[Illustration] IN OURFIRST YEAR OF WAR MESSAGES AND ADDRESSES TOTHE CONGRESS AND THE PEOPLEMARCH 5, 1917, TO JANUARY 8, 1918 BY WOODROW WILSON PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES Frontispiece from drawing by WILFRID MUIR EVANS HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERSNEW YORK AND LONDON BOOKS BY WOODROW WILSON IN OUR FIRST YEAR OF WAR WHY WE ARE AT WAR. 16mo A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Profusely illustrated. 5 volumes. 8vo Cloth Three-quarter Calf Three-quarter Levant GEORGE WASHINGTON. Illustrated. 8vo Popular Edition WHEN A MAN COMES TO HIMSELF. 16mo. Cloth. Leather ON BEING HUMAN 16mo. Cloth. Leather THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 16mo. Cloth. Leather HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE FOREWORD v I. THE SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS 1 (_March 5, 1917_) II. WE MUST ACCEPT WAR 9 (_Message to the Congress, April 2, 1917)_ III. A STATE OF WAR 26 (_The President's Proclamation of April 6, 1917_) IV. "SPEAK, ACT AND SERVE TOGETHER" 32 (_Message to the American people, April 15, 1917_) V. THE CONSCRIPTION PROCLAMATION 40 (_May 18, 1917_) VI. CONSERVING THE NATION'S FOOD 49 (_May 19, 1917_) VII. AN ANSWER TO CRITICS 54 (_May 22, 1917_) VIII. MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS 56 (_May 30, 1917_) IX. A STATEMENT TO RUSSIA 59 (_June 9, 1917_) X. FLAG-DAY ADDRESS 64 (_June 14, 1917_) XI. AN APPEAL TO THE BUSINESS INTERESTS 76 (_July 11, 1917_) XII. REPLY TO THE POPE 83 (_August 27, 1917_) XIII. A MESSAGE TO TEACHERS AND SCHOOL OFFICERS 89 (_September 30, 1917_) XIV. WOMAN SUFFRAGE MUST COME NOW 92 (_October 25, 1917_) XV. THE THANKSGIVING DAY PROCLAMATION 96 (_November 7, 1917_) XVI. LABOR MUST BEAR ITS PART 99 (_November 12, 1917_) XVII. ADDRESS TO THE CONGRESS 112 (_December 4, 1917_) XVIII. PROCLAMATION OF WAR AGAINST AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 130 (_December 12, 1917_) XIX. THE GOVERNMENT TAKES OVER THE RAILROADS 134 (_A Statement by the President, December 26, 1917_) XX. GOVERNMENT OPERATION OF RAILROADS 143 (_Address to the Congress, January 4, 1918_) XXI. THE TERMS OF PEACE 150 (_January 8, 1918_) APPENDIX 162 FOREWORD This book opens with the second inaugural address and contains thePresident's messages and addresses since the United States was forcedto take up arms against Germany. These pages may be said to picturenot only official phases of the great crisis, but also the highestsignificance of liberty and democracy and the reactions of Presidentand people to the great developments of the times. The secondInaugural Address with its sense of solemn responsibility serves as aprophecy as well as prelude to the declaration of war and the messageto the people which followed so soon. The extracts from the Conscription Proclamation, the messages onConservation and the Fixing of Prices, the Appeal to BusinessInterests, the Address to the Federation of Labor and the Railroadmessages present the solid every-day realities and the vastresponsibilities of war-time as they affect every American. These areconcrete messages which should be at hand for frequent reference, just as the uplift and inspiration of lofty appeals like the MemorialDay and Flag Day addresses should be a constant source ofinspiration. There are also the clarifying and vigorous definitionsof American purpose afforded in utterances like the statement toRussia, the reply to the communication of the Pope, and, mostemphatically, the President's restatement of War Aims on January 8th. These and other state papers from the early spring of 1917 toJanuary, 1918, have a significance and value in this collected formwhich has been attested by the many requests that have come to Harper& Brothers, as President Wilson's publishers, for a war volume of thePresident's messages to follow _Why We Are At War_. As a matter of course, the President has been consulted in regard tothe plan of publication, and the conditions which he requested havebeen observed. For title, arrangement, headings, and like details thepublishers are responsible. They have held the publication of thePresident's words of enlightenment and inspiration to be a publicservice. And they think that there is no impropriety in adding thatin the case of this book, and _Why We Are At War_, the AmericanRed Cross receives all author's royalties. In the case of the former book the evolution of events which led towar was illustrated in messages from January to April 15th. In thepreparation of this book, which begins with the second inaugural, ithas seemed desirable to present practically all the messages ofwar-time, and therefore three papers are included which appeared inthe former and smaller book, in addition to the twenty-one messagesand addresses which have been collected for this volume. IN OUR FIRST YEAR OF WAR IN OUR FIRST YEAR OF WAR I THE SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS (_March 5, 1917_) My Fellow-citizens, --The four years which have elapsed since last Istood in this place have been crowded with counsel and action of themost vital interest and consequence. Perhaps no equal period in ourhistory has been so fruitful of important reforms in our economic andindustrial life or so full of significant changes in the spirit andpurpose of our political action. We have sought very thoughtfully toset our house in order, correct the grosser errors and abuses of ourindustrial life, liberate and quicken the processes of our nationalgenius and energy, and lift our politics to a broader view of thepeople's essential interests. It is a record of singular variety andsingular distinction. But I shall not attempt to review it. It speaksfor itself and will be of increasing influence as the years go by. This is not the time for retrospect. It is time, rather, to speak ourthoughts and purposes concerning the present and the immediatefuture. A COSMOPOLITAN EPOCH AT HAND Although we have centered counsel and action with such unusualconcentration and success upon the great problems of domesticlegislation to which we addressed ourselves four years ago, othermatters have more and more forced themselves upon our attention, matters lying outside our own life as a nation and over which we hadno control, but which, despite our wish to keep free of them, havedrawn us more and more irresistibly into their own current andinfluence. It has been impossible to avoid them. They have affected the life ofthe whole world. They have shaken men everywhere with a passion andan apprehension they never knew before. It has been hard to preservecalm counsel while the thought of our own people swayed this way andthat under their influence. We are a composite and cosmopolitanpeople. We are of the blood of all the nations that are at war. Thecurrents of our thoughts as well as the currents of our trade runquick at all seasons back and forth between us and them. The warinevitably set its mark from the first alike upon our minds, ourindustries, our commerce, our politics, and our social action. To beindifferent to it or independent of it was out of the question. And yet all the while we have been conscious that we were not part ofit. In that consciousness, despite many divisions, we have drawncloser together. We have been deeply wronged upon the seas, but wehave not wished to wrong or injure in return; have retainedthroughout the consciousness of standing in some sort apart, intentupon an interest that transcended the immediate issues of the waritself. As some of the injuries done us have become intolerable, wehave still been clear that we wished nothing for ourselves that wewere not ready to demand for all mankind, --fair dealing, justice, thefreedom to live and be at ease against organized wrong. It is in this spirit and with this thought that we have grown moreand more aware, more and more certain that the part we wished to playwas the part of those who mean to vindicate and fortify peace. Wehave been obliged to arm ourselves to make good our claim to acertain minimum of right and of freedom of action. We stand firm inarmed neutrality since it seems that in no other way we candemonstrate what it is we insist upon and cannot forego. We may evenbe drawn on, by circumstances, not by our own purpose or desire, to amore active assertion of our rights as we see them and a moreimmediate association with the great struggle itself. But nothingwill alter our thought or our purpose. They are too clear to beobscured. They are too deeply rooted in the principles of ournational life to be altered. We desire neither conquest noradvantage. We wish nothing that can be had only at the cost ofanother people. We have always professed unselfish purpose and wecovet the opportunity to prove that our professions are sincere. THE SPIRIT OF CO-OPERATION There are many things still to do at home, to clarify our ownpolitics and give new vitality to the industrial processes of our ownlife, and we shall do them as time and opportunity serve; but werealize that the greatest things that remain to be done must be donewith the whole world for stage and in co-operation with the wide anduniversal forces of mankind, and we are making our spirits ready forthose things. They will follow in the immediate wake of the waritself and will set civilization up again. We are provincials nolonger. The tragical events of the thirty months of vital turmoilthrough which we have just passed have made us citizens of the world. There can be no turning back. Our own fortunes as a nation areinvolved, whether we would have it so or not. And yet we are not the less Americans on that account. We shall bethe more American if we but remain true to the principles in which wehave been bred. They are not the principles of a province or of asingle continent. We have known and boasted all along that they werethe principles of a liberated mankind. These, therefore, are thethings we shall stand for, whether in war or in peace: OUR NATIONAL PLATFORM That all nations are equally interested in the peace of the world andin the political stability of free peoples, and equally responsiblefor their maintenance; That the essential principle of peace is the actual equality ofnations in all matters of right or privilege; That peace cannot securely or justly rest upon an armed balance ofpower; That Governments derive all their just powers from the consent of thegoverned and that no other powers should be supported by the commonthought, purpose or power of the family of nations; That the seas should be equally free and safe for the use of allpeoples, under rules set up by common agreement and consent, andthat, so far as practicable, they should be accessible to all uponequal terms; That national armaments should be limited to the necessities ofnational order and domestic safety; That the community of interest and of power upon which peace musthenceforth depend imposes upon each nation the duty of seeing to itthat all influences proceeding from its own citizens meant toencourage or assist revolution in other states should be sternly andeffectually suppressed and prevented. A UNITY OF PURPOSE AND ACTION I need not argue these principles to you, my fellow-countrymen: theyare your own, part and parcel of your own thinking and your ownmotive in affairs. They spring up native amongst us. Upon this as aplatform of purpose and of action we can stand together. And it is imperative that we should stand together. We are beingforged into a new unity amidst the fires that now blaze throughoutthe world. In their ardent heat we shall, in God's providence, let ushope, be purged of faction and division, purified of the erranthumors of party and of private interest, and shall stand forth in thedays to come with a new dignity of national pride and spirit. Leteach man see to it that the dedication is in his own heart, the highpurpose of the nation in his own mind, ruler of his own will anddesire. I stand here and have taken the high and solemn oath to which youhave been audience because the people of the United States havechosen me for this august delegation of power and have by theirgracious judgment named me their leader in affairs. I know now whatthe task means. I realize to the full the responsibility which itinvolves. I pray God I may be given the wisdom and the prudence to domy duty in the true spirit of this great people. I am their servantand can succeed only as they sustain and guide me by their confidenceand their counsel. The thing I shall count upon, the thing withoutwhich neither counsel nor action will avail, is the unity ofAmerica--an America united in feeling, in purpose, and in its visionof duty, of opportunity, and of service. We are to beware of all menwho would turn the tasks and the necessities of the nation to theirown private profit or use them for the building up of private power;beware that no faction or disloyal intrigue break the harmony orembarrass the spirit of our people; beware that our Government bekept pure and incorrupt in all its parts. United alike in theconception of our duty and in the high resolve to perform it in theface of all men, let us dedicate ourselves to the great task to whichwe must now set our hand. For myself I beg your tolerance, yourcountenance, and your united aid. The shadows that now lie dark uponour path will soon be dispelled and we shall walk with the light allabout us if we be but true to ourselves--to ourselves as we havewished to be known in the counsels of the world and in the thought ofall those who love liberty and justice and the right exalted. II WE MUST ACCEPT WAR (_Message to the Congress, April 2, 1917_) Gentlemen of the Congress, --I have called the Congress intoextraordinary session because there are serious, very serious, choices of policy to be made, and made immediately, which it wasneither right nor constitutionally permissible that I should assumethe responsibility of making. On the 3d of February last I officially laid before you theextraordinary announcement of the Imperial German Government that onand after the first day of February it was its purpose to put asideall restraints of law or of humanity and use its submarines to sinkevery vessel that sought to approach either the ports of GreatBritain and Ireland or the western coasts of Europe or any of theports controlled by the enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean. That had seemed to be the object of the German submarine warfareearlier in the war, but since April of last year the ImperialGovernment had somewhat restrained the commanders of its underseacraft in conformity with its promise then given to us thatpassenger-boats should not be sunk, and that due warning would begiven to all other vessels which its submarines might seek to destroywhen no resistance was offered or escape attempted, and care takenthat their crews were given at least a fair chance to save theirlives in their open boats. The precautions taken were meager and haphazard enough, as was provedin distressing instance after instance in the progress of the crueland unmanly business, but a certain degree of restraint was observed. GERMANY'S RUTHLESS POLICY The new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of everykind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, theirdestination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottomwithout warning, and without thought of help or mercy for those onboard, the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those ofbelligerents. Even hospital-ships and ships carrying relief to thesorely bereaved and stricken people of Belgium, though the latterwere provided with safe conduct through the proscribed areas by theGerman Government itself and were distinguished by unmistakable marksof identity, have been sunk with the same reckless lack of compassionor of principle. I was for a little while unable to believe that such things would, infact, be done by any Government that had hitherto subscribed to thehumane practices of civilized nations. International law had itsorigin in the attempt to set up some law which would be respected andobserved upon the seas, where no nation had right of dominion, andwhere lay the free highways of the world. By painful stage afterstage has that law been built up with meager enough results, indeed, after all was accomplished that could be accomplished, but alwayswith a clear view at least of what the heart and conscience ofmankind demanded. This minimum of right the German Government has swept aside under theplea of retaliation and necessity, and because it had no weaponswhich it could use at sea except these, which it is impossible toemploy as it is employing them without throwing to the winds allscruples of humanity or of respect for the understandings that weresupposed to underlie the intercourse of the world. I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense andserious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destructionof the lives of non-combatants, men, women and children engaged inpursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods of modernhistory, been deemed innocent and legitimate. Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent peoplecannot be. GERMAN WARFARE AGAINST MANKIND The present German warfare against commerce is a warfare againstmankind. It is a war against all nations. American ships have beensunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us verydeeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral andfriendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in thesame way. There has been no discrimination. The challenge is to allmankind. Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. Thechoice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation ofcounsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our character andour motives as a nation. We must put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of thephysical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, ofhuman right, of which we are only a single champion. When I addressed the Congress on the 26th of February last I thoughtthat it would suffice to assert our neutral rights with arms, ourright to use the seas against unlawful interference, our right tokeep our people safe against unlawful violence. But armed neutrality, it now appears, is impracticable. Because submarines are in effectoutlaws when used as the German submarines have been used againstmerchant shipping, it is impossible to defend ships against theirattacks as the law of nations has assumed that merchantmen woulddefend themselves against privateers or cruisers, visible craftgiving chase upon the open sea. It is common prudence in such circumstances, grim necessity, indeed, to endeavor to destroy them before they have shown their ownintention. They must be dealt with upon sight, if dealt with at all. The German Government denies the right of neutrals to use arms at allwithin the areas of the sea which it has proscribed, even in thedefense of rights which no modern publicist has ever beforequestioned their right to defend. The intimation is conveyed that thearmed guards which we have placed on our merchant-ships will betreated as beyond the pale of law and subject to be dealt with aspirates would be. Armed neutrality is ineffectual enough at best; in such circumstancesand in the face of such pretensions it is worse than ineffectual; itis likely to produce what it was meant to prevent; it is practicallycertain to draw us into the war without either the rights or theeffectiveness of belligerents. There is one choice we cannot make, we are incapable of making: wewill not choose the path of submission and suffer the most sacredrights of our nation and our people to be ignored or violated. Thewrongs against which we now array ourselves are not common wrongs;they reach out to the very roots of human life. BELLIGERENCY THRUST UPON US With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character ofthe step I am taking and of the grave responsibilities which itinvolves, but in unhesitating obedience to what I deem myconstitutional duty, I advise that the Congress declare the recentcourse of the Imperial German Government to be in fact nothing lessthan war against the Government and people of the United States. Thatit formally accept the status of belligerent which has thus beenthrust upon it and that it take immediate steps not only to put thecountry in a more thorough state of defense, but also to exert allits power and employ all its resources to bring the Government of theGerman Empire to terms and end the war. WHAT THIS WILL INVOLVE What this will involve is clear. It will involve the utmostpracticable co-operation in counsel and action with the Governmentsnow at war with Germany, and as incident to that the extension tothose Governments of the most liberal financial credits in order thatour resources may so far as possible be added to theirs. It will involve the organization and mobilization of all the materialresources of the country to supply the materials of war and serve theincidental needs of the nation in the most abundant and yet the mosteconomical and efficient way possible. It will involve the immediate full equipment of the navy in allrespects, but particularly in supplying it with the best means ofdealing with the enemy's submarines. It will involve the immediate addition to the armed forces of theUnited States already provided for by law in case of war at least500, 000 men, who should, in my opinion, be chosen upon the principleof universal liability to service, and also the authorization ofsubsequent additional increments of equal force so soon as they maybe needed and can be handled in training. It will involve also, of course, the granting of adequate credits tothe Government, sustained, I hope, so far as they can equitably besustained by the present generation, by well-conceived taxation. Isay sustained so far as may be equitable by taxation because it seemsto me that it would be most unwise to base the credits which will nowbe necessary entirely on money borrowed. It is our duty, I most respectfully urge, to protect our people sofar as we may against the very serious hardships and evils whichwould be likely to arise out of the inflation which would be producedby vast loans. In carrying out the measures by which these things are to beaccomplished we should keep constantly in mind the wisdom ofinterfering as little as possible in our own preparation and in theequipment of our own military forces with the duty--for it will be avery practical duty--of supplying the nations already at war withGermany with the materials which they can obtain only from us or byour assistance. They are in the field and we should help them inevery way to be effective there. I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through the several executivedepartments of the Government, for the consideration of yourcommittees measures for the accomplishment of the several objects Ihave mentioned. I hope that it will be your pleasure to deal withthem as having been framed after very careful thought by the branchof the Government upon which the responsibility of conducting the warand safeguarding the nation will most directly fall. OUR MOTIVES AND OBJECTS While we do these things, these deeply momentous things, let us bevery clear and make very clear to all the world what our motives andour objects are. My own thought has not been driven from its habitualand normal course by the unhappy events of the last two months, and Ido not believe that the thought of the nation has been altered orclouded by them. I have exactly the same thing in mind now that I had in mind when Iaddressed the Senate on the 22d of January last; the same that I hadin mind when I addressed the Congress on the 3d of February and onthe 26th of February. Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the principles of peace andjustice in the life of the world as against selfish and autocraticpower and to set up amongst the really free and self-governed peoplesof the world such a concert of purpose and of action as willhenceforth insure the observance of those principles. Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of theworld is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and the menace tothat peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocraticGovernments backed by organized force which is controlled wholly bytheir will, not by the will of their people. We have seen the last ofneutrality in such circumstances. We are at the beginning of an age in which it will be insisted thatthe same standards of conduct and of responsibility for wrong doneshall be observed among nations and their Governments that areobserved among the individual citizens of civilized states. We have no quarrel with the German people. We have no feeling towardthem but one of sympathy and friendship. It was not upon theirimpulse that their Government acted in entering this war. It was notwith their previous knowledge or approval. It was a war determined upon as wars used to be determined upon inthe old, unhappy days when peoples were nowhere consulted by theirrulers and wars were provoked and waged in the interest of dynastiesor of little groups of ambitious men who were accustomed to use theirfellow-men as pawns and tools. Self-governed nations do not fill their neighbor states with spies orset the course of intrigue to bring about some critical posture ofaffairs which will give them an opportunity to strike and makeconquest. Such designs can be successfully worked only under coverand where no one has the right to ask questions. Cunningly contrived plans of deception or aggression, carried, it maybe, from generation to generation, can be worked out and kept fromthe light only within the privacy of courts or behind the carefullyguarded confidences of a narrow and privileged class. They arehappily impossible where public opinion commands and insists uponfull information concerning all the nation's affairs. PEACE THROUGH FREE PEOPLES A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained except by apartnership of democratic nations. No autocratic Government could betrusted to keep faith within it or observe its covenants. It must bea league of honor, a partnership of opinion. Intrigue would eat itsvitals away, the plottings of inner circles who could plan what theywould and render account to no one would be a corruption seated atits very heart. Only free peoples can hold their purpose and theirhonor steady to a common end and prefer the interests of mankind toany narrow interest of their own. Does not every American feel that assurance has been added to ourhope for the future peace of the world by the wonderful andheartening things that have been happening within the last few weeksin Russia? Russia was known by those who know it best to have been always infact democratic at heart, in all the vital habits of her thought, inall the intimate relationships of her people that spoke their naturalinstinct, their habitual attitude toward life. Autocracy that crowned the summit of her political structure, long asit had stood and terrible as was the reality of its power, was not infact Russian in origin, in character or purpose; and now it has beenshaken and the great, generous Russian people have been added, in alltheir native majesty and might, to the forces that are fighting forfreedom in the world, for justice and for peace. Here is a fitpartner for a league of honor. One of the things that have served to convince us that the Prussianautocracy was not and could never be our friend is that from the veryoutset of the present war it has filled our unsuspecting communitiesand even our offices of Government with spies and set criminalintrigues everywhere afoot against our national unity of council, ourpeace within and without, our industries and our commerce. Indeed, it is now evident that its spies were here even before thewar began, and it is, unhappily, not a matter of conjecture, but afact proved in our courts of justice, that the intrigues which havemore than once come perilously near to disturbing the peace anddislocating the industries of the country have been carried on at theinstigation, with the support, and even under the personal direction, of official agents of the Imperial German Government accredited tothe Government of the United States. Even in checking these things and trying to extirpate them we havesought to put the most generous interpretation possible upon thembecause we knew that their source lay, not in any hostile feeling orpurpose of the German people toward us (who were, no doubt, asignorant of them as we ourselves were), but only in the selfishdesigns of a Government that did what it pleased and told its peoplenothing. But they have played their part in serving to convince us atlast that that Government entertains no real friendship for us andmeans to act against our peace and security at its convenience. Thatit means to stir up enemies against us at our very doors theintercepted note to the German Minister at Mexico City is eloquentevidence. A CHALLENGE OF HOSTILE PURPOSE We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose because we knowthat in such a Government, following such methods, we can never havea friend; and that in the presence of its organized power, alwayslying in wait to accomplish we know not what purpose, there can be noassured security for the democratic Governments of the world. We are now about to accept the gage of battle with this natural foeto liberty, and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of thenation to check and nullify its pretensions and its power. We areglad, now that we see the facts with no veil of false pretense aboutthem, to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for theliberation of its peoples, the German people included; for the rightsof nations great and small and the privilege of men everywhere tochoose their way of life and of obedience. The world must be madesafe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the trustedfoundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation forthe sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the championsof the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rightshave been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of the nationcan make them. Just because we fight without rancor and without selfish objects, seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to share withall free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our operationsas belligerents without passion and ourselves observe with proudpunctilio the principles of right and of fair play we profess to befighting for. I have said nothing of the Governments allied with the ImperialGovernment of Germany because they have not made war upon us orchallenged us to defend our right and our honor. The Austro-Hungarian Government has indeed avowed its unqualifiedindorsement and acceptance of the reckless and lawless submarinewarfare adopted now without disguise by the Imperial GermanGovernment, and it has therefore not been possible for thisGovernment to receive Count Tarnowski, the ambassador recentlyaccredited to this Government by the Imperial and Royal Government ofAustria-Hungary; but that Government has not actually engaged inwarfare against citizens of the United States on the seas, and I takethe liberty, for the present at least, of postponing a discussion ofour relations with the authorities at Vienna. OPPOSITION TO THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT FRIENDSHIP TOWARD THE GERMAN PEOPLE We enter this war only where we are clearly forced into it becausethere are no other means of defending our rights. It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as belligerentsin a high spirit of right and fairness because we act without animus, not in enmity toward a people or with the desire to bring any injuryor disadvantage upon them, but only in armed opposition to anirresponsible Government which has thrown aside all considerations ofhumanity and of right and is running amuck. We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of the German people, and shall desire nothing so much as the early re-establishment ofintimate relations of mutual advantage between us--however hard itmay be for them, for the time being, to believe that this is spokenfrom our hearts. We have borne with their present Government throughall these bitter months because of that friendship--exercising apatience and forbearance which would otherwise have been impossible. We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friendshipin our daily attitude and actions toward the millions of men andwomen of German birth and native sympathy who live amongst us andshare our life, and we shall be proud to prove it toward all who are, in fact, loyal to their neighbors and to the Government in the hourof test. They are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans as ifthey had never known any other fealty or allegiance. They will beprompt to stand with us in rebuking and restraining the few who maybe of a different mind and purpose. If there should be disloyalty itwill be dealt with with a firm hand of stern repression; but, if itlifts its head at all, it will lift it only here and there andwithout countenance except from a lawless and malignant few. RIGHT MORE PRECIOUS THAN PEACE It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen of the Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearfulthing to lead this great, peaceful people into war, into the mostterrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming tobe in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and weshall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest ourhearts--for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authorityto have a voice in their own governments, for the rights andliberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by sucha concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to allnations and make the world itself at last free. To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everythingthat we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those whoknow that the day has come when America is privileged to spend herblood and her might for the principles that gave her birth andhappiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, shecan do no other. III A STATE OF WAR (_The President's Proclamation of April 6, 1917_) Whereas, the Congress of the United States, in the exercise of theconstitutional authority vested in them, have resolved by jointresolution of the Senate and House of Representatives, bearingdate this day, that a state of war between the United States andthe Imperial German Government, which has been thrust upon theUnited States, is hereby formally declared; Whereas, It is provided by Section 4067 of the Revised Statutes asfollows: Whenever there is declared a war between the United States and any foreign nation or Government, or any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or Government, and the President makes public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, denizens or subjects of a hostile nation or Government being male of the age of fourteen years and upward who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained secured and removed as alien enemies. The President is authorized in any such event, by his proclamationthereof or other public acts, to direct the conduct to be observed onthe part of the United States toward the aliens who become so liable;the manner and degree of the restraint to which they shall be subjectand in what cases and upon what security their residence shall bepermitted and to provide for the removal of those who, not beingpermitted to reside within the United States, refuse or neglect todepart therefrom, and to establish any such regulations which arefound necessary in the premises and for the public safety; Whereas, By Sections 4068, 4069, and 4070 of the Revised Statutesfurther provision is made relative to alien enemies; Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States ofAmerica, do hereby proclaim to all whom it may concern that a stateof war exists between the United States and the Imperial GermanGovernment, and I do specially direct all officers, civil ormilitary, of the United States that they exercise vigilance and zealin the discharge of the duties incident to such a state of war, and Ido, moreover, earnestly appeal to all American citizens that they, inloyal devotion to their country, dedicated from its foundation to theprinciples of liberty and justice, uphold the laws of the land andgive undivided and willing support to those measures which may beadopted by the constitutional authorities in prosecuting the war to asuccessful issue and in obtaining a secure and just peace; And acting under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by theConstitution of the United States and the said sections of theRevised Statutes: I do hereby further proclaim and direct that the conduct to beobserved on the part of the United States toward all natives, citizens, denizens or subjects of Germany, being male, of the age offourteen years and upward, who shall be within the United States andnot actually naturalized, who for the purpose of this proclamationand under such sections of the Revised Statutes are termed alienenemies, shall be as follows: All alien enemies are enjoined to preserve the peace toward the United States and to refrain from crime against the public safety and from violating the laws of the United States and of the States and Territories thereof, and to refrain from actual hostility or giving information, aid or comfort to the enemies of the United States, and to comply strictly with the regulations which are hereby or which may be from time to time promulgated by the President, and so long as they shall conduct themselves in accordance with law they shall be undisturbed in the peaceful pursuit of their lives and occupations and be accorded the consideration due to all peaceful and law-abiding persons, except so far as restrictions may be necessary for their own protection and for the safety of the United States, and toward such alien enemies as conduct themselves in accordance with law all citizens of the United States are enjoined to preserve the peace and to treat them with all such friendliness as may be compatible with loyalty and allegiance to the United States. And all alien enemies who fail to conduct themselves as so enjoined, in addition to all other penalties prescribed by law, shall be liable to restraint or to give security or to remove and depart from the United States in the manner prescribed by Sections 4069 and 4070 of the Revised Statutes and as prescribed in the regulations duly promulgated by the President. And, pursuant to the authority vested in me, I hereby declare andestablish the following regulations, which I find necessary in thepremises and for the public safety: First. An alien enemy shall not have in his possession at any time or place any firearms, weapons or implement of war, or component parts thereof; ammunition, Maxim or other silencer, arms or explosives or material used in the manufacture of explosives. Second. An alien enemy shall not have in his possession at any time or place, or use or operate, any aircraft or wireless apparatus, or any form of signaling device, or any form of cipher code or any paper, document or book written or printed in cipher, or in which there may be invisible writing. Third. All property found in the possession of an alien enemy in violation of the foregoing regulations shall be subject to seizure by the United States. Fourth. An alien enemy shall not approach or be found within one-half of a mile of any Federal or State fort, camp, arsenal, aircraft station, Government or naval vessel, navy-yard, factory or workshop for the manufacture of munitions of war or of any products for the use of the army or navy. Fifth. An alien enemy shall not write, print or publish any attack or threat against the Government or Congress of the United States, or either branch thereof, or against the measures or policy of the United States, or against the persons or property of any person in the military, naval or civil service of the United States, or of the States or Territories, or of the District of Columbia, or of the municipal governments therein. Sixth. An alien enemy shall not commit or abet any hostile acts against the United States, or give information, aid or comfort to its enemies. Seventh. An alien enemy shall not reside in or continue to reside in, to remain in or enter any locality which the President may from time to time designate by an executive order as a prohibitive area in which residence by an alien enemy shall be found by him to constitute a danger to the public peace and safety of the United States except by permit from the President and except under such limitations or restrictions as the President may prescribe. Eighth. An alien enemy whom the President shall have reasonable cause to believe to be aiding or about to aid the enemy, or to be at large to the danger of the public peace or safety of the United States, or to have violated or to be about to violate any of these regulations, shall remove to any location designated by the President by executive order, and shall not remove therefrom without permit, or shall depart from the United States if so required by the President. Ninth. No alien enemy shall depart from the United States until he shall have received such permit as the President shall prescribe, or except under order of a Court, Judge or Justice, under Sections 4069 and 4070 of the Revised Statutes. Tenth. No alien enemy shall land in or enter the United States except under such restrictions and at such places as the President may prescribe. Eleventh. If necessary to prevent violation of the regulations, all alien enemies will be obliged to register. Twelfth. An alien enemy whom there may be reasonable cause to believe to be aiding or about to aid the enemy, or to be at large to the danger of the public peace or safety, or who violates or who attempts to violate or of whom there is reasonable grounds to believe that he is about to violate any regulation to be promulgated by the President or any criminal law of the United States or of the States or Territories thereof, will be subject to summary arrest by the United States, by the United States Marshal or his deputy or such other officers as the President shall designate, and to confinement in such penitentiary, prison, jail, military camp, or other place of detention as may be directed by the President. This proclamation and the regulations herein contained shall extendand apply to all land and water, continental or insular, in any waywithin the jurisdiction of the United States. IV "SPEAK, ACT AND SERVE TOGETHER" (_Message to the American People, April 15, 1917_) MY FELLOW COUNTRYMEN, --The entrance of our own belovedcountry into the grim and terrible war for democracy and human rightswhich has shaken the world creates so many problems of national lifeand action which call for immediate consideration and settlement thatI hope you will permit me to address to you a few words of earnestcounsel and appeal with regard to them. We are rapidly putting our navy upon an effective war footing and areabout to create and equip a great army, but these are the simplestparts of the great task to which we have addressed ourselves. Thereis not a single selfish element, so far as I can see, in the cause weare fighting for. We are fighting for what we believe and wish to bethe rights of mankind and for the future peace and security of theworld. To do this great thing worthily and successfully we mustdevote ourselves to the service without regard to profit or materialadvantage and with an energy and intelligence that will rise to thelevel of the enterprise itself. We must realize to the full how greatthe task is and how many things, how many kinds and elements ofcapacity and service and self-sacrifice it involves. WHAT WE MUST DO These, then, are the things we must do, and do well, besidesfighting--the things without which mere fighting would be fruitless: We must supply abundant food for ourselves and for our armies and ourseamen, not only, but also for a large part of the nations with whomwe have now made common cause, in whose support and by whose sides weshall be fighting. We must supply ships by the hundreds out of our shipyards to carry tothe other side of the sea, submarines or no submarines, what willevery day be needed there, and abundant materials out of our fieldsand our mines and our factories with which not only to clothe andequip our own forces on land and sea, but also to clothe and supportour people, for whom the gallant fellows under arms can no longerwork; to help clothe and equip the armies with which we areco-operating in Europe, and to keep the looms and manufactories therein raw material; coal to keep the fires going in ships at sea and inthe furnaces of hundreds of factories across the sea; steel out ofwhich to make arms and ammunition both here and there; rails forwornout railways back of the fighting fronts; locomotives androlling-stock to take the place of those every day going to pieces;mules, horses, cattle for labor and for military service; everythingwith which the people of England and France and Italy and Russia haveusually supplied themselves, but cannot now afford the men, thematerials or the machinery to make. GREATER EFFICIENCY It is evident to every thinking man that our industries, on thefarms, in the shipyards, in the mines, in the factories, must be mademore prolific and more efficient than ever, and that they must bemore economically managed and better adapted to the particularrequirements of our task than they have been; and what I want to sayis that the men and the women who devote their thought and theirenergy to these things will be serving the country and conducting thefight for peace and freedom just as truly and just as effectively asthe men on the battle-field or in the trenches. The industrial forcesof the country, men and women alike, will be a great national, agreat international, service army--a notable and honored host engagedin the service of the nation and the world, the efficient friends andsaviors of free men everywhere. Thousands, nay, hundreds ofthousands, of men otherwise liable to military service will of rightand of necessity be excused from that service and assigned to thefundamental sustaining work of the fields and factories and mines, and they will be as much part of the great patriotic forces of thenation as the men under fire. I take the liberty, therefore, of addressing this word to the farmersof the country and to all who work on the farms: The supreme need ofour own nation and of the nations with which we are co-operating isan abundance of supplies, and especially of foodstuffs. Theimportance of an adequate food-supply, especially for the presentyear, is superlative. Without abundant food, alike for the armies andthe peoples now at war, the whole great enterprise upon which we haveembarked will break down and fail. The world's food reserves are low. Not only during the present emergency, but for some time after peaceshall have come, both our own people and a large proportion of thepeople of Europe must rely upon the harvests in America. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE FARMERS Upon the farmers of this country, therefore, in large measure restthe fate of the war and the fate of the nations. May the nation notcount upon them to omit no step that will increase the production oftheir land or that will bring about the most effectual co-operationin the sale and distribution of their products? The time is short. Itis of the most imperative importance that everything possible bedone, and done immediately, to make sure of large harvests. I callupon young men and old alike and upon the able-bodied boys of theland to accept and act upon this duty--to turn in hosts to the farmsand make certain that no pains and no labor is lacking in this greatmatter. I particularly appeal to the farmers of the South to plant abundantfoodstuffs, as well as cotton. They can show their patriotism in nobetter or more convincing way than by resisting the great temptationof the present price of cotton and helping, helping upon a greatscale, to feed the nation and the peoples everywhere who are fightingfor their liberties and for our own. The variety of their crops willbe the visible measure of their comprehension of their national duty. The Government of the United States and the Governments of theseveral States stand ready to co-operate. They will do everythingpossible to assist farmers in securing an adequate supply of seed, anadequate force of laborers when they are most needed, atharvest-time, and the means of expediting shipments of fertilizersand farm machinery, as well as of the crops themselves whenharvested. The course of trade shall be as unhampered as it ispossible to make it, and there shall be no unwarranted manipulationof the nation's food-supply by those who handle it on its way to theconsumer. This is our opportunity to demonstrate the efficiency of agreat democracy, and we shall not fall short of it! THE DUTY OF MIDDLEMEN This let me say to the middlemen of every sort, whether they arehandling our foodstuffs or the raw materials of manufacture or theproducts of our mills and factories: The eyes of the country will beespecially upon you. This is your opportunity for signal service, efficient and disinterested. The country expects you, as it expectsall others, to forego unusual profits, to organize and expediteshipments of supplies of every kind, but especially of food, with aneye to the service you are rendering and in the spirit of those whoenlist in the ranks, for their people, not for themselves. I shallconfidently expect you to deserve and win the confidence of people ofevery sort and station. THE MEN OF THE RAILWAYS To the men who run the railways of the country, whether they bemanagers or operative employees, let me say that the railways are thearteries of the nation's life and that upon them rests the immenseresponsibility of seeing to it that those arteries suffer noobstruction of any kind, no inefficiency or slackened power. To themerchant let me suggest the motto, "Small profits and quick service, "and to the shipbuilder the thought that the life of the war dependsupon him. The food and the war supplies must be carried across theseas, no matter how many ships are sent to the bottom. The places ofthose that go down must be supplied, and supplied at once. To theminer let me say that he stands where the farmer does: the work ofthe world waits on him. If he slackens or fails, armies and statesmenare helpless. He also is enlisted in the great Service Army. Themanufacturer does not need to be told, I hope, that the nation looksto him to speed and perfect every process; and I want only to remindhis employees that their service is absolutely indispensable and iscounted on by every man who loves the country and its liberties. Let me suggest also that every one who creates or cultivates a gardenhelps, and helps greatly, to solve the problem of the feeding of thenations; and that every housewife who practises strict economy putsherself in the ranks of those who serve the nation. This is the timefor America to correct her unpardonable fault of wastefulness andextravagance. Let every man and every woman assume the duty ofcareful, provident use and expenditure as a public duty, as a dictateof patriotism which no one can now expect ever to be excused orforgiven for ignoring. THE SUPREME TEST In the hope that this statement of the needs of the nation and of theworld in this hour of supreme crisis may stimulate those to whom itcomes and remind all who need reminder of the solemn duties of a timesuch as the world has never seen before, I beg that all editors andpublishers everywhere will give as prominent publication and as widecirculation as possible to this appeal. I venture to suggest also toall advertising agencies that they would perhaps render a verysubstantial and timely service to the country if they would give itwidespread repetition. And I hope that clergymen will not think thetheme of it an unworthy or inappropriate subject of comment andhomily from their pulpits. The supreme test of the nation has come. We must all speak, act andserve together. V THE CONSCRIPTION PROCLAMATION (_May 18, 1917_) Whereas, Congress has enacted and the President has on the 18th dayof May, 1917, approved a law which contains the following provisions: Section 5. That all male persons between the ages of twenty-one andthirty, both inclusive, shall be subject to registration inaccordance with regulations to be prescribed by the President, andupon proclamation by the President or other public notice given byhim or by his direction, stating the time and place of suchregistration, it shall be the duty of all persons of the designatedages, except officers and enlisted men of the Regular Army, the Navyand the National Guard and Naval Militia while in the service of theUnited States, to present themselves for and submit to registrationunder the provisions of this act. And every such person shall be deemed to have notice of therequirements of this act upon the publication of said proclamation orother notice as aforesaid given by the President or by his direction. THE PENALTY FOR FAILURE And any person who shall wilfully fail or refuse to present himselffor registration or to submit thereto as herein provided, shall beguilty of a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction in the DistrictCourt of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, be punishedby imprisonment for not more than one year, and shall thereupon beduly registered. Provided, that in the call of the docket preference shall be given, in courts trying the same, to the trial of criminal proceedings underthis act. Provided, further, that persons shall be subject to registration asherein provided who shall have attained their twenty-first birthdayand who shall not have attained their thirty-first birthday on orbefore the day set for the registration, and all persons soregistered shall be and remain subject to draft into the forceshereby authorized unless exempted or excused therefrom, as in thisact provided. Provided, further, that in the case of temporary absence from actualplace of legal residence of any person liable to registration asprovided herein, such registration may be made by mail underregulations to be prescribed by the President. THE WORK OF REGISTRATION Section 6. That the President is hereby authorized to utilize theservice of any or all departments and any or all officers or agentsof the United States and of the several States, Territories and theDistrict of Columbia and subdivisions thereof, in the execution ofthis act, and all officers and agents of the United States and of theseveral States, Territories and subdivisions thereof, and of theDistrict of Columbia, and all persons designated or appointed underregulations prescribed by the President, whether such appointmentsare made by the President himself or by the Governor or other officerof any State or Territory to perform any duty in the execution ofthis act, are hereby required to perform such duty as the Presidentshall order or direct, and all such officers and agents and personsso designated or appointed shall hereby have full authority for allacts done by them in the execution of this act, by the direction ofthe President. Correspondence in the execution of this act may becarried in penalty envelopes bearing the frank of the War Department. NEGLECT OF DUTY AND FRAUD Any person charged, as herein provided, with the duty of carryinginto effect any of the provisions of this act or the regulations madeor directions given thereunder who shall fail or neglect to performsuch duty, and any person charged with such duty or having andexercising any authority under said act, regulations or directions, who shall knowingly make or be a party to the making of any false orincorrect registration, physical examination, exemption, enlistment, enrolment or muster. And any person who shall make or be a party to the making of anyfalse statement or certificate as to the fitness or liability ofhimself or any other person for service under the provisions of thisact, or regulations made by the President thereunder, or otherwiseevades or aids another to evade the requirements of this act or ofsaid regulations, or who, in any manner, shall fail or neglect fullyto perform any duty required of him in the execution of this act, shall, if not subject to military law, be guilty of a misdemeanor andupon conviction in the District Court of the United States havingjurisdiction thereof be punished by imprisonment for not more thanone year, or, if subject to military law, shall be tried by courtmartial and suffer such punishment as a court martial may direct. A CALL TO GOVERNORS Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, docall upon the Governor of each of the several States and Territories, the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia and allofficers and agents of the several States and Territories, of theDistrict of Columbia, and of the counties and municipalities therein, to perform certain duties in the execution of the foregoing law, which duties will be communicated to them directly in regulations ofeven date herewith. And I do further proclaim and give notice to all persons subject toregistration in the several States and in the District of Columbia, in accordance with the above law, that the time and place of suchregistration shall be between 7 A. M. And 7 P. M. On the 5th day ofJune, 1917, at the registration place in the precinct whereinthey have their permanent homes. Those who shall have attained their twenty-first birthday and whoshall not have attained their thirty-first birthday on or before theday here named are required to register, excepting only officers andenlisted men of the Regular Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps and theNational Guard and Naval Militia while in the service of the UnitedStates, and officers in the Officers' Reserve Corps and enlisted menin the enlisted Reserve Corps while in active service. In theTerritories of Alaska, Hawaii and Porto Rico a day for registrationwill be named in a later proclamation. REGISTRATION BY MAIL And I do hereby charge those who, through sickness, shall be unableto present themselves for registration that they apply on or beforethe day of registration to the County Clerk of the county where theymay be for instructions as to how they may be registered by agent. Those who expect to be absent on the day named from the counties inwhich they have their permanent homes may register by mail, but theirmailed registration cards must reach the places in which they havetheir permanent homes by the day named herein. They should apply assoon as practicable to the County Clerk of the county wherein theymay be for instructions as to how they may accomplish theirregistration by mail. In case such persons as, through sickness or absence, may be unableto present themselves personally for registration shall be sojourningin cities of over 30, 000 population, they shall apply to the CityClerk of the city wherein they may be sojourning rather than to theClerk of the county. The Clerks of counties and of cities of over 30, 000 population, inwhich numerous applications from the sick and from non-residents areexpected, are authorized to establish such sub-agencies and to employand deputize such clerical force as may be necessary to accommodatethese applications. THE WHOLE NATION AN ARMY The Power against which we are arrayed has sought to impose its willupon the world by force. To this end it has increased armament untilit has changed the face of war. In the sense in which we have beenwont to think of armies there are no armies in this struggle, thereare entire nations armed. Thus, the men who remain to till the soil and man the factories areno less a part of the army that is in France than the men beneath thebattle flags. It must be so with us. It is not an army that we must shape and trainfor war--it is a Nation. To this end our people must draw close inone compact front against a common foe. But this cannot be if eachman pursues a private purpose. All must pursue one purpose. TheNation needs all men, but it needs each man, not in the field thatwill most pleasure him, but in the endeavor that will best serve thecommon good. Thus, though a sharpshooter pleases to operate a trip-hammer for theforging of great guns, and an expert machinist desires to march withthe flag, the Nation is being served only when the sharpshootermarches and the machinist remains at his levers. The whole Nationmust be a team, in which each man shall play the part for which he isbest fitted. NOT A DRAFT OF THE UNWILLING To this end Congress has provided that the Nation shall be organizedfor war by selection, that each man shall be classified for servicein the place to which it shall best serve the general good to callhim. The significance of this cannot be overstated. It is a new thing inour history and a landmark in our progress. It is a new manner ofaccepting and vitalizing our duty to give ourselves with thoughtfuldevotion to the common purpose of us all. It is in no sense aconscription of the unwilling. It is, rather, selection from a Nationwhich has volunteered in mass. It is no more a choosing of those who shall march with the colorsthan it is a selection of those who shall serve an equally necessaryand devoted purpose in the industries that lie behind thebattle-lines. The day here named is the time upon which all shall presentthemselves for assignment to their tasks. It is for that reasondestined to be remembered as one of the most conspicuous moments inour history. It is nothing less than the day upon which the manhoodof the country shall step forward in one solid rank in defense of theideals to which this Nation is consecrated. It is important to thoseideals, no less than to the pride of this generation in manifestingits devotion to them, that there be no gaps in the ranks. DAY OF PATRIOTIC DEVOTION It is essential that the day be approached in thoughtful apprehensionof its significance and that we accord to it the honor and themeaning that it deserves. Our industrial need prescribes that it benot made a technical holiday, but the stern sacrifice that is beforeus urges that it be carried in all our hearts as a great day ofpatriotic devotion and obligation, when the duty shall lie upon everyman, whether he is himself to be registered or not, to see to it thatthe name of every male person of the designated ages is written onthese lists of honor. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the sealof the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington this 18th day of May, in the year ofour Lord, 1917, and of the independence of the United States ofAmerica the one hundred and forty-first. By the President: ROBERT LANSING, Secretary of State. VI CONSERVING THE NATION'S FOOD (_May 19, 1917_) It is very desirable, in order to prevent misunderstanding or alarmsand to assure co-operation in a vital matter, that the country shouldunderstand exactly the scope and purpose of the very great powerswhich I have thought it necessary, in the circumstances, to ask theCongress to put in my hands with regard to our food-supplies. Those powers are very great, indeed, but they are no greater than ithas proved necessary to lodge in the other Governments which areconducting this momentous war, and their object is stimulation andconservation, not arbitrary restraint or injurious interference withthe normal processes of production. They are intended to benefit andassist the farmer and all those who play a legitimate part in thepreparation, distribution and marketing of foodstuffs. A SHARP LINE OF DISTINCTION It is proposed to draw a sharp line of distinction between the normalactivities of the Government, represented in the Department ofAgriculture, in reference to food production, conservation andmarketing, on the one hand, and the emergency activities necessitatedby the war, in reference to the regulation of food distribution andconsumption, on the other. All measures intended directly to extend the normal activities of theDepartment of Agriculture, in reference to the production, conservation and the marketing of farm crops, will be administered, as in normal times, through that department; and the powers asked forover distribution and consumption, over exports, imports, prices, purchase and requisition of commodities, storing and the like, whichmay require regulation during the war, will be placed in the hands ofa Commissioner of Food Administration, appointed by the President anddirectly responsible to him. THE END TO BE ATTAINED The objects sought to be served by the legislation asked for are:Full inquiry into the existing available stocks of foodstuffs andinto the costs and practices of the various food producing anddistributing trades; the prevention of all unwarranted hoarding ofevery kind, and of the control of foodstuffs by persons who are notin any legitimate sense producers, dealers or traders; therequisition, when necessary for public use, of food supplies and ofthe equipment necessary for handling them properly; the licensing ofwholesome and legitimate mixtures and milling percentages, and theprohibition of the unnecessary or wasteful use of foods. Authority is asked also to establish prices, but not in order tolimit the profits of the farmers, but only to guarantee to them, whennecessary, a minimum price, which will insure them a profit wherethey are asked to attempt new crops, and to secure the consumeragainst extortion by breaking up corners and attempts at speculationwhen they occur, by fixing temporarily a reasonable price at whichmiddlemen must sell. THE FIXING OF PRICES I have asked Mr. Herbert Hoover to undertake this all-important taskof food administration. He has expressed his willingness to do so, oncondition that he is to receive no payment for his services, and thatthe whole of the force under him, exclusive of clerical assistance, shall be employed, as far as possible, upon the same volunteer basis. He has expressed his confidence that this difficult matter of foodadministration can be successfully accomplished through the voluntaryco-operation and direction of legitimate distributers of foodstuffsand with the help of the women of the country. Although it is absolutely necessary that unquestionable powers shallbe placed in my hands, in order to insure the success of thisadministration of the food-supplies of the country, I am confidentthat the exercise of those powers will be necessary only in the fewcases where some small and selfish minority proves unwilling to putthe Nation's interests above personal advantage, and that the wholecountry will heartily support Mr. Hoover's efforts by supplying thenecessary volunteer agencies throughout the country for theintelligent control of food consumption, and securing theco-operation of the most capable leaders of the very interests mostdirectly affected, that the exercise of the powers deputed to himwill rest very successfully upon the good-will and co-operation ofthe people themselves, and that the ordinary economic machinery ofthe country will be left substantially undisturbed. NO FEAR OF BUREAUCRACY The proposed food administration is intended, of course, only to meeta manifest emergency and to continue only while the war lasts. Sinceit will be composed for the most part of volunteers, there need be nofear of the possibility of a permanent bureaucracy arising out of it. All control of consumption will disappear when the emergency haspassed. It is with that object in view that the Administrationconsiders it to be of pre-eminent importance that the existingassociations of producers and distributers of foodstuffs should bemobilized and made use of on a volunteer basis. The successfulconduct of the projected food administration, by such means, will bethe finest possible demonstration of the willingness, the ability andthe efficiency of democracy and of its justified reliance upon thefreedom of individual initiative. The last thing that any American could contemplate with equanimitywould be the introduction of anything resembling Prussian autocracyinto the food control of this country. It is of vital interest and importance to every man who produces foodand to every man who takes part in its distribution that thesepolicies, thus liberally administered, should succeed and succeedaltogether. It is only in that way that we can prove it to beabsolutely unnecessary to resort to the rigorous and drastic measureswhich have proved to be necessary in some of the European countries. VII AN ANSWER TO CRITICS (_May 22, 1917_) In the following letter, addressed to Representative Heflin, Democrat, of Alabama, President Wilson replies to criticismsregarding his position with regard to the war and its objects: It is incomprehensible to me how any frank or honest person coulddoubt or question my position with regard to the war and its objects. I have again and again stated the very serious and long-continuedwrongs which the Imperial German Government has perpetrated againstthe rights, the commerce and the citizens of the United States. Thelist is long and overwhelming. No Nation that respected itself or therights of humanity could have borne those wrongs any longer. Our objects in going into the war have been stated with equalclearness. The whole of the conception which I take to be theconception of our fellow-countrymen with regard to the outcome of thewar and the terms of its settlement, I set forth with the utmostexplicitness in an address to the Senate of the United States on the22d of January last. Again, in my message to Congress on the 2d ofApril last, those objects were stated in unmistakable terms. I can conceive no purpose in seeking to becloud this matter exceptthe purpose of weakening the hands of the Government and making thepart which the United States is to play in this great struggle forhuman liberty an inefficient and hesitating part. We have entered the war for our own reasons and with our own objectsclearly stated, and shall forget neither the reasons nor the objects. There is no hate in our hearts for the German people, but there is aresolve which cannot be shaken even by misrepresentation, to overcomethe pretensions of the autocratic Government which acts upon purposesto which the German people have never consented. VIII MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS (_May 30, 1917_) In one sense the great struggle into which we have now entered is anAmerican struggle, because it is in defense of American honor andAmerican rights, but it is something even greater than that; it is aworld struggle. It is the struggle of men who love libertyeverywhere, and in this cause America will show herself greater thanever because she will rise to a greater thing. The program has conferred an unmerited dignity upon the remarks I amgoing to make by calling them an address, because I am not here todeliver an address [said the President]. I am here merely to show inmy official capacity the sympathy of this great Government with theobject of this occasion, and also to speak just a word of thesentiment that is in my own heart. Any memorial day of this sort is, of course, a day touched withsorrowful memory, and yet I for one do not see how we can have anythought of pity for the men whose memory we honor to-day. I do notpity them. I envy them, rather, because their great work for libertyis accomplished, and we are in the midst of a work unfinished, testing our strength where their strength already has been tested. A HERITAGE FROM THE DEAD There is a touch of sorrow, but there is a touch of reassurance alsoin a day like this, because we know how the men of America haveresponded to the call of the cause of liberty, and it fills our mindwith a perfect assurance that that response will come again in equalmeasures, with equal majesty and with a result which will hold theattention of all mankind. When you reflect upon it, these men who died to preserve the Uniondied to preserve the instrument which we are now using to serve theworld--a free nation espousing the cause of human liberty. In onesense the great struggle into which we have now entered is anAmerican struggle, because it is in the sense of American honor andAmerican rights, but it is something even greater than that; it is aworld struggle. It is a struggle of men who love liberty everywhere;and in this cause America will show herself greater than ever becauseshe will rise to a greater thing. We have said in the beginning that we planned this great Governmentthat men who wish freedom might have a place of refuge and a placewhere their hope could be realized, and now, having established sucha Government, having preserved such a Government, having vindicatedthe power of such a Government, we are saying to all mankind, "We didnot set this Government up in order that we might have a selfish andseparate liberty, for we are now ready to come to your assistance andfight out upon the fields of the world the cause of human liberty. " AMERICA'S FULL FRUITION In this thing America attains her full dignity and the full fruitionof her great purpose. No man can be glad that such things have happened as we havewitnessed in these last fateful years, but perhaps it may bepermitted to us to be glad that we have an opportunity to show theprinciples which we profess to be living--principles which live inour hearts--and to have a chance by the pouring out of our blood andtreasure to vindicate the things which we have professed. For, myfriends, the real fruition of life is to do the things we have saidwe wished to do. There are times when words seem empty and onlyaction seems great. Such a time has come, and in the providence ofGod America will once more have an opportunity to show to the worldthat she was born to serve mankind. IX A STATEMENT TO RUSSIA (_June 9, 1917_) In view of the approaching visit of the American delegation to Russiato express the deep friendship of the American people for the peopleof Russia and to discuss the best and most practical means ofco-operation between the two peoples in carrying the present strugglefor the freedom of all peoples to a successful consummation, it seemsopportune and appropriate that I should state again, in the light ofthis new partnership, the objects the United States has had in mindin entering the war. Those objects have been very much becloudedduring the past few weeks by mistaken and misleading statements, andthe issues at stake are too momentous, too tremendous, toosignificant for the whole human race to permit any misinterpretationsor misunderstandings, however slight, to remain uncorrected for amoment. The war has begun to go against Germany, and in their desperatedesire to escape the inevitable ultimate defeat, those who are inauthority in Germany are using every possible instrumentality, aremaking use even of the influence of groups and parties among theirown subjects to whom they have never been just or fair, or eventolerant, to promote a propaganda on both sides of the sea which willpreserve for them their influence at home and their power abroad, tothe undoing of the very men they are using. AMERICA SEEKS NO CONQUEST The position of America in this war is so clearly avowed that no mancan be excused for mistaking it. She seeks no material profit oraggrandizement of any kind. She is fighting for no advantage orselfish object of her own, but for the liberation of peopleseverywhere from the aggressions of autocratic force. The rulingclasses in Germany have begun of late to profess a like liberalityand justice of purpose, but only to preserve the power they have setup in Germany and the selfish advantages which they have wronglygained for themselves and their private projects of power all the wayfrom Berlin to Bagdad and beyond. Government after Government has, bytheir influence, without open conquest of its territory, been linkedtogether in a net of intrigue directed against nothing less than thepeace and liberty of the world. The meshes of that intrigue must bebroken, but cannot be broken unless wrongs already done are undone;and adequate measures must be taken to prevent it from ever againbeing rewoven or repaired. Of course the Imperial German Government and those whom it is usingfor their own undoing are seeking to obtain pledges that the war willend in the restoration of the _status quo ante_. It was the_status quo ante_ out of which this iniquitous war issued forth, the power of the Imperial German Government within the empire and itswidespread domination and influence outside of that empire. Thatstatus must be altered in such fashion as to prevent any such hideousthing from ever happening again. THE PRINCIPLES THAT ARE INVOLVED We are fighting for the liberty, self-government and the undictateddevelopment of all peoples, and every feature of the settlement thatconcludes this war must be conceived and executed for that purpose. Wrongs must first be righted and then adequate safeguards must becreated to prevent their being committed again. We ought not toconsider remedies merely because they have a pleasing and sonoroussound. Practical questions can be settled only by practical means. Phrases will not accomplish the result. Effective readjustments will;and whatever readjustments are necessary must be made. But they must follow a principle, and that principle is plain: No people must be forced under sovereignty under which it does notwish to live. No territory must change hands except for the purpose of securingthose who inhabit it a fair chance of life and liberty. No indemnities must be insisted on except those that constitutepayment for manifest wrongs done. No readjustments of power must be made except such as will tend tosecure the future peace of the world and the future welfare andhappiness of its peoples. And then the free peoples of the world must draw together in somecommon covenant, some genuine and practical co-operation, that willin effect combine their force to secure peace and justice in thedealings of nations with one another. The brotherhood of mankind mustno longer be a fair but empty phrase; it must be given a structure offorce and reality. The nations must realize their common life andeffect a workable partnership to secure that life against theaggressions of autocratic and self-pleasing power. For these things we can afford to pour out blood and treasure. Forthese are the things we have always professed to desire, and unlesswe pour out blood and treasure now and succeed, we may never be ableto unite or show conquering force again in the great cause of humanliberty. The day has come to conquer or submit. If the forces ofautocracy can divide us, they will overcome us; if we stand together, victory is certain and the liberty which victory will secure. We can afford, then, to be generous, but we cannot afford then or nowto be weak or omit any single guarantee of justice and security. X FLAG-DAY ADDRESS (_June 14, 1917_) My Fellow-citizens, --We meet to celebrate Flag Day because this flagwhich we honor and under which we serve is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It has no othercharacter than that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours. It floats in majestic silence above the hoststhat execute those choices, whether in peace or in war. And yet, though silent, it speaks to us--speaks to us of the past, of the menand women who went before us and of the records they wrote upon it. We celebrate the day of its birth; and from its birth until now ithas witnessed a great history, has floated on high the symbol ofgreat events, of a great plan of life worked out by a great people. We are about to carry it into battle, to lift it where it will drawthe fire of our enemies. We are about to bid thousands, hundreds ofthousands, it may be millions, of our men--the young, the strong, thecapable men of the nation--to go forth and die beneath it on fieldsof blood far away--for what? For some unaccustomed thing? Forsomething for which it has never sought the fire before? Americanarmies were never before sent across the seas. Why are they sent now?For some new purpose, for which this great flag has never beencarried before, or for some old, familiar, heroic purpose for whichit has seen men, its own men, die on every battlefield upon whichAmericans have borne arms since the Revolution? These are questions which must be answered. We are Americans. We inour turn serve America, and can serve her with no private purpose. Wemust use her flag as she has always used it. We are accountable atthe bar of history and must plead in utter frankness what purpose itis we seek to serve. WHY WE ARE AT WAR It is plain enough how we were forced into the war. The extraordinaryinsults and aggressions of the Imperial German Government left us noself-respecting choice but to take up arms in defense of our rightsas a free people and of our honor as a sovereign Government. Themilitary masters of Germany denied us the right to be neutral. Theyfilled our unsuspecting communities with vicious spies andconspirators and sought to corrupt the opinion of our people in theirown behalf. When they found that they could not do that, their agentsdiligently spread sedition among us and sought to draw our owncitizens from their allegiance--and some of those agents were menconnected with the official embassy of the German Government itselfhere in our own capital. They sought by violence to destroy our ownindustries and arrest our commerce. They tried to incite Mexico totake up arms against us and to draw Japan into a hostile alliancewith her--and that, not by indirection, but by direct suggestion fromthe Foreign Office in Berlin. They impudently denied us the use ofthe seas and repeatedly executed their threat that they would send totheir death any of our people who ventured to approach the coasts ofEurope. And many of our own people were corrupted. Men began to lookupon their own neighbors with suspicion and to wonder, in their hotresentment and surprise, whether there was any community in whichhostile intrigue did not lurk. What great nation, in suchcircumstances, would not have taken up arms? Much as we had desiredpeace, it was denied us, and not of our own choice. This flag underwhich we serve would have been dishonored had we withheld our hand. But that is only part of the story. We know now as clearly as we knewbefore we were ourselves engaged that we are not the enemies of theGerman people and that they are not our enemies. They did notoriginate or desire this hideous war or wish that we should be drawninto it; and we are vaguely conscious that we are fighting theircause, as they will some day see it, as well as our own. They arethemselves in the grip of the same sinister power that has now atlast stretched its ugly talons out and drawn blood from us. The wholeworld is at war because the whole world is in the grip of that powerand is trying out the great battle which shall determine whether itis to be brought under its mastery or fling itself free. THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CONFLICT The war was begun by the military masters of Germany, who proved tobe also the masters of Austria-Hungary. These men have never regardednations as peoples, men, women and children of like blood and frameas themselves, for whom governments existed and in whom governmentshad their life. They have regarded them merely as serviceableorganizations which they could by force or intrigue bend or corruptto their own purpose. They have regarded the smaller states, inparticular, and the peoples who could be overwhelmed by force, astheir natural tools and instruments of domination. Their purpose haslong been avowed. The statesmen of other nations, to whom thatpurpose was incredible, paid little attention; regarded what Germanprofessors expounded in their class-rooms and German writers setforth to the world as the goal of German policy as rather the dreamof minds detached from practical affairs, as preposterous privateconceptions of German destiny, than as the actual plans ofresponsible rulers; but the rulers of Germany themselves knew all thewhile what concrete plans, what well-advanced intrigues, lay back ofwhat the professors and the writers were saying, and were glad to goforward unmolested, filling the thrones of Balkan states with Germanprinces, putting German officers at the service of Turkey to drillher armies and make interest with her Government, developing plans ofsedition and rebellion in India and Egypt, setting their fires inPersia. The demands made by Austria upon Serbia were a mere singlestep in a plan which compassed Europe and Asia, from Berlin toBagdad. They hoped those demands might not arouse Europe, but theymeant to press them whether they did or not, for they thoughtthemselves ready for the final issue of arms. THE PLAN OF CONQUEST Their plan was to throw a broad belt of German military power andpolitical control across the very center of Europe and beyond theMediterranean into the very heart of Asia; and Austria-Hungary was tobe as much their tool and pawn as Serbia or Bulgaria or Turkey or theponderous states of the East. Austria-Hungary, indeed, was to becomepart of the central German Empire, absorbed and dominated by the sameforces and influences that had originally cemented the German statesthemselves. The dream had its heart at Berlin. It could have had aheart nowhere else! It rejected the idea of solidarity of raceentirely. The choice of peoples played no part in it at all. Itcontemplated binding together racial and political units which couldbe kept together only by force--Czechs, Magyars, Croats, Serbs, Rumanians, Turks, Armenians--the proud states of Bohemia and Hungary, the stout little commonwealths of the Balkans, the indomitable Turks, the subtile peoples of the East. These peoples did not wish to beunited. They ardently desired to direct their own affairs, would besatisfied only by undisputed independence. They could be kept quietonly by the presence or the constant threat of armed men. They wouldlive under a common power only by sheer compulsion and await the dayof revolution. But the German military statesmen had reckoned withall that and were ready to deal with it in their own way. And they have actually carried the greater part of that amazing planinto execution! Look how things stand. Austria is at their mercy. Ithas acted, not upon its own initiative or upon the choice of its ownpeople, but at Berlin's dictation, ever since the war began. Itspeople now desire peace, but cannot have it until leave is grantedfrom Berlin. The so-called Central Powers are, in fact, but a singlePower. Serbia is at its mercy, should its hand be but for a momentfreed. Bulgaria has consented to its will, and Rumania is overrun. The Turkish armies, which Germans trained, are serving Germany, certainly not themselves, and the guns of German warships lying inthe harbor at Constantinople remind Turkish statesmen every day thatthey have no choice but to take their orders from Berlin. FromHamburg to the Persian Gulf the net is spread. THE TALK OF PEACE Is it not easy to understand the eagerness for peace that has beenmanifested from Berlin ever since the snare was set and sprung?Peace, peace, peace has been the talk of her Foreign Office for now ayear and more; not peace upon her own initiative, but upon theinitiative of the nations over which she now deems herself to holdthe advantage. A little of the talk has been public, but most of ithas been private. Through all sorts of channels it has come to me, and in all sorts of guises, but never with the terms disclosed whichthe German Government would be willing to accept. That Government hasother valuable pawns in its hands besides those I have mentioned. Itstill holds a valuable part of France, though with slowly relaxinggrasp, and practically the whole of Belgium. Its armies press closeupon Russia and overrun Poland at their will. It cannot go farther;it dare not go back. It wishes to close its bargain before it is toolate, and it has little left to offer for the pound of flesh it willdemand. The military masters under whom Germany is bleeding see very clearlyto what point Fate has brought them. If they fall back or are forcedback an inch, their power both abroad and at home will fall to pieceslike a house of cards. It is their power at home they are thinkingabout now more than their power abroad. It is that power which istrembling under their very feet; and deep fear has entered theirhearts. They have but one chance to perpetuate their military power, or even their controlling political influence. If they can securepeace now, with the immense advantages still in their hands whichthey have up to this point apparently gained, they will havejustified themselves before the German people; they will have gainedby force what they promised to gain by it--an immense expansion ofGerman power, an immense enlargement of German industrial andcommercial opportunities. Their prestige will be secure, and withtheir prestige their political power. If they fail, their people willthrust them aside; a government accountable to the people themselveswill be set up in Germany, as it has been in England, in the UnitedStates, in France, and in all the great countries of the modern timeexcept Germany. If they succeed they are safe and Germany and theworld are undone; if they fail Germany is saved and the world will beat peace. If they succeed, America will fall within the menace. Weand all the rest of the world must remain armed, as they will remain, and must make ready for the next step in their aggression; if theyfail, the world may unite for peace and Germany may be of the union. THE PRESENT AIM OF GERMANY Do you not now understand the new intrigue, the intrigue for peace, and why the masters of Germany do not hesitate to use any agency thatpromises to effect their purpose, the deceit of the nations? Theirpresent particular aim is to deceive all those who throughout theworld stand for the rights of peoples and the self-government ofnations; for they see what immense strength the forces of justice andof liberalism are gathering out of this war. They are employingliberals in their enterprise. They are using men, in Germany andwithout, as their spokesmen whom they have hitherto despised andoppressed, using them for their own destruction--socialists, theleaders of labor, the thinkers they have hitherto sought to silence. Let them once succeed and these men, now their tools, will be groundto powder beneath the weight of the great military empire they willhave set up; the revolutionists in Russia will be cut off from allsuccor or co-operation in western Europe and a counter revolutionfostered and supported; Germany herself will lose her chance offreedom; and all Europe will arm for the next, the final struggle. The sinister intrigue is being no less actively conducted in thiscountry than in Russia, and in every country in Europe to which theagents and dupes of the Imperial German Government can get access. That Government has many spokesmen here, in places high and low. Theyhave learned discretion. They keep within the law. It is opinion theyutter now, not sedition. They proclaim the liberal purposes of theirmasters; declare this a foreign war which can touch America with nodanger to either her lands or her institutions; set England at thecenter of the stage and talk of her ambition to assert economicdominion throughout the world; appeal to our ancient tradition ofisolation in the politics of the nations; and seek to undermine theGovernment with false professions of loyalty to its principles. THIS IS A PEOPLES' WAR But they will make no headway. The false betray themselves always inevery accent. It is only friends and partisans of the GermanGovernment whom we have already identified who utter these thinlydisguised disloyalties. The facts are patent to all the world, andnowhere are they more plainly seen than in the United States, wherewe are accustomed to deal with facts and not with sophistries; andthe great fact that stands out above all the rest is that this is aPeoples' War, a war for freedom and justice and self-governmentamongst all the nations of the world, a war to make the world safefor the peoples who live in it and have made it their own, the Germanpeople themselves included; and that with us rests the choice tobreak through all these hypocrisies and patent cheats and masks ofbrute force and help set the world free, or else stand aside and letit be dominated a long age through by sheer weight of arms and thearbitrary choices of self-constituted masters, by the nation whichcan maintain the biggest armies and the most irresistiblearmaments--a power to which the world has afforded no parallel and inthe face of which political freedom must wither and perish. For us there is but one choice. We have made it. Woe be to the man orgroup of men that seeks to stand in our way in this day of highresolution, when every principle we hold dearest is to be vindicatedand made secure for the salvation of the nations. We are ready toplead at the bar of history, and our flag shall wear a new luster. Once more we shall make good with our lives and fortunes the greatfaith to which we were born, and a new glory shall shine in the faceof our people. XI AN APPEAL TO THE BUSINESS INTERESTS (_July 11, 1917_) My Fellow-countrymen, --The Government is about to attempt todetermine the prices at which it will ask you henceforth to furnishvarious supplies which are necessary for the prosecution of the war, and various materials which will be needed in the industries by whichthe war must be sustained. We shall, of course, try to determine them justly and to the bestadvantage of the nation as a whole. But justice is easier to speak ofthan to arrive at, and there are some considerations which I hope weshall keep steadily in mind while this particular problem of justiceis being worked out. I therefore take the liberty of stating very candidly my own view ofthe situation and of the principles which should guide both theGovernment and the mine-owners and manufacturers of the country inthis difficult matter. PATRIOTISM AND PROFITS APART A just price must, of course, be paid for everything the Governmentbuys. By a just price I mean a price which will sustain theindustries concerned in a high state of efficiency, provide a livingfor those who conduct them, enable them to pay good wages, and makepossible the expansions of their enterprises, which will from time totime become necessary as the stupendous undertakings of this greatwar develop. We could not wisely or reasonably do less than pay such prices. Theyare necessary for the maintenance and development of industry; andthe maintenance and development of industry are necessary for thegreat task we have in hand. But I trust that we shall not surround the matter with a mist ofsentiment. Facts are our masters now. We ought not to put theacceptance of such prices on the ground of patriotism. Patriotism hasnothing to do with profits in a case like this. Patriotism andprofits ought never in the present circumstances to be mentionedtogether. It is perfectly proper to discuss profits as a matter of business, with a view to maintaining the integrity of capital and theefficiency of labor in these tragical months, when the liberty offree men everywhere and of industry itself trembles in the balance, but it would be absurd to discuss them as a motive for helping toserve and save our country. Patriotism leaves profits out of the question. In these days of oursupreme trial, when we are sending hundreds of thousands of our youngmen across the seas to serve a great cause, no true man who staysbehind to work for them and sustain them by his labor will askhimself what he is personally going to make out of that labor. No true patriot will permit himself to take toll of their heroism inmoney or seek to grow rich by the shedding of their blood. He willgive as freely and with as unstinted self-sacrifice as they. Whenthey are giving their lives, will he not at least give his money? I hear it insisted that more than a just price, more than a pricethat will sustain our industries, must be paid; that it is necessaryto pay very liberal and unusual profits in order to "stimulateproduction, " that nothing but pecuniary rewards will do--rewards paidin money, not in the mere liberation of the world. IS A BRIBE NECESSARY? I take it for granted that those who argue thus do not stop to thinkwhat that means. Do they mean that you must be paid, must be bribed, to make your contribution, a contribution that costs you neither adrop of blood, nor a tear, when the whole world is in travail and meneverywhere depend upon and call to you to bring them out of bondageand make the world a fit place to live in again amidst peace andjustice? Do they mean that you will exact a price, drive a bargain, with themen who are enduring the agony of this war on the battlefield, in thetrenches, amid the lurking dangers of the sea, or with the bereavedwomen and pitiful children, before you will come forward to do yourduty and give some part of your life, in easy, peaceful fashion, forthe things we are fighting for, the things we have pledged ourfortunes, our lives, our sacred honor, to vindicate anddefend--liberty and justice and fair dealing and the peace ofnations? Of course you will not. It is inconceivable. Your patriotism is ofthe same self-denying stuff as the patriotism of the men dead ormaimed on the fields of France, or else it is no patriotism at all. Let us never speak, then, of profits and of patriotism in the samesentence, but face facts and meet them. Let us do sound business, butnot in the midst of a mist. Many a grievous burden of taxation will be laid on this Nation, inthis generation and in the next, to pay for this war; let us see toit that for every dollar that is taken from the people's pockets itshall be possible to obtain a dollar's worth of the sound stuffs theyneed. HIGH FREIGHTS AID GERMANY Let us for a moment turn to the ship-owners of the United States andthe other ocean carriers whose example they have followed, and askthem if they realize what obstacles, what almost insuperableobstacles, they have been putting in the way of the successfulprosecution of this war by the ocean freight rates they have beenexacting. They are doing everything that high freight charges can do to makethe war a failure, to make it impossible. I do not say that theyrealize this or intend it. The thing has happened naturally enough, because the commercialprocesses which we are content to see operate in ordinary times havewithout sufficient thought been continued into a period where theyhave no proper place. I am not questioning motives. I am merelystating a fact, and stating it in order that attention may be fixedupon it. The fact is that those who have fixed war freight rates have takenthe most effective means in their power to defeat the armies engagedagainst Germany. When they realize this we may, I take it forgranted, count upon them to reconsider the whole matter. It is hightime. Their extra hazards are covered by war-risk insurance. THE LAW TO DEAL WITH OFFENDERS I know, and you know, what response to this great challenge of dutyand of opportunity the Nation will expect of you; and I know whatresponse you will make. Those who do not respond, who do not respondin the spirit of those who have gone to give their lives for us onbloody fields far away, may safely be left to be dealt with byopinion and the law--for the law must, of course, command thosethings. I am dealing with the matter thus publicly and frankly, not because Ihave any doubt or fear as to the result, but only in order that, inall our thinking and in all our dealings with one another we may movein a perfectly clear air of mutual understanding. And there is something more that we must add to our thinking. Thepublic is now as much part of the Government as are the Army and Navythemselves. The whole people, in all their activities, are nowmobilized and in service for the accomplishment of the Nation's taskin this war. It is in such circumstances impossible justly todistinguish between industrial purchases made by the Government andindustries. And it is just as much our duty to sustain the industriesof the country, all the industries that contribute to its life, as itis to sustain our forces in the field and on the sea. We must makethe prices to the public the same as the prices to the Government. PRICES MEAN VICTORY OR DEFEAT Prices mean the same thing everywhere now. They mean the efficiencyor the inefficiency of the Nation, whether it is the Government thatpays them or not. They mean victory or defeat. They mean that Americawill win her place once for all among the foremost free Nations ofthe world, or that she will sink to defeat and become a second-ratePower alike in thought and action. This is a day of her reckoning, and every man among us must personally face that reckoning along withher. The case needs no arguing. I assume that I am only expressing yourown thoughts--what must be in the mind of every true man when hefaces the tragedy and the solemn glory of the present war, for theemancipation of mankind. I summon you to a great duty, a greatprivilege, a shining dignity and distinction. I shall expect every man who is not a slacker to be at my sidethroughout this great enterprise. In it no man can win honor whothinks of himself. XII REPLY OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE COMMUNICATION OF THE POPE TO THEBELLIGERENT GOVERNMENTS (_August 27, 1917_) To His Holiness Benedictus XV. , Pope. In acknowledgment of the communication of Your Holiness to thebelligerent peoples, dated August 1, 1917, the President of theUnited States requests me to transmit the following reply: Every heart that has not been blinded and hardened by this terriblewar must be touched by this moving appeal of His Holiness, the Pope, must feel the dignity and force of the humane and generous motiveswhich prompted it, and must fervently wish that we might take thepath of peace he so persuasively points out. But it would be folly totake it if it does not, in fact, lead to the goal he proposes. Ourresponse must be based upon the stern facts and upon nothing else. Itis not a mere cessation of arms he desires; it is a stable andenduring peace. This agony must not be gone through with again, andit must be a matter of very sober judgment what will insure usagainst it. THE PROPOSAL FROM THE VATICAN His Holiness, in substance, proposes that we return to the _statusquo ante bellum_, and that then there be a general condonation, disarmament, and a concert of nations based upon an acceptance of theprinciple of arbitration; that by a similar concert freedom of theseas be established; and that the territorial claims of France andItaly, the perplexing problems of the Balkan states, and therestitution of Poland be left to such conciliatory adjustments as maybe possible in the new temper of such a peace, due regard being paidto the aspirations of the peoples whose political fortunes andaffiliations will be involved. It is manifest that no part of this program can be successfullycarried out unless the restitution of the _status quo ante_furnishes a firm and satisfactory basis for it. The object of thiswar is to deliver the free peoples of the world from the menace andthe actual power of a vast military establishment controlled by anirresponsible Government, which, having secretly planned to dominatethe world, proceeded to carry the plan out without regard either tothe sacred obligations of treaty or the long-established practicesand long-cherished principles of international action and honor;which chose its own time for the war; delivered its blow fiercely andsuddenly; stopped at no barrier either of law or of mercy; swept awhole continent within the tide of blood--not the blood of soldiersonly, but the blood of innocent women and children also, and of thehelpless poor; and now stands balked but not defeated, the enemy offour-fifths of the world. This power is not the German people. It isthe ruthless master of the German people. It is no business of ourshow that great people came under its control or submitted withtemporary zest to the domination of its purpose; but it is ourbusiness to see to it that the history of the rest of the world is nolonger left to its handling. To deal with such a power by way of peace upon the plan proposed byHis Holiness the Pope would, so far as we can see, involve arecuperation of its strength and a renewal of its policy; would makeit necessary to create a permanent hostile combination of nationsagainst the German people who are its instruments; and would resultin abandoning the new-born Russia to the intrigue, the manifoldsubtle interference, and the certain counter-revolution which wouldbe attempted by all the malign influences to which the GermanGovernment has of late accustomed the world. Can peace be based upona restitution of its power or upon any word of honor it could pledgein a treaty of settlement and accommodation? Responsible statesmen must now everywhere see, if they never sawbefore, that no peace can rest securely upon political or economicrestrictions meant to benefit some nations and cripple or embarrassothers, upon vindictive action of any sort, or any kind of revenge ordeliberate injury. The American people have suffered intolerablewrongs at the hands of the Imperial German Government, but theydesire no reprisal upon the German people, who have themselvessuffered all things in this war which they did not choose. Theybelieve that peace should rest upon the rights of peoples, not therights of governments--the rights of peoples great or small, weak orpowerful--their equal right to freedom and security andself-government and to a participation upon fair terms in theeconomic opportunities of the world, the German people, of course, included, if they will accept equality and not seek domination. The test, therefore, of every plan of peace is this: Is it based uponthe faith of all the peoples involved or merely upon the word of anambitious and intriguing Government on the one hand, and of a groupof free peoples on the other? This is a test which goes to the rootof the matter; and it is the test which must be applied. THE TEST THAT MUST BE APPLIED The purposes of the United States in this war are known to the wholeworld, to every people to whom the truth has been permitted to come. They do not need to be stated again. We seek no material advantage ofany kind. We believe that the intolerable wrongs done in this war bythe furious and brutal power of the Imperial German Government oughtto be repaired, but not at the expense of the sovereignty of anypeople--rather a vindication of the sovereignty both of those thatare weak and of those that are strong. Punitive damages, thedismemberment of empires, the establishment of selfish and exclusiveeconomic leagues, we deem inexpedient and in the end worse thanfutile, no proper basis for a peace of any kind, least of all for anenduring peace. That must be based upon justice and fairness and thecommon rights of mankind. THE GERMAN RULERS CANNOT BE TRUSTED We cannot take the word of the present rulers of Germany as aguaranty of anything that is to endure, unless explicitly supportedby such conclusive evidence of the will and purpose of the Germanpeople themselves as the other peoples of the world would bejustified in accepting. Without such guarantees treaties ofsettlement, agreements for disarmament, covenants to set uparbitration in the place of force, territorial adjustments, reconstitutions of small nations, if made with the German Government, no man, no nation could now depend on. We must await some newevidence of the purposes of the great peoples of the Central Powers. God grant it may be given soon, and in a way to restore theconfidence of all peoples everywhere in the faith of nations and thepossibility of a covenanted peace. ROBERT LANSING, Secretary of State of the United States of America. XIII A MESSAGE TO TEACHERS AND SCHOOL OFFICERS (_September 30, 1917_) The war is bringing to the minds of our people a new appreciation ofthe problems of national life and a deeper understanding of themeaning and aims of democracy. Matters which heretofore have seemedcommonplace and trivial are seen in a truer light. The urgent demandfor the production and proper distribution of food and other nationalresources has made us aware of the close dependence of individual onindividual and nation on nation. The effort to keep up social andindustrial organizations, in spite of the withdrawal of men for thearmy, has revealed the extent to which modern life has become complexand specialized. These and other lessons of the war must be learned quickly if we areintelligently and successfully to defend our institutions. When thewar is over we must apply the wisdom which we have acquired inpurging and ennobling the life of the world. THE COMMON SCHOOL HAS A PART TO PLAY In these vital tasks of acquiring a broader view of humanpossibilities the common school must have large part. I urge thatteachers and other school officers increase materially the time andattention devoted to instruction bearing directly on the problems ofcommunity and national life. Such a plea is in no way foreign to the spirit of American publiceducation or of existing practices. Nor is it a plea for a temporaryenlargement of the school program appropriate merely to the period ofthe war. It is a plea for a realization in public education of thenew emphasis which the war has given to the ideals of democracy andto the broader conceptions of national life. In order that there may be definite material at hand with which theschools may at once expand their teachings, I have asked Mr. Hooverand Commissioner Claxton to organize the proper agencies for thepreparation and distribution of suitable lessons for the elementarygrades and for the high-school classes. Lessons thus suggested willserve the double purpose of illustrating in a concrete way what canbe undertaken in the schools and of stimulating teachers in all partsof the country to formulate new and appropriate materials drawndirectly from the communities in which they live. WOODROW WILSON. XIV WOMAN SUFFRAGE MUST COME NOW (_October 25, 1917_) The President received at the White House a delegation from the NewYork State Woman Suffrage Party. Answering the address made by thechairman, Mrs. Norman de R. Whitehouse, the President spoke asfollows: Mrs. Whitehouse and Ladies, --It is with great pleasure thatI receive you. I esteem it a privilege to do so. I know thedifficulties which you have been laboring under in New York State, soclearly set forth by Mrs. Whitehouse, but in my judgment thosedifficulties cannot be used as an excuse by the leaders of any partyor by the voters of any party for neglecting the question which youare pressing upon them. Because, after all, the whole world now iswitnessing a struggle between two ideals of government. It is astruggle which goes deeper and touches more of the foundations of theorganized life of men than any struggle that has ever taken placebefore, and no settlement of the questions that lie on the surfacecan satisfy a situation which requires that the questions which lieunderneath and at the foundation should also be settled and settledright. I am free to say that I think the question of woman suffrageis one of those questions which lie at the foundation. The world has witnessed a slow political reconstruction, and men havegenerally been obliged to be satisfied with the slowness of theprocess. In a sense it is wholesome that it should be slow, becausethen it is solid and sure. But I believe that this war is going so toquicken the convictions and the consciousness of mankind with regardto political questions that the speed of reconstruction will begreatly increased. And I believe that just because we are quickenedby the questions of this war, we ought to be quickened to give thisquestion of woman suffrage our immediate consideration. NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT As one of the spokesmen of a great party, I would be doing nothingless than obeying the mandates of that party if I gave my heartysupport to the question of woman suffrage which you represent, but Ido not want to speak merely as one of the spokesmen of a party. Iwant to speak for myself, and say that it seems to me that this isthe time for the States of this Union to take this action. I perhapsmay be touched a little too much by the traditions of our politics, traditions which lay such questions almost entirely upon the States, but I want to see communities declare themselves quickened at thistime and show the consequence of the quickening. I think the whole country has appreciated the way in which the womenhave risen to this great occasion. They not only have done what theyhave been asked to do, and done it with ardor and efficiency, butthey have shown a power to organize for doing things of their owninitiative, which is quite a different thing, and a very much moredifficult thing, and I think the whole country has admired the spiritand the capacity and the vision of the women of the United States. It is almost absurd to say that the country depends upon the womenfor a large part of the inspiration of its life. That is too obviousto say; but it is now depending upon the women also for suggestionsof service, which have been rendered in abundance and with thedistinction of originality. I, therefore, am very glad to add myvoice to those which are urging the people of the great State of NewYork to set a great example by voting for woman suffrage. It would bea pleasure if I might utter that advice in their presence. Inasmuchas I am bound too close to my duties here to make that possible, I amglad to have the privilege to ask you to convey that message to them. It seems to me that this is a time of privilege. All our principles, all our hearts, all our purposes, are being searched; searched notonly by our own consciences, but searched by the world; and it istime for the people of the States of this country to show the worldin what practical sense they have learned the lessons ofdemocracy--that they are fighting for democracy because they believeit, and that there is no application of democracy which they do notbelieve in. I feel, therefore, that I am standing upon the firmest foundations ofthe age in bidding godspeed to the cause which you represent and inexpressing the ardent hope that the people of New York may realizethe great occasion which faces them on Election Day and may respondto it in noble fashion. XV THE THANKSGIVING DAY PROCLAMATION (_November 7, 1917_) It has long been the honored custom of our people to turn in thefruitful autumn of the year in praise and thanksgiving to AlmightyGod for His many blessings and mercies to us as a Nation. That customwe can follow now, even in the midst of the tragedy of a world shakenby war and immeasurable disaster, in the midst of sorrow and greatperil, because even amidst the darkness that has gathered about us wecan see the great blessings God has bestowed upon us; blessings thatare better than mere peace of mind and prosperity of enterprise. We have been given the opportunity to serve mankind as we once servedourselves in the great day of our declaration of independence, bytaking up arms against a tyranny that threatened to master and debasemen everywhere and joining with other free peoples in demanding forall the nations of the world what we then demanded and obtained forourselves. In this day of the revelation of our duty not only todefend our rights as a Nation, but to defend also the rights of freemen throughout the world, there has been vouchsafed us in full andinspiring measure the resolution and spirit of united action. We havebeen brought to one mind and purpose. A new vigor of common counseland common action has been revealed in us. We should especially thank God that, in such circumstances, in themidst of the greatest enterprise the spirits of men have ever enteredupon, we have, if we but observe a reasonable and practicableeconomy, abundance with which to supply the needs of those associatedwith us as well as our own. A new light shines about us. The great duties of a new day awaken anew and greater national spirit in us. We shall never again bedivided or wonder what stuff we are made of. And while we render thanks for these things, let us pray Almighty Godthat in all humbleness of spirit we may look always to Him forguidance; that we may be kept constant in the spirit and purpose ofservice; that by His grace our minds may be directed and our handsstrengthened, and that in His good time liberty and security andpeace and the comradeship of a common justice may be vouchsafed allthe nations of the earth. Wherefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States ofAmerica, do hereby designate Thursday, the 29th day of November next, as a day of thanksgiving and prayer, and invite the people throughoutthe land to cease upon that day from their ordinary occupations andin their several homes and places of worship to render thanks to God, the Great Ruler of nations. XVI LABOR MUST BEAR ITS PART (_November 12, 1917_) In his address before the American Federation of Labor, assembled inconvention at Buffalo, New York, the President spoke as follows: Mr. President, Delegates of the American Federation of Labor, Ladiesand Gentlemen, --I esteem it a great privilege and a real honor to bethus admitted to your public councils. When your executive committeepaid me the compliment of inviting me here I gladly accepted theinvitation, because it seems to me that this, above all other timesin your history, is the time for common counsel, for the drawing notonly of the energies, but of the minds of the nation together. Ithought that it was a welcome opportunity for disclosing to you someof the thoughts that have been gathering in my mind during the lastmomentous months. I am introduced to you as the President of the United States, and yetI would be pleased if you would put the thought of the office intothe background and regard me as one of your fellow-citizens who hascome here to speak, not the words of authority, but the words ofcounsel, the words which men should speak to one another who wish tobe frank in a moment more critical, perhaps, than the history of theworld has ever yet known, a moment when it is every man's duty toforget himself, to forget his own interests, to fill himself with thenobility of a great national and world conception and act upon a newplatform elevated above the ordinary affairs of life, elevated towhere men have views of the long destiny of mankind. I think that in order to realize just what this moment of counsel is, it is very desirable that we should remind ourselves just how thiswar came about and just what it is for. You can explain most warsvery simply, but the explanation of this is not so simple. Its rootsrun deep into all the obscure soils of history, and, in my view, thisis the last decisive issue between the old principles of power andthe new principles of freedom. GERMANY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WAR The war was started by Germany. Her authorities deny that theystarted it, but I am willing to let the statement I have just madeawait the verdict of history. The thing that needs to be explained iswhy Germany started the war. Remember what the position of Germany inthe world was--as enviable a position as any nation has everoccupied. The whole world stood at admiration of her wonderfulintellectual and material achievements, and all the intellectual menof the world went to school to her. As a university man I have beensurrounded by men trained in Germany, men who had resorted to Germanybecause nowhere else could they get such thorough and searchingtraining, particularly in the principles of science and theprinciples that underlie modern material achievements. Her men of science had made her industries perhaps the most competentindustries in the world, and the label, "Made in Germany, " was aguarantee of good workmanship and of sound material. She had accessto all the markets of the world, and every other man who traded inthose markets feared Germany because of her effective and almostirresistible competition. She had a place in the sun. Why was she notsatisfied? What more did she want? There was nothing in the world ofpeace that she did not already have, and have in abundance. We boast of the extraordinary pace of American advancement. We showwith pride the statistics of the increase of our industries and ofthe population of our cities. Well, those statistics did not matchthe recent statistics of Germany. Her old cities took on youth, grewfaster than any American cities ever grew; her old industries openedtheir eyes and saw a new world and went out for its conquest, and yetthe authorities of Germany were not satisfied. You have one part of the answer to the question why she was notsatisfied in her methods of competition. There is no importantindustry in Germany upon which the Government had not laid its handsto direct it and, when necessity arose, control it. You have only to ask any man whom you meet who is familiar with theconditions that prevailed before the war in the matter ofinternational competition to find out the methods of competitionwhich the German manufacturers and exporters used under the patronageand support of the Government of Germany. You will find that theywere the same sorts of competition that we have decided to prevent bylaw within our own borders. If they could not sell their goodscheaper than we could sell ours, at a profit to themselves, theycould get a subsidy from the Government which made it possible tosell them cheaper anyhow; and the conditions of competition were thuscontrolled in large measure by the German Government itself. But that did not satisfy the German Government. All the while therewas lying behind its thought, in its dreams of the future, apolitical control which would enable it, in the long run, to dominatethe labor and the industry of the world. SUCCESS BY AUTHORITY They were not content with success by superior achievement; theywanted success by authority. I suppose very few of you have thoughtmuch about the Berlin to Bagdad railway. The Berlin to Bagdad railwaywas constructed in order to run the threat of force down the flank ofthe industrial undertakings of half a dozen other countries, so thatwhen German competition came in it would not be resisted toofar--because there was always the possibility of getting Germanarmies into the heart of that country quicker than any other armiescould be got there. Look at the map of Europe now. Germany, in thrusting upon us againand again the discussion of peace, talks about what? Talks aboutBelgium, talks about northern France, talks about Alsace-Lorraine. She has kept all that her dreams contemplated when the war began. Ifshe can keep that, her power can disturb the world as long as shekeeps it; always provided--for I feel bound to put this provisionin--always provided the present influences that control the GermanGovernment continue to control it. I believe that the spirit of freedom can get into the hearts ofGermans and find as fine a welcome there as it can find in any otherhearts. But the spirit of freedom does not suit the plans of thePan-Germans. Power cannot be used with concentrated force againstfree peoples if it is used by free people. You know how manyintimations come to us from one of the Central Powers that it is moreanxious for peace than the chief Central Power, and you know that itmeans that the people in that Central Power know that if the war endsas it stands, they will in effect themselves be vassals of Germany, notwithstanding that their populations are compounded with all thepeople of that part of the world, and notwithstanding the fact thatthey do not wish, in their pride and proper spirit of nationality, tobe so absorbed and dominated. THE POLITICAL POWER OF THE WORLD Germany is determined that the political power of the world shallbelong to her. There have been such ambitions before. They have beenin part realized. But never before have those ambitions been basedupon so exact and precise and scientific a plan of domination. May I not say it is amazing to me that any group of people should beso ill informed as to suppose, as some groups in Russia apparentlysuppose, that any reforms planned in the interest of the people canlive in the presence of a Germany powerful enough to undermine oroverthrow them by intrigue or force? Any body of free men that compounds with the present GermanGovernment is compounding for its own destruction. But that is notthe whole of the story. Any man in America or anywhere else whosupposes that the free industry and enterprise of the world cancontinue if the Pan-German plan is achieved and German power fastenedupon the world is as fatuous as the dreamers of Russia. What I am opposed to is not the feeling of the pacifists, but theirstupidity. My heart is with them, but my mind has a contempt forthem. I want peace, but I know how to get it, and they do not. You will notice that I sent a friend of mine, Colonel House, toEurope, who is as great a lover of peace as any man in the world; butI did not send him on a peace mission. I sent him to take part in aconference as to how the war was to be won. And he knows, as I know, that that is the way to get peace if you want it for more than a fewminutes. If we are true friends of freedom--our own or anybody else's--we willsee that the power of this country and the productivity of thiscountry is raised to its absolute maximum and that absolutely nobodyis allowed to stand in the way of it. When I say that nobody ought to be allowed to stand in the way, Idon't mean that they shall be prevented by the power of Government, but by the power of the American spirit. Our duty, if we are to dothis great thing and show America to be what we believe her to be, the greatest hope and energy in the world, then we must standtogether night and day until the job is finished. LABOR MUST BE FREE While we are fighting for freedom we must see, among other things, that labor is free, and that means a number of interesting things. Itmeans not only that we must do what we have declared our purpose todo--see that the conditions of labor are not rendered more onerous bythe war--but also that we shall see to it that the instrumentalitiesby which the conditions of labor are improved are not blocked orchecked. That we must do. That has been the matter about which I havetaken pleasure in conferring, from time to time, with your president, Mr. Gompers; and if I may be permitted to do so, I want to express myadmiration of his patriotic courage, his large vision, hisstatesman-like sense and a mind that knows how to pull in harness. The horses that kick over the traces will have to be put in a corral. Now, to "stand together" means that nobody must interrupt theprocesses of our energy if the interruption can possibly be avoidedwithout the absolute invasion of freedom. To put it concretely, thatmeans this: Nobody has a right to stop the processes of labor untilall the methods of conciliation and settlement have been exhausted, and I might as well say right here that I am not talking to youalone. You sometimes stop the courses of labor, but there are otherswho do the same. I am speaking of my own experience when I say thatyou are reasonable in a larger number of cases than the capitalists. I am not saying these things to them personally yet, because Ihaven't had a chance. But they have to be said, not in any spirit ofcriticism. But, in order to clear the atmosphere and come down to business, everybody on both sides has got to transact business, and thesettlement is never impossible when both sides want to do the squareand right thing. Moreover, a settlement is always hard to avoid whenthe parties can be brought face to face. I can differ with a man muchmore radically when he isn't in the room than I can when he is in theroom, because then the awkward thing is that he can come back at meand answer what I say. It is always dangerous for a man to have thefloor entirely to himself. And, therefore, we must insist in everyinstance that the parties come into each other's presence and therediscuss the issues between them, and not separately in places whichhave no communication with each other. I like to remind myself of a delightful saying of an Englishman of apast generation, Charles Lamb. He was with a group of friends and hespoke harshly of some man who was not present. I ought to say thatLamb stuttered a little bit. And one of his friends said, "Why, Charles, I didn't know that you knew So-and-so?" "Oh, " he said, "Idon't. I can't hate a man I know. " There is a great deal of human nature, of very pleasant human nature, in that saying. It is hard to hate a man you know. I may admit, parenthetically, that there are some politicians whose methods I donot at all believe in, but they are jolly good fellows, and if theywould not talk the wrong kind of politics with me I would love to bewith them. And so it is all along the line, in serious matters andthings less serious. We are all of the same clay and spirit, and wecan get together if we desire to get together. AMERICANS MUST CO-OPERATE Therefore my counsel to you is this: Let us show ourselves Americansby showing that we do not want to go off in separate camps or groupsby ourselves, but that we want to co-operate with all other classesand all other groups in a common enterprise, which is to release thespirits of the world from bondage. I would be willing to set that upas the final test of an American. That is the meaning of democracy. I have been very much distressed, my fellow-citizens, by some of thethings that have happened recently. The mob spirit is displayingitself here and there in this country. I have no sympathy with whatsome men are saying, but I have no sympathy with the men that taketheir punishment into their own hands; and I want to say to every manwho does join such a mob that I recognize him as unworthy of the freeinstitutions of the United States. There are some organizations in this country whose object is anarchyand the destruction of the law. I despise and hate their purpose asmuch as any man, but I respect the ancient processes of justice, andI would be too proud not to see them done justice, however wrong theyare. And so I want to utter my earnest protest against anymanifestation of the spirit of lawlessness anywhere or in any cause. Why, gentlemen, look what it means. We claim to be the greatest democratic people in the world, anddemocracy means, first of all, that we can govern ourselves. If ourmen have not self-control, then they are not capable of that greatthing which we call democratic government. A man who takes the lawinto his own hands is not the right man to co-operate in any form oforderly development of law and institutions. And some of the processes by which the struggle between capital andlabor is carried on are processes that come very near to taking thelaw into your own hands. I do not mean for a moment to compare themwith what I have just been speaking of, but I want you to see thatthey are mere gradations of the manifestations of the unwillingnessto co-operate. The fundamental lesson of the whole situation is thatwe must not only take common counsel, but that we must yield to andobey common counsel. Not all of the instrumentalities for this are athand. BETTER CONDITIONS MAY BE AT HAND I am hopeful that in the very near future new instrumentalities maybe organized by which we can see to it that various things that arenow going on shall not go on. There are various processes of thedilution of labor and the unnecessary substitution of labor andbidding in different markets and unfairly upsetting the wholecompetition of labor which ought not to go on--I mean now, on thepart of employers--and we must interject into this someinstrumentality of co-operation by which the fair thing will be doneall around. I am hopeful that some such instrumentalities may be devised, butwhether they are or not we must use those that we have, and uponevery occasion where it is necessary to have such an instrumentality, originated upon that occasion, if necessary. And so, my fellow-citizens, the reason that I came away fromWashington is that I sometimes get lonely down there--there are somany people in Washington who know things that are not so, and thereare so few people in Washington who know anything about what thepeople of the United States are thinking about. I have to come awayto get reminded of the rest of the country. I have come away and talkto men who are up against the real thing and say to them, I am withyou if you are with me. The only test of being with me is not tothink about me personally at all, but merely to think of me as theexpression for the time being of the power and dignity and hope ofthe American people. XVII ADDRESS TO CONGRESS (_December 4, 1917_) Gentlemen of the Congress, --Eight months have elapsed sinceI last had the honor of addressing you. They have been months crowdedwith events of immense and grave significance for us. I shall notundertake to detail or even to summarize these events. The practicalparticulars of the part we have played in them will be laid beforeyou in the reports of the executive departments. I shall discuss onlyour present outlook upon these vast affairs, our present duties andthe immediate means of accomplishing the objects we shall hold alwaysin view. I shall not go back to debate the causes of the war. The intolerablewrongs done and planned against us by the sinister masters of Germanyhave long since become too grossly obvious and odious to every trueAmerican to need to be rehearsed. But I shall ask you to consideragain, and with very grave scrutiny, our objectives and the measuresby which we mean to attain them; for the purpose of discussion herein this place is action, and our action must move straight towarddefinite ends. Our object is, of course, to win the war, and we shallnot slacken or suffer ourselves to be diverted until it is won. Butit is worth while asking and answering the question, When shall weconsider the war won? From one point of view it is not necessary to broach this fundamentalmatter. I do not doubt that the American people know what the war isabout, and what sort of an outcome they will regard as a realizationof their purpose in it. As a nation we are united in spirit andintention. I pay little heed to those who tell me otherwise. I hear the voicesof dissent--who does not? I hear the criticism and the clamor of thenoisily thoughtless and troublesome. I also see men here and therefling themselves in impotent disloyalty against the calm, indomitablepower of the Nation. I hear men debate peace who understand neitherits nature nor the way in which we may attain it, with uplifted eyesand unbroken spirits. But I know that none of these speaks for theNation. They do not touch the heart of anything. They may safely beleft to strut about their uneasy hour and be forgotten. WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING FOR But from another point of view I believe that it is necessary to sayplainly what we here at the seat of action consider the war to befor, and what part we mean to play in the settlement of its searchingissues. We are the spokesmen of the American people, and they have aright to know whether their purpose is ours. They desire peace by theovercoming of evil, but the defeat once and for all of the sinisterforces that interrupt peace and render it impossible, and they wishto know how closely our thought runs with theirs and what action wepropose. They are impatient with those who desire peace by any sortof compromise--deeply and indignantly impatient--but they will beequally impatient with us if we do not make it plain to them what ourobjectives are and what we are planning for in seeking to makeconquest of peace by arms. I believe that I speak for them when I say two things: First, thatthis intolerable Thing of which the masters of Germany have shown usthe ugly face, this menace of combined intrigue and force, which wenow see so clearly as the German power, a Thing without conscience orhonor or capacity for covenanted peace, must be crushed, and, if itbe not utterly brought to an end, at least shut out from the friendlyintercourse of the nations; and, second, that when this Thing and itspower are indeed defeated and the time comes that we can discusspeace--when the German people have spokesmen whose word we canbelieve, and when those spokesmen are ready, in the name of theirpeople, to accept the common judgment of the nations as to what shallhenceforth be the bases of law and of covenant for the life of theworld--we shall be willing and glad to pay the full price for peaceand pay it ungrudgingly. We know what that price will be. It will befull, impartial justice--justice done at every point and to everynation that the final settlement must affect, our enemies as well asour friends. You catch with me the voices of humanity that are in the air. Theygrow daily more audible, more articulate, more persuasive, and theycome from the hearts of men everywhere. They insist that the warshall not end in vindictive action of any kind; that no nation orpeople shall be robbed or punished because the irresponsible rulersof a single country have themselves done deep and abominable wrong. It is this thought that has been expressed in the formula, "Noannexations, no contributions, no punitive indemnities. " THE PEOPLE OF RUSSIA LED ASTRAY Just because this crude formula expresses the instinctive judgment asto the right of plain men everywhere, it has been made diligent useof by the masters of German intrigue to lead the people of Russiaastray, and the people of every other country their agents couldreach, in order that a premature peace might be brought about beforeautocracy has been taught its final and convincing lesson and thepeople of the world put in control of their own destinies. But the fact that a wrong use has been made of a just idea is noreason why a right use should not be made of it. It ought to bebrought under the patronage of its real friends. Let it be said againthat autocracy must first be shown the utter futility of its claimsto power or leadership in the modern world. It is impossible to applyany standard of justice so long as such forces are unchecked andundefeated as the present masters of Germany command. Not until thathas been done can right be set up as arbiter and peacemaker among thenations. But when that has been done--as, God willing, it assuredlywill be--we shall at last be free to do an unprecedented thing, andthis is the time to avow our purpose to do it. We shall be free tobase peace on generosity and justice, to the exclusion of all selfishclaims to advantage, even on the part of the victors. Let there be no misunderstanding. Our present and immediate task isto win the war, and nothing shall turn us aside from it until it isaccomplished. Every power and resource we possess, whether of men, ofmoney, or of materials, is being devoted, and will continue to bedevoted, to that purpose until it is achieved. Those who desire tobring peace about before that purpose is achieved I counsel to carrytheir advice elsewhere. We will not entertain it. JUSTICE AND REPARATION We shall regard the war only as won when the German people say to us, through properly accredited representatives, that they are ready toagree to a settlement based upon justice and the reparation of thewrongs their rulers have done. They have done a wrong to Belgiumwhich must be repaired. They have established a power over otherlands and peoples than their own--over the great empire ofAustria-Hungary, over hitherto free Balkan states, over Turkey, andwithin Asia--which must be relinquished. Germany's success by skill, by industry, by knowledge, by enterprise, we did not grudge or oppose, but admired rather. She had built up forherself a real empire of trade and influence, secured by the peace ofthe world. We were content to abide the rivalries of manufacture, science and commerce that were involved for us in her success, andstand or fall as we had or did not have the brains and the initiativeto surpass her. But at the moment when she had conspicuously won hertriumphs of peace she threw them away to establish in their steadwhat the world will no longer permit to be established--military andpolitical domination by arms, by which to oust where she could notexcel the rivals she most feared and hated. The peace we make must remedy that wrong. It must deliver the oncefair lands and happy peoples of Belgium and northern France from thePrussian conquest and the Prussian menace, but it must also deliverthe peoples of Austria-Hungary, the peoples of the Balkans, and thepeoples of Turkey, alike in Europe and in Asia, from the impudent andalien domination of the Prussian military and commercial autocracy. We owe it, however, to ourselves to say that we do not wish in anyway to impair or to rearrange the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is noaffair of ours what they do with their own life, either industriallyor politically. We do not purpose nor desire to dictate to them inany way. We only desire to see that their affairs are left in theirown hands, in all matters, great or small. We shall hope to securefor the peoples of the Balkan peninsula and for the people of theTurkish Empire the right and opportunity to make their own livessafe, their own fortunes secure against oppression or injustice andfrom the dictation of foreign courts or parties, and our attitude andpurpose with regard to Germany herself are of a like kind. OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD GERMANY We intend no wrong against the German Empire, no interference withher internal affairs. We should deem either the one or the otherabsolutely unjustifiable, absolutely contrary to the principles wehave professed to live by and to hold most sacred throughout our lifeas a nation. The people of Germany are being told by the men whom they now permitto deceive them and to act as their masters that they are fightingfor very life and existence of their empire, a war of desperateself-defense against deliberate aggression. Nothing could be moregrossly or wantonly false, and we must seek, by the utmost opennessand candor as to our real aims, to convince them of its falseness. Weare, in fact, fighting for their emancipation from fear, along withour own, from the fear as well as from the fact of unjust attack byneighbors or rivals or schemers after world empire. No one isthreatening the existence or the independence or the peacefulenterprise of the German Empire. The worst that can happen to the detriment of the German people isthis, that if they should still, after the war is over, continue tobe obliged to live under ambitious and intriguing masters interestedto disturb the peace of the world, men or classes of men whom theother peoples of the world could not trust, it might be impossible toadmit them to the partnership of nations which must henceforthguarantee the world's peace. That partnership must be a partnershipof peoples, not a mere partnership of governments. It might be impossible, also, in such untoward circumstances, toadmit Germany to the free economic intercourse which must inevitablyspring out of the other partnerships of a real peace. But there wouldbe no aggression in that; and such a situation, inevitable because ofdistrust, would in the very nature of things sooner or later cureitself, by processes which would assuredly set in. THE RIGHTS OF THE CENTRAL POWERS The wrongs, the very deep wrongs, committed in this war will have tobe righted. That of course. But they cannot and must not be rightedby the commission of similar wrongs against Germany and her allies. The world will not permit the commission of similar wrongs as a meansof reparation and settlement. Statesmen must by this time havelearned that the opinion of the world is everywhere wide awake andfully comprehends the issues involved. No representative of anyself-governed nation will dare disregard it by attempting any suchcovenants of selfishness and compromise as were entered into at thecongress of Vienna. The thought of the plain people here and everywhere throughout theworld, the people who enjoy no privilege and have very simple andunsophisticated standards of right and wrong, is the air allgovernments must henceforth breathe if they would live. It is in thefull disclosing light of that thought that all policies must beconceived and executed in this midday hour of the world's life. German rulers have been able to upset the peace of the world onlybecause the German people were not suffered, under their tutelage, toshare the comradeship of the other peoples of the world either inthought or in purpose. They were allowed to have no opinion of theirown which might be set up as a rule of conduct for those whoexercised authority over them. But the congress that concludes thiswar will feel the full strength of the tides that run now in thehearts and consciences of free men everywhere. Its conclusions willrun with those tides. All these things have been true from the very beginning of thisstupendous war; and I cannot help thinking that if they had been madeplain at the very outset the sympathy and enthusiasm of the Russianpeople might have been once for all enlisted on the side of theAllies, suspicion and distrust swept away, and a real and lastingunion of purpose effected. Had they believed these things at the verymoment of their revolution, and had they been confirmed in thatbelief since, the sad reverses which have recently marked theprogress of their affairs toward an ordered and stable government offree men might have been avoided. TRUTH AS THE ANTIDOTE The Russian people have been poisoned by the very same falsehoodsthat have kept the German people in the dark, and the poison has beenadministered by the very same hands. The only possible antidote isthe truth. It cannot be uttered too plainly or too often. From every point of view, therefore, it has seemed to be my duty tospeak these declarations of purpose, to add these specificinterpretations to what I took the liberty of saying to the Senate inJanuary. Our entrance into the war has not altered our attitudetoward the settlement that must come when it is over. When I said inJanuary that the nations of the world were entitled not only to freepathways upon the sea, but also to assured and unmolested access tothose pathways, I was thinking, and I am thinking now, not of thesmaller and weaker nations alone, which need our countenance andsupport, but also of the great and powerful nations, and of ourpresent enemies as well as our present associates in the war. I wasthinking, and am thinking now, of Austria herself, among the rest, aswell as of Serbia and of Poland. Justice and equality of rights canbe had only at a great price. We are seeking permanent, nottemporary, foundations for the peace of the world, and must seek themcandidly and fearlessly. As always, the right will prove to be theexpedient. What shall we do, then, to push this great war of freedom and justiceto its righteous conclusion? We must clear away with a thorough handall impediments to success, and we must make every adjustment of lawthat will facilitate the full and free use of our whole capacity andforce as a fighting unit. THE WAR AGAINST AUSTRIA One very embarrassing obstacle that stands in our way is that we areat war with Germany, but not with her allies. I therefore veryearnestly recommend that the Congress immediately declare the UnitedStates in a state of war with Austria-Hungary. Does it seem strangeto you that this should be the conclusion of the argument I have justaddressed to you? It is not. It is, in fact, the inevitable logic ofwhat I have said. Austria-Hungary is for the time being not her ownmistress, but simply the vassal of the German Government. We mustface the facts as they are and act upon them without sentiment inthis stern business. The Government of Austria-Hungary is not acting upon its owninitiative or in response to the wishes and feelings of its ownpeoples, but as the instrument of another nation. We must meet itsforce with our own and regard the Central Powers as but one. The warcan be successfully conducted in no other way. The same logic wouldlead also to a declaration of war against Turkey and Bulgaria. Theyalso are the tools of Germany. But they are mere tools, and do notyet stand in the direct path of our necessary action. We shall gowherever the necessities of this war carry us, but it seems to methat we should go only where immediate and practical considerationslead us, and not heed any others. A STRICTER GRIP ON ENEMY ALIENS The financial and military measures which must be adopted willsuggest themselves as the war and its undertakings develop, but Iwill take the liberty of proposing to you certain other acts oflegislation which seem to me to be needed for the support of the warand for the release of our whole force and energy. It will be necessary to extend in certain particulars the legislationof the last session with regard to alien enemies; and also necessary, I believe, to create a very definite and particular control over theentrance and departure of all persons into and from the UnitedStates. Legislation should be enacted defining as a criminal offense everywilful violation of the Presidential proclamations relating to enemyaliens promulgated under Section 4067 of the Revised Statutes andproviding appropriate punishment; and women as well as men should beincluded under the terms of the acts placing restraints upon alienenemies. It is likely that as time goes on many alien enemies will bewilling to be fed and housed at the expense of the Government in thedetention camps, and it would be the purpose of the legislation Ihave suggested to confine offenders among them in penitentiaries andother similar institutions, where they could be made to work as othercriminals do. A FURTHER LIMITING OF PRICES Recent experience has convinced me that the Congress must go furtherin authorizing the Government to set limits to prices. The law ofsupply and demand, I am sorry to say, has been replaced by the law ofunrestrained selfishness. While we have eliminated profiteering inseveral branches of industry, it still runs impudently rampant inothers. The farmers, for example, complain with a great deal ofjustice that, while the regulation of food prices restricts theirincomes, no restraints are placed upon the prices of most of thethings they must themselves purchase; and similar inequities obtainon all sides. It is imperatively necessary that the consideration of the full useof the water power of the country, and also the consideration of thesystematic and yet economical development of such of the naturalresources of the country as are still under the control of theFederal Government, should be resumed and affirmatively andconstructively dealt with at the earliest possible moment. Thepressing need of such legislation is daily becoming more obvious. The legislation proposed at the last session with regard to regulatedcombinations among our exporters, in order to provide for our foreigntrade a more effective organization and method of co-operation, oughtby all means to be completed at this session. And I beg that the members of the House of Representatives willpermit me to express the opinion that it will be impossible to dealin any way but a very wasteful and extravagant fashion with theenormous appropriations of the public moneys which must continue tobe made, if the war is to be properly sustained, unless the Housewill consent to return to its former practice of initiating andpreparing all appropriation bills through a single committee, inorder that responsibility may be centered, expenditures standardizedand made uniform, and waste and duplication as much as possibleavoided. Additional legislation may also become necessary before the presentCongress adjourns, in order to effect the most efficientco-ordination and operation of the railway and other transportationsystems of the country; but to that I shall, if circumstances shoulddemand, call the attention of Congress upon another occasion. THE WINNING OF THE WAR If I have overlooked anything that ought to be done for the moreeffective conduct of the war, your own counsels will supply theomission. What I am perfectly clear about is that, in the presentsession of the Congress, our whole attention and energy should beconcentrated on the vigorous and rapid and successful prosecution ofthe great task of winning the war. We can do this with all the greater zeal and enthusiasm because weknow that for us this is a war of high principle, debased by noselfish ambition of conquest or spoliation; because we know, and allthe world knows, that we have been forced into it to save the veryinstitutions we live under from corruption and destruction. Thepurposes of the Central Powers strike straight at the very heart ofeverything we believe in; their methods of warfare outrage everyprinciple of humanity and of knightly honor; their intrigue hascorrupted the very thought and spirit of many of our people; theirsinister and secret diplomacy has sought to take our very territoryaway from us and disrupt the union of the States. Our safety would beat an end, our honor forever sullied and brought into contempt, werewe to permit their triumph. They are striking at the very existenceof democracy and liberty. It is because it is for us a war of high, disinterested purpose, inwhich all the free people of the world are banded together for thevindication of right, a war for the preservation of our nation and ofall that it has held dear of principle and of purpose, that we feelourselves doubly constrained to propose for its outcome only thatwhich is righteous and of irreproachable intention, for our foes aswell as for our friends. The cause being just and holy, the settlement must be of like motiveand quality. For this we can fight, but for nothing less noble orless worthy of our traditions. For this cause we entered the war, andfor this cause we will battle until the last gun is fired. I have spoken plainly because this seems to me the time when it ismost necessary to speak plainly, in order that all the world may knowthat even in the heat and ardor of the struggle, and when our wholethought is of carrying the war through to its end, we have notforgotten any ideal or principle for which the name of America hasbeen held in honor among the nations and for which it has been ourglory to contend in the great generations that went before us. A supreme moment of history has come. The eyes of the people havebeen opened and they see. The hand of God is laid upon the nations. He will show them favor, I devoutly believe, only if they rise to theclear heights of His own justice and mercy. XVIII PROCLAMATION OF WAR AGAINST AUSTRIA-HUNGARY (_December 12, 1917_) The President's proclamation, after citing the resolution of Congressauthorizing the war with Austria, says: Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States ofAmerica, do hereby proclaim to all whom it may concern that a stateof war exists between the United States and the Imperial and RoyalAustro-Hungarian Government, and I do specially direct all officers, civil or military, of the United States that they exercise vigilanceand zeal in the discharge of the duties incident to such a state ofwar. And I do, moreover, earnestly appeal to all American citizens thatthey, in loyal devotion to their country, dedicated from itsfoundation to the principles of liberty and justice, uphold the lawsof the land and give undivided and willing support to those measureswhich may be adopted by the constitutional authorities in prosecutingthe war to a successful issue and obtaining a secure and just peace. NEED ONLY OBEY THE LAWS And, acting under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by theConstitution of the United States, and the aforesaid sections of theRevised Statutes, I do hereby further proclaim and direct that theconduct to be observed on the part of the United States toward allnatives, citizens, denizens or subjects of Austria-Hungary, beingmales of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall be withinthe United States and not actually naturalized, shall be as follows: All natives, citizens, denizens or subjects of Austria-Hungary, being males of fourteen years and upward who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized, are enjoined to preserve the peace toward the United States and to refrain from crime against the public safety and from violating the laws of the United States and of the States and Territories thereof. And to refrain from actual hostility or giving information, aid or comfort to the enemies of the United States. And to comply strictly with the regulations which are hereby or which may be, from time to time, promulgated by the President. And so long as they shall conduct themselves in accordance with law, they shall be undisturbed in the peaceful pursuit of their lives and occupations and be accorded the consideration due to all peaceful and law-abiding persons, except so far as restrictions may be necessary for their own protection and for the safety of the United States. A FRIENDLY ATTITUDE IS URGED And toward such of said persons as conduct themselves in accordancewith law, all citizens of the United States are enjoined to preservethe peace and to treat them with all such friendliness as may becompatible with loyalty and allegiance to the United States. And all natives, citizens, denizens or subjects of Austria-Hungary, being males of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall bewithin the United States and not actually naturalized, who fail toconduct themselves as so enjoined, in addition to all other penaltiesprescribed by law, shall be liable to restraint or to give security, or to remove and depart from the United States in the mannerprescribed by Sections 4069 and 4070 of the Revised Statutes and asprescribed in regulations duly promulgated by the President: FEW REGULATIONS And pursuant to the authority vested in me, I hereby declare andestablish the following regulations, which I find necessary in thepremises, and for the public safety: 1. No native, citizen, denizen or subject of Austria-Hungary, being a male of the age of fourteen years and upward and not actually naturalized, shall depart from the United States until he shall have received such permit as the President shall prescribe, or except under order of a court, judge or justice, under Sections 4069 and 4070 of the Revised Statutes. 2. No such person shall land or enter the United States except under such restrictions and at such places as the President may prescribe. 3. Every such person, of whom there may be reasonable cause to believe that he is aiding or about to aid the enemy, or who may be at large to the danger of the public peace or safety, or who violates or attempts to violate, or of whom there is reasonable ground to believe that he is about to violate any regulation duly promulgated by the President, or any criminal law of the United States, or of the States or Territories thereof, will be subject to summary arrest by the United States Marshal or his deputy, or such other officers as the President shall designate, and to confinement in such penitentiary, prison, jail, military camp or other place of detention as may be directed by the President. This proclamation and the regulations herein contained shall extendand apply to all land and water, continental or insular, in any waywithin the jurisdiction of the United States. XIX THE GOVERNMENT TAKES OVER THE RAILROADS (_A Statement by the President, December 26, 1917_) I have exercised the powers over the transportation systems of thecountry which were granted me by the Act of Congress of August, 1916, because it has become imperatively necessary for me to do so. This is a war of resources no less than of men, perhaps even morethan of men, and it is necessary for the complete mobilization of ourresources that the transportation systems of the country should beorganized and employed under a single authority and a simplifiedmethod of co-ordination which have not proved possible under privatemanagement and control. The committee of railway executives who have been co-operating withthe Government in this all-important matter have done the utmost thatit was possible for them to do; have done it with patriotic zeal andwith great ability; but there were differences that they couldneither escape nor neutralize. IN FAIRNESS TO THE RAILROADS Complete unity of administration in the present circumstancesinvolves upon occasion and at many points a serious dislocation ofearnings, and the committee was, of course, without power orauthority to rearrange changes or effect proper compensations andadjustments of earnings. Several roads which were willingly and withadmirable public spirit accepting the orders of the committee havealready suffered from these circumstances and should not be requiredto suffer further. In mere fairness to them the full authority of theGovernment must be substituted. The Government itself will thereby gain an immense increase ofefficiency in the conduct of the war and of the innumerableactivities upon which its successful conduct depends. The public interest must be first served, and in addition thefinancial interests of the Government and the financial interests ofthe railways must be brought under a common direction. The financialoperations of the railways need not then interfere with theborrowings of the Government, and they themselves can be conducted ata great advantage. INVESTORS TO BE PROTECTED Investors in railway securities may rest assured that their rightsand interests will be as scrupulously looked after by the Governmentas they could be by the directors of the several railway systems. Immediately upon the reassembling of Congress I shall recommend thatthese definite guarantees be given: First, of course, that the railway properties will be maintainedduring the period of Federal control in as good repair and ascomplete equipment as when taken over by the Government, and, second, that the roads shall receive a net operating income equal in eachcase to the average net income of the three years preceding June 30, 1917; and I am entirely confident that the Congress will be disposedin this case, as in others, to see that justice is done and fullsecurity assured to the owners and creditors of the great systemswhich the Government must now use under its own direction or elsesuffer serious embarrassment. The Secretary of War and I are agreed that, all the circumstancesbeing taken into consideration, the best results can be obtainedunder the immediate executive direction of the Hon. William G. McAdoo, whose practical experience peculiarly fits him for theservice, and whose authority as Secretary of the Treasury will enablehim to co-ordinate, as no other man could, the many financialinterests which will be involved and which might, unlesssystematically directed, suffer very embarrassing entanglements. A RECOGNITION OF FACTS The Government of the United States is the only great Government nowengaged in the war which has not already assumed control of thissort. It was thought to be in the spirit of American institutions toattempt to do everything that was necessary through privatemanagement, and if zeal and ability and patriotic motive could haveaccomplished the necessary unification of administration, it wouldcertainly have been accomplished; but no zeal or ability couldovercome insuperable obstacles and I have deemed it my duty torecognize that fact in all candor, now that it is demonstrated, andto use without reserve the great authority reposed in me. A great national necessity dictated the action, and I was thereforenot at liberty to abstain from it. WOODROW WILSON. * * * * * The text of the proclamation follows: Whereas, the Congress of the United States, in the exercise of theconstitutional authority vested in them, by joint resolution of theSenate and House of Representatives, bearing date April 6, 1917, resolved: "That the state of war between the United States and the Imperial German Government which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared, and that the President be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial German Government, and to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States. " And by joint resolution bearing date of December 7, 1917, resolved: "That a state of war is hereby declared to exist between the United States of America and the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Government, and that the President be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Government, and to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States. " And whereas, it is provided by Section 1 of the act approved August29, 1916, entitled "An act making appropriations for the support ofthe army for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1917, and for otherpurposes, " as follows: "The President, in time of war, is empowered, through the Secretary of War, to take possession and assume control of any system or systems of transportation, or any part thereof, and to utilize the same, to the exclusion as far as may be necessary of all other traffic thereon, for the transfer or transportation of troops, war material and equipment, or for such other purposes connected with the emergency as may be needful or desirable. " And whereas, it has now become necessary in the national defense totake possession and assume control of certain systems oftransportation and to utilize the same, to the exclusion as far asmay be necessary of other than war traffic thereon for thetransportation of troops, war material and equipment therefor, andfor other needful and desirable purposes connected with theprosecution of the war. Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, under and by virtue of the powers vested in me by the foregoingresolutions and statute, and by virtue of all other powers thereto meenabling, do hereby, through Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War, takepossession and assume control at 12 o'clock noon on the twenty-eighthday of December, 1917, of each and every system of transportation andthe appurtenances thereof located wholly or in part within theboundaries of the continental United States and consisting ofrailroads, and owned or controlled systems of coastwise and inlandtransportation, engaged in general transportation, whether operatedby steam or by electric power, including also terminals, terminalcompanies and terminal associations, sleeping and parlor cars, private cars and private car lines, elevators, warehouses, telegraphand telephone lines and all other equipment and appurtenancescommonly used upon or operated as a part of such rail or combinedrail and water systems of transportation, to the end that suchsystems of transportation be utilized for the transfer andtransportation of troops, war material and equipment to the exclusionso far as may be necessary of all other traffic thereon, and that sofar as such exclusive use be not necessary or desirable, such systemsof transportation be operated and utilized in the performance of suchother services as the national interest may require and of the usualand ordinary business and duties of common carriers. It is hereby directed that the possession, control, operation andutilization of such transportation systems hereby by me undertakenshall be exercised by and through William G. McAdoo, who is herebyappointed and designated Director-General of Railroads. Said director may perform the duties imposed upon him, so long and tosuch extent as he shall determine, through the boards of directors, receivers, officers and employees of said systems of transportation. Until and except so far as said director shall from time to time bygeneral or special orders otherwise provide, the boards of directors, receivers, officers and employees of the various transportationsystems shall continue the operation thereof in the usual andordinary course of the business of common carriers, in the names oftheir respective companies. Until and except so far as said director shall from time to timeotherwise by general or special orders determine, such systems oftransportation shall remain subject to all existing statutes andorders of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and to all statutes andorders of regulating commissions of the various States in which saidsystems or any part thereof may be situated. But any orders, generalor special, hereafter made by said director shall have paramountauthority and be obeyed as such. Nothing herein shall be construed as now affecting the possession, operation and control of street electric passenger railways, including railways commonly called interurban, whether such railwaysbe or be not owned or controlled by such railroad companies orsystems. By subsequent order and proclamation, if and when it shallbe found necessary or desirable, possession, control or operation maybe taken of all or any part of such street railway systems, includingsubways and tunnels, and by subsequent order and proclamationpossession, control and operation in whole or in part may also berelinquished to the owners thereof of any part of the railroadsystems or rail and water systems, possession and control of whichare hereby assumed. The director shall as soon as may be after having assumed suchpossession and control enter upon negotiations with the severalcompanies looking to agreements for just and reasonable compensationfor the possession, use and control of the respective properties onthe basis of an annual guaranteed compensation, above accruingdepreciation and the maintenance of their properties, equivalent, asnearly as may be, to the average of the net operating income thereoffor the three year period ending June 30, 1917--the results of suchnegotiations to be reported to me for such action as may beappropriate and lawful. But nothing herein contained, expressed or implied, or hereafter doneor suffered hereunder, shall be deemed in any way to impair therights of the stockholders, bondholders, creditors and other personshaving interests in said systems of transportation or in the profitsthereof, to receive just and adequate compensation for the use andcontrol and operation of their property hereby assumed. Regular dividends hitherto declared, and maturing interest uponbonds, debentures and other obligations, may be paid in due course, and such regular dividends and interest may continue to be paid untiland unless the said director shall from time to time otherwise bygeneral or special orders determine, and, subject to the approval ofthe director, the various carriers may agree upon and arrange for therenewal and extension of maturing obligations. Except with the prior written assent of said director, no attachmentby mesne process or on execution shall be levied on or against any ofthe property used by any of said transportation systems, in theconduct of their business as common carriers; but suits may bebrought by and against said carriers and judgments rendered ashitherto until and except so far as said director may, by general orspecial orders, otherwise determine. From and after 12 o'clock on said twenty-eighth day of December, 1917, all transportation systems included in this order andproclamation shall conclusively be deemed within the possession andcontrol of said director without further act or notice, but for thepurpose of accounting said possession and control shall date from 12o'clock midnight on December 31, 1917. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the sealof the United States to be affixed. Done by the President, through Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War, inthe District of Columbia, this twenty-sixth day of December, in theyear of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and seventeen, and ofIndependence of the United States the one hundred and forty-second. WOODROW WILSON. NEWTON D. BAKER, Secretary of War. By the President: ROBERT LANSING, Secretary of State. XX GOVERNMENT OPERATION OF RAILROADS (_Address to the Congress, January 4, 1918_) Gentlemen of the Congress, --I have asked the privilege of addressingyou in order to report that on the 28th of December last, during therecess of Congress, acting through the Secretary of War, and underthe authority conferred upon me by the Act of Congress approvedAugust 29, 1916, I took possession and assumed control of the railwaylines of the country and the systems of water transportation undertheir control. This step seemed to be imperatively necessary in theinterest of the public welfare, in the presence of the great tasks ofwar with which we are now dealing. As our experience developsdifficulties and makes it clear what they are, I have deemed it myduty to remove those difficulties wherever I have the legal power todo so. To assume control of the vast railway systems of the country is, Irealize, a very great responsibility, but to fail to do so in theexisting circumstances would have been much greater. I assumed theless responsibility rather than the weightier. NEED OF UNITED DIRECTION I am sure that I am speaking the mind of all thoughtful Americanswhen I say that it is our duty as the representatives of the nationto do everything that it is necessary to do to secure the completemobilization of the whole resources of America by as rapid andeffective a means as can be found. Transportation supplies all thearteries of mobilization. Unless it be under a single and unifieddirection, the whole process of the nation's action is embarrassed. It was in the true spirit of America, and it was right, that weshould first try to effect the necessary unification under thevoluntary action of those who were in charge of the great railwayproperties, and we did try it. The directors of the railwaysresponded to the need promptly and generously. The group of railwayexecutives who were charged with the task of actual co-ordination andgeneral direction performed their difficult duties with patrioticzeal and marked ability, as was to have been expected, and did, Ibelieve, everything that it was possible for them to do in thecircumstances. If I have taken the task out of their hands, it hasnot been because of any dereliction or failure on their part, butonly because there were some things which the Government can do, andprivate management cannot. We shall continue to value most highly theadvice and assistance of these gentlemen, and I am sure we shall notfind them withholding it. It had become unmistakably plain that only under Governmentadministration can the entire equipment of the several systems oftransportation be fully and unreservedly thrown into a common servicewithout injurious discrimination against particular properties; onlyunder Government administration can absolutely unrestricted andunembarrassed common use be made of all tracks, terminal facilitiesand equipment of every kind. Only under that authority can newterminals be constructed and developed without regard to therequirements or limitations of particular roads. But under Governmentadministration all these things will be possible--not instantly, butas fast as practical difficulties, which cannot be merely conjuredaway, give way before the new management. AS LITTLE DISTURBANCE AS POSSIBLE The common administration will be carried out with as littledisturbance of the present operating organizations and personnel ofthe railways as possible. Nothing will be altered or disturbed whichis not necessary to disturb. We are serving the public interest andsafeguarding the public safety, but we are also regardful of theinterest of those by whom these great properties are owned and gladto avail ourselves of the experience and trained ability of those whohave been managing them. It is necessary that the transportation oftroops and of war materials, of food and of fuel, and of everythingthat is necessary for the full mobilization of the energies andresources of the country, should be first considered; but it isclearly in the public interest also that the ordinary activities andthe normal industrial and commercial life of the country should beinterfered with and dislocated as little as possible, and the publicmay rest assured that the interest and convenience of the privateshipper will be carefully served and safeguarded as it is possible toserve and safeguard it in the present extraordinary circumstances. COMPENSATION SHOULD BE GUARANTEED While the present authority of the Executive suffices for allpurposes of administration, and while, of course, all privateinterests must for the present give way to the public necessity, itis, I am sure you will agree with me, right and necessary that theowners and creditors of the railways, the holders of their stocks andbonds, should receive from the Government an unqualified guaranteethat their properties will be maintained throughout the period ofFederal control in as good repair and as complete equipment as atpresent, and that the several roads will receive, under Federalmanagement, such compensation as is equitable and just alike to theirowners and to the general public. I would suggest the average netrailway operating income of the three years ending June 30, 1917. Iearnestly recommend that these guarantees be given by appropriatelegislation, and given as promptly as circumstances permit. I need not point out the essential justice of such guarantees andtheir great influence and significance as elements in the presentfinancial and industrial situation of the country. Indeed, one of thestrong arguments for assuming control of the railroads at this timeis the financial argument. It is necessary that the values of railwaysecurities should be justly and fairly protected, and that thelargest financial operations every year necessary in connection withthe maintenance, operation and development of the roads should, during the period of the war, be wisely related to the financialoperations of the Government. Our first duty is, of course, to conserve the common interest and thecommon safety, and to make certain that nothing stands in the way ofthe successful prosecution of the great war for liberty and justice;but it is an obligation of public conscience and of public honor thatthe private interests we disturb should be kept safe from unjustinjury, and it is of the utmost consequence to the Government itselfthat all great financial operations should be stabilized andco-ordinated with the financial operations of the Government. Noborrowing should run athwart the borrowings of the Federal Treasury, and no fundamental industrial values should anywhere be unnecessarilyimpaired. In the hands of many thousands of small investors in thecountry, as well as in national banks, in insurance companies, insavings banks, in trust companies, in financial agencies of everykind, railway securities--the sum total of which runs up to some tenor eleven thousand millions, constitute a vital part of the structureof credit, and the unquestioned solidity of that structure must bemaintained. SELECTION OF MCADOO AS DIRECTOR The Secretary of War and I easily agreed that, in view of the manycomplex interests which must be safeguarded and harmonized, as wellas because of his exceptional experience and ability in this newfield of governmental action, the Hon. William G. McAdoo was theright man to assume direct administrative control of this newexecutive task. At our request, he consented to assume the authorityand duties of organizer and director-general of the new railwayadministration. He has assumed those duties, and his work is inactive progress. It is probably too much to expect that, even under the unifiedrailway administration which will now be possible, sufficienteconomies can be effected in the operation of the railways to make itpossible to add to their equipment and extend their operativefacilities as much as the present extraordinary demands upon theiruse will render desirable, without resorting to the national Treasuryfor the funds. If it is not possible, it will, of course, benecessary to resort to the Congress for grants of money for thatpurpose. The Secretary of the Treasury will advise with yourcommittees with regard to this very practical aspect of the matter. For the present, I suggest only the guarantees I have indicated andsuch appropriations as are necessary at the outset of this task. I take the liberty of expressing the hope that the Congress may grantthese promptly and ungrudgingly. We are dealing with great matters, and will, I am sure, deal with them greatly. XXI THE TERMS OF PEACE (_January 8, 1918_) In an address to both Houses of Congress, assembled in joint session, President Wilson enunciated the war and peace program of the UnitedStates in fourteen definite proposals. The President spoke asfollows: * * * * * Gentlemen of the Congress, --Once more, as repeatedly before, thespokesmen of the Central Empires have indicated their desires todiscuss the objects of the war and the possible basis of a generalpeace. Parleys have been in progress at Brest-Litovsk between Russianrepresentatives and representatives of the Central Powers to whichthe attention of all the belligerents has been invited for thepurpose of ascertaining whether it may be possible to extend theseparleys into a general conference with regard to terms of peace andsettlement. The Russian representatives presented not only a perfectly definitestatement of the principles upon which they would be willing toconclude peace, but also an equally definite program of the concreteapplication of those principles. The representatives of the CentralPowers, on their part, presented an outline of settlement which, ifmuch less definite, seemed susceptible of liberal interpretationuntil their specific program of practical terms was added. Thatprogram proposed no concessions at all, either to the sovereignty ofRussia or to the preferences of the population with whose fortunes itdealt, but meant, in a word, that the Central Empires were to keepevery foot of territory their armed forces had occupied--everyprovince, every city, every point of vantage--as a permanent additionto their territories and their power. It is a reasonable conjecturethat the general principles of settlement which they at firstsuggested originated with the more liberal statesmen of Germany andAustria, the men who have begun to feel the force of their ownpeople's thought and purpose, while the concrete terms of actualsettlement came from the military leaders who have no thought but tokeep what they have got. The negotiations have been broken off. TheRussian representatives were sincere and in earnest. They cannotentertain such proposals of conquest and domination. SIGNIFICANCE IN PARLEYS The whole incident is full of significance. It is also full ofperplexity. With whom are the Russian representatives dealing? Forwhom are the representatives of the Central Empires speaking? Arethey speaking for the majorities of their respective parliaments, orfor the minority parties--that military and imperialistic minoritywhich has so far dominated their whole policy and controlled theaffairs of Turkey and the Balkan states, which have felt obliged tobecome their associates in this war? The Russian representatives haveinsisted, very justly, very wisely, and in the true spirit of moderndemocracy, that the conferences they have been holding with theTeutonic and Turkish statesmen should be held within open, notclosed, doors, and all the world has been audience, as was desired. To whom have we been listening, then? To those who speak the spiritand intention of the resolution of the German Reichstag of the 9th ofJuly last, the spirit and intention of the Liberal leaders andparties of Germany, or to those who resist and defy that spirit andintention and insist upon conquest and subjugation? Or are welistening, in fact, to both, unreconciled and in open and hopelesscontradiction? These are very serious and pregnant questions. Uponthe answer to them depends the peace of the world. But, whatever the results of the parleys at Brest-Litovsk, whateverthe confusions of counsel and of purpose in the utterances of thespokesmen of the Central Empires, they have again attempted toacquaint the world with their objects in the war and have againchallenged their adversaries to say what their objects are and whatsort of settlement they would deem just and satisfactory. There is nogood reason why that challenge should not be responded to andresponded to with the utmost candor. We did not wait for it. Notonce, but again and again, we have laid our whole thought and purposebefore the world, not in general terms only, but each time withsufficient definition to make it clear what sort of definitive termsof settlement must necessarily spring out of them. LLOYD GEORGE'S AIMS APPROVED Within the last week Mr. Lloyd George has spoken with admirablecandor and in admirable spirit for the people and Government of GreatBritain. There is no confusion of counsel among the adversaries ofthe Central Powers, no uncertainty of principle, no vagueness ofdetail. The only secrecy of counsel, the only lack of fearlessfrankness, the only failure to make definite statement of the objectsof the war lies with Germany and her allies. The issues of life anddeath hang upon these definitions. No statesman who has the leastconception of his responsibility ought for a moment to permit himselfto continue this tragical and appalling outpouring of blood andtreasure unless he is sure beyond a peradventure that the objects ofthe vital sacrifice are part and parcel of the very life of society, and that the people for whom he speaks think them right andimperative, as he does. There is, moreover, a voice calling for these definitions ofprinciple and of purpose which is, it seems to me, more thrilling andmore compelling than any of the many moving voices with which thetroubled air of the world is filled. It is the voice of the Russianpeople. They are prostrate and all but helpless, it would seem, before the grim power of Germany, which has hitherto known norelenting and no pity. Their power apparently is shattered. And yettheir soul is not subservient. They will not yield either inprinciple or in action. Their conception of what is right, of what itis humane and honorable for them to accept, has been stated with afrankness, a largeness of view, a generosity of spirit and auniversal human sympathy which must challenge the admiration of everyfriend of mankind; and they have refused to compound their ideals ordesert others that they themselves may be safe. WOULD LIKE TO AID RUSSIA They call to us to say what it is that we desire--in what, if inanything, our purpose and our spirit differ from theirs; and Ibelieve that the people of the United States would wish me to respondwith utter simplicity and frankness. Whether their present leadersbelieve it or not, it is our heartfelt desire and hope that some waymay be opened whereby we may be privileged to assist the people ofRussia to attain their utmost hope of liberty and ordered peace. It will be our wish and purpose that the processes of peace, whenthey are begun, shall be absolutely open, and that they shall involveand permit henceforth no secret understandings of any kind. The dayof conquest and aggrandizement is gone by; so is also the day ofsecret covenants entered into in the interest of particulargovernments and likely, at some unlooked-for moment, to upset thepeace of the world. It is this happy fact, now clear to the view ofevery public man whose thoughts do not still linger in an age that isdead and gone, which makes it possible for every nation whosepurposes are consistent with justice and the peace of the world toavow now, or at any other time, the objects it has in view. We entered this war because violations of right had occurred whichtouched us to the quick and made the life of our own peopleimpossible unless they were corrected and the world secured once forall against their recurrence. What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fitand safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for everypeace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine its own institutions, be assured of justice and fairdealing by the other peoples of the world as against force andselfish aggression. All the peoples of the world are in effectpartners in this interest, and for our own part we see very clearlythat unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us. THE DEFINITE PROGRAM The program of the world's peace, therefore, is our program, and thatprogram, the only possible program, as we see it, is this: I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which thereshall be no private international understandings of any kind, butdiplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view. II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorialwaters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closedin whole or in part by international action for the enforcement ofinternational covenants. III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers andthe establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all thenations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for itsmaintenance. IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments willbe reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety. V. A free, open-minded and absolutely impartial adjustment of allcolonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle thatin determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of thepopulations concerned must have equal weight with the equitableclaims of the Government whose title is to be determined. VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement ofall questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freestco-operation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for heran unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independentdetermination of her own political development and national policyand assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nationsunder institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herselfdesire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations will bethe acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her needsas distinguished from their own interests and of their intelligentand unselfish sympathy. BELGIUM MUST BE RESTORED VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated andrestored, without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which sheenjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single actwill serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nationsin the laws which they have themselves set and determined for thegovernment of their relations with one another. Without this healingact the whole structure and validity of international law is foreverimpaired. VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portionsrestored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in thematter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the worldfor nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace mayonce more be made secure in the interest of all. IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected alongclearly recognizable lines of nationality. X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations wewish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freestopportunity of autonomous development. XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupiedterritories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to thesea; and the relations of the several Balkan states to one anotherdetermined by friendly counsel along historically established linesof allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees of thepolitical and economic independence and territorial integrity of theseveral Balkan states should be entered into. XII. The Turkish portions of the present Ottoman Empire should beassured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which arenow under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security oflife and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomousdevelopment, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as afree passage to the ships and commerce of all nations underinternational guarantees. INDEPENDENCE FOR POLAND XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which shouldinclude the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, andwhose political and economic independence and territorial integrityshould be guaranteed by international covenant. XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specificcovenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of politicalindependence and territorial integrity to great and small statesalike. In regard to these essential rectifications of wrong and assertionsof right, we feel ourselves to be intimate partners of all theGovernments and peoples associated together against the imperialists. We cannot be separated in interest or divided in purpose. We standtogether until the end. For such arrangements and covenants we are willing to fight, and tocontinue to fight, until they are achieved; but only because we wishthe right to prevail and desire a just and stable peace, such as canbe secured only by removing the chief provocations to war, which thisprogram does remove. We have no jealousy of German greatness, andthere is nothing in this program that impairs it. We grudge her noachievement or distinction of learning or of pacific enterprise, suchas have made her record very bright and very enviable. We do not wishto injure her or to block in any way her legitimate influence orpower. We do not wish to fight her either with arms or with hostilearrangements of trade, if she is willing to associate herself with usand the other peace-loving nations of the world in covenants ofjustice and law and fair dealing. We wish her only to accept a placeof equality among the peoples of the world--the new world in which wenow live--instead of a place of mastery. GERMANY'S SPOKESMEN AN ISSUE Neither do we presume to suggest to her any alteration ormodification of her institutions. But it is necessary, we mustfrankly say, and necessary as a preliminary to any intelligentdealings with her on our part, that we should know whom her spokesmenspeak for when they speak to us, whether for the Reichstag majorityor for the military party and the men whose creed is imperialdomination. We have spoken now surely in terms too concrete to admit of anyfurther doubt or question. An evident principle runs through thewhole program I have outlined. It is the principle of justice to allpeoples and nationalities and their right to live on equal terms ofliberty and safety with one another, whether they be strong or weak. Unless this principle be made its foundation, no part of thestructure of international justice can stand. The people of theUnited States could act upon no other principle, and to thevindication of this principle they are ready to devote their lives, their honor and everything that they possess. The moral climax ofthis, the culminating and final war for human liberty, has come, andthey are ready to put their own strength, their own highest purpose, their own integrity and devotion to the test. APPENDIX STATE DEPARTMENT'S REVISED LIST OFNATIONS AT WAR WHICH HAVEBROKEN RELATIONS DECLARATIONS OF WAR The country declaring war is named first. Austria--Belgium, Aug. 28, 1914. Austria--Japan, Aug. 27, 1914. Austria--Montenegro, Aug. 9, 1914. Austria--Russia, Aug. 6, 1914. Austria--Serbia, July 28, 1914. Brazil--Germany, Oct. 26, 1917. Bulgaria--Serbia, Oct. 14, 1915. China--Austria, Aug. 14, 1917. China--Germany, Aug. 14, 1917. Cuba--Germany, April 7, 1917. France--Austria, Aug. 13, 1914. France--Bulgaria, Oct. 16, 1915. France--Germany, Aug. 3, 1914. France--Turkey, Nov. 5, 1914. Germany--Belgium, Aug. 4, 1914. Germany--France, Aug. 3, 1914. Germany--Portugal, March 9, 1916. Germany--Rumania, Sept. 14, 1916. Germany--Russia, Aug. 1, 1914. Great Britain--Austria, Aug. 13, 1914. Great Britain--Bulgaria, Oct. 15, 1915. Great Britain--Germany, Aug. 4, 1914. Great Britain--Turkey, Nov. 5, 1914. Greece--Bulgaria, Nov. 28, 1916. (Provisional Government. ) Greece--Bulgaria, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander. ) Greece--Germany, Nov. 28, 1916. (Provisional Government. ) Greece--Germany, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander. ) Italy--Austria, May 24, 1915. Italy--Bulgaria, Oct. 19, 1915. Italy--Germany, Aug. 28, 1916. Italy--Turkey, Aug. 21, 1915. Japan--Germany, Aug. 28, 1914. Liberia--Germany, Aug. 4, 1917. Montenegro--Austria, Aug. 8, 1914. Montenegro--Germany, Aug. 9, 1914. Panama--Germany, April 7, 1917. Panama--Austria, Dec. 10, 1917. Portugal--Germany, Nov. 23, 1914. (Resolutions passed authorizing military intervention as ally of England. ) Portugal--Germany, May 19, 1915. (Military aid granted. ) Rumania--Austria, Aug. 27, 1916. (Allies of Austria also consider it a declaration. ) Russia--Bulgaria, Oct. 19, 1915. Russia--Turkey, Nov. 3, 1914. San Marino--Austria, May 24, 1915. Serbia--Bulgaria, Oct. 16, 1915. Serbia--Germany, Aug. 6, 1914. Serbia--Turkey, Dec. 2, 1914. Siam--Austria, July 22, 1917. Siam--Germany, July 22, 1917. Turkey--Allies, Nov. 23, 1914. Turkey--Rumania, Aug. 29, 1916. United States--Austria-Hungary, Dec. 7, 1917. United States--Germany, April 6, 1917. SEVERANCE OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS Austria--Japan, Aug. 26, 1914. Austria--Portugal, March 16, 1916. Austria--Serbia, July 26, 1914. Austria--United States, April 8, 1917. Bolivia--Germany, April 14, 1917. Brazil--Germany, April 11, 1917. China--Germany, March 14, 1917. Costa Rica--Germany, Sept. 21, 1917. Ecuador--Germany, Dec. 7, 1917. Egypt--Germany, Aug. 13, 1914. France--Austria, Aug. 10, 1914. Greece--Turkey, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander. ) Greece--Austria, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander. ) Guatemala--Germany, April 27, 1917. Haiti--Germany, June 17, 1917. Honduras--Germany, May 17, 1917. Nicaragua--Germany, May 18, 1917. Peru--Germany, Oct. 6, 1917. Turkey--United States, April 20, 1917. United States--Germany, Feb. 3, 1917. Uruguay--Germany, Oct. 7, 1917. --_From the Official Bulletin of the Committee on PublicInformation. _ POPULATION OF THE NATIONS Austria (including Hungary) 50, 000, 000 Belgium 7, 571, 387 Bolivia 2, 520, 538 Brazil 22, 992, 937 Bulgaria 4, 755, 000 China 413, 000, 000 Costa Rica 427, 604 Cuba 2, 406, 117 Ecuador 1, 500, 000 Egypt 12, 170, 000 France 39, 601, 509 Germany 66, 715, 000 Great Britain 40, 834, 790 Greece 5, 000, 000 Guatemala 2, 092, 824 Haiti 2, 030, 000 Honduras 592, 675 Italy 35, 598, 000 Japan 53, 696, 358 Liberia 2, 060, 000 Montenegro 520, 000 Nicaragua 689, 891 Panama 386, 891 Peru 4, 500, 000 Portugal 5, 857, 895 Rumania 7, 600, 000 Russia 175, 137, 000 San Marino 10, 655 Serbia 4, 600, 000 Siam 6, 000, 000 Turkey 21, 274, 000 United States 102, 826, 309 Uruguay 1, 255, 914 THE END