The addresses are separated by three asterisks: ***

Dates of addresses by Woodrow Wilson in this eBook: December 2, 1913 December 8, 1914 December 7, 1915 December 5, 1916 December 4, 1917 December 2, 1918 December 2, 1919 December 7, 1920

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State of the Union AddressWoodrow WilsonDecember 2, 1913

Gentlemen of the Congress:

In pursuance of my constitutional duty to "give to the Congress informationof the state of the Union, " I take the liberty of addressing you on severalmatters which ought, as it seems to me, particularly to engage theattention of your honorable bodies, as of all who study the welfare andprogress of the Nation. 

I shall ask your indulgence if I venture to depart in some degree from theusual custom of setting before you in formal review the many matters whichhave engaged the attention and called for the action of the severaldepartments of the Government or which look to them for early treatment inthe future, because the list is long, very long, and would suffer in theabbreviation to which I should have to subject it. I shall submit to youthe reports of the heads of the several departments, in which thesesubjects are set forth in careful detail, and beg that they may receive thethoughtful attention of your committees and of all Members of the Congresswho may have the leisure to study them. Their obvious importance, asconstituting the very substance of the business of the Government, makescomment and emphasis on my part unnecessary. 

The country, I am thankful to say, is at peace with all the world, and manyhappy manifestations multiply about us of a growing cordiality and sense ofcommunity of interest among the nations, foreshadowing an age of settledpeace and good will. More and more readily each decade do the nationsmanifest their willingness to bind themselves by solemn treaty to theprocesses of peace, the processes of frankness and fair concession. So farthe United States has stood at the front of such negotiations. She will, Iearnestly hope and confidently believe, give fresh proof of her sincereadherence to the cause of international friendship by ratifying the severaltreaties of arbitration awaiting renewal by the Senate. In addition tothese, it has been the privilege of the Department of State to gain theassent, in principle, of no less than 31 nations, representing four-fifthsof the population of the world, to the negotiation of treaties by which itshall be agreed that whenever differences of interest or of policy arisewhich can not be resolved by the ordinary processes of diplomacy they shallbe publicly analyzed, discussed, and reported upon by a tribunal chosen bythe parties before either nation determines its course of action. 

There is only one possible standard by which to determine controversiesbetween the United States and other nations, and that is compounded ofthese two elements: Our own honor and our obligations to the peace of theworld. A test so compounded ought easily to be made to govern both theestablishment of new treaty obligations and the interpretation of thosealready assumed. 

There is but one cloud upon our horizon. That has shown itself to the southof us, and hangs over Mexico. There can be no certain prospect of peace inAmerica until Gen. Huerta has surrendered his usurped authority in Mexico;until it is understood on all hands, indeed, that such pretendedgovernments will not be countenanced or dealt with by-the Government of theUnited States. We are the friends of constitutional government in America;we are more than its friends, we are its champions; because in no other waycan our neighbors, to whom we would wish in every way to make proof of ourfriendship, work out their own development in peace and liberty. Mexico hasno Government. The attempt to maintain one at the City of Mexico has brokendown, and a mere military despotism has been set up which has hardly morethan the semblance of national authority. It originated in the usurpationof Victoriano Huerta, who, after a brief attempt to play the part ofconstitutional President, has at last cast aside even the pretense of legalright and declared himself dictator. As a consequence, a condition ofaffairs now exists in Mexico which has made it doubtful whether even themost elementary and fundamental rights either of her own people or of thecitizens of other countries resident within her territory can long besuccessfully safeguarded, and which threatens, if long continued, toimperil the interests of peace, order, and tolerable life in the landsimmediately to the south of us. Even if the usurper had succeeded in hispurposes, in despite of the constitution of the Republic and the rights ofits people, he would have set up nothing but a precarious and hatefulpower, which could have lasted but a little while, and whose eventualdownfall would have left the country in a more deplorable condition thanever. But he has not succeeded. He has forfeited the respect and the moralsupport even of those who were at one time willing to see him succeed. Little by little he has been completely isolated. By a little every day hispower and prestige are crumbling and the collapse is not far away. We shallnot, I believe, be obliged to alter our policy of watchful waiting. Andthen, when the end comes, we shall hope to see constitutional orderrestored in distressed Mexico by the concert and energy of such of herleaders as prefer the liberty of their people to their own ambitions. 

I turn to matters of domestic concern. You already have under considerationa bill for the reform of our system of banking and currency, for which thecountry waits with impatience, as for something fundamental to its wholebusiness life and necessary to set credit free from arbitrary andartificial restraints. I need not say how earnestly I hope for its earlyenactment into law. I take leave to beg that the whole energy and attentionof the Senate be concentrated upon it till the matter is successfullydisposed of. And yet I feel that the request is not needed-that the Membersof that great House need no urging in this service to the country. 

I present to you, in addition, the urgent necessity that special provisionbe made also for facilitating the credits needed by the farmers of thecountry. The pending currency bill does the farmers a great service. Itputs them upon an equal footing with other business men and masters ofenterprise, as it should; and upon its passage they will find themselvesquit of many of the difficulties which now hamper them in the field ofcredit. The farmers, of course, ask and should be given no specialprivilege, such as extending to them the credit of the Government itself. What they need and should obtain is legislation which will make their ownabundant and substantial credit resources available as a foundation forjoint, concerted local action in their own behalf in getting the capitalthey must use. It is to this we should now address ourselves. 

It has, singularly enough, come to pass that we have allowed the industryof our farms to lag behind the other activities of the country in itsdevelopment. I need not stop to tell you how fundamental to the life of theNation is the production of its food. Our thoughts may ordinarily beconcentrated upon the cities and the hives of industry, upon the cries ofthe crowded market place and the clangor of the factory, but it is from thequiet interspaces of the open valleys and the free hillsides that we drawthe sources of life and of prosperity, from the farm and the ranch, fromthe forest and the mine. Without these every street would be silent, everyoffice deserted, every factory fallen into disrepair. And yet the farmerdoes not stand upon the same footing with the forester and the miner in themarket of credit. He is the servant of the seasons. Nature determines howlong he must wait for his crops, and will not be hurried in her processes. He may give his note, but the season of its maturity depends upon theseason when his crop matures, lies at the gates of the market where hisproducts are sold. And the security he gives is of a character not known inthe broker's office or as familiarly as it might be on the counter of thebanker. 

The Agricultural Department of the Government is seeking to assist as neverbefore to make farming an efficient business, of wide co-operative effort, in quick touch with the markets for foodstuffs. The farmers and theGovernment will henceforth work together as real partners in this field, where we now begin to see our way very clearly and where many intelligentplans are already being put into execution. The Treasury of the UnitedStates has, by a timely and well-considered distribution of its deposits, facilitated the moving of the crops in the present season and prevented thescarcity of available funds too often experienced at such times. But wemust not allow ourselves to depend upon extraordinary expedients. We mustadd the means by which the, farmer may make his credit constantly andeasily available and command when he will the capital by which to supportand expand his business. We lag behind many other great countries of themodern world in attempting to do this. Systems of rural credit have beenstudied and developed on the other side of the water while we left ourfarmers to shift for themselves in the ordinary money market. You have butto look about you in any rural district to see the result, the handicap andembarrassment which have been put upon those who produce our food. 

Conscious of this backwardness and neglect on our part, the Congressrecently authorized the creation of a special commission to study thevarious systems of rural credit which have been put into operation inEurope, and this commission is already prepared to report. Its report oughtto make it easier for us to determine what methods will be best suited toour own farmers. I hope and believe that the committees of the Senate andHouse will address themselves to this matter with the most fruitfulresults, and I believe that the studies and recently formed plans of theDepartment of Agriculture may be made to serve them very greatly in theirwork of framing appropriate and adequate legislation. It would beindiscreet and presumptuous in anyone to dogmatize upon so great andmany-sided a question, but I feel confident that common counsel willproduce the results we must all desire. 

Turn from the farm to the world of business which centers in the city andin the factory, and I think that all thoughtful observers will agree thatthe immediate service we owe the business communities of the country is toprevent private monopoly more effectually than it has yet been prevented. Ithink it will be easily agreed that we should let the Sherman anti-trustlaw stand, unaltered, as it is, with its debatable ground about it, butthat we should as much as possible reduce the area of that debatable groundby further and more explicit legislation; and should also supplement thatgreat act by legislation which will not only clarify it but also facilitateits administration and make it fairer to all concerned. No doubt we shallall wish, and the country will expect, this to be the central subject ofour deliberations during the present session; but it is a subject somany-sided and so deserving of careful and discriminating discussion that Ishall take the liberty of addressing you upon it in a special message at alater date than this. It is of capital importance that the business men ofthis country should be relieved of all uncertainties of law with regard totheir enterprises and investments and a clear path indicated which they cantravel without anxiety. It is as important that they should be relieved ofembarrassment and set free to prosper as that private monopoly should bedestroyed. The ways of action should be thrown wide open. 

I turn to a subject which I hope can be handled promptly and withoutserious controversy of any kind. I mean the method of selecting nomineesfor the Presidency of the United States. I feel confident that I do notmisinterpret the wishes or the expectations of the country when I urge theprompt enactment of legislation which will provide for primary electionsthroughout the country at which the voters of the several parties maychoose their nominees for the Presidency without the intervention ofnominating conventions. I venture the suggestion that this legislationshould provide for the retention of party conventions, but only for thepurpose of declaring and accepting the verdict of the primaries andformulating the platforms of the parties; and I suggest that theseconventions should consist not of delegates chosen for this single purpose, but of the nominees for Congress, the nominees for vacant seats in theSenate of the United States, the Senators whose terms have not yet closed, the national committees, and the candidates for the Presidency themselves, in order that platforms may be framed by those responsible to the peoplefor carrying them into effect. 

These are all matters of vital domestic concern, and besides them, outsidethe charmed circle of our own national life in which our affections commandus, as well as our consciences, there stand out our obligations toward ourterritories over sea. Here we are trustees. Porto Rico, Hawaii, thePhilippines, are ours, indeed, but not ours to do what we please with. Suchterritories, once regarded as mere possessions, are no longer to beselfishly exploited; they are part of the domain of public conscience andof serviceable and enlightened statesmanship. We must administer them forthe people who live in them and with the same sense of responsibility tothem as toward our own people in our domestic affairs. No doubt we shallsuccessfully enough bind Porto Rico and the Hawaiian Islands to ourselvesby ties of justice and interest and affection, but the performance of ourduty toward the Philippines is a more difficult and debatable matter. Wecan satisfy the obligations of generous justice toward the people of PortoRico by giving them the ample and familiar rights and privileges accordedour own citizens in our own territories and our obligations toward thepeople of Hawaii by perfecting the provisions for self-government alreadygranted them, but in the Philippines we must go further. We must holdsteadily in view their ultimate independence, and we must move toward thetime of that independence as steadily as the way can be cleared and thefoundations thoughtfully and permanently laid. 

Acting under the authority conferred upon the President by Congress, I havealready accorded the people of the islands a majority in both houses oftheir legislative body by appointing five instead of four native citizensto the membership of the commission. I believe that in this way we shallmake proof of their capacity in counsel and their sense of responsibilityin the exercise of political power, and that the success of this step willbe sure to clear our view for the steps which are to follow. Step by stepwe should extend and perfect the system of self-government in the islands, making test of them and modifying them as experience discloses theirsuccesses and their failures; that we should more and more put under thecontrol of the native citizens of the archipelago the essential instrumentsof their life, their local instrumentalities of government, their schools, all the common interests of their communities, and so by counsel andexperience set up a government which all the world will see to be suitableto a people whose affairs are under their own control. At last, I hope andbelieve, we are beginning to gain the confidence of the Filipino peoples. By their counsel and experience, rather than by our own, we shall learn howbest to serve them and how soon it will be possible and wise to withdrawour supervision. Let us once find the path and set out with firm andconfident tread upon it and we shall not wander from it or linger upon it. 

A duty faces us with regard to Alaska which seems to me very pressing andvery imperative; perhaps I should say a double duty, for it concerns boththe political and the material development of the Territory. The people ofAlaska should be given the full Territorial form of government, and Alaska, as a storehouse, should be unlocked. One key to it is a system of railways. These the Government should itself build and administer, and the ports andterminals it should itself control in the interest of all who wish to usethem for the service and development of the country and its people. 

But the construction of railways is only the first step; is only thrustingin the key to the storehouse and throwing back the lock and opening thedoor. How the tempting resources of the country are to be exploited isanother matter, to which I shall take the liberty of from time to timecalling your attention, for it is a policy which must be worked out bywell-considered stages, not upon theory, but upon lines of practicalexpediency. It is part of our general problem of conservation. We have afreer hand in working out the problem in Alaska than in the States of theUnion; and yet the principle and object are the same, wherever we touch it. We must use the resources of the country, not lock them up. There need beno conflict or jealousy as between State and Federal authorities, for therecan be no essential difference of purpose between them. The resources inquestion must be used, but not destroyed or wasted; used, but notmonopolized upon any narrow idea of individual rights as against theabiding interests of communities. That a policy can be worked out byconference and concession which will release these resources and yet notjeopard or dissipate them, I for one have no doubt; and it can be done onlines of regulation which need be no less acceptable to the people andgovernments of the States concerned than to the people and Government ofthe Nation at large, whose heritage these resources are. We must bend ourcounsels to this end. A common purpose ought to make agreement easy. 

Three or four matters of special importance and significance I beg, thatyou will permit me to mention in closing. 

Our Bureau of Mines ought to be equipped and empowered to render even moreeffectual service than it renders now in improving the conditions of minelabor and making the mines more economically productive as well as moresafe. This is an all-important part of the work of conservation; and theconservation of human life and energy lies even nearer to our intereststhan the preservation from waste of our material resources. 

We owe it, in mere justice to the railway employees of the country, toprovide for them a fair and effective employers' liability act; and a lawthat we can stand by in this matter will be no less to the advantage ofthose who administer the railroads of the country than to the advantage ofthose whom they employ. The experience of a large number of the Statesabundantly proves that. 

We ought to devote ourselves to meeting pressing demands of plain justicelike this as earnestly as to the accomplishment of political and economicreforms. Social justice comes first. Law is the machinery for itsrealization and is vital only as it expresses and embodies it. 

An international congress for the discussion of all questions that affectsafety at sea is now sitting in London at the suggestion of our ownGovernment. So soon as the conclusions of that congress can be learned andconsidered we ought to address ourselves, among other things, to the promptalleviation of the very unsafe, unjust, and burdensome conditions which nowsurround the employment of sailors and render it extremely difficult toobtain the services of spirited and competent men such as every ship needsif it is to be safely handled and brought to port. 

May I not express the very real pleas-are I have experienced inco-operating with this Congress and sharing with it the labors of commonservice to which it has devoted itself so unreservedly during the pastseven months of uncomplaining concentration upon the business oflegislation? Surely it is a proper and pertinent part of my report on "thestate of the Union" to express my admiration for the diligence, the goodtemper, and the full comprehension of public duty which has already beenmanifested by both the Houses; and I hope that it may not be deemed animpertinent intrusion of myself into the picture if I say with how much andhow constant satisfaction I have availed myself of the privilege of puttingmy time and energy at their disposal alike in counsel and in action. 

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State of the Union AddressWoodrow WilsonDecember 8, 1914

GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS:

The session upon which you are now entering will be the closing session ofthe Sixty-third Congress, a Congress, I venture to say, which will long beremembered for the great body of thoughtful and constructive work which ithas done, in loyal response to the thought and needs of the country. Ishould like in this address to review the notable record and try to makeadequate assessment of it; but no doubt we stand too near the work that hasbeen done and are ourselves too much part of it to play the part ofhistorians toward it. 

Our program of legislation with regard to the regulation of business is nowvirtually complete. It has been put forth, as we intended, as a whole, andleaves no conjecture as to what is to follow. The road at last lies clearand firm before business. It is a road which it can travel without fear orembarrassment. It is the road to ungrudged, unclouded success. In it everyhonest man, every man who believes that the public interest is part of hisown interest, may walk with perfect confidence. 

Moreover, our thoughts are now more of the future than of the past. Whilewe have worked at our tasks of peace the circumstances of the whole agehave been altered by war. What we have done for our own land and our ownpeople we did with the best that was in us, whether of character or ofintelligence, with sober enthusiasm and a confidence in the principles uponwhich we were acting which sustained us at every step of the difficultundertaking; but it is done. It has passed from our hands. It is now anestablished part of the legislation of the country. Its usefulness, itseffects will disclose themselves in experience. What chiefly strikes usnow, as we look about us during these closing days of a year which will beforever memorable in the history of the world, is that we face new tasks, have been facing them these six months, must face them in the months tocome, -face them without partisan feeling, like men who have forgotteneverything but a common duty and the fact that we are representatives of agreat people whose thought is not of us but of what America owes to herselfand to all mankind in such circumstances as these upon which we look amazedand anxious. 

War has interrupted the means of trade not only but also the processes ofproduction. In Europe it is destroying men and resources wholesale and upona scale unprecedented and appalling, There is reason to fear that the timeis near, if it be not already at hand, when several of the countries ofEurope will find it difficult to do for their people what they havehitherto been always easily able to do, --many essential and fundamentalthings. At any rate, they will need our help and our manifold services asthey have never needed them before; and we should be ready, more fit andready than we have ever been. 

It is of equal consequence that the nations whom Europe has usuallysupplied with innumerable articles of manufacture and commerce of whichthey are in constant need and without which their economic developmenthalts and stands still can now get only a small part of what they formerlyimported and eagerly look to us to supply their all but empty markets. Thisis particularly true of our own neighbors, the States, great and small, ofCentral and South America. Their lines of trade have hitherto run chieflyathwart the seas, not to our ports but to the ports of Great Britain and ofthe older continent of Europe. I do not stop to inquire why, or to make anycomment on probable causes. What interests us just now is not theexplanation but the fact, and our duty and opportunity in the presence ofit. Here are markets which we must supply, and we must find the means ofaction. The United States, this great people for whom we speak and act, should be ready, as never before, to serve itself and to serve mankind;ready with its resources, its energies, its forces of production, and itsmeans of distribution. 

It is a very practical matter, a matter of ways and means. We have theresources, but are we fully ready to use them? And, if we can make readywhat we have, have we the means at hand to distribute it? We are not fullyready; neither have we the means of distribution. We are willing, but weare not fully able. We have the wish to serve and to serve greatly, generously; but we are not prepared as we should be. We are not ready tomobilize our resources at once. We are not prepared to use them immediatelyand at their best, without delay and without waste. 

To speak plainly, we have grossly erred in the way in which we have stuntedand hindered the development of our merchant marine. And now, when we needships, we have not got them. We have year after year debated, without endor conclusion, the best policy to pursue with regard to the use of the oresand forests and water powers of our national domain in the rich States ofthe West, when we should have acted; and they are still locked up. The keyis still turned upon them, the door shut fast at which thousands ofvigorous men, full of initiative, knock clamorously for admittance. Thewater power of our navigable streams outside the national domain also, evenin the eastern States, where we have worked and planned for generations, isstill not used as it might be, because we will and we won't; because thelaws we have made do not intelligently balance encouragement againstrestraint. We withhold by regulation. 

I have come to ask you to remedy and correct these mistakes and omissions, even at this short session of a Congress which would certainly seem to havedone all the work that could reasonably be expected of it. The time and thecircumstances are extraordinary, and so must our efforts be also. 

Fortunately, two great measures, finely conceived, the one to unlock, withproper safeguards, the resources of the national domain, the other toencourage the use of the navigable waters outside that domain for thegeneration of power, have already passed the House of Representatives andare ready for immediate consideration and action by the Senate. With thedeepest earnestness I urge their prompt passage. In them both we turn ourbacks upon hesitation and makeshift and formulate a genuine policy of useand conservation, in the best sense of those words. We owe the one measurenot only to the people of that great western country for whose free andsystematic development, as it seems to me, our legislation has done solittle, but also to the people of the Nation as a whole; and we as clearlyowe the other fulfillment of our repeated promises that the water power ofthe country should in fact as well as in name be put at the disposal ofgreat industries which can make economical and profitable use of it, therights of the public being adequately guarded the while, and monopoly inthe use prevented. To have begun such measures and not completed them wouldindeed mar the record of this great Congress very seriously. I hope andconfidently believe that they will be completed. 

And there is another great piece of legislation which awaits and shouldreceive the sanction of the Senate: I mean the bill which gives a largermeasure of self-government to the people of the Philippines. How better, inthis time of anxious questioning and perplexed policy, could we show ourconfidence in the principles of liberty, as the source as well as theexpression of life, how better could we demonstrate our own self-possessionand steadfastness in the courses of justice and disinterestedness than bythus going calmly forward to fulfill our promises to a dependent people, who will now look more anxiously than ever to see whether we have indeedthe liberality, the unselfishness, the courage, the faith we have boastedand professed. I can not believe that the Senate will let this greatmeasure of constructive justice await the action of another Congress. Itspassage would nobly crown the record of these two years of memorablelabor. 

But I think that you will agree with me that this does not complete thetoll of our duty. How are we to carry our goods to the empty markets ofwhich I have spoken if we have not the ships? How are we to build up agreat trade if we have not the certain and constant means oftransportation upon which all profitable and useful commerce depends? Andhow are we to get the ships if we wait for the trade to develop withoutthem? To correct the many mistakes by which we have discouraged and all butdestroyed the merchant marine of the country, to retrace the steps by whichwe have.. It seems almost deliberately, withdrawn our flag from the seas.. Except where, here and there, a ship of war is bidden carry it or somewandering yacht displays it, would take a long time and involve manydetailed items of legislation, and the trade which we ought immediately tohandle would disappear or find other channels while we debated the items. 

The case is not unlike that which confronted us when our own continent wasto be opened up to settlement and industry, and we needed long lines ofrailway, extended means of transportation prepared beforehand, ifdevelopment was not to lag intolerably and wait interminably. We lavishlysubsidized the building of transcontinental railroads. We look back uponthat with regret now, because the subsidies led to many scandals of whichwe are ashamed; but we know that the railroads had to be built, and if wehad it to do over again we should of course build them, but in another way. Therefore I propose another way of providing the means of transportation, which must precede, not tardily follow, the development of our trade withour neighbor states of America. It may seem a reversal of the natural orderof things, but it is true, that the routes of trade must be actuallyopened-by many ships and regular sailings and moderate charges-beforestreams of merchandise will flow freely and profitably through them. 

Hence the pending shipping bill, discussed at the last session but as yetpassed by neither House. In my judgment such legislation is imperativelyneeded and can not wisely be postponed. The Government must open thesegates of trade, and open them wide; open them before it is altogetherprofitable to open them, or altogether reasonable to ask private capital toopen them at a venture. It is not a question of the Government monopolizingthe field. It should take action to make it certain that transportation atreasonable rates will be promptly provided, even where the carriage is notat first profitable; and then, when the carriage has become sufficientlyprofitable to attract and engage private capital, and engage it inabundance, the Government ought to withdraw. I very earnestly hope that theCongress will be of this opinion, and that both Houses will adopt thisexceedingly important bill. 

The great subject of rural credits still remains to be dealt with, and itis a matter of deep regret that the difficulties of the subject have seemedto render it impossible to complete a bill for passage at this session. Butit can not be perfected yet, and therefore there are no other constructivemeasures the necessity for which I will at this time call your attentionto; but I would be negligent of a very manifest duty were I not to call theattention of the Senate to the fact that the proposed convention for safetyat sea awaits its confirmation and that the limit fixed in the conventionitself for its acceptance is the last day of the present month. Theconference in which this convention originated was called by the UnitedStates; the representatives of the United States played a very influentialpart indeed in framing the provisions of the proposed convention; and thoseprovisions are in themselves for the most part admirable. It would hardlybe consistent with the part we have played in the whole matter to let itdrop and go by the board as if forgotten and neglected. It was ratified inMay by the German Government and in August by the Parliament of GreatBritain. It marks a most hopeful and decided advance in internationalcivilization. We should show our earnest good faith in a great matter byadding our own acceptance of it. 

There is another matter of which I must make special mention, if I am todischarge my conscience, lest it should escape your attention. It may seema very small thing. It affects only a single item of appropriation. Butmany human lives and many great enterprises hang upon it. It is the matterof making adequate provision for the survey and charting of our coasts. Itis immediately pressing and exigent in connection with the immense coastline of Alaska, a coast line greater than that of the United Statesthemselves, though it is also very important indeed with regard to theolder coasts of the continent. We can not use our great Alaskan domain, ships will not ply thither, if those coasts and their many hidden dangersare not thoroughly surveyed and charted. The work is incomplete at almostevery point. Ships and lives have been lost in threading what were supposedto be well-known main channels. We have not provided adequate vessels oradequate machinery for the survey and charting. We have used old vesselsthat were not big enough or strong enough and which were so nearlyunseaworthy that our inspectors would not have allowed private owners tosend them to sea. This is a matter which, as I have said, seems small, butis in reality very great. Its importance has only to be looked into to beappreciated. 

Before I close may I say a few words upon two topics, much discussed out ofdoors, upon which it is highly important that our judgment should be clear, definite, and steadfast?

One of these is economy in government expenditures. The duty of economy isnot debatable. It is manifest and imperative. In the appropriations we passwe are spending the money of the great people whose servants we are, -notour own. We are trustees and responsible stewards in the spending. The onlything debatable and upon which we should be careful to make our thought andpurpose clear is the kind of economy demanded of us. I assert with thegreatest confidence that the people of the United States are not jealous ofthe amount their Government costs if they are sure that they get what theyneed and desire for the outlay, that the money is being spent for objectsof which they approve, and that it is being applied with good businesssense and management. 

Governments grow, piecemeal, both in their tasks and in the means by whichthose tasks are to be performed, and very few Governments are organized, Iventure to say, as wise and experienced business men would organize them ifthey had a clean sheet of paper to write upon. Certainly the Government ofthe United States is not. I think that it is generally agreed that thereshould be a systematic reorganization and reassembling of its parts so asto secure greater efficiency and effect considerable savings in expense. But the amount of money saved in that way would, I believe, though no doubtconsiderable in itself, running, it may be, into the millions, berelatively small, -small, I mean, in proportion to the total necessaryoutlays of the Government. It would be thoroughly worth effecting, as everysaving would, great or small. Our duty is not altered by the scale of thesaving. But my point is that the people of the United States do not wish tocurtail the activities of this Government; they wish, rather, to enlargethem; and with every enlargement, with the mere growth, indeed, of thecountry itself, there must come, of course, the inevitable increase ofexpense. The sort of economy we ought to practice may be effected, andought to be effected, by a careful study and assessment of the tasks to beperformed; and the money spent ought to be made to yield the best possiblereturns in efficiency and achievement. And, like good stewards, we shouldso account for every dollar of our appropriations as to make it perfectlyevident what it was spent for and in what way it was spent. 

It is not expenditure but extravagance that we should fear being criticizedfor; not paying for the legitimate enterprise and undertakings of a greatGovernment whose people command what it should do, but adding what willbenefit only a few or pouring money out for what need not have beenundertaken at all or might have been postponed or better and moreeconomically conceived and carried out. The Nation is not niggardly; it isvery generous. It will chide us only if we forget for whom we pay money outand whose money it is we pay. These are large and general standards, butthey are not very difficult of application to particular cases. 

The other topic I shall take leave to mention goes deeper into theprinciples of our national life and policy. It is the subject of nationaldefense. 

It can not be discussed without first answering some very searchingquestions. It is said in some quarters that we are not prepared for war. What is meant by being prepared? Is it meant that we are not ready uponbrief notice to put a nation in the field, a nation of men trained to arms?Of course we are not ready to do that; and we shall never be in time ofpeace so long as we retain our present political principles andinstitutions. And what is it that it is suggested we should be prepared todo? To defend ourselves against attack? We have always found means to dothat, and shall find them whenever it is necessary without calling ourpeople away from their necessary tasks to render compulsory militaryservice in times of peace. 

Allow me to speak with great plainness and directness upon this greatmatter and to avow my convictions with deep earnestness. I have tried toknow what America is, what her people think, what they are, what they mostcherish and hold dear. I hope that some of their finer passions are in myown heart, --some of the great conceptions and desires which gave birth tothis Government and which have made the voice of this people a voice ofpeace and hope and liberty among the peoples of the world, and that, speaking my own thoughts, I shall, at least in part, speak theirs also, however faintly and inadequately, upon this vital matter. 

We are at peace with all the world. No one who speaks counsel based on factor drawn from a just and candid interpretation of realities can say thatthere is reason to fear that from any quarter our independence or theintegrity of our territory is threatened. Dread of the power of any othernation we are incapable of. We are not jealous of rivalry in the fields ofcommerce or of any other peaceful achievement. We mean to live our ownlives as we will; but we mean also to let live. We are, indeed, a truefriend to all the nations of the world, because we threaten none, covet thepossessions of none, desire the overthrow of none. Our friendship can beaccepted and is accepted without reservation, because it is offered in aspirit and for a purpose which no one need ever question or suspect. Therein lies our greatness. We are the champions of peace and of concord. And we should be very jealous of this distinction which we have sought toearn. Just now we should be particularly jealous of it because it is ourdearest present hope that this character and reputation may presently, inGod's providence, bring us an opportunity such as has seldom beenvouchsafed any nation, the opportunity to counsel and obtain peace in theworld and reconciliation and a healing settlement of many a matter that hascooled and interrupted the friendship of nations. This is the time aboveall others when we should wish and resolve to keep our strength byself-possession, our influence by preserving our ancient principles ofaction. 

From the first we have had a clear and settled policy with regard tomilitary establishments. We never have had, and while we retain our presentprinciples and ideals we never shall have, a large standing army. If asked, Are you ready to defend yourselves? we reply, Most assuredly, to theutmost; and yet we shall not turn America into a military camp. We will notask our young men to spend the best years of their lives making soldiers ofthemselves. There is another sort of energy in us. It will know how todeclare itself and make itself effective should occasion arise. Andespecially when half the world is on fire we shall be careful to make ourmoral insurance against the spread of the conflagration very definite andcertain and adequate indeed. 

Let us remind ourselves, therefore, of the only thing we can do or will do. We must depend in every time of national peril, in the future as in thepast, not upon a standing army, nor yet upon a reserve army, but upon acitizenry trained and accustomed to arms. It will be right enough, rightAmerican policy, based upon our accustomed principles and practices, toprovide a system by which every citizen who will volunteer for the trainingmay be made familiar with the use of modern arms, the rudiments of drilland maneuver, and the maintenance and sanitation of camps. We shouldencourage such training and make it a means of discipline which our youngmen will learn to value. It is right that we should provide it not only, but that we should make it as attractive as possible, and so induce ouryoung men to undergo it at such times as they can command a little freedomand can seek the physical development they need, for mere health's sake, iffor nothing more. Every means by which such things can be stimulated islegitimate, and such a method smacks of true American ideas. It is right, too, that the National Guard of the States should be developed andstrengthened by every means which is not inconsistent with our obligationsto our own people or with the established policy of our Government. Andthis, also, not because the time or occasion specially calls for suchmeasures, but because it should be our constant policy to make theseprovisions for our national peace and safety. 

More than this carries with it a reversal of the whole history andcharacter of our polity. More than this, proposed at this time, permit meto say, would mean merely that we had lost our self-possession, that we hadbeen thrown off our balance by a war with which we have nothing to do, whose causes can not touch us, whose very existence affords usopportunities of friendship and disinterested service which should make usashamed of any thought of hostility or fearful preparation for trouble. This is assuredly the opportunity for which a people and a government likeours were raised up, the opportunity not only to speak but actually toembody and exemplify the counsels of peace and amity and the lastingconcord which is based on justice and fair and generous dealing. 

A powerful navy we have always regarded as our proper and natural means ofdefense, and it has always been of defense that we have thought, never ofaggression or of conquest. But who shall tell us now what sort of navy tobuild? We shall take leave to be strong upon the seas, in the future as inthe past; and there will be no thought of offense or of provocation inthat. Our ships are our natural bulwarks. When will the experts tell usjust what kind we should construct-and when will they be right for tenyears together, if the relative efficiency of craft of different kinds anduses continues to change as we have seen it change under our very eyes inthese last few months?

But I turn away from the subject. It is not new. There is no new need todiscuss it. We shall not alter our attitude toward it because some amongstus are nervous and excited. We shall easily and sensibly agree upon apolicy of defense. The question has not changed its aspects because thetimes are not normal. Our policy will not be for an occasion. It will beconceived as a permanent and settled thing, which we will pursue at allseasons, without haste and after a fashion perfectly consistent with thepeace of the world, the abiding friendship of states, and the unhamperedfreedom of all with whom we deal. Let there be no misconception. Thecountry has been misinformed. We have not been negligent of nationaldefense. We are not unmindful of the great responsibility resting upon us. We shall learn and profit by the lesson of every experience and every newcircumstance; and what is needed will be adequately done. 

I close, as I began, by reminding you of the great tasks and duties ofpeace which challenge our best powers and invite us to build what willlast, the tasks to which we can address ourselves now and at all times withfree-hearted zest and with all the finest gifts of constructive wisdom wepossess. To develop our life and our resources; to supply our own people, and the people of the world as their need arises, from the abundant plentyof our fields and our marts of trade to enrich the commerce of our ownStates and of the world with the products of our mines, our farms, and ourfactories, with the creations of our thought and the fruits of ourcharacter, -this is what will hold our attention and our enthusiasmsteadily, now and in the years to come, as we strive to show in our life asa nation what liberty and the inspirations of an emancipated spirit may dofor men and for societies, for individuals, for states, and for mankind. 

***

State of the Union AddressWoodrow WilsonDecember 7, 1915

GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS:

Since I last had the privilege of addressing you on the state of the Unionthe war of nations on the other side of the sea, which had then only begunto disclose its portentous proportions, has extended its threatening andsinister scope until it has swept within its flame some portion of everyquarter of the globe, not excepting our own hemisphere, has altered thewhole face of international affairs, and now presents a prospect ofreorganization and reconstruction such as statesmen and peoples have neverbeen called upon to attempt before. 

We have stood apart, studiously neutral. It was our manifest duty to do so. Not only did we have no part or interest in the policies which seem to havebrought the conflict on; it was necessary, if a universal catastrophe wasto be avoided, that a limit should be set to the sweep of destructive warand that some part of the great family of nations should keep the processesof peace alive, if only to prevent collective economic ruin and thebreakdown throughout the world of the industries by which its populationsare fed and sustained. It was manifestly the duty of the self-governednations of this hemisphere to redress, if possible, the balance of economicloss and confusion in the other, if they could do nothing more. In the dayof readjustment and recuperation we earnestly hope and believe that theycan be of infinite service. 

In this neutrality, to which they were bidden not only by their separatelife and their habitual detachment from the politics of Europe but also bya clear perception of international duty, the states of America have becomeconscious of a new and more vital community of interest and moralpartnership in affairs, more clearly conscious of the many commonsympathies and interests and duties which bid them stand together. 

There was a time in the early days of our own great nation and of therepublics fighting their way to independence in Central and South Americawhen the government of the United States looked upon itself as in some sortthe guardian of the republics to the South of her as against anyencroachments or efforts at political control from the other side of thewater; felt it its duty to play the part even without invitation from them;and I think that we can claim that the task was undertaken with a true anddisinterested enthusiasm for the freedom of the Americas and the unmolestedSelf-government of her independent peoples. But it was always difficult tomaintain such a role without offense to the pride of the peoples whosefreedom of action we sought to protect, and without provoking seriousmisconceptions of our motives, and every thoughtful man of affairs mustwelcome the altered circumstances of the new day in whose light we nowstand, when there is no claim of guardianship or thought of wards but, instead, a full and honorable association as of partners between ourselvesand our neighbors, in the interest of all America, north and south. Ourconcern for the independence and prosperity of the states of Central andSouth America is not altered. We retain unabated the spirit that hasinspired us throughout the whole life of our government and which was sofrankly put into words by President Monroe. We still mean always to make acommon cause of national independence and of political liberty in America. But that purpose is now better understood so far as it concerns ourselves. It is known not to be a selfish purpose. It is known to have in it nothought of taking advantage of any government in this hemisphere or playingits political fortunes for our own benefit. All the governments of Americastand, so far as we are concerned, upon a footing of genuine equality andunquestioned independence. 

We have been put to the test in the case of Mexico, and we have stood thetest. Whether we have benefited Mexico by the course we have pursuedremains to be seen. Her fortunes are in her own hands. But we have at leastproved that we will not take advantage of her in her distress and undertaketo impose upon her an order and government of our own choosing. Liberty isoften a fierce and intractable thing, to which no bounds can be set, and towhich no bounds of a few men's choosing ought ever to be set. EveryAmerican who has drunk at the true fountains of principle and traditionmust subscribe without reservation to the high doctrine of the VirginiaBill of Rights, which in the great days in which our government was set upwas everywhere amongst us accepted as the creed of free men. That doctrineis, "That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community"; that "of allthe various modes and forms of government, that is the best which iscapable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and ismost effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and that, when any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to thesepurposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable, andindefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shallbe judged most conducive to the public weal. " We have unhesitatinglyapplied that heroic principle to the case of Mexico, and now hopefullyawait the rebirth of the troubled Republic, which had so much of which topurge itself and so little sympathy from any outside quarter in the radicalbut necessary process. We will aid and befriend Mexico, but we will notcoerce her; and our course with regard to her ought to be sufficient proofto all America that we seek no political suzerainty or selfish control. 

The moral is, that the states of America are not hostile rivals butcooperating friends, and that their growing sense of community or interest, alike in matters political and in matters economic, is likely to give thema new significance as factors in international affairs and in the politicalhistory of the world. It presents them as in a very deep and true sense aunit in world affairs, spiritual partners, standing together becausethinking together, quick with common sympathies and common ideals. Separated they are subject to all the cross currents of the confusedpolitics of a world of hostile rivalries; united in spirit and purpose theycannot be disappointed of their peaceful destiny. 

This is Pan-Americanism. It has none of the spirit of empire in it. It isthe embodiment, the effectual embodiment, of the spirit of law andindependence and liberty and mutual service. 

A very notable body of men recently met in the City of Washington, at theinvitation and as the guests of this Government, whose deliberations arelikely to be looked back to as marking a memorable turning point in thehistory of America. They were representative spokesmen of the severalindependent states of this hemisphere and were assembled to discuss thefinancial and commercial relations of the republics of the two continentswhich nature and political fortune have so intimately linked together. Iearnestly recommend to your perusal the reports of their proceedings and ofthe actions of their committees. You will get from them, I think, a freshconception of the ease and intelligence and advantage with which Americansof both continents may draw together in practical cooperation and of whatthe material foundations of this hopeful partnership of interest mustconsist, -of how we should build them and of how necessary it is that weshould hasten their building. 

There is, I venture to point out, an especial significance just nowattaching to this whole matter of drawing the Americans together in bondsof honorable partnership and mutual advantage because of the economicreadjustments which the world must inevitably witness within the nextgeneration, when peace shall have at last resumed its healthful tasks. Inthe performance of these tasks I believe the Americas to be destined toplay their parts together. I am interested to fix your attention on thisprospect now because unless you take it within your view and permit thefull significance of it to command your thought I cannot find the rightlight in which to set forth the particular matter that lies at the veryfont of my whole thought as I address you to-day. I mean national defense. 

No one who really comprehends the spirit of the great people for whom weare appointed to speak can fail to perceive that their passion is forpeace, their genius best displayed in the practice of the arts of peace. Great democracies are not belligerent. They do not seek or desire war. Their thought is of individual liberty and of the free labor that supportslife and the uncensored thought that quickens it. Conquest and dominion arenot in our reckoning, or agreeable to our principles. But just because wedemand unmolested development and the undisturbed government of our ownlives upon our own principles of right and liberty, we resent, fromwhatever quarter it may come, the aggression we ourselves will notpractice. We insist upon security in prosecuting our self-chosen lines ofnational development. We do more than that. We demand it also for others. We do not confine our enthusiasm for individual liberty and free nationaldevelopment to the incidents and movements of affairs which affect onlyourselves. We feel it wherever there is a people that tries to walk inthese difficult paths of independence and right. From the first we havemade common cause with all partisans of liberty on this side the sea, andhave deemed it as important that our neighbors should be free from alloutside domination as that we ourselves should be. We have set Americaaside as a whole for the uses of independent nations and political freemen. 

Out of such thoughts grow all our policies. We regard war merely as a meansof asserting the rights of a people against aggression. And we are asfiercely jealous of coercive or dictatorial power within our own nation asof aggression from without. We will not maintain a standing army except foruses which are as necessary in times of peace as in times of war; and weshall always see to it that our military peace establishment is no largerthan is actually and continuously needed for the uses of days in which noenemies move against us. But we do believe in a body of free citizens readyand sufficient to take care of themselves and of the governments which theyhave set up to serve them. In our constitutions themselves we havecommanded that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not beinfringed, " and our confidence has been that our safety in times of dangerwould lie in the rising of the nation to take care of itself, as thefarmers rose at Lexington. 

But war has never been a mere matter of men and guns. It is a thing ofdisciplined might. If our citizens are ever to fight effectively upon asudden summons, they must know how modern fighting is done, and what to dowhen the summons comes to render themselves immediately available andimmediately effective. And the government must be their servant in thismatter, must supply them with the training they need to take care ofthemselves and of it. The military arm of their government, which they willnot allow to direct them, they may properly use to serve them and maketheir independence secure, -and not their own independence merely but therights also of those with whom they have made common cause, should theyalso be put in jeopardy. They must be fitted to play the great role in theworld, and particularly in this hemisphere, for which they are qualified byprinciple and by chastened ambition to play. 

It is with these ideals in mind that the plans of the Department of War formore adequate national defense were conceived which will be laid beforeyou, and which I urge you to sanction and put into effect as soon as theycan be properly scrutinized and discussed. They seem to me the essentialfirst steps, and they seem to me for the present sufficient. 

They contemplate an increase of the standing force of the regular army fromits present strength of five thousand and twenty-three officers and onehundred and two thousand nine hundred and eighty-five enlisted men of allservices to a strength of seven thousand one hundred and thirty-sixofficers and one hundred and thirty-four thousand seven hundred and sevenenlisted men, or 141, 843, all told, all services, rank and file, by theaddition of fifty-two companies of coast artillery, fifteen companies ofengineers, ten regiments of infantry, four regiments of field artillery, and four aero squadrons, besides seven hundred and fifty officers requiredfor a great variety of extra service, especially the all important duty oftraining the citizen force of which I shall presently speak, seven hundredand ninety-two noncommissioned officers for service in drill, recruitingand the like, and the necessary quota of enlisted men for the QuartermasterCorps, the Hospital Corps, the Ordnance Department, and other similarauxiliary services. These are the additions necessary to render the armyadequate for its present duties, duties which it has to perform not onlyupon our own continental coasts and borders and at our interior army posts, but also in the Philippines, in the Hawaiian Islands, at the Isthmus, andin Porto Rico. 

By way of making the country ready to assert some part of its real powerpromptly and upon a larger scale, should occasion arise, the plan alsocontemplates supplementing the army by a force of four hundred thousanddisciplined citizens, raised in increments of one hundred and thirty-threethousand a year throughout a period of three years. This it is proposed todo by a process of enlistment under which the serviceable men of thecountry would be asked to bind themselves to serve with the colors forpurposes of training for short periods throughout three years, and to cometo the colors at call at any time throughout an additional "furlough"period of three years. This force of four hundred thousand men would beprovided with personal accoutrements as fast as enlisted and theirequipment for the field made ready to be supplied at any time. They wouldbe assembled for training at stated intervals at convenient places inassociation with suitable units of the regular army. Their period of annualtraining would not necessarily exceed two months in the year. 

It would depend upon the patriotic feeling of the younger men of thecountry whether they responded to such a call to service or not. It woulddepend upon the patriotic spirit of the employers of the country whetherthey made it possible for the younger men in their employ to respond underfavorable conditions or not. I, for one, do not doubt the patrioticdevotion either of our young men or of those who give thememployment, --those for whose benefit and protection they would in factenlist. I would look forward to the success of such an experiment withentire confidence. 

At least so much by way of preparation for defense seems to me to beabsolutely imperative now. We cannot do less. 

The programme which will be laid before you by the Secretary of the Navy issimilarly conceived. It involves only a shortening of the time within whichplans long matured shall be carried out; but it does make definite andexplicit a programme which has heretofore been only implicit, held in theminds of the Committees on Naval Affairs and disclosed in the debates ofthe two Houses but nowhere formulated or formally adopted. It seems to mevery clear that it will be to the advantage of the country for the Congressto adopt a comprehensive plan for putting the navy upon a final footing ofstrength and efficiency and to press that plan to completion within thenext five years. We have always looked to the navy of the country as ourfirst and chief line of defense; we have always seen it to be our manifestcourse of prudence to be strong on the seas. Year by year we have beencreating a navy which now ranks very high indeed among the navies of themaritime nations. We should now definitely determine how we shall completewhat we have begun, and how soon. 

The programme to be laid before you contemplates the construction withinfive years of ten battleships, six battle cruisers, ten scout cruisers, fifty destroyers, fifteen fleet submarines, eighty-five coast submarines, four gunboats, one hospital ship, two ammunition ships, two fuel oil ships, and one repair ship. It is proposed that of this number we shall the firstyear provide for the construction of two battleships, two battle cruisers, three scout cruisers, fifteen destroyers, five fleet submarines, twenty-five coast submarines, two gunboats, and one hospital ship; thesecond year, two battleships, one scout cruiser, ten destroyers, four fleetsubmarines, fifteen coast submarines, one gunboat, and one fuel oil ship;the third year, two battleships, one battle cruiser, two scout cruisers, five destroyers, two fleet sub marines, and fifteen coast submarines; thefourth year, two battleships, two battle cruisers, two scout cruisers, tendestroyers, two fleet submarines, fifteen coast submarines, one ammunitionship, and one fuel oil ship; and the fifth year, two battleships, onebattle cruiser, two scout cruisers, ten destroyers, two fleet submarines, fifteen coast submarines, one gunboat, one ammunition ship, and one repairship. 

The Secretary of the Navy is asking also for the immediate addition to thepersonnel of the navy of seven thousand five hundred sailors, twenty-fivehundred apprentice seamen, and fifteen hundred marines. This increase wouldbe sufficient to care for the ships which are to be completed within thefiscal year 1917 and also for the number of men which must be put intraining to man the ships which will be completed early in 1918. It is alsonecessary that the number of midshipmen at the Naval academy at Annapolisshould be increased by at least three hundred in order that the force ofofficers should be more rapidly added to; and authority is asked toappoint, for engineering duties only, approved graduates of engineeringcolleges, and for service in the aviation corps a certain number of mentaken from civil life. 

If this full programme should be carried out we should have built orbuilding in 1921, according to the estimates of survival and standards ofclassification followed by the General Board of the Department, aneffective navy consisting of twenty-seven battleships of the first line, six battle cruisers, twenty-five battleships of the second line, tenarmored cruisers, thirteen scout cruisers, five first class cruisers, threesecond class cruisers, ten third class cruisers, one hundred and eightdestroyers, eighteen fleet submarines, one hundred and fifty-seven coastsubmarines, six monitors, twenty gunboats, four supply ships, fifteen fuelships, four transports, three tenders to torpedo vessels, eight vessels ofspecial types, and two ammunition ships. This would be a navy fitted to ourneeds and worthy of our traditions. 

But armies and instruments of war are only part of what has to beconsidered if we are to provide for the supreme matter of nationalself-sufficiency and security in all its aspects. There are other greatmatters which will be thrust upon our attention whether we will or not. There is, for example, a very pressing question of trade and shippinginvolved in this great problem of national adequacy. It is necessary formany weighty reasons of national efficiency and development that we shouldhave a great merchant marine. The great merchant fleet we once used to makeus rich, that great body of sturdy sailors who used to carry our flag intoevery sea, and who were the pride and often the bulwark of the nation, wehave almost driven out of existence by inexcusable neglect and indifferenceand by a hopelessly blind and provincial policy of so-called economicprotection. It is high time we repaired our mistake and resumed ourcommercial independence on the seas. 

For it is a question of independence. If other nations go to war or seek tohamper each other's commerce, our merchants, it seems, are at their mercy, to do with as they please. We must use their ships, and use them as theydetermine. We have not ships enough of our own. We cannot handle our owncommerce on the seas. Our independence is provincial, and is only on landand within our own borders. We are not likely to be permitted to use eventhe ships of other nations in rivalry of their own trade, and are withoutmeans to extend our commerce even where the doors are wide open and ourgoods desired. Such a situation is not to be endured. It is of capitalimportance not only that the United States should be its own carrier on theseas and enjoy the economic independence which only an adequate merchantmarine would give it, but also that the American hemisphere as a wholeshould enjoy a like independence and self-sufficiency, if it is not to bedrawn into the tangle of European affairs. Without such independence thewhole question of our political unity and self-determination is veryseriously clouded and complicated indeed. 

Moreover, we can develop no true or effective American policy without shipsof our own, --not ships of war, but ships of peace, carrying goods andcarrying much more: creating friendships and rendering indispensableservices to all interests on this side the water. They must move constantlyback and forth between the Americas. They are the only shuttles that canweave the delicate fabric of sympathy, comprehension, confidence, andmutual dependence in which we wish to clothe our policy of America forAmericans. 

The task of building up an adequate merchant marine for America privatecapital must ultimately undertake and achieve, as it has undertaken andachieved every other like task amongst us in the past, with admirableenterprise, intelligence, and vigor; and it seems to me a manifest dictateof wisdom that we should promptly remove every legal obstacle that maystand in the way of this much to be desired revival of our old independenceand should facilitate in every possible way the building, purchase, andAmerican registration of ships. But capital cannot accomplish this greattask of a sudden. It must embark upon it by degrees, as the opportunitiesof trade develop. Something must be done at once; done to open routes anddevelop opportunities where they are as yet undeveloped; done to open thearteries of trade where the currents have not yet learned torun, -especially between the two American continents, where they are, singularly enough, yet to be created and quickened; and it is evident thatonly the government can undertake such beginnings and assume the initialfinancial risks. When the risk has passed and private capital begins tofind its way in sufficient abundance into these new channels, thegovernment may withdraw. But it cannot omit to begin. It should take thefirst steps, and should take them at once. Our goods must not lie piled upat our ports and stored upon side tracks in freight cars which are dailyneeded on the roads; must not be left without means of transport to anyforeign quarter. We must not await the permission of foreign ship-ownersand foreign governments to send them where we will. 

With a view to meeting these pressing necessities of our commerce andavailing ourselves at the earliest possible moment of the presentunparalleled opportunity of linking the two Americas together in bonds ofmutual interest and service, an opportunity which may never return again ifwe miss it now, proposals will be made to the present Congress for thepurchase or construction of ships to be owned and directed by thegovernment similar to those made to the last Congress, but modified in someessential particulars. I recommend these proposals to you for your promptacceptance with the more confidence because every month that has elapsedsince the former proposals were made has made the necessity for such actionmore and more manifestly imperative. That need was then foreseen; it is nowacutely felt and everywhere realized by those for whom trade is waiting butwho can find no conveyance for their goods. I am not so much interested inthe particulars of the programme as I am in taking immediate advantage ofthe great opportunity which awaits us if we will but act in this emergency. In this matter, as in all others, a spirit of common counsel shouldprevail, and out of it should come an early solution of this pressingproblem. 

There is another matter which seems to me to be very intimately associatedwith the question of national safety and preparation for defense. That isour policy towards the Philippines and the people of Porto Rico. Ourtreatment of them and their attitude towards us are manifestly of the firstconsequence in the development of our duties in the world and in getting afree hand to perform those duties. We must be free from every unnecessaryburden or embarrassment; and there is no better way to be clear ofembarrassment than to fulfil our promises and promote the interests ofthose dependent on us to the utmost. Bills for the alteration and reform ofthe government of the Philippines and for rendering fuller politicaljustice to the people of Porto Rico were submitted to the sixty-thirdCongress. They will be submitted also to you. I need not particularizetheir details. You are most of you already familiar with them. But I dorecommend them to your early adoption with the sincere conviction thatthere are few measures you could adopt which would more serviceably clearthe way for the great policies by which we wish to make good, now andalways, our right to lead in enterprises of peace and good will andeconomic and political freedom. 

The plans for the armed forces of the nation which I have outlined, and forthe general policy of adequate preparation for mobilization and defense, involve of course very large additional expenditures of money, -expenditureswhich will considerably exceed the estimated revenues of the government. Itis made my duty by law, whenever the estimates of expenditure exceed theestimates of revenue, to call the attention of the Congress to the fact andsuggest any means of meeting the deficiency that it may be wise or possiblefor me to suggest. I am ready to believe that it would be my duty to do soin any case; and I feel particularly bound to speak of the matter when itappears that the deficiency will arise directly out of the adoption by theCongress of measures which I myself urge it to adopt. Allow me, therefore, to speak briefly of the present state of the Treasury and of the fiscalproblems which the next year will probably disclose. 

On the thirtieth of June last there was an available balance in the generalfund of the Treasury Of $104, 170, 105. 78. The total estimated receipts forthe year 1916, on the assumption that the emergency revenue measure passedby the last Congress will not be extended beyond its present limit, thethirty-first of December, 1915, and that the present duty of one cent perpound on sugar will be discontinued after the first of May, 1916, will be$670, 365, 500. The balance of June last and these estimated revenues come, therefore, to a grand total of $774, 535, 605-78. The total estimateddisbursements for the present fiscal year, including twenty-five millionsfor the Panama Canal, twelve millions for probable deficiencyappropriations, and fifty thousand dollars for miscellaneous debtredemptions, will be $753, 891, 000; and the balance in the general fund ofthe Treasury will be reduced to $20, 644, 605. 78. The emergency revenue act, if continued beyond its present time limitation, would produce, during thehalf year then remaining, about forty-one millions. The duty of one centper pound on sugar, if continued, would produce during the two months ofthe fiscal year remaining after the first of May, about fifteen millions. These two sums, amounting together to fifty-six millions, if added to therevenues of the second half of the fiscal year, would yield the Treasury atthe end of the year an available balance Of $76, 644, 605-78. 

The additional revenues required to carry out the programme of military andnaval preparation of which I have spoken, would, as at present estimated, be for the fiscal year, 1917, $93, 800, 000. Those figures, taken with thefigures for the present fiscal year which I have already given, discloseour financial problem for the year 1917. Assuming that the taxes imposed bythe emergency revenue act and the present duty on sugar are to bediscontinued, and that the balance at the close of the present fiscal yearwill be only $20, 644, 605. 78, that the disbursements for the Panama Canalwill again be about twenty-five millions, and that the additionalexpenditures for the army and navy are authorized by the Congress, thedeficit in the general fund of the Treasury on the thirtieth of June, 1917, will be nearly two hundred and thirty-five millions. To this sum at leastfifty millions should be added to represent a safe working balance for theTreasury, and twelve millions to include the usual deficiency estimates in1917; and these additions would make a total deficit of some two hundredand ninety-seven millions. If the present taxes should be continuedthroughout this year and the next, however, there would be a balance in theTreasury of some seventy-six and a half millions at the end of the presentfiscal year, and a deficit at the end of the next year of only some fiftymillions, or, reckoning in sixty-two millions for deficiency appropriationsand a safe Treasury balance at the end of the year, a total deficit of someone hundred and twelve millions. The obvious moral of the figures is thatit is a plain counsel of prudence to continue all of the present taxes ortheir equivalents, and confine ourselves to the problem of providing onehundred and twelve millions of new revenue rather than two hundred andninety-seven millions. 

How shall we obtain the new revenue? We are frequently reminded that thereare many millions of bonds which the Treasury is authorized under existinglaw to sell to reimburse the sums paid out of current revenues for theconstruction of the Panama Canal; and it is true that bonds to the amountof approximately $222, 000, 000 are now available for that purpose. Prior to1913, $134, 631, 980 of these bonds had actually been sold to recoup theexpenditures at the Isthmus; and now constitute a considerable item of thepublic debt. But I, for one, do not believe that the people of this countryapprove of postponing the payment of their bills. Borrowing money isshort-sighted finance. It can be justified only when permanent things areto be accomplished which many generations will certainly benefit by andwhich it seems hardly fair that a single generation should pay for. Theobjects we are now proposing to spend money for cannot be so classified, except in the sense that everything wisely done may be said to be done inthe interest of posterity as well as in our own. It seems to me a cleardictate of prudent statesmanship and frank finance that in what we are now, I hope, about to undertake we should pay as we go. The people of thecountry are entitled to know just what burdens of taxation they are tocarry, and to know from the outset, now. The new bills should be paid byinternal taxation. 

To what sources, then, shall we turn? This is so peculiarly a questionwhich the gentlemen of the House of Representatives are expected under theConstitution to propose an answer to that you will hardly expect me to domore than discuss it in very general terms. We should be following analmost universal example of modern governments if we were to draw thegreater part or even the whole of the revenues we need from the incometaxes. By somewhat lowering the present limits of exemption and the figureat which the surtax shall begin to be imposed, and by increasing, step bystep throughout the present graduation, the surtax itself, the income taxesas at present apportioned would yield sums sufficient to balance the booksof the Treasury at the end of the fiscal year 1917 without anywhere makingthe burden unreasonably or oppressively heavy. The precise reckonings arefully and accurately set out in the report of the Secretary of the Treasurywhich will be immediately laid before you. 

And there are many additional sources of revenue which can justly beresorted to without hampering the industries of the country or putting anytoo great charge upon individual expenditure. A tax of one cent per gallonon gasoline and naphtha would yield, at the present estimated production, $10, 000, 000; a tax of fifty cents per horse power on automobiles andinternal explosion engines, $15, 000, 000; a stamp tax on bank cheques, probably $18, 000, 000; a tax of twenty-five cents per ton on pig iron, $10, 000, 000; a tax of twenty-five cents per ton on fabricated iron andsteel, probably $10, 000, 000. In a country of great industries like this itought to be easy to distribute the burdens of taxation without making themanywhere bear too heavily or too exclusively upon any one set of persons orundertakings. What is clear is, that the industry of this generation shouldpay the bills of this generation. 

I have spoken to you to-day, Gentlemen, upon a single theme, the thoroughpreparation of the nation to care for its own security and to make sure ofentire freedom to play the impartial role in this hemisphere and in theworld which we all believe to have been providentially assigned to it. Ihave had in my mind no thought of any immediate or particular dangerarising out of our relations with other nations. We are at peace with allthe nations of the world, and there is reason to hope that no question incontroversy between this and other Governments will lead to any seriousbreach of amicable relations, grave as some differences of attitude andpolicy have been land may yet turn out to be. I am sorry to say that thegravest threats against our national peace and safety have been utteredwithin our own borders. There are citizens of the United States, I blush toadmit, born under other flags but welcomed under our generousnaturalization laws to the full freedom and opportunity of America, whohave poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our nationallife; who have sought to bring the authority and good name of ourGovernment into contempt, to destroy our industries wherever they thoughtit effective for their vindictive purposes to strike at them, and to debaseour politics to the uses of foreign intrigue. Their number is not great ascompared with the whole number of those sturdy hosts by which our nationhas been enriched in recent generations out of virile foreign stock; but itis great enough to have brought deep disgrace upon us and to have made itnecessary that we should promptly make use of processes of law by which wemay be purged of their corrupt distempers. America never witnessed anythinglike this before. It never dreamed it possible that men sworn into its owncitizenship, men drawn out of great free stocks such as supplied some ofthe best and strongest elements of that little, but how heroic, nation thatin a high day of old staked its very life to free itself from everyentanglement that had darkened the fortunes of the older nations and set upa new standard here, that men of such origins and such free choices ofallegiance would ever turn in malign reaction against the Government andpeople who had welcomed and nurtured them and seek to make this proudcountry once more a hotbed of European passion. A little while ago such athing would have seemed incredible. Because it was incredible we made nopreparation for it. We would have been almost ashamed to prepare for it, asif we were suspicious of ourselves, our own comrades and neighbors! But theugly and incredible thing has actually come about and we are withoutadequate federal laws to deal with it. I urge you to enact such laws at theearliest possible moment and feel that in doing so I am urging you to donothing less than save the honor and self-respect of the nation. Suchcreatures of passion, disloyalty, and anarchy must be crushed out. They arenot many, but they are infinitely malignant, and the hand of our powershould close over them at once. They have formed plots to destroy property, they have entered into conspiracies against the neutrality of theGovernment, they have sought to pry into every confidential transaction ofthe Government in order to serve interests alien to our own. It is possibleto deal with these things very effectually. I need not suggest the terms inwhich they may be dealt with. 

I wish that it could be said that only a few men, misled by mistakensentiments of allegiance to the governments under which they were born, hadbeen guilty of disturbing the self-possession and misrepresenting thetemper and principles of the country during these days of terrible war, when it would seem that every man who was truly an American wouldinstinctively make it his duty and his pride to keep the scales of judgmenteven and prove himself a partisan of no nation but his own. But it cannot. There are some men among us, and many resident abroad who, though born andbred in the United States and calling themselves Americans, have soforgotten themselves and their honor as citizens as to put their passionatesympathy with one or the other side in the great European conflict abovetheir regard for the peace and dignity of the United States. They alsopreach and practice disloyalty. No laws, I suppose, can reach corruptionsof the mind and heart; but I should not speak of others without alsospeaking of these and expressing the even deeper humiliation and scornwhich every self-possessed and thoughtfully patriotic American must feelwhen he thinks of them and of the discredit they are daily bringing uponus. 

While we speak of the preparation of the nation to make sure of hersecurity and her effective power we must not fall into the patent error ofsupposing that her real strength comes from armaments and mere safeguardsof written law. It comes, of course, from her people, their energy, theirsuccess in their undertakings, their free opportunity to use the naturalresources of our great home land and of the lands outside our continentalborders which look to us for protection, for encouragement, and forassistance in their development; from the organization and freedom andvitality of our economic life. The domestic questions which engaged theattention of the last Congress are more vital to the nation in this itstime of test than at any other time. We cannot adequately make ready forany trial of our strength unless we wisely and promptly direct the force ofour laws into these all-important fields of domestic action. A matter whichit seems to me we should have very much at heart is the creation of theright instrumentalities by which to mobilize our economic resources in anytime of national necessity. I take it for granted that I do not need yourauthority to call into systematic consultation with the directing officersof the army and navy men of recognized leadership and ability from amongour citizens who are thoroughly familiar, for example, with thetransportation facilities of the country and therefore competent to advisehow they may be coordinated when the need arises, those who can suggest thebest way in which to bring about prompt cooperation among the manufacturersof the country, should it be necessary, and those who could assist to bringthe technical skill of the country to the aid of the Government in thesolution of particular problems of defense. I only hope that if I shouldfind it feasible to constitute such an advisory body the Congress would bewilling to vote the small sum of money that would be needed to defray theexpenses that would probably be necessary to give it the clerical andadministrative Machinery with which to do serviceable work. 

What is more important is, that the industries and resources of the countryshould be available and ready for mobilization. It is the more imperativelynecessary, therefore, that we should promptly devise means for doing whatwe have not yet done: that we should give intelligent federal aid andstimulation to industrial and vocational education, as we have long done inthe large field of our agricultural industry; that, at the same time thatwe safeguard and conserve the natural resources of the country we shouldput them at the disposal of those who will use them promptly andintelligently, as was sought to be done in the admirable bills submitted tothe last Congress from its committees on the public lands, bills which Iearnestly recommend in principle to your consideration; that we should putinto early operation some provision for rural credits which will add to theextensive borrowing facilities already afforded the farmer by the ReserveBank Act, adequate instrumentalities by which long credits may be obtainedon land mortgages; and that we should study more carefully than they havehitherto been studied the right adaptation of our economic arrangements tochanging conditions. 

Many conditions about which we I-lave repeatedly legislated are beingaltered from decade to decade, it is evident, under our very eyes, and arelikely to change even more rapidly and more radically in the daysimmediately ahead of us, when peace has returned to the world and thenations of Europe once more take up their tasks of commerce and industrywith the energy of those who must bestir themselves to build anew. Justwhat these changes will be no one can certainly foresee or confidentlypredict. There are no calculable, because no stable, elements in theproblem. The most we can do is to make certain that we have the necessaryinstrumentalities of information constantly at our service so that we maybe sure that we know exactly what we are dealing with when we come to act, if it should be necessary to act at all. We must first certainly know whatit is that we are seeking to adapt ourselves to. I may ask the privilege ofaddressing you more at length on this important matter a little later inyour session. 

In the meantime may I make this suggestion? The transportation problem isan exceedingly serious and pressing one in this country. There has fromtime to time of late been reason to fear that our railroads would not muchlonger be able to cope with it successfully, as at present equipped andcoordinated I suggest that it would be wise to provide for a commission ofinquiry to ascertain by a thorough canvass of the whole question whetherour laws as at present framed and administered are as serviceable as theymight be in the solution of the problem. It is obviously a problem thatlies at the very foundation of our efficiency as a people. Such an inquiryought to draw out every circumstance and opinion worth considering and weneed to know all sides of the matter if we mean to do anything in the fieldof federal legislation. 

No one, I am sure, would wish to take any backward step. The regulation ofthe railways of the country by federal commission has had admirable resultsand has fully justified the hopes and expectations of those by whom thepolicy of regulation was originally proposed. The question is not whatshould we undo? It is, whether there is anything else we can do that wouldsupply us with effective means, in the very process of regulation, forbettering the conditions under which the railroads are operated and formaking them more useful servants of the country as a whole. It seems to methat it might be the part of wisdom, therefore, before further legislationin this field is attempted, to look at the whole problem of coordinationand efficiency in the full light of a fresh assessment of circumstance andopinion, as a guide to dealing with the several parts of it. 

For what we are seeking now, what in my mind is the single thought of thismessage, is national efficiency and security. We serve a great nation. Weshould serve it in the spirit of its peculiar genius. It is the genius ofcommon men for self-government, industry, justice, liberty and peace. Weshould see to it that it lacks no instrument, no facility or vigor of law, to make it sufficient to play its part with energy, safety, and assuredsuccess. In this we are no partisans but heralds and prophets of a new age. 

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State of the Union AddressWoodrow WilsonDecember 5, 1916

GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS:

In fulfilling at this time the duty laid upon me by the Constitution ofcommunicating to you from time to time information of the state of theUnion and recommending to your consideration such legislative measures asmay be judged necessary and expedient, I shall continue the practice, whichI hope has been acceptable to you, of leaving to the reports of the severalheads of the executive departments the elaboration of the detailed needs ofthe public service and confine myself to those matters of more generalpublic policy with which it seems necessary and feasible to deal at thepresent session of the Congress. 

I realize the limitations of time under which you will necessarily act atthis session and shall make my suggestions as few as possible; but therewere some things left undone at the last session which there will now betime to complete and which it seems necessary in the interest of the publicto do at once. 

In the first place, it seems to me imperatively necessary that the earliestpossible consideration and action should be accorded the remaining measuresof the program of settlement and regulation which I had occasion torecommend to you at the close of your last session in view of the publicdangers disclosed by the unaccommodated difficulties which then existed, and which still unhappily continue to exist, between the railroads of thecountry and their locomotive engineers, conductors and trainmen. 

I then recommended:

First, immediate provision for the enlargement and administrativereorganization of the Interstate Commerce Commission along the linesembodied in the bill recently passed by the House of Representatives andnow awaiting action by the Senate; in order that the Commission may beenabled to deal with the many great and various duties now devolving uponit with a promptness and thoroughness which are, with its presentconstitution and means of action, practically impossible. 

Second, the establishment of an eight-hour day as the legal basis alike ofwork and wages in the employment of all railway employes who are actuallyengaged in the work of operating trains in interstate transportation. 

Third, the authorization of the appointment by the President of a smallbody of men to observe actual results in experience of the adoption of theeight-hour day in railway transportation alike for the men and for therailroads. 

Fourth, explicit approval by the Congress of the consideration by theInterstate Commerce Commission of an increase of freight rates to meet suchadditional expenditures by the railroads as may have been renderednecessary by the adoption of the eight-hour day and which have not beenoffset by administrative readjustments and economies, should the factsdisclosed justify the increase. 

Fifth, an amendment of the existing Federal statute which provides for themediation, conciliation and arbitration of such controversies as thepresent by adding to it a provision that, in case the methods ofaccommodation now provided for should fail, a full public investigation ofthe merits of every such dispute shall be instituted and completed before astrike or lockout may lawfully be attempted. 

And, sixth, the lodgment in the hands of the Executive of the power, incase of military necessity, to take control of such portions and suchrolling stock of the railways of the country as may be required formilitary use and to operate them for military purposes, with authority todraft into the military service of the United States such train crews andadministrative officials as the circumstances require for their safe andefficient use. 

The second and third of these recommendations the Congress immediatelyacted on: it established the eight-hour day as the legal basis of work andwages in train service and it authorized the appointment of a commission toobserve and report upon the practical results, deeming these the measuresmost immediately needed; but it postponed action upon the other suggestionsuntil an opportunity should be offered for a more deliberate considerationof them. 

The fourth recommendation I do not deem it necessary to renew. The power ofthe Interstate Commerce Commission to grant an increase of rates on theground referred to is indisputably clear and a recommendation by theCongress with regard to such a matter might seem to draw in question thescope of the commission's authority or its inclination to do justice whenthere is no reason to doubt either. 

The other suggestions-the increase in the Interstate Commerce Commission'smembership and in its facilities for performing its manifold duties; theprovision for full public investigation and assessment of industrialdisputes, and the grant to the Executive of the power to control andoperate the railways when necessary in time of war or other like publicnecessity-I now very earnestly renew. 

The necessity for such legislation is manifest and pressing. Those who haveentrusted us with the responsibility and duty of serving and safeguardingthem in such matters would find it hard, I believe, to excuse a failure toact upon these grave matters or any unnecessary postponement of action uponthem. 

Not only does the Interstate Commerce Commission now find it practicallyimpossible, with its present membership and organization, to perform itsgreat functions promptly and thoroughly, but it is not unlikely that it maypresently be found advisable to add to its duties still others equallyheavy and exacting. It must first be perfected as an administrativeinstrument. 

The country cannot and should not consent to remain any longer exposed toprofound industrial disturbances for lack of additional means ofarbitration and conciliation which the Congress can easily and promptlysupply. 

And all will agree that there must be no doubt as to the power of theExecutive to make immediate and uninterrupted use of the railroads for theconcentration of the military forces of the nation wherever they are neededand whenever they are needed. 

This is a program of regulation, prevention and administrative efficiencywhich argues its own case in the mere statement of it. With regard to oneof its items, the increase in the efficiency of the Interstate CommerceCommission, the House of Representatives has already acted; its actionneeds only the concurrence of the Senate. 

I would hesitate to recommend, and I dare say the Congress would hesitateto act upon the suggestion should I make it, that any man in any Ioccupation should be obliged by law to continue in an employment which hedesired to leave. 

To pass a law which forbade or prevented the individual workman to leavehis work before receiving the approval of society in doing so would be toadopt a new principle into our jurisprudence, which I take it for grantedwe are not prepared to introduce. 

But the proposal that the operation of the railways of the country shallnot be stopped or interrupted by the concerted action of organized bodiesof men until a public investigation shall have been instituted, which shallmake the whole question at issue plain for the judgment of the opinion ofthe nation, is not to propose any such principle. 

It is based upon the very different principle that the concerted action ofpowerful bodies of men shall not be permitted to stop the industrialprocesses of the nation, at any rate before the nation shall have had anopportunity to acquaint itself with the merits of the case as betweenemploye and employer, time to form its opinion upon an impartial statementof the merits, and opportunity to consider all practicable means ofconciliation or arbitration. 

I can see nothing in that proposition but the justifiable safeguarding bysociety of the necessary processes of its very life. There is nothingarbitrary or unjust in it unless it be arbitrarily and unjustly done. Itcan and should be done with a full and scrupulous regard for the interestsand liberties of all concerned as well as for the permanent interests ofsociety itself. 

Three matters of capital importance await the action of the Senate whichhave already been acted upon by the House of Representatives; the billwhich seeks to extend greater freedom of combination to those engaged inpromoting the foreign commerce of the country than is now thought by someto be legal under the terms of the laws against monopoly; the bill amendingthe present organic law of Porto Rico; and the bill proposing a morethorough and systematic regulation of the expenditure of money inelections, commonly called the Corrupt Practices Act. 

I need not labor my advice that these measures be enacted into law. Theirurgency lies in the manifest circumstances which render their adoption atthis time not only opportune but necessary. Even delay would seriouslyjeopard the interests of the country and of the Government. 

Immediate passage of the bill to regulate the expenditure of money inelections may seem to be less necessary than the immediate enactment of theother measures to which I refer, because at least two years will elapsebefore another election in which Federal offices are to be filled; but itwould greatly relieve the public mind if this important matter were dealtwith while the circumstances and the dangers to the public morals of thepresent method of obtaining and spending campaign funds stand clear underrecent observation, and the methods of expenditure can be frankly studiedin the light of present experience; and a delay would have the further veryserious disadvantage of postponing action until another election was athand and some special object connected with it might be thought to be inthe mind of those who urged it. Action can be taken now with facts forguidance and without suspicion of partisan purpose. 

I shall not argue at length the desirability of giving a freer hand in thematter of combined and concerted effort to those who shall undertake theessential enterprise of building up our export trade. That enterprise willpresently, will immediately assume, has indeed already assumed a magnitudeunprecedented in our experience. We have not the necessaryinstrumentalities for its prosecution; it is deemed to be doubtful whetherthey could be created upon an adequate scale under our present laws. 

We should clear away all legal obstacles and create a basis of undoubtedlaw for it which will give freedom without permitting unregulated license. The thing must be done now, because the opportunity is here and may escapeus if we hesitate or delay. 

The argument for the proposed amendments of the organic law of Porto Ricois brief and conclusive. The present laws governing the island andregulating the rights and privileges of its people are not just. We havecreated expectations of extended privilege which we have not satisfied. There is uneasiness among the people of the island and even a suspiciousdoubt with regard to our intentions concerning them which the adoption ofthe pending measure would happily remove. We do not doubt what we wish todo in any essential particular. We ought to do it at once. 

At the last session of the Congress a bill was passed by the Senate whichprovides for the promotion of vocational and industrial education, which isof vital importance to the whole country because it concerns a matter, toolong neglected, upon which the thorough industrial preparation of thecountry for the critical years of economic development immediately ahead ofus in very large measure depends. 

May I not urge its early and favorable consideration by the House ofRepresentatives and its early enactment into law? It contains plans whichaffect all interests and all parts of the country, and I am sure that thereis no legislation now pending before the Congress whose passage the countryawaits with more thoughtful approval or greater impatience to see a greatand admirable thing set in the way of being done. 

There are other matters already advanced to the stage of conference betweenthe two houses of which it is not necessary that I should speak. Somepracticable basis of agreement concerning them will no doubt be found anaction taken upon them. 

Inasmuch as this is, gentlemen, probably the last occasion I shall have toaddress the Sixty-fourth Congress, I hope that you will permit me to saywith what genuine pleasure and satisfaction I have co-operated with you inthe many measures of constructive policy with which you have enriched thelegislative annals of the country. It has been a privilege to labor in suchcompany. I take the liberty of congratulating you upon the completion of arecord of rare serviceableness and distinction. 

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State of the Union AddressWoodrow WilsonDecember 4, 1917

GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS:

Eight months have elapsed since I last had the honor of addressing you. They have been months crowded with events of immense and grave significancefor us. I shall not undertake to detail or even to summarize those events. The practical particulars of the part we have played in them will be laidbefore you in the reports of the executive departments. I shall discussonly our present outlook upon these vast affairs, our present duties, andthe immediate means of accomplishing the objects we shall hold always inview. 

I shall not go back to debate the causes of the war. The intolerable wrongsdone and planned against us by the sinister masters of Germany have longsince become too grossly obvious and odious to every true American to needto be rehearsed. But I shall ask you to consider again and with a verygrave scrutiny our objectives and the measures by which we mean to attainthem; for the purpose of discussion here in this place is action, and ouraction must move straight toward definite ends. Our object is, of course, to win the war; and we shall not slacken or suffer ourselves to be diverteduntil it is won. But it is worth while asking and answering the question, When shall we consider 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 is aboutand what sort of an outcome they will regard as a realization of theirpurpose in it. 

As a nation we are united in spirit and intention. I pay little heed tothose who tell me otherwise. I hear the voices of dissent-who does not? Ibear the criticism and the clamor of the noisily thoughtless andtroublesome. I also see men here and there fling themselves in impotentdisloyalty against the calm, indomitable power of the Nation. I hear mendebate peace who understand neither its nature nor the way in which we mayattain it with uplifted eyes and unbroken spirits. But I know that none ofthese speaks for the Nation. They do not touch the heart of anything. Theymay safely be left to strut their uneasy hour and be forgotten. 

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 be for andwhat part we mean to play in the settlement of its searching issues. We arethe spokesmen of the American people, and they have a right to know whethertheir purpose is ours. They desire peace by the overcoming of evil, by thedefeat once for all of the sinister forces that interrupt peace and renderit impossible, and they wish to know how closely our thought runs withtheirs and what action we propose. They are impatient with those who desirepeace by any sort of compromise deeply and indignantly impatient--but theywill be equally impatient with us if we do not make it plain to them whatour objectives are and what we are planning for in seeking to make conquestof peace by arms. 

I believe that I speak for them when I say two things: First, that thisintolerable thing of which the masters of Germany have shown us the uglyface, this menace of combined intrigue and force which we now see soclearly as the German power, a thing without conscience or honor ofcapacity for covenanted peace, must be crushed and, if it be not utterlybrought to an end, at least shut out from the friendly intercourse of thenations; and second, that when this thing and its power are indeed defeatedand the time comes that we can discuss peace when the German people havespokesmen whose word we can believe and when those spokesmen are ready inthe name of their people to accept the common judgment of the nations as towhat shall henceforth be the bases of law and of covenant for the life ofthe world-we shall be willing and glad to pay the full price for peace, andpay it ungrudgingly. 

We know what that price will be. It will be full, impartial justice-justicedone at every point and to every nation that the final settlement mustaffect, our enemies as well as our friends. 

You catch, with me, the voices of humanity that are in the air. They growdaily more audible, more articulate, more persuasive, and they come fromthe hearts of men everywhere. They insist that the war shall not end invindictive action of any kind; that no nation or people shall be robbed orpunished because the irresponsible rulers of a single country havethemselves done deep and abominable wrong. It is this thought that has beenexpressed in the formula, "No annexations, no contributions, no punitiveindemnities. "

Just because this crude formula expresses the instinctive judgment as toright of plain men everywhere, it has been made diligent use of by themasters of German intrigue to lead the people of Russia astray and thepeople of every other country their agents could reach-in order that apremature peace might be brought about before autocracy has been taught itsfinal and convincing lesson and the people of the world put in control oftheir own destinies. 

But the fact that a wrong use has been made of a just idea is no reason whya right use should not be made of it. It ought to be brought under thepatronage of its real friends. Let it be said again that autocracy mustfirst be shown the utter futility of its claim to power or leadership inthe modern world. It is impossible to apply any standard of justice so longas such forces are unchecked and undefeated as the present masters ofGermany command. Not until that has been done can right be set up asarbiter and peacemaker among the nations. But when that has been done-as, God willing, it assuredly will be-we shall at last be free to do anunprecedented thing, and this is the time to avow our purpose to do it. Weshall be free to base peace on generosity and justice, to the exclusions ofall selfish claims to advantage even on the part of the victors. 

Let there be no misunderstanding. Our present and immediate task is to winthe 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 be devoted tothat purpose until it is achieved. Those who desire to bring peace aboutbefore that purpose is achieved I counsel to carry their advice elsewhere. We will not entertain it. We shall regard the war as won only when theGerman people say to us, through properly accredited representatives, thatthey are ready to agree to a settlement based upon justice and reparationof the wrongs their rulers have done. They have done a wrong to Belgiumwhich must be repaired. They have established a power over other lands andpeoples than their own--over the great empire of Austria-Hungary, overhitherto free Balkan states, over Turkey and within Asia-which must berelinquished. 

Germany's success by skill, by industry, by knowledge, by enterprise we didnot grudge or oppose, but admired, rather. She had built up for herself areal empire of trade and influence, secured by the peace of the world. Wewere content to abide by the rivalries of manufacture, science and commercethat were involved for us in her success, and stand or fall as we had ordid not have the brains and the initiative to surpass her. But at themoment when she had conspicuously won her triumphs of peace she threw themaway, to establish in their stead what the world will no longer permit tobe established, military and political domination by arms, by which to oustwhere she could not excel the rivals she most feared and hated. The peacewe make must remedy that wrong. It must deliver the once fair lands andhappy peoples of Belgium and Northern France from the Prussian conquest andthe Prussian menace, but it must deliver also the peoples ofAustria-Hungary, the peoples of the Balkans and the peoples of Turkey, alike in Europe and Asia, from the impudent and alien dominion of thePrussian military and commercial autocracy. 

We owe it, however, to ourselves, to say that we do not wish in any way toimpair or to rearrange the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is no affair of ourswhat they do with their own life, either industrially or politically. We donot purpose or desire to dictate to them in any way. We only desire to seethat their affairs are left in their own hands, in all matters, great orsmall. We shall hope to secure for the peoples of the Balkan peninsula andfor the people of the Turkish Empire the right and opportunity to maketheir own lives safe, their own fortunes secure against oppression orinjustice and from the dictation of foreign courts or parties. 

And our attitude and purpose with regard to Germany herself are of a likekind. We intend no wrong against the German Empire, no interference withher internal affairs. We should deem either the one or the other absolutelyunjustifiable, absolutely contrary to the principles we have professed tolive by and to hold most sacred throughout our life as a nation. 

The people of Germany are being told by the men whom they now permit todeceive them and to act as their masters that they are fighting for thevery life and existence of their empire, a war of desperate self-defenseagainst deliberate aggression. Nothing could be more grossly or wantonlyfalse, and we must seek by the utmost openness and candor as to our realaims to convince them of its falseness. We are in fact fighting for theiremancipation from the fear, along with our own-from the fear as well asfrom the fact of unjust attack by neighbors or rivals or schemers afterworld empire. No one is threatening the existence or the independence ofthe peaceful enterprise of the German Empire. 

The worst that can happen to the detriment the German people is this, thatif they should still, after the war is over, continue to be obliged to liveunder ambitious and intriguing masters interested to disturb the peace ofthe world, men or classes of men whom the other peoples of the world couldnot trust, it might be impossible to admit them to the partnership ofnations which must henceforth guarantee the world's peace. That partnershipmust be a partnership of peoples, not a mere partnership of governments. Itmight be impossible, also, in such untoward circumstances, to admit Germanyto the free economic intercourse which must inevitably spring out of theother partnerships of a real peace. But there would be no aggression inthat; and such a situation, inevitable, because of distrust, would in thevery nature of things sooner or later cure itself, by processes which wouldassuredly set in. 

The wrongs, the very deep wrongs, committed in this war will have to berighted. That, of course. But they cannot and must not be righted by thecommission of similar wrongs against Germany and her allies. The world willnot permit the commission of similar wrongs as a means of reparation andsettlement. Statesmen must by this time have learned that the opinion ofthe world is everywhere wide awake and fully comprehends the issuesinvolved. No representative of any self-governed nation will dare disregardit by attempting any such covenants of selfishness and compromise as wereentered into at the Congress of Vienna. The thought of the plain peoplehere and everywhere throughout the world, the people who enjoy no privilegeand have very simple and unsophisticated standards of right and wrong, isthe air all governments must henceforth breathe if they would live. 

It is in the full disclosing light of that thought that all policies mustbe received and executed in this midday hour of the world's life. Ger. Manrulers have been able to upset the peace of the world only because theGerman people were not suffered under their tutelage to share thecomradeship of the other peoples of the world either in thought or inpurpose. They were allowed to have no opinion of their own which might beset up as a rule of conduct for those who exercised authority over them. But the Congress that concludes this war will feel the full strength of thetides that run now in the hearts and consciences of free men everywhere. Its conclusions will run with those tides. 

All those things have been true from the very beginning of this stupendouswar; and I cannot help thinking that if they had been made plain at thevery outset the sympathy and enthusiasm of the Russian people might havebeen once for all enlisted on the side of the Allies, suspicion anddistrust swept away, and a real and lasting union of purpose effected. Hadthey believed these things at the very moment of their revolution, and hadthey been confirmed in that belief since, the sad reverses which haverecently marked the progress of their affairs towards an ordered and stablegovernment of free men might have been avoided. The Russian people havebeen poisoned by the very same falsehoods that have kept the German peoplein the dark, and the poison has been administered by the very same hand. The only possible antidote is the truth. It cannot be uttered too plainlyor too often. 

From every point of view, therefore, it has seemed to be my duty to speakthese declarations of purpose, to add these specific interpretations towhat I took the liberty of saying to the Senate in January. Our entranceinto the war has not altered out attitude towards the settlement that mustcome when it is over. 

When I said in January that the nations of the world were entitled not onlyto free pathways upon the sea, but also to assured and unmolested access tothose-pathways, I was thinking, and I am thinking now, not of the smallerand weaker nations alone which need our countenance and support, but alsoof the great and powerful nations and of our present enemies as well as ourpresent associates in the war. I was thinking, and am thinking now, ofAustria herself, among the rest, as well as of Serbia and of Poland. 

Justice and equality of rights can be had only at a great price. We areseeking permanent, not temporary, foundations for the peace of the world, and must seek them candidly and fearlessly. As always, the right will proveto be the expedient. 

What shall we do, then, to push this great war of freedom and justice toits righteous conclusion? We must clear away with a thorough hand allimpediments to success, and we must make every adjustment of law that willfacilitate the full and free use of our whole capacity and force as afighting unit. 

One very embarrassing obstacle that stands hi our way is that we are at warwith Germany but not with her allies. I, therefore, very earnestlyrecommend that the Congress immediately declare the United States in astate of war with Austria-Hungary. Does it seem strange to you that thisshould be the conclusion of the argument I have just addressed to you? Itis not. It is in fact the inevitable logic of what I have said. Austria-Hungary is for the time being not her own mistress but simply thevassal of the German Government. 

We must face the facts as they are and act upon them without sentiment inthis stern business. The Government of Austria and Hungary is not actingupon its own initiative or in response to the wishes and feelings of itsown peoples, but as the instrument of another nation. We must meet itsforce with our own and regard the Central Powers as but one. The war can besuccessfully conducted in no other way. 

The same logic would lead also to a declaration of war against Turkey andBulgaria. They also are the tools of Germany, but they are mere tools anddo not yet stand in the direct path of our necessary action. We shall gowherever the necessities of this war carry us, but it seems to me that weshould go only where immediate and practical considerations lead us, andnot heed any others. 

The financial and military measures which must be adopted will suggestthemselves as the war and its undertakings develop, but I will take theliberty of proposing to you certain other acts of legislation which seem tome to be needed for the support of the war and for the release of our wholeforce and energy. 

It will be necessary to extend in certain particulars the legislation ofthe last session with regard to alien enemies, and also necessary, Ibelieve, to create a very definite and particular control over the entranceand departure of all persons into and from the United States. 

Legislation should be enacted defining as a criminal offense every wilfulviolation of the presidential proclamation relating to alien enemiespromulgated under section 4o67 of the revised statutes and providingappropriate punishments; and women, as well as men, should be includedunder the terms of the acts placing restraints upon alien enemies. 

It is likely that as time goes on many alien enemies will be willing to befed and housed at the expense of the Government in the detention camps, andit would be the purpose of the legislation I have suggested to confineoffenders among them in the penitentiaries and other similar institutionswhere they could be made to work as other criminals do. 

Recent experience has convinced me that the Congress must go further inauthorizing the Government to set limits to prices. The law of supply anddemand, I am sorry to say, has been replaced by the law of unrestrainedselfishness. While we have eliminated profiteering in several branches ofindustry, it still runs impudently rampant in others. The farmers forexample, complain with a great deal of justice that, while the regulationof food prices restricts their incomes, no restraints are placed upon theprices of most of the things they must themselves purchase; and similarinequities obtain on all sides. 

It is imperatively necessary that the consideration of the full use of thewater power of the country, and also of the consideration of the systematicand yet economical development of such of the natural resources of thecountry as are still under the control of the Federal Government should beimmediately resumed and affirmatively and constructively dealt with at theearliest possible moment. The pressing need of such legislation is dailybecoming more obvious. 

The legislation proposed at the last session with regard to regulatedcombinations among our exporters in order to provide for our foreign tradea more effective organization and method of co-operation ought by all meansto be completed at this session. 

And I beg that the members of the House of Representatives will permit meto express the opinion that it will be impossible to deal in any but a verywasteful and extravagant fashion with the enormous appropriations of thepublic moneys which must continue to be made if the war is to be properlysustained, unless the House will consent to return to its former practiceof initiating and preparing all appropriation bills through a singlecommittee, in order that responsibility may be centered, expendituresstandardized and made uniform, and waste and duplication as much aspossible avoided. 

Additional legislation may also become necessary before the presentCongress again adjourns in order to effect the most efficient co-ordinationand operation of the railways and other transportation systems of thecountry; but to that I shall, if circumstances should demand, call theattention of Congress upon another occasion. 

If I have overlooked anything that ought to be done for the more effectiveconduct of the war, your own counsels will supply the omission. What I amperfectly clear about is that in the present session of the Congress ourwhole attention and energy should be concentrated on the vigorous, rapidand successful prosecution of the great task of winning the war. 

We can do this with all the greater zeal and enthusiasm because we knowthat for us this is a war of high principle, debased by no selfish ambitionof conquest or spoliation; because we know, and all the world knows, thatwe have been forced into it to save the very institutions we five underfrom corruption and destruction. The purpose of the Central Powers strikesstraight at the very heart of everything we believe in; their methods ofwarfare outrage every principle of humanity and of knightly honor; theirintrigue has corrupted the very thought and spirit of many of our people;their sinister and secret diplomacy has sought to take our very territoryaway from us and disrupt the union of the states. Our safety would be at anend, our honor forever sullied and brought into contempt, were we to permittheir triumph. They are striking at the very existence of democracy andliberty. 

It is because it is for us a war of high, disinterested purpose, in whichall the free peoples of the world are banded together for the vindicationof right, a war for the preservation of our nation, of all that it has helddear, of principle and of purpose, that we feel ourselves doublyconstrained to propose for its outcome only that which is righteous and ofirreproachable intention, for our foes as well as for our friends. Thecause being just and holy, the settlement must be of like motive andequality. For this we can fight, but for nothing less noble or less worthyof our traditions. For this cause we entered the war and for this causewill we battle until the last gun is fired. 

I have spoken plainly because this seems to me the time when it is mostnecessary to speak plainly, in order that all the world may know that, evenin the heat and ardor of the struggle and when our whole thought is ofcarrying the war through to its end, we have not forgotten any ideal orprinciple for which the name of America has been held in honor among thenations and for which it has been our glory to contend in the greatgenerations that went before us. A supreme moment of history has come. Theeyes of the people have been opened and they see. The hand of God is laidupon the nations. He will show them favor, I devoutly believe, only if theyrise to the clear heights of His own justice and mercy. 

***

State of the Union AddressWoodrow WilsonDecember 2, 1918

GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS:

The year that has elapsed since I last stood before you to fulfil myconstitutional duty to give to the Congress from time to time informationon the state of the Union has been so crowded with great events, greatprocesses, and great results that I cannot hope to give you an adequatepicture of its transactions or of the far-reaching changes which have beenwrought of our nation and of the world. You have yourselves witnessed thesethings, as I have. It is too soon to assess them; and we who stand in themidst of them and are part of them are less qualified than men of anothergeneration will be to say what they mean, or even what they have been. Butsome great outstanding facts are unmistakable and constitute, in a sense, part of the public business with which it is our duty to deal. To statethem is to set the stage for the legislative and executive action whichmust grow out of them and which we have yet to shape and determine. 

A year ago we had sent 145, 918 men overseas. Since then we have sent1, 950, 513, an average of 162, 542 each month, the number in fact rising, inMay last, to 245, 951, in June to 278, 760, in July to 307, 182, andcontinuing to reach similar figures in August and September, in August289, 570 and in September 257, 438. No such movement of troops ever tookplace before, across three thousand miles of sea, followed by adequateequipment and supplies, and carried safely through extraordinary dangers ofattack, -dangers which were alike strange and infinitely difficult to guardagainst. In all this movement only seven hundred and fifty-eight men werelost by enemy attack, six hundred and thirty of whom were upon a singleEnglish transport which was sunk near the Orkney Islands. 

I need not tell you what lay back of this great movement of men andmaterial. It is not invidious to say that back of it lay a supportingorganization of the industries of the country and of all its productiveactivities more complete, more thorough in method and effective in result, more spirited and unanimous in purpose and effort than any other greatbelligerent had been able to effect. We profited greatly by the experienceof the nations which had already been engaged for nearly three years in theexigent and exacting business, their every resource and every executiveproficiency taxed to the utmost. We were their pupils. But we learnedquickly and acted with a promptness and a readiness of cooperation thatjustify our great pride that we were able to serve the world withunparalleled energy and quick accomplishment. 

But it is not the physical scale and executive efficiency of preparation, supply, equipment and despatch that I would dwell upon, but the mettle andquality of the officers and men we sent over and of the sailors who keptthe seas, and the spirit of the nation that stood behind them. No soldiersor sailors ever proved themselves more quickly ready for the test of battleor acquitted themselves with more splendid courage and achievement when putto the test. Those of us who played some part in directing the greatprocesses by which the war was pushed irresistibly forward to the finaltriumph may now forget all that and delight our thoughts with the story ofwhat our men did. Their officers understood the grim and exacting task theyhad undertaken and performed it with an audacity, efficiency, andunhesitating courage that touch the story of convoy and battle withimperishable distinction at every turn, whether the enterprise were greator small, from their great chiefs, Pershing and Sims, down to the youngestlieutenant; and their men were worthy of them, -such men as hardly need tobe commanded, and go to their terrible adventure blithely and with thequick intelligence of those who know just what it is they would accomplish. I am proud to be the fellow-countryman of men of such stuff and valor. Thoseof us who stayed at home did our duty; the war could not have been won orthe gallant men who fought it given their opportunity to win it otherwise;but for many a long day we shall think ourselves "accurs'd we were notthere, and hold our manhoods cheap while any speaks that fought" with theseat St. Mihiel or Thierry. The memory of those days of triumphant battlewill go with these fortunate men to their graves; and each will have hisfavorite memory. "Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, but hellremember with advantages what feats he did that day!"

What we all thank God for with deepest gratitude is that our men went inforce into the line of battle just at the critical moment when the wholefate of the world seemed to hang in the balance and threw their freshstrength into the ranks of freedom in time to turn the whole tide and sweepof the fateful struggle, -turn it once for all, so that thenceforth it wasback, back, back for their enemies, always back, never again forward! Afterthat it was only a scant four months before the commanders of the CentralEmpires knew themselves beaten; and now their very empires are inliquidation!

And throughout it all how fine the spirit of the nation was: what unity ofpurpose, what untiring zeal! What elevation of purpose ran through all itssplendid display of strength, its untiring accomplishment! I have said thatthose of us who stayed at home to do the work of organization and supplywill always wish that we had been with the men whom we sustained by ourlabor; but we can never be ashamed. It has been an inspiring thing to behere in the midst of fine men who had turned aside from every privateinterest of their own and devoted the whole of their trained capacity tothe tasks that supplied the sinews of the whole great undertaking! Thepatriotism, the unselfishness, the thoroughgoing devotion and distinguishedcapacity that marked their toilsome labors, day after day, month aftermonth, have made them fit mates and comrades of the men in the trenches andon the sea. And not the men here in Washington only. They have but directedthe vast achievement. Throughout innumerable factories, upon innumerablefarms, in the depths of coal mines and iron mines and copper mines, wherever the stuffs of industry were to be obtained and prepared, in theshipyards, on the railways, at the docks, on the sea, in every labor thatwas needed to sustain the battle lines, men have vied with each other to dotheir part and do it well. They can look any man-at-arms in the face, andsay, We also strove to win and gave the best that was in us to make ourfleets and armies sure of their triumph!

And what shall we say of the women, -of their instant intelligence, quickening every task that they touched; their capacity for organizationand cooperation, which gave their action discipline and enhanced theeffectiveness of everything they attempted; their aptitude at tasks towhich they had never before set their hands; their utter self-sacrificealike in what they did and in what they gave? Their contribution to thegreat result is beyond appraisal. They have added a new lustre to theannals of American womanhood. 

The least tribute we can pay them is to make them the equals of men inpolitical rights as they have proved themselves their equals in every fieldof practical work they have entered, whether for themselves or for theircountry. These great days of completed achievement would be sadly marredwere we to omit that act of justice. Besides the immense practical servicesthey have rendered the women of the country have been the moving spirits inthe systematic economies by which our people have voluntarily assisted tosupply the suffering peoples of the world and the armies upon every frontwith food and everything else that we had that might serve the commoncause. The details of such a story can never be fully written, but we carrythem at our hearts and thank God that we can say that we are the kinsmen ofsuch. 

And now we are sure of the great triumph for which every sacrifice wasmade. It has come, come in its completeness, and with the pride andinspiration of these days of achievement quick within us, we turn to thetasks of peace again, -a peace secure against the violence of irresponsiblemonarchs and ambitious military coteries and made ready for a new order, for new foundations of justice and fair dealing. 

We are about to give order and organization to this peace not only forourselves but for the other peoples of the world as well, so far as theywill suffer us to serve them. It is international justice that we seek, notdomestic safety merely. Our thoughts have dwelt of late upon Europe, uponAsia, upon the near and the far East, very little upon the acts of peaceand accommodation that wait to be performed at our own doors. While we areadjusting our relations with the rest of the world is it not of capitalimportance that we should clear away all grounds of misunderstanding withour immediate neighbors and give proof of the friendship we really feel? Ihope that the members of the Senate will permit me to speak once more ofthe unratified treaty of friendship and adjustment with the Republic ofColombia. I very earnestly urge upon them an early and favorable actionupon that vital matter. I believe that they will feel, with me, that thestage of affairs is now set for such action as will be not only just butgenerous and in the spirit of the new age upon which we have so happilyentered. 

So far as our domestic affairs are concerned the problem of our return topeace is a problem of economic and industrial readjustment. That problem isless serious for us than it may turn out too he for the nations which havesuffered the disarrangements and the losses of war longer than we. Ourpeople, moreover, do not wait to be coached and led. They know their ownbusiness, are quick and resourceful at every readjustment, definite inpurpose, and self-reliant in action. Any leading strings we might seek toput them in would speedily become hopelessly tangled because they would payno attention to them and go their own way. All that we can do as theirlegislative and executive servants is to mediate the process of changehere, there, and elsewhere as we may. I have heard much counsel as to theplans that should be formed and personally conducted to a happyconsummation, but from no quarter have I seen any general scheme of"reconstruction" emerge which I thought it likely we could force ourspirited business men and self-reliant laborers to accept with due pliancyand obedience. 

While the war lasted we set up many agencies by which to direct theindustries of the country in the services it was necessary for them torender, by which to make sure of an abundant supply of the materialsneeded, by which to check undertakings that could for the time be dispensedwith and stimulate those that were most serviceable in war, by which togain for the purchasing departments of the Government a certain controlover the prices of essential articles and materials, by which to restraintrade with alien enemies, make the most of the available shipping, andsystematize financial transactions, both public and private, so that therewould be no unnecessary conflict or confusion, -by which, in short, to putevery material energy of the country in harness to draw the common loadand make of us one team in the accomplishment of a great task. But themoment we knew the armistice to have been signed we took the harness off. Raw materials upon which the Government had kept its hand for fear thereshould not be enough for the industries that supplied the armies have beenreleased and put into the general market again. Great industrial plantswhose whole output and machinery had been taken over for the uses of theGovernment have been set free to return to the uses to which they were putbefore the war. It has not been possible to remove so readily or so quicklythe control of foodstuffs and of shipping, because the world has still tobe fed from our granaries and the ships are still needed to send suppliesto our men overseas and to bring the men back as fast as the disturbedconditions on the other side of the water permit; but even there restraintsare being relaxed as much as possible and more and more as the weeks go by. 

Never before have there been agencies in existence in this country whichknew so much of the field of supply, of labor, and of industry as the WarIndustries Board, the War Trade Board, the Labor Department, the FoodAdministration, and the Fuel Administration have known since their laborsbecame thoroughly systematized; and they have not been isolated agencies;they have been directed by men who represented the permanent Departments ofthe Government and so have been the centres of unified and cooperativeaction. It has been the policy of the Executive, therefore, since thearmistice was assured (which is in effect a complete submission of theenemy) to put the knowledge of these bodies at the disposal of the businessmen of the country and to offer their intelligent mediation at every pointand in every matter where it was desired. It is surprising how fast theprocess of return to a peace footing has moved in the three weeks since thefighting stopped. It promises to outrun any inquiry that may be institutedand any aid that may be offered. It will not be easy to direct it anybetter than it will direct itself. The American business man is of quickinitiative. 

The ordinary and normal processes of private initiative will not, however, provide immediate employment for all of the men of our returning armies. Those who are of trained capacity, those who are skilled workmen, those whohave acquired familiarity with established businesses, those who are readyand willing to go to the farms, all those whose aptitudes are known or willbe sought out by employers will find no difficulty, it is safe to say, infinding place and employment. But there will be others who will be at aloss where to gain a livelihood unless pains are taken to guide them andput them in the way of work. There will be a large floating residuum oflabor which should not be left wholly to shift for itself. It seems to meimportant, therefore, that the development of public works of every sortshould be promptly resumed, in order that opportunities should be createdfor unskilled labor in particular, and that plans should be made for suchdevelopments of our unused lands and our natural resources as we havehitherto lacked stimulation to undertake. 

I particularly direct your attention to the very practical plans which theSecretary of the Interior has developed in his annual report and beforeyour Committees for the reclamation of arid, swamp, and cutover lands whichmight, if the States were willing and able to cooperate, redeem some threehundred million acres of land for cultivation. There are said to be fifteenor twenty million acres of land in the West, at present arid, for whosereclamation water is available, if properly conserved. There are about twohundred and thirty million acres from which the forests have been cut butwhich have never yet been cleared for the plow and which lie waste anddesolate. These lie scattered all over the Union. And there are nearlyeighty million acres of land that lie under swamps or subject to periodicaloverflow or too wet for anything but grazing, which it is perfectlyfeasible to drain and protect and redeem. The Congress can at once directthousands of the returning soldiers to the reclamation of the arid landswhich it has already undertaken, if it will but enlarge the plans andappropriations which it has entrusted to the Department of the Interior. Itis possible in dealing with our unused land to effect a great rural andagricultural development which will afford the best sort of opportunity tomen who want to help themselves and the Secretary of the Interior hasthought the possible methods out in a way which is worthy of your mostfriendly attention. 

I have spoken of the control which must yet for a while, perhaps for a longlong while, be exercised over shipping because of the priority of serviceto which our forces overseas are entitled and which should also be accordedthe shipments which are to save recently liberated peoples from starvationand many devastated regions from permanent ruin. May I not say a specialword about the needs of Belgium and northern France? No sums of money paidby way of indemnity will serve of themselves to save them from hopelessdisadvantage for years to come. Something more must be done than merelyfind the money. If they had money and raw materials in abundance to-morrowthey could not resume their place in the industry of the worldto-morrow, -the very important place they held before the flame of war sweptacross them. Many of their factories are razed to the ground. Much of theirmachinery is destroyed or has been taken away. Their people are scatteredand many of their best workmen are dead. Their markets will be taken byothers, if they are not in some special way assisted to rebuild theirfactories and replace their lost instruments of manufacture. They shouldnot be left to the vicissitudes of the sharp competition for materials andfor industrial facilities which is now to set in. I hope, therefore, thatthe Congress will not be unwilling, if it should become necessary, to grantto some such agency as the War Trade Board the right to establishpriorities of export and supply for the benefit of these people whom wehave been so happy to assist in saving from the German terror and whom wemust not now thoughtlessly leave to shift for themselves in a pitilesscompetitive market. 

For the steadying, and facilitation of our own domestic businessreadjustments nothing is more important than the immediate determination ofthe taxes that are to be levied for 1918, 1919, and 1920. As much of theburden of taxation must be lifted from business as sound methods offinancing the Government will permit, and those who conduct the greatessential industries of the country must be told as exactly as possiblewhat obligations to the Government they will be expected to meet in theyears immediately ahead of them. It will be of serious consequence to thecountry to delay removing all uncertainties in this matter a single daylonger than the right processes of debate justify. It is idle to talk ofsuccessful and confident business reconstruction before those uncertaintiesare resolved. 

If the war had continued it would have been necessary to raise at leasteight billion dollars by taxation payable in the year 1919; but the war hasended and I agree with the Secretary of the Treasury that it will be safeto reduce the amount to six billions. An immediate rapid decline in theexpenses of the Government is not to be looked for. Contracts made for warsupplies will, indeed, be rapidly cancelled and liquidated, but theirimmediate liquidation will make heavy drains on the Treasury for the monthsjust ahead of us. The maintenance of our forces on the other side of thesea is still necessary. A considerable proportion of those forces mustremain in Europe during the period of occupation, and those which arebrought home will be transported and demobilized at heavy expense formonths to come. The interest on our war debt must of course be paid andprovision made for the retirement of the obligations of the Governmentwhich represent it. But these demands will of course fall much below what acontinuation of military operations would have entailed and six billionsshould suffice to supply a sound foundation for the financial operations ofthe year. 

I entirely concur with the Secretary of the Treasury in recommending thatthe two billions needed in addition to the four billions provided byexisting law be obtained from the profits which have accrued and shallaccrue from war contracts and distinctively war business, but that thesetaxes be confined to the war profits accruing in 1918, or in 1919 frombusiness originating in war contracts. I urge your acceptance of hisrecommendation that provision be made now, not subsequently, that the taxesto be paid in 1920 should be reduced from six to four billions. Anyarrangements less definite than these would add elements of doubt andconfusion to the critical period of industrial readjustment through whichthe country must now immediately pass, and which no true friend of thenation's essential business interests can afford to be responsible forcreating or prolonging. Clearly determined conditions, clearly and simplycharted, are indispensable to the economic revival and rapid industrialdevelopment which may confidently be expected if we act now and sweep allinterrogation points away. 

I take it for granted that the Congress will carry out the naval programmewhich was undertaken before we entered the war. The Secretary of the Navyhas submitted to your Committees for authorization that part of theprogramme which covers the building plans of the next three years. Theseplans have been prepared along the lines and in accordance with the policywhich the Congress established, not under the exceptional conditions of thewar, but with the intention of adhering to a definite method of developmentfor the navy. I earnestly recommend the uninterrupted pursuit of thatpolicy. It would clearly be unwise for us to attempt to adjust ourprogrammes to a future world policy as yet undetermined. 

The question which causes me the greatest concern is the question of thepolicy to be adopted towards the railroads. I frankly turn to you forcounsel upon it. I have no confident judgment of my own. I do not see howany thoughtful man can have who knows anything of the complexity of theproblem. It is a problem which must be studied, studied immediately, andstudied without bias or prejudice. Nothing can be gained by becomingpartisans of any particular plan of settlement. 

It was necessary that the administration of the railways should be takenover by the Government so long as the war lasted. It would have beenimpossible otherwise to establish and carry through under a singledirection the necessary priorities of shipment. It would have beenimpossible otherwise to combine maximum production at the factories andmines and farms with the maximum possible car supply to take the productsto the ports and markets; impossible to route troop shipments and freightshipments without regard to the advantage or-disadvantage of the roadsemployed; impossible to subordinate, when necessary, all questions ofconvenience to the public necessity; impossible to give the necessaryfinancial support to the roads from the public treasury. But all thesenecessities have now been served, and the question is, What is best for therailroads and for the public in the future?

Exceptional circumstances and exceptional methods of administration werenot needed to convince us that the railroads were not equal to the immensetasks of transportation imposed upon them by the rapid and continuousdevelopment of the industries of the country. We knew that already. And weknew that they were unequal to it partly because their full cooperation wasrendered impossible by law and their competition made obligatory, so thatit has been impossible to assign to them severally the traffic which couldbest be carried by their respective lines in the interest of expedition andnational economy. 

We may hope, I believe, for the formal conclusion of the war by treaty bythe time Spring has come. The twenty-one months to which the present controlof the railways is limited after formal proclamation of peace shall havebeen made will run at the farthest, I take it for granted, only to theJanuary of 1921. The full equipment of the railways which the federaladministration had planned could not be completed within any such period. The present law does not permit the use of the revenues of the severalroads for the execution of such plans except by formal contract with theirdirectors, some of whom will consent while some will not, and thereforedoes not afford sufficient authority to undertake improvements upon thescale upon which it would be necessary to undertake them. Every approach tothis difficult subject-matter of decision brings us face to face, therefore, with this unanswered question: What is it right that we shoulddo with the railroads, in the interest of the public and in fairness totheir owners?

Let me say at once that I have no answer ready. The only thing that isperfectly clear to me is that it is not fair either to the public or to theowners of the railroads to leave the question unanswered and that it willpresently become my duty to relinquish control of the roads, even beforethe expiration of the statutory period, unless there should appear someclear prospect in the meantime of a legislative solution. Their releasewould at least produce one element of a solution, namely certainty and aquick stimulation of private initiative. 

I believe that it will be serviceable for me to set forth as explicitly aspossible the alternative courses that lie open to our choice. We can simplyrelease the roads and go back to the old conditions of private management, unrestricted competition, and multiform regulation by both state andfederal authorities; or we can go to the opposite extreme and establishcomplete government control, accompanied, if necessary, by actualgovernment ownership; or we can adopt an intermediate course of modifiedprivate control, under a more unified and affirmative public regulation andunder such alterations of the law as will permit wasteful competition to beavoided and a considerable degree of unification of administration to beeffected, as, for example, by regional corporations under which therailways of definable areas would be in effect combined in single systems. 

The one conclusion that I am ready to state with confidence is that itwould be a disservice alike to the country and to the owners of therailroads to return to the old conditions unmodified. Those are conditionsof restraint without development. There is nothing affirmative or helpfulabout them. What the country chiefly needs is that all its means oftransportation should be developed, its railways, its waterways, itshighways, and its countryside roads. Some new element of policy, therefore, is absolutely necessary--necessary for the service of the public, necessaryfor the release of credit to those who are administering the railways, necessary for the protection of their security holders. The old policy maybe changed much or little, but surely it cannot wisely be left as it was. Ihope that the Con will have a complete and impartial study of the wholeproblem instituted at once and prosecuted as rapidly as possible. I standready and anxious to release the roads from the present control and I mustdo so at a very early date if by waiting until the statutory limit of timeis reached I shall be merely prolonging the period of doubt and uncertaintywhich is hurtful to every interest concerned. 

I welcome this occasion to announce to the Congress my purpose to join inParis the representatives of the governments with which we have beenassociated in the war against the Central Empires for the purpose ofdiscussing with them the main features of the treaty of peace. I realizethe great inconveniences that will attend my leaving the country, particularly at this time, but the conclusion that it was my paramount dutyto go has been forced upon me by considerations which I hope will seem asconclusive to you as they have seemed to me. 

The Allied governments have accepted the bases of peace which I outlined tothe Congress on the eighth of January last, as the Central Empires alsohave, and very reasonably desire my personal counsel in theirinterpretation and application, and it is highly desirable that I shouldgive it in order that the sincere desire of our Government to contributewithout selfish purpose of any kind to settlements that will be of commonbenefit to all the nations concerned may be made fully manifest. The peacesettlements which are now to be agreed upon are of transcendent importanceboth to us and to the rest of the world, and I know of no business orinterest which should take precedence of them. The gallant men of our armedforces on land and sea have consciously fought for the ideals which theyknew to be the ideals of their country; I have sought to express thoseideals; they have accepted my statements of them as the substance of theirown thought and purpose, as the associated governments have accepted them;I owe it to them to see to it, so far as in me lies, that no false ormistaken interpretation is put upon them, and no possible effort omitted torealize them. It is now my duty to play my full part in making good whatthey offered their life's blood to obtain. I can think of no call toservice which could transcend this. 

I shall be in close touch with you and with affairs on this side the water, and you will know all that I do. At my request, the French and Englishgovernments have absolutely removed the censorship of cable news whichuntil within a fortnight they had maintained and there is now no censorshipwhatever exercised at this end except upon attempted trade communicationswith enemy countries. It has been necessary to keep an open wire constantlyavailable between Paris and the Department of State and another betweenFrance and the Department of War. In order that this might be done with theleast possible interference with the other uses of the cables, I havetemporarily taken over the control of both cables in order that they may beused as a single system. I did so at the advice of the most experiencedcable officials, and I hope that the results will justify my hope that thenews of the next few months may pass with the utmost freedom and with theleast possible delay from each side of the sea to the other. 

May I not hope, Gentlemen of the Congress, that in the delicate tasks Ishall have to perform on the other side of the sea, in my efforts truly andfaithfully to interpret the principles and purposes of the country we love, I may have the encouragement and the added strength of your united support?I realize the magnitude and difficulty of the duty I am undertaking; I ampoignantly aware of its grave responsibilities. I am the servant of thenation. I can have no private thought or purpose of my own in performingsuch an errand. I go to give the best that is in me to the commonsettlements which I must now assist in arriving at in conference with theother working heads of the associated governments. I shall count upon yourfriendly countenance and encouragement. I shall not be inaccessible. Thecables and the wireless will render me available for any counsel or serviceyou may desire of me, and I shall be happy in the thought that I amconstantly in touch with the weighty matters of domestic policy with whichwe shall have to deal. I shall make my absence as brief as possible andshall hope to return with the happy assurance that it has been possible totranslate into action the great ideals for which America has striven. 

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State of the Union AddressWoodrow WilsonDecember 2, 1919

TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

I sincerely regret that I cannot be present at the opening of this sessionof the Congress. I am thus prevented from presenting in as direct a way asI could wish the many questions that are pressing for solution at thistime. Happily, I have had the advantage of the advice of the heads of theseveral executive departments who have kept in close touch with affairs intheir detail and whose thoughtful recommendations I earnestly second. 

In the matter of the railroads and the readjustment of their affairsgrowing out of Federal control, I shall take the liberty at a later date ofaddressing you. 

I hope that Congress will bring to a conclusion at this session legislationlooking to the establishment of a budget system. That there should be onesingle authority responsible for the making of all appropriations and thatappropriations should be made not independently of each other, but withreference to one single comprehensive plan of expenditure properly relatedto the nation's income, there can be no doubt I believe the burden ofpreparing the budget must, in the nature of the case, if the work is to beproperly done and responsibility concentrated instead of divided, rest uponthe executive. The budget so prepared should be submitted to and approvedor amended by a single committee of each House of Congress and no singleappropriation should be made by the Congress, except such as may have beenincluded in the budget prepared by the executive or added by the particularcommittee of Congress charged with the budget legislation. 

Another and not less important aspect of the problem is the ascertainmentof the economy and efficiency with which the moneys appropriated areexpended. Under existing law the only audit is for the purpose ofascertaining whether expenditures have been lawfully made within theappropriations. No one is authorized or equipped to ascertain whether themoney has been spent wisely, economically and effectively. The auditorsshould be highly trained officials with permanent tenure in the TreasuryDepartment, free of obligations to or motives of consideration for this orany subsequent administration, and authorized and empowered to examine intoand make report upon the methods employed and the results obtained by theexecutive departments of the Government. Their reports should be made tothe Congress and to the Secretary of the Treasury. 

I trust that the Congress will give its immediate consideration to theproblem of future taxation. Simplification of the income and profits taxeshas become an immediate necessity. These taxes performed indispensableservice during the war. They must, however, be simplified, not only to savethe taxpayer inconvenience and expense, but in order that his liability maybe made certain and definite. 

With reference to the details of the Revenue Law, the Secretary of theTreasury and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue will lay before you foryour consideration certain amendments necessary or desirable in connectionwith the administration of the law-recommendations which have my approvaland support. It is of the utmost importance that in dealing with thismatter the present law should not be disturbed so far as regards taxes forthe calendar year 1920 payable in the calendar year 1921. The Congressmight well consider whether the higher rates of income and profits taxescan in peace times be effectively productive of revenue, and whether theymay not, on the contrary, be destructive of business activity andproductive of waste and inefficiency. There is a point at which in peacetimes high rates of income and profits taxes discourage energy, remove theincentive to new enterprises, encourage extravagant expenditures andproduce industrial stagnation with consequent unemployment and otherattendant evils. 

The problem is not an easy one. A fundamental change has taken place withreference to the position of America in the world's affairs. The prejudiceand passions engendered by decades of controversy between two schools ofpolitical and economic thought, -the one believers in protection of Americanindustries, the other believers in tariff for revenue only, -must besubordinated to the single consideration of the public interest in the lightof utterly changed conditions. Before the war America was heavily thedebtor of the rest of the world and the interest payments she had to maketo foreign countries on American securities held abroad, the expendituresof American travelers abroad and the ocean freight charges she had to payto others, about balanced the value of her pre-war favorable balance oftrade. During the war America's exports have been greatly stimulated, andincreased prices have increased their value. On the other hand, she haspurchased a large proportion of the American securities previously heldabroad, has loaned some $9, 000, 000, 000 to foreign governments, and hasbuilt her own ships. Our favorable balance of trade has thus been greatlyincreased and Europe has been deprived of the means of meeting itheretofore existing. Europe can have only three ways of meeting thefavorable balance of trade in peace times: by imports into this country ofgold or of goods, or by establishing new credits. Europe is in no positionat the present time to ship gold to us nor could we contemplate largefurther imports of gold into this country without concern. The time hasnearly passed for international governmental loans and it will take time todevelop in this country a market for foreign securities. Anything, therefore, which would tend to prevent foreign countries from settling forour exports by shipments of goods into this country could only have theeffect of preventing them from paying for our exports and therefore ofpreventing the exports from being made. The productivity of the country, greatly stimulated by the war, must find an outlet by exports to foreigncountries, and any measures taken to prevent imports will inevitablycurtail exports, force curtailment of production, load the bankingmachinery of the country with credits to carry unsold products and produceindustrial stagnation and unemployment. If we want to sell, we must beprepared to buy. Whatever, therefore, may have been our views during theperiod of growth of American business concerning tariff legislation, wemust now adjust our own economic life to a changed condition growing out ofthe fact that American business is full grown and that America is thegreatest capitalist in the world. 

No policy of isolation will satisfy the growing needs and opportunities ofAmerica. The provincial standards and policies of the past, which have heldAmerican business as if in a strait-jacket, must yield and give way to theneeds and exigencies of the new day in which we live, a day full of hopeand promise for American business, if we will but take advantage of theopportunities that are ours for the asking. The recent war has ended ourisolation and thrown upon us a great duty and responsibility. The UnitedStates must share the expanding world market. The United States desires foritself only equal opportunity with the other nations of the world, and thatthrough the process of friendly cooperation and fair competition thelegitimate interests of the nations concerned may be successfully andequitably adjusted. 

There are other matters of importance upon which I urged action at the lastsession of Congress which are still pressing for solution. I am sure it isnot necessary for me again to remind you that there is one immediate andvery practicable question resulting from the war which we should meet inthe most liberal spirit. It is a matter of recognition and relief to oursoldiers. I can do no better than to quote from my last message urging thisvery action:

"We must see to it that our returning soldiers are assisted in everypracticable way to find the places for which they are fitted in the dailywork of the country. This can be done by developing and maintaining upon anadequate scale the admirable organization created by the Department ofLabor for placing men seeking work; and it can also be done, in at leastone very great field, by creating new opportunities for individualenterprise. The Secretary of the Interior has pointed out the way by whichreturning soldiers may be helped to find and take up land in the hithertoundeveloped regions of the country which the Federal Government has alreadyprepared, or can readily prepare, for cultivation and also on many of thecutover or neglected areas which lie within the limits of the older states;and I once more take the liberty of recommending very urgently that hisplans shall receive the immediate and substantial support of theCongress. "

In the matter of tariff legislation, I beg to call your attention to thestatements contained in my last message urging legislation with referenceto the establishment of the chemical and dyestuffs industry in America:

"Among the industries to which special consideration should be given isthat of the manufacture of dyestuffs and related chemicals. Our completedependence upon German supplies before the war made the interruption oftrade a cause of exceptional economic disturbance. The close relationbetween the manufacture of dyestuffs, on the one hand, and of explosive andpoisonous gases, on the other, moreover, has given the industry anexceptional significance and value. Although the United States will gladlyand unhesitatingly join in the programme of international disarmament, itwill, nevertheless, be a policy of obvious prudence to make certain of thesuccessful maintenance of many strong and well-equipped chemical plants. The German chemical industry, with which we will be brought intocompetition, was and may well be again, a thoroughly knit monopoly capableof exercising a competition of a peculiarly insidious and dangerous kind. "

During the war the farmer performed a vital and willing service to thenation. By materially increasing the production of his land, he suppliedAmerica and the Allies with the increased amounts of food necessary to keeptheir immense armies in the field. He indispensably helped to win the war. But there is now scarcely less need of increasing the production in food-and the necessaries of life. I ask the Congress to consider means ofencouraging effort along these lines. The importance of doing everythingpossible to promote production along economical lines, to improvemarketing, and to make rural life more attractive and healthful, isobvious. I would urge approval of the plans already proposed to theCongress by the Secretary of Agriculture, to secure the essential factsrequired for the proper study of this question, through the proposedenlarged programmes for farm management studies and crop estimates. I wouldurge, also, the continuance of Federal participation in the building ofgood roads, under the terms of existing law and under the direction ofpresent agencies; the need of further action on the part of the States andthe Federal Government to preserve and develop our forest resources, especially through the practice of better forestry methods on privateholdings and the extension of the publicly owned forests; better supportfor country schools and the more definite direction of their courses ofstudy along lines related to rural problems; and fuller provision forsanitation in rural districts and the building up of needed hospital andmedical facilities in these localities. Perhaps the way might be clearedfor many of these desirable reforms by a fresh, comprehensive survey madeof rural conditions by a conference composed of representatives of thefarmers and of the agricultural agencies responsible for leadership. 

I would call your attention to the widespread condition of politicalrestlessness in our body politic. The causes of this unrest, while variousand complicated, are superficial rather than deep-seated. Broadly, theyarise from or are connected with the failure on the part of our Governmentto arrive speedily at a just and permanent peace permitting return tonormal conditions, from the transfusion of radical theories from seethingEuropean centers pending such delay, from heartless profiteering resultingin the increase of the cost of living, and lastly from the machinations ofpassionate and malevolent agitators. With the return to normal conditions, this unrest will rapidly disappear. In the meantime, it does much evil. Itseems to me that in dealing with this situation Congress should not beimpatient or drastic but should seek rather to remove the causes. It shouldendeavor to bring our country back speedily to a peace basis, withameliorated living conditions under the minimum of restrictions uponpersonal liberty that is consistent with our reconstruction problems. Andit should arm the Federal Government with power to deal in its criminalcourts with those persons who by violent methods would abrogate ourtime-tested institutions. With the free expression of opinion and with theadvocacy of orderly political change, however fundamental, there must be nointerference, but towards passion and malevolence tending to incite crimeand insurrection under guise of political evolution there should be noleniency. Legislation to this end has been recommended by the AttorneyGeneral and should be enacted. In this direct connection, I would call yourattention to my recommendations on August 8th, pointing out legislativemeasures which would be effective in controlling and bringing down thepresent cost of living, which contributes so largely to this unrest. Ononly one of these recommendations has the Congress acted. If theGovernment's campaign is to be effective, it is necessary that the othersteps suggested should be acted on at once. 

I renew and strongly urge the necessity of the extension of the presentFood Control Act as to the period of time in which it shall remain inoperation. The Attorney General has submitted a bill providing for anextension of this Act for a period of six months. As it now stands, it islimited in operation to the period of the war and becomes inoperative uponthe formal proclamation of peace. It is imperative that it should beextended at once. The Department of justice has built up extensivemachinery for the purpose of enforcing its provisions; all of which must beabandoned upon the conclusion of peace unless the provisions of this Actare extended. 

During this period the Congress will have an opportunity to make similarpermanent provisions and regulations with regard to all goods destined forinterstate commerce and to exclude them from interstate shipment, if therequirements of the law are not compiled with. Some such regulation isimperatively necessary. The abuses that have grown up in the manipulationof prices by the withholding of foodstuffs and other necessaries of lifecannot otherwise be effectively prevented. There can be no doubt of eitherthe necessity of the legitimacy of such measures. 

As I pointed out in my last message, publicity can accomplish a great dealin this campaign. The aims of the Government must be clearly brought to theattention of the consuming public, civic organizations and state officials, who are in a position to lend their assistance to our efforts. You havemade available funds with which to carry on this campaign, but there is noprovision in the law authorizing their expenditure for the purpose ofmaking the public fully informed about the efforts of the Government. Specific recommendation has been made by the Attorney General in thisregard. I would strongly urge upon you its immediate adoption, as itconstitutes one of the preliminary steps to this campaign. 

I also renew my recommendation that the Congress pass a law regulating coldstorage as it is regulated, for example, by the laws of the State of NewJersey, which limit the time during which goods may be kept in storage, prescribe the method of disposing of them if kept beyond the permittedperiod, and require that goods released from storage shall in all casesbear the date of their receipt. It would materially add to theserviceability of the law, for the purpose we now have in view, if it werealso prescribed that all goods released from storage for interstateshipment should have plainly marked upon each package the selling or marketprice at which they went into storage. By this means the purchaser wouldalways be able to learn what profits stood between him and the producer orthe wholesale dealer. 

I would also renew my recommendation that all goods destined for interstatecommerce should in every case, where their form or package makes itpossible, be plainly marked with the price at which they left the hands ofthe producer. 

We should formulate a law requiring a Federal license of all corporationsengaged in interstate commerce and embodying in the license or in theconditions under which it is to be issued, specific regulations designed tosecure competitive selling and prevent unconscionable profits in the methodof marketing. Such a law would afford a welcome opportunity to effect othermuch needed reforms in the business of interstate shipment and in themethods of corporations which are engaged in it; but for the moment Iconfine my recommendations to the object immediately in hand, which is tolower the cost of living. 

No one who has observed the march of events in the last year can fail tonote the absolute need of a definite programme to bring about animprovement in the conditions of labor. There can be no settled conditionsleading to increased production and a reduction in the cost of living iflabor and capital are to be antagonists instead of partners. Sound thinkingand an honest desire to serve the interests of the whole nation, asdistinguished from the interests of a class, must be applied to thesolution of this great and pressing problem. The failure of other nationsto consider this matter in a vigorous way has produced bitterness andjealousies and antagonisms, the food of radicalism. The only way to keepmen from agitating against grievances is to remove the grievances. Anunwillingness even to discuss these matters produces only dissatisfactionand gives comfort to the extreme elements in our country which endeavor tostir up disturbances in order to provoke governments to embark upon acourse of retaliation and repression. The seed of revolution is repression. The remedy for these things must not be negative in character. It must beconstructive. It must comprehend the general interest. The real antidotefor the unrest which manifests itself is not suppression, but a deepconsideration of the wrongs that beset our national life and theapplication of a remedy. 

Congress has already shown its willingness to deal with these industrialwrongs by establishing the eight-hour day as the standard in every field oflabor. It has sought to find a way to prevent child labor. It has servedthe whole country by leading the way in developing the means of preservingand safeguarding lives and health in dangerous industries. It must now helpin the difficult task of finding a method that will bring about a genuinedemocratization of industry, based upon the full recognition of the rightof those who work, in whatever rank, to participate in some organic way inevery decision which directly affects their welfare. It is with thispurpose in mind that I called a conference to meet in Washington onDecember 1st, to consider these problems in all their broad aspects, withthe idea of bringing about a better understanding between these twointerests. 

The great unrest throughout the world, out of which has emerged a demandfor an immediate consideration of the difficulties between capital andlabor, bids us put our own house in order. Frankly, there can be nopermanent and lasting settlements between capital and labor which do notrecognize the fundamental concepts for which labor has been strugglingthrough the years. The whole world gave its recognition and endorsement tothese fundamental purposes in the League of Notions. The statesmen gatheredat Versailles recognized the fact that world stability could not be had byreverting to industrial standards and conditions against which the averageworkman of the world had revolted. It is, therefore, the task of the statesmen of this new day of change and readjustment to recognize worldconditions and to seek to bring about, through legislation, conditions thatwill mean the ending of age-long antagonisms between capital and labor andthat will hopefully lead to the building up of a comradeship which willresult not only in greater contentment among the mass of workmen but alsobring about a greater production and a greater prosperity to businessitself. 

To analyze the particulars in the demands of labor is to admit the justiceof their complaint in many matters that lie at their basis. The workmandemands an adequate wage, sufficient to permit him to live in comfort, unhampered by the fear of poverty and want in his old age. He demands theright to live and the right to work amidst sanitary surroundings, both inhome and in workshop, surroundings that develop and do not retard his ownhealth and wellbeing; and the right to provide for his children's wants inthe matter of health and education. In other words, it is his desire tomake the conditions of his life and the lives of those dear to himtolerable and easy to bear. 

The establishment of the principles regarding labor laid down ill thecovenant of the League of Nations offers us the way to industrial peace andconciliation. No other road lies open to us. Not to pursue this one islonger to invite enmities, bitterness, and antagonisms which in the endonly lead to industrial and social disaster. The unwilling workman is not aprofitable servant. An employee whose industrial life is hedged about byhard and unjust conditions, which he did not create and over which he hasno control, lacks that fine spirit of enthusiasm and volunteer effort whichare the necessary ingredients of a great producing entity. Let us be frankabout this solemn matter. The evidences of world-wide unrest which manifestthemselves in violence throughout the world bid us pause and consider themeans to be found to stop the spread of this contagious thing before itsaps the very vitality of the nation itself. Do we gain strength bywithholding the remedy? Or is it not the business of statesmen to treatthese manifestations of unrest which meet us on every hand as evidences ofan economic disorder and to apply constructive remedies wherever necessary, being sure that in the application of the remedy we touch not the vitaltissues of our industrial and economic life? There can be no recession ofthe tide of unrest until constructive instrumentalities are set up to stemthat tide. 

Governments must recognize the right of men collectively to bargain forhumane objects that have at their base the mutual protection and welfare ofthose engaged in all industries. Labor must not be longer treated as acommodity. It must be regarded as the activity of human beings, possessedof deep yearnings and desires. The business man gives his best thought tothe repair and replenishment of his machinery, so that its usefulness willnot be impaired and its power to produce may always be at its height andkept in full vigor and motion. No less regard ought to be paid to the humanmachine, which after all propels the machinery of the world and is thegreat dynamic force that lies back of all industry and progress. Return tothe old standards of wage and industry in employment are unthinkable. Theterrible tragedy of war which has just ended and which has brought theworld to the verge of chaos and disaster would be in vain if there shouldensue a return to the conditions of the past. Europe itself, whence hascome the unrest which now holds the world at bay, is an example ofstandpatism in these vital human matters which America might well accept asan example, not to be followed but studiously to be avoided. Europe madelabor the differential, and the price of it all is enmity and antagonismand prostrated industry, The right of labor to live in peace and comfortmust be recognized by governments and America should be the first to laythe foundation stones upon which industrial peace shall be built. 

Labor not only is entitled to an adequate wage, but capital should receivea reasonable return upon its investment and is entitled to protection atthe hands of the Government in every emergency. No Government worthy of thename can "play" these elements against each other, for there is a mutualityof interest between them which the Government must seek to express and tosafeguard at all cost. 

The right of individuals to strike is inviolate and ought not to beinterfered with by any process of Government, but there is a predominantright and that is the right of the Government to protect all of its peopleand to assert its power and majesty against the challenge of any class. TheGovernment, when it asserts that right, seeks not to antagonize a class butsimply to defend the right of the whole people as against the irreparableharm and injury that might be done by the attempt by any class to usurp apower that only Government itself has a right to exercise as a protectionto all. 

In the matter of international disputes which have led to war, statesmenhave sought to set up as a remedy arbitration for war. Does this not pointthe way for the settlement of industrial disputes, by the establishment ofa tribunal, fair and just alike to all, which will settle industrialdisputes which in the past have led to war and disaster? America, witnessing the evil consequences which have followed out of such disputesbetween these contending forces, must not admit itself impotent to dealwith these matters by means of peaceful processes. Surely, there must besome method of bringing together in a council of peace and amity these twogreat interests, out of which will come a happier day of peace andcooperation, a day that will make men more hopeful and enthusiastic intheir various tasks, that will make for more comfort and happiness inliving and a more tolerable condition among all classes of men. Certainlyhuman intelligence can devise some acceptable tribunal for adjusting thedifferences between capital and labor. 

This is the hour of test and trial for America. By her prowess andstrength, and the indomitable courage of her soldiers, she demonstrated herpower to vindicate on foreign battlefields her conceptions of liberty andjustice. Let not her influence as a mediator between capital and labor beweakened and her own failure to settle matters of purely domestic concernbe proclaimed to the world. There are those in this country who threatendirect action to force their will, upon a majority. Russia today, with itsblood and terror, is a painful object lesson of the power of minorities. Itmakes little difference what minority it is; whether capital or labor, orany other class; no sort of privilege will ever be permitted to dominatethis country. We are a partnership or nothing that is worth while. We are ademocracy, where the majority are the masters, or all the hopes andpurposes of the men who founded this government have been defeated andforgotten. In America there is but one way by which great reforms can beaccomplished and the relief sought by classes obtained, and that is throughthe orderly processes of representative government. Those who would proposeany other method of reform are enemies of this country. America will not bedaunted by threats nor lose her composure or calmness in these distressingtimes. We can afford, in the midst of this day of passion and unrest, to beself-contained and sure. The instrument of all reform in America is theballot. The road to economic and social reform in America is the straightroad of justice to all classes and conditions of men. Men have but tofollow this road to realize the full fruition of their objects andpurposes. Let those beware who would take the shorter road of disorder andrevolution. The right road is the road of justice and orderly process. 

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State of the Union AddressWoodrow WilsonDecember 7, 1920

GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS:

When I addressed myself to performing the duty laid upon the President bythe Constitution to present to you an annual report on the state of theUnion, I found my thought dominated by an immortal sentence of AbrahamLincoln's--"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith letus dare to do our duty as we understand it"--a sentence immortal because itembodies in a form of utter simplicity and purity the essential faith ofthe nation, the faith in which it was conceived, and the faith in which ithas grown to glory and power. With that faith and the birth of a nationfounded upon it came the hope into the world that a new order would prevailthroughout the affairs of mankind, an order in which reason and right wouldtake precedence over covetousness and force; and I believe that I expressthe wish and purpose of every thoughtful American when I say that thissentence marks for us in the plainest manner the part we should play alikein the arrangement of our domestic affairs and in our exercise of influenceupon the affairs of the world. 

By this faith, and by this faith alone, can the world be lifted out of itspresent confusion and despair. It was this faith which prevailed over thewicked force of Germany. You will remember that the beginning of the end ofthe war came when the German people found themselves face to face with theconscience of the world and realized that right was everywhere arrayedagainst the wrong that their government was attempting to perpetrate. Ithink, therefore, that it is true to say that this was the faith which wonthe war. Certainly this is the faith with which our gallant men went intothe field and out upon the seas to make sure of victory. 

This is the mission upon which Democracy came into the world. Democracy isan assertion of the right of the individual to live and to be treatedjustly as against any attempt on the part of any combination of individualsto make laws which will overburden him or which will destroy his equalityamong his fellows in the matter of right or privilege; and I think we allrealize that the day has come when Democracy is being put upon its finaltest. The Old World is just now suffering from a wanton rejection of theprinciple of democracy and a substitution of the principle of autocracy asasserted in the name, but without the authority and sanction, of themultitude. This is the time of all others when Democracy should prove itspurity and its spiritual power to prevail. It is surely the manifestdestiny of the United States to lead in the attempt to make this spiritprevail. 

There are two ways in which the United States can assist to accomplish thisgreat object. First, by offering the example within her own borders of thewill and power of Democracy to make and enforce laws which areunquestionably just and which are equal in their administration-laws whichsecure its full right to Labor and yet at the same time safeguard theintegrity of property, and particularly of that property which is devotedto the development of industry and the increase of the necessary wealth ofthe world. Second, by standing for right and justice as toward individualnations. The law of Democracy is for the protection of the weak, and theinfluence of every democracy in the world should be for the protection ofthe weak nation, the nation which is struggling toward its right and towardits proper recognition and privilege in the family of nations. 

The United States cannot refuse this role of champion without putting thestigma of rejection upon the great and devoted men who brought itsgovernment into existence and established it in the face of almostuniversal opposition and intrigue, even in the face of wanton force, as, for example, against the Orders in Council of Great Britain and thearbitrary Napoleonic decrees which involved us in what we know as the Warof 1812. 

I urge you to consider that the display of an immediate disposition on thepart of the Congress to remedy any injustices or evils that may have shownthemselves in our own national life will afford the most effectual offsetto the forces of chaos and tyranny which are playing so disastrous a partin the fortunes of the free peoples of more than one part of the world. TheUnited States is of necessity the sample democracy of the world, and thetriumph of Democracy depends upon its success. 

Recovery from the disturbing and sometimes disastrous effects of the latewar has been exceedingly slow on the other side of the water, and has givenpromise, I venture-to say, of early completion only in our own fortunatecountry; but even with us the recovery halts and is impeded at times, andthere are immediately serviceable acts of legislation which it seems to mewe ought to attempt, to assist that recovery and prove the indestructiblerecuperative force of a great government of the people. One of these is toprove that a great democracy can keep house as successfully and in asbusiness-like a fashion as any other government. It seems to me that thefirst step toward providing this is to supply ourselves with a systematicmethod of handling our estimates and expenditures and bringing them to thepoint where they will not be an unnecessary strain upon our income ornecessitate unreasonable taxation; in other words, a workable budgetsystem. And I respectfully suggest that two elements are essential to sucha system-namely, not only that the proposal of appropriations should be inthe hands of a single body, such as a single appropriations committee ineach house of the Congress, but also that this body should be brought intosuch cooperation with the Departments of the Government and with theTreasury of the United States as would enable it to act upon a completeconspectus of the needs of the Government and the resources from which itmust draw its income. 

I reluctantly vetoed the budget bill passed by the last session of theCongress because of a constitutional objection. The House ofRepresentatives subsequently modified the bill in order to meet thisobjection. In the revised form, I believe that the bill, coupled withaction already taken by the Congress to revise its rules and procedure, furnishes the foundation for an effective national budget system. Iearnestly hope, therefore, that one of the first steps to be taken by thepresent session of the Congress will be to pass the budget bill. 

The nation's finances have shown marked improvement during the last year. The total ordinary receipts of $6, 694, 000, 000 for the fiscal year 1920exceeded those for 1919 by $1, 542, 000, 000, while the total net ordinaryexpenditures decreased from $18, 514, 000, 000 to $6, 403, 000, 000. The grosspublic debt, which reached its highest point on August 31, 1919, when itwas $26, 596, 000, 000, had dropped on November 30, 1920, to $24, 175, 000, 000. 

There has also been a marked decrease in holdings of government warsecurities by the banking institutions of the country, as well as in theamount of bills held by the Federal Reserve Banks secured by government warobligations. This fortunate result has relieved the banks and left themfreer to finance the needs of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce. It hasbeen due in large part to the reduction of the public debt, especially ofthe floating debt, but more particularly to the improved distribution ofgovernment securities among permanent investors. The cessation of theGovernment's borrowings, except through short-term certificates ofindebtedness, has been a matter of great consequence to the people of thecountry at large, as well as to the holders of Liberty Bonds and VictoryNotes, and has had an important bearing on the matter of effective creditcontrol. 

The year has been characterized by the progressive withdrawal of theTreasury from the domestic credit market and from a position of dominantinfluence in that market. The future course will necessarily depend uponthe extent to which economies are practiced and upon the burdens placedupon the Treasury, as well as upon industrial developments and themaintenance of tax receipts at a sufficiently high level. The fundamentalfact which at present dominates the Government's financial situation isthat seven and a half billions of its war indebtedness mature within thenext two and a half years. Of this amount, two and a half billions arefloating debt and five billions, Victory Notes and War. SavingsCertificates. The fiscal program of the Government must be determined withreference to these maturities. Sound policy demands that Governmentexpenditures be reduced to the lowest amount which will permit the variousservices to operate efficiently and that Government receipts from taxes andsalvage be maintained sufficiently high to provide for currentrequirements, including interest and sinking fund charges on the publicdebt, and at the same time retire the floating debt and part of the VictoryLoan before maturity. 

With rigid economy, vigorous salvage operations, and adequate revenues fromtaxation, a surplus of current receipts over current expenditures can berealized and should be applied to the floating debt. All branches of theGovernment should cooperate to see that this program is realized. I cannotoveremphasize the necessity of economy in Government appropriations andexpenditures and the avoidance by the Congress of practices which takemoney from the Treasury by indefinite or revolving fund appropriations. Theestimates for the present year show that over a billion dollars ofexpenditures were authorized by the last Congress in addition to theamounts shown in the usual compiled statements of appropriations. Thisstrikingly illustrates the importance of making direct and specificappropriations. The relation between the current receipts and currentexpenditures of the Government during the present fiscal year, as well asduring the last half of the last fiscal year, has been disturbed by theextraordinary burdens thrown upon the Treasury by the Transportation Act, in connection with the return of the railroads to private control. Over$600, 000, 000 has already been paid to the railroads under thisact-$350, 000, 000 during the present fiscal year; and it is estimated thatfurther payments aggregating possibly $650, 000, 000 must still be made tothe railroads during the current year. It is obvious that these largepayments have already seriously limited the Government's progress inretiring the floating debt. 

Closely connected with this, it seems to me, is the necessity for animmediate consideration of the revision of our tax laws. Simplification ofthe income and profits taxes has become an immediate necessity. These taxesperformed an indispensable service during the war. The need for theirsimplification, however, is very great, in order to save the taxpayerinconvenience and expense and in order to make his liability more certainand definite. Other and more detailed recommendations with regard to taxeswill no doubt be laid before you by the Secretary of the Treasury and theCommissioner of Internal Revenue. 

It is my privilege to draw to the attention of Congress for verysympathetic consideration the problem of providing adequate facilities forthe care and treatment of former members of the military and naval forceswho are sick and disabled as the result of their participation in the war. These heroic men can never be paid in money for the service theypatriotically rendered the nation. Their reward will lie rather inrealization of the fact that they vindicated the rights of their countryand aided in safeguarding civilization. The nation's gratitude must beeffectively revealed to them by the most ample provision for their medicalcare and treatment as well as for their vocational training and placement. The time has come when a more complete program can be formulated and moresatisfactorily administered for their treatment and training, and Iearnestly urge that the Congress give the matter its early consideration. The Secretary of the Treasury and the Board for Vocational Education willoutline in their annual reports proposals covering medical care andrehabilitation which I am sure will engage your earnest study and commendyour most generous support. 

Permit me to emphasize once more the need for action upon certain mattersupon which I dwelt at some length in my message to the second session ofthe Sixty-sixth Congress. The necessity, for example, of encouraging themanufacture of dyestuffs and related chemicals; the importance of doingeverything possible to promote agricultural production along economiclines, to improve agricultural marketing, and to make rural life moreattractive and healthful; the need for a law regulating cold storage insuch a way as to limit the time during which goods may be kept in storage, prescribing the method of disposing of them if kept beyond the permittedperiod, and requiring goods released from storage in all cases to bear thedate of their receipt. It would also be most serviceable if it wereprovided that all goods released from cold storage for interstate shipmentshould have plainly marked upon each package the selling or market price atwhich they went into storage, in order that the purchaser might be able tolearn what profits stood between him and the producer or the wholesaledealer. Indeed, It would be very serviceable to the public if all goodsdestined for interstate commerce were made to carry upon every packing casewhose form made it possible a plain statement of the price at which theyleft the hands of the producer. I respectfully call your attention also tothe recommendations of the message referred to with regard to a federallicense for all corporations engaged in interstate commerce. 

In brief, the immediate legislative need of the time is the removal of allobstacles to the realization of the best ambitions of our people in theirseveral classes of employment and the strengthening of allinstrumentalities by. Which difficulties are to be met and removed andjustice dealt out, whether by law or by some form of mediation andconciliation. I do not feel it to be my privilege at present to, suggestthe detailed and particular methods by which these objects may be attained, but I have faith that the inquiries of your several committees willdiscover the way and the method. 

In response to what I believe to be the impulse of sympathy and opinionthroughout the United States, I earnestly suggest that the Congressauthorize the Treasury of the United States to make to the strugglinggovernment of Armenia such a loan as was made to several of the Alliedgovernments during the war, and I would also suggest that it would bedesirable to provide in the legislation itself that the expenditure of themoney thus loaned should be under the supervision of a commission, or atleast a commissioner, from the United States in order that revolutionarytendencies within Armenia itself might not be afforded by the loan afurther tempting opportunity. 

Allow me to call your attention to the fact that the people of thePhilippine Islands have succeeded in maintaining a stable government sincethe last action of the Congress in their behalf, and have thus fulfilledthe condition set by the Congress as precedent to a consideration ofgranting independence to the Islands. I respectfully submit that thiscondition precedent having been fulfilled, it is now our liberty and ourduty to keep our promise to the people of those islands by granting themthe independence which they so honorably covet. 

I have not so much laid before you a series of recommendations, gentlemen, as sought to utter a confession of faith, of the faith in which I was bredand which it is my solemn purpose to stand by until my last fighting day. Ibelieve this to be the faith of America, the faith of the future, and ofall the victories which await national action in the days to come, whetherin America or elsewhere.