed it. What we have to do 
 can be done in a rfew spirit, in thought- 
 ful moderation, without revolution of 
 any untoward kind. 
 
 We are all agreed that “private mo- 
 nopoly is indefensible and intolerable,” 
 and our programme is founded upon 
 that conviction. It will be compre- 
 hensive but not a radical or unaccepta- 
 ble 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 effect- 
 ually prohibit and prevent such inter- 
 lockings of the personnel of the direc- 
 torates of great corporations — banks 
 and railroads, industrial, commercial, 
 and public 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 different combinations, 
 and those who affect to compete in fact 
 partners and masters of some whole 
 field of business. Sufficient 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 jnere 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 the place which belongs to in- 
 dependent industrial management 
 working in its own behalf. It will 
 bring new men, 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 im- 
 mensely hearten the young men coming 
 on and will greatly enrich the business 
 activities of the whole country. 
 
 In the socond place, business men as 
 well as those who direct public affairs 
 *iOW recognise, and recognize with pain- 
 ful clearness, the great harm and in- 
 justice which has been done to many, 
 if not all, of the great railroad sys- 
 tems of the country by the way in 
 which they have been financed and 
 their own distinctive interests subor- 
 dinated to the interests of the men who 
 financed them and of other business 
 enterprises which those men wished to 
 promote. The country is ready, there- 
 fore, to accept, and accept with relief 
 as well as approval, a law which will 
 
 confer upon the Interstate Commerce 
 Commission the power to superintend 
 and regulate the financial operations 
 by which the railroads are henceforth 
 to be supplied with the money they 
 need for their proper development to 
 meet the rapidly growing requirements 
 of the country for increased and im- 
 proved facilities of transportation. We 
 cannot postpone action in this matter 
 without leaving the railroads exposed 
 to many serious handicaps and haz- 
 ards; and the prosperity of the rail- 
 roads and the prosperity of the coun- 
 try are inseparably connected. Upon 
 this question those who are chiefly re- 
 sponsible for the actual management 
 and operation of the railroads have 
 spoken very plainly and very earnestly, 
 with a purpose we ought to be quick 
 to accept. It will be one step, and a 
 very important one, toward the neces- 
 sary separation of the business of pro- 
 duction from the business of trans- 
 portation. 
 
 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 law. Nothing hampers busi- 
 ness like uncertainty. Nothing daunts 
 or discourages it like the necessity to 
 take chances, to run the risk of falling 
 under the condemnation of the law be- 
 fore it can make sure just what the 
 law is. Surely we are sufficiently fa- 
 miliar with the actual 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 what experience has dis- 
 closed. These practices, being now 
 abundantly disclosed, can be explicitly 
 and item by item forbidden by statute 
 in such terms as will practically elim- 
 inate 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 mat- 
 ters 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 in- 
 stantly approve of such a commission. 
 It would not wish to see it empowered 
 to make terms with monopoly or in any 
 sort to assume control of business, as 
 if the Government made itself respon- 
 sible. It demands such commission 
 only a? an indispensable instrument 
 of information and publicity, as a 
 clearing house for the facts by which 
 both the public mind and the mana- 
 gers of great business undertakings 
 should be guided, and as an instrumen- 
 tality for doing justice to business 
 where the processes of the courts or 
 the natural forces of correction out- 
 side the courts are inadequate to ad- 
 just the remedy to the wrong 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 con- 
 sistent with the public interest 
 and the freedom of trade, can not 
 always be dissected into their com- 
 ponent units as readily as railroad 
 companies or similar organizations 
 can be. Their dissolution by ordinary 
 legal process may oftentimes involve 
 financial consequences likely to over- 
 whelm the security market and bring 
 upon it breakdown and confusion. 
 There, ought to be an administrative 
 commission capable of directing and 
 shaping such corrective processes, not 
 only in aid of the courts, but also by 
 independent suggestion, if necessary. 
 
 Inasmuch as our object and the 
 spirit of our action in these matters 
 is to meet business half way in its 
 processes of self-correction and dis- 
 turb its legitimate course as little as 
 possible, we ought to see to it, and 
 
 the judgment of practical and saga- 
 cious men of affairs everywhere would 
 applaud us if we did see to it, that 
 penalties and punishments should fall, 
 not upon business itself to its con- 
 fusion and interruption, but upon the 
 individuals who use the instrumen- 
 talities of business to do things which 
 public policy and sound business prac- 
 tice condemn. Every act of business 
 is done at the command or upon the 
 initiative of some ascertainable person 
 or group of persons. These should be 
 held individually responsible 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 rep- 
 resent 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 
 bringing 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 mod- 
 ern 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 by a single person or group 
 of persons who are in some way in- 
 timately related in interest. We are 
 agreed, I take it, that holding com- 
 panies should be prohibited, but what 
 of the controlling private ownership 
 of individuals or actually co-operative 
 groups of individuals? Shall the pri- 
 vate owners of capital stock be suf- 
 fered to be themselves in effect hold- 
 ing companies? We do not wish, I 
 suppose, to forbid the purchase 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 an- 
 other would constitute actual control, 
 to make election in which of them 
 they will exercise their right to vote? 
 This question I venture for your con- 
 sideration. 
 
 There is another matter in which 
 imperative considerations of justice 
 and fair play suggest thoughtful reme- 
 dial action. Not only do many of 
 the combinations effected or sought 
 to be effected in the industrial world 
 work an injustice upon the public in 
 general; they also directly and seri- 
 ously injure the individuals who are 
 put out of business in one unfair way 
 or another by the many dislodging and 
 exterminating forces of combination. 
 I hope that we shall agree in giving 
 private individuals who claim to have 
 been injured by these processes the 
 right to found their suits for redress 
 upon the facts and judgments proved 
 and entered in suits by the Govern- 
 ment where the Government has upon 
 its own initiative sued the combina- 
 tions complained of and won its suit, 
 and that the statute of limitations 
 shall be suffered to run against such 
 litigants only from the date of the 
 conclusion of the Government’s ac- 
 tion. It is not fair that the private 
 litigant should be obliged to set up 
 and establish again the facts which the 
 Government has proved. He can not 
 afford, he has not the power, to make 
 use of such processes of inquiry as 
 the Government has command of. 
 Thus shall individual justice be done 
 •while the processes of business are 
 rectified and squared with the general 
 conscience. 
 
 I have laid the case before you, 
 no doubt as it lies in your own mind, 
 as it lies in the thought of the coun- 
 
 * 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 17 ’ 
 
 try. What 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 familiar, 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 busi- 
 ness men the country over will be un- 
 satisfied. They are in these things 
 our mentors and colleagues. We are 
 now about to write the additional 
 articles of our constitution of peace, 
 the peace that is honor and freedom 
 and prosperity. 
 
 their significance, and such as to im- 
 press upon General Huerta himself 
 the necessity of seeing to it that no 
 further occasion for explanations and 
 professed regrets should arise. I, 
 therefore, felt it my duty to sustain 
 Admiral Mayo in the whole of his 
 demand and to insist that the flag of 
 the United States should be saluted in 
 such a way as to indicate a new spirit 
 and attitude on the part of the Hu- 
 ertistas. 
 
 ADDRESS OF THE 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 DELIVERED AT A JOINT SESSION OF THE |< : 
 
 TWO HOUSES OF CONGRESS 
 
 
 APRIL 20, 1914 
 
 ON THE “FLAG INCIDENT” IN MEXICO 
 
 G entlemen of the congress: 
 It is my duty to call your at- 
 tention to a situation which 
 has arisen in our dealings 
 with General Victoriano 
 Huerta at Mexico City which calls for 
 action, and to ask your advice and co- 
 operation in acting upon it. On the 
 9th of April a paymaster of the U. 
 S. S. Dolphin landed at the Iturbide 
 bridge landing at Tampico with a 
 whaleboat and boat’s crew to take off 
 certain supplies needed by his ship, 
 and while engaged in loading the boat 
 was arrested by an officer and squad 
 of men of the army of General Huerta. 
 Neither the paymaster nor anyone of 
 the boat’s crew was armed. Two of 
 the men were in the boat when the 
 arrest took place and were obliged 
 to leave it and submit to be taken into 
 custody, not.hwithstanding the fact 
 that the boat carried, both at her bow 
 and at her stern, the flag of the United 
 States. The officer who made the ar- 
 rest was proceeding up one of the 
 streets of the town with his prisoners 
 when met by an officer of higher au- 
 thority, who ordered him to return 
 to the landing and await orders; and 
 within an hour and a half from the 
 time of the arrest orders were re- 
 ceived from the commander of the 
 Huertista forces at Tampico for the 
 release of the paymaster and his men. 
 
 The release was followed by apolo- 
 gies from the commander and later 
 by an expression of regret by General 
 Huerta himself. General Huerta 
 urged that martial law obtained at 
 the time at Tampico; that orders had 
 been Issued that no one should be al- 
 lowed to land at the Iturbide bridge; 
 and that our sailors had no right to 
 land there. Our naval commanders 
 at the port had not been notified of 
 any such prohibition; and, even if 
 they had been, the only justifiable 
 course open to the local authorities 
 would have been to request the pay- 
 master and hlg crew to withdraw and 
 to lodge a protest with the command- 
 ing officer of the fleet. Admiral Mayo 
 regarded the arrest as so serious an 
 affront that he was not satisfied with 
 the apologies offered, but demanded 
 that the flag of the United States be 
 saluted with special ceremony by the 
 i^^t^tary comnaanclgn at #ort. _ 
 
 The Incident can not be regarded 
 as a trivial one, especially as two of 
 the men arrested were taken from the 
 boat tself — -that is to say, from the 
 territory of the United States — but 
 had it stood by itself it might have 
 been attributed to the ignorance or 
 arrogance of a single officer. Unfor- 
 tunately, it was not an isolated case. 
 A series of incidents have recently oc- 
 curred which can not but create the 
 impression that the representatives of 
 General Huerta were willing to go 
 out of their way to show disregard for 
 the dignity and rights of this Govern- 
 ment and felt perfectly safe in doing 
 what they pleased, making free to 
 show in many ways their irritation 
 and contempt. A few days after the 
 incident at Tampico an orderly from 
 the U. S. S. Minnesota was arrested 
 at Vera Cruz while ashore in uniform 
 to obtain the ship’s mail, and was for 
 a time thrown into jail. An official 
 dispatch from this Government to its 
 embassy at Mexico City was withheld 
 by the authorities of the telegraphic 
 service until peremptorily demanded 
 by our chargS d’affaires in person. So 
 far as I can learn, such wrongs and 
 annoyances have been suffered to oc- 
 cur only against representatives of the 
 United States. I have heard of no 
 complaints from other Governments 
 of similar treatment. Subsequent ex- 
 planations and formal apologies did 
 not and could not alter the popular im- 
 pression, which it is possible it had 
 been the object of the Huertista au- 
 thorities to create, that the Govern- 
 ment of the United States was being 
 singled out, and might be singled out 
 with Impunity, for slights and af- 
 fronts in retaliation for its refusal to 
 recognize the pretensions of General 
 Huerta to be regarded as the consti- 
 tutional provisional President of the 
 Republio of Mexico. 
 
 The manifest danger of such a situ- 
 ation was that such offenses might 
 grow from bad to worse until some- 
 thing happened of so gross and intol- 
 erable a sort as to lead directly and 
 inevitably to armed conflict. It was 
 necessary that the apologies of Gen- 
 eral Huerta and his representatives 
 should go much further, that they 
 should be such as to attract the at- 
 tention of the sibilation 
 
 Such a salute General Huerta has 
 refused, and I have come to ask your 
 approval and support in the course I 
 now purpose to pursue. 
 
 This Goverment can, I earnestly 
 hope, in no circumstances be forced 
 into war with the people of Mexico. 
 Mexico is torn by civil strife. If we 
 are to accept the tests of its own con- 
 stitution, it has no government. Gen- 
 eral Huerta has set his power up in 
 the City of Mexico, such as it is, with- 
 out right and by methods for which 
 there can be no justification. Only 
 part of the country is under his con- 
 trol. If armed conflict should un- 
 happily come as a result of his atti- 
 tude of personal resentment toward 
 this Government, we should be fight- 
 ing only General Huerta and those 
 who adhere to him and give him their 
 support, and our object would be only 
 to restore to the people of the dis- 
 tracted Republic the opportunity to 
 set up again their own laws and their 
 own goverment. 
 
 But I earnestly hope that war is not 
 now in question. I believe that I 
 speak for the American people when 
 I say that we do not desire to con- 
 trol in any degree the affairs of our 
 sister Republic. Our feeling for the 
 people of Mexico is one of deep and 
 genuine friendship, and everything 
 that we have so far done or refrained 
 from doing has proceeded from our 
 desire to help them, not to hinder or 
 embarrass them. We would not wish 
 even to exercise the good offices of 
 friendship without their welcome and 
 consent. The people of Mexico are en- 
 titled to settle their own domestic af- 
 fairs in their own way, and we sin- 
 cerely desire to respect their right. 
 The present situation need have none 
 of the grave implications of interfer- 
 ence if we deal with it promptly, 
 firmly, and wisely. 
 
 No doubt I could do what is neces- 
 sary in the circumstances to enforce 
 respect for our Government without 
 recourse to the Congress, and yet not 
 exceed my constitutional powers as 
 President; but I do not wish to act in 
 a matter possibly of so grave conse- 
 quence except in close conference and 
 co-operation with both the Senate and 
 House. I, therefore, come to ask your 
 approval that I should use the armed 
 forces of the United States In such 
 ways and to such an extent as may be 
 necessary to obtain from General Hu- 
 erta and his adherents the fullest rec- 
 ognition of the rights and dignity of 
 the United States, even amidst the 
 distressing conditions now unhappily 
 obtaining in Mexico. 
 
 There can in what we do be no 
 thought of aggression or of selfish ag- 
 grandizement. We seek to maintain 
 the dignity and authority of the 
 United States only because we wish 
 always to keep our great Influence un- 
 impaired for the uses of liberty, both 
 In the United States and wherever 
 else it may be employed, £bp the 
 of ’ . 
 
18 
 
 Eagle Library-SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 ADDRESS OF 
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON 
 
 AT THE 
 
 BROOKLYN NAVY YARD, BROOKLYN, N. Y. 
 
 MAY 11, 1914 
 
 SERVICES IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES AT 
 |,, VERA CRUZ, MEXICO 
 
 R. SECRETARY — I know that 
 the feelings which charac- 
 terize all who stand about 
 me and the whole nation at 
 this hour are not feelings 
 which can be suitably expressed in 
 terms of attempted oratory or elo- 
 quence. They are things too deep for 
 ordinary speech. For my own part, 
 I have a singular mixture of feelings. 
 The feeling that is uppermost is oneof 
 profound grief that these lads should 
 have had to go to their death; and 
 yet there is mixed with that grief a 
 profound pride that they should have 
 gone as they did, and, :f I may say it 
 out of my heart, a touch of envy of 
 those who were permitted so quietly, 
 60 nobly, to do their duty. Have you 
 thought of it, men? Here is the 
 roster of the Navy — the list of the 
 men, officers and enlisted men and 
 marines — and suddenly there swim 
 nineteen stars out of the list — men 
 who have suddenly been lifted into a 
 firmament of memory where we shall 
 always see their names shine, not be- 
 cause they called upon us to admire 
 them, but because they served us, 
 without asking any questions and in 
 the performance of a duty which is 
 laid upon us as well as upon them. 
 
 Duty is not an uncommon thing, 
 gentlemen. Men are performing it in 
 the ordinary walks of life all around 
 us all the time, and they are making 
 great sacrifices to perform it. What 
 gives men like these peculiar distinc- 
 tion is not merely that they did their 
 duty, but that their duty had nothing 
 to do with them or their own per- 
 sonal and peculiar interests. They did 
 not give their lives for themselves. 
 They gave their lives for us, because 
 we called upon them as a nation to 
 perform an unexpected duty. That is 
 the way in which men grow distin- 
 guished, and that is the only way, by 
 serving somebody else than them- 
 selves. And what greater thing could 
 you serve than a nation such as this 
 we love and are proud of? Are you 
 sorry for these lads? Are you sorry 
 for the way they will be remembered? 
 Does it not quicken your pulses to 
 think of the list of them? I hope to 
 God none of you may join the list, 
 but if you do you will Join an im- 
 mortal company. 
 
 So, while we are profoundly sorrow- 
 ful, and while there goes out of our 
 hearts a very deep and affectionate 
 sympathy for the friends and relatives 
 of these lads who for the rest of 
 their lives shall mourn them, though 
 with a touch of pride, we know why 
 we to not go away from this occasion 
 cast down, but with our heads lifted 
 and our eyes on the future of this 
 country, with absolute confidence of 
 how it will be worked out. Not only 
 upon the mere vague future of this 
 country, but upon the Immediate fu- 
 
 ture. We have gone down to Mexico 
 to serve mankind if we can find out 
 the way. We do not want to fight the 
 Mexicans. We want to serve the Mexi- 
 cans if we can, because we know how 
 we would like to be free, and how 
 we would like to be served if there 
 were friends standing by in such case 
 ready to serve us. A war of aggres- 
 sion is not a war in which it is a 
 proud thing to die, but a war of serv- 
 ice is a thing in which it is a proud 
 thing to die. 
 
 Notice how truly these men were 
 of o^ir blood. I mean of our Ameri- 
 can Jplood, which is not drawn from 
 any one country, which is not drawn 
 from any one stock, which is not 
 drawn from any one language of the 
 modern world; but free men every- 
 where have sent their sons and their 
 brothers and their daughters to this 
 country in order to make that great 
 compounded nation which consists of 
 all the sturdy elements and of all the 
 best elements of the whole globe. I 
 listened again to this list of the dead 
 with a profound interest because of 
 the mixture of the names, for the 
 names bear the marks of the several 
 national stocks from which these men 
 came. But they are not Irishmen or 
 Germans or Frenchmen or Hebrews or 
 Italians any more. They were not 
 when they went to Vera Cruz; they 
 were Americans, every one of them, 
 and with no difference in their Ameri- 
 canism because of the stock from 
 which they came. They were in a 
 peculiar sense of our blood, and they 
 proved it by showing that they were of 
 our spirit — that no matter what their 
 
 derivation, no matter where their peo- 
 ple came from, they thought and 
 wished and did the things that were 
 American; and the flag under which 
 they served was a flag in which all 
 the blood of mankind is united to 
 make a free nation. 
 
 War, gentlemen, is only a sort of 
 dramatic representation, a sort of dra- 
 matic symbol, of a thousand forms 
 of duty. I never went into battle; I 
 never was under fire; but I fancy that 
 there are some things just as hard 
 to do as to go under fire. I fancy 
 that it is just as hard to do your duty 
 when men are sneering at you as when 
 they are shooting at you. When they 
 shoot at you, they can only take your 
 natural life; when they sneer at you, 
 they can wound your living heart, and 
 men who are brave enough, steadfast 
 enough, steady in their principles 
 enough, to go about their duty with 
 regard to their fellow men, no matter 
 whether there are hisses or cheers, 
 men who can do what Rudyar 
 ling in one of his poems wrote. Meet 
 with triumph and disaster and treat 
 those two imposters just the same, 
 are men for a nation to be proud of. 
 Morally speaking, disaster and tri- 
 umph are imposters. The cheers of 
 the moment are not what a man ought 
 to thing about, but the verdict of his 
 conscience and of the consciences or 
 mankind. _ . , . - — 
 
 When I look at you, I feel as n 1 
 also and we all were en listed mem 
 Not enlisted in your particular Diancn 
 of the service, but enlisted to serve 
 the country, no matter what may 
 come, even though we may sacrifice 
 our lives in the arduous endeavor. 
 We are expected to put the utmost 
 energy of every power that we have 
 into the service of our fellow men, 
 never sparing ourselves, not conde- 
 scending to think of what is Wing 
 to happen to ourselves, out rea< ’£> “ 
 need be. to go to the utter length of 
 complete self-sacrifice. 
 
 as T stand and look at you today 
 and think of these spirits that have 
 gone from us, I know that the road 
 is clearer for the future. These, boys 
 have shown us the way, and it is 
 easier to walk on it because they nave 
 gone before and shown us how. May 
 God grant to all of us that vision or 
 patriotic service which here in solem- 
 nity and grief and pride is borne ia 
 upon our hearts and consciences! 
 
 ADDRESS OF 
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON 
 
 AT THE 
 
 UNVEILING OF THE STATUE TO THE MEMORY 
 
 OF 
 
 COMMODORE JOHN BARRY 
 
 AT WASHINGTON, D. C., SATURDAY, MAY 16, 1914 
 
 R. SECRETARY, Radies and 
 Gentlemen — I esteem it a 
 privilege to lie present on 
 this interesting occasion, 
 and I am very much tempt- 
 ed 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 at- 
 tempt an historical address, I might, 
 however, be led too far afield. I am 
 going to take the liberty, therefore, 
 of drawing a few inferences from the 
 significance of this occasion. 
 
 I think that we can never be pves- 
 ent at a ceremony of this kind, which 
 carries our thought back to the great 
 Revolution, by means of which our 
 Government was set up, without feel- 
 ing that it is an occasion of reminder, 
 of renewal, of refreshment, when 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 ■representa- 
 tions of its cause and In the sound 
 of arms, and ask ourselves what it 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 19 
 
 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 devot- 
 ed an originating mind to the great 
 cause which he intended to serve, and 
 it behooves us, living in this age 
 when no man can question the power 
 of the nation, when no man would 
 dare to doubt its right and its deter- 
 mination to act for itself, to ask what 
 it was that filled the hearts of these 
 men when they set the nation up. 
 
 For patriotism, ladies and gentle- 
 men, is in my mind not merely a sen- 
 timent. There is a certain efferves- 
 cence, I suppose, which ought to be 
 permitted to those who allow .their 
 hearts to speak in the celebration of 
 the glory and majesty of their coun- 
 try, 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 mere sentiment. No man can be 
 a true patriot who does not feel him- 
 self shot through and through with 
 a deep ardor for what his country 
 stands for, what 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 Tenny- 
 son on 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 manhood 
 firm against the crowd”; steadfast- 
 ness, clearness of purpose, courage, 
 persistency and that uprightness 
 which comes from the clear thinking 
 of men who wish to serve not them- 
 selves but their fellow men. 
 
 What does the United States stand 
 for, then, that our hearts should be 
 stirred by the memory of the men who 
 set her Constitution up? John Barry 
 fought, like every other man in the 
 Revolution, in order that America 
 might be free to make her own life 
 without interruption or disturbance 
 from any 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 co- 
 rollaries from that? You do not have 
 to go back to stir your thoughts again 
 with 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 pres- 
 ence 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 di- 
 rection 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 should not 
 form alliances with any nation in the 
 world. Those who are right, those 
 who study their consciences in deter- 
 mining their - policies, those who hold 
 their honor'higher than their advan- 
 tage, 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. 
 Thera another corollary, John Bar- 
 ry wasian Irishman, but his heart 
 crossed the Atlantic with him. He did 
 cot leave it in Ireland. And the test 
 
 of all of us — for all of us had our ori- 
 gins on the other side of the sea— 
 is whether we will assist in enabling 
 America to live her separate and inde- 
 pendent 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. 
 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 infal- 
 lible 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 apportunity 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 presence 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 honorable, the most enlightened 
 nation in the world. Any man that 
 touches our honor is our enemy. Any 
 man who 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 compulsion 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 coun- 
 try 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 re- 
 new the impulses of American demo- 
 cracy. I would be ashamed of myself 
 if I went away from this place with- 
 out realizing again that every bit of 
 selfishness must be purged from our 
 policy, that every bit of self-seeking 
 must be purged from our individu- 
 al consciences, and that we must be 
 great, if we would be great at all, in 
 the light and illumination of the ex- 
 ample of men who gave everything 
 that they were and everything that 
 they had to the glory and honor of 
 America. 
 
 ADDRESS OF 
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON 
 
 AT 
 
 ARLINGTON 
 
 MAY 30, 1914 J. 
 
 L ADIES and Gentlemen — I have 
 not come here today with a 
 prepared address. The com- 
 mittee in charge of the exer- 
 cises of the day has gra- 
 ciously 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 gratitude and admiration 
 for the men who perished for the sake 
 of the Union. They do not need our 
 praise. They do not need that our ad- 
 miration 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 inspira- 
 tion 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 
 were 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 re-estab- 
 lishment of the Union. We owe them 
 the spiritual re-establishment of the 
 Union as well; for they not only re- 
 united States, they reunited the spirits 
 of men, That is their unique achieve- 
 ment, unexampled anywhere else in 
 I the annals of mankind, that the very 
 i men whom they overcame in battle 
 
 — -M'7 
 
 join in praise and gratitude that the 
 Union was saved. There is something 
 peculiarly beautiful and peculiarly 
 touching about that. Whenever a 
 man who is still trying- to devote him- 
 self to the service of the nation comes 
 into a presence like this, or into a 
 place like this, his spirit must be pe- 
 culiarly moved. A mandate is laid 
 upon him which tseems to speak from 
 the very graves themselves. Those 
 who serve this nation, whether in 
 peace or in “war, should serve it with- 
 out thought of themselves. I can never 
 speak in praise of war, ladies and gen- 
 tlemen; you would not desire me to do 
 so. But there is this peculiar distinc- 
 tion belonging to the soldier, that he 
 goes into an enterprise out or Which 
 he himself cannot get anything at all. 
 He is giving everything that he hath, 
 even his life, in order that others may 
 live, not in order that he himself may 
 obtain gain and prosperity. And Just 
 so soon as the tasks of peace are "per- 
 formed in the same spirit of self-sacri- 
 fice and devotion, peace societies will 
 not be necessary. The very organiza- 
 tion and spirit of 1 society "will be a 
 guaranty of peace. 
 
 Therefore, this peculiar thing-comes 
 about, that we can stand here and 
 praise the memory of these soldiers 
 in the interest of peace. They set us 
 the example of self-sacrifice, which if 
 followed in peace will make it un- 
 necessary that men should follow war 
 any more. 
 
 We are repu*ed to be somewhat 
 careless in our discrimination between 
 wolds in the use of the English lan- 
 guage, and yet it is interesting to uoi« 
 
20 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 that there are some words about which 
 we are very careful. We bestow the 
 adjective “great” somewhat indis- 
 criminately. A man who has made 
 conquest of his fellowmen for his own 
 gain may display such genius in war, 
 such uncommon qualities of organiza- 
 tion and leadership that we may call 
 him “great,” but there is a word which 
 we reserve for men of another kind 
 and about which we are very careful; 
 that is the word “noble.” We never 
 call a man “noble" who 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 
 d»«ire most to honor — you will find 
 "that almost without exception they 
 have erected the statue to those who 
 had a splendid surplus of energy and 
 devotion to spend upon their fellow- 
 men. Nobolity 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 
 serve the public 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 dedi- 
 cated to freedom, and that freedom 
 means the freedom of the human 
 spirit. All free spirits ought to con- 
 gregate 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 sim- 
 ple 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 the 
 consecrated graves. 
 
 ADDRESS OF 
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON 
 
 TO 
 
 THE GRADUATING CLASS OF THE 
 UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY 
 
 ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, JUNE 5, 1914 
 
 R. SUPERINTENDENT, 
 YOUNG GENTLEMEN, LA- 
 DIES and GENTLEMEN 
 —During the greater part of 
 my life I have been asso- 
 ciated with young men, and on occa- 
 sions it seems to me without number 
 have faced bodies of youngsters going 
 out to take part in the activities of 
 the world, but I have a consciousness 
 of a different significance in this oc- 
 casion from that which I have felt on 
 other similar occasions. When I have 
 faced the graduating classes at uni- 
 versities I have felt that I was facing 
 a great conjuncture. They were going 
 out into all sorts of pursuits and with 
 every degree of preparation for the 
 particular thing they were expecting 
 to. do; some without any preparation 
 Sit all, for they aid not know what 
 they expected to do. But in facing 
 you I am facing men who are trained 
 for a special thing. You know what 
 you are going to do, and you are under 
 the eye of the whole nation in doing 
 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 significance in that 
 fact, and I am sure that every one of 
 you feels it. The moral is perfectly 
 Obvious. Be ready and fit for any- 
 thing 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. More- 
 
 over, you are to have a very peculiar 
 privilege which not many of your pre- 
 decessors have had. You are your- 
 selves going to become teachers. You 
 are going to teach those 50,000 fellow 
 countrymen of yours who are the en- 
 listed 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 out- 
 look upon life and jpon the service; 
 and that is a great privilege, for out 
 of you is going the energy and intel- 
 ligence which are going to quicken 
 the whole body of the United States 
 Navy. 
 
 I congratulate you upon that pros- 
 pect, but I want to ask you not to get 
 the professional point of view. I would 
 ask it of you« if you were lawyers; I 
 would ask it of you if you were mer- 
 chants; I would ask it of you whatever 
 you expected to be. Do not get the 
 professional point of view. There is 
 nothing narrower or more unservice- 
 able than the professional point of 
 view, to have the attitude toward life 
 that it centers in ybur profession. It 
 does not. Your profession is only one 
 of the many activities which are 
 meant to keep the world straight, and 
 to keep the energy in its blood and in 
 its muscle. We are all of us in this 
 world, as I understand it, to set for- 
 ward the affairs of the whole world, 
 though we play a special part in that 
 great function. The Navy goes all 
 over the world, and I think it is to 
 be congratulated upon having that sort 
 of illustration of what the world is 
 and what it contains; and inasmuch as 
 you are going all over the world you 
 ought to be the better able to see the 
 
 relation that your country bears to 
 the rest of the world. 
 
 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 re- 
 gard 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 which other navies 
 have sometimes forgotten; not an er- 
 rand 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 something 
 of the history of the struggle of man- 
 kind for liberty. When I look at that 
 flag it seems to me as if the white 
 stripes tvere strips of parchment upon 
 which are written the rights of man, 
 and the red stripes the streams of 
 blood by which 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 
 American 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 
 masters; we will be a people, and we 
 will seek our own liberty.” 
 
 You are not serving a government, 
 gentlemen; you are serving a people. 
 For we who for the time being con- 
 stitute the Government are merely in- 
 struments 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 in- 
 tended him to serve. So that I hope 
 that wherever you go you will have a 
 generous, comprehending love of the 
 people you come into contact with, 
 and 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 suf- 
 fering; tell us where you think advice 
 will lift them up; tell us where you 
 think that the counsel of statesmen 
 may better the fortunes of unfortunate 
 men; always having it in mind that 
 you are champions of what is right 
 and fair all ’round for the public wel- 
 fare, 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 jjou are champions of your fellow 
 men, particularly of that great body 
 one hundred million strong whom you 
 represent in the United States. 
 
 What do you think is the most last- i 
 ing impression that those boys down I 
 at Vera Cruz are going to leave? They ! 
 have had to use some force — I pray 
 God it may not be necessary for them ! 
 to use any more — but do you think 
 that the way they fought is going to 
 be the most lasting impression? Have 
 men not fought ever since the world / 
 began? Is there anything new in using 
 force? The new things in the world 
 are the things that are divorced from | 
 force. The things that show the moral ' 
 compulsions of the human conscience/! 
 those are the things by which we have 8 
 been building up civilization, not byd 
 force. And the lasting impression that 9 
 those boys are going to leave is this, 1 
 that they exercise self-control; that-d 
 they are ready and diligent to make 1 j 
 the place where they went fitter to 
 live in than they found it; that they \ 
 regarded other people’s rights; that 
 they did not strut and bluster, but 
 went quietly, like self-respecting gen- 
 tlemen, about their legitimate work. 
 And the people of Vera Cruz, who I 
 feared the Americans and despised the 
 Americans, are going to get a very v 
 different taste in their mouths about, X 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 21 
 
 the whole thing when the boys of the 
 Navy and the Army come away. Is 
 that not something to be proud of, 
 that you know how to use force like 
 men of conscience and like gentlemen, 
 serving your fellow men and not try- 
 ing to overcome them? Like that gal- 
 lant gentleman who has so long borne 
 the heats and perplexities and dis- i 
 tresses of the situation in Vera Cruz— 
 Admiral Fletcher. I mention him, be- 
 cause his service there has been longer j 
 and so much of the early perplexities 
 fell upon him. I have been in almost 
 daily communication with Admiral 
 Fletcher, and I have tested his temper. 
 
 I have tested his discretion. I know 
 that he is a man with a touch of 
 statesmanship about him, and he has 
 grown bigger in my eye each day as I 
 have read his dispatches, for he has 
 Bought always to serve the thing he 
 was trying to do in the temper that we 
 all recognize and love to believe is 
 typically American. 
 
 I challenge you youngsters to go out 
 with these conceptions, 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 cannot look in 
 your faces and doubt what it will be, 
 but I want you to take these great en- 
 
 i 
 
 gines of force out onto the seas like ad- 
 venturers 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 oppres- 
 sion of mankind and their own ag- 
 grandizement; and America will not 
 bring glory to herself, but disgrace, 
 by following the beaten paths of his- 
 tory. We must strike out upon new 
 paths, and we must count upon 
 you gentlemen to be the explor- 
 ers who will carry this spirit and 
 spread this message all over the seas 
 and in every port 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 occasion when you are about 
 to scatter on various errands. You are 
 all going on the same errand, and 1 
 like to feel bound with you in one co m ~ 
 mon organization for the glory of 
 America. And her glory goes deeper 
 than the sound of guns and the clash 
 of sabers; it goes down to the very 
 foundations of those things that have 
 made the spirit of men free and happy 
 and content. 
 
 they live their own life, and they will 
 not have that life disturbed and dis- 
 colored by fraternal misunderstand- 
 ings. I know that a reuniting of 
 spirits like this can take place more 
 quickly 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 conducting medium in this in- 
 stance is the united heart of a great 
 people. I am not going to detain you 
 by trying to repeat any of the eloquent 
 thoughts which have moved us this 
 afternoon, for I rejoice in the simplic- 
 ity of the task which is assigned to mo. 
 My privilege is this, ladies and gentle- 
 men: 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, quick- 
 ened by the memories of the past, but 
 with nothing to do with the contests 
 of the past, knowing, 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 published, 
 but I remember one day in the Cen- 
 tury Cyclopedia of Names I had occa- 
 sion to turn to the name of Robert E. 
 Lee, and I found him there in that 
 book published in New York City sim- 
 ply described as a great American gen- 
 eral. The generosity of our Judgments 
 did not begin today. The generosity 
 of our judgment \Vas made up soon 
 after this great struggle was over. 
 Men came and sat together again in 
 
 ADDRESS OF 
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON 
 
 ACCEPTING THE MONUMENT IN MEM- 
 ORY OF THE CONFEDERATE DEAD 
 AT ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY 
 
 JUNE 4, 1914 
 
 R. CHAIRMAN, Mrs. McLau- 
 rin Stevens, Ladies and Gen- 
 tlemen: — I assure you that I 
 am profoundly aware of the 
 solemn significance of the 
 thing that has now taken 
 place. The Daughters of the Confed- 
 eracy have presented a memorial of 
 their dead to the Government of the 
 United States. I hope that you have 
 noted the history of the conception of 
 this idea. It was suggested by a Pres- 
 ident 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 cornerstone of the monu- 
 ment was laid by a President of the 
 United States elevated to his position 
 by the votes of the party which had 
 chiefly prided itself upon sustaining 
 the war for the Union, and who, while 
 Secretary 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 represent, 
 this emblem of a reunited people. I 
 am not so much happy as proud to 
 participate in this capacity on such an 
 occasion — proud that I should repre- 
 sent such a people. Am I mistaken, 
 ladies and gentlemen, in supposing 
 that nothing of this sort could have 
 occurred in anything but a democracy? 
 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 influ- 
 ences 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 
 governments; they select their rulers; 
 
 the Congress and united in all the ef- 
 forts of peace and of government, 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 world. 
 
 ADDRESS OF 
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON 
 
 AT INDEPENDENCE HALL 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA., JULY 4, 1914 
 
 JULY 4th ANNIVERSARY 
 
 R. CHAIRMAN and Fellow 
 I IVJ j Citizens — We are assem- 
 
 bled to celebrate the 138th 
 anniversary of the birth of 
 the United States. I suppose 
 that we can more vividly realize the 
 circumstances of that birth standing 
 on this historic spot than it would be 
 possible to realize them anywhere else. 
 The Declaration of Independence was 
 written in Philadelphia; it was 
 adopted in this historic building by 
 which we stand. I have just had the 
 
 privilege of sitting in the chair of the 
 great man who presided over the de- 
 liberations of those who gave the dec- 
 laration to the world. My hand rests 
 at this moment upon the table upon 
 which the declaration was signed. Wo 
 can feel that we are almost in the 
 visible and tangible presence of a 
 great historic transaction. 
 
 Have you ever read the Declaration 
 of Independence or attended with 
 close comprehension to the real char- 
 acter of it when you have heard it 
 
22 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 read? If you have, you will know 
 that it is not a Fourth of July ora- 
 tion. The Declaration of Independ- 
 ence was a document preliminary to 
 war. It was a vital piece of practical 
 business, not a piece of rhetoric; and 
 if you will pass beyond those pre- 
 liminary passages which we are accus- 
 tomed to quote about the rights of 
 men and read into the heart of the 
 document you will see that it is very 
 express and detailed, that it consists 
 of a series of definite specifications 
 concerning actual public business of 
 the day. Not the business of our day, 
 for the matter with which it deals is 
 past, but the business of the first revo- 
 lution by which the nation was set 
 up, the business of 1776. Its general 
 statements, its general declarations 
 can not mean anything to us unless 
 we append to it a similar specific body 
 of particulars as to what we con- 
 sider the essential business of our own 
 day. 
 
 Liberty does not consist, my fellow 
 citizens, in mere general declarations 
 of the rights of man. It consists in 
 the translation of those declarations 
 into definite action. Therefore, stand- 
 ing here where the declaration was 
 adopted, reading its business-like sen- 
 tences, we ought to ask ourselves 
 what there is in it for us. There is 
 nothing in it for us unless we can 
 translate it into the terms of our own 
 conditions and of our own lives. We 
 must reduce it to what the lawyers 
 call a bill of particulars. It contains 
 a bill of particulars, but the bill of 
 particulars of 1776. If we keep it 
 alive, we must fill it with a bill of 
 particulars of the year 1914. 
 
 The task to which we have con- 
 stantly to readdress ourselves is the 
 task of proving that we are worthy of 
 the men who drew this great declara- 
 tion and know what they would have 
 done in our circumstances. Patriot- 
 ism consists in some very practical 
 things — practical in that they belong 
 to the life of every day, that they 
 W'ear no extraordinary distinction 
 about them, that they are connected 
 with commonplace duty. The way to 
 be patriotic in America is not only to 
 love America, but to love the duty that 
 lies nearest to our hand and know 
 that in performing it W'e are serving 
 our country. There are some gentle- 
 men in Washington, for example, at 
 this very moment who are showing 
 themselves very patriotic in a way 
 which does not attract wide attention 
 but seems to belong to mere everyday 
 obligations. The members of the 
 House and Senate who stay in hot 
 Washington to maintain a quorum of 
 the Houses and transact the all-im- 
 portant business of the nation are 
 doing an act of patriotism. I honor 
 them for it, and I am glad to stay 
 there and stick by them until the 
 work is done. 
 
 It is patriotic, also, to learn what 
 the facts of our national life are and 
 to face them with candor. I have 
 heard a great many facts stated about 
 the present business condition of this 
 country, for example — a great many 
 allegations of fact, at any rate, but 
 the allegations do not tally with one 
 another. And yet I know that truth 
 always matches with truth; and when 
 I find some insisting that everything 
 is going wrong and others insisting 
 that everything is going right, and 
 when I know from a wide observation 
 of the general circumstances of the 
 country, taken as a whole, that things 
 are going extremely well, I wonder 
 what those who are crying out that 
 
 things are wrong are trying to do. 
 Are they trying to serve the country, 
 or are they trying to serve something 
 smaller than the country? Are they 
 trying to put hope into the hearts of 
 the men who work and toil every day, 
 or are they trying to i>lan discourage- 
 ment and despair in those hearts? 
 And why do they cry that everything 
 is wrong and yet do nothing to set 
 it right? If they love America and 
 anything is wrong among us, it is their 
 business to put their hand with ours 
 to the task of setting it right. When 
 the facts are known and acknowl- 
 edged, the duty of all patriotic men 
 is to accept them in candor and to 
 address themselves hopefully and con- 
 fidently to the common counsel which 
 is necessary to act upon them wisely 
 and in universal concert. 
 
 I have had some experiences in the 
 last fourteen months which have not 
 been entirely reassuring. It was uni- 
 versally admitted, for example, my 
 fellow citizens, that the banking sys- 
 tem of this country needed reorganiza- 
 tion. We set the best minds that we 
 could find to the task of discovering 
 the best method of reorganization. 
 But we met with hardly anything but 
 criticism from the bankers of the 
 country; we met with hardly anything 
 but resistance from the majority of 
 those at least who spoke at all con- 
 cerning the matter. And yet so soon 
 as that act was passed there was a 
 universal chorus of applause, and the 
 very men who had opposed the meas- 
 ure joined in that applause. If it 
 was wrong the day before it was 
 passed, why was it right the day after 
 it was passed? Where had been the 
 candor of criticism not only, but the 
 concert of counsel, which makes leg- 
 islative action vigorous and safe and' 
 successful ? 
 
 It is not patriotic to concert meas- 
 ures against one another; it is patri- 
 otic to concert measures for one an- 
 other. 
 
 In one sense the Declaration of In- 
 dependence has lost its significance. 
 It has lost its significance as a dec- 
 laration 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 dec- 
 laration of independence, therefore, it 
 is a mere historic document. Our 
 independence is a fact so stupendous 
 that it can be measured only by the 
 size and energy and variety and wealth 
 and power of one of the greatest na- 
 tions in the world. But it is one 
 thing to be independent and it is an- 
 other 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 energies; 
 and one of the most serious ques- 
 tions for sober-minded men to ad- 
 dress themselves to in the United 
 States is this; What are we going 
 to do with the influence and power 
 of this great nation? Are w r e going to 
 play the old role of using that power 
 for our aggrandizement and material 
 benefit only? You know w’hat that 
 may mean. It may upon occasion 
 mean that we shall use it to make the 
 peoples of othe? 'nations suffer in the 
 way in which wivsaid it was intoler- 
 able to suffer .When we uttered our 
 Declaration of Independence. 
 
 The Department of State at Wash- 
 ington is constantly called upon to 
 back up the commercial enterprises 
 and the industrial enterprises of the 
 United States in foreign countries, and 
 it at one time went so far in that di- 
 rection that all its diplomacy came 
 to be designated as “dollar diplo- 
 macy.” It was called upon to support 
 every man who wanted to earn any- 
 thing anywhere if he was an Ameri- 
 can. But there ought to be a limit to 
 that. There is no man who 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 was sus- 
 pected of being a politician. 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 in- 
 fluence in every country in the world. 
 But observe the limit to all that which 
 is laid upon us perhaps 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 an- 
 other. 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 wel- 
 come.” We said. “This independence 
 of ours is not a selfish thing for our 
 own exclusive private use. It is for 
 eveybody to whom we can find the 
 means 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 peo- 
 ple and numbered only a scant 3,000,- 
 000, take upon ourselves, now that we 
 are 100,000,000 strong, any other con- 
 ception of duty than we then enter- 
 tained. If American enterprise in for- 
 eign 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 en- 
 couraged. I am willing to get any- 
 thing for an American that money 
 and enterprise can obtain except the 
 suppression of the rights of other men. 
 
 I will not help any 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 participation in their 
 own government or to exercise any 
 substantial 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 circum- 
 stance is not sometimes in my 
 thought? I know that the American 
 people have a heart that will beat 
 just as strong for those millions in 
 Mexico as it will beat, or has beaten, 
 for any other millions elsewhere in the 
 world, and that when once they con- 
 ceive 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 lives of foreigners, 
 and I deplore these things with all 
 my heart. Undoubtedly, upon the con- 
 clusion of the present disturbed condi- 
 tions 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 cir- 
 cumstances which ought some time, 
 in the proper way, to be accounted 
 for. But -back of it all is the struggle 
 of a people to come into its own, and 
 while we look upon the incidents in 
 the foreground let us not forget the 
 great tragic reality in the background 
 which towers above the whole picture. 
 
 A patriotic American is a man who 
 is not niggardly and selfish in the 
 things that he enjoys that make for 
 human liberty and the rights of man. 
 He wants to share them with 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 well as to himself 
 a symbol of hope and liberty. I 
 would be ashamed of this flag if it 
 ever did anything outside America 
 
Eagle Library-SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 23 
 
 that we would not permit it to do in- 
 side of America. 
 
 The world is becoming more com- 
 plicated every day, 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 ways he does not know which 
 is the right way and which is the 
 wrong way. No man who has chosen 
 the wrong way ought even to come 
 into Independence Square; it is holy 
 ground which he ought not to tread 
 upon. 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 whole 
 nation. 
 
 And sq 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 na- 
 tions of the world incapable of keep- 
 ing 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 them- 
 selves 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 be- 
 cause you did not convivnce the rest 
 of the world, but die happy because 
 you believe that you tried to serve 
 your country by not selling your soul. 
 Those were grim days, the days of 
 1776. Those gentlemen did not attach 
 their names to the Declaration of In- 
 dependence 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 sig- 
 nificant 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 inter- 
 est of the liberty of 3,000,000 people in 
 America. All the rest of the world 
 was against them and smiled with cyn- 
 ical incredulity at the audacious un- 
 dertaking. 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 
 started by somebody, and it is a lonely 
 thing to start anything. 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 profess to be working 
 for. 
 
 I am sometimes very much inter- 
 ested 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 judg- 
 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 be- 
 lieve that people can govern them- 
 selves. If I did not believe that the 
 moral judgment would be the last 
 
 judgment, the final judgment, in the 
 minds of men as well as the tribunal 
 of God, I could not believe in popular 
 government. But I do believe these 
 things, and, therefore, I earnestly be- 
 lieve in the democracy not only of 
 America but of every awakened people 
 that wishes and intends to govern and 
 control its own 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. Down in Washington some- 
 times 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 al- 
 ways possible to lift one’s thought 
 above the task of the moment and, as 
 it were, to realize that great thing of 
 which 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. 
 
 My dream is that as the years go 
 on and the world knows more and 
 more of America it will also drink at 
 these fountains of youth and renewal; 
 that it also will turn to America for 
 those moral inspirations which lie at 
 the basis of all freedom; that the 
 world will never fear America unless it 
 feels that it is engaged in some enter- 
 prise 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 sympathy 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. 
 
 ADDRESS OF THE 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 DELIVERED AT A JOINT SESSION OF THE 
 TWO HOUSES OF CONGRESS 
 
 SEPTEMBER 4, 1914 
 
 WAR EMERGENCY TAX 
 
 ENTLEMEN of the Congress — 
 I come to you today to dis- 
 charge a duty which I wish 
 with all my heart I might 
 have been spared; but it is 
 a very clear duty, and therefore I 
 perform it without hesitation or apol- 
 ogy. I come to ask very earnestly 
 that additional revenue be provided 
 for the Government. 
 
 During the month of August there 
 was, as compared with the corre- 
 sponding month of last year, a falling 
 off of $10,629,538 in the revenues col- 
 lected from customs. A continuation 
 of this decrease in the same propor- 
 tion throughout the current fiscal year 
 would probably mean a loss of cus- 
 toms revenues of from sixty to one 
 hundred millions. I need not tell you 
 to what this falling off is due. It is 
 due, in chief part not to the reduc- 
 tions recently made in the customs 
 duties, but to the great decrease in 
 importations; and that is due to the 
 extraordinary extent of the industrial 
 area affected by the present war in 
 Europe. Conditions have arisen which 
 no man foresaw; they affect the whole 
 world of commerce and economic 
 production; and they must be faced 
 and dealt with. 
 
 It would be very unwise to post- 
 pone dealing with them. Delay in 
 such a matter and in the particular 
 circumstances in which we now find 
 ourselves as a nation might involve 
 consequences of the most embarrass- 
 
 | ing and deplorable sort, for which 
 I, for one, would not care to be re- 
 sponsible. It would be very dangerous 
 in the present circumstances to 
 create a moment’s doubt as to the 
 strength and sufficiency of the Treas- 
 ury of the United States, its ability to 
 assist, to steady, and sustain the finan- 
 cial operations of the country’s busi- 
 ness. If the Treasury is known, or 
 even thought, to be weak, where will 
 be our peace of mind? The whole in- 
 dustrial activity of the country would 
 be chilled and demoralized. Just now 
 the peculiarly difficult financial prob- 
 lems of the moment are being suc- 
 cessfully dealt with, with great self- 
 possession and good sense and very 
 sound judgment; but they are only In 
 process of being worked out. If the 
 process of solution is to be completed, 
 no one must be given reason to doubt 
 the solidity and adequacy of the 
 Treasury of the Government which 
 stands behind the whole method by 
 which our difficulties are being met 
 and handled. 
 
 The Treasury itself could get along 
 for a considerable period, no doubt, 
 without immediate resort to new 
 sources of taxation. But at what cost 
 to the business of the community? 
 Approximately $75,000,000, a large 
 Dart of the present Treasury balance, 
 is now on deposit with national banks 
 distributed throughout the country. 
 It is deposited, of course, on call. I 
 need not point out to you what the 
 probable consequences of InconveA 
 ience and distress and confusion 
 would be if the diminishing income 
 of the Treasury should make it neces- 
 sary rapidly to withdraw these de- 
 posits. And yet without additional 
 revenue that plainly might become 
 necessary, and the time when It be- 
 
24 
 
 Eagle Library-SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 came necessary could not be con- 
 trolled or determined by the conven- 
 ience of the business of the country. 
 It would have to be determined by 
 the operations and necessities of the 
 Treasury itself. Such risks are not 
 necessary and ought not to be run. 
 We cannot too scrupulously or ca e- 
 fully safeguard a financial situation 
 which is at best, while war continues 
 in Europe, difficult and abnormal. 
 Hesitation and delay are the worst 
 forms of bad policy under such con- 
 ditions. 
 
 And we ought not to borrow. We 
 ought to resort to taxation, however 
 we may regret the necessity of putting 
 additional temporary burdens on our 
 people. To sell bonds would be to 
 make a most untimely and unjustifia- 
 ble demand on the money market; 
 untimely, because this is manifestly 
 not the time to withdraw working 
 capital from other uses to pay the 
 Government's bills; unjustifiable, be- 
 cause unnecessary. The country is 
 able to pay any just and reasonable 
 taxes without distress. And to every 
 other form of borrowing, whether for 
 long periods or for short, there is the 
 same objection. These are not the cir- 
 cumstances, this is at this particular 
 moment and in this particular exi- 
 gency not the market, to borrow large 
 sums of money. What we are seeking 
 is to ease and assist every financial 
 transaction, not to add a single addi- 
 tional embarrassment to the situation. 
 The people of this country are both 
 intelligent and profoundly patriotic. 
 They are ready to meet the present 
 conditions in the right way and to 
 support the Government with gener- 
 
 The White House, 
 Washington, October 17, 1914. 
 
 ’ '% Y Dear Mr. Underwood — I 
 
 Iwf I cannot let this session of 
 i — Congress close without ex- 
 CagffijlJ pressing my warm admira- 
 tion for the fidelity and in- 
 telligence v»1th which the programme 
 outlined in April and December of last 
 year has been carried out, and my 
 feeling that the people of the country 
 have been served by the members of 
 this Congress as they have seldom, if 
 ever, Wn served before. The pro- 
 gru/ame was a great one, and it is a 
 luatter of deep satisfaction to think of 
 the way in which it has been handled. 
 
 It had several distinct parts and 
 many items, but, after all, a single 
 purpose — namely, to destroy private 
 control and set business free. That 
 purpose was manifest enough in the 
 case of the tariff and in the legisla- 
 tion affecting trusts; but, though per- 
 haps less evident upon the surface 
 there, it lay at the very heart of the 
 currency bill, too. May I not add, 
 Ven though it lies outside the field 
 jt legislation, that that, and that 
 chiefly, has been the object of the 
 
 ous self-denial. They know and un- 
 derstand, and will be intolerant only 
 of those who dodge responsibility or 
 are not frank with them. 
 
 The occasion is not of our own 
 making. We had no part in making 
 it. But it is here. It affects us as di- 
 rectly and palpably almost as if we 
 were participants in the circum- 
 stances which gave rise to it. We 
 must accept the inevitable with calm 
 judgment and unruffled spirits, like 
 men accustomed to deal with the un- 
 evpected habituated to take care of 
 themselves, masters of their own af- 
 fairs and their own fortunes. We shall 
 pay the bill though we did not delib- 
 erately incur it. 
 
 In order to meet every demand 
 upon the Treasury without delay or 
 peradventure and in order to keep 
 the Treasury strong, unquestionably 
 strong, and strong throughout the 
 present anxieties, I respectfully urge 
 that an additional revenue of $100,- 
 000,000 be raised through internal 
 taxes devised in your wisdom to meet 
 the emergency. The only suggestion 
 I take the liberty of making is that i 
 such sources of revenue be chosen as 
 will begin to yield at once and yield 
 with a certain and constant flow. 
 
 I cannot close without expressing 
 the confidence with which I approach 
 a Congress, with regard to this or any 
 other matter, which has shown so 
 untiring a devotion to public duty, 
 which has responded to the needs of 
 the Nation throughout a long season 
 despite inevitable fatigue and per- 
 sonal sacrifice, and so large a propor- 
 tion of whose members have devoted 
 their whole time and energy to the 
 business of the country. 
 
 foreign policy of the Government dur- 
 ing the last eighteen months? 
 
 Private control had shown its sinis- 
 ter face on every hand in America, 
 had shown it for a long time, and 
 sometimes very brazenly, in the trusts 
 and in a virtual domination of credit 
 by small groups of men. The safest 
 hiding place and covert of such con- 
 trol was in the tariff. There it for a 
 long time hid very shrewdly. The tariff 
 was a very complicated matter; none 
 but experts thoroughly understood its 
 schedules. Many of the schedules were 
 framed to afford particular advantages 
 to special groups of manufacturers and 
 investors. That was the soil in which 
 trade combinations and combinations 
 of manufacturers most readily grew, 
 and most rankly. High prices did not 
 spring directly out of the tariff. They 
 sprang out of the suppression of do- 
 mestic, no less than of foreign, com- 
 petition by means of combinations and 
 trade agreements which could be much 
 more easily contrived and maintained 
 under the protection of a high tariff 
 than without it. The European war 
 came before the withdrawal of this 
 much-coveted opportunity for monop- 
 oly could show its full effects and ac- ! 
 
 tive competition bring prices to their 
 normal level again; but it is clear 
 enough already that the reduction of 
 the tariff, the simplification of its 
 schedules so as to cut away the jungle 
 in which secret agencies had so long 
 lurked, the correction of its inequali- 
 ties, and its thorough recasting with 
 the single honest object of revenue, 
 were an indispensable first step to re- 
 establishing competition. 
 
 The present Congress has taken that 
 step with courage, sincerity and effec- 
 tiveness. The lobby by which some of 
 the worst features of the old tariff had 
 been maintained was driven away by 
 the mere pitiless turning on of the 
 light. The principle was adopted that 
 each duty levied was to be tested by 
 the inquiry whether it was put at such 
 a figure and levied in such a manner 
 as to provoke competition. The soil 
 in which combinations had grown was 
 removed lest some of the seeds of mo- 
 nopoly might be found to remain in 
 it. The thing had needed to be done 
 for a long time, but nobody had ven- 
 tured before to undertake it in system- 
 atic fashion. 
 
 The panic that the friends of privi- 
 lege had predicted did not follow. Busi- 
 ness has already adjusted itself to the 
 new conditions with singular ease and 
 elasticity, because the new conditions 
 are in fact more normal than the old. 
 The revenue lost by the import duties 
 was replaced by an income tax which 
 in part shifted the burden of taxation 
 from the shoulders of every consumer 
 in the country, great or small, to 
 shoulders more certainly able to 
 bear it. 
 
 We had time to learn from the ac- 
 tual administration of the law that the 
 revenues from the double change 
 would not have been abundant had it 
 not been for the breaking out of the 
 war in Europe, which affects almost 
 every route of trade and every market 
 in the world outside of the United 
 States. Until the war ends and until 
 its effects upon manufacturers and 
 commerce have been corrected, we 
 shall have to impose additional 
 taxes to make up for the loss of 
 such part of our import duties as the 
 war cuts off by cutting off the imports 
 themselves — a veritable war tax, 
 though we are not at war; for war, 
 and only war, is the cause of it. 
 
 It is fortunate that the reduction of 
 the duties came first. The import 
 duties collected under the old tariff 
 constituted a much larger proportion 
 of the whole revenue of the Govern- 
 ment than do the duties under the 
 new. A still larger proportion of the 
 revenue would have been cut off by 
 the war had the old taxes stood, and a 
 larger w r ar tax would have been neces- 
 sary as a consequence. No miscal- 
 culation, no lack of foresight, has cre- 
 ated the necessity for the taxes, but 
 only a great catastrophe world-wida 
 in its operation and effects. 
 
 With similar purpose and in a like 
 temper the Congress has sought, in 
 the Trade Commission bill and in the 
 Clayton bill, to make men in a small 
 way of business as free to succeed as 
 men in a big way, and to kill monop- 
 oly in the seed. Before these bills 
 were passed the law was already clear 
 
 LETTER OF 
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON 
 
 TO THE 
 
 Hon. OSCAR UNDERWOOD 
 
 OF HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES REVIEWING LEGISLATION 
 
 OCTOBER 17, 1914 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 25 
 
 enough that monopolies once formed 
 were illegal and could be dissolved by 
 direct process of law and those who 
 had created them punished as for 
 crime. But there was no law to check 
 the process by which monopoly was 
 built up until the tree was full grown 
 and its fruit developed, or, at any 
 rate, until the full opportunity for 
 monopoly had been created. With this 
 new legislation there is clear and suffi- 
 cient law to check and destroy the 
 noxious growth in its infancy. Mo- 
 nopolies are built up by unfair meth- 
 ods of competition, and the new Trade 
 Commission has power to forbid and 
 prevent unfair competition, whether 
 upon a big scale or upon a little; 
 whether just begun or grown old and 
 formidable. Monopoly is created also 
 by putting the same men in charge 
 of a variety of business enterprises, 
 whether apparently related or unre- 
 lated to one another, by means of in- 
 terlocking directorates. That the 
 Clayton bill now in large measure pre- 
 vents. Each enterprise must depend 
 upon its own initiative and effective- 
 ness for success, and upon the intelli- 
 gence and business energy of the men 
 who officer it. And so all along the 
 line: Monopoly is to be cut off at 
 
 the roots. 
 
 Incidentally, Justice has been done 
 the laborer. His labor is no longer 
 to be treated as if it were merely an 
 inanimate object of commerce discon- 
 nected from the fortunes and happi- 
 ness of a living human being, to be 
 dealt with as an object of sale and 
 barter. But that, great as it is, is 
 hardly more than the natural and in- 
 evitable corollary of a law whose ob- 
 ject is individual freedom and initia- 
 tive as against any kind of private 
 domination. 
 
 The accomplishment of this legisla- 
 tion seems to me a singularly sig- 
 nificant thing. If our party were to 
 be called upon to name the particular 
 point of principle in which it differs 
 from its opponents most sharply and 
 in which it feels itself most definitely 
 sustained by experience, we should no 
 doubt say that it was this: That we 
 
 would have no dealings with monop- 
 oly, but reject it altogether; while our 
 opponents were ready to adopt it into 
 the realm of law, and seek merely to 
 regulate it and moderate it in' its op- 
 eration. It is our purpose to destroy 
 monopoly and maintain competition as 
 the only effectual instrument of busi- 
 ness liberty. 
 
 We have seen the nature and the 
 power of monopoly exhibited. We 
 know that it is more apt to control 
 government, dictate legislation, and 
 dominate executives and courts. We 
 feel that our people are safe only in 
 the fields of free individual endeavor 
 where American genius and initiative 
 are not guided by a few men as in 
 recent years, but made rich by the 
 activities of a multitude, as in days 
 now almost forgotten. We will not 
 consent that an ungovernable giant 
 should be reared to full stature in 
 the very household of the Govern- 
 ment itself. 
 
 In like manner by the currency bill 
 we have created a democracy of credit 
 such as has never existed in this coun- 
 try before. For a generation or more 
 
 we have known and admitted that we 
 had the worst banking and currency 
 system in the world, because the vol- 
 ume of our currency was wholly in- 
 elastic; that is, because there was 
 more than enough at certain seasons 
 to meet the demands of commerce and 
 credit, and at other times far too little; 
 that we could not lessen the volume 
 when he needed less nor increase it 
 when we needed more. Everybody 
 talked about the absurd system and 
 its quite unnecessary embarrassments, 
 sure to produce periodic panics; and 
 everybody said that it ought to be 
 changed and changed very radically; 
 but nobody took effective steps to 
 change it until the present Congress 
 addressed itself to the task with genu- 
 ine resolution and an intelligence 
 which expressed itself in definite ac- 
 tion. And now the thing is done. 
 
 Let bankers explain the technical 
 features of the new system. Suffice 
 it here to say that it provides a 
 currency which expands as it is 
 needed, and contracts when it is not 
 needed; a currency which comes into 
 existence in response to the call of 
 every man who can show a going busi- 
 ness and a concrete basis for extending 
 credit to him. however obscure or 
 prominent he may be, however big or 
 little his business transactions. 
 
 More than that, the power to direct 
 this system of credits is put into the 
 hands of a public board of disinter- 
 ested officers of the Government itself 
 who can make no money out of any- 
 thing they do in connection with it. 
 No group of bankers anywhere can get 
 control; no one part of the country 
 can concentrate the advantages and 
 conveniences of the system upon itself 
 for its own selfish advantage. The 
 board can oblige the banks of one 
 region to go to the assistance of the 
 banks of another. The whole re- 
 sources of the country are mobilized, 
 to be employed where they are most 
 needed. I think we are justified in 
 speaking of this as a democracy of 
 credit. Credit is at the disposal of 
 every man who can show energy and 
 assets. Each region of the country 
 is set to study its own needs and op- 
 portunities and the whole country 
 6tands by to assist. It is self-govern- 
 ment as well as democracy. 
 
 I understand why it was not pos- 
 sible at this session to mature legis- 
 lation intended specially for the de- 
 velopment of a system for handling 
 rural, or rather, agricultural credits; 
 but the Federal Reserve Act itself fa- 
 cilitates and enlarges agricultural 
 credit in an extraordinary degree. The 
 farmer is as much a partner in the 
 new democracy of credit as the mer- 
 chant or manufacturer. Indeed, spe- 
 cial and very liberal provision is made 
 for his need, as will speedily appear 
 when the system has been a little 
 while in operation. His assets are as 
 available as any other man’s, and 
 for credits of a longer term. 
 
 There have been many other meas- 
 ures passed of extraordinary import- 
 ance, for the session has been singu- 
 larly rich in thoughtful and construc- 
 tive legislation; but I have mentioned 
 the chief acts for which this Congress 
 will be remembered as very notable, 
 indeed. I did not mean when I be- 
 gan to write to make this letter so 
 long, and even to mention the other 
 legislation that is worthy of high 
 praise would extend it to an inordinate 
 length. My purpose in writing was 
 merely to express my own admiration 
 for the industry and the leadership, 
 as well as the wisdom and constructive 
 skill, which has accomplished all these 
 things. 
 
 I wish I could speak by name of the 
 
 many men who have so honorably 
 shared in these distinguished labors. 
 I doubt if there has ever been a finer 
 exhibition of teamwork or of unhesi- 
 tating devotion to the fulfillment of 
 party pledges — and yet the best of it 
 is that the great measures passed have 
 shown, I venture to say, no partisan 
 bias, but only a spirit of serious states- 
 manship. I am proud to have been 
 associated with such men, working in 
 such spirit through so many months 
 of unremitted labor at trying tasks of 
 counsel. It has been a privilege to 
 have a share in such labors. I wish 
 I could express to every one of the 
 members who have thus cooperated 
 together my personal appreciation of 
 what he has helped to do. This letter 
 may, I hope, serve in some sort as a 
 substitute for that. 
 
 I look forward with confidence to 
 the elections. The voters of the 
 United States have never failed to re- 
 ward real service. They have never 
 failed to sustain a Congress and ad- 
 ministration that were seeking, as this 
 Congress and, I believe, this adminis- 
 tration, have sought, to render them 
 a permanent and disinterested benefit 
 in the shape of reformed and rectified 
 laws. They know that, extraordinary 
 as the record is which I have recited, 
 our task is not done; that a great work 
 of constructive development remains 
 to be accomplished, in building up our 
 merchant marine, for instance, and in 
 the completion of a great programme 
 for the conservation of our natural 
 resources and the development of the 
 water power of the country — a pro- 
 gramme which has at this session al- 
 ready been carried several steps 
 toward consummation. They know, 
 too, that without a Congress in close 
 sympathy with the administration a 
 whole scheme of peace and honor and 
 disinterested service to the world, of 
 which they have approved, can not 
 be brought to its full realization. I 
 would like to go into the district of 
 every member of Congress who has 
 sustained and advanced the plans of 
 the party and speak out my advocacy 
 of his claim for reelection. But, of 
 course, I can not do that; and with 
 so clear a record no member of Con- 
 gress needs a spokesman. What he 
 has done speaks for itself. If it be a 
 mere question of political fortunes, I 
 believe the immediate future of the 
 party to be as certain as the past is 
 secure. 
 
 The Democratic Party is now in fact 
 the only instrument ready to the coun- 
 try’s hand by which anything can be 
 accomplished. It is united, as the Re- 
 publican Party is not; it is strong and 
 full of the zest of sober achievement, 
 and has been rendered confident by 
 carrying out a great constructive pro- 
 gramme such as no other party has 
 attempted; it is absolutely free from 
 the entangling alliances which made 
 the Republican Party, even before its 
 rupture, utterly unserviceable as an 
 instrument of reform; its thought, its 
 ambition, its plans are of the vital 
 present and the hopeful future. A 
 practical Nation is not likely to reject 
 such a team, full of the spirit of public 
 service, and substitute, in the midst 
 of great tasks, either a party upon 
 which a deep demoralization r-.-is 
 fallen or a party which has not gro"wn 
 to the stature that would warrant its 
 assuming the responsible burdens of 
 state. Every thoughtful man sees that 
 a change of parties made just now 
 would set the clock back, not forward. 
 
 I have a very complete and very con- 
 fident belief in the practical sagacity 
 of the American people. 
 
 With sincere regard and admiration, 
 
 Faithfully, yours, 
 
 WOODROW WILS#N. 
 
 Hon. Oscar Underwood, House of 
 
 Representatives, Washington, D. O. 
 
26 
 
 Eagle Library-SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 ADDRESS OF THE 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION 
 
 CONTINENTAL HALL, OCTOBER 20, 1914 
 
 M R. PRESIDENT, Gentlemen 
 of the American Bar Associ- 
 ation — I am very deeply 
 
 gratified by the greeting 
 
 that your president has 
 given me and by your response to it. 
 My only strength lies in your confi- 
 dence. 
 
 We stand now in a peculiar case. 
 Our first thought, I suppose, as law- 
 yers, is of international law, of those 
 bonds of right and principle which 
 draw the nations together and hold 
 the community of the world to some 
 standards of action. We know that 
 we see in international law, as it were, 
 the moral processes by which law it- 
 self came into existence. I know that 
 as a lawyer I have myself at times 
 felt that there was no real compari- 
 son between the law of a nation and 
 the law of nations, because the latter 
 lacked the sancton that gave the for- 
 mer strength and validity. And yet, 
 if you look into the matter more close- 
 ly, you will find that the two have 
 the same foundations and that those 
 foundations are more evident and con- 
 spicuous in our day than they have 
 ever been before. 
 
 The opinion of the world is the mis- 
 tress of the world; and the processes 
 of international law are the slow proc- 
 esses by which opinion works its will. 
 W T hat impresses me is the constant 
 thought that that is the tribunal at 
 the bar of which we all sit. I would 
 call your attention, incidentally, to 
 the circumstances that it does not ob- 
 
 to change law is by statute? The 
 changing pf 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 venturing to doubt the rational 
 validity, at any rate, of the particular 
 precedents he cited, “After all, isn’t 
 our object justice?” And he said, 
 “God forbid! We should be very much 
 confused if we made that our stand- 
 ard. 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 think that the 
 law did not derive its impulse from 
 looking forward rather than from 
 looking backward, or, rather, that it 
 did not derive its instruction from 
 looking about and seeing what the 
 circumstances of man actually are 
 and what the impulses of justice nec- 
 essarily are. 
 
 Understand me, gentlemen, I am 
 not venturing in this presence to im- 
 peach the law. For the present, by 
 the force of circumstances, I am in 
 part the embodiment 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 judgments 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 per- 
 fectibility of the law with the perfec- 
 tibility 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 en- 
 tire. You can not go any faster than 
 you can advance the average moral 
 judgments of the mass, but you can 
 go at least as fast as that, and you 
 can see to it that you do not lag be- 
 hind 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 expe- 
 rience 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 gen- 
 eral, in our courts of justice, as well 
 as the voice of the lawyers, remember- 
 ing what the law has been. My hope 
 is that, being stirred to the depths *" F 
 the extraordinary circumstances of 
 the time in which we live, we may re- 
 cover from those depths sometning 
 of a renewal 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. 
 
 ADDRESS OF 
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON 
 
 AT Y. M. C. A. CELEBRATION 
 
 serve the ordinary rules of evidence; 
 which has sometimes suggested to me 
 that the ordinary rules of evidence 
 had shown some signs of growing an- 
 tique. Everything, rumor included, is 
 heard in this court, and the standard 
 of judgment is not so much the char- 
 acter of the testimony as the charac- 
 ter of the witness. The motives are 
 disclosed, the purposes are conjec- 
 tured, and that opinion is finally ac- 
 cepted which seems to be, not the 
 best founded in law, perhaps, but 
 the best founded in integrity of char- 
 acter and of morals. That is the proc- 
 ess which is slowly working its will 
 upon the world; and what we should 
 be watchful of is not so much jealous 
 interests as sound principles of ac- 
 tion. The disinterested course is al- 
 ways the biggest 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 es- 
 tablish your credit. 
 
 What I wanted to suggest to this as- 
 sociation in bidding them very hearty 
 welcome to the city, is whether we 
 sufficiently 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 circum- 
 stances and almost palpably saw the 
 law arise out of human life. Have 
 we got to a time when the only way 
 
 PITTSBURG, PA., OCTOBER 24, 1914 
 
 R. PRESIDENT, Mr. Porter, 
 Ladies and Gentlemen — I 
 feel almost as if I were a 
 truant, being away from 
 Washington today, but I 
 thought that perhaps if I were absent 
 the Congress would have the more 
 leisure to adjourn. I do not or- 
 dinarily open my office at Washington 
 on Saturday. Being a schoolmaster, I 
 am accustomed to a Saturday holiday, 
 and I thought I could not better spend 
 a holiday than by showing at least 
 something of the true direction of my 
 affections; for by long association with 
 the men who have worked for this or- 
 ganization I can say that it has enlist- 
 ed my deep affection. 
 
 I am interested in it for various 
 reasons. First of all, because it is an 
 association of young men. I have had 
 a good deal to do with young men in 
 my time, and I have formed an impres- 
 sion of them which I believe to be 
 contrary to the general impression. 
 They are generally thought to be arch 
 I radicals. As a matter of fact, they are 
 
 I the most conservative people I have 
 ever dealt with. Go to a college com- 
 munity and try to change the least 
 custom of that little world and find 
 how the conservatives will rush at 
 you. Moreover, young men are em- 
 barrassed by having 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 man- 
 kind, and there shown how big the 
 world is and how much of it his father 
 may happen to have forgotten. It 
 would be worth whilo for men, middle- 
 aged and old, to detach themselves 
 more frequently from the things that 
 command their daily attention and to 
 think of the sweeping tides of hu- 
 njsnity. 
 
 ! ’herefore I am interested in this as- 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 27 
 
 aociation, because it is intended to 
 bring young men together before any 
 crust has formed over them, before 
 they have been hardened to any par- 
 ticular occupation, before they ha-fe 
 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 be- 
 cause it is an association of young men 
 who are Christians. I wonder if we 
 attach sufficient importance to Chris- 
 tianity as a mere instrumentality in 
 the life of mankind. For one, I am 
 not fond of thinking of Christianity as 
 the means of saving individual souls. 
 
 I have always been very impatient of 
 processes and institutions which said 
 that their purpose was to put every 
 man in the way of developing his char- 
 acter. 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 be- 
 come a selfish prig. The only way your 
 powers can become great is by exert- 
 ing them outside the circle of your 
 narrow, special, selfish interests. And 
 that is the reason of Christianity. 
 Christ came into the world to save 
 others, not to save himself; and no 
 man is a true Christian who does not 
 think constantly of how he can lift 
 his brother, how he can assist his 
 friend, how he can enlighten man- 
 kind, 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 direc- 
 tion, but an association 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 themselves 
 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 ex- 
 cited, perhaps it is not too much to 
 say, the hostility of the oreanized 
 churches of the Christian world, be- 
 cause the movement looked as if it 
 were so nonsectarian, as if it were so 
 outside the ecclesiastical 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 themselves in the Christian de- 
 nominations. But after a while it ap- 
 peared that it was a great instrumen- 
 tality that belonged to all the 
 churches; that it was a common in- 
 strument for sending 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 occupa- 
 tions that amused them without vi- 
 cious practice; and then, by surround- 
 ing 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 in the 
 service of a great church, that he had 
 never taught his son religion dog- 
 matically 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 Chris- 
 tian of him. They knew that Chris- 
 tianity was catching, and if they did 
 not have it, it would be communicated. 
 If they did have it, it would penetrate 
 while the boy slept, almost; while he 
 was unconscious of the sweet in- 
 fluences that were about him, while he 
 reckoned nothing of instruction, but 
 merely 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 for- 
 gotten that I said it, what is quoted 
 on the outer page of the programme — 
 that you can test a modern commu- 
 nity 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 pros- 
 perity of its rising generation. I know 
 of no test that can be more conclusive- 
 ly 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 com- 
 bine in a militant spirit. There is a 
 fine passage in one of Milton’s prose 
 writings which I am sorry to say I 
 cannot quote, but the meaning of 
 which I can give you, and it is worth 
 hearing. He says that he has no pa- 
 tience 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, who 
 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! 
 And how much I wish that men by the 
 hundred thousand might volunteer to 
 go out and seek the adversary and 
 subdue him! 
 
 I have had the fortune to take part 
 in affairs of a considerable variety of 
 sort*, and I have tried to hate as few 
 persons as possible, but there is an ex- 
 quisite combination of contempt and 
 hate that I have for a particular kind 
 of person, and that is the moral 
 coward. I wish we could give all our 
 cowards a perpetual vacation. Let 
 them go off and sit on the side lines 
 and see us play the game; and put 
 them off the field if they interfere with 
 the game. They do nothing but harm, 
 and they do it by that most subtle and 
 fatal thing of all, that of taking the 
 momentum and the spirit and the for- 
 ward dash out of things. A man 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. For how a man 
 can swallow and taste bad when he 
 is a coward and thinking only of him- 
 self I cannot imagine. 
 
 Be militant! Be an organization 
 that is going to do things! If you can 
 find older men who will give you coun- 
 tenance and acceptable leadership, 
 follow them; but if you cannot, or- 
 ganize 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 yoti find men who have 
 grown 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 any- 
 thing to do with them. It would not 
 be Christian to exclude them from 
 your organization, but merely use 
 them to pad the roll. If you can find 
 older men who will lead you accept- 
 ably and keep you in countenance, 1 
 
 am bound as an older man to advise 
 you to follow them. But suit your- 
 selves. Do not follow people that 
 stand still. Just remind them that this 
 is not a statical proposition; it is a 
 movement, and if they cannot get a 
 move on them they are not service- 
 able. 
 
 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 before- 
 hand 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 in- 
 stitutions 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 
 rot. Therefore you do iot limit at 
 any point your supply of new strength. 
 You do not say it has got to come 
 through the blood of a particular fam- 
 ily or through the processes of a par- 
 ticular training, or by anything ex- 
 cept the native impulse 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 unrecog- 
 nized 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 follow- 
 ing the best things in yourselves. 
 
 When I think of an association of 
 Christian young men I wonder that 
 it has not already turned the world 
 upside down. I wonder, not that it 
 has done so much, for it has done a 
 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 believe, that at 70 it is just 
 reaching its majority, and that from 
 this time on a dieam greater even 
 than George Williams ever dreamed 
 will be realized in the great accumu- 
 lating momentum of Christian men 
 throughout the world. For, gentle- 
 men, this is an age in which the prin- 
 ciples of men who utter public opinjon 
 dominate the world. It makes no dif- 
 ference what is done for the time be- 
 ing. After the struggle is over the 
 jury will sit, and nobody can corrupt 
 the jury. 
 
 At one time I tried to write history. 
 I did not know enough to write it, but 
 I knew from experience how hard it 
 was to find an historian out, and I 
 used to have this comfortable thought 
 as I saw men struggling in the public 
 arena. I used to think to myself, 
 “This is all very well and very inter- 
 esting. You probably assess yourself 
 in such and such a way. Those who 
 are your partisans assess you thus and 
 so. Those who are your opponents 
 urge a different verdict. But it does 
 not make very much difference, be- 
 cause after you are dead and gone 
 some quiet historian will sit in a se- 
 cluded room and tell mankind for the 
 rest of time just what to think about 
 
r 28 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 you, and his verdict, not the verdict 
 of your partisans and not the verdict 
 of your opponents, will be the verdict 
 of posterity.” I say that I used to say 
 that to myself. It very largely was not 
 bo. And yet it was true in this sense: 
 If the historian really speaks the judg- 
 ment of the succeeding generation, 
 then he really speaks the judgment 
 also of the generations that succeed it, 
 and his assessment, made without the 
 passion of the time, made without par- 
 tisan feeling in the matter — in other 
 circumstances, when the air is cool — 
 is the judgment of mankind upon your 
 actions. 
 
 Now, is it not very important that 
 we who shall constitue a portion of 
 the jury should get our best judg- 
 ments to work and base them upon 
 Christian forbearance and Christian 
 principles, upon the idea that it is 
 impossible by sophistication to estab- 
 lish that a thing that is wrong is 
 right? And yet, while we are going 
 to judge with the absolute standard of 
 righteousness, we are going to judge 
 with Christian feeling, being men of 
 a like sort ourselves, suffering the 
 same temptations, having the same 
 weaknesses, knowing the same pas- 
 sions; and while we do not condemn 
 we are going to seek to say and to live 
 the truth. What I am hoping for is 
 that these seventy years have just 
 been a running start, and that now 
 there will be a great rush of Christian 
 principle upon the strongholds of evil 
 and of wrong in the world. Those 
 strongholds arc not as strong as they 
 look. Almost every vicious man is 
 afraid of society, and if you once open 
 the door where he is, he will run. All 
 you have to do is to fight, not with 
 cannon but with light. 
 
 May I illustrate it in this way? The 
 Government of the United States has 
 just succeeded in concluding a large 
 number of treaties with the leading 
 nations of the world, the sum and 
 substance of which is this, that when- 
 ever any trouble arises the light shall 
 shine on it for a year before anything 
 is done; and my prediction is that 
 after the light has shone on it for a 
 year it will not be necessary to do any- 
 thing; that after we know what hap- 
 pened, then we will know who was 
 right and who was wrong. I believe 
 that light is the greatest sanitary in- 
 fluence in the world. That, I suppose, 
 is scientific commonplace, because if 
 you want to make a place wholesome 
 the best instrument you can use is the 
 sun; to let his rays in, let him search 
 out all the miasma that may lurk 
 there. So with moral light: It is the 
 
 most wholesome and rectifying, as 
 well as the most revealing, thing in 
 the world, provided it be genuine 
 moral light; not the light of inquisi- 
 tiveness, not the light of the man who 
 likes to turn up ugly things, not the 
 light of the man who disturbs what is 
 "cvrrzpt for the mere sake of the sen- 
 sation that he creates by disturbing it, 
 but the moral light, the light of the 
 man who discloses it in order that all 
 the sweet influences of the world may 
 go in and make it better. 
 
 That, in 1T.7 judgment, is what the 
 Young Men’s Christian Association can 
 do. It can point out to its members 
 the things that are wrong. It can 
 guide the feet of those who are going 
 astray; and when its members have 
 realized the power of the Christian 
 principle, then they will not be men 
 ft tihey do not unite to see that the 
 rest or the world experiences the same 
 emancipation and reaches the same 
 happiness of release. 
 
 I believe in the Young Men’s Chris- 
 tian Association because I believe in 
 the progress of moral ideas in the 
 world; and I do not know that I am 
 sure of anything else. When you are 
 after something and have formulated 
 it and have done the very best thing 
 you know how to do, you have got to 
 
 be sure for the time being that that is 
 the thing to do. But you are a fool 
 if in the back of your head you do not 
 know it is possible that you are mis- 
 taken. All that you can claim is that 
 that is the thing as you see it now and 
 that you cannot stand still; that you 
 must push forward the things that 
 are right. It may turn out that you 
 made mistakes, but what you do know 
 is your direction, and you are sure you 
 are moving in that way. I was once 
 a college reformer, until discouraged, 
 and I remember a classmate of mine 
 saying, “Why, man, can’t you let any- 
 thing alone?” I said, “I let everything 
 alone that you can show me is not it- 
 self moving in the wrong direction, 
 but I am not going to let those things 
 alone that I see are going downhill”; 
 and I borrowed this illustration from 
 an ingenious writer. He says, “If vou 
 have a post that is painted white and 
 want to keep it white, you cannot let 
 it alone; and if anybody says to you, 
 ‘Why don’t you let that post alone,’ 
 you will say, ‘Because I want it to stay 
 white, and therefore I have got to 
 paint it at least every second year.’ ” 
 There isn’t anything in this world that 
 will not change if you absolutely let 
 it alone, and therefore you have con- 
 stantly to be attending to it to see 
 that it is being taken care of in the 
 right way and that, if it is part of the 
 motive force of the world, it is moving 
 in the right direction. 
 
 That means that 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’ own soul. It is the 
 price of the souls of the people you 
 love; and when 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 
 lie 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 ex- 
 
 change 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 en- 
 terprise 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 god- 
 liness is profitable in this life as well 
 as in the life that is to come; and if 
 you 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 es- 
 tablished 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 man had to measure the accomplish- 
 ments of society, the progress of re- 
 form, the speed of the world’s better- 
 ment, by the few little things that hap- 
 pened in his own life, by the trifling 
 things that he can contribute to ac- 
 complish, 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 with- 
 out 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 man- 
 kind, 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 — -some- 
 times 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. 
 
 ADDRESS OF THE 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 AT INDIANAPOLIS, IND. 
 
 JANUARY 8, 1915 
 
 OVERNOR RALSTON, Ladies 
 and Gentlemen — You have 
 given me a most royal wel- 
 some, for which I thank you 
 from the bottom of my heart. 
 It is rather lonely living in Wash- 
 ington. 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 dis- / 
 tinguished 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 Represen- 
 tatives, 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 acquant- 
 ance and beg that you will “keep your 
 moral powder dry.” 
 
 But I have come here on Jackson 
 Day. If there are Republicans pres- 
 ent, I hope they will feel the com- 
 pelling influences of such a day. There 
 was nothing mild about Andrew Jack- 
 son; that is the reason I spoke of the 
 “compelling influences” of the day. 
 Andrew Jackson was a forthright man 
 who believed everything he did be- 
 lieve in 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 would think it my duty 
 to go back and take a back seat. I 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 29 
 
 like, therefore, to breathe the air of 
 Jackson Day. I lixe to be reminded 
 of the old militant hosts of Democ- 
 racy which I believe have come to life 
 again in our time. The United States 
 had almost forgotten that it must 
 keep its fighting ardor in behalf of 
 mankind when Andrew Jackson be- 
 came President; and you will notice 
 that whenever the United States for- 
 gets its ardor for mankind it is neces- 
 sary 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 speak- 
 ing as a politician; I am speaking as 
 an historian. I have looked for new 
 ideas in the records and I have not 
 found any proceeding from the Re- 
 publican ranks. They have had lead- 
 ers from time to time who suggested 
 new ideas, but they never did any- 
 thing to carry them out. I suppose 
 there was no harm in their talking, 
 provided they could not do anything. 
 Therefore, 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 indispensable 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 fu- 
 ture. The Republican party is still a 
 covert and refuge for those who are 
 afraid, for those who want to consult 
 their grandfathers about everything. 
 You will notice that most of the ad- 
 vice 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 re-election of the 
 oldest members of their party. They 
 will not trust the youngsters. They 
 are afraid the youngsters 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 Wash- 
 ington and saying sweet things. I 
 wanted to come out and get contact 
 with you once more and say what I 
 really thought. 
 
 My friends, what I particularly 
 want you to observe is this, that poli- 
 tics in this country does not depend 
 any longer upon the regular mem- 
 bers of either party. There are not 
 enough regular Republicans in this 
 country to take and hold national 
 power; and I must immediately add 
 there are not enough regular Demo- 
 ocrats 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 inde- 
 pendent 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 om»-third of tJie Re- 
 publican party is progressive; and 
 you would also have to q.dmit that 
 about two-thirds of the Democratic 
 party is progressive. Therefore, the 
 independent progressive voter finds a 
 great deal more company in the Dem- 
 ocratic ranks than in the Republican 
 ranks. I say a great deal more, be- 
 cause 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 born with that 
 temperament- And I respect the con- 
 servative temper. I claim to be an 
 animated conservative myself, be- 
 cause being a conservative I under- 
 hand to mean being a man not only 
 
 who preserves what is best in the Na- 
 tion but who sees that in order to pre- 
 serve 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 per- 
 ceive — 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 for- 
 ward and perpetuated than there is 
 in the ranks of the Republican party. 
 How can it be otherwise, gentlemen? 
 The Democratic party, and only the 
 Democratic party, has carried out the 
 policies which the progressive people 
 of this country have 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 any body of men to go back- 
 ward with regard to these great mat- 
 ters. 
 
 Let me instance a single thing: I 
 
 want to ask the business men here 
 present if this is not the first Jan- 
 uary in their recollection that did not 
 bring a money stringency for the time 
 being, because of the necessity of pay- 
 ing out great sums of money by way 
 of dividends and the other settlements 
 which come at the first of the year? 
 I have asked the bankers if that hap- 
 pened this year, and they say, “No; it 
 did not happen; it could not happen 
 under the Federal Reserve Act.” We 
 have emancipated the credits of this 
 country; and is there anybody here 
 who will doubt that the other policies 
 that have given guaranty to this coun- 
 try that there will be free competi- 
 tion are policies which this country 
 will never allow to be reversed? I 
 have taken a long time, ladies and 
 gentlemen, to select the Federal 
 Trade Commission, because I wanted 
 to choose men and be sure that I had 
 chosen men who would be really ser- 
 viceable to the business men of this 
 country, great as well as small, the 
 rank and the file. These things have 
 been done and will never be undone. 
 They were talked about and talked 
 about with futility until a Democratic 
 Congress attempted and achieved 
 them. 
 
 But the Democratic party is not to 
 suppose that it is done with the bus- 
 iness. The Democratic party is still 
 on trial. The Democratc party still 
 has to prove to the independent vot- 
 ers 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 cannot do continuous and 
 consistent teamwork. If any group 
 of men should dare to break the soli- 
 darity of the Democratic team for any 
 purpose or from any motive, theirs 
 will be a most unenviable notoriety 
 and a responsibility which will bring 
 deep bitterness to them. The only 
 party that is serviceable 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 be- 
 cause I doubt that the Democratic 
 party will be able to do this, but be- 
 cause I believe that as leader for the 
 time being of that party I can prom- 
 ise the country that it will do these 
 things. I know my colleagues at 
 Washington; I know their spirit and 
 their purpose; and I know that they 
 have the same emotion, the same 
 high emotion of public service, that 
 I hope I have. 
 
 I want at this juncture to pay my 
 tribute of respect and of affectionate 
 admiration for the two great Demo- 
 cratic Senators from the State of In- 
 diana. I have never had to lie awake 
 nights wondering what they were go- 
 ing to do. And the country is not go- 
 ing to trouble itself, ladies and gentle- 
 men, to lie awake nights and wonder 
 what men are going to do. If they 
 have to do that, they will choose other 
 men. Teamwork all the time is 
 what they are going to demand of us, 
 and that is our individual as well as 
 our collective responsibility. That is 
 what Jackson stands for. If a man 
 will not play with the team, then ha 
 does not belong to the team. You 
 see, I have spent a large part of my 
 life in college and I know what a 
 team means when I see it; and I know 
 what the captain of a team must have 
 if he is going to win. So it is no idle 
 figure of speech with me. 
 
 Now, what is their duty? You say, 
 “Hastn’t this Congress carried out a 
 great programme?” Yes, it has car- 
 ried out a great programme. It has 
 had the most remarkable record that 
 any Congress since the Civil War has 
 had; and I say since the Civil War 
 because I have not had time to think 
 about those before the Civil War. But 
 we are living at an extraorodinary 
 moment. The world has never been 
 in the condition that it is in now, my 
 friends. Half the world is on fire. 
 
 Only America among the great powers 
 of the world is free to govern her own 
 life; and all the world is looking to 
 America to serve its economic need. 
 
 And while this is happening what is 
 going on? 
 
 Do you know, gentlemen, that the 
 ocean freight rates have gone up ir» 
 some instances to’ ten times their or- 
 dinary figure? and that the farmers 
 of the United States, those who raise 
 grain and those who raise cotton — 
 these things that are absolutely neces- 
 sary to the world as well as to our- 
 selves — cannot get their due profit out 
 of the great prices that they are will- 
 ing to pay for these things on the 
 other side of the sea, because the 
 whole profit is eaten up by the 
 extortionate charges for ocean car- 
 riage? In the midst of this the Demo- 
 crats propose a temporary measure of 
 relief in a shipping bill. The mer- 
 chants and the farmers of this coun- 
 try must have ships to carry their 
 goods. Just at the present moment 
 there is no other way of getting them 
 than through the instrumentality that 
 is suggested in the shipping bill. I 
 hear it said in Washington on all 
 hands that the Republicans in the 
 United States Senate mean to talk 
 enough to make the passage of that 
 bill impossible. These self-styled 
 friends of business, these men who say 
 the Democratic party does not know 
 what to do for business, are saying 
 that the Democrats shall do nothing 
 for business. I challenge them to 
 show their right to stand in the way of 
 the release of American products to 
 the rest of the world! Who commis- 
 sioned them — a minority, a lessening 
 minority? (For they will be in 
 greater minority in the next Senate 
 than in this.) You know it Is the pe- 
 culiarity of that great body that it has 
 rules of procedure which make it pos- 
 sible for a minority to defy the Na- 
 tion; and these gentlemen are now 
 seeking to defy the Nation and prevent 
 the release of American products to 
 the suffering world which needs them 
 more than it ever needed them be- 
 fore. Their credentials as friends of 
 business and friends of America wi'ri 
 be badly discredited if they succeed. 
 
 If I were speaking from a selfish, par- 
 tisan point of view, I could wish noth- 
 ing better than that they should show 
 their true colors as partisans and suc- 
 ceed. But I am not quite so malevo- 
 lent as that. Some of them are mis® A. 
 guided; sass. a ii&sz «ra Mia&i saaf. 
 
30 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 of them are ignorant. I would rather 
 pray for them than abuse them. The 
 great voice of America ought to make 
 them understand what they are said 
 to be attempting now really means. I 
 have to say “are said to be attempt- 
 ing,” because they do not come and 
 tell me that they are attempting them. 
 I do not know why. I would ex- 
 press my opinion of them in parliamen- 
 tary language, but I would express it, 
 I hope, no less plainly because couched 
 in the terms of courtesy. This country 
 is bursting its jacket, and they are 
 seeing to it that the jacket is not only 
 kept tight but is riveted with steel. 
 
 The Democratic party does know 
 how to serve business in this country, 
 and its future programme is a pro- 
 gramme of service. We have cleared 
 the decks. We have laid the lines now 
 upon which business that was to do 
 the country harm shall be stopped 
 and an economic control which was 
 intolerable shall be broken up. We 
 have emancipated America, but Amer- 
 ica must do something with her free- 
 dom. There are great bills pending in 
 the United States Senate just now that 
 have been passed by the House of 
 Representatives, which are intended as 
 constructive measures in behalf of bus- 
 iness — one great measure which will 
 make available the enormous water 
 powers of this country for the indus- 
 try of it; another bill which will un- 
 lock the resources of the public do- 
 main which the Republicans, desiring 
 to save, locked up so that nobody could 
 use them. 
 
 The reason I say the Republicans 
 have not had a new idea in thirty years 
 is that they have not known how to 
 do anything except sit on the lid- If 
 you can release the steam so that it 
 will drive great industries, it is not 
 necessary to sit on the lid. What we 
 are trying to do in the great conserva- 
 tion bill is to carry out for the first 
 time in the history of the United States 
 a system by which the great resources 
 of this country can be used instead of 
 being set aside so that no man can get 
 at them. I shall watch with a great 
 deal of interest what the self-styled 
 friends of business try to do to those 
 bills. Do not misunderstand me. 
 There are some men on that side of 
 the Chamber who understand the 
 value of these things and are standing 
 valiantly by them, but they are a small 
 minority. The majority that is stand- 
 ing by them is on our side of the 
 Chamber, and they are friends of 
 America. 
 
 But there are other things which we 
 have to do. Sometimes when I Iook 
 abroad, my friends, and see the great 
 mass of struggling humanity on this 
 continent, it goes very much to my 
 heart to see how many men are at a 
 disadvantage and are without guides 
 and helpers. Don’t you think it would 
 be a. pretty good idea for the Demo- 
 cratic party to undertake a systematic 
 method of helping the workingmen of 
 America? There is one very simple 
 way in which they can help the work- 
 ingmen. If you were simply to estab- 
 lish a great Federal employment bu- 
 reau it would do a vast deal. By the 
 Federal agencies which spread over 
 this country men could be directed to 
 those parts of the country, to those 
 undertakings, to those tasks where 
 they could find profitable employment. 
 The labor of this country needs to bo 
 guided from opportunity to opportu- 
 nity. We proved it the other day. We 
 were told that in two States of the 
 Union 30,000 men were needed to 
 gather the crops. We suggested in a 
 Cabinet meeting that the Department 
 of Labor should have printed informa- 
 tion about this in such a form that it 
 could be posted up in the post offices 
 all over the United States, and that 
 the Department of Labor should get in 
 touch with the labor departments of 
 the States, so that notice could go out 
 from them, and their co-operation ob- 
 tained. What was the result? Those 
 
 30,000 men were found and were sent 
 to the places where they got profitable 
 employment. I do not know any one 
 thing that has happened in my admin- 
 istration that made me feel happier 
 than that — that the job and the man 
 had been brought together. It will 
 not cost a great deal of money and it 
 will do a great deal of service if the 
 United States were to undertake to do 
 such things systematically and all the 
 year round; and I for my part hope 
 that it will do that. If I were writ- 
 ing an additional plank for a Demo- 
 cratic platform I would put that in. 
 
 There is another thing that needs 
 very much to be done. I am not one 
 of those who doubt either the industry 
 or the learning or the integrity of the 
 courts of the United States, but I do 
 know that they have a very antiquated 
 way of doing business. I do know that 
 the United States in its judicial proced- 
 ure is many decades behind every 
 other civilized government in the 
 world, and I say that it is an immedi- 
 ate and an imperative call upon us to 
 rectify that, because the speediness of 
 justice, the inexpensiveness of justice, 
 the ready access to justice, is the great- 
 er part of justice itself. If you have to 
 be rich to get justice, because of the 
 cost of the very process itself, then 
 there is no justice at all. So I say this 
 is another direction in which we ought 
 to be very quick to see the signs of the 
 times and to help those who need to be 
 helped. 
 
 Then there is something else. The 
 Democrats have heard the Republi- 
 cans talking about the scientific way in 
 which to handle a tariff, though the 
 Republicans have never given any ex- 
 hibition of a knowledge of how to han- 
 dle it scientifically. If it is scientific to 
 put additional profits into the hands of 
 those who are already getting the 
 greater part of the profits, then they 
 have been exceedingly scientific. It 
 has been the science of selfishness; it 
 has been the science of privilege. That 
 kind of science I do not care to know 
 anythingaboutexcept enough to stop it. 
 But if by scientific treatment of the 
 tariff they mean adjustment to the 
 actual trade conditions of America and 
 the world, then I am with them; and I 
 want to call their attention — for 
 though they voted for it they appar- 
 ently have not noticed it— to the fact 
 that the bill which creates the new 
 Trade Commission does that very 
 thing. We were at pains to see that 
 it was put in there. The commission 
 is authorized and empowered to in- 
 quire into and report to Congress not 
 only upon all the conditions of trade 
 in this country, but upon the condi- 
 tions of trade, the cost of manufacture, 
 the cost of transportation — all the 
 things that enter into the question of 
 the tariff — in foreign countries and in- 
 to all those questions of foreign com- 
 binations which affect international 
 trade between Europe and the United 
 States. It has the full powers which 
 will guide Congress in the scientific 
 treatment of questions of international 
 trade. Being by profession a school- 
 master, I am glad to point that out to 
 the class of uninstructed Republi- 
 cans, though I have not always taught 
 in the primary grade. 
 
 At every turn the things that the 
 progressive Republicans have pro- 
 posed that were practicable, the Dem- 
 ocrats either have done or are imme- 
 diately proposing to do. If that is 
 not our bill of particulars to satisfy the 
 independent voters of the country, I 
 would like to have one produced. 
 There are things that the Progressive 
 programme contained which we, being 
 constitutional lawyers, happened to 
 know cannot be done by the Congress 
 of the United States. That is a detail 
 which they seem to have overlooked. 
 But so far as they can be done by 
 State legislatures, I, for one, speaking 
 for one Democrat, am heartily in favor 
 of their being done. Because Demo- 
 crats do not congregate merely i: 
 
 Washington. They congregate also in 
 the State capitoli, and they congre- 
 gate there in very influential numbers 
 and with very influential organizations. 
 
 , Just before I came away from Wash- 
 ington I was going over some of the 
 figures of the last elections, the elec- 
 tions of November last. The official 
 returns have not all come in yet. I 
 do not know why they are so slow in 
 getting to us, but so far as they have 
 come in they have given me this useful 
 information, that taking the States 
 where Senators were elected, and 
 where Senators were not elected, 
 taking the election of Governors, 
 and where Governors were not elected, 
 taking the returns for the State legis- 
 latures or for the congressional dele- 
 gates, the Democrats, reckoning State 
 by State, would, if it had been a presi- 
 dential year, have had a majority of 
 about eighty in the Electoral College. 
 Fortunately or unfortunately, this is 
 not a presidential year; but the thing 
 is significant to me for this reason. A 
 great many people have been speaking 
 of the Democratic party as a minority 
 party. Well, if it is, it is not so much 
 of a minority party as the Republican, 
 and as between the minorities I think 
 we can claim to belong to the larger 
 minority. The moral of that is merely 
 what I have already been pointing out 
 to you, that neither party in its regular 
 membership has a majority. I do not 
 want to make the independent voter 
 too proud of himself, but I have got to 
 admit that he is our boss; and I am 
 bound to admit that the things that 
 he wants are, so far as I have seen 
 them mentioned, things that I want. 
 
 I am not an independent voter, but 
 I hope I can claim to be an independ- 
 ent person, and I want to say this dis- 
 tinctly: I do not love any party any 
 longer than it continues to serve the 
 immediate and pressing needs of 
 America. I have been bred in the 
 Democratic party; I love the Demo- 
 cratic party: but I love America a 
 great deal more than I love the Demo- 
 cratic party; and when the Democratio 
 party thinks that it is an end in itself 
 then I rise up and dissent. It is a 
 means to an end, and its power de- 
 pends, and ought to depend, upon its 
 showing that it knows what America 
 needs and is ready to give it what it 
 needs. That is the reason I say to the 
 independent voter you have got us in 
 the palm of your hand. I do not hap- 
 pen to be one of your number, but I 
 recognize your supremacy, because I 
 read the election returns; and I have 
 this ambition, my Democratic friends 
 — I can avow it on Jackson Day — I 
 want to make every independent voter 
 in this country a Democrat. It is a lit- 
 tle cold and lonely out where he is, 
 because, though he holds the balance 
 of power, he is not the majority, and I 
 want him to come in where it is warm. 
 
 I want him to come in where there is 
 a lot of good society, good compan- 
 ionship, where there are great emo- 
 tions. That is what I miss in the Re- 
 publican party; they do not seem to 
 have any great emotions. They seem 
 to think a lot of things. Old things, 
 but they do not seem to have any en- 
 thusiasm about anything. 
 
 There is one thing I have got a 
 great enthusiasm about, I might al- 
 most 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 
 word about Mexico, or not so much 
 about Mexico as about our attitude to- 
 wards Mexico. I hold it as a funda- 
 mental principle, and so do you, that 
 every people has the right to deter- 
 mine its own form of government; y 
 and until this recent revolution in ' 
 Mexico, until the end of the Diaz 
 reign, 80 per cent, of the people of 
 Mexico never had a “look in” in de* \ 
 termining who should be their gov- , 
 ernors or what their government 
 should be. Now, I am for the &(k per ' 
 cent.! It is none of my buslness,4ind 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 31 
 
 It is none of your business how long 
 they take in determining. 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 liberty, 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 sym- 
 pathy. Do you suppose that the 
 American people are ever going to 
 count a small amount of material 
 benefit and advantage to people doing 
 business in Mexico against the liber- 
 ties and the permanent happiness of 
 the Mexican people? Have not Euro- 
 pean 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 be- 
 cause 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 own affairs as we 
 have.” If I am strong, I am ashamed 
 to bully the weak. In proportion to 
 my strength is my pride in withhold- 
 ing that strength from the oppression 
 of another people. And I know when 
 I speak these things, not merely from 
 the generous 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 re- 
 spect to editors of great newspapers, 
 
 I have to say to them that I seldom 
 take my opinion of the American peo- 
 ple from their editorials. When 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 knew 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 satisified 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 immunity in the time being. 
 
 It is, by the way, a very comfort- 
 ing 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 much con- 
 fidence as Jackson did that we know 
 what we are about. You know Jack- 
 son used to think that everybody who 
 disagreed with him was an enemy ot 
 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 confi- 
 dent mood today. I feel confident that 
 we do know the spirit of the Amer- 
 ican people, that we do know the pro- 
 gramme 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. There is nothing the matter 
 with American business except a state 
 of mind. I understand that your I 
 Chamber of Commerce here in In- 
 dianapolis 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. 1 1 
 
 never was in business and, therefore, 
 I have none of the prejudices of busi- 
 ness. I have looked on and tried to 
 i see what the interests of the country 
 were in business; 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 Demo- 
 cratic 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 had 
 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 ab- 
 solutely sound at heart, but men im- 
 mersed in business do a lot of things 
 that opportunity offers which in other 
 circumstances they would not do; and 
 I have thought all along that all that 
 was necessary to do was to call their 
 attention sharply to the kind of re- 
 forms in business which were heeded 
 and that they would acquiesce. Why, 
 I believe they have heartily ac- 
 quiesced. 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! 
 Among all the great powers of the 
 
 world only America saving her power 
 for her own people! Only America 
 using her great character and her 
 great strength in the interests of 
 peace and of prosperity! 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 nob turn to you for counsel and 
 for assistance?” Think of the deep- 
 wrought destruction of economic re- 
 sources, 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 res- 
 ervoir 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 succored the na- 
 tions of the world in their time of dis- 
 tress 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, f 
 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. 
 
 
 " MESSAGE OF THE 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 RETURNING TO THE 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, WITHOUT APPROVAL 
 
 H. R. 6060 
 
 AN ACT TO REGULATE THE IMMIGRATION OF ALIENS TO 
 AND THE RESIDENCE OF ALIENS IN 
 ' THE UNITED STATES 
 
 JANUARY 28, 1915 
 
 } 
 
 l 
 
 O the House of Representatives 
 — It is with unaffected re- 
 gret that I find myself con- 
 strained by clear conviction 
 to return this bill (H. R. 
 6060, "An act to regulate the immi- 
 gration of aliens to and the residence 
 of aliens in the United States”) with- 
 out my signature. Not only do I feel 
 it to be a very serious matter to exer- 
 cise the power of veto in any case, be- 
 cause it involves opposing the single 
 judgment of the President to the judg- 
 ment of a majority 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 en- 
 actment into law would undoubtedly 
 enhance the efficiency and Improve the 
 methods of hadling the important 
 branch of the public service to which 
 it relates. But candor and a sense of 
 duty with regard to the responsibility 
 so clearly imposed upon me by the 
 Constitution in matters of legislation 
 leave me no choice but to dissent. 
 
 In two particulars of vital conse- 
 quence this bill embodies a radical 
 departure from the traditional and 
 
 1 
 
 long-established policy of this coun- 
 try, a policy in which our people have 
 conceived the very character of their 
 Government to be expressed, the very 
 mission and spirit of the nation in 
 respect of its relations to the peoples 
 of the world outside their borders. Iu 
 seeks to all but close entirely the gates 
 of asylum which have always been 
 open to those who could find nowhere 
 else the right and opportunity of con- 
 stitutional agitation for what thqy 
 conceived to be the natural and in- 
 alienable rights of men; and it ex- 
 cludes those to whom the opportuni- 
 ties of elementary education have been 
 denied, without regard to thei-r char- 
 acter, 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 
 political asylum has brought to this 
 country many a man of noble char- 
 acter and elevated purpose who was 
 marked as an outlaw in his own less 
 fortunate land, and who has yet be- 
 come an ornament to oyr citizenship 
 and to our public councils. The chil- 
 dren and the compariots of these 
 illustrious Americans must stand 
 afm&KGd to see the representatives 
 
r 32 
 
 Eagle Library — SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 their nation now resolved, in the full- 
 ness of our national strength and at 
 the maturity of our great institutions, 
 to risk turning such men back from 
 our shores without test of quality or 
 purpose. It is difficult for me to be- 
 lieve that the full effect of this feature 
 of the bill was realized when it was 
 framed and adopted, and it is im- 
 possible for me to assent to it in the 
 form in which it is here cast. 
 
 The literacy test and the tests and 
 restrictions which accompany it con- 
 stitute 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 relationships of life. In this 
 bill it is proposed to turn away from 
 tests of character and of quality and 
 impose tests which exclude and re. 
 strict; for the new tests here embodied 
 are not tests of quality or of char- 
 acter or of personal fitness, but tests 
 of opportunity. Those who come seek- 
 ing opportunity are not to be ad- 
 mitted unless they have already had 
 one of the chief of the opportunities 
 they seek, the opportunity of educa- 
 tion. The object of such provisions is 
 restriction, not selection. 
 
 If the people of this country have 
 
 made up their minds to limit the num- 
 ber 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 respect- 
 fully 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 legisla- 
 tion? Does this bill rest upon the con- 
 scious 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 know the wishes and ideals 
 of America better than the body of 
 her chosen representatives know 
 them. I only want instruction direct 
 from those whose fortunes, with ours 
 and all men’s, are involved. 
 
 WOODROW WILSON. 
 
 The White House, January 28, 1916. 
 
 ADDRESS OF THE 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES I 
 
 AT THE 
 
 MID-YEAR CONFERENCE OF THE 
 AMERICAN ELECTRIC RAILWAY ASSOCIATION 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., JANUARY 29, 1915 
 
 ' * 
 
 R. PRESIDENT, Lrdies and 
 Gentlemen — It is a real pleas- 
 ure to me to be here and to 
 look this company in the face. 
 I know how important the in- 
 terests that you represent are. I know 
 that they represent some of the chief 
 channels through which the vigor and 
 activity of the nation flow. I am also 
 very glad, indeed, to have you come 
 and look at some portion, at any rate, 
 of the Government of the United 
 States. Many things are reported and 
 supposed about that Government, and 
 it is thoroughly worth your while to 
 ;ome and see for yourselves. 
 
 I have always maintained that the 
 only way in which men could under- 
 stand one another was by meeting one 
 another. If I believed all that I read 
 in the newspapers, I would not under- 
 stand anybody. I have met many pien 
 whose horns dropped away the mo- 
 ment I was permitted to examine their 
 heads. For, after all, in a vast country 
 like this the most difficult thing is a 
 common understanding. We are con- 
 stantly forming get-together associa- 
 tions, and I sometimes think that we 
 make the mistake of confining those 
 associations in their membership to 
 (those who are interested only in some 
 Vie particular group of the various in- 
 dustries of the country. The important 
 thing is for the different enterprises 
 
 of the country to understand one an- 
 other; and the most important thing 
 of all is for us to comprehend our life 
 as a nation and understand each other 
 as fellow citizens. 
 
 It seems to me that I can say with 
 a good deal of confidence that we are 
 upon the eve of a new era of enter- 
 prise and of prosperity. Enterprise 
 has been checked in this country for 
 almost twejity years, because men 
 were moving amongst a maze of in- 
 terrogation points. They did not know 
 what was going to happen to them. 
 All sorts of regulations were proposed, 
 and it w r as a matter of uncertainty 
 what sort of regulation was going to 
 be adopted. All sorts of charges were 
 made against business, as If business 
 were at default, when most men knew 
 that the great majority of business 
 men were honest, were public-spirited, 
 were intending the right thing, and 
 the many were made afraid because 
 the few did not do what was right. 
 
 The most necessary thing, therefore, 
 was for us to agree, as we did by slow 
 stages agree, upon the main particu- 
 lai*s of what ought not to be done and 
 then to put our laws in such shape as 
 to correspond with that general judg- 
 ment. That, I say, was a necessary 
 preliminary not only to a common un- 
 derstanding, but also to a universal 
 co-operation. The great forces of a 
 country like this can not pull separ- 
 ately; they have got to pull together. 
 
 And except upon a basis of common 
 understanding as to the law and as to 
 the proprieties of conduct, it is impos- 
 sible to pull together. I, for one, have 
 never doubted that all America was of 
 one principle. I have never doubted 
 that all America believed in doing 
 what was fair and honorable and of 
 good report. But the method, the 
 method of control by law against the 
 small minority that was recalcitrant 
 against these principles, was a thing 
 that it was difficult to determine upon; 
 and it was a very great burden, let me 
 say, to fall upon a particular adminis- 
 tration of this Government to have to 
 undertake practically the whole busi- 
 ness of final definition. That is what 
 has been attempted by the Congress 
 now about to come to a close. It has at- 
 tempted the definitions for which the 
 country had been getting ready, or 
 trying to get ready, for half a genera- 
 tion. It will require a period of test to 
 determine whether they have success- 
 fully defined them or not; but no one 
 needs to have it proved to him that it 
 was necessary to define them and re- 
 move the uncertainties, and that, the 
 uncertainties being removed, common 
 understandings are possible and a uni- 
 versal co-operation. 
 
 You, gentlemen, representing these 
 arteries of which I have spoken, that 
 serve to release the forces of commu- 
 nities and serve, also, to bind commu- 
 nity with community, are surely in a 
 better position than the men perhaps 
 of any other profession to understand 
 how communities constitute . units — ■ 
 how even a nation constitutes a unit; 
 and that what is detrimental and hurt- 
 ful to a part you, above all men, 
 ought to know is detrimental to all. 
 You cannot demoralize some of the 
 forces of a community without being 
 in danger of demoralizing all the 
 forces of a community. Your interest 
 is not in the congestion of life, but in 
 the release of li£e. Your interest is not 
 in isolation, but in union, the union of 
 parts of this great country, so that 
 every energy in those parts will flow 
 freely and with full force from county 
 to county throughout the whole na- 
 tion. 
 
 What I have come to speak of this 
 afternoon is this unity of our interest, 
 and I want to make some — I will not 
 say “predictions,” but to use a less 
 dangerous though bigger word — prog- 
 nostications. I understand that there 
 Is among the medical profession diag- 
 nosis and prognosis. I dare say the 
 prognosis is more difficult than the di- 
 agnosis, since it has to come first; and 
 not being a physician, I have all the 
 greater courage in the prognosis. I 
 have noticed all my life that I could 
 speak with the greatest freedom about 
 those things that I did not understand; 
 but there are some things that a man 
 is bound to try to think out whether 
 he fully comprehends them or not. The 
 thought of no single man can com- 
 prehend the life of a great Nation like 
 this, and yet men in public life upon 
 whom the burden of guidance is laid 
 must attempt to comprehend as much 
 of it as they can. Their strength will 
 lie in common counsel; their strength 
 will lie in taking counsel of as many 
 informed persons as possible in each 
 department with which they have to 
 deal; but some time or other the point 
 will come when they have to make a 
 decision based upon a prognosis. We 
 have had to do that In attempting the 
 definitions of law which have been at- 
 tempted by this Congress, and now it 
 is necessary for us, in order to go for- 
 ward with the confident spirit with 
 which I believe we can go forward, to \ 
 look ahead and see the things that are 
 likely to happen. 
 
 In the first place, I feel that the 
 mists and mlasmio airs of suspicion 
 that have filled the business world 
 have now been blown away. I believe | 
 that we have era p< 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 33 1 
 
 plclon and have come into the era of 
 confidence. Knowing the elements we 
 have to deal with, we can deal with 
 them; and with that confidence of 
 knowledge we can have confidence of 
 enterprise. That enterprise is going to 
 mean this: Nobody is henceforth going 
 to be afraid of or suspicious of any 
 business merely because it is big. If 
 my judgment is correct, nobody has 
 been suspicious of any business merely 
 because it was big; but they have been 
 suspicious whenever they thought that 
 the bigness was being used to take an 
 unfair advantage. We all have to ad- 
 mit that it is easier for a big fellow to 
 take advantage of you than for a little 
 fellow to take advantage of you; there- 
 fore, we instinctively watch the big 
 fellow with a little closer scrutiny than 
 we watch the little fellow. But, bond 
 having been given for the big fellow, 
 we can sleep o’ nights. Bond having 
 been given that he will keep the peace, 
 we do not have to spend our time and 
 waste our energy watching him. The 
 conditions of confidence being estab- 
 lished, nobody need think that if he 
 is taller than the rest anybody is going 
 to throw a stone at him simply because 
 he is a favorable target — always pro- 
 vided there is fair dealing and real 
 eervice. 
 
 Because the characteristic of mod- 
 ern business, gentlemen, is this: The 
 number of cases in which men do 
 business on their own individual, pri- 
 vate capital is relatively small in our 
 day. Almost all the greater enterprises 
 are done on what is, so far as the man- 
 agers of that business are concerned, 
 other people’s money. That is what a 
 Joint stock company means. It means, 
 “Won’t you lend us your resources to 
 conduct this business and trust us, a 
 little group of managers, to see that 
 you get honest and proper returns for 
 your money?” and no man who man- 
 ages a joint stock company can know 
 for many days together, without fresh 
 Inquiry, who his partners are, because 
 the stock is constantly changing hands, 
 and the partners are seldom the same 
 people for long periods together. 
 Which amounts to saying that, inas- 
 much as you are using the money of 
 everybody who chooses to come in, 
 your responsibility is to everybody 
 who has come in or who may come in. 
 That is simply another way of saying 
 that your business is, so far forth, a 
 public business, and you owe it to the 
 public to take them into your confi- 
 dence in regard to the way in which it 
 is conducted. 
 
 The era of private business in the 
 sense of business conducted with the 
 money of the partners — I mean of the 
 managing partners — is practically 
 passed, not only in this country, but 
 almost everywhere. Therefore, almost 
 all business has this direct responsi- 
 bility to the public in general: We owe 
 a constant report to the public, whose 
 money we are constantly asking for 
 in order to conduct the business 
 Itself. Therefore, we have got to trade 
 not only on our efficiency, not only on 
 the service that we render, but on the 
 confidence that we cultivate. There is 
 a new atmosphere for business. The 
 oxygen that the lungs of modern busi- 
 ness takes in is the oxygen of the pub- 
 lic confidence, and if you have not got 
 that, your business is essentially para- 
 lyzed and asphyxiated. 
 
 I take it that we are in a position 
 now to come to a common understand- 
 ing, knowing that only a common un- 
 derstanding will be the stable basis of 
 business, and that what we want for 
 business hereafter is the same kind of 
 liberty that we want for the individual. 
 The liberty of the individual is limited 
 with the greatest sharpness where his 
 actions come into collision with the in- 
 terests of the community he lives in. 
 My liberty consists in a sort of parole. 
 Society says to me, "You may do what 
 
 is in violation of the common under- 
 standing, of the public interest; then 
 your parole is forfeited. We will take 
 you into custody. We will limit your 
 activities. We will penalize you if you 
 use this thing that you call your lib- 
 erty against our interest.” Business 
 does not want, and ought not to ask 
 for, more liberty than the individual 
 has; and I have always in my own 
 thought summed up individual liberty, 
 and business liberty, and every other 
 kind of liberty, in the phrase that is 
 common in the sporting world, “A free 
 field and no favor.” 
 
 There have been times — I will not 
 specify them, but there have been 
 times — when the field looked free, but 
 when there were favors received from 
 the managers of the course; when 
 there were advantages given; inside 
 tracks accorded; practices which 
 would block the other runners; rules 
 which would exclude the amateur who 
 wanted to get in. That may be a free 
 field, but there is favor, there is par- 
 tiality, there is preference, there is 
 covert advantage taken of some- 
 body, and while it looks very well 
 from the grand stand, there are 
 men whom you can find who were 
 not allowed to get in to the track 
 and test their powers against the 
 other men who were racing for the 
 honors of the day. 
 
 I think it is a serviceable figure. It 
 means this: That you are not going to 
 be barred from the contest because 
 you are big and strong, and you are 
 not going to be penalized because you 
 are big and strong, but you are going 
 to be made to observe the rules of the 
 track and not get in anybody’s way 
 except as you can keep ahead of him 
 by having more vigor and skill than 
 he has. Dhen we get that under- 
 standing, that we are all sports, and 
 that we are not going to ask for, not 
 only, but we are not going to conde- 
 scend to take, advantage of anything 
 that does not belong to us, then the 
 atmosphere will clear so that it will 
 seem as if the sun had never shone 
 as it does that day. It is the spirit of 
 true sportsmanship that ought to get 
 into everything, and men who, when 
 they get beaten that way, squeal do 
 not deserve our pity. 
 
 Some men are going to get beaten 
 because they have not the brains; 
 they have not the initiative; they have 
 not the skill; they have not the 
 knowledge; they have not the same 
 capacity that other men have. They 
 will have to be employees; they will 
 have to be used where they can be 
 used. We do not need to conceal from 
 ourselves that there are varieties of 
 capacity in the world. Some men 
 have heads, but they are not partic- 
 ularly furnished. I overheard two 
 men talking one day about a third 
 man, and one of them referred to his 
 head. “Head?” the other said, 
 “Head? That isn’t a head; that’s just 
 a knot the Almighty put there to keep 
 him from raveling out?” We have 
 to admit that there are such persons. 
 Now, liberty does not consist in fram- 
 ing laws to put such men at the front 
 and demand that they be allowed to 
 keep pace with the rest; because that 
 would hold the whole process of civili- 
 zation back. But it does consist in 
 saying no matter how featherweight 
 the other man is you must not arbi- 
 trarily interfere with him; that there 
 must be an absolutely free field and 
 no favor to anybody. 
 
 There are, therefore, I suppose, cer- 
 tain rules of the game. I will men- 
 tion what seem to me some of them. 
 I have already mentioned one of them 
 by way of illustration. First of all is 
 the rule of publicity; not doing any- 
 thing under cover; letting the public 
 know what you are doing and judge of 
 it according as it is. There are a great 
 many businesses in this country that 
 have fallen under suspicion because 
 
 you please until you do something that they were so secretive, when there wasyou do for the public &a4 
 
 nothing to secrete that was dishonor- 
 able. The minute I keep everything in 
 my pocket and will not show anybody 
 what is there they conjecture what 
 may be in my pocket; whereas, if I 
 turn my pockets inside out the con- 
 jecture is, at any rate, dissipated. 
 There is no use inviting suspicion by 
 secretiveness. If a business is being 
 honorably done and successfully done, 
 you ought to be pleased to turn it in- 
 side out and let the people whom you 
 are inviting to invest in it see exactly 
 how it is done and with what results. 
 Publicity, which is required in sport, 
 is required in business. Let’s see how 
 you are running the game 
 
 Then, in the second place, is giving 
 a full equivalent for the money you re- 
 ceive, the full equivalent in service; 
 not trying to skimp in the service in 
 order to increase profits above a rea- 
 sonable return, but trying to make 
 the profits proportioned to the satis- 
 faction of the people that you serve. 
 There isn’t any more solid foundation 
 for business than that. If you thor- 
 oughly satisfy the people you are serv- 
 ing you are welcome to their mcfney. 
 They are not going to grudge it, be- 
 cause they will feel that they are get- 
 ting a quid pro quo; they are getting 
 something such as was promised them 
 when their money was asked of them. 
 
 Then, in the third place, this game 
 requires something more than ordi- 
 nary sport. It requires a certain kind 
 of conscience in business, a certain 
 feeling that we are, after all, in this 
 world because we are expected to 
 make good according to the standards 
 of the people we live with. That, 
 after all, gentlemen, is the chief com- 
 pulsion that is laid on all of us. I am 
 not aware of being afraid of jail; I do 
 not feel uneasy when I pass a peniten- 
 tiary; but I would feel extremely un- 
 easy if I knew I had done something 
 which some fine, honorable friend of 
 mine would condemn if it passed be- 
 fore him. I would look carefully at 
 his eyes to see if he suspected any- 
 thing, and I would feel unhappy until 
 I had made a clean breast of it with 
 him. That is what we are afraid of, 
 and that is what we ought to be afraid 
 of. We are sustained by the moral 
 judgment of honorable men; and there 
 isn’t anything else in this world that I 
 know of that is worth while. How 
 honors must hurt a man if he feels 
 that they have been achieved dishon- 
 orably! Then they are an arrow in. 
 his heart, not a quickening or a tonic 
 to his spirit in any respect. If he 
 feels that he has cheated the people 
 who trusted him, then, no matter what 
 fortunes he piles up, they never can 
 contribute to his peace of mind for a 
 moment. So I say that conscience in 
 business is the motive spring of the 
 whole thing — the pride of doing the 
 thing as it ought to be done. 
 
 I ask every man in this room who 
 employs other men if he would not 
 pay the best salary he has if he could 
 be assured that the man he employed 
 was of that quality. You know that 
 is the sort of men that you want, the 
 men who will take a pride in doing 
 the thing right and have a clean con- 
 science toward you who employ them. 
 Now, all of us are employees of the 
 public. It doesn’t make any differ- 
 ence what our business is or how small 
 '.t Is, we are, so far as we get money 
 for it, employees of the public; and 
 our clear, clean consciences toward 
 our employers are the basis of our 
 success and, it goes without sayings 
 the basis of our happiness. 
 
 Then the fourth rule, as it seems to 
 me, is the rule of having the spirit of 
 service. I know a lot of cant is talked 
 about that, and I get very sick of the 
 cant, as I dare say you do; but when 
 I talk about the spirit of service X am 
 not meaning a sentiment. I am not 
 meaning a state of mind. I am mean- 
 ing something very concrete — that you 
 want to see to it that the thing that 
 
 m©Eejr 
 
34 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 f or is the best thing of the kind that 
 can be done. That is what I mean by 
 the spirit of service. I have known 
 many a man who gave up profit for 
 mental satisfaction. I know men in 
 this city — there are men in the scien- 
 tific bureaus of this Government 
 whom I could cite — who could make 
 very big salaries, but who prefer the 
 satisfaction of doing things that will 
 serve the whole community, and doing 
 them just as well as they possibly can 
 be done. I, for one, am proud of the 
 scientific bureaus of this Government. 
 There are men in them of the most 
 self-sacrificing spirit and of the high- 
 est scientific efficiency, who do things 
 on a petty salary which some other men 
 would not do at all; for if you have to 
 pay a man a salary to produce the 
 best product of his brain then he 
 scales the product down to the salary. 
 Here are men who scale the product 
 up to the highest standards of sci- 
 entific ideals! They have hitched their 
 wagons to a star, and the star is apt to 
 lift, their names above the names of 
 the rest of us. So I say that if your 
 earning capacity is the capacity to 
 earn public confidence you can go 
 about your business like freemen. No- 
 body is going to molest you and every- 
 body is going to say, “If you earn big 
 profits; if you have treated the people 
 from whom you are making your profits 
 as they ought to be treated; if you 
 treat the employees whom you use in 
 earning those profits as they ought to 
 be treated; if your methods of compe- 
 tition are clean and above reproach; 
 why, then, you can pile those profits 
 as high as the Rockies and nobody 
 will be jealous of it.” Because you 
 will have earned them in a sense that 
 is the handsomest sense of all. 
 
 It is in this spirit that we all ought 
 to regard the laws, that we all ought 
 to co-operate in the enforcement of 
 the laws. Government, gentlemen, is 
 merely an attempt to express the con- 
 science of everybody, the average con- 
 science of the Nation, In the rules that 
 everybody is commanded to obey. That 
 is all they are. If the Government is 
 going faster than the public con- 
 science it will presently have to pull 
 up, If it is not going as fast as the 
 public conscience it will presently 
 have to be whipped up. Because the 
 public conscience is going to say, "We 
 want our laws to express our charac- 
 ter;" and our character must have 
 this kind of solidity underneath it; the 
 moral judgment of right and wrong. 
 The only reason we quarrel with re- 
 formers sometimes is because they are, 
 or suppose that they are, a little more 
 enlightened than the rest of us, and 
 they want us all of a sudden to be 
 just as enlightened as they are, and 
 we cannot stand the pace, That is 
 all that makes us uneasy about re- 
 formers, If we could get our second 
 wind, if we could keep up the pace as 
 long as they do, we might be able to 
 run as fast as they do, but we are 
 more heavily weighted with clay than 
 they are. We cannot go as fast, And 
 we like companionship, We want to 
 wait for the rest of them, We do not 
 want to be in a lonely advance climb- 
 ing some heights of perfection where 
 there is no good inn to stop at over 
 night. 
 
 .That, gentlemen, is the homely and, 
 'i Tiai-s say, obvious lesson which I 
 Save meant to give utterance to this 
 afternoon. I think that I understand 
 what you are after. I hope that you 
 understand what we are after. All I 
 ask is that if anything is being done 
 that ought not to be done the fault in 
 it be conclusively pointed out and the 
 way to correct the mistake be explic- 
 itly shown. There is an old rule that 
 ought to obtain in politics as in every- 
 thing else, and it is expressed in a very 
 fiomely way. It is the rule of “Put up 
 pr shut up.'f Someone said, "If you 
 wish me to consider you witty I must 
 
 really trouble you to make a joke.’’ If 
 you wish me to consider you wise I 
 must really trouble you to show the 
 concrete proof; to show how the thing 
 can be done; to show how it can be 
 better done. Because nobody is fool 
 enough to suppose that the way he 
 has determined that the thing ought 
 to be done is necessarily the best way 
 to do it. But it is the best way to do 
 it until you show a better way. That, 
 is a perfectly obvious rule. So, again, 
 I say it is the rule of “Put up or shut 
 up.” And I do not mean that in any 
 sort of disrespect. The market for 
 ideas is a highly competitive market, 
 and the rules of competition are neces- 
 sarily fair. There is only one test for 
 an idea and that is, “Is it good?” You 
 may for the time being dress it with 
 such rhetoric that it will look good, 
 and the best thing that characterizes 
 countries like our own is that every 
 man who has an idea is constantly in- 
 
 vited to the platform. There is noth- 
 ing better for an idea by way of test 
 than exposure to the atmosphere. If 
 you let enough people hear it stated 
 often enough it will certainly seek its 
 proper level. 
 
 That is the reason I believe in free 
 speech. I have been subjected to free 
 speech myself, and it is hard to endure 
 sometimes, because the office of the 
 President seems to be the clearing 
 house for original ideas. I am brought 
 more original ideas per dietn, I dare 
 say, than any other person in the 
 country, and, therefore, pay the pen- 
 alty of freedom of speech. Perhaps 
 my mind does not register original 
 ideas readily enough, because some of 
 them do not register at all. I am per- 
 fectly willing to admit that that is the 
 fault of the register, not the fault of 
 the idea. All I have to say to you is 
 that if you have ideas the register ia 
 entirely at your service. 
 
 ADDRESS OF THE 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 BEFORE 
 
 THE UNITED STATES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., FEBRUARY 3, 1915 
 
 R. PRESIDENT, Ladies and 
 Gentlemen — 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 dis- 
 cussing 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 de- 
 liberations 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 
 commendation, 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 
 haye you receive mo as if for the time 
 being I were one of your own number, 
 Because the longer I occupy the of- 
 fice that I now occupy the more I re- 
 gret any lines of separation; the more 
 I deplore any feeling that one set of 
 men has one set of interests and an- 
 other set of men another set of inter- 
 ests; the more I feel the solidarity of 
 the Nation — the impossibility of sepa- 
 rating one interest from another with- 
 out misconceiving it; the necessity 
 that we should all understand one an- 
 other in order that we may under- 
 stand ourselves, 
 
 There is an illustration which I have 
 used a great many times, I will use 
 it again, because it is the most service- 
 able to my own mind, We often speak 
 of a man who cannot find his way in 
 some jungle or some dese :, t as having 
 “lost himself.” Did you ever reflect 
 that that is the only thing he has not 
 lost? He is there. He has lost the 
 rest of the world, He has no fixed 
 point by 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 of those di- 
 rections his goal lay. Therefore, fol- 
 lowing 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 under- 
 stand your own interests, and have lost 
 yourself. What you want is orienta- 
 tion, relationship to the points of the 
 compass; relationship to the other peo- 
 ple in the world; vital connections 
 which you have for the time being 
 severed. 
 
 I am particularly glad to express my 
 admiration for the kind of organiza- 
 tion which you have drawn together. 
 I have attended banquets of chambers 
 of commerce in various parts 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 associa- 
 tions were meant in order to destroy 
 men’s perspective, in order to destroy 
 their sense of relative proportions. 
 Worst of all, if I may be permitted to 
 say so, they were intended to boost 
 something in particular. Boosting is a 
 very unhandsome thing. Advancing 
 enterprise is a very handsome thing, 
 but io exaggerate local merits in order 
 to create disproportion in the general 
 development is not a particularly 
 handsome thing or a particularly in- 
 telligent thing, A city cannot grow on 
 the face of a great State like a mush- 
 room 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 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 35 ^ 
 
 rootages of everything when you boost 
 some particular region. There are 
 dangers which probably you all un- 
 derstand In the mere practice of ad- 
 vertisement. When a man begins to 
 advertise himself there are certain 
 points that are somewhat exaggerated, 
 and I have noticed that men who ex- 
 aggerate most, most quickly lose any 
 proper conception of what their own 
 proportions ar§. Therefore, these lo- 
 cal centers of enthusiasm may be lo- 
 cal centers of mistake if they are not 
 very wisely guided and if they do 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 condi- 
 tions. There cannot be any dispropor- 
 tion about that. If you draw your sap 
 and your vitality from all quarters, 
 then the more sap and vitality there 
 Is in you the more there is in the com- 
 monwealth as a whole, and every time 
 you lift at all you lift the whole level 
 of manufacturing and mercantile en- 
 terprise. Moreover, the advantage of 
 it is that you cannot boost the United 
 States in that way without understand- 
 ing 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 belore a school to compare with 
 that we were now attending for the 
 purpose of gaining a liberal educa- 
 tion. 
 
 Of course, I learn a great many 
 things that are not so, but the in- 
 teresting thing about that is this: 
 Things that are not so do not match. 
 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 in- 
 vent would match one another, and 
 the parts that they did invent would 
 not match one another. Talk long 
 enough, therefore, and see the con- 
 nections clearly enough, and you can 
 patch together the case as a whole. I 
 had somewhat that experience about 
 Mexico, and that was about the only 
 way in which I learned anything that 
 was true about it. For there had 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 to be con- 
 gratulated upon the fact that you 
 cannot do this thing without common 
 counsel. There isn’t any man who 
 .knows enough to comprehend the 
 United States. It is a co-operative ef- 
 fort, necessarily. You cannot per- 
 form the functions of this Chamber of 
 Commerce without drawing in not 
 only a vast number of men, but men, 
 and a number of men, from every re- 
 gion 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 
 
 today what relation you could bear 
 to the Government of the United 
 States and what relation the Govern- 
 ment could bear to you? 
 
 There are two aspects and activities 
 of the Government with which you will 
 naturally come into most direct con- 
 tact. The first is the Government’s 
 power of inquiry, systematic and dis- 
 interested inquiry, and its power of 
 scientific assistance. You get an illus- 
 tration 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 when 
 our Department of Agriculture will 
 be of infinite importance to the whole 
 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 depart- 
 ments of agriculture, and from that 
 taproot of all, the United States De- 
 partment of Agriculture. The object 
 and use of that department is to in- 
 form men 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 Stand- 
 ards. It is ready to supply those things 
 by which you can set norms, you can 
 set bases, for all the scientific pro- 
 cesses 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 departments are 
 quiet men, trained to the highest de- 
 gree of skill, serving for a petty re- 
 muneration along line's that are in- 
 finitely useful to mankind; and yet in 
 some cases they waited to be discov- 
 ered 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 were infinitely useful to 
 them and with which the whole United 
 States ought to be put into communi- 
 cation. 
 
 The Government of the United 
 States is very properly a great instru- 
 mentality 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 Govern- 
 ment out into the world to see where 
 the opportunities and openings of 
 American commerce and American 
 genius were to be found — men who 
 were not sent out as the commercial 
 agents of any particular set of busi- 
 ness men in the United States, but who 
 were eyes for the whole business com- 
 munity. I nave 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 in- 
 teresting 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 te- 
 dium 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.” Un- 
 less you 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 begin- 
 ning to do, systematically and scien- 
 tifically, what we ought long ago to 
 have done, to employ the Government 
 of the United States to survey the 
 world in order that American com- 
 merce 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 in- 
 terest of the whole people. It is 
 very instructive and useful for the 
 Government 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 particlar quarter and orig- 
 inates with no particular interest. In- 
 formation is the very foundation of 
 all right action in legislation. 
 
 I remember once, a good many years 
 ago, I was attending one of the local 
 chambers of commerce of the United 
 States at a time when everybody was 
 complaining that Congress was inter- 
 fering with business. If you have 
 heard that complaint recently and 
 supposed that it was original with the 
 men who made it, you have not lived 
 as long as I have. It has been going 
 on ever since I can remember. The 
 complaint came most vigorously from 
 men who were interested in large 
 corporate development.. I took the 
 liberty to say to that body of men, 
 whom I did not know, that I took it 
 for granted that there were a great 
 many lawyers among them, and that 
 it was likely that the more prominent 
 of those lawyers were the intimate 
 advisers of the corporations of that 
 region. I said that I had met a great 
 many lawyers from whom the com- 
 plaint had come most vigorously, not 
 only that there was too much legis- 
 lation with regard to corporations, but 
 that it was ignorant legislation, I said, 
 “Now, the responsibility is with you. 
 If the legislation is mistaken, you are 
 on the inside and know where the 
 mistakes are being made. You know 
 not only the innocent and right things 
 that your corporations are doing, but 
 you know the other things, too. Know- 
 ing how they are done, you can be 
 expert advisors as to how the wrong 
 things can be prevented. If, there- 
 fore, this thing is handled ignorantly, 
 there is nobody to blame but your- 
 selves.” If we on the outside cannot 
 understand the thing and cannot get 
 advice from the inside, then we will 
 have to do it with the flat hand and 
 not with the touch of skill and dis- 
 crimination. Isn’t that true? Men 
 on the inside of busines know how 
 business is conducted and they can- 
 not complain if men on the outside 
 make mistakes about business if they 
 do not come from the inside and give 
 the kind of advice which is necessary. 
 
 The trouble has been that when 
 they 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 tv- 
 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 whatever 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 an- 
 other, but must pool our interests. A 
 man who is trying to fight for his sin- 
 gle hand is fighting against the com- 
 munity and not fighting with Tfin-f 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 36 ^ 
 
 are a great many dreadful things 
 about war, as nobody needs to be told 
 in this day of distress and of terror, 
 but there 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. When men, I mean, engage 
 in the pursuits of peace in the same 
 spirit of self-sacrifice and of consci- 
 ous service of the community with 
 which, at any rate, the common sol- 
 dier engages in war, then shall there 
 be wars no more. You have moved 
 the vanguard for the United States in 
 the purpose of this association just a 
 little nearer that ideal. That is the 
 reason I am here, because I believe it. 
 
 There is a specific matter about 
 which I, for one, want your advice. 
 Let me say, if I may say it without 
 disrespect, that I do not think you 
 are prepared to give it right away. 
 You will have to make some rather 
 extended inquiries before you are 
 ready to give it. What I am thinking 
 of is competition in foreign markets 
 as between the merchants of different 
 nations. 
 
 I speak of the subject with a certain 
 degree of hesitation, because the thing 
 furthest from my thought is taking 
 advantage of nations now disabled 
 from playing their full part in that 
 competition, and seeking a sudden sel- 
 fish advantage because they are for 
 the time being disabled. Pray believe 
 me that we ought to eliminate all that 
 thought from our minds and consider 
 this matter as if we and the other 
 nations now at war were in the nor- 
 mal circumstances of commerce. 
 
 There is a normal circumstance of 
 commerce in which we are apparently 
 at a disadvantage. Our anti-trust laws 
 are thought by some to make it illegal 
 for merchants in the United States to 
 form combinations for the purpose of 
 strengthening themselves in taking 
 advantage of the opportunities of 
 foreign trade. That is a very serious 
 matter for this reason: There are 
 
 nome corporations, and some firms 
 for all I know, whose business is 
 great enough and whose resources are 
 abundant enough to enable them to 
 establish selling agencies in foreign 
 countries; to enable them to extend the 
 long credits which in some cases are 
 necessary in order to keep the trade they 
 desire; to enable them, in other words, 
 to organize their business in foreign 
 territory in a way which the smaller 
 man cannot afford to do. His busi- 
 ness has not grown big enough to per- 
 mit him to establish selling agencies. 
 The export commission merchant, per- 
 haps, taxes him a little too highly to 
 make that an available competitive 
 means of conducting and extending his 
 business. 
 
 The question arises, therefore, how 
 are the smaller merchants, how are 
 the younger and weaker corporations 
 going to get a foothold as against the 
 combinations which are permitted and 
 even encouraged by foreign govern- 
 ments in this field of competition? 
 There are governments -which, as you 
 know, distinctly encourage the for- 
 mation of great combinations in each 
 particular field of commerce in order 
 to maintain selling agencies and to 
 extend long credits, and to use and 
 maintain the machinery which is nec- 
 essary for the extension of business; 
 and American merchants feel that they 
 are at a very considerable disadvant- 
 age in contending against that. The 
 matter has been many times brought to 
 my attention, and I have each time 
 'tispended judgment. I want to be 
 
 iown this: I want to be shown how 
 
 ch a combination can be made and 
 
 nducted in a way which will not 
 -lose it against the use of everybody 
 vho wants to use it. A combination 
 ,ias a tendency to exclude new mem- 
 bers. When a group of men get con- 
 
 trol of a good thing, they do not see 
 any particular point in letting other 
 people into the good thing. What I 
 would like very much to be shown, 
 therefore, is method of co-operation 
 which is not a method of combination. 
 Not that the two words are mutually 
 exclusive, but we have come to have a 
 special meaning attached to the word 
 “combination.” Most of our com- 
 binations have a safety lock, and you 
 have to know the combination to get 
 in. I want to know how these co- 
 operative methods can be adopted for 
 the benefit of everybody who wants to 
 use them, and I say frankly if I can 
 be shown that, I am for them. If I 
 can not be shown that, I am against 
 them. I hasten to add that I hope- 
 fully expect I can be shown that. 
 
 You, as I have just now intimated, 
 probably can not show it to me off- 
 hand, but by the methods which you 
 have the means of using you certainly 
 ought to be able to throw a vast deal 
 of light on the subject. Because the 
 minute you ask the small merchant, 
 the small banker, the country man, 
 how he looks upon these things and 
 how he thinks they ought to be ar- 
 ranged in order that he can use them, 
 if he is like some of the men in coun- 
 try districts whom I know, he will 
 turn out to have had a^good deal of 
 thought upon that subject and to be 
 able to make some very interesting 
 suggestions whose intelligence and 
 comprehensiveness will surprise some 
 city gentlemen who think that only 
 the cities understand the business of 
 the country. As a matter of fact, you 
 do not have time to think in a city. It 
 takes time to think. You can get 
 what you call opinions by contagion 
 in a city and get them very quickly, 
 but you do not always know where 
 the germ came from. And you have 
 no scientific laboratory method by 
 which to determine whether it is a 
 good germ or a bad germ. 
 
 There are thinking spaces in this 
 country, 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 themselves, 
 who do not see things as they are told 
 to se« them, 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 
 back of those eyes to tell what they 
 see. The country is full of those men. 
 They have been singularly reticent 
 sometimes, singularly silent, but the 
 country is full of them. And what I re- 
 joice in is that you have called them 
 into the ranks. For your methods are 
 bound to be democratic in spite of 
 you. I do not mean democratic with 
 a big “D,” though I have a private 
 conviction that you cannot be demo- 
 cratic with a small “d” long without 
 becoming democratic with a big “D.” 
 Still that is just between ourselves. 
 The point is when we have a con- 
 sensus of opinion, when we have this 
 common counsel, then the legislative 
 processes of this Government will be 
 infinitely illuminated. 
 
 I used to wonder when I was Gov- 
 ernor of one of the States of this 
 great country where all the bills came 
 from. Some of them had a very pri- 
 vate complexion. I found upon in- 
 quiry — it was easy to find — that prac- 
 tically nine-tenths of the bills that 
 were introduced had been handed to 
 the members who introduced them by 
 some constituent or theirs, had been 
 drawn up by some lawyer whom they 
 might or might not know, and were 
 intended to do something that would 
 be beneficial to a particular set of 
 persons. I do not mean, necessarily, 
 beneficial in a way that would be hurt- 
 ful to the rest; they may have been 
 perfectly honest, but they came out of 
 cubby-holes all over the State. They 
 did not come out of public places 
 where men had got together and com- 
 
 pared views. They were not the prod- 
 ucts of common counsel, but the 
 products of private counsel, a very 
 necessary process if there is no other, 
 but a process which it would be a 
 very happy thing to dispense with if 
 we could get another. And the only 
 other process is the process of com- 
 mon counsel. 
 
 Some of the happiest experiences of 
 my life have been like this. We had 
 once when I was president of a uni- 
 versity to revise the whole course of 
 study. Courses of study are chron- 
 ically in need of revision. A commit- 
 tee of, I believe, fourteen men was 
 directed by the faculty of the univer- 
 sity 'to report a revised curriculum. 
 Naturally, the men who had the most 
 ideas on the subject were picked out 
 and, naturally, each man came with 
 a very definite notion of the kind of 
 revision he wanted, and one of the 
 first discoveries we made was that no 
 two of us wanted exactly the same re- 
 vision. I went in there with all my 
 war paint on to get the revision I 
 wanted, and I dare say, though it was 
 perhaps more skillfully concealed, tl^e 
 other men had their war paint on, too. 
 We discussed the matter for six 
 months. The result was a report which 
 no one of us had conceived or fore- 
 seen, but with which we were all ab- 
 solutely satisfied. There was not a 
 man who had not learned in that 
 committee more than he had ever 
 known before about the subject, and 
 who had not willingly revised his pre- 
 possessions; who was not proud to 
 be a participant in a genuine piece of 
 common counsel. I have had several 
 experiences of that sort, and it has 
 led me, whenever I confer, to hold my 
 particular opinion provisionally, as my 
 contribution to go into the final re- 
 sult" but not to dominate the final re- 
 sult. 
 
 That is the ideal of a government 
 like ours, and an interesting 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 han- 
 dle it think that it will work. Many 
 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 
 purposes, the infinitely difficult and 
 complex purposes which we must con- 
 ceive 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 splen- 
 id thing to be part of a great wide- 
 awake nation. It is a splendid thing to 
 know that your own strength is infi- 
 nitely 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 coun- 
 try can be united in common purposes, 
 and that by frankly looking one an- 
 other in the face and taking counsel 
 with one another, prejudices will drop 
 away, handsome understandings will 
 arise, a universal spirit of service will 
 be engendered, and that with this in- 
 creased sense of community of pur- 
 pose will come a vastly enhanced in- 
 dividual 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 
 prima 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 1 
 only the crown of the common theme. 1 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 87 1 
 
 T' 
 
 ( ADDRESS OF THE 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 
 AT THE 
 
 ASSOCIATED PRESS LUNCHEON 
 
 NEW YORK, N. Y., APRIL 20, 1915 
 
 • |iR. PRESIDENT, Gentlemen of 
 the Associated Press, Ladies 
 and Gentlemen — I am deeply 
 gratified by the generous re- 
 ception 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 today. 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 today, of course, 
 somewhat restrained by a sense of re- 
 sponsibility 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 convictions have any valid- 
 ity. opinion ultimately governs the 
 world. 
 
 It is, therefore, of very serious 
 things that I think as I face this body 
 of men. I do not think of you, how- 
 ever, 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 re- 
 ligious denominations. I want to talk 
 to you as my fellow citizens of the 
 United States, for there are serious 
 things which as fellow citizens we 
 
 us, gentlemen, have been difficult 
 enough; the times before us are likely 
 
 ous a thought as that we should sit in 
 judgment upon them — no nation is fit 
 to sit in judgment upon any other na 
 tion — but that we shall some day have 
 to assist in reconstructing the proc- 
 esses of peace. Our resources are un 
 touched; we are more and more be- 
 coming 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 energy, our enthusiasm, our sym- 
 pathy into these things, and we must 
 have our judgments prepared and our 
 spirits chastened against the coming 
 of that day. 
 
 So that I am not speaking in a sel- 
 fish spirit when I say that our whole 
 duty, for the present at any rate, is 
 summed up in this motto, “America 
 first.” Let us think of America be- 
 fore we think of Europe, in order 
 that America may be fit to be Eu- 
 rope’s friend when the day of tested 
 friendship comes. The test of friend- 
 ship is not now sympathy with the 
 one side or the other, but getting 
 ready to help both sides when the 
 struggle is over. The basis of neu- 
 trality, gentlemen, is not indifference; 
 it is not self-interest. The basis of, 
 neutrality is sympathy for mankind 
 It is fairness, it is good-will, at bot 
 tom. It is impartiality of spirit and 
 
 of judgment. I wish that all of our 
 ought to consider. The times behind! fellow citizens could realize that. 
 
 {There is in some quarters a disposition 
 , ; to create distempers in this body pol- 
 
 to be more difficult still, because, ! j(-j c Men are even uttering slanders 
 whatever may be said about the pres- >j a g a j ns t the United States, as if to excite 
 ent condition of the worlds affairs, it Jher. Men are saying that if we should 
 is clear that they are drawing rapidly t 0 war upon either side there would 
 to a climax, and at the climax the test *be a divided America — an abominable 
 will come, not only for the nations jnbel of ignorance! America is not all 
 
 of it vocal just now. It is vocal in 
 spots, but I, for one, have a complete 
 
 engaged in the present colossal strug 
 gle — it will come to them, of course — 
 but the test will come for us particu- 
 larly. 
 
 Do you realize that, roughly speak- 
 ing, we are the only great Nation at 
 present disengaged? I am not speak- 
 ing, of course, with disparagement of 
 the greatness of those nations in Eu- 
 rope which are not parties to the pres- 
 ent war, but I am thinking of their 
 close neighborhood to it. I am think- 
 ing 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 water 3,000 miles of cool and silent 
 ocean. Our atmosphere is not yet 
 charged with those disturbing ele- 
 ments which must permeate every na- 
 tion 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 'dements engaged? 
 
 and abiding faith in that great 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 Amer- 
 ica. 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 under- 
 take not to mind our own business and 
 mediate where other people are quar- 
 reling. I mean the word in a broader 
 sense. We are compounded of the na- 
 tions of the world; we mediate their 
 blood, we mediate their traditions, we 
 mediate their sentiments, their tastes, 
 their passions; we are ourselves com- 
 pounded of those things. We are. 
 
 I am not now -thinking so preposter- 1 therefore, able to under^t&hfi all na* 
 
 tions; we are able to understand them 
 in the compound, not separately, as 
 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 America, 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 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 am- 
 bitions in one particular direction. And 
 merica is particularly free in this, 
 hat she has no hampering ambitions 
 s 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 would not 
 have thought of taking, I believe I 
 am right in saying that we have con- 
 sidered 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 feasi- 
 ble. That is what I mean by saying 
 we have no hampering 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 opin- 
 ion 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 -rv 
 looked for it, but I have always found 
 it. I do not want to walk around 
 trouble. If any man wants a scrap 
 that is an interesting scrap and worth 
 while, I am his man. I warn 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 him a little, why, then, I am in 
 for it. But I am interested in neu- 
 trality because 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-con- 
 trol and self-mastery. Whom do you \ 
 admire most among your friends? The \ 
 irritable man? The man out of whom it 
 you can get a “rise” without trying? i 
 The man who will fight at the drop ■ 
 of the hat, whether he knows what \ 
 the hat is dropped for or not? Don’t 
 ou admire and don’t you fear.iif you 
 ave 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 man 
 you respect. That is the man who, 
 you know, has at bottom a much more 
 fundamental and terrible couragedhan 
 the Irritable, fighting man. Now, I 
 
 
88 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 covet for America this splendid cour- 
 age of reserve moral force, and I 
 wanted to point out to you gentlemen 
 simply this: 
 
 This 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 whether it was true or not for 
 fear it might not be true. That sort 
 of report ought not to go out over the 
 wires. There is generally, if not al- 
 ways, somebody who knows whether 
 the thing is so or not, and in these days, 
 above all days, we ought to take par- 
 ticular 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 un- 
 stable quilibrium to be disturbed by 
 rumor, ought not to be disturbed by 
 imaginative combinations of circum- 
 stances, or, rather, by circumstances 
 stated in combination which do not 
 belong in combination. You gentle- 
 men. and gentlemen engaged like you, 
 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. In- 
 
 deed, 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. 
 
 We cannot afford, therefore, to let 
 the rumors of irresponsible persons 
 and origins get into the atmosphere 
 of the United States. We are trustees 
 for what I venture to say is the great- 
 est heritage that any nation ever had, 
 the love of justice and righteousness 
 and human liberty. For, fundament- 
 ally, 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 pur- 
 posed, 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 remem- 
 ber. 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 Eng- 
 lish, 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 per- 
 mitted myself to be a partisan in this 
 present struggle, I would be unworthy 
 to represent you. If I permitted my- 
 self 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 everything else I love 
 America. 
 
 ADDRESS OF THE 
 
 % PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 AT CONVENTION HALL, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 
 MAY 10, 1915 
 
 R. Mayor, Fellow Citizens — It 
 warms my heart that you 
 should give me such a re- 
 ception; but it is not of my- 
 self that I wish to think 
 tonight, but of those who have just 
 become citizens of the United 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 voluntary associa- 
 tion with it of great bodies of strong 
 men and forward-looking 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 cre- 
 ated. It is as if humanity had de- 
 termined to see to it that this great 
 nation, founded for the benefit of hu- 
 
 manity, should not lack for the alle- 
 giance of the people of the world. 
 
 You have just taken an oath of alle- 
 giance to the United States. Of alle- 
 giance to whom? Of allegiance to 
 no one. unless it be God — certainly 
 not of allegiance to those who tem- 
 porarily represent this great govern- 
 ment. You have taken oath of alle- 
 giance 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 for- 
 ward the great enterprises of the hu- 
 man spirit — to let men know that 
 everywhere in the world there are 
 men who will cross strange oceans 
 and go where a speech is spoken 
 which is alien to them if they can but 
 satisfy their quest for what their 
 spirits crave; knowing that whatever 
 
 the speech there is but one longing 
 and utterance of the human heart, 
 and that is for liberty and justice.” 
 And while you bring all countries 
 with you, you come with a purpose 
 of leaving all other countries behind 
 you — bringing what is best of their 
 spirit, but not looking over your 
 shoulders and seeking to perpetuate 
 what you intended to leave behind in 
 them. I certainly would not be one 
 even to suggest that a man cease to 
 love the home 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 and it is another thing to dedi- 
 cate yourself to the place to which 
 you go. You cannot dedicate your- 
 self to America unless you become in 
 every respect and with every purpose 
 of your will thorough Americans. You 
 cannot become thorough Americans 
 |\if you think of yourselves in groups. 
 'America does not consist of groups. A 
 man who thinks of himself as be- 
 longing to a particular national group 
 in America has not yet become an 
 American, and the man who goes 
 among you to trade upon your nation- 
 ality 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. Human- 
 ity can be welded together only by 
 love, by sympathy, by justice, not by 
 jealousy and hatred. I am sorry for 
 the man who seeks to make personal 
 capital out of the passions of his fel- 
 lowmen. 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 ancestors, 
 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 his- 
 torical 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 circum- 
 stance 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 be- 
 lief, 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 disappoint- 
 ing. No doubt you have found that 
 justice in the United estates goes only 
 with a pure heart and a right pur- 
 pose 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 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 39 
 
 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 that he does not 
 believe in, and if some of us have for- 
 gotten 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 re- 
 mind me. I was born in America. 
 You dreamed dreams of what Amer- 
 ica 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 
 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 Americans must have 
 a consciousness different from the 
 consciousness 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 cen- 
 tered 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 
 narrowness and prejudice of a fam- 
 ily; 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 
 example. The example of America 
 must be the example not merely of 
 
 i 
 
 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 Na- 
 tion 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 work anywhere in the 
 world. We can not exempt you from 
 the strife and the heartbreaking bur- 
 den of the struggle of the day — that 
 is common to mankind everywhere; 
 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 
 libeity, it is the spirit of justice. 
 
 When I was asked, therefore, by the 
 Mayor and the committee that ac- 
 companied him to come up from 
 Washington to meet this great com- 
 pany of newly admitted citizens, I 
 could not decline the invitation. I 
 ought not to be away from Washing- 
 ton, 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 pres- 
 ence of a great body of my fellow- 
 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 gen- 
 erously given me — the sense of your 
 support and of the living vitality in 
 your hearts of the great ideals which 
 have made America the hope of the 
 world. 
 
 AMERICAN NEUTRALITY 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 BY THE 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES > 
 
 TO THE 
 
 CITIZENS OF THE REPUBLIC, REQUESTING THEIR ASSISTANCE 
 IN MAINTAINING A STATE OF NEUTRALITY DURING 
 THE PRESENT EUROPEAN WAR. 
 
 STATEMENT OF THE PRESIDENT 
 
 Y Fellow Countrymen — I sup- | within our own choice what its effects 
 pose that every thoughtful j upon us will be and to urge very earn- 
 man in America has asked | estly upon you the sort of speech and 
 himself, during these last I conduct which will best safeguard the 
 troubled weeks, what influ- j nation against distress and disaster, 
 ence the European war may exert upon ; The effect of the war upon the 
 the United States, and I take the lib- United States will depend upon what 
 erty of addressing a few words to you American citizens say and do. Every 
 In order to point out that it is entirely i man who really loves America will 
 
 • < i 
 
 I . 
 
 act and speak in the true spirit of neu- 
 trality, which is the spirit of impar- 
 tiality and fairness and friendliness to 
 all concerned. The spirit of the Nation 
 in this critical matter will be deter- 
 mined largely by what individuals and 
 society and those gathered in public 
 meetings do and say, upon what news- 
 papers 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 sym- 
 pathy and desire among them with re- 
 gard to the issues and circumstances of 
 the conflict. Some will wish one na- 
 tion, 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, re- 
 sponsibility 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 im- 
 pulse 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 peo- 
 ple holding itself ready to play a part 
 of impartial mediation and speak the 
 counsels of peace and accommodation, 
 not as a partisan, but as a friend, 
 
 I venture, therefore, my fellow coun- 
 trymen, 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 tak- 
 ing sides. The United States must be — 
 neutral in fact as well as in name dur- 
 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 con- 
 strued as a preference of one party to 
 the struggle before another. 
 
 My thought is of America. I am 
 speaking, I feel sure, the earnest wish 
 and purpose of every thoughtful Amer- 
 ican that this great country of ours, 
 which is, of course, the first in our 
 thoughts and in our hearts, should 
 show herself in this time of peculiar 
 trial a Nation fit beyond others to ex- 
 hibit the fine poise of undisturbed judg- 
 ment, the dignity of self control, tls? 
 efficiecy of dispassionate action; a Na- 
 tion 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 dis- 
 interested and truly serviceable for 
 the peace of the world. 
 
 Shall we not resolve to put upon our- 
 selves the restraints which will bring 
 to our people the happiness and the 
 great and lasting influence for peace 
 we covet for them? 
 
 \ 
 
 
r 40 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 OFFICIAL TEXT OF THIRD UNITED STATES NOTE TO GERMANY. 
 
 OLLOWING is the official text 
 of the latest American note 
 to Germany regarding sub- 
 marine warfare, which was 
 delivered to the Foreign 
 Office at Berlin on July 24 by Ambassa- 
 dor Gerard. 
 
 The Secretary of State to Ambassador 
 Gerard. 
 
 , *■ Department of State, 
 
 Washington, July 21, 1915. 
 Tou are instructed to deliver textu- 
 ally the following note to the Minister 
 for Foreign Affairs: 
 
 The note of the Imperial German 
 Government dated the 8th of July, 
 1915, has received the careful consid- 
 eration of the Government of the 
 United States, and it regrets to be 
 obliged to say that it has found it very 
 unsatisfactory, because it fails to meet 
 the real difference between the two 
 governments and indicates no way in 
 which the accepted principles of law 
 vm* *iumanlty may be applied in the 
 grave matter in controversy, but pro- 
 poses, on the contrary, arrangements 
 for a partial suspension of those prin- 
 ciples which virtually set them aside. 
 
 The Government of the United 
 States notes with satisfaction that the 
 Imperial German Government recog- 
 nizes without reservation the validity 
 of the principles insisted on in the 
 several communications which this 
 Government has addressed to the Im- 
 perial German Government with re- 
 gard to its announcement of a war 
 zone and the use of submarines 
 against merchantmen on the high seas 
 — the principle that the high seas are 
 free, that the character and cargo of 
 a merchantman must first be ascer- 
 tained before she can lawfully be 
 Beized or destroyed, and that the lives 
 of noncombatants may in no case be 
 put in jeopardy unless the vessel re- 
 sists or seeks to escape after being 
 summoned to submit to examination: 
 for a belligerent act of retaliation is 
 per se an act beyond the law, and the 
 defense of an act as retaliatory is an 
 admission that it is illegal. 
 
 The Government of the United 
 States is, however, keenly disap- 
 pointed to find that the Imperial Ger- 
 man Government regards itself as in 
 large degree exempt from the obliga- 
 tion to observe these principles, even 
 where neutral vessels are concerned, 
 by what it believes the policy and 
 practice of the Government of Great 
 Britain to be in the present war with 
 regard to neutral commerce. The Im- 
 perial German Government will readi- 
 ly understand that the Government of 
 the United States cannot discuss the 
 policy of the Government of Great 
 
 Britain with regard to neutral trade ! 
 except with that Government itself, 
 and that it must regard the conduct 
 of other belligerent governments as ir- 
 relevant to any discussion with the 
 Imperial German Government of what 
 this Government regards as grave and 
 unjustifiable violations of the rights 
 of American citizens by German naval 
 commanders. Illegal and inhuman 
 acts, however justifiable they may be 
 thought to be against an enemy who 
 is believed to have acted in contra- 
 vention of law and humanity, are 
 manifestly indefensible when they de- 
 prive neutrals of their acknowledged 
 rights, particularly when they violate 
 the right to life itself. If a belligerent 
 cannot retaliate against an enemy 
 without injuring the lives of neutrals, 
 as well as their property, humanity, as 
 well as justice and a due regard for 
 the dignity of neutral Powers, should 
 dictate that the practice be discon- 
 tinued. If persisted in it would in such 
 circumstances constitute an unpardon- 
 able offense against the sovereignty of 
 the neutral nation affected. The Gov- 
 ernment of the United States is not 
 unmindful of the extraordinary con- 
 ditions created by this war or of the 
 radical alterations of circumstance 
 and method of attack produced by the 
 use of instrumentalities of naval war- 
 fare which the nations of the world 
 cannot have had in view when the ex- 
 isting rules of International law were 
 formulated, and it is ready to make 
 every reasonable allowance for these 
 novel and unexpected aspects of war 
 at sea; but it cannot consent to abate 
 any essential or fundamental right of 
 its people because of a mere alteration 
 of circumstance. The rights of neu- 
 trals in time of war are based upon 
 principle, not upon expediency, and 
 the principles are immutable. It is the 
 duty and obligation of belligerents to 
 find a way to adapt the new circum- 
 stances to them. 
 
 The events of the past two months 
 have clearly indicated that it is possi- 
 ble and practicable to conduct such 
 submarine operations as have char- 
 acterized the activity of the Imperial 
 German Navy within the so-called 
 war zone in substantial accord with 
 the accepted practices of regulated 
 warfare. The whole world has looked 
 with interest and increasing satisfac- 
 tion at the demonstration of that 
 possibility by German naval com- 
 manders. It is manifestly possible, 
 therefore, to lift the whole practice 
 of submarine attack above the criti- 
 cism which it has aroused and remove 
 the chief causes of offense. 
 
 In view of the admission of illegal- 
 ity made by the Imperial Government 
 when it pleaded the right of retalia- 
 tion in defense of its acts, and in view 
 of the manifest possibility of conform- 
 ing to the established rules or naval 
 warfare, the Government of the United 
 
 ! States cannot believe that the Imperial 
 Government will longer refrain from 
 disavowing the wanton act of its naval 
 commander in sinking the Lusitania or 
 from offering reparation for the Amer- 
 ican lives lost, so far as reparation can 
 be made for a needless destruction of 
 human life, by an illegal act. 
 
 The Government of the United 
 States, while not indifferent to the 
 friendly spirit in which it is made, 
 cannot accept the suggestion of the 
 Imperial German Government that 
 certain vessels be designated and 
 agreed upon which shall be free on 
 the seas now illegally proscribed. The 
 very agreement would, by implica- 
 tion, subject other vessels to illegal 
 attack and would be a curtailment 
 and therefore an abandonment of the 
 principles for which this Government 
 contends and which in times of calmer 
 counsels every nation would concede 
 as of course. 
 
 The Government of the United 
 States and the Imperial German Gov- 
 ernment are contending for the same 
 great object, have long stood together 
 in urging the very principles upon 
 which the Government of the United 
 States now so solemnly insists. They 
 are both contending for the freedom 
 of the seas. The Government of the 
 United States will continue to con- 
 tend for that freedom, from whatever 
 quarter violated, without compromise 
 and at any cost. It invites the prac- 
 tical co-operation of the Imperial 
 German Government at this time when 
 co-operation may accomplish most and 
 this great common object be most 
 strikingly and effectively achieved. 
 
 The Imperial German Government 
 expresses the hope that this object 
 may be in some measure accomplished 
 even before the present war ends. It 
 can be. The Government of the 
 United States not only feels obliged to 
 insist upon it, by whomsoever violated 
 or ignored, in the protection of its own 
 citizens, but is also deeply interested 
 in seeing it made practicable between 
 the belligerents themselves and holds 
 itself ready at any time to act as the 
 common friend who may be privileged 
 to suggest a way. 
 
 In the meantime the very value 
 which this Government sets upon the 
 long and unbroken friendship between 
 the people and Government of the 
 United States and the people and Gov- 
 ernment of the German nation impels 
 it to press very solemnly upon the Im- 
 perial German Government the neces- 
 sity for a scrupulous observance cf 
 neutral rights in this critical matter. 
 Friendship itself prompts it to say to 
 the Imperial Government that repeti- 
 tion by the commanders of German 
 naval vessels of acts in contravention 
 of those rights must be regarded by 
 the Government of the United States, 
 when they affect American citizens, as 
 deliberately unfriendly. 
 
 LANSING. 
 
 TEXT OF GERMAN PLEDGE SENT BY COUNT VON BERNSTORFF TO SECRETARY LANSING 
 
 Following an oral statement to Sec- 
 retary Lansing on September 1 that 
 Germany had accepted the declara- 
 tions of the United States in the sub- 
 marine warfare controversy. Count 
 von Bernstorff, the German Ambassa- 
 dor, sent the following letter to Mr. 
 Lansing: 
 
 “Washington, D. C., September 1. 
 
 “My Dear Mr. Secretary — With ref- 
 erence to our conversation of this 
 morning, I beg to inform you that my 
 Instructions concerning answer to 
 
 your last Lusitania note contains the 
 following passage: 
 
 “ ‘Liners will not be sunk by our 
 submarines without warning and with- 
 out safety of the lives of noncombat- 
 ants, provided that the liners do not 
 try to escape or offer resistance.’ 
 
 “Although I know that you do not 
 wish to discuss the Lusitania question 
 till the Arabic incident has been defi- 
 nitely' and satisfactorily settled, I de- 
 sire to inform you of the above be- 
 cause this policy of my government 
 was decided on before the Arabic in- 
 cident occurred. 
 
 “I have no objection to y'our making 
 any use you may please of the above 
 information. 
 
 “I remain, my dear Mr. Lansing, 
 very sincerely y'ours, 
 
 "J. BERNSTORFF.” 
 
 In connection with the letter. Secre- 
 tary Lansing made the following state- 
 ment: 
 
 “In view of the clearness <.2 the fore- 
 going statement, it seems needless to 
 make any comment in regard to it, 
 other than to say that it appears to be 
 a recognition of the fundamental prin- 
 ciple for which we have contended.” 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 41 
 
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42 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 Chairman Committee on Appropriations 
 House of Representatives 
 
 Candidate for Justice 
 
 Representative John J. 
 Fitzgerald was born in 
 Brooklyn, N. Y., on March 
 10, 1872. His preliminary 
 education was received in 
 Brooklyn and subsequently 
 he entered Manhattan Col- 
 lege, New York, whence he 
 
 of the Supreme Court. 
 
 ;was graduated in 1891 with] 
 ! the degree of Bachelor of 
 ■Arts. He entered New York 
 Law School and in 1893 was 
 graduated therefrom and re- 
 ceived from the Regents of 
 the State of New York the 
 i degree of Bachelor of Laws, I 
 
 with honor. The same year 
 he received the degree of 
 Master of Arts from Manhat- 
 tan College. 
 
 While attending the New 
 York Law School Mr. Fitz- 
 gerald was employed in the 
 office of Hon. Lucius E. Chit- 
 tenden, a distinguished New 
 York lawyer, who had been 
 Registrar of the Treasury un- 
 der President Lincoln. Mr. 
 Fitzgerald was admitted to 
 the bar in May, 1893, and en- 
 tered actively upon the prac- 
 tice of the law. For many 
 years he maintained his office 
 in Manhattan, but in 1902 
 moved it to Brooklyn. 
 
 In 1898 he was elected to 
 the Fifty-sixth Congress from 
 the Second District of New 
 York and re-elected in 1900. 
 In 1902 he was elected from 
 the Seventh Congressional 
 District and has since served 
 continuously. 
 
 Mr. Fitzgerald is noted as 
 a parliamentarian, being con- 
 sidered by many as the best 
 parliamentarian in Congress. 
 He has specialized in mat- 
 ters affecting governmental 
 finance and is regarded as an 
 authority on such matters. 
 By request, he addressed a 
 committee of the Constitu- 
 tional Convention regarding 
 a budget for the State of New 
 York and many of his sugges- 
 tions are incorporated in the 
 proposed article providing a 
 budget. 
 
 Mr. Fitzgerald is a ready 
 and aggressive debater, an in- 
 defatigable worker, and, by 
 reason of his position of 
 Chairman of the Committee 
 on Appropriations, one of the 
 leaders of the House of Rep-> 
 resentatives. 
 

 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 43 
 
 MAURICE E. CONNOLLY, 
 
 Borough President of Queens. 
 
r 44 
 
 Eagle Library — SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 45 
 
 ROBT. H. ROY 
 
 Judge Kings County Court, N. Y. 
 
 t 
 
r 46 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 County Clerk Charles S. Devoy 
 
 C OUNTY CLERK CHARLES S. DEVOY was born in the old Astor House, New York, on May 23, 
 1862. When he was seven (7) years old his parents moved to Brooklyn, and for forty-six 
 years he has been a resident of the Seventh Assembly District. In 1901 Mr. Devoy was elected 
 City Magistrate and in 1902 he became Chief Clerk of the County Court, where he rendered excel- 
 lent service in the reorganization of its clerical procedure. In the election of 1911 Mr. Devoy was 
 elected County Clerk of Kings County by 28,000 plurality. His efficient service as County Clerk 
 during that term made him the logical candidate for re-election in 1913, when he was again elected 
 and received 62,000 plurality. 
 
 During Mr. Devoy’s two terms as County Clerk he has brought every department under his 
 jurisdiction to the highest point of efficiency. The successful attainment of this accomplishment is 
 due chiefly to his wide and varied experience with matters pertaining to the Courts, combined with 
 the broadening influence of many years in public life and his natural executive ability. The secret of 
 his ever-increasing personal popularity is due to his possession of a pleasing personality. Political 
 discrimination is abolished in the personnel of the County Clerk’s office, and efficient public service 
 is the result. County Clerk Devoy’s popularity has increased considerably since he entered public 
 life back in 1901, and during the past four years he has risen higher in public favor in the estimation 
 of all who appreciate his ability and personality. 
 
47 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 
 GEORGE J. S. DOWLING 
 
 Candidate for County Judge 
 in the Democratic Primaries. 
 
 He is a former president and at present active member 
 of the St. Patrick and Emerald Societies, a director of the 
 Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum Society, a member of the 
 American Bar Association, the New York State and Brooklyn 
 Bar Associations, a member of DeLong Council, R. A.; Bed- 
 ford Council, Knights of Columbus; the Twelfth Assembly 
 District Democratic Club and the Washington Club of the 
 Tenth Assembly District, an alumnus of Brooklyn College 
 and St. Francis College and member of the Anvil Chorus, 
 Brooklyn Press Club, Brooklyn Civic Club, Manufacturers 
 and Business Men’s Association, New York Chamber of Com- 
 merce, South Brooklyn Board of Trade, Brooklyn Law Li- 
 brary, Wallabout Market Merchants Association, ex-Presi- 
 dent of the Franklin Literary Society and member of the 
 Brooklyn Democratic Club and Loyola League. 
 
 
r '48 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 Drescher’s career is interesting. He rose from a 
 poor East Side boy to his present position without 
 having the advantages of what would be termed a 
 scholastic education, having lost his father at the 
 tender age of 3. He was thrown upon his own 
 resources when but a child, and in that way be 
 equipped himself for the battles of life. In order 
 to support himself and those dependent upon him, 
 he sold newspapers upon the Bowery. He also 
 attended Public School No. 4, on Rivington street, 
 Manhattan, many of the graduates of which are 
 pre-eminent in New York life. 
 
 At the age of 15 he became interested in politics, 
 and was one of the orators who took the stand for 
 the late Henry George. 
 
 Drescher attended Cooper Union in the evenings 
 and developed himself to be a first class speaker 
 and debater. He also took a great interest in boys’ 
 clubs, and was the leader of the Boys’ Civic 
 League at the University Settlement Society. He 
 was one of the champions for small parks on the 
 East Side and had a close personal friendship with 
 Jacob Riis. 
 
 About fifteen years ago he settled in Browns- 
 ville, where he lives with his wife, daughter and 
 son. Drescher has been secretary of the Browns- 
 ville Board of Trade for over eleven years. 
 Brownsville owes its development to Drescher. It 
 was Drescher who secured from the city for this 
 section many public improvements that made 
 Brownsville so popular and prosperous a com- 
 munity. 
 
 In 1910 he was elected a member of the Board 
 of Aldermen, where he proved himself to be a 
 factor. Among the measures which Drescher 
 introduced during his term as Alderman are the 
 following: 
 
 Alexander S. Drescher 
 
 He introduced the measure and secured the es- 
 tablishment of the Municipal Bath House, despite 
 powerful opposition from the Coney Island “Bath 
 House Barons.” 
 
 He advocated and helped secure the Betsy Head 
 Memorial Playground and Recreation Center, which 
 will be the finest and best equipped in the world. 
 
 He introduced the measure for the establishment 
 of the East New York High School, soon to be 
 erected, which will accommodate 2,500 students; 
 he also helped to secure the appropriation for the 
 establishment of the Evening High School now in 
 use by men and women, boys and girls. 
 
 He urged upon the Carnegie Library Commis- 
 sion the establishment of the only children’s 
 library in the world. This library was only re- 
 cently dedicated. 
 
 He is the author of the Aldermanic resolution 
 appropriating $1,000,000 for the development of 
 Jamaica Bay in the interests of commerce. 
 
 In the interest of public health, and to prevent 
 the pollution of Jamaica Bay, he secured the pass- 
 age of the measure enlarging the Twenty-sixth 
 Ward Disposal Works. 
 
 He led in the fight and helped to defeat the 
 1911 Tammany Building Code, receiving com- 
 mendation of the public and of the press. 
 
 He called attention to the overcrowding of the 
 local hospitals, and helped secure the appropria- 
 tion for the proposed East New York Hospital and 
 Training School, soon to be erected. 
 
 As chairman of the Park Committee, he recom- 
 mended the acquisition of Seaside Park, now in 
 use, and also the reclamation of the beach front at 
 Coney Island. 
 
 He appeared before the late Mayor Gaynor in 
 behalf of the Street Cleaning Employees Pension 
 Fund, also presented the claims of the patrolmen 
 for living wages and advocated an increase of 
 salary for members of the Fire Department. 
 
 Also, he conducted the largest public demon- 
 stration ever had before the Rapid Transit Board 
 in favor of laying out the Eastern Parkway subway 
 route, now in the course of construction; and has 
 been for the past twelve years, and now is, secre- 
 tary of the Eastern Parkway Subway Association. 
 
 He is a lawyer by profession, and is counsel for 
 the Maternity Hospital Association of Brooklyn, 
 counsel for the Brownsville and East New York 
 Apothecaries Association, counsel for the Asso- 
 ciated Builders of Kings County. 
 
 He is an honorary member of the McClellan- 
 Garrison Army and Navy Union, a member of the 
 New York Press Club, Past Deputy Grand Chan- 
 cellor, Grand Lodge, Knights of Pythias; member 
 of Acacia Lodge, No. 327, Free and Accepted 
 Masons. He is delegate to the Jewish Com- 
 munity, director of the Brooklyn Institution for 
 Safety, member of the Federation of Jewish Char- 
 ities. He is a member of the Brooklyn Bar Asso- 
 ciation and secretary of the Playground Advisory 
 Committee. Also a member of the Independent 
 Order Brith Abraham, member of the Civic Club, 
 member of “Talmud Torah.” 
 
Eagle Library — SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 **» A>-. 
 
 49 
 
 WILLIAM E. KELLY 
 
 POSTMASTER OF THE BOROUGH OF BROOKLYN, AND 
 PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL LETTER 
 CARRIERS ASSOCIATION 
 
 WILLIAM E. KELLY 
 
 The appointment of William E. Kelly to be Post- 
 master of the Borough of Brooklyn brings to that 
 office one of the best known men in the postal serv- 
 ice, and the first who has risen from the ranks to the 
 head of the local department. Mr. Kelly became a 
 letter carrier twenty-one years ago and has been 
 closely identified with the movement to improve both 
 the department and the thousands of employees who 
 handle the U. S. mail. Since 1907 he has held the 
 presidency of the National Letter Carriers Associa- 
 tion, an organization having 30,000 members and 
 1,500 branch chapters. He has assumed the duties 
 of Postmaster in the sixth largest office in the coun- 
 try with every promise of success. The close study 
 which he has devoted to conditions in the service is 
 expected to result in great improvement as concerns 
 both the men employed and the convenience of the 
 public. He is known to entertain some decided ideas 
 on the subject and his efforts will be watched with 
 close attention. 
 
 Mr. Kelly was born in Brooklyn, October 18th, 
 1872, the son of Matthew E. and Catherine Kelly. 
 As a lad he attended public schools No. 9 and No. 41 
 and after completing the elementary course he found 
 
 employment with Harper Bros., the well-known pub- 
 lishers. His evenings were spent at the high school 
 and he subsequently graduated from that institution i 
 with honors. The period of Mr. Kelly’s most useful 
 activity began with the day on which he entered the 
 postal service. The work possessed a special interest 
 for him and he became conversant with its numerous ' 
 problems. In the course of a few years he helped j 
 organize the Brooklyn branch of the National Letter 
 Carriers Association and was soon afterward made 
 president of the local body. At one time or another 
 he has taken an active part in the passage of legisla- 
 tion bearing on the welfare of departmental em- 
 ployees. One of the bills which received his solid 
 support was the Reilly eight hour law, limiting the 
 period of postal workers’ labor. He was also instru- 
 mental in the discontinuance of Sunday work and 
 participated in the enactment of a measure which 
 provides that they be compensated for time when on 
 duty; he also helped pass the bill allowing 15 days 
 vacation for employees of the department exclusive 
 of Sundays and holidays. 
 
 When it was made known that Mr. Kelly was a 
 candidate for the position which he now holds, all 
 divisions of the community came forward in his sup- 
 port. He has been a stanch Democrat over an 
 extended period, and it was generally agreed that 
 no incumbent of the office could be more acceptable 
 to the party than Mr. Kelly. However, political 
 considerations were a minor factor in the selection 
 ' of the postal carriers’ head for this office. It was 
 believed that his close relation with the men of the 
 department, and long study of efficiency methods, 
 would make for the conduct of the Brooklyn office 
 along the most satisfactory lines.' These facts se- 
 cured for him the indorsement of Brooklyn’s lead- 
 ing civic and commercial bodies. With such sponsors, 
 the appointment of Mr. Kelly came as a natural 
 result. 
 
 The by-laws of the National Letter Carriers 
 Association provide for the election of an executive 
 each ensuing year, and it is significant of Mr. 
 Kelly’s services to the association that he has been 
 annually retained in office since becoming president 
 in 1907. He is always a conspicuous figure at the 
 national gatherings of his constituency, and is per- 
 sonally known to a large division of the member- 
 ship. His elevation to an important office under 
 the Federal Government is. all" the more satisfying 
 to the letter carriers of the country owing to his 
 great personal popularity, and it would seem that 
 the Administration has effected a stroke of busi- 
 ness which will make for enhanced satisfaction in 
 the postal service. 
 
 Mr. Kelly is affiliated with the Eighteenth As- 
 sembly Ditsrict Democratic Association, and other 
 bodies of a social and fraternal character. He is 
 a well-known member of Brooklyn Lodge No. 22, 
 
 B. P. O. E. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was married to Miss 
 Anna Hanrahan of Brooklyn on September 5, 1900. 
 They have two children, Edward and Adele Kelly, 
 both of whom are now attending school. 
 
 1 
 
60 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 CHARLES B. LAW, 
 
 For Justice of the Municipal Court, Seventh restrict. 
 
 
 \ 
 
Eagle Library — SPEECHES OF, WOODROW WILSON 
 
 51 1 
 
 
 muniuvav/iosnimuiv 
 
 MELVILLE J. FRANCE 
 
 United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York 
 
 was born in the Seventh Ward of 
 the old City of Brooklyn in 1878. 
 
 He is the son of Thomas J. and 
 Addie Clark France. He was edu- 
 cated in the public schools of the 
 City of Brooklyn, having been 
 graduated from Public School No. 
 
 45 in 1892 and from the Boys’ 
 
 High School in 1896. In the latter 
 year he entered Columbia College 
 and in 1900 received the degree of 
 A. B. from that institution. In the 
 fall of 1900 he was appointed a 
 teacher of history and English in 
 the Brooklyn Boys’ High School, 
 being the first graduate thereof to 
 become one of its teaching staff. 
 
 While so engaged Mr. France at- 
 tended the evening division of the 
 New York Law School, from which 
 he was graduated in 1902. He was 
 admitted to the bar in 1902 and in 
 the fall of that year resigned his 
 position in the Brooklyn Boys’ 
 
 High School and entered the law 
 offices of Daily & Bell in the Bor- 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 library 
 
 ough of Brooklyn, with which firm 
 and its successor, Daily & Wil- 
 liams, he was associated until 1907, 
 when he entered upon the practice 
 of law independently. In 1904 Mr. 
 France was married to Miss Annie 
 F. Wilson. During the years 1907 
 and 1908 he was an instructor in 
 the Brooklyn Law School (St. Law- 
 rence University). In 1911 Mr. 
 France was one of the organizers 
 and an officer of the Woodrow 
 Wilson Committee in Brooklyn, 
 the first organization formed in 
 Kings County to promote the 
 nomination of Mr. Wilson for 
 President. In 1914 Mr. France 
 was appointed by Mayor Mitchel 
 Assistant Corporation Counsel in 
 Charge of the Bureau of Street 
 Openings in the Borough of 
 Brooklyn. In 1915 he was ap- 
 pointed to his present position by 
 President Wilson. In politics Mr. 
 France has always been an inde- 
 pendent Democrat. 
 
52 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 PATRICK H. QUINN 
 
 U. S. Shipping Commissioner 
 Port of New York 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 63 
 
 John MacCrate 
 
 Republican Candidate for Register of Kings County 
 
 Lawyer, Graduate of Commercial H. S. and New York University 
 , Law School. 
 
 Member of Brooklyn Bar Association, Crosstown Subway League, 
 Greenpoint Taxpayers and Citizens Association, Greenpoint Lodge, 
 F. and A. M.; Greenpoint Lodge Knights of Pythias, Court Hecla, 
 F. of A.; Local School Board, No. 34. - 
 
 i 
 
 V*' - 
 
! 
 
 54 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 HENRY P. KEITH 
 
 Henry P. Keith, born December 19, 
 1876, Brooklyn, N. Y. Attended Pub- 
 lic Schools Nos. 11 and 12, Brooklyn, 
 N. Y.; Bryant School at Roslyn, L. I., 
 and Hempstead Institute at Hemp- 
 stead, L. I., Columbia College Law 
 School, member of the “class of 
 
 1897. ” 
 
 Admitted to the Bar February, 
 
 1898. Engaged in practice at the law 
 offices of Sheehan & Collin, 32 Nas- 
 sau street, New York City, and 168 
 Montague street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 On January 1, 1899, appointed As- 
 sistant District Attorney under James 
 P. Niemann of Nassau County. On 
 May 1, 1900, appointed Deputy As- 
 sistant District Attorney of New 
 York County by District Attorney 
 Asa Bird Gardiner. 
 
 On January 1, 1901, reappointed 
 by District Attorney Eugene A. Phil- 
 bin. 
 
 Served as attorney for State Con- 
 troller during administration of Mar- 
 tin H. Glynn, and during a part of the 
 administration of William Sohmer. 
 Served at various times as County At- 
 torney of Nassau County. Counsel to 
 the Board of Supervisors of Nassau 
 County. Counsel for the Town Board 
 of the town of Hempstead, and as 
 
 village attorney for the village of 
 Hempstead. 
 
 Appointed Collector of Internal 
 Revenue by President Wilson on the 
 14th day of August, 1914. 
 
 Independent organization Demo- 
 crat in politics. Leader of Democratic 
 party in Nassau County from 1896 
 until September 1, 1914, when he re- 
 signed to accept position of Collector 
 Internal Revenue, First District of 
 New York. 
 
 Member of Democratic State Com- 
 mittee for Nassau and Suffolk Coun- 
 ties from April, 1912, to September 
 26, 1914. Successfully resisted at- 
 tempt of Charles F. Murphy and 
 Tammany Hall to control Democratic 
 affairs of Nassau and Suffolk Coun- 
 ties after three severe primary fights. 
 
 Member of so called “Rochester 
 Conference” and of the Committee of 
 Five, together with Robert Lansing, 
 now Secretary of State; George Reil- 
 ley of Buffalo, Jacob L. Ten Eyck of 
 Albany, and Charles F. Rattigan of 
 Auburn, which committee drew up 
 and prepared the resolutions that 
 were adopted by said conference. 
 
 Member of the Bar Association of 
 the City of New York, National Dem- 
 ocratic Club, Brooklyn Club, Beta 
 Theta Pi Club, South Shore Yacht 
 Club, Wheatley Hills Golf Club and 
 Freeport Lodge of Elks. 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 55 
 
 THOMAS F. WOGAN 
 
 Stamp C-'anceler erf the Port of Nev York 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 56 
 
 
 People’s Choice 
 
 ★ For Regular Democratic Nomination ★ 
 
 For Alderman 
 
 Of the 42d Aldermanic District 
 of Brooklyn 
 
 For Assemblyman 
 
 Of the 2d Assembly District 
 
 JAMES J. BROWNE 
 
 WILLIAM J. GILLEN 
 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 57 
 
 Judge John F. Hylan 
 
 Kings County Court 
 
58 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 In the appointment of James M. 
 Power as United States Marshal for 
 the Eastern District of New York Pres- 
 ident Wilson received the commenda- 
 tion of hundreds of Brooklyn’s fore- 
 most citizens, regardless of their polit- 
 ical affiliations. Previous to his ap- 
 pointment in the Federal service Mr. 
 Power was attached to the office of 
 the Borough President of Brooklyn for 
 nine years. Although first appointed 
 by a Fusion administration he was 
 held over by the two succeeding ad- 
 ministrations. Borough President Lewis 
 H. Pounds, a Republican, who reap- 
 pointed Mr. Power to his third term as 
 secretary to the. Commissioner of Pub- 
 lic Works, made a public statement at a 
 testimonial dinner given in honor of 
 the new Marshal shortly after his ap- 
 pointment, in which he said he great- 
 ly regretted his loss in the Borough 
 administration, and that the city’s loss 
 in that respect was the Federal govern- 
 ment’s gain. He stated in the strong- 
 est of terms that Mr. Power in his 
 opinion was the most competent and 
 conscientious employee in the city ser- 
 vice. These words coming from the 
 head of the Borough where Mr. Power 
 has lived since childhood, although of 
 an opposite political faith, show plainly 
 the manner in which the news of his 
 appointment by the President and con- 
 firmation by the Senate was received 
 in Brooklyn. 
 
 Mr. Power was born in Blissville, 
 Long Island, October 8, 1883, the son 
 of Mrs. Elizabeth C. and the late John 
 F. Power. When a child his family 
 moved to East New York. They settled 
 in what is now known as Brownsville. 
 At that time it was nothing but farms 
 and vacant land. Shortly after ar- 
 riving in Brooklyn Mr. Power went into 
 the building business. He erected the 
 first tenement in Brownsville. Follow- 
 ing his death the Marshal, who was the 
 oldest of four boys and two girls, as- 
 sumed the head of the family. His 
 first position was as a Wall street mes- 
 *snger. While delivering messages he 
 came in contact with former Borough 
 President Bird S. Coler, who has a 
 brokerage office in Manhattan. Coler 
 
 JAMES M. POWER. 
 
 United States Marshal for the Eastern 
 Distriet of New York. 
 
 took a liking to the young messenger 
 and gave him a clerical position in his 
 office. Later when Mr. Coler was 
 elected Borough President of Brooklyn 
 on the Fusion ticket he created the 
 position of confidential inspector in 
 the Borough President’s office for Mr. 
 Power. Before the end of his term he 
 promoted him to be secretary to the 
 Commissioner of Public Works, one of 
 the most important posts in the Bor- 
 ough administration. Magistrate Alfred 
 E. Steers succeeded Mr. Coler as Pres- 
 ident of the Borough. His first ap- 
 pointment was that of the present 
 Borough President Lewis H. Pounds to 
 the office of Commissioner of Public 
 Works. Pounds announced that he 
 would retain Mr. Power as his secretary 
 temporarily until he got used to the 
 workings of the office. The new Com- 
 missioner soon realized that the ser- 
 vices of Secretary Power were indis- 
 pensable, and announced that he would 
 retain him for the entire term. Four 
 
 years later when Mr. Pounds was 
 elected to the Borough Presidency on 
 the Republican ticket he asked Mr. 
 Power to remain a member of his Cab- 
 inet, which he accepted. Shortly after 
 being reappointed by President Pounds 
 Mr. Power was elected Democratic 
 executive member of the Twenty-third 
 Assembly District over the opposition 
 of the local organization. Although 
 the youngest and one of the latest ad- 
 ditions to the State Committee.he soon 
 proved that he was a valuable asset 
 to that committee. When President 
 Wilson decided to appoint a new Mar- 
 shal for Brooklyn, Long Island and 
 Staten Island, Mr. Power’s name was 
 submitted with such strong indorse- 
 ments that the National Administra- 
 tion sent for him and the day after his 
 arrival in Washington Attorney General 
 Gregory recommended his appointment 
 to the President. The latter immediate- 
 ly sent the name of Mr. Power to the 
 Senate, and it was unanimously con- 
 firmed. Mr. Power went into his new 
 office with the same spirit that made 
 his 9 years in the Borough administra- 
 tion a success. He took more than two 
 months to select his staff of deputies, 
 and the Marshal’s office in Brooklyn is 
 now looked upon by the Washington 
 authorities, as well as the people of 
 Brooklyn, as one of the greatest assets 
 to the Wilson administration. 
 
 Mr. Power lives with his mother at 
 1 387 Herkimer street. He received his 
 early education at P. S. Nos. 66 and 84 
 in Brownsville and St. Malachy’s 
 Parochial School in East New York. 
 He is a member of Brooklyn Lodge, 
 No. 22, B. P. 0. Elks; Long Island 
 Council, No. 197, Knights of Colum- 
 bus; Brooklyn Civic Club, the Roman 
 Catholic Orphan Asylum, Emerald and 
 St. Patrick Societies. His mother is a 
 sister of the late Elections Commis- 
 sioner John Maguire, who was Demo- 
 cratic leader in East New York for 
 many years. He is also the nephew of 
 the Rev. William J. Maguire, pastor of 
 the Church of the Transfiguration, 
 Brooklyn. He married Miss Alice M. 
 Smith on November 15, 1911, and had 
 one child, a boy, both of whom died 
 three years later. 
 
Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 59 
 
 Why the 
 
 Brooklyn Daily Eagle 
 
 Is the Best 
 
 Real Estate Medium 
 
 C]J It publishes the most accurate and 
 complete News of the Realty Market and 
 is the accepted authority on Brooklyn and 
 Long Island Real Estate matters. 
 
 ^ Investors, Home Buyers and Rent Payers 
 everywhere read the EAGLE when con- 
 sidering a Home or Investment in any part 
 of Long Island. 
 
 CJ Its circulation is among people with pur- 
 chasing power, and its advertising rates are 
 the lowest — Results considered. 
 
 It Is the Representative Daily 
 Newspaper of All Long Island 
 
 1 J 
 
60 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 Use STARS AND STRIPES Candles 
 The Genuine Safety Night Light 
 
 Bright, Clean, Odorless, Smokeless, Sparkless, Hygienic, Sanitary 
 Be Sure and Ask for “Stars and Stripes” Candles 
 Accept no Substitute 
 
 Warranted to burn 1 0 hours. Price 1 cent each. Glass container, will ; 
 not blacken or crack, 5 cents. Can be had at all grocers, or send 25 ' 
 
 cents for box of 20 candles and glass holder, to 
 
 SAFETY NIGHT LIGHT CO. 
 
 147 JACKSON STREET, BROOKLYN, N. Y. 
 
 COLONIAL VAN COMPANY 
 Fireproof Storage Warehouse 
 
 TELEPHONE 5110 BUSHWICK 
 
 FURNITURE and PIANOS MOVED and STORED 
 
 AT LOWEST RATES 
 
 ALL WORK DONE WITH AUTO VANS 
 
 LICENSED PIANO MOVERS 
 OUT OF TOWN MOVING OUR SPECIALTY 
 Packing and Shipping to All Parts of the World 
 
 BEFORE YOU MOVE GET OUR ESTIMATES 
 
 Write or Phone and We Will Send Our Representative 
 
 Cor. Gates and St. Nicholas Aves., 
 
 BROOKLYN, New York. 
 
 MATTHEWS PIANO WAREROOMS 
 
 FRANCIS S. MATTHEWS, Proprietor 
 
 PLANOS, PLAYER-PIANOS and TALKING MACHINES 
 
 Brooklyn representative for the famous Krakauer, Christman and W. P. Haines & Co. Pianos 
 and Player-Pianos. Sold on easy terms if desired. 
 
 We specialize in fine Repairing, Refinishing and Rebuilding of Pianos. Lost tone restored. 
 Player mechanisms built into any piano at reasonable cost. Send card, representative will call. 
 
 422 GATES AVE., NEAR NOSTRAND AVE. 
 
 Phone 3859-W Bedford Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 GEORGE W. CHAUNCEY, President THOMAS HOVENDEN, Treasurer 
 
 CORNELIUS E. DONNELLON, Vice President JOHN R. RYON, Secretary 
 
 THE CHAUNCEY REAL ESTATE CO. » 
 
 FIRM ESTABLISHED 1843 
 
 187 Montague Street, Borough of Brooklyn, New York City 
 
 EVERY BRANCH OF THE REAL ESTATE 
 BUSINESS A SPECIALTY 
 
 Telephones 4300-4301-4302 Main 
 

 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 61 
 
 
 Andrew Carnegie 
 
 once said : 
 
 i t 
 
 o 
 
 THER men’s brains have made 
 me rich — I seldom fail to read 
 their catalogs. *Tis said I've more 
 money than some. If so, 'tis because 
 I've had more courage than some. 1 
 let the slow-coaches use the old ma- 
 chine — mine 1 chucked into the scrap- 
 heap — quick. • f • ; 
 
 “The latest machine I bought from 
 the latest catalog. That plan is the 
 
 earliest by which to make money in a 
 
 > - — 
 
 staple business. 
 
 “There's brains in catalogs — but 
 only for brains.'' 
 
 r Try the stimulating effect of Catalogs in pushing 
 your business. We’ll be glad to talk it over with 
 you, suggest styles and quote prices. 
 
 . P ‘ ■ 
 
 ■ nm.ni T 
 
 T 
 
 BROOKLYN EAGLE PRESS 
 
 1 
 
 
 BIT 
 
 
62 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 r V5 r \tf7’ -£7 '<£7 ‘£7'*S* -^7 .£? V5 7 .^r .^7 .^7 ■^7^27-Z7 ‘£7 -£7 £7 ‘7? *&} 
 
 Thirty=five Greenhouses 
 
 HORTICULTURIST 
 
 734 Fifth Avenue 
 
 Branches: Fort Hamilton Parkway, 
 
 TELEPHONES— 27 South, 3410 Flatbush. Gravesend Av., and 291-313 24th St. 
 
 PLOTS IN GREENWOOD CEMETERY IMPROVED AND CARED FOR. 
 
 Palms, Vines and Fresh Flowers 
 
 Supplied and Artistically Arranged for Weddings at Reasonable Rates 
 
 7Z-sZ_-ZZ- t 
 
 GRAVEL ROOFING A SPECIALTY 
 
 Steel Portable Buildings Fireproof Garages 
 
 m MANUFACTURED IN BROOKLYN 
 
 WILLIAM BUCHANAN 
 
 488-490-490% Sumner Avenue 1587 Fulton Street, Brooklyn 
 
63 
 
 / 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES 07 'E^OTROW WILSON 
 
 EAGLE LIBRARIES 
 
 In Preparation to Be 
 Issued in September 
 
 New Municipal Court Code with annotations and new 
 rules of the Appellate Term of First and Second Depart- 
 ments. This will be in handy form and of value to every 
 lawyer. 
 
 ELECTTONLAW 
 
 OF 
 
 New York State 
 Amended to Date 
 
 If you are not familiar with Eagle publications subscribe 
 now to The Eagle Library. $1.50 a year, including The 
 Eagle Almanac. 
 
 NEW YORK CITY'S 
 RED BOOK 
 
 5% 
 IV M 
 
64 
 
 Eagle Library— SPEECHES OF WOODROW WILSON 
 
 
 Imperial 
 
 360 FULTON STREET 
 
 Opposite Pearl, Brooklyn 
 
 Telephone, 4137 Main 
 
 JOSEPH SCHMIDT, Manager 
 
 LARGE HALL FOR BALLS 
 BANQUETS, CONCERTS 
 THEATRICAL PERFORM- 
 ANCES, CARD PARTIES, ETC. 
 
 Restaurant a la Carte 
 
 » 
 
 Excellent Cuisine 
 
 
 • vWVVVVVVWVWVW»VVWVVVVV‘»VVVVVVVV V lW Wl , »^> > 
 
'r 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 3 0112 1140251