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diff --git a/old/suwil10.txt b/old/suwil10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed1d23e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/suwil10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3560 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of State of the Union Addresses +by Woodrow Wilson +(#25 in our series of US Presidential State of the Union Addresses) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: State of the Union Addresses of Woodrow Wilson + +Author: Woodrow Wilson + +Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5034] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 11, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF ADDRESSES BY WOODROW WILSON *** + + + + +This eBook was produced by James Linden. + +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 + + + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Woodrow Wilson +December 2, 1913 + +Gentlemen of the Congress: + +In pursuance of my constitutional duty to "give to the Congress information +of the state of the Union," I take the liberty of addressing you on several +matters which ought, as it seems to me, particularly to engage the +attention of your honorable bodies, as of all who study the welfare and +progress of the Nation. + +I shall ask your indulgence if I venture to depart in some degree from the +usual custom of setting before you in formal review the many matters which +have engaged the attention and called for tile action of the several +departments of the Government or which look to them for early treatment in +the future, because the list is long, very long, and would suffer in the +abbreviation to which I should have to subject it. I shall submit to you +the reports of the heads of the several departments, in which these +subjects are set forth in careful detail, and beg that they may receive the +thoughtful attention of your committees and of all Members of the Congress +who may have the leisure to study them. Their obvious importance, as +constituting the very substance of the business of the Government, makes +comment and emphasis on my part unnecessary. + +The country, I am thankful to say, is at peace with all the world, and many +happy manifestations multiply about us of a growing cordiality and sense of +community of interest among the nations, foreshadowing an age of settled +peace and good will. More and more readily each decade do the nations +manifest their willingness to bind themselves by solemn treaty to the +processes of peace, the processes of frankness and fair concession. So far +the United States has stood at the front of such negotiations. She will, I +earnestly hope and confidently believe, give fresh proof of her sincere +adherence to the cause of international friendship by ratifying the several +treaties of arbitration awaiting renewal by the Senate. In addition to +these, it has been the privilege of the Department of State to gain the +assent, in principle, of no less than 31 nations, representing four-fifths +of the population of the world, to the negotiation of treaties by which it +shall be agreed that whenever differences of interest or of policy arise +which can not be resolved by the ordinary processes of diplomacy they shall +be publicly analyzed, discussed, and reported upon by a tribunal chosen by +the parties before either nation determines its course of action. + +There is only one possible standard by which to determine controversies +between the United States and other nations, and that is com- pounded of +these two elements: Our own honor and our obligations to the peace of the +world. A test so compounded ought easily to be made to govern both the +establishment of new treaty obligations and the interpretation of those +already assumed. + +There is but one cloud upon our horizon. That has shown itself to the south +of us, and hangs over Mexico. There can be no certain prospect of peace in +America until Gen. Huerta has surrendered his usurped authority in Mexico; +until it is understood on all hands, indeed, that such pretended +governments will not be countenanced or dealt with by-the Government of the +United States. We are the friends of constitutional government in America; +we are more than its friends, we are its champions; because in no other way +can our neighbors, to whom we would wish in every way to make proof of our +friendship, work out their own development in peace and liberty. Mexico has +no Government. The attempt to maintain one at the City of Mexico has broken +down, and a mere military despotism has been set up which has hardly more +than the semblance of national authority. It originated in the usurpation +of Victoriano Huerta, who, after a brief attempt to play the part of +constitutional President, has at last cast aside even the pretense of legal +right and declared himself dictator. As a consequence, a condition of +affairs now exists in Mexico which has made it doubtful whether even the +most elementary and fundamental rights either of her own people or of the +citizens of other countries resident within her territory can long be +successfully safeguarded, and which threatens, if long continued, to +imperil the interests of peace, order, and tolerable life in the lands +immediately to the south of us. Even if the usurper had succeeded in his +purposes, in despite of the constitution of the Republic and the rights of +its people, he would have set up nothing but a precarious and hateful +power, which could have lasted but a little while, and whose eventual +downfall would have left the country in a more deplorable condition than +ever. But he has not succeeded. He has forfeited the respect and the moral +support even of those who were at one time willing to see him succeed. +Little by little he has been completely isolated. By a little every day his +power and prestige are crumbling and the collapse is not far away. We shall +not, 1 believe, be obliged to alter our policy of watchful waiting. And +then, when the end comes, we shall hope to see constitutional order +restored in distressed Mexico by the concert and energy of such of her +leaders as prefer the liberty of their people to their own ambitions. + +I turn to matters of domestic concern. You already have under consideration +a bill for the reform of our system of banking and currency, for which the +country waits with impatience, as for something fundamental to its whole +business life and necessary to set credit free from arbitrary and +artificial restraints. I need not say how earnestly I hope for its early +enactment into law. I take leave to beg that the whole energy and attention +of the Senate be concentrated upon it till the matter is successfully +disposed of. And yet I feel that the request is not needed-that the Members +of that great House need no urging in this service to the country. + +I present to you, in addition, the urgent necessity that special provision +be made also for facilitating the credits needed by the farmers of the +country. The pending currency bill does the farmers a great service. It +puts them upon an equal footinig with other business men and masters of +enterprise, as it should; and upon its passage they will find themselves +quit of many of the difficulties which now hamper them in the field of +credit. The farmers, of course, ask and should be given no special +privilege, such as extending to them the credit of the Government itself. +What they need and should obtain is legislation which will make their own +abundant and substantial credit resources available as a foundation for +joint, concerted local action in their own behalf in getting the capital +they must use. It is to this we should now address ourselves. + +It has, singularly enough, come to pass that we have allowed the industry +of our farms to lag behind the other activities of the country in its +development. I need not stop to tell you how fundamental to the life of the +Nation is the production of its food. Our thoughts may ordinarily be +concentrated upon the cities and the hives of industry, upon the cries of +the crowded market place and the clangor of the factory, but it is from the +quiet interspaces of the open valleys and the free hillsides that we draw +the sources of life and of prosperity, from the farm and the ranch, from +the forest and the mine. Without these every street would be silent, every +office deserted, every factory fallen into disrepair. And yet the farmer +does not stand upon the same footing with the forester and the miner in the +market of credit. He is the servant of the seasons. Nature determines how +long he must wait for his crops, and will not be hurried in her processes. +He may give his note, but the season of its maturity depends upon the +season when his crop matures, lies at the gates of the market where his +products are sold. And the security he gives is of a character not known in +the broker's office or as familiarly as it might be on the counter of the +banker. + +The Agricultural Department of the Government is seeking to assist as never +before to make farming an efficient business, of wide co-operative effort, +in quick touch with the markets for foodstuffs. The farmers and the +Government will henceforth work together as real partners in this field, +where we now begin to see our way very clearly and where many intelligent +plans are already being put into execution. The Treasury of the United +States has, by a timely and well-considered distribution of its deposits, +facilitated the moving of the crops in the present season and prevented the +scarcity of available funds too often experienced at such times. But we +must not allow ourselves to depend upon extraordinary expedients. We must +add the means by which the, farmer may make his credit constantly and +easily available and command when he will the capital by which to support +and expand his business. We lag behind many other great countries of the +modern world in attempting to do this. Systems of rural credit have been +studied and developed on the other side of the water while we left our +farmers to shift for themselves in the ordinary money market. You have but +to look about you in any rural district to see the result, the handicap and +embarrassment which nave been put upon those who produce our food. + +Conscious of this backwardness and neglect on our part, the Congress +recently authorized the creation of a special commission to study the +various systems of rural credit which have been put into operation in +Europe, and this commission is already prepared to report. Its report ought +to make it easier for us to determine what methods will be best suited to +our own farmers. I hope and believe that the committees of the Senate and +House will address themselves to this matter with the most fruitful +results, and I believe that the studies and recently formed plans of the +Department of Agriculture may be made to serve them very greatly in their +work of framing appropriate and adequate legislation. It would be +indiscreet and presumptuous in anyone to dogmatize upon so great and +many-sided a question, but I feel confident that common counsel will +produce the results we must all desire. + +Turn from the farm to the world of business which centers in the city and +in the factory, and I think that all thoughtful observers will agree that +the immediate service we owe the business communities of the country is to +prevent private monopoly more effectually than it has yet been prevented. I +think it will be easily agreed that we should let the Sherman anti-trust +law stand, unaltered, as it is, with its debatable ground about it, but +that we should as much as possible reduce the area of that debatable ground +by further and more explicit legislation; and should also supplement that +great act by legislation which will not only clarify it but also facilitate +its administration and make it fairer to all concerned. No doubt we shall +all wish, and the country will expect, this to be the central subject of +our deliberations during the present session; but it is a subject so +manysided and so deserving of careful and discriminating discussion that 1 +shall take the liberty of addressing you upon it in a special message at a +later date than this. It is of capital importance that the business men of +this country should be relieved of all uncertainties of law with regard to +their enterprises and investments and a clear path indicated which they can +travel without anxiety. It is as important that they should be relieved of +embarrassment and set free to prosper as that private monopoly should be +destroyed. The ways of action should be thrown wide open. + +I turn to a subject which I hope can be handled promptly and without +serious controversy of any kind. I mean the method of selecting nominees +for the Presidency of the United States. I feel confident that I do not +misinterpret the wishes or the expectations of the country when I urge the +prompt enactment of legislation which will provide for primary elections +throughout the country at which the voters of the several parties may +choose their nominees for the Presidency without the intervention of +nominating conventions. I venture the suggestion that this legislation +should provide for the retention of party conventions, but only for the +purpose of declaring and accepting the verdict of the primaries and +formulating the platforms of the parties; and I suggest that these +conventions should consist not of delegates chosen for this single purpose, +but of the nominees for Congress, the nominees for vacant seats in the +Senate of the United States, the Senators whose terms have not yet closed, +the national committees, and the candidates for the Presidency themselves, +in order that platforms may be framed by those responsible to the people +for carrying them into effect. + +These are all matters of vital domestic concern, and besides them, outside +the charmed circle of our own national life in which our affections command +us, as well as our consciences, there stand out our obligations toward our +territories over sea. Here we are trustees. Porto Rico, Hawaii, the +Philippines, are ours, indeed, but not ours to do what we please with. Such +territories, once regarded as mere possessions, are no longer to be +selfishly exploited; they are part of the domain of public conscience and +of serviceable and enlightened statesmanship. We must administer them for +the people who live in them and with the same sense of responsibility to +them as toward our own people in our domestic affairs. No doubt we shall +successfully enough bind Porto Rico and the Hawaiian Islands to ourselves +by ties of justice and interest and affection, but the performance of our +duty toward the Philippines is a more difficult and debatable matter. We +can satisfy the obligations of generous justice toward the people of Porto +Rico by giving them the ample and familiar rights and privileges accorded +our own citizens in our own territories and our obligations toward the +people of Hawaii by perfecting the provisions for self-government already +granted them, but in the Philippines we must go further. We must hold +steadily in view their ultimate independence, and we must move toward the +time of that independence as steadily as the way can be cleared and the +foundations thoughtfully and permanently laid. + +Acting under the authority conferred upon the President by Congress, I have +already accorded the people of the islands a majority in both houses of +their legislative body by appointing five instead of four native citizens +to the membership of the commission. I believe that in this way we shall +make proof of their capacity in counsel and their sense of responsibility +in the exercise of political power, and that the success of this step will +be sure to clear our view for the steps which are to follow. Step by step +we should extend and perfect the system of self-government in the islands, +making test of them and modifying them as experience discloses their +successes and their failures; that we should more and more put under the +control of the native citizens of the archipelago the essential instruments +of their life, their local instrumentalities of government, their schools, +all the common interests of their communities, and so by counsel and +experience set tip a government which all the world will see to be suitable +to a people whose affairs are under their own control. At last, I hope and +believe, we are beginning to gain the confidence of the Filipino peoples. +By their counsel and experience, rather than by our own, we shall learn how +best to serve them and how soon it will be possible and wise to withdraw +our supervision. Let us once find the path and set out with firm and +confident 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 and +very imperative; perhaps I should say a double duty, for it concerns both +the political and the material development of the Territory. The people of +Alaska 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 and +terminals it should itself control in the interest of all who wish to use +them for the service and development of the country and its people. + +But the construction of railways is only the first step; is only thrusting +in the key to the storehouse and throwing back the lock and opening the +door. How the tempting resources of the country are to be exploited is +another matter, to which I shall take the liberty of from time to time +calling your attention, for it is a policy which must be worked out by +well-considered stages, not upon theory, but upon lines of practical +expediency. It is part of our general problem of conservation. We have a +freer hand in working out the problem in Alaska than in the States of the +Union; and yet the principle and object are the same, wherever we touch it. +We must use the resources of the country, not lock them up. There need be +no conflict or jealousy as between State and Federal authorities, for there +can be no essential difference of purpose between them. The resources in +question must be used, but not destroyed or wasted; used, but not +monopolized upon any narrow idea of individual rights as against the +abiding interests of communities. That a policy can be worked out by +conference and concession which will release these resources and yet not +jeopard or dissipate them, I for one have no doubt; and it can be done on +lines of regulation which need be no less acceptable to the people and +governments of the States concerned than to the people and Government of +the Nation at large, whose heritage these resources are. We must bend our +counsels to this end. A common purpose ought to make agreement easy. + +Three or four matters of special importance and significance I beg, that +you will permit me to mention in closing. + +Our Bureau of Mines ought to be equipped and empowered to render even more +effectual service than it renders now in improving the conditions of mine +labor and making the mines more economically productive as well as more +safe. This is an all-important part of the work of conservation; and the +conservation of human life and energy lies even nearer to our interests +than the preservation from waste of our material resources. + +We owe it, in mere justice to the railway employees of the country, to +provide for them a fair and effective employers' liability act; and a law +that we can stand by in this matter will be no less to the advantage of +those who administer the railroads of the country than to the advantage of +those whom they employ. The experience of a large number of the States +abundantly proves that. + +We ought to devote ourselves to meeting pressing demands of plain justice +like this as earnestly as to the accomplishment of political and economic +reforms. Social justice comes first. Law is the machinery for its +realization and is vital only as it expresses and embodies it. + +An international congress for the discussion of all questions that affect +safety at sea is now sitting in London at the suggestion of our own +Government. So soon as the conclusions of that congress can be learned and +considered we ought to address ourselves, among other things, to the prompt +alleviation of the very unsafe, unjust, and burdensome conditions which now +surround the employment of sailors and render it extremely difficult to +obtain the services of spirited and competent men such as every ship needs +if it is to be safely handled and brought to port. + +May I not express the very real pleas-are I have experienced in +co-operating with this Congress and sharing with it the labors of common +service to which it has devoted itself so unreservedly during the past +seven months of uncomplaining concentration upon the business of +legislation? Surely it is a proper and pertinent part of my report on "the +state of the Union" to express my admiration for the diligence, the good +temper, and the full comprehension of public duty which has already been +manifested by both the Houses; and I hope that it may not be deemed an +impertinent intrusion of myself into the picture if I say with how much and +how constant satisfaction I have availed myself of the privilege of putting +my time and energy at their disposal alike in counsel and in action. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Woodrow Wilson +December 8, 1914 + +GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS: + +The session upon which you are now entering will be the closing session of +the Sixty-third Congress, a Congress, I venture to say, which will long be +remembered for the great body of thoughtful and constructive work which it +has done, in loyal response to the thought and needs of the country. I +should like in this address to review the notable record and try to make +adequate assessment of it; but no doubt we stand too near the work that has +been done and are ourselves too much part of it to play the part of +historians toward it. + +Our program of legislation with regard to the regulation of business is now +virtually complete. It has been put forth, as we intended, as a whole, and +leaves no conjecture as to what is to follow. The road at last lies clear +and firm before business. It is a road which it can travel without fear or +embarrassment. It is the road to ungrudged, unclouded success. In it every +honest man, every man who believes that the public interest is part of his +own interest, may walk with perfect confidence. + +Moreover, our thoughts are now more of the future than of the past. While +we have worked at our tasks of peace the circumstances of the whole age +have been altered by war. What we have done for our own land and our own +people we did with the best that was in us, whether of character or of +intelligence, with sober enthusiasm and a confidence in the principles upon +which we were acting which sustained us at every step of the difficult +undertaking; but it is done. It has passed from our hands. It is now an +established part of the legislation of the country. Its usefulness, its +effects will disclose themselves in experience. What chiefly strikes us +now, as we look about us during these closing days of a year which will be +forever memorable in the history of the world, is that we face new tasks, +have been facing them these six months, must face them in the months to +come,-face them without partisan feeling, like men who have forgotten +everything but a common duty and the fact that we are representatives of a +great people whose thought is not of us but of what America owes to herself +and to all mankind in such circumstances as these upon which we look amazed +and anxious. + +War has interrupted the means of trade not only but also the processes of +production. In Europe it is destroying men and resources wholesale and upon +a scale unprecedented and appalling, There is reason to fear that the time +is near, if it be not already at hand, when several of the countries of +Europe will find it difficult to do for their people what they have +hitherto been always easily able to do,--many essential and fundamental +things. At any rate, they will need our help and our manifold services as +they have never needed them before; and we should be ready, more fit and +ready than we have ever been. + +It is of equal consequence that the nations whom Europe has usually +supplied with innumerable articles of manufacture and commerce of which +they are in constant need and without which their economic development +halts and stands still can now get only a small part of what they formerly +imported and eagerly look to us to supply their all but empty markets. This +is particularly true of our own neighbors, the States, great and small, of +Central and South America. Their lines of trade have hitherto run chiefly +athwart the seas, not to our ports but to the ports of Great Britain and of +the older continent of Europe. I do not stop to inquire why, or to make any +comment on probable causes. What interests us just now is not the +explanation but the fact, and our duty and opportunity in the presence of +it. Here are markets which we must supply, and we must find the means of +action. The United States, this great people for whom we speak and act, +should be ready, as never before, to serve itself and to serve mankind; +ready with its resources, its energies, its forces of production, and its +means of distribution. + +It is a very practical matter, a matter of ways and means. We have the +resources, but are we fully ready to use them? And, if we can make ready +what we have, have we the means at hand to distribute it? We are not fully +ready; neither have we the means of distribution. We are willing, but we +are not fully able. We have the wish to serve and to serve greatly, +generously; but we are not prepared as we should be. We are not ready to +mobilize our resources at once. We are not prepared to use them immediately +and at their best, without delay and without waste. + +To speak plainly, we have grossly erred in the way in which we have stunted +and hindered the development of our merchant marine. And now, when we need +ships, we have not got them. We have year after year debated, without end +or conclusion, the best policy to pursue with regard to the use of the ores +and forests and water powers of our national domain in the rich States of +the West, when we should have acted; and they are still locked up. The key +is still turned upon them, the door shut fast at which thousands of +vigorous men, full of initiative, knock clamorously for admittance. The +water power of our navigable streams outside the national domain also, even +in the eastern States, where we have worked and planned for generations, is +still not used as it might be, because we will and we won't; because the +laws we have made do not intelligently balance encouragement against +restraint. 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 have +done all the work that could reasonably be expected of it. The time and the +circumstances are extraordinary, and so must our efforts be also. + +Fortunately, two great measures, finely conceived, the one to unlock, with +proper safeguards, the resources of the national domain, the other to +encourage the use of the navigable waters outside that domain for the +generation of power, have already passed the House of Representatives and +are ready for immediate consideration and action by the Senate. With the +deepest earnestness I urge their prompt passage. In them both we turn our +backs upon hesitation and makeshift and formulate a genuine policy of use +and conservation, in the best sense of those words. We owe the one measure +not only to the people of that great western country for whose free and +systematic development, as it seems to me, our legislation has done so +little, but also to the people of the Nation as a whole; and we as clearly +owe the other fulfillment of our repeated promises that the water power of +the country should in fact as well as in name be put at the disposal of +great industries which can make economical and profitable use of it, the +rights of the public being adequately guarded the while, and monopoly in +the use prevented. To have begun such measures and not completed them would +indeed mar the record of this great Congress very seriously. I hope and +confidently believe that they will be completed. + +And there is another great piece of legislation which awaits and should +receive the sanction of the Senate: I mean the bill which gives a larger +measure of self-government to the people of the Philippines. How better, in +this time of anxious questioning and perplexed policy, could we show our +confidence in the principles of liberty, as the source as well as the +expression of life, how better could we demonstrate our own self-possession +and steadfastness in the courses of justice and disinterestedness than by +thus going calmly forward to fulfill our promises to a dependent people, +who will now look more anxiously than ever to see whether we have indeed +the liberality, the unselfishness, the courage, the faith we have boasted +and professed. I can not believe that the Senate will let this great +measure of constructive justice await the action of another Congress. Its +passage would nobly crown the record of these two years of memorable +labor. + +But I think that you will agree with me that this does not complete the +toll of our duty. How are we to carry our goods to the empty markets of +which I have spoken if we have not the ships? How are we to build tip a +great trade if we have not the certain and con,;tpnt means of +transportation upon which all profitable and useful commerce depends? And +how are we to get the ships if we wait for the trade to develop without +them? To correct the many mistakes by which we have discouraged and all but +destroyed the merchant marine of the country, to retrace the steps by which +we 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 some +wandering yacht displays it, would take a long time and involve many +detailed items of legislation, and tile trade which we ought immediately to +handle would disappear or find other channels while we debated the items. + +The case is not unlike that which confronted us when our own continent was +to be opened up to settlement and industry, and we needed long lines of +railway, extended means of transportation prepared beforehand, if +development was not to lag intolerably and wait interminably. We lavishly +subsidized the building of transcontinental railroads. We look back upon +that with regret now, because the subsidies led to many scandals of which +we are ashamed; but we know that the railroads had to be built, and if we +had it to do over again we should of course build them, but in another way. +Therefore I propose another way of providing the means of transportation, +which must precede, not tardily follow, the development of our trade with +our neighbor states of America. It may seem a reversal of the natural order +of things, but it is true, that the routes of trade must be actually +opened-by many ships and regular sailings and moderate charges-before +streams of merchandise will flow freely and profitably through them. + +Hence the pending shipping bill, discussed at the last session but as yet +passed by neither House. In my judgment such legislation is imperatively +needed and can not wisely be postponed. The Government must open these +gates of trade, and open them wide; open them before it is altogether +profitable to open them, or altogether reasonable to ask private capital to +open them at a venture. It is not a question of the Government monopolizing +the field. It should take action to make it certain that transportation at +reasonable rates will be promptly provided, even where the carriage is not +at first profitable; and then, when the carriage has become sufficiently +profitable to attract and engage private capital, and engage it in +abundance, the Government ought to withdraw. I very earnestly hope that the +Congress will be of this opinion, and that both Houses will adopt this +exceedingly important bill. + +The great subject of rural credits still remains to be dealt with, and it +is a matter of deep regret that the difficulties of the subject have seemed +to render it impossible to complete a bill for passage at this session. But +it can not be perfected yet, and therefore there are no other constructive +measures the necessity for which I will at this time call your attention +to; but I would be negligent of a very manifest duty were I not to call the +attention of the Senate to the fact that the proposed convention for safety +at sea awaits its confirmation and that the limit fixed in the convention +itself for its acceptance is the last day of the present month. The +conference in which this convention originated was called by the United +States; the representatives of the United States played a very influential +part indeed in framing the provisions of the proposed convention; and those +provisions are in themselves for the most part admirable. It would hardly +be consistent with the part we have played in the whole matter to let it +drop and go by the board as if forgotten and neglected. It was ratified in +May by the German Government and in August by the Parliament of Great +Britain. It marks a most hopeful and decided advance in international +civilization. We should show our earnest good faith in a great matter by +adding our own acceptance of it. + +There is another matter of which I must make special mention, if I am to +discharge my conscience, lest it should escape your attention. It may seem +a very small thing. It affects only a single item of appropriation. But +many human lives and many great enterprises hang upon it. It is the matter +of making adequate provision for the survey and charting of our coasts. It +is immediately pressing and exigent in connection with the immense coast +line of Alaska, a coast line greater than that of the United States +themselves, though it is also very important indeed with regard to the +older coasts of the continent. We can not use our great Alaskan domain, +ships will not ply thither, if those coasts and their many hidden dangers +are not thoroughly surveyed and charted. The work is incomplete at almost +every point. Ships and lives have been lost in threading what were supposed +to be well-known main channels. We have not provided adequate vessels or +adequate machinery for the survey and charting. We have used old vessels +that were not big enough or strong enough and which were so nearly +unseaworthy that our inspectors would not have allowed private owners to +send them to sea. This is a matter which, as I have said, seems small, but +is in reality very great. Its importance has only to be looked into to be +appreciated. + +Before I close may I say a few words upon two topics, much discussed out of +doors, 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 is +not debatable. It is manifest and imperative. In the appropriations we pass +we are spending the money of the great people whose servants we are,-not +our own. We are trustees and responsible stewards in the spending. The only +thing debatable and upon which we should be careful to make our thought and +purpose clear is the kind of economy demanded of us. I assert with the +greatest confidence that the people of the United States are not jealous of +the amount their Government costs if they are sure that they get what they +need and desire for the outlay, that the money is being spent for objects +of which they approve, and that it is being applied with good business +sense and management. + +Governments grow, piecemeal, both in their tasks and in the means by which +those tasks are to be performed, and very few Governments are organized, I +venture to say, as wise and experienced business men would organize them if +they had a clean sheet of paper to write upon. Certainly the Government of +the United States is not. I think that it is generally agreed that there +should be a systematic reorganization and reassembling of its parts so as +to secure greater efficiency and effect considerable savings in expense. +But the amount of money saved in that way would, I believe, though no doubt +considerable in itself, running, it may be, into the millions, be +relatively small,-small, I mean, in proportion to the total necessary +outlays of the Government. It would be thoroughly worth effecting, as every +saving would, great or small. Our duty is not altered by the scale of the +saving. But my point is that the people of the United States do not wish to +curtail the activities of this Government; they wish, rather, to enlarge +them; and with every enlargement, with the mere growth, indeed, of the +country itself, there must come, of course, the inevitable increase of +expense. The sort of economy we ought to practice may be effected, and +ought to be effected, by a careful study and assessment of the tasks to be +performed; and the money spent ought to be made to yield the best possible +returns in efficiency and achievement. And, like good stewards, we should +so account for every dollar of our appropriations as to make it perfectly +evident what it was spent for and in what way it was spent. + +It is not expenditure but extravagance that we should fear being criticized +for; not paying for the legitimate enterprise and undertakings of a great +Government whose people command what it should do, but adding what will +benefit only a few or pouring money out for what need not have been +undertaken at all or might have been postponed or better and more +economically conceived and carried out. The Nation is not niggardly; it is +very generous. It will chide us only if we forget for whom we pay money out +and whose money it is we pay. These are large and general standards, but +they are not very difficult of application to particular cases. + +The other topic I shall take leave to mention goes deeper into the +principles of our national life and policy. It is the subject of national +defense. + +It can not be discussed without first answering some very searching +questions. 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 upon +brief 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 of +peace so long as we retain our present political principles and +institutions. And what is it that it is suggested we should be prepared to +do? To defend ourselves against attack? We have always found means to do +that, and shall find them whenever it is necessary without calling our +people away from their necessary tasks to render compulsory military +service in times of peace. + +Allow me to speak with great plainness and directness upon this great +matter and to avow my convictions with deep earnestness. I have tried to +know what America is, what her people think, what they are, what they most +cherish and hold dear. I hope that some of their finer passions are in my +own heart, --some of the great conceptions and desires which gave birth to +this Government and which have made the voice of this people a voice of +peace 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 fact +or drawn from a just and candid interpretation of realities can say that +there is reason to fear that from any quarter our independence or the +integrity of our territory is threatened. Dread of the power of any other +nation we are incapable of. We are not jealous of rivalry in the fields of +commerce or of any other peaceful achievement. We mean to live our own +lives as we will; but we mean also to let live. We are, indeed, a true +friend to all the nations of the world, because we threaten none, covet the +possessions of none, desire the overthrow of none. Our friendship can be +accepted and is accepted without reservation, because it is offered in a +spirit 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 to +earn. just now we should be particularly jealous of it because it is our +dearest present hope that this character and reputation may presently, in +God's providence, bring us an opportunity such as has seldom been +vouchsafed any nation, the opportunity to counsel and obtain peace in the +world and reconciliation and a healing settlement of many a matter that has +cooled and interrupted the friendship of nations. This is the time above +all others when we should wish and resolve to keep our strength by +self-possession, our influence by preserving our ancient principles of +action. + +From the first we have had a clear and settled policy with regard to +military establishments. We never have had, and while we retain our present +principles and ideals we never shall have, a large standing army. If asked, +Are you ready to defend yourselves? we reply, Most assuredly, to the +utmost; and yet we shall not turn America into a military camp. We will not +ask our young men to spend the best years of their lives making soldiers of +themselves. There is another sort of energy in us. It will know how to +declare itself and make itself effective should occasion arise. And +especially when half the world is on fire we shall be careful to make our +moral insurance against the spread of the conflagration very definite and +certain 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 the +past, not upon a standing army, nor yet upon a reserve army, but upon a +citizenry trained and accustomed to arms. It will be right enough, right +American policy, based upon our accustomed principles and practices, to +provide a system by which every citizen who will volunteer for the training +may be made familiar with the use of modern arms, the rudiments of drill +and maneuver, and the maintenance and sanitation of camps. We should +encourage such training and make it a means of discipline which our young +men 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 our +young men to undergo it at such times as they can command a little freedom +and can seek the physical development they need, for mere health's sake, if +for nothing more. Every means by which such things can be stimulated is +legitimate, and such a method smacks of true American ideas. It is right, +too, that the National Guard of the States should be developed and +strengthened by every means which is not inconsistent with our obligations +to our own people or with the established policy of our Government. And +this, also, not because the time or occasion specially calls for such +measures, but because it should be our constant policy to make these +provisions for our national peace and safety. + +More than this carries with it a reversal of the whole history and +character of our polity. More than this, proposed at this time, permit me +to say, would mean merely that we had lost our self-possession, that we had +been thrown off our balance by a war with which we have nothing to do, +whose causes can not touch us, whose very existence affords us +opportunities of friendship and disinterested service which should make us +ashamed of any thought of hostility or fearful preparation for trouble. +This is assuredly the opportunity for which a people and a government like +ours were raised up, the opportunity not only to speak but actually to +embody and exemplify the counsels of peace and amity and the lasting +concord which is based on justice and fair and generous dealing. + +A powerful navy we have always regarded as our proper and natural means of +defense, and it has always been of defense that we have thought, never of +aggression or of conquest. But who shall tell us now what sort of navy to +build? We shall take leave to be strong upon the seas, in the future as in +the past; and there will be no thought of offense or of provocation in +that. Our ships are our natural bulwarks. When will the experts tell us +just what kind we should construct-and when will they be right for ten +years together, if the relative efficiency of craft of different kinds and +uses continues to change as we have seen it change under our very eyes in +these last few months ? + +But I turn away from the subject. It is not new. There is no new need to +discuss it. We shall not alter our attitude toward it because some amongst +us are nervous and excited. We shall easily and sensibly agree upon a +policy of defense. The question has not changed its aspects because the +times are not normal. Our policy will not be for an occasion. It will be +conceived as a permanent and settled thing, which we will pursue at all +seasons, without haste and after a fashion perfectly consistent with the +peace of the world, the abiding friendship of states, and the unhampered +freedom of all with whom we deal. Let there be no misconception. The +country has been misinformed. We have not been negligent of national +defense. We are not unmindful of the great responsibility resting upon us. +We shall learn and profit by the lesson of every experience and every new +circumstance; and what is needed will be adequately done. + +I close, as I began, by reminding you of the great tasks and duties of +peace which challenge our best powers and invite us to build what will +last, the tasks to which we can address ourselves now and at all times with +free-hearted zest and with all the finest gifts of constructive wisdom we +possess. 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 plenty +of our fields and our marts of trade to enrich the commerce of our own +States and of the world with the products of our mines, our farms, and our +factories, with the creations of our thought and the fruits of our +character,-this is what will hold our attention and our enthusiasm +steadily, now and in the years to come, as we strive to show in our life as +a nation what liberty and the inspirations of an emancipated spirit may do +for men and for societies, for individuals, for states, and for mankind. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Woodrow Wilson +December 7, 1915 + +GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS: + +Since I last had the privilege of addressing you on the state of the Union +the war of nations on the other side of the sea, which had then only begun +to disclose its portentous proportions, has extended its threatening and +sinister scope until it has swept within its flame some portion of every +quarter of the globe, not excepting our own hemisphere, has altered the +whole face of international affairs, and now presents a prospect of +reorganization and reconstruction such as statesmen and peoples have never +been 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 have +brought the conflict on; it was necessary, if a universal catastrophe was +to be avoided, that a limit should be set to the sweep of destructive war +and that some part of the great family of nations should keep the processes +of peace alive, if only to prevent collective economic ruin and the +breakdown throughout the world of the industries by which its populations +are fed and sustained. It was manifestly the duty of the self-governed +nations of this hemisphere to redress, if possible, the balance of economic +loss and confusion in the other, if they could do nothing more. In the day +of readjustment and recuperation we earnestly hope and believe that they +can be of infinite service. + +In this neutrality, to which they were bidden not only by their separate +life and their habitual detachment from the politics of Europe but also by +a clear perception of international duty, the states of America have become +conscious of a new and more vital community of interest and moral +partnership in affairs, more clearly conscious of the many common +sympathies and interests and duties which bid them stand together. + +There was a time in the early days of our own great nation and of the +republics fighting their way to independence in Central and South America +when the government of the United States looked upon itself as in some sort +the guardian of the republics to the South of her as against any +encroachments or efforts at political control from the other side of the +water; 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 and +disinterested enthusiasm for the freedom of the Americas and the unmolested +Selfgovernment of her independent peoples. But it was always difficult to +maintain such a role without offense to the pride of the peoples whose +freedom of action we sought to protect, and without provoking serious +misconceptions of our motives, and every thoughtful man of affairs must +welcome the altered circumstances of the new day in whose light we now +stand, when there is no claim of guardianship or thought of wards but, +instead, a full and honorable association as of partners between ourselves +and our neighbors, in the interest of all America, north and south. Our +concern for the independence and prosperity of the states of Central and +South America is not altered. We retain unabated the spirit that has +inspired us throughout the whole life of our government and which was so +frankly put into words by President Monroe. We still mean always to make a +common 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 no +thought of taking advantage of any government in this hemisphere or playing +its political fortunes for our own benefit. All the governments of America +stand, so far as we are concerned, upon a footing of genuine equality and +unquestioned independence. + +We have been put to the test in the case of Mexico, and we have stood the +test. Whether we have benefited Mexico by the course we have pursued +remains to be seen. Her fortunes are in her own hands. But we have at least +proved that we will not take advantage of her in her distress and undertake +to impose upon her an order and government of our own choosing. Liberty is +often a fierce and intractable thing, to which no bounds can be set, and to +which no bounds of a few men's choosing ought ever to be set. Every +American who has drunk at the true fountains of principle and tradition +must subscribe without reservation to the high doctrine of the Virginia +Bill of Rights, which in the great days in which our government was set up +was everywhere amongst us accepted as the creed of free men. That doctrine +is, "That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, +protection, and security of the people, nation, or community"; that "of all +the various modes and forms of government, that is the best which is +capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is +most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and that, +when any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these +purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable, and +indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall +be judged most conducive to the public weal." We have unhesitatingly +applied that heroic principle to the case of Mexico, and now hopefully +await the rebirth of the troubled Republic, which had so much of which to +purge itself and so little sympathy from any outside quarter in the radical +but necessary process. We will aid and befriend Mexico, but we will not +coerce her; and our course with regard to her ought to be sufficient proof +to all America that we seek no political suzerainty or selfish control. + +The moral is, that the states of America are not hostile rivals but +cooperating friends, and that their growing sense of community or interest, +alike in matters political and in matters economic, is likely to give them +a new significance as factors in international affairs and in the political +history of the world. It presents them as in a very deep and true sense a +unit in world affairs, spiritual partners, standing together because +thinking together, quick with common sympathies and common ideals. +Separated they are subject to all the cross currents of the confused +politics of a world of hostile rivalries; united in spirit and purpose they +cannot be disappointed of their peaceful destiny. + +This is Pan-Americanism. It has none of the spirit of empire in it. It is +the embodiment, the effectual embodiment, of the spirit of law and +independence and liberty and mutual service. + +A very notable body of men recently met in the City of Washington, at the +invitation and as the guests of this Government, whose deliberations are +likely to be looked back to as marking a memorable turning point in the +history of America. They were representative spokesmen of the several +independent states of this hemisphere and were assembled to discuss the +financial and commercial relations of the republics of the two continents +which nature and political fortune have so intimately linked together. I +earnestly recommend to your perusal the reports of their proceedings and of +the actions of their committees. You will get from them, I think, a fresh +conception of the ease and intelligence and advantage with which Americans +of both continents may draw together in practical cooperation and of what +the material foundations of this hopeful partnership of interest must +consist,-of how we should build them and of how necessary it is that we +should hasten their building. + +There is, I venture to point out, an especial significance just now +attaching to this whole matter of drawing the Americans together in bonds +of honorable partnership and mutual advantage because of the economic +readjustments which the world must inevitably witness within the next +generation, when peace shall have at last resumed its healthful tasks. In +the performance of these tasks I believe the Americas to be destined to +play their parts together. I am interested to fix your attention on this +prospect now because unless you take it within your view and permit the +full significance of it to command your thought I cannot find the right +light in which to set forth the particular matter that lies at the very +font 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 we +are appointed to speak can fail to perceive that their passion is for +peace, 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 supports +life and the uncensored thought that quickens it. Conquest and dominion are +not in our reckoning, or agreeable to our principles. But just because we +demand unmolested development and the undisturbed government of our own +lives upon our own principles of right and liberty, we resent, from +whatever quarter it may come, the aggression we ourselves will not +practice. We insist upon security in prosecuting our self-chosen lines of +national development. We do more than that. We demand it also for others. +We do not confine our enthusiasm for individual liberty and free national +development to the incidents and movements of affairs which affect only +ourselves. We feel it wherever there is a people that tries to walk in +these difficult paths of independence and right. From the first we have +made common cause with all partisans of liberty on this side the sea, and +have deemed it as important that our neighbors should be free from all +outside domination as that we ourselves should be.- have set America aside +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 means +of asserting the rights of a people against aggression. And we are as +fiercely jealous of coercive or dictatorial power within our own nation as +of aggression from without. We will not maintain a standing army except for +uses which are as necessary in times of peace as in times of war; and we +shall always see to it that our military peace establishment is no larger +than is actually and continuously needed for the uses of days in which no +enemies move against us. But we do believe in a body of free citizens ready +and sufficient to take care of themselves and of the governments which they +have set up to serve them. In our constitutions themselves we have +commanded that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be +infringed," and our confidence has been that our safety in times of danger +would lie in the rising of the nation to take care of itself, as the +farmers rose at Lexington. + +But war has never been a mere matter of men and guns. It is a thing of +disciplined might. If our citizens are ever to fight effectively upon a +sudden summons, they must know how modern fighting is done, and what to do +when the summons comes to render themselves immediately available and +immediately effective. And the government must be their servant in this +matter, must supply them with the training they need to take care of +themselves and of it. The military arm of their government, which they will +not allow to direct them, they may properly use to serve them and make +their independence secure,-and not their own independence merely but the +rights also of those with whom they have made common cause, should they +also be put in jeopardy. They must be fitted to play the great role in the +world, and particularly in this hemisphere, for which they are qualified by +principle and by chastened ambition to play. + +It is with these ideals in mind that the plans of the Department of War for +more adequate national defense were conceived which will be laid before +you, and which I urge you to sanction and put into effect as soon as they +can be properly scrutinized and discussed. They seem to me the essential +first steps, and they seem to me for the present sufficient. + +They contemplate an increase of the standing force of the regular army from +its present strength of five thousand and twenty-three officers and one +hundred and two thousand nine hundred and eightyfive enlisted men of all +services to a strength of seven thousand one hundred and thirty-six +officers and one hundred and thirty-four thousand seven hundred and seven +enlisted men, or 141,843, all told, all services, rank and file, by the +addition of fifty-two companies of coast artillery, fifteen companies of +engineers, ten regiments of infantry, four regiments of field artillery, +and four aero squadrons, besides seven hundred and fifty officers required +for a great variety of extra service, especially the all important duty of +training the citizen force of which I shall presently speak, seven hundred +and ninety-two noncommissioned officers for service in drill, recruiting +and the like, and the necessary quota of enlisted men for the Quartermaster +Corps, the Hospital Corps, the Ordnance Department, and other similar +auxiliary services. These are the additions necessary to render the army +adequate for its present duties, duties which it has to perform not only +upon our own continental coasts and borders and at our interior army posts, +but also in the Philippines, in the Hawaiian Islands, at the Isthmus, and +in Porto Rico. + +By way of making the country ready to assert some part of its real power +promptly and upon a larger scale, should occasion arise, the plan also +contemplates supplementing the army by a force of four hundred thousand +disciplined citizens, raised in increments of one hundred and thirty-three +thousand a year throughout a period of three years. This it is proposed to +do by a process of enlistment under which the serviceable men of the +country would be asked to bind themselves to serve with the colors for +purposes of training for short periods throughout three years, and to come +to the colors at call at any time throughout an additional "furlough" +period of three years. This force of four hundred thousand men would be +provided with personal accoutrements as fast as enlisted and their +equipment for the field made ready to be supplied at any time. They would +be assembled for training at stated intervals at convenient places in +association with suitable units of the regular army. Their period of annual +training would not necessarily exceed two months in the year. + +It would depend upon the patriotic feeling of the younger men of the +country whether they responded to such a call to service or not. It would +depend upon the patriotic spirit of the employers of the country whether +they made it possible for the younger men in their employ to respond under +favorable conditions or not. I, for one, do not doubt the patriotic +devotion either of our young men or of those who give them +employment,--those for whose benefit and protection they would in fact +enlist. I would look forward to the success of such an experiment with +entire confidence. + +At least so much by way of preparation for defense seems to me to be +absolutely imperative now. We cannot do less. + +The programme which will be laid before you by the Secretary of the Navy is +similarly conceived. It involves only a shortening of the time within which +plans long matured shall be carried out; but it does make definite and +explicit a programme which has heretofore been only implicit, held in the +minds of the Committees on Naval Affairs and disclosed in the debates of +the two Houses but nowhere formulated or formally adopted. It seems to me +very clear that it will be to the advantage of the country for the Congress +to adopt a comprehensive plan for putting the navy upon a final footing of +strength and efficiency and to press that plan to completion within the +next five years. We have always looked to the navy of the country as our +first and chief line of defense; we have always seen it to be our manifest +course of prudence to be strong on the seas. Year by year we have been +creating a navy which now ranks very high indeed among the navies of the +maritime nations. We should now definitely determine how we shall complete +what we have begun, and how soon. + +The programme to be laid before you contemplates the construction within +five 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 first +year 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; the +second year, two battleships, one scout cruiser, ten destroyers, four fleet +submarines, 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; the +fourth year, two battleships, two battle cruisers, two scout cruisers, ten +destroyers, two fleet submarines, fifteen coast submarines, one ammunition +ship, and one fuel oil ship; and the fifth year, two battleships, one +battle cruiser, two scout cruisers, ten destroyers, two fleet submarines, +fifteen coast submarines, one gunboat, one ammunition ship, and one repair +ship. + +The Secretary of the Navy is asking also for the immediate addition to the +personnel of the navy of seven thousand five hundred sailors, twenty-five +hundred apprentice seamen, and fifteen hundred marines. This increase would +be sufficient to care for the ships which are to be completed within the +fiscal year 1917 and also for the number of men which must be put in +training to man the ships which will be completed early in 1918. It is also +necessary that the number of midshipmen at the Naval academy at Annapolis +should be increased by at least three hundred in order that the force of +officers should be more rapidly added to; and authority is asked to +appoint, for engineering duties only, approved graduates of engineering +colleges, and for service in the aviation corps a certain number of men +taken from civil life. + +If this full programme should be carried out we should have built or +building in 1921, according to the estimates of survival and standards of +classification followed by the General Board of the Department, an +effective navy consisting of twenty-seven battleships of the first line, +six battle cruisers, twenty-five battleships of the second line, ten +armored cruisers, thirteen scout cruisers, five first class cruisers, three +second class cruisers, ten third class cruisers, one hundred and eight +destroyers, eighteen fleet submarines, one hundred and fifty-seven coast +submarines, six monitors, twenty gunboats, four supply ships, fifteen fuel +ships, four transports, three tenders to torpedo vessels, eight vessels of +special types, and two ammunition ships. This would be a navy fitted to our +needs and worthy of our traditions. + +But armies and instruments of war are only part of what has to be +considered if we are to provide for the supreme matter of national +self-sufficiency and security in all its aspects. There are other great +matters which will be thrust upon our attention whether we will or not. +There is, for example, a very pressing question of trade and shipping +involved in this great problem of national adequacy. It is necessary for +many weighty reasons of national efficiency and development that we should +have a great merchant marine. The great merchant fleet we once used to make +us rich, that great body of sturdy sailors who used to carry our flag into +every sea, and who were the pride and often the bulwark of the nation, we +have almost driven out of existence by inexcusable neglect and indifference +and by a hope lessly blind and provincial policy of so-called economic +protection. It is high time we repaired our mistake and resumed our +commercial independence on the seas. + +For it is a question of independence. If other nations go to war or seek to +hamper 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 they +determine. We have not ships enough of our own. We cannot handle our own +commerce on the seas. Our independence is provincial, and is only on land +and within our own borders. We are not likely to be permitted to use even +the ships of other nations in rivalry of their own trade, and are without +means to extend our commerce even where the doors are wide open and our +goods desired. Such a situation is not to be endured. It is of capital +importance not only that the United States should be its own carrier on the +seas and enjoy the economic independence which only an adequate merchant +marine would give it, but also that the American hemisphere as a whole +should enjoy a like independence and self-sufficiency, if it is not to be +drawn into the tangle of European affairs. Without such independence the +whole question of our political unity and self-determination is very +seriously clouded and complicated indeed. + +Moreover, we can develop no true or effective American policy without ships +of our own,--not ships of war, but ships of peace, carrying goods and +carrying much more: creating friendships and rendering indispensable +services to all interests on this side the water. They must move constantly +back and forth between the Americas. They are the only shuttles that can +weave the delicate fabric of sympathy, -comprehension, confidence, and +mutual dependence in which we wish to clothe our policy of America for +Americans. + +The task of building up an adequate merchant marine for America private +capital must ultimately undertake and achieve, as it has undertaken and +achieved every other like task amongst us in the past, with admirable +enterprise, intelligence, and vigor; and it seems to me a manifest dictate +of wisdom that we should promptly remove every legal obstacle that may +stand in the way of this much to be desired revival of our old independence +and should facilitate in every possible way the building, purchase, and +American registration of ships. But capital cannot accomplish this great +task of a sudden. It must embark upon it by degrees, as the opportunities +of trade develop. Something must be done at once; done to open routes and +develop opportunities where they are as yet undeveloped; done to open the +arteries of trade where the currents have not yet learned to +run,-especially between the two American continents, where they are, +singularly enough, yet to be created and quickened; and it is evident that +only the government can undertake such beginnings and assume the initial +financial risks. When the risk has passed and private capital begins to +find its way in sufficient abundance into these new channels, the +government may withdraw. But it cannot omit to begin. It should take the +first steps, and should take them at once. Our goods must not lie piled up +at our ports and stored upon side tracks in freight cars which are daily +needed on the roads; must not be left without means of transport to any +foreign quarter. We must not await the permission of foreign ship-owners +and foreign governments to send them where we will. + +With a view to meeting these pressing necessities of our commerce and +availing ourselves at the earliest possible moment of the present +unparalleled opportunity of linking the two Americas together in bonds of +mutual interest and service, an opportunity which may never return again if +we miss it now, proposals will be made to the present Congress for the +purchase or construction of ships to be owned and directed by the +government similar to those made to the last Congress, but modified in some +essential particulars. I recommend these proposals to you for your prompt +acceptance with the more confidence because every month that has elapsed +since the former proposals were made has made the necessity for such action +more and more manifestly imperative. That need was then foreseen; it is now +acutely felt and everywhere realized by those for whom trade is waiting but +who can find no conveyance for their goods. I am not so much interested in +the particulars of the programme as I am in taking immediate advantage of +the 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 should +prevail, and out of it should come an early solution of this pressing +problem. + +There is another matter which seems to me to be very intimately associated +with the question of national safety and preparation for defense. That is +our policy towards the Philippines and the people of Porto Rico. Our +treatment of them and their attitude towards us are manifestly of the first +consequence in the development of our duties in the world and in getting a +free hand to perform those duties. We must be free from every unnecessary +burden or embarrassment; and there is no better way to be clear of +embarrassment than to fulfil our promises and promote the interests of +those dependent on us to the utmost. Bills for the alteration and reform of +the government of the Philippines and for rendering fuller political +justice to the people of Porto Rico were submitted to the sixty-third +Congress. They will be submitted also to you. I need not particularize +their details. You are most of you already familiar with them. But I do +recommend them to your early adoption with the sincere conviction that +there are few measures you could adopt which would more serviceably clear +the way for the great policies by which we wish to make good, now and +always, our right to lead in enterpriscs of peace and good will and +economic and political freedom. + +The plans for the armed forces of the nation which I have outlined, and for +the general policy of adequate preparation for mobilization and defense, +involve of course very large additional expenditures of money,-expenditures +which will considerably exceed the estimated revenues of the government. It +is made my duty by law, whenever the estimates of expenditure exceed the +estimates of revenue, to call the attention of the Congress to the fact and +suggest any means of meeting the deficiency that it may be wise or possible +for me to suggest. I am ready to believe that it would be my duty to do so +in any case; and I feel particularly bound to speak of the matter when it +appears that the deficiency will arise directly out of the adoption by the +Congress 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 fiscal +problems which the next year will probably disclose. + +On the thirtieth of June last there was an available balance in the general +fund of the Treasury Of $104,170,105.78. The total estimated receipts for +the year 1916, on the assumption that the emergency revenue measure passed +by the last Congress will not be extended beyond its present limit, the +thirty-first of December, 1915, and that the present duty of one cent per +pound 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 estimated +disbursements for the present fiscal year, including twenty-five millions +for the Panama Canal, twelve millions for probable deficiency +appropriations, and fifty thousand dollars for miscellaneous debt +redemptions, will be $753,891,000; and the balance in the general fund of +the Treasury will be reduced to $20,644,605.78. The emergency revenue act, +if continued beyond its present time limitation, would produce, during the +half year then remaining, about forty-one millions. The duty of one cent +per pound on sugar, if continued, would produce during the two months of +the fiscal year remaining after the first of May, about fifteen millions. +These two sums, amounting together to fifty-six millions, if added to the +revenues of the second half of the fiscal year, would yield the Treasury at +the end of the year an available balance Of $76,644,605-78. + +The additional revenues required to carry out the programme of military and +naval preparation of which I have spoken, would, as at present estimated, +be for the fiscal year, 1917, $93,800,000. Those figures, taken with the +figures for the present fiscal year which I have already given, disclose +our financial problem for the year 1917. Assuming that the taxes imposed by +the emergency revenue act and the present duty on sugar are to be +discontinued, and that the balance at the close of the present fiscal year +will be only $20,644,605.78, that the disbursements for the Panama Canal +will again be about twenty-five millions, and that the additional +expenditures for the army and navy are authorized by the Congress, the +deficit 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 least +fifty millions should be added to represent a safe working balance for the +Treasury, and twelve millions to include the usual deficiency estimates in +1917; and these additions would make a total deficit of some two hundred +and ninety-seven millions. If the present taxes should be continued +throughout this year and the next, however, there would be a balance in the +Treasury of some seventy-six and a half millions at the end of the present +fiscal year, and a deficit at the end of the next year of only some fifty +millions, or, reckoning in sixty-two millions for deficiency appropriations +and a safe Treasury balance at the end of the year, a total deficit of some +one hundred and twelve millions. The obvious moral of the figures is that +it is a plain counsel of prudence to continue all of the present taxes or +their equivalents, and confine ourselves to the problem of providing one +hundred and twelve millions of new revenue rather than two hundred and +ninety-seven millions. + +How shall we obtain the new revenue? We are frequently reminded that there +are many millions of bonds which the Treasury is authorized under existing +law to sell to reimburse the sums paid out of current revenues for the +construction of the Panama Canal; and it is true that bonds to the amount +of approximately $222,000,000 are now available for that purpose. Prior to +1913, $134,631,980 of these bonds had actually been sold to recoup the +expenditures at the Isthmus; and now constitute a considerable item of the +public debt. But I, for one, do not believe that the people of this country +approve of postponing the payment of their bills. Borrowing money is +short-sighted finance. It can be justified only when permanent things are +to be accomplished which many generations will certainly benefit by and +which it seems hardly fair that a single generation should pay for. The +objects 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 in +the interest of posterity as well as in our own. It seems to me a clear +dictate 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 the +country are entitled to know just what burdens of taxation they are to +carry, and to know from the outset, now. The new bills should be paid by +internal taxation. + +To what sources, then, shall we turn? This is so peculiarly a question +which the gentlemen of the House of Representatives are expected under the +Constitution to propose an answer to that you will hardly expect me to do +more than discuss it in very general terms. We should be following an +almost universal example of modern governments if we were to draw the +greater part or even the whole of the revenues we need from the income +taxes. By somewhat lowering the present limits of exemption and the figure +at which the surtax shall begin to be imposed, and by increasing, step by +step throughout the present graduation, the surtax itself, the income taxes +as at present apportioned would yield sums sufficient to balance the books +of the Treasury at the end of the fiscal year 1917 without anywhere making +the burden unreasonably or oppressively heavy. The precise reckonings are +fully and accurately set out in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury +which will be immediately laid before you. + +And there are many additional sources of revenue which can justly be +resorted to without hampering the industries of the country or putting any +too great charge upon individual expenditure. A tax of one cent per gallon +on gasoline and naphtha would yield, at the present estimated production, +$io,ooo,ooo; a tax of fifty cents per horse power on automobiles and +internal explosion engines, $15,000,000; a stamp tax on bank cheques, +probably $18,ooo,ooo; a tax of twenty-five cents per ton on pig iron, +$io,ooo,ooo; a tax of twenty-five cents per ton on fabricated iron and +steel, probably $lo,ooo,ooo. In a country of great industries like this it +ought to be easy to distribute the burdens of taxation without making them +anywhere bear too heavily or too exclusively upon any one set of persons or +undertakings. What is clear is, that the industry of this generation should +pay the bills of this generation. + +I have spoken to you to-day, Gentlemen, upon a single theme, the thorough +preparation of the nation to care for its own security and to make sure of +entire freedom to play the impartial role in this hemisphere and in the +world which we all believe to have been providentially assigned to it. I +have had in my mind no thought of any immediate or particular danger +arising out of our relations with other nations. We are at peace with all +the nations of the world, and there is reason to hope that no question in +controversy between this and other Governments will lead to any serious +breach of amicable relations, grave as some differences of attitude and +policy have been land may yet turn out to be. I am sorry to say that the +gravest threats against our national peace and safety have been uttered +within our own borders. There are citizens of the United States, I blush to +admit, born under other flags but welcomed under our generous +naturalization laws to the full freedom and opportunity of America, who +have poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national +life; who have sought to bring the authority and good name of our +Government into contempt, to destroy our industries wherever they thought +it effective for their vindictive purposes to strike at them, and to debase +our politics to the uses of foreign intrigue. Their number is not great as +compared with the whole number of those sturdy hosts by which our nation +has been enriched in recent generations out of virile foreign stock; but it +is great enough to have brought deep disgrace upon us and to have made it +necessary that we should promptly make use of processes of law by which we +may be purged of their corrupt distempers. America never witnessed anything +like this before. It never dreamed it possible that men sworn into its own +citizenship, men drawn out of great free stocks such as supplied some of +the best and strongest elements of that little, but how heroic, nation that +in a high day of old staked its very life to free itself from every +entanglement that had darkened the fortunes of the older nations and set up +a new standard here,that men of such origins and such free choices of +allegiance would ever turn in malign reaction against the Government and +people who bad welcomed and nurtured them and seek to make this proud +country once more a hotbed of European passion. A little while ago such a +thing would have seemed incredible. Because it was incredible we made no +preparation for it. We would have been almost ashamed to prepare for it, as +if we were suspicious of ourselves, our own comrades and neighbors! But the +ugly and incredible thing has actually come about and we are without +adequate federal laws to deal with it. I urge you to enact such laws at the +earliest possible moment and feel that in doing so I am urging you to do +nothing less than save the honor and self-respect of the nation. Such +creatures of passion, disloyalty, and anarchy must be crushed out. They are +not many, but they are infinitely malignant, and the hand of our power +should close over them at once. They have formed plots to destroy property, +they have entered into conspiracies against the neutrality of the +Government, they have sought to pry into every confidential transaction of +the Government in order to serve interests alien to our own. It is possible +to deal with these things very effectually. I need not suggest the terms in +which they may be dealt with. + +I wish that it could be said that only a few men, misled by mistaken +sentiments of allegiance to the governments under which they were born, had +been guilty of disturbing the self-possession and misrepresenting the +temper and principles of the country during these days of terrible war, +when it would seem that every man who was truly an American would +instinctively make it his duty and his pride to keep the scales of judgment +even 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 and +bred in the United States and calling themselves Americans, have so +forgotten themselves and their honor as citizens as to put their passionate +sympathy with one or the other side in the great European conflict above +their regard for the peace and dignity of the United States. They also +preach and practice disloyalty. No laws, I suppose, can reach corruptions +of the mind and heart; but I should not speak of others without also +speaking of these and expressing the even deeper humiliation and scorn +which every self-possessed and thoughtfully patriotic American must feel +when lie thinks of them and of the discredit they are daily bringing upon +us. + +While we speak of the preparation of the nation to make sure of her +security and her effective power we must not fall into the patent error of +supposing that her real strength comes from armaments and mere safeguards +of written law. It comes, of course, from her people, their energy, their +success in their undertakings, their free opportunity to use the natural +resources of our great home land and of the lands outside our continental +borders which look to us for protection, for encouragement, and for +assistance in their development; from the organization and freedom and +vitality of our economic life. The domestic questions which engaged the +attention of the last Congress are more vital to the nation in this its +time of test than at any other time. We cannot adequately make ready for +any trial of our strength unless we wisely and promptly direct the force of +our laws into these all-important fields of domestic action. A matter which +it seems to me we should have very much at heart is the creation of the +right instrumentalities by which to mobilize our economic resources in any +time of national necessity. I take it for granted that I do not need your +authority to call into systematic consultation with the directing officers +of the army and navy men of recognized leadership and ability from among +our citizens who are thoroughly familiar, for example, with the +transportation facilities of the country and therefore competent to advise +how they may be coordinated when the need arises, those who can suggest the +best way in which to bring about prompt cooperation among the manufacturers +of the country, should it be necessary, and those who could assist to bring +the technical skill of the country to the aid of the Government in the +solution of particular problems of defense. I only hope that if I should +find it feasible to constitute such an advisory body the Congress would be +willing to vote the small sum of money that would be needed to defray the +expenses that would probably be necessary to give it the clerical and +administrative Machinery with which to do serviceable work. + +What is more important is, that the industries and resources of the country +should be available and ready for mobilization. It is the more imperatively +necessary, therefore, that we should promptly devise means for doing what +we have not yet done: that we should give intelligent federal aid and +stimulation to industrial and vocational education, as we have long done in +the large field of our agricultural industry; that, at the same time that +we safeguard and conserve the natural resources of the country we should +put them at the disposal of those who will use them promptly and +intelligently, as was sought to be done in the admirable bills submitted to +the last Congress from its committees on the public lands, bills which I +earnestly recommend in principle to your consideration; that we should put +into early operation some provision for rural credits which will add to the +extensive borrowing facilities already afforded the farmer by the Reserve +Bank Act, adequate instrumentalities by which long credits may be obtained +on land mortgages; and that we should study more carefully than they have +hitherto been studied the right adaptation of our economic arrangements to +changing conditions. + +Many conditions about which we I-lave repeatedly legislated are being +altered from decade to decade, it is evident, under our very eyes, and are +likely to change even more rapidly and more radically in the days +immediately ahead of us, when peace has returned to the world and the +nations of Europe once more take up their tasks of commerce and industry +with the energy of those who must bestir themselves to build anew. just +what these changes will be no one can certainly foresee or confidently +predict. There are no calculable, because no stable, elements in the +problem. The most we can do is to make certain that we have the necessary +instrumentalities of information constantly at our service so that we may +be 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 what +it is that we are seeking to adapt ourselves to. I may ask the privilege of +addressing you more at length on this important matter a little later in +your session. + +In the meantime may I make this suggestion? The transportation problem is +an exceedingly serious and pressing one in this country. There has from +time to time of late been reason to fear that our railroads would not much +longer be able to cope with it successfully, as at present equipped and +coordinated I suggest that it would be wise to provide for a commission of +inquiry to ascertain by a thorough canvass of the whole question whether +our laws as at present framed and administered are as serviceable as they +might be' in the solution of the problem. It is obviously a problem that +lies at the very foundation of our efficiency as a people. Such an inquiry +ought to draw out every circumstance and opinion worth considering and we +need to know all sides of the matter if we mean to do anything in the field +of federal legislation. + +No one, I am sure, would wish to take any backward step. The regulation of +the railways of the country by federal commission has had admirable results +and has fully justified the hopes and expectations of those by whom the +policy of regulation was originally proposed. The question is not what +should we undo? It is, whether thei-e is anything else we can do that would +supply us with effective means, in the very process of regulation, for +bettering the conditions under which the railroads are operated and for +making them more useful servants of the country as a whole. It seems to me +that it might be the part of wisdom, therefore, before further legislation +in this field is attempted, to look at the whole problem of coordination +and efficiency in the full light of a fresh assessment of circumstance and +opinion, 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 this +message, is national efficiency and security. We serve a great nation. We +should serve it in the spirit of its peculiar genius. It is the genius of +common men for self-government, industry, justice, liberty and peace. We +should 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 assured +success. In this we are no partisans but heralds and prophets of a new age. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Woodrow Wilson +December 5, 1916 + +GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS: + +In fulfilling at this time the duty laid upon me by the Constitution of +communicating to you from time to time information of the state of the +Union and recommending to your consideration such legislative measures as +may be judged necessary and expedient, I shall continue the practice, which +I hope has been acceptable to you, of leaving to the reports of the several +heads of the executive departments the elaboration of the detailed needs of +the public service and confine myself to those matters of more general +public policy with which it seems necessary and feasible to deal at the +present session of the Congress. + +I realize the limitations of time under which you will necessarily act at +this session and shall make my suggestions as few as possible; but there +were some things left undone at the last session which there will now be +time to complete and which it seems necessary in the interest of the public +to do at once. + +In the first place, it seems to me imperatively necessary that the earliest +possible consideration and action should be accorded the remaining measures +of the program of settlement and regulation which I had occasion to +recommend to you at the close of your last session in view of the public +dangers disclosed by the unaccommodated difficulties which then existed, +and which still unhappily continue to exist, between the railroads of the +country and their locomotive engineers, conductors and trainmen. + +I then recommended: + +First, immediate provision for the enlargement and administrative +reorganization of the Interstate Commerce Commission along the lines +embodied in the bill recently passed by the House of Representatives and +now awaiting action by the Senate; in order that the Commission may be +enabled to deal with the many great and various duties now devolving upon +it with a promptness and thoroughness which are, with its present +constitution and means of action, practically impossible. + +Second, the establishment of an eight-hour day as the legal basis alike of +work and wages in the employment of all railway employes who are actually +engaged in the work of operating trains in interstate transportation. + +Third, the authorization of the appointment by the President of a small +body of men to observe actual results in experience of the adoption of the +eight-hour day in railway transportation alike for the men and for the +railroads. + +Fourth, explicit approval by the Congress of the consideration by the +Interstate Commerce Commission of an increase of freight rates to meet such +additional expenditures by the railroads as may have been rendered +necessary by the adoption of the eight-hour day and which have not been +offset by administrative readjustments and economies, should the facts +disclosed justify the increase. + +Fifth, an amendment of the existing Federal statute which provides for the +mediation, conciliation and arbitration of such controversies as the +present by adding to it a provision that, in case the methods of +accommodation now provided for should fail, a full public investigation of +the merits of every such dispute shall be instituted and completed before a +strike or lockout may lawfully be attempted. + +And, sixth, the lodgment in the hands of the Executive of the power, in +case of military necessity, to take control of such portions and such +rolling stock of the railways of the country as may be required for +military use and to operate them for military purposes, with authority to +draft into the military service of the United States such train crews and +administrative officials as the circumstances require for their safe and +efficient use. + +The second and third of these recommendations the Congress immediately +acted on: it established the eight-hour day as the legal basis of work and +wages in train service and it authorized the appointment of a commission to +observe and report upon the practical results, deeming these the measures +most immediately needed; but it postponed action upon the other suggestions +until an opportunity should be offered for a more deliberate consideration +of them. + +The fourth recommendation I do not deem it necessary to renew. The power of +the Interstate Commerce Commission to grant an increase of rates on the +ground referred to is indisputably clear and a recommendation by the +Congress with regard to such a matter might seem to draw in question the +scope of the commission's authority or its inclination to do justice when +there is no reason to doubt either. + +The other suggestions-the increase in the Interstate Commerce Commission's +membership and in its facilities for performing its manifold duties; the +provision for full public investigation and assessment of industrial +disputes, and the grant to the Executive of the power to control and +operate the railways when necessary in time of war or other like public +necessity-I now very earnestly renew. + +The necessity for such legislation is manifest and pressing. Those who have +entrusted us with the responsibility and duty of serving and safeguarding +them in such matters would find it hard, I believe, to excuse a failure to +act upon these grave matters or any unnecessary postponement of action upon +them. + +Not only does the Interstate Commerce Commission now find it practically +impossible, with its present membership and organization, to perform its +great functions promptly and thoroughly, but it is not unlikely that it may +presently be found advisable to add to its duties still others equally +heavy and exacting. It must first be perfected as an administrative +instrument. + +The country cannot and should not consent to remain any longer exposed to +profound industrial disturbances for lack of additional means of +arbitration and conciliation which the Congress can easily and promptly +supply. + +And all will agree that there must be no doubt as to the power of the +Executive to make immediate and uninterrupted use of the railroads for the +concentration of the military forces of the nation wherever they are needed +and whenever they are needed. + +This is a program of regulation, prevention and administrative efficiency +which argues its own case in the mere statement of it. With regard to one +of its items, the increase in the efficiency of the Interstate Commerce +Commission, the House of Representatives has already acted; its action +needs only the concurrence of the Senate. + +I would hesitate to recommend, and I dare say the Congress would hesitate +to act upon the suggestion should I make it, that any man in any I +occupation should be obliged by law to continue in an employment which he +desired to leave. + +To pass a law which forbade or prevented the individual workman to leave +his work before receiving the approval of society in doing so would be to +adopt a new principle into our jurisprudence, which I take it for granted +we are not prepared to introduce. + +But the proposal that the operation of the railways of the country shall +not be stopped or interrupted by the concerted action of organized bodies +of men until a public investigation shall have been instituted, which shall +make the whole question at issue plain for the judgment of the opinion of +the nation, is not to propose any such principle. + +It is based upon the very different principle that the concerted action of +powerful bodies of men shall not be permitted to stop the industrial +processes of the nation, at any rate before the nation shall have had an +opportunity to acquaint itself with the merits of the case as between +employe and employer, time to form its opinion upon an impartial statement +of the merits, and opportunity to consider all practicable means of +conciliation or arbitration. + +I can see nothing in that proposition but the justifiable safeguarding by +society of the necessary processes of its very life. There is nothing +arbitrary or unjust in it unless it be arbitrarily and unjustly done. It +can and should be done with a full and scrupulous regard for the interests +and liberties of all concerned as well as for the permanent interests of +society itself. + +Three matters of capital importance await the action of the Senate which +have already been acted upon by the House of Representatives; the bill +which seeks to extend greater freedom of combination to those engaged in +promoting the foreign commerce of the country than is now thought by some +to be legal under the terms of the laws against monopoly; the bill amending +the present organic law of Porto Rico; and the bill proposing a more +thorough and systematic regulation of the expenditure of money in +elections, commonly called the Corrupt Practices Act. + +I need not labor my advice that these measures be enacted into law. Their +urgency lies in the manifest circumstances which render their adoption at +this time not only opportune but necessary. Even delay would seriously +jeopard the interests of the country and of the Government. + +Immediate passage of the bill to regulate the expenditure of money in +elections may seem to be less necessary than the immediate enactment of the +other measures to which I refer, because at least two years will elapse +before another election in which Federal offices are to be filled; but it +would greatly relieve the public mind if this important matter were dealt +with while the circumstances and the dangers to the public morals of the +present method of obtaining and spending campaign funds stand clear under +recent observation, and the methods of expenditure can be frankly studied +in the light of present experience; and a delay would have the further very +serious disadvantage of postponing action until another election was at +hand and some special object connected with it might be thought to be in +the mind of those who urged it. Action can be taken now with facts for +guidance and without suspicion of partisan purpose. + +I shall not argue at length the desirability of giving a freer hand in the +matter of combined and concerted effort to those who shall undertake the +essential enterprise of building up our export trade. That enterprise will +presently, will immediately assume, has indeed already assumed a magnitude +unprecedented in our experience. We have not the necessary +instrumentalities for its prosecution; it is deemed to be doubtful whether +they could be created upon an adequate scale under our present laws. + +We should clear away all legal obstacles and create a basis of undoubted +law for it which will give freedom without permitting unregulated license. +The thing must be done now, because the opportunity is here and may escape +us if we hesitate or delay. + +The argument for the proposed amendments of the organic law of Porto Rico +is brief and conclusive. The present laws governing the island and +regulating the rights and privileges of its people are not just. We have +created expectations of extended privilege which we have not satisfied. +There is uneasiness among the people of the island and even a suspicious +doubt with regard to our intentions concerning them which the adoption of +the pending measure would happily remove. We do not doubt what we wish to +do 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 which +provides for the promotion of vocational and industrial education, which is +of vital importance to the whole country because it concerns a matter, too +long neglected, upon which the thorough industrial preparation of the +country for the critical years of economic development immediately ahead of +us in very large measure depends. + +May I not urge its early and favorable consideration by the House of +Representatives and its early enactment into law? It contains plans which +affect all interests and all parts of the country, and I am sure that there +is no legislation now pending before the Congress whose passage the country +awaits with more thoughtful approval or greater impatience to see a great +and admirable thing set in the way of being done. + +There are other matters already advanced to the stage of conference between +the two houses of which it is not necessary that I should speak. Some +practicable basis of agreement concerning them will no doubt be found an +action taken upon them. + +Inasmuch as this is, gentlemen , probably the last occasion I shall have to +address the Sixty-fourth Congress, I hope that you will permit me to say +with what genuine pleasure and satisfaction I have co-operated with you in +the many measures of constructive policy with which you have enriched the +legislative annals of the country. It has been a privilege to labor in such +company. I take the liberty of congratulating you upon the completion of a +record of rare serviceableness and distinction. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Woodrow Wilson +December 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 significance +for 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 laid +before you in the reports of the executive departments. I shall discuss +only our present outlook upon these vast affairs, our present duties, and +the immediate means of accomplishing the objects we shall hold always in +view. + +I shall not go back to debate the causes of the war. The intolerable wrongs +done and planned against us by the sinister masters of Germany have long +since become too grossly obvious and odious to every true American to need +to be rehearsed. But I shall ask you to consider again and with a very +grave scrutiny our objectives and the measures by which we mean to attain +them; for the purpose of discussion here in this place is action, and our +action must move straight toward definite ends. Our object is, of course, +to win the war; and we shall not slacken or suffer ourselves to he diverted +until 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 fundamental +matter. I do not doubt that the American people know what the war is about +and what sort of an outcome they will regard as a realization of their +purpose in it. + +As a nation we are united in spirit and intention. I pay little heed to +those who tell me otherwise. I hear the voices of dissent-who does not? I +bear the criticism and the clamor of the noisily thoughtless and +troublesome. I also see men here and there fling themselves in impotent +disloyalty against the calm, indomitable power of the Nation. I hear men +debate peace who understand neither its nature nor the way in which we may +attain it with uplifted eyes and unbroken spirits. But I know that none of +these speaks for the Nation. They do not touch the heart of anything. They +may safely be left to strut their uneasy hour and be forgotten. + +But from another point of view I believe that it is necessary to say +plainly what we here at the seat of action consider the war to be for and +what part we mean to play in the settlement of its searching issues. We are +the spokesmen of the American people, and they have a right to know whether +their purpose is ours. They desire peace by the overcoming of evil, by the +defeat once for all of the sinister forces that interrupt peace and render +it impossible, and they wish to know how closely our thought runs with +theirs and what action we propose. They are impatient with those who desire +peace by any sort of compromisedeeply and indignantly impatient-but they +will be equally impatient with us if we do not make it plain to them what +our objectives are and what we are planning for in seeking to make conquest +of peace by arms. + +I believe that I speak for them when I say two things: First, that this +intolerable thing of which the masters of Germany have shown us the ugly +face, this menace of combined intrigue and force which we now see so +clearly as the German power, a thing without conscience or honor of +capacity for covenanted peace, must be crushed and, if it be not utterly +brought to an end, at least shut out from the friendly intercourse of the +nations; and second, that when this thing and its power are indeed defeated +and the time comes that we can discuss peacewhen the German people have +spokesmen whose word we can believe and when those spokesmen are ready in +the name of their people to accept the common judgment of the nations as to +what shall henceforth be the bases of law and of covenant for the life of +the world-we shall be willing and glad to pay the full price for peace, and +pay it ungrudgingly. + +We know what that price will be. It will be full, impartial justice-justice +done at every point and to every nation that the final settlement must +affect, our enemies as well as our friends. + +You catch, with me, the voices of humanity that are in the air. They grow +daily more audible, more articulate, more persuasive, and they come from +the hearts of men everywhere. They insist that the war shall not end in +vindictive action of any kind; that no nation or people shall be robbed or +punished because the irresponsible rulers of a single country have +themselves done deep and abominable wrong. It is this thought that has been +expressed in the formula, "No annexations, no contributions, no punitive +indemnities." + +Just because this crude formula. expresses the instinctive judgment as to +right of plain men everywhere, it has been made diligent use of by the +masters of German intrigue to lead the people of Russia astrayand the +people of every other country their agents could reach-in order that a +premature peace might be brought about before autocracy has been taught its +final and convincing lesson and the people of the world put in control of +their own destinies. + +But the fact that a wrong use has been made of a just idea is no reason why +a right use should not be made of it. It ought to be brought under the +patronage of its real friends. Let it be said again that autocracy must +first be shown the utter futility of its claim to power or leadership in +the modern world. It is impossible to apply any standard of justice so long +as such forces are unchecked and undefeated as the present masters of +Germany command. Not until that has been done can right be set up as +arbiter 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 an +unprecedented thing, and this is the time to avow our purpose to do it. We +shall be free to base peace on generosity and justice, to the exclusions of +all selfish claims to advantage even on the part of the victors. + +Let there be no misunderstanding. Our present and immediate task is to win +the war and nothing shall turn us aside from from it until it is +accomplished. Every power and resource we possess, whether of men, of +money, or of materials, is being devoted and will continue to be devoted to +that purpose until it is achieved. Those who desire to bring peace about +before that purpose is achieved I counsel to carry their advice elsewhere. +We will not entertain it. We shall regard the war as won only when the +German people say to us, through properly accredited representatives, that +they are ready to agree to a settlement based upon justice and reparation +of the wrongs their rulers have done. They have done a wrong to Belgium +which must be repaired. They have established a power over other lands and +peoples than their own--over the great empire of Austria-Hungary, over +hitherto free Balkan states, over Turkey and within Asia-which must be +relinquished. + +Germany's success by skill, by industry, by knowledge, by enterprise we did +not grudge or oppose, but admired, rather. She had built up for herself a +real empire of trade and influence, secured by the peace of the world. We +were content to abide by the rivalries of manufacture, science and commerce +that were involved for us in her success, and stand or fall as we had or +did not have the brains and the initiative to surpass her. But at the +moment when she had conspicuously won her triumphs of peace she threw them +away, to establish in their stead what the world will no longer permit to +be established, military and political domination by arms, by which to oust +where she could not excel the rivals she most feared and hated. The peace +we make must remedy that wrong. It must deliver the once fair lands and +happy peoples of Belgium and Northern France from the Prussian conquest and +the Prussian menace, but it must deliver also the peoples of +Austria-Hungary, the peoples of the Balkans and the peoples of Turkey, +alike in Europe and Asia, from the impudent and alien dominion of the +Prussian military and commercial autocracy. + +We owe it, however, to ourselves, to say that we do not wish in any way to +impair or to rearrange the AustroHungarian Empire. It is no affair of ours +what they do with their own life, either industrially or politically. We do +not purpose or desire to dictate to them in any way. We only desire to see +that their affairs are left in their own hands, in all matters, great or +small. We shall hope to secure for the peoples of the Balkan peninsula and +for the people of the Turkish Empire the right and opportunity to make +their own lives safe, their own fortunes secure against oppression or +injustice and from the dictation of foreign courts or parties. + +And our attitude and purpose with regard to Germany herself are of a like +kind. We intend no wrong against the German Empire, no interference with +her internal affairs. We should deem either the one or the other absolutely +unjustifiable, absolutely contrary to the principles we have professed to +live by and to hold most sacred throughout our life as a nation. + +The people of Germany are being told by the men whom they now permit to +deceive them and to act as their masters that they are fighting for the +very life and existence of their empire, a war of desperate selfdefense +against deliberate aggression. Nothing could be more grossly or wantonly +false, and we must seek by the utmost openness and candor as to our real +aims to convince them of its falseness. We are in fact fighting for their +emancipation from the fear, along with our own-from the fear as well as +from the fact of unjust attack by neighbors or rivals or schemers after +world empire. No one is threatening the existence or the independence of +the peaceful enterprise of the German Empire. + +The worst that can happen to the detriment the German people is this, that +if they should still, after the war is over, continue to be obliged to live +under ambitious and intriguing masters interested to disturb the peace of +the world, men or classes of men whom the other peoples of the world could +not trust, it might be impossible to admit them to the partnership of +nations which must henceforth guarantee the world's peace. That partnership +must be a partnership of peoples, not a mere partnership of governments. It +might be impossible, also, in such untoward circumstances, to admit Germany +to the free economic intercourse which must inevitably spring out of the +other partnerships of a real peace. But there would be no aggression in +that; and such a situation, inevitable, because of distrust, would in the +very nature of things sooner or later cure itself, by processes which would +assuredly set in. + +The wrongs, the very deep wrongs, committed in this war will have to be +righted. That, of course. But they cannot and must not be righted by the +commission of similar wrongs against Germany and her allies. The world will +not permit the commission of similar wrongs as a means of reparation and +settlement. Statesmen must by this time have learned that the opinion of +the world is everywhere wide awake and fully comprehends the issues +involved. No representative of any self-governed nation will dare disregard +it by attempting any such covenants of selfishness and compromise as were +entered into at the Congress of Vienna. The thought of the plain people +here and everywhere throughout the world, the people who enjoy no privilege +and have very simple and unsophisticated standards of right and wrong, is +the air all governments must henceforth breathe if they would live. + +It is in the full disclosing light of that thought that all policies must +be received and executed in this midday hour of the world's life. Ger. man +rulers have been able to upset the peace of the world only because the +German people were not suffered under their tutelage to share the +comradeship of the other peoples of the world either in thought or in +purpose. They were allowed to have no opinion of their own which might be +set 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 the +tides 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 stupendous +war; and I cannot help thinking that if they had been made plain at the +very outset the sympathy and enthusiasm of the Russian people might have +been once for all enlisted on the side of the Allies, suspicion and +distrust swept away, and a real and lasting union of purpose effected. Had +they believed these things at the very moment of their revolution, and had +they been confirmed in that belief since, the sad reverses which have +recently marked the progress of their affairs towards an ordered and stable +government of free men might have been avoided. The Russian people have +been poisoned by the very same falsehoods that have kept the German people +in 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 plainly +or too often. + +From every point of view, therefore, it has seemed to be my duty to speak +these declarations of purpose, to add these specific interpretations to +what I took the liberty of saying to the Senate in January. Our entrance +into the war has not altered out attitude towards the settlement that must +come when it is over. + +When I said in January that the nations of the world were entitled not only +to free pathways upon the sea, but also to assured and unmolested access to +those-pathways, I was thinking, and I am thinking now, not of the smaller +and weaker nations alone which need our countenance and support, but also +of the great and powerful nations and of our present enemies as well as our +present associates in the war. I was thinking, and am thinking now, of +Austria herself, among the rest, as well as of Serbia and of Poland. + +Justice and equality of rights can be had only at a great price. We are +seeking permanent, not temporary, foundations for the peace of the world, +and must seek them candidly and fearlessly. As always, the right will prove +to be the expedient. + +What shall we do, then, to push this great war of freedom and justice to +its righteous conclusion? We must clear away with a thorough hand all +impediments to success, and we must make every adjustment of law that will +facilitate the full and free use of our whole capacity and force as a +fighting unit. + +One very embarrassing obstacle that stands hi our way is that we are at war +with Germany but not with her allies. I, therefore, very earnestly +recommend that the Congress immediately declare the United States in a +state of war with Austria-Hungary. Does it seem strange to you that this +should be the conclusion of the argument I have just addressed to you? It +is not. It is in fact the inevitable logic of what I have said. +Austria-Hungary is for the time being not her own mistress but simply the +vassal of the German Government. + +We must face the facts as they are and act upon them without sentiment in +this stern business. The Government of Austria and Hungary is not acting +upon its own initiative or in response to the wishes and feelings of its +own peoples, but as the instrument of another nation. We must meet its +force with our own and regard the Central Powers as but one. The war can be +successfully conducted in no other way. + +The same logic would lead also to a declaration of war against Turkey and +Bulgaria. They also are the tools of Germany, but they are mere tools and +do not yet stand in the direct path of our necessary action. We shall go +wherever the necessities of this war carry us, but it seems to me that we +should go only where immediate and practical considerations lead us, and +not heed any others. + +The financial and military measures which must be adopted will suggest +themselves as the war and its undertakings develop, but I will take the +liberty of proposing to you certain other acts of legislation which seem to +me to be needed for the support of the war and for the release of our whole +force and energy. + +It will be necessary to extend in certain particulars the legislation of +the last session with regard to alien enemies, and also necessary, I +believe, to create a very definite and particular control over the entrance +and departure of all persons into and from the United States. + +Legislation should be enacted defining as a criminal offense every wilful +violation of the presidential proclamation relating to alien enemies +promulgated under section 4o67 of the revised statutes and providing +appropriate punishments; and women, as well as men, should be included +under 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 be +fed and housed at the expense of the Government in the detention camps, and +it would be the purpose of the legislation I have suggested to confine +offenders among them in the penitentiaries and other similar institutions +where they could be made to work as other criminals do. + +Recent experience has convinced me that the Congress must go further in +authorizing the Government to set limits to prices. The law of supply and +demand, I am sorry to say, has been- replaced by the law of unrestrained +selfishness. While we have eliminated profiteering in several branches of +industry, it still runs impudently rampant in others. The farmers for +example, complain with a great deal of justice that, while the regulation +of food prices restricts their incomes, no restraints are placed upon the +prices of most of the things they must themselves purchase; and similar +inequities obtain on all sides. + +It is imperatively necessary that the consideration of the full use of the +water power of the country, and also of the consideration of the systematic +and yet economical development of such of the natural resources of the +country as are still under the control of the Federal Government should be +immediately resumed and affirmatively and con.structively dealt with at the +earliest possible moment. The pressing need of such legislation is daily +becoming more obvious. + +The legislation proposed at the last session with regard to regulated +combinations among our exporters in order to provide for our foreign trade +a more effective organization and method of co-operation ought by all means +to be completed at this session. + +And I beg that the members of the House of Representatives will permit me +to express the opinion that it will be impossible to deal in any but a very +wasteful and extravagant fashion with the enormous appropriations of the +public moneys which must continue to be made if the war is to be properly +sustained, unless the House will consent to return to its former practice +of initiating and preparing all appropriation bills through a single +committee, in order that responsibility may be centered, expenditures +standardized and made uniform, and waste and duplication as much as +possible avoided. + +Additional legislation may also become necessary before the present +Congress again adjourns in order to effect the most efficient co-ordination +and operation of the railways and other transportation systems of the +country; but to that I shall, if circumstances should demand, call the +attention of Congress upon another occasion. + +If I have overlooked anything that ought to be done for the more effective +conduct of the war, your own counsels will supply the omission. What I am +perfectly clear about is that in the present session of the Congress our +whole attention and energy should be concentrated on the vigorous, rapid +and successful prosecution of the great task of winning the war. + +We can do this with all the greater zeal and enthusiasm because we know +that for us this is a war of high principle, debased by no selfish ambition +of conquest or spoiliation; because we know, and all the world knows, that +we have been forced into it to save the very institutions we five under +from corruption and destruction. The purpose of the Central Powers strikes +straight at the very heart of everything we believe in; their methods of +warfare outrage every principle of humanity and of knightly honor; their +intrigue has corrupted the very thought and spirit of many of our people; +their sinister and secret diplomacy has sought to take our very territory +away from us and disrupt the union of the states. Our safety would be at an +end, our honor forever sullied and brought into contempt, were we to permit +their triumph. They are striking at the very existence of democracy and +liberty. + +It is because it is for us a war of high, disinterested purpose, in which +all the free peoples of the world are banded together for the vindication +of right, a war for the preservation of our nation, of all that it has held +dear, of principle and of purpose, that we feel ourselves doubly +constrained to propose for its outcome only that which is righteous and of +irreproachable intention, for our foes as well as for our friends. The +cause being just and holy, the settlement must be of like motive and +equality. For this we can fight, but for nothing less noble or less worthy +of our traditions. For this cause we entered the war and for this cause +will we battle until the last gun is fired. + +I have spoken plainly because this seems to me the time when it is most +necessary to speak plainly, in order that all the world may know that, even +in the heat and ardor of the struggle and when our whole thought is of +carrying the war through to its end, we have not forgotten any ideal or +principle for which the name of America has been held in honor among the +nations and for which it has been our glory to contend in the great +generations that went before us. A supreme moment of history has come. The +eyes of the people have been opened and they see. The hand of God is laid +upon the nations. He will show them favor, I devoutly believe, only if they +rise to the clear heights of His own justice and mercy. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Woodrow Wilson +December 2, 1918 + +GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS: + +The year that has elapsed since I last stood before you to fulfil my +constitutional duty to give to the Congress from time to time information +on the state of the Union has been so crowded with great events, great +processes, and great results that I cannot hope to give you an adequate +picture of its transactions or of the far-reaching changes which have been +wrought of our nation and of the world. You have yourselves witnessed these +things, as I have. it is too soon to assess them; and we who stand in the +midst of them and are part of them are less qualified than men of another +generation will be to say what they mean, or even what they have been. But +some great outstanding facts are unmistakable and constitute, in a sense, +part of the public business with which it is our duty to deal. To state +them is to set the stage for the legislative and executive action which +must grow out of them and which we have yet to shape and determine. + +A year ago we had sent 145,918 men overseas. Since then we have sent +1,950,513, an average of 162,542 each month, the number in fact rising, in +May last, to 245,951, in June to 278,76o, in July to 307,182, and +continuing to reach similar figures in August and September,in August +289,57o and in September 257,438. No such movement of troops ever took +place before, across three thousand miles of sea, followed by adequate +equipment and supplies, and carried safely through extraordinary dangers of +attack,-dangers which were alike strange and infinitely difficult to guard +against. In all this movement only seven hundred and fifty-eight men were +lost by enemy attack,six hundred and thirty of whom were upon a single +English transport which was sunk near the Orkney Islands. + +I need not tell you what lay back of this great movement of men and +material. It is not invidious to say that back of it lay a supporting +organization of the industries of the country and of all its productive +activities more complete, more thorough in method and effective in result, +more spirited and unanimous in purpose and effort than any other great +belligerent had been able to effect. We profited greatly by the experience +of the nations which had already been engaged for nearly three years in the +exigent and exacting business, their every resource and every executive +proficiency taxed to the utmost. We were their pupils. But we learned +quickly and acted with a promptness and a readiness of cooperation that +justify our great pride that we were able to serve the world with +unparalleled 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 and +quality of the officers and men we sent over and of the sailors who kept +the seas, and the spirit of the nation that stood behind them. No soldiers +or sailors ever proved themselves more quickly ready for the test of battle +or acquitted themselves with more splendid courage and achievement when put +to the test. Those of us who played some part in directing the great +processes by which the war was pushed irresistibly forward to the final +triumph may now forget all that and delight our thoughts with the story of +what our men did. Their officers understood the grim and exacting task they +had undertaken and performed it with an audacity, efficiency, and +unhesitating courage that touch the story of convoy and battle with +imperishable distinction at every turn, whether the enterprise were great +or small, -from their great chiefs, Pershing and Sims, down to the youngest +lieutenant; and their men were worthy of them,-such men as hardly need to +be commanded, and go to their terrible adventure blithely and with the +quick intelligence of those who know just what it is they would accomplish. +I am proud to be the fellowcountryman of men of such stuff and valor. Those +of us who stayed at home did our duty; the war could not have been won or +the gallant men who fought it given their opportunity to win it otherwise; +but for many a long day we shall think ourselves "accurs'd we were not +there, and hold our manhoods cheap while any speaks that fought" with these +at St. Mihiel or Thierry. The memory of those days of triumphant battle +will go with these fortunate men to their graves; and each will have his +favorite memory. "Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, but hell +remember with advantages what feats he did that day!" + +What we all thank God for with deepest gratitude is that our men went in +force into the line of battle just at the critical moment when the whole +fate of the world seemed to hang in the balance and threw their fresh +strength into the ranks of freedom in time to turn the whole tide and sweep +of the fateful struggle,-turn it once for all, so that thenceforth it was +back, back, back for their enemies, always back, never again forward! After +that it was only a scant four months before the commanders of the Central +Empires knew themselves beaten; and now their very empires are in +liquidation! + +And throughout it all how fine the spirit of the nation was: what unity of +purpose, what untiring zeal! What elevation of purpose ran through all its +splendid display of strength, its untiring accomplishment! I have said that +those of us who stayed at home to do the work of organization and supply +will always wish that we had been with the men whom we sustained by our +labor; but we can never be ashamed. It has been an inspiring thing to be +here in the midst of fine men who had turned aside from every private +interest of their own and devoted the whole of their trained capacity to +the tasks that supplied the sinews of the whole great undertaking! The +patriotism, the unselfishness, the thoroughgoing devotion and distinguished +capacity that marked their toilsome labors, day after day, month after +month, have made them fit mates and comrades of the men in the trenches and +on the sea. And not the men here in Washington only. They have but directed +the vast achievement. Throughout innumerable factories, upon innumerable +farms, in the depths of coal mines and iron mines and copper mines, +wherever the stuffs of industry were to be obtained and prepared, in the +shipyards, on the railways, at the docks, on the sea, in every labor that +was needed to sustain the battle lines, men have vied with each other to do +their part and do it well. They can look any man-at-arms in the face, and +say, We also strove to win and gave the best that was in us to make our +fleets 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 organization +and cooperation, which gave their action discipline and enhanced the +effectiveness of everything they attempted; their aptitude at tasks to +which they had. never before set their hands; their utter selfsacrifice +alike in what they did and in what they gave? Their contribution to the +great result is beyond appraisal. They have added a new lustre to the +annals of American womanhood. + +The least tribute we can pay them is to make them the equals of men in +political rights as they have proved themselves their equals in every field +of practical work they have entered, whether for themselves or for their +country. These great days of completed achievement would be sadly marred +were we to omit that act of justice. Besides the immense practical services +they have rendered the women of the country have been the moving spirits in +the systematic economies by which our people have voluntarily assisted to +supply the suffering peoples of the world and the armies upon every front +with food and everything else that we had that might serve the common +cause. The details of such a story can never be fully written, but we carry +them at our hearts and thank God that we can say that we are the kinsmen of +such. + +And now we are sure of the great triumph for which every sacrifice was +made. It has come, come in its completeness, and with the pride and +inspiration of these days of achievement quick within us, we turn to the +tasks of peace again,-a peace secure against the violence of irresponsible +monarchs and ambitious military coteries and made ready for a new order, +for new foundations of justice and fair dealing. + +We are about to give order and organization to this peace not only for +ourselves but for the other peoples of the world as well, so far as they +will suffer us to serve them. It is international justice that we seek, not +domestic safety merely. Our thoughts have dwelt of late upon Europe, upon +Asia, upon the near and the far East, very little upon the acts of peace +and accommodation that wait to be performed at our own doors. While we are +adjusting our relations with the rest of the world is it not of capital +importance that we should clear away all grounds of misunderstanding with +our immediate neighbors and give proof of the friendship we really feel? I +hope that the members of the Senate will permit me to speak once more of +the unratified treaty of friendship and adjustment with the Republic of +Colombia. I very earnestly urge upon them an early and favorable action +upon that vital matter. I believe that they will feel, with me, that the +stage of affairs is now set for such action as will be not only just but +generous and in the spirit of the new age upon which we have so happily +entered. + +So far as our domestic affairs are concerned the problem of our return to +peace is a problem of economic and industrial readjustment. That problem is +less serious for us than it may turn out too he for the nations which have +suffered the disarrangements and the losses of war longer than we. Our +people, moreover, do not wait to be coached and led. They know their own +business, are quick and resourceful at every readjustment, definite in +purpose, and self-reliant in action. Any leading strings we might seek to +put them in would speedily become hopelessly tangled because they would pay +no attention to them and go their own way. All that we can do as their +legislative and executive servants is to mediate the process of change +here, there, and elsewhere as we may. I have heard much counsel as to the +plans that should be formed and personally conducted to a happy +consummation, but from no quarter have I seen any general scheme of +"reconstruction" emerge which I thought it likely we could force our +spirited business men and self-reliant laborers to accept with due pliancy +and obedience. + +While the war lasted we set up many agencies by which to direct the +industries of the country in the services it was necessary for them to +render, by which to make sure of an abundant supply of the materials +needed, by which to check undertakings that could for the time be dispensed +with and stimulate those that were most serviceable in war, by which to +gain for the purchasing departments of the Government a certain control +over the prices of essential articles and materials, by which to restrain +trade with alien enemies, make the most of the available shipping, and +systematize financial transactions, both public and private, so that there +would be no unnecessary conflict or confusion,-by which, in short, to put +every material energy of the country in harness to draw -the common load +and make of us one team in the accomplishment of a great task. But the +moment 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 there +should not be enough for the industries that supplied the armies have been +released and put into the general market again. Great industrial plants +whose whole output and machinery had been taken over for the uses of the +Government have been set free to return to the uses to which they were put +before the war. It has not been possible to remove so readily or so quickly +the control of foodstuffs and of shipping, because the world has still to +be fed from our granaries and the ships are still needed to send supplies +to our men overseas and to bring the men back as fast as the disturbed +conditions on the other side of the water permit; but even there restraints +are 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 which +knew so much of the field of supply, of labor, and of industry as the War +Industries Board, the War Trade Board, the Labor Department, the Food +Administration, and the Fuel Administration have known since their labors +became thoroughly systematized; and they have not been isolated agencies; +they have been directed by men who represented the permanent Departments of +the Government and so have been the centres of unified and cooperative +action. It has been the policy of the Executive, therefore, since the +armistice was assured (which is in effect a complete submission of the +enemy) to put the knowledge of these bodies at the disposal of the business +men of the country and to offer their intelligent mediation at every point +and in every matter where it was desired. It is surprising how fast the +process of return to a peace footing has moved in the three weeks since the +fighting stopped. It promises to outrun any inquiry that may be instituted +and any aid that may be offered. It will not be easy to direct it any +better than it will direct itself. The American business man is of quick +initiative. + +The ordinary and normal processes of private initiative will not, however, +provide immediate employment for all of the men of our returning armies. +Those who are of trained capacity, those who are skilled workmen, those who +have acquired familiarity with established businesses, those who are ready +and willing to go to the farms, all those whose aptitudes are known or will +be sought out by employers will find no difficulty, it is safe to say, in +finding place and employment. But there will be others who will be at a +loss where to gain a livelihood unless pains are taken to guide them and +put them in the way of work. There will be a large floating residuum of +labor which should not be left wholly to shift for itself. It seems to me +important, therefore, that the development of public works of every sort +should be promptly resumed, in order that opportunities should be created +for unskilled labor in particular, and that plans should be made for such +developments of our unused lands and our natural resources as we have +hitherto lacked stirnulation to undertake. + +I particularly direct your attention to the very practical plans which the +Secretary of the Interior has developed in his annual report and before +your Committees for the reclamation of arid, swamp, and cutover lands which +might, if the States were willing and able to cooperate, redeem some three +hundred million acres of land for cultivation. There are said to be fifteen +or twenty million acres of land in the West, at present arid, for whose +reclamation water is available, if properly conserved. There are about two +hundred and thirty million acres from which the forests have been cut but +which have never yet been cleared for the plow and which lie waste and +desolate. These lie scattered all over the Union. And there are nearly +eighty million acres of land that lie under swamps or subject to periodical +overflow or too wet for anything but grazing, which it is perfectly +feasible to drain and protect and redeem. The Congress can at once direct +thousands of the returning soldiers to the reclamation of the arid lands +which it has already undertaken, if it will but enlarge the plans and +appropriations which it has entrusted to the Department of the Interior. It +is possible in dealing with our unused land to effect a great rural and +agricultural development which will afford the best sort of opportunity to +men who want to help themselves' and the Secretary of the Interior has +thought the possible methods out in a way which is worthy of your most +friendly attention. + +I have spoken of the control which must yet for a while, perhaps for a long +long while, be exercised over shipping because of the priority of service +to which our forces overseas are entitled and which should also be accorded +the shipments which are to save recently liberated peoples from starvation +and many devasted regions from permanent ruin. May I not say a special word +about the needs of Belgium and northern France? No sums of money paid by +way of indemnity will serve of themselves to save them from hopeless +disadvantage for years to come. Something more must be done than merely +find the money. If they had money and raw materials in abundance to-morrow +they could not resume their place in the industry of the world +to-morrow,-the very important place they held before the flame of war swept +across them. Many of their factories are razed to the ground. Much of their +machinery is destroyed or has been taken away. Their people are scattered +and many of their best workmen are dead. Their markets will be taken by +others, if they are not in some special way assisted to rebuild their +factories and replace their lost instruments of manufacture. They should +not be left to the vicissitudes of the sharp competition for materials and +for industrial facilities which is now to set in. I hope, therefore, that +the Congress will not be unwilling, if it should become necessary, to grant +to some such agency as the War Trade Board the right to establish +priorities of export and supply for the benefit of these people whom we +have been so happy to assist in saving from the German terror and whom we +must not now thoughtlessly leave to shift for themselves in a pitiless +competitive market. + +For the steadying, and facilitation of our own domestic business +readjustments nothing is more important than the immediate determination of +the taxes that are to be levied for 1918, 1919, and 1920. As much of the +burden of taxation must be lifted from business as sound methods of +financing the Government will permit, and those who conduct the great +essential industries of the country must be told as exactly as possible +what obligations to the Government they will be expected to meet in the +years immediately ahead of them. It will be of serious consequence to the +country to delay removing all uncertainties in this matter a single day +longer than the right processes of debate justify. It is idle to talk of +successful and confident business reconstruction before those uncertainties +are resolved. + +If the war had continued it would have been necessary to raise at least +eight billion dollars by taxation payable in the year 1919; but the war has +ended and I agree with the Secretary of the Treasury that it will be safe +to reduce the amount to six billions. An immediate rapid decline in the +expenses of the Government is not to be looked for. Contracts made for war +supplies will, indeed, be rapidly cancelled and liquidated, but their +immediate liquidation will make heavy drains on the Treasury for the months +just ahead of us. The maintenance of our forces on the other side of the +sea is still necessary. A considerable proportion of those forces must +remain in Europe during the period of occupation, and those which are +brought home will be transported and demobilized at heavy expense for +months to come. The interest on our war debt must of course be paid and +provision made for the retirement of the obligations of the Government +which represent it. But these demands will of course fall much below what a +continuation of military operations would have entailed and six billions +should suffice to supply a sound foundation for the financial operations of +the year. + +I entirely concur with the Secretary of the Treasury in recommending that +the two billions needed in addition to the four billions provided by +existing law be obtained from the profits which have accrued and shall +accrue from war contracts and distinctively war business, but that these +taxes be confined to the war profits accruing in 1918, or in 1919 from +business originating in war contracts. I urge your acceptance of his +recommendation that provision be made now, not subsequently, that the taxes +to be paid in 192o should be reduced from six to four billions. Any +arrangements less definite than these would add elements of doubt and +confusion to the critical period of industrial readjustment through which +the country must now immediately pass, and which no true friend of the +nation's essential business interests can afford to be responsible for +creating or prolonging. Clearly determined conditions, clearly and simply +charted, are indispensable to the economic revival and rapid industrial +development which may confidently be expected if we act now andsweep all +interrogation points away. + +I take it for granted that the Congress will carry out the naval programme +which was undertaken before we entered the war. The Secretary of the Navy +has submitted to your Committees for authorization that part of the +programme which covers the building plans of the next three years. These +plans have been prepared along the lines and in accordance with the policy +which the Congress established, not under the exceptional conditions of the +war, but with the intention of adhering to a definite method of development +for the navy. I earnestly recommend the uninterrupted pursuit of that +policy. It would clearly be unwise for us to attempt to adjust our +programmes to a future world policy as yet undetermined. + +The question which causes me the greatest concern is the question of the +policy to be adopted towards the railroads. I frankly turn to you for +counsel upon it. I have no confident judgment of my own. I do not see how +any thoughtful man can have who knows anything of the complexity of the +problem. It is a problem which must be studied, studied immediately, and +studied without bias or prejudice. Nothing can be gained by becoming +partisans of any particular plan of settlement. + +It was necessary that the administration of the railways should be taken +over by the Government so long as the war lasted. It would have been +impossible otherwise to establish and carry through under a single +direction the necessary priorities of shipment. It would have been +impossible otherwise to combine maximum production at the factories and +mines and farms with the maximum possible car supply to take the products +to the ports and markets; impossible to route troop shipments and freight +shipments without regard to the advantage or-disadvantage of the roads +employed; impossible to subordinate, when necessary, all questions of +convenience to the public necessity; impossible to give the necessary +financial support to the roads from the public treasury. But all these +necessities have now been served, and the question is, What is best for the +railroads and for the public in the future? + +Exceptional circumstances and exceptional methods of administration were +not needed to convince us that the railroads were not equal to the immense +tasks of transportation imposed upon them by the rapid and continuous +development of the industries of the country. We knew that already. And we +knew that they were unequal to it partly because their full cooperation was +rendered impossible by law and their competition made obligatory, so that +it has been impossible to assign to them severally the traffic which could +best be carried by their respective lines in the interest of expedition and +national economy. + +We may hope, I believe, for the formal conclusion of the war by treaty by +the time Spring has come. The twentyone months to which the present control +of the railways is limited after formal proclamation of peace shall have +been made will run at the farthest, I take it for granted, only to the +January of 1921. The full equipment of the railways which the federal +administration had planned could not be completed within any such period. +The present law does not permit the use of the revenues of the several +roads for the execution of such plans except by formal contract with their +directors, some of whom will consent while some will not, and therefore +does not afford sufficient authority to undertake improvements upon the +scale upon which it would be necessary to undertake them. Every approach to +this difficult subject-matter of decision brings us face to face, +therefore, with this unanswered question: What is it right that we should +do with the railroads, in the interest of the public and in fairness to +their owners? + +Let me say at once that I have no answer ready. The only thing that is +perfectly clear to me is that it is not fair either to the public or to the +owners of the railroads to leave the question unanswered and that it will +presently become my duty to relinquish control of the roads, even before +the expiration of the statutory period, unless there should appear some +clear prospect in the meantime of a legislative solution. Their release +would at least produce one element of a solution, namely certainty and a +quick stimulation of private initiative. + +I believe that it will be serviceable for me to set forth as explicitly as +possible the alternative courses that lie open to our choice. We can simply +release the roads and go back to the old conditions of private management, +unrestricted competition, and multiform regulation by both state and +federal authorities; or we can go to the opposite extreme and establish +complete government control, accompanied, if necessary, by actual +government ownership; or we can adopt an intermediate course of modified +private control, under a more unified and affirmative public regulation and +under such alterations of the law as will permit wasteful competition to be +avoided and a considerable degree of unification of administration to be +effected, as, for example, by regional corporations under which the +railways of definable areas would be in effect combined in single systems. + +The one conclusion that I am ready to state with confidence is that it +would be a disservice alike to the country and to the owners of the +railroads to return to the old conditions unmodified. Those are conditions +of restraint without development. There is nothing affirmative or helpful +about them. What the country chiefly needs is that all its means of +transportation should be developed, its railways, its waterways, its +highways, and its countryside roads. Some new element of policy, therefore, +is absolutely necessary--necessary for the service of the public, necessary +for the release of credit to those who are administering the railways, +necessary for the protection of their security holders. The old policy may +be changed much or little, but surely it cannot wisely be left as it was. I +hope that the Con will have a complete and impartial study of the whole +problem instituted at once and prosecuted as rapidly as possible. I stand +ready and anxious to release the roads from the present control and I must +do so at a very early date if by waiting until the statutory limit of time +is reached I shall be merely prolonging the period of doubt and uncertainty +which is hurtful to every interest concerned. + +I welcome this occasion to announce to the Congress my purpose to join in +Paris the representatives of the governments with which we have been +associated in the war against the Central Empires for the purpose of +discussing with them the main features of the treaty of peace. I realize +the great inconveniences that will attend my leaving the country, +particularly at this time, but the conclusion that it was my paramount duty +to go has been forced upon me by considerations which I hope will seem as +conclusive to you as they have seemed to me. + +The Allied governments have accepted the bases of peace which I outlined to +the Congress on the eighth of January last, as the Central Empires also +have, and very reasonably desire my personal counsel in their +interpretation and application, and it is highly desirable that I should +give it in order that the sincere desire of our Government to contribute +without selfish purpose of any kind to settlements that will be of common +benefit to all the nations concerned may be made fully manifest. The peace +settlements which are now to be agreed upon are of transcendent importance +both to us and to the rest of the world, and I know of no business or +interest which should take precedence of them. The gallant men of our armed +forces on land and sea have consciously fought for the ideals which they +knew to be the ideals of their country; I have sought to express those +ideals; they have accepted my statements of them as the substance of their +own thought and purpose, as the associated governments have accepted them; +I owe it to them to see to it, so far as in me lies, that no false or +mistaken interpretation is put upon them, and no possible effort omitted to +realize them. It is now my duty to play my full part in making good what +they offered their life's blood to obtain. I can think of no call to +service which 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 English +governments have absolutely removed the censorship of cable news which +until within a fortnight they had maintained and there is now no censorship +whatever exercised at this end except upon attempted trade communications +with enemy countries. It has been necessary to keep an open wire constantly +available between Paris and the Department of State and another between +France and the Department of War. In order that this might be done with the +least possible interference with the other uses of the cables, I have +temporarily taken over the control of both cables in order that they may be +used as a single system. I did so at the advice of the most experienced +cable officials, and I hope that the results will justify my hope that the +news of the next few months may pass with the utmost freedom and with the +least possible delay from each side of the sea to the other. + +May I not hope, Gentlemen of the Congress, that in the delicate tasks I +shall have to perform on the other side of the sea, in my efforts truly and +faithfully to interpret the principles and purposes of the country we love, +I may have the encouragement and the added strength of your united support? +I realize the magnitude and difficulty of the duty I am undertaking; I am +poignantly aware of its grave responsibilities. I am the servant of the +nation. I can have no private thought or purpose of my own in performing +such an errand. I go to give the best that is in me to the common +settlements which I must now assist in arriving at in conference with the +other working heads of the associated governments. I shall count upon your +friendly countenance and encouragement. I shall not be inaccessible. The +cables and the wireless will render me available for any counsel or service +you may desire of me, and I shall be happy in the thought that I am +constantly in touch with the weighty matters of domestic policy with which +we shall have to deal. I shall make my absence as brief as possible and +shall hope to return with the happy assurance that it has been possible to +translate into action the great ideals for which America has striven. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Woodrow Wilson +December 2, 1919 + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +I sincerely regret that I cannot be present at the opening of this session +of the Congress. I am thus prevented from presenting in as direct a way as +I could wish the many questions that are pressing for solution at this +time. Happily, I have had the advantage of the advice of the heads of the +several executive departments who have kept in close touch with affairs in +their detail and whose thoughtful recommendations I earnestly second. + +In the matter of the railroads and the readjustment of their affairs +growing out of Federal control, I shall take the liberty at a later date of +addressing you. + +I hope that Congress will bring to a conclusion at this session legislation +looking to the establishment of a budget system. That there should be one +single authority responsible for the making of all appropriations and that +appropriations should be made not independently of each other, but with +reference to one single comprehensive plan of expenditure properly related +to the nation's income, there can be no doubtI believe the burden of +preparing the budget must, in the nature of' the case, if the work is to be +properly done and responsibility concentrated instead of divided, rest upon +the executive. The budget so prepared should be submitted to and approved +or amended by a single committee of each House of Congress and no single +appropriation should be made by the Congress, except such as may have been +included in the budget prepared by the executive or added by the particular +committee of Congress charged with the budget legislation. + +Another and not less important aspect of the problem is the ascertainment +of the economy and efficiency with which the moneys appropriated are +expended. Under existing law the only audit is for the purpose of +ascertaining whether expenditures have been lawfully made within the +appropriations. No one is authorized or equipped to ascertain whether the +money has been spent wisely, economically and effectively. The auditors +should be highly trained officials with permanent tenure in the Treasury +Department, free of obligations to or motives of consideration for this or +any subsequent administration, and authorized and empowered to examine into +and make report upon the methods employed and the results obtained by the +executive departments of the Government. Their reports should be made to +the Congress and to the Secretary of the Treasury. + +I trust that the Congress will give its immediate consideration to the +problem of future taxation. Simplification of the income and profits taxes +has become an immediate necessity. These taxes performed indispensable +service during the war. They must, however, be simplified, not only to save +the taxpayer inconvenience and expense, but in order that his liability may +be made certain and definite. + +With reference to the details of the Revenue Law, the Secretary of the +Treasury and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue will lay before you for +your consideration certain amendments necessary or desirable in connection +with the administration of the law-recommendations which have my approval +and support. It is of the utmost importance that in dealing with this +matter the present law should not be disturbed so far as regards taxes for +the calendar year 1920 payable in the calendar year 1921. The Congress +might well consider whether the higher rates of income and profits taxes +can in peace times be effectively productive of revenue, and whether they +may not, on the contrary, be destructive of business activity and +productive of waste and inefficiency. There is a point at which in peace +times high rates of income and profits taxes discourage energy, remove the +incentive to new enterprises, encourage extravagant expenditures and +produce industrial stagnation with consequent unemployment and other +attendant evils. + +The problem is not an easy one. A fundamental change has taken place with +reference to the position of America in the world's affairs. The prejudice +and passions engendered by decades of controversy between two schools of +political and economic thought,-the one believers in protection of American +industries, the other believers in tariff for revenue only,-must be +sbordinated to the single consideration of the public interest in the light +of utterly changed conditions. Before the war America was heavily the +debtor of the rest of the world and the interest payments she had to make +to foreign countries on American securities held abroad, the expenditures +of American travelers abroad and the ocean freight charges she had to pay +to others, about balanced the value of her pre-war favorable balance of +trade. During the war America's exports nave been greatly stimulated, and +increased prices have increased their value. On the other hand, she has +purchased a large proportion of the American securities previously held +abroad, has loaned some $9,ooo,ooo,ooo to foreign governments, and has +built her own ships. Our favorable balance of trade has thus been greatly +increased and Europe has been deprived of the means of meeting it +heretofore existing. Europe can have only three ways of meeting the +favorable balance of trade in peace times: by imports into this country of +gold or of goods, or by establishing new credits. Europe is in no position +at the present time to ship gold to us nor could we contemplate large +further imports of gold into this country without concern. The time has +nearly passed for international governmental loans and it will take time to +develop in this country a market for foreign securities. Anything, +therefore, which would tend to prevent foreign countries from settling for +our exports by shipments of goods into this country could only have the +effect of preventing them from paying for our exports and therefore of +preventing the exports from being made. The productivity of the country, +greatly stimulated by the war, must find an outlet by exports to foreign +countries, and any measures taken to prevent imports will inevitably +curtail exports, force curtailment of production, load the banking +machinery of the country with credits to carry unsold products and produce +industrial stagnation and unemployment. If we want to sell, we must be +prepared to buy. Whatever, therefore, may have been our views during the +period of growth of American business concerning tariff legislation, we +must now adjust our own economic life to a changed condition growing out of +the fact that American business is full grown and that America is the +greatest capitalist in the world. + +No policy of isolation will satisfy the growing needs and opportunities of +America. The provincial standards and policies of the past, which have held +American business as if in a strait-jacket, must yield and give way to the +needs and exigencies of the new day in which we live, a day full of hope +and promise for American business, if we will but take advantage of the +opportunities that are ours for the asking. The recent war has ended our +isolation and thrown upon us a great duty and responsibility. The United +States must share the expanding world market. The United States desires for +itself only equal opportunity with the other nations of the world, and that +through the process of friendly cooperation and fair competition the +legitimate interests of the nations concerned may be successfully and +equitably adjusted. + +There are other matters of importance upon which I urged action at the last +session of Congress which are still pressing for solution. I am sure it is +not necessary for me again to remind you -that there is one immediate and +very practicable question resulting from the war which we should meet in +the most liberal spirit. It is a matter of recognition and relief to our +soldiers. I can do no better than to quote from my last message urging this +very action: + +"We must see to it that our returning soldiers are assisted in every +practicable way to find the places for which they are fitted in the daily +work of the country. This can be done by developing and maintaining upon an +adequate scale the admirable organization created by the Department of +Labor for placing men seeking work; and it can also be done, in at least +one very great field, by creating new opportunities for individual +enterprise. The Secretary of the Interior has pointed out the way by which +returning soldiers may be helped to find and take up land in the hitherto +undeveloped regions of the country which the Federal Government has already +prepared, or can readily prepare, for cultivation and also on many of the +cutover or neglected areas which lie within the limits of the older states; +and I once more take the liberty of recommending very urgently that his +plans shall receive the immediate and substantial support of the +Congress." + +In the matter of tariff legislation, I beg to call your attention to the +statements contained in my last message urging legislation with reference +to the establishment of the chemical and dyestuffs industry in America: + +"Among the industries to which special consideration should be given is +that of the manufacture of dyestuffs and related chemicals. Our complete +dependence upon German supplies before the war made the interruption of +trade a cause of exceptional economic disturbance. The close relation +between the manufacture of dyestuffs, on the one hand, and of explosive and +poisonous gases, on the other, moreover, has given the industry an +exceptional significance and value. Although the United States will gladly +and unhesitatingly join in the programme of international disarmament, it +will, nevertheless, be a policy of obvious prudence to make certain of the +successful maintenance of many strong and well-equipped chemical plants. +The German chemical industry, with which we will be brought into +competition, was -and may well be again, a thoroughly knit monopoly capable +of exercising a competition of a peculiarly insidious and dangerous kind." + +During the war the farmer performed a vital and willing service to the +nation. By materially increasing the production of his land, he supplied +America and the Allies with the increased amounts of food necessary to keep +their 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 of +encouraging effort along these lines. The importance of doing everything +possible to promote production along economical lines, to improve +marketing, and to make rural life more attractive and healthful, is +obvious. I would urge approval of the plans already proposed to the +Congress by the Secretary of Agriculture, to secure the essential facts +required for the proper study of this question, through the proposed +enlarged programmes for farm management studies and crop estimates. I would +urge, also, the continuance of Federal participation in the building of +good roads, under the terms of existing law and under the direction of +present agencies; the need of further action on the part of the States and +the Federal Government to preserve and develop our forest resources, +especially through the practice of better forestry methods on private +holdings and the extension of the publicly owned forests; better support +for country schools and the more definite direction of their courses of +study along lines related to rural problems; and fuller provision for +sanitation in rural districts and the building up of needed hospital and +medical facilities in these localities. Perhaps the way might be cleared +for many of these desirable reforms by a fresh, comprehensive survey made +of rural conditions by a conference composed of representatives of the +farmers and of the agricultural agencies responsible for leadership. + +I would call your attention to the widespread condition of political +restlessness in our body politic. The causes of this unrest, while various +and complicated, are superficial rather than deep-seated. Broadly, they +arise from or are connected with the failure on the part of our Government +to arrive speedily at a just and permanent peace permitting return to +normal conditions, from the transfusion of radical theories from seething +European centers pending such delay, from heartless profiteering resulting +in the increase of the cost of living, and lastly from the machinations of +passionate and malevolent agitators. With the return to normal conditions, +this unrest will rapidly disappear. In the meantime, it does much evil. It +seems to me that in dealing with this situation Congress should not be +impatient or drastic but should seek rather to remove the causes. It should +endeavor to bring our country back speedily to a peace basis, with +ameliorated living conditions under the minimum of restrictions upon +personal liberty that is consistent with our reconstruction problems. And +it should arm the Federal Government with power to deal in its criminal +courts with those persons who by violent methods would abrogate our +time-tested institutions. With the free expression of opinion and with the +advocacy of orderly political change, however fundamental, there must be no +interference, but towards passion and malevolence tendine to incite crime +and insurrection under guise of political evolution there should be no +leniency. Legislation to this end has been recommended by the Attorney +General and should be enacted. In this direct connection, I would call your +attention to my recommendations on August 8th, pointing out legislative +measures which wouldbe effective in controlling and bringing down the +present cost of living, which contributes so largely to this unrest. On +only one of these recommendations has the Congress acted. If the +Government's campaign is to be effective, it is necessary that the other +steps suggested should be acted on at once. + +I renew and strongly urge the necessity of the extension of the present +Food Control Act as to the period of time in which it shall remain in +operation. The Attorney General has submitted a bill providing for an +extension of this Act for a period of six months. As it now stands, it is +limited in operation to the period of the war and becomes inoperative upon +the formal proclamation of peace. It is imperative that it should be +extended at once. The Department of justice has built up extensive +machinery for the purpose of enforcing its provisions; all of which must be +abandoned upon the conclusion of peace unless the provisions of this Act +are extended. + +During this period the Congress will have an opportunity to make similar +permanent provisions and regulations with regard to all goods destined for +interstate commerce and to exclude them from interstate shipment, if the +requirements of the law are not compiled with. Some such regulation is +imperatively necessary. The abuses that have grown up in the manipulation +of prices by the withholding of foodstuffs and other necessaries of life +cannot otherwise be effectively prevented. There can be no doubt of either +the necessity of the legitimacy of such measures. + +As I pointed out in my last message, publicity can accomplish a great deal +in this campaign. The aims of the Government must be clearly brought to the +attention of the consuming public, civic organizations and state officials, +who are in a position to lend their assistance to our efforts. You have +made available funds with which to carry on this campaign, but there is no +provision in the law authorizing their expenditure for the purpose of +making the public fully informed about the efforts of the Government. +Specific recommendation has been made by the Attorney General in this +regard. I would strongly urge upon you its immediate adoption, as it +constitutes one of the preliminary steps to this campaign. + +I also renew my recommendation that the Congress pass a law regulating cold +storage as it is regulated, for example, by the laws of the State of New +Jersey, which limit the time during which goods may be kept in storage, +prescribe the method of disposing of them if kept beyond the permitted +period, and require that goods released from storage shall in all cases +bear the date of their receipt. It would materially add to the +serviceability of the law, for the purpose we now have in view, if it were +also prescribed that all goods released from storage for interstate +shipment should have plainly marked upon each package the selling or market +price at which they went into storage. By this means the purchaser would +always be able to learn what profits stood between him and the producer or +the wholesale dealer. + +I would also renew my recommendation that all goods destined for interstate +commerce should in every case, where their form or package makes it +possible, be plainly marked with the price at which they left the hands of +the producer. + +We should formulate a law requiring a Federal license of all corporations +engaged in interstate commerce and embodying in the license or in the +conditions under which it is to be issued, specific regulations designed to +secure competitive selling and prevent unconscionable profits in the method +of marketing. Such a law would afford a welcome opportunity to effect other +much needed reforms in the business of interstate shipment and in the +methods of corporations which are engaged in it; but for the moment I +confine my recommendations to the object immediately in hand, which is to +lower the cost of living. + +No one who has observed the march of events in the last year can fail to +note the absolute need of a definite programme to bring about an +improvement in the conditions of labor. There can be no settled conditions +leading to increased production and a reduction in the cost of living if +labor and capital are to be antagonists instead of partners. Sound thinking +and an honest desire to serve the interests of the whole nation, as +distinguished from the interests of a class, must be applied to the +solution of this great and pressing problem. The failure of other nations +to consider this matter in a vigorous way has produced bitterness and +jealousies and antagonisms, the food of radicalism. The only way to keep +men from agitating against grievances is to remove the grievances. An +unwillingness even to discuss these matters produces only dissatisfaction +and gives comfort to the extreme elements in our country which endeavor to +stir up disturbances in order to provoke governments to embark upon a +course of retaliation and repression. The seed of revolution is repression. +The remedy for these things must not be negative in character. It must be +constructive. It must comprehend the general interest. The real antidote +for the unrest which manifests itself is not suppression, but a deep +consideration of the wrongs that beset our national life and the +application of a remedy. + +Congress has already shown its willingness to deal with these industrial +wrongs by establishing the eight-hour day as the standard in every field of +labor. It has sought to find a way to prevent child labor. It has served +the whole country by leading the way in developing the means of preserving +and safeguarding lives and health in dangerous industries. It must now help +in the difficult task of finding a method that will bring about a genuine +democratization of industry, based upon the full recognition of the right +of those who work, in whatever rank, to participate in some organic way in +every decision which directly affects their welfare. It is with this +purpose in mind that I called a conference to meet in Washington on +December 1st, to consider these problems in all their broad aspects, with +the idea of bringing about a better understanding between these two +interests. + +The great unrest throughout the world, out of which has emerged a demand +for an immediate consideration of the difficulties between capital and +labor, bids us put our own house in order. Frankly, there can be no +permanent and lasting settlements between capital and labor which do not +recognize the fundamental concepts for which labor has been struggling +through the years. The whole world gave its recognition and endorsement to +these fundamental purposes in the League of Notions. The statesmen gathered +at Versailles recognized the fact that world stability could not be had by +reverting to industrial standards and conditions against which the average +workman of the world had revolted. It is, therefore, the task of the states +men of this new day of change and readjustment to recognize world +conditions and to seek to bring about, through legislation, conditions that +will mean the ending of age-long antagonisms between capital and labor and +that will hopefully lead to the building up of a comradeship which will +result not only in greater contentment among the mass of workmen but also +bring about a greater production and a greater prosperity to business +itself. + +To analyze the particulars in the demands of labor is to admit the justice +of their complaint in many matters that lie at their basis. The workman +demands 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 the +right to live and the right to work amidst sanitary surroundings, both in +home and in workshop, surroundings that develop and do not retard his own +health and wellbeing; and the right to provide for his children's wants in +the matter of health and education. In other words, it is his desire to +make the conditions of his life and the lives of those dear to him +tolerable and easy to bear. + +The establishment of the principles regarding labor laid down ill the +covenant of the League of Nations offers us the way to industrial peace and +conciliation. No other road lies open to us. Not to pursue this one is +longer to invite enmities, bitterness, and antagonisms which in the end +only lead to industrial and social disaster. The unwilling workman is not a +profitable servant. An employee whose industrial life is hedged about by +hard and unjust conditions, which he did not create and over which he has +no control, lacks that fine spirit of enthusiasm and volunteer effort which +are the necessary ingredients of a great producing entity. Let us be frank +about this solemn matter. The evidences of world-wide unrest which manifest +themselves in violence throughout the world bid us pause and consider the +means to be found to stop the spread of this contagious thing before it +saps the very vitality of the nation itself. Do we gain strength by +withholding the remedy? Or is it not the business of statesmen to treat +these manifestations of unrest which meet us on every hand as evidences of +an economic disorder and to apply constructive remedies wherever necessary, +being sure that in the application of the remedy we touch not the vital +tissues of our industrial and economic life? There can be no recession of +the tide of unrest until constructive instrumentalities are set up to stem +that tide. + +Governments must recognize the right of men collectively to bargain for +humane objects that have at their base the mutual protection and welfare of +those engaged in all industries. Labor must not be longer treated as a +commodity. It must be regarded as the activity of human beings, possessed +of deep yearnings and desires. The busi ness man gives his best thought to +the repair and replenishment of his machinery, so that its usefulness will +not be impaired and its power to produce may always be at its height and +kept in full vigor and motion. No less regard ought to be paid to the human +machine, which after all propels the machinery of the world and is the +great dynamic force that lies back of all industry and progress. Return to +the old standards of wage and industry in employment are unthinkable. The +terrible tragedy of war which has just ended and which has brought the +world to the verge of chaos and disaster would be in vain if there should +ensue a return to the conditions of the past. Europe itself, whence has +come the unrest which now holds the world at bay, is an example of +standpatism in these vital human matters which America might well accept as +an example, not to be followed but studiously to be avoided. Europe made +labor the differential, and the price of it all is enmity and antagonism +and prostrated industry, The right of labor to live in peace and comfort +must be recognized by governments and America should be the first to lay +the foundation stones upon which industrial peace shall be built. + +Labor not only is entitled to an adequate wage, but capital should receive +a reasonable return upon its investment and is entitled to protection at +the hands of the Government in every emergency. No Government worthy of the +name can "play" these elements against each other, for there is a mutuality +of interest between them which the Government must seek to express and to +safeguard at all cost. + +The right of individuals to strike is inviolate and ought not to be +interfered with by any process of Government, but there is a predominant +right and that is the right of the Government to protect all of its people +and to assert its power and majesty against the challenge of any class. The +Government, when it asserts that right, seeks not to antagonize a class but +simply to defend the right of the whole people as against the irreparable +harm and injury that might be done by the attempt by any class to usurp a +power that only Government itself has a right to exercise as a protection +to all. + +In the matter of international disputes which have led to war, statesmen +have sought to set up as a remedy arbitration for war. Does this not point +the way for the settlement of industrial disputes, by the establishment of +a tribunal, fair and just alike to all, which will settle industrial +disputes which in the past have led to war and disaster? America, +witnessing the evil consequences which have followed out of such disputes +between these contending forces, must not admit itself impotent to deal +with these matters by means of peaceful processes. Surely, there must be +some method of bringing together in a council of peace and amity these two +great interests, out of which will come a happier day of peace and +cooperation, a day that will make men more hopeful and enthusiastic in +their various tasks, that will make for more comfort and happiness in +living and a more tolerable condition among all classes of men. Certainly +human intelligence can devise some acceptable tribunal for adjusting the +differences between capital and labor. + +This is the hour of test and trial for America. By her prowess and +strength, and the indomitable courage of her soldiers, she demonstrated her +power to vindicate on foreign battlefields her conceptions of liberty and +justice. Let not her influence as a mediator between capital and labor be +weakened and her own failure to settle matters of purely domestic concern +be proclaimed to the world. There are those in this country who threaten +direct action to force their will, upon a majority. Russia today, with its +blood and terror, is a painful object lesson of the power of minorities. It +makes little difference what minority it is; whether capital or labor, or +any other class; no sort of privilege will ever be permitted to dominate +this country. We are a partnership or nothing that is worth while. We are a +democracy, where the majority are the masters, or all the hopes and +purposes of the men who founded this government have been defeated and +forgotten. In America there is but one way by which great reforms can be +accomplished and the relief sought by classes obtained, and that is through +the orderly processes of representative government. Those who would propose +any other method of reform are enemies of this country. America will not be +daunted by threats nor lose her composure or calmness in these distressing +times. We can afford, in the midst of this day of passion and unrest, to be +self - contained and sure. The instrument of all reform in America is the +ballot. The road to economic and social reform in America is the straight +road of justice to all classes and conditions of men. Men have but to +follow this road to realize the full fruition of their objects and +purposes. Let those beware who would take the shorter road of disorder and +revolution. The right road is the road of justice and orderly process. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Woodrow Wilson +December 7, 1920 + +GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS: + +When I addressed myself to performing the duty laid upon the President by +the Constitution to present to you an annual report on the state of the +Union, I found my thought dominated by an immortal sentence of Abraham +Lincoln's-"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let +us dare to do our duty as we understand it" -a sentence immortal because it +embodies in a form of utter simplicity and purity the essential faith of +the nation, the faith in which it was conceived, and the faith in which it +has grown to glory and power. With that faith and the birth of a nation +founded upon it came the hope into the world that a new order would prevail +throughout the affairs of mankind, an order in which reason and right would +take precedence over covetousness and force; and I believe that I express +the wish and purpose of every thoughtful American when I say that this +sentence marks for us in the plainest manner the part we should play alike +in the arrangement of our domestic affairs and in our exercise of influence +upon the affairs of the world. + +By this faith, and by this faith alone, can the world be lifted out of its +present confusion and despair. It was this faith which prevailed over the +wicked force of Germany. You will remember that the beginning of the end of +the war came when the German people found themselves face to face with the +conscience of the world and realized that right was everywhere arrayed +against the wrong that their government was attempting to perpetrate. I +think, therefore, that it is true to say that this was the faith which won +the war. Certainly this is the faith with which our gallant men went into +the field and out upon the seas to make sure of victory. + +This is the mission upon which Democracy came into the world. Democracy is +an assertion of the right of the individual to live and to be treated +justly as against any attempt on the part of any combination of individuals +to make laws which will overburden him or which will destroy his equality +among his fellows in the matter of right or privilege; and I think we all +realize that the day has come when Democracy is being put upon its final +test. The Old World is just now suffering from a wanton rejection of the +principle of democracy and a substitution of the principle of autocracy as +asserted in the name, but without the authority and sanction, of the +multitude. This is the time of all others when Democracy should prove its +purity and its spiritual power to prevail. It is surely the manifest +destiny of the United States to lead in the attempt to make this spirit +prevail. + +There are two ways in which the United States can assist to accomplish this +great object. First, by offering the example within her own borders of the +will and power of Democracy to make and enforce laws which are +unquestionably just and which are equal in their administration-laws which +secure its full right to Labor and yet at the same time safeguard the +integrity of property, and particularly of that property which is devoted +to the development of industry and the increase of the necessary wealth of +the world. Second, by standing for right and justice as toward individual +nations. The law of Democracy is for the protection of the weak, and the +influence of every democracy in the world should be for the protection of +the weak nation, the nation which is struggling toward its right and toward +its proper recognition and privilege in the family of nations. + +The United States cannot refuse this role of champion without putting the +stigma of rejection upon the great and devoted men who brought its +government into existence and established it in the face of almost +universal opposition and intrigue, even in the face of wanton force, as, +for example, against the Orders in Council of Great Britain and the +arbitrary Napoleonic decrees which involved us in what we know as the War +of 1812. + +I urge you to consider that the display of an immediate disposition on the +part of the Congress to remedy any injustices or evils that may have shown +themselves in our own national life will afford the most effectual offset +to the forces of chaos and tyranny which are playing so disastrous a part +in the fortunes of the free peoples of more than one part of the world. The +United States is of necessity the sample democracy of the world, and the +triumph of Democracy depends upon its success. + +Recovery from the disturbing and sometimes disastrous effects of the late +war has been exceedingly slow on the other side of the water, and has given +promise, I venture-to say, of early completion only in our own fortunate +country; but even with us the recovery halts and is impeded at times, and +there are immediately serviceable acts of legislation which it seems to me +we ought to attempt, to assist that recovery and prove the indestructible +recuperative force of a great government of the people. One of these is to +prove that a great democracy can keep house as successfully and in as +business-like a fashion as any other government. It seems to me that the +first step toward providing this is to supply ourselves with a systematic +method of handling our estimates and expenditures and bringing them to the +point where they will not be an unnecessary strain upon our income or +necessitate unreasonable taxation; in other words, a workable budget +system. And I respectfully suggest that two elements are essential to such +a system-namely, not only that the proposal of appropriations should be in +the hands of a single body, such as a single appropriations committee in +each house of the Congress, but also that this body should be brought into +such cooperation with the Departments of the Government and with the +Treasury of the United States as would enable it to act upon a complete +conspectus of the needs of the Government and the resources from which it +must draw its income. + +I reluctantly vetoed the budget bill passed by the last session of the +Congress because of a constitutional objection. The House of +Representatives subsequently modified the bill in order to meet this +objection. In the revised form, I believe that the bill, coupled with +action already taken by the Congress to revise its rules and procedure, +furnishes the foundation for an effective national budget system. I +earnestly hope, therefore, that one of the first steps to be taken by the +present 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 1920 +exceeded those for 1919 by $1,542,000,000, while the total net ordinary +expenditures decreased from $18,514,000,000 to $6,403,000,000. The gross +public debt, which reached its highest point on August 31, 1919, when it +was $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 war +securities by the banking institutions of the country, as well as in the +amount of bills held by the Federal Reserve Banks secured by government war +obligations. This fortunate result has relieved the banks and left them +freer to finance the needs of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce. It has +been due in large part to the reduction of the public debt, especially of +the floating debt, but more particularly to the improved distribution of +government securities among permanent investors. The cessation of the +Government's borrowings, except through short-term certificates of +indebtedness, has been a matter of great consequence to the people of the +country at large, as well as to the holders of Liberty Bonds and Victory +Notes, and has had an important bearing on the matter of effective credit +control. + +The year has been characterized by the progressive withdrawal of the +Treasury from the domestic credit market and from a position of dominant +influence in that market. The future course will necessarily depend upon +the extent to which economies are practiced and upon the burdens placed +upon the Treasury, as well as upon industrial developments and the +maintenance of tax receipts at a sufficiently high level. The fundamental +fact which at present dominates the Government's financial situation is +that seven and a half billions of its war indebtedness mature within the +next two and a half years. Of this amount, two and a half billions are +floating debt and five billions, Victory Notes and War. Savings +Certificates. The fiscal program of the Government must be determined with +reference to these maturities. Sound policy demands that Government +expenditures be reduced to the lowest amount which will permit the various +services to operate efficiently and that Government receipts from taxes and +salvage be maintained sufficiently high to provide for current +requirements, including interest and sinking fund charges on the public +debt, and at the same time retire the floating debt and part of the Victory +Loan before maturity. + +With rigid economy, vigorous salvage operations, and adequate revenues from +taxation, a surplus of current receipts over current expenditures can be +realized and should be applied to the floating debt. All branches of the +Government should cooperate to see that this program is realized. I cannot +overemphasize the necessity of economy in Government appropriations and +expenditures and the avoidance by the Congress of practices which take +money from the Treasury by indefinite or revolving fund appropriations. The +estimates for the present year show that over a billion dollars of +expenditures were authorized by the last Congress in addition to the +amounts shown in the usual compiled statements of appropriations. This +strikingly illustrates the importance of making direct and specific +appropriations. The relation between the current receipts and current +expenditures of the Government during the present fiscal year, as well as +during the last half of the last fiscal year, has been disturbed by the +extraordinary 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 this +act-$350,000,000 during the present fiscal year; and it is estimated that +further payments aggregating possibly $650,000,000 must still be made to +the railroads during the current year. It is obvious that these large +payments have already seriously limited the Government's progress in +retiring the floating debt. + +Closely connected with this, it seems to me, is the necessity for an +immediate consideration of the revision of our tax laws. Simplification of +the income and profits taxes has become an immediate necessity. These taxes +performed an indispensable service during the war. The need for their +simplification, however, is very great, in order to save the taxpayer +inconvenience and expense and in order to make his liability more certain +and definite. Other and more detailed recommendations with regard to taxes +will no doubt be laid before you by the Secretary of the Treasury and the +Commissioner of Internal Revenue. + +It is my privilege to draw to the attention of Congress for very +sympathetic consideration the problem of providing adequate facilities for +the care and treatment of former members of the military and naval forces +who 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 they +patriotically rendered the nation. Their reward will lie rather in +realization of the fact that they vindicated the rights of their country +and aided in safeguarding civilization. The nation's gratitude must be +effectively revealed to them by the most ample provision for their medical +care and treatment as well as for their vocational training and placement. +The time has come when a more complete program can be formulated and more +satisfactorily administered for their treatment and training, and I +earnestly urge that the Congress give the matter its early consideration. +The Secretary of the Treasury and the Board for Vocational Education will +outline in their annual reports proposals covering medical care and +rehabilitation which I am sure will engage your earnest study and commend +your most generous support. + +Permit me to emphasize once more the need for action upon certain matters +upon which I dwelt at some length in my message to the second session of +the Sixty-sixth Congress. The necessity, for example, of encouraging the +manufacture of dyestuffs and related chemicals; the importance of doing +everything possible to promote agricultural production along economic +lines, to improve agricultural marketing, and to make rural life more +attractive and healthful; the need for a law regulating cold storage in +such 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 permitted +period, and requiring goods released from storage in all cases to bear the +date of their receipt. It would also be most serviceable if it were +provided that all goods released from cold storage for interstate shipment +should have plainly marked upon each package the selling or market price at +which they went into storage, in order that the purchaser might be able to +learn what profits stood between him and the producer or the wholesale +dealer. Indeed, It would be very serviceable to the public if all goods +destined for interstate commerce were made to carry upon every packing case +whose form made it possible a plain statement of the price at which they +left the hands of the producer. I respectfully call your attention also to +the recommendations of the message referred to with regard to a federal +license for all corporations engaged in interstate commerce. + +In brief, the immediate legislative need of the time is the removal of all +obstacles to the realization of the best ambitions of our people in their +several classes of employment and the strengthening of all +instrumentalities by. which difficulties are to be met and removed and +justice dealt out, whether by law or by some form of mediation and +conciliation. I do not feel it to be my privilege at present to, suggest +the detailed and particular methods by which these objects may be attained, +but I have faith that the inquiries of your several committees will +discover the way and the method. + +In response to what I believe to be the impulse of sympathy and opinion +throughout the United States, I earnestly suggest that the Congress +authorize the Treasury of the United States to make to the struggling +government of Armenia such a loan as was made to several of the Allied +governments during the war, and I would also suggest that it would be +desirable to provide in the legislation itself that the expenditure of the +money thus loaned should be under the supervision of a commission, or at +least a commissioner, from the United States in order that revolutionary +tendencies within Armenia itself might not be afforded by the loan a +further tempting opportunity. + +Allow me to call your attention to the fact that the people of the +Philippine Islands have succeeded in maintaining a stable government since +the last action of the Congress in their behalf, and have thus fulfilled +the condition set by the Congress as precedent to a consideration of +granting independence to the Islands. I respectfully submit that this +condition precedent having been fulfilled, it is now our liberty and our +duty to keep our promise to the people of those islands by granting them +the 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 bred +and which it is my solemn purpose to stand by until my last fighting day. I +believe this to be the faith of America, the faith of the future, and of +all the victories which await national action in the days to come, whether +in America or elsewhere. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF ADDRESSES BY WOODROW WILSON *** + +This file should be named suwil10.txt or suwil10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, suwil11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, suwil10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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I shall submit to you +the reports of the heads of the several departments, in which these +subjects are set forth in careful detail, and beg that they may receive the +thoughtful attention of your committees and of all Members of the Congress +who may have the leisure to study them. Their obvious importance, as +constituting the very substance of the business of the Government, makes +comment and emphasis on my part unnecessary. + +The country, I am thankful to say, is at peace with all the world, and many +happy manifestations multiply about us of a growing cordiality and sense of +community of interest among the nations, foreshadowing an age of settled +peace and good will. More and more readily each decade do the nations +manifest their willingness to bind themselves by solemn treaty to the +processes of peace, the processes of frankness and fair concession. So far +the United States has stood at the front of such negotiations. She will, I +earnestly hope and confidently believe, give fresh proof of her sincere +adherence to the cause of international friendship by ratifying the several +treaties of arbitration awaiting renewal by the Senate. In addition to +these, it has been the privilege of the Department of State to gain the +assent, in principle, of no less than 31 nations, representing four-fifths +of the population of the world, to the negotiation of treaties by which it +shall be agreed that whenever differences of interest or of policy arise +which can not be resolved by the ordinary processes of diplomacy they shall +be publicly analyzed, discussed, and reported upon by a tribunal chosen by +the parties before either nation determines its course of action. + +There is only one possible standard by which to determine controversies +between the United States and other nations, and that is compounded of +these two elements: Our own honor and our obligations to the peace of the +world. A test so compounded ought easily to be made to govern both the +establishment of new treaty obligations and the interpretation of those +already assumed. + +There is but one cloud upon our horizon. That has shown itself to the south +of us, and hangs over Mexico. There can be no certain prospect of peace in +America until Gen. Huerta has surrendered his usurped authority in Mexico; +until it is understood on all hands, indeed, that such pretended +governments will not be countenanced or dealt with by-the Government of the +United States. We are the friends of constitutional government in America; +we are more than its friends, we are its champions; because in no other way +can our neighbors, to whom we would wish in every way to make proof of our +friendship, work out their own development in peace and liberty. Mexico has +no Government. The attempt to maintain one at the City of Mexico has broken +down, and a mere military despotism has been set up which has hardly more +than the semblance of national authority. It originated in the usurpation +of Victoriano Huerta, who, after a brief attempt to play the part of +constitutional President, has at last cast aside even the pretense of legal +right and declared himself dictator. As a consequence, a condition of +affairs now exists in Mexico which has made it doubtful whether even the +most elementary and fundamental rights either of her own people or of the +citizens of other countries resident within her territory can long be +successfully safeguarded, and which threatens, if long continued, to +imperil the interests of peace, order, and tolerable life in the lands +immediately to the south of us. Even if the usurper had succeeded in his +purposes, in despite of the constitution of the Republic and the rights of +its people, he would have set up nothing but a precarious and hateful +power, which could have lasted but a little while, and whose eventual +downfall would have left the country in a more deplorable condition than +ever. But he has not succeeded. He has forfeited the respect and the moral +support even of those who were at one time willing to see him succeed. +Little by little he has been completely isolated. By a little every day his +power and prestige are crumbling and the collapse is not far away. We shall +not, I believe, be obliged to alter our policy of watchful waiting. And +then, when the end comes, we shall hope to see constitutional order +restored in distressed Mexico by the concert and energy of such of her +leaders as prefer the liberty of their people to their own ambitions. + +I turn to matters of domestic concern. You already have under consideration +a bill for the reform of our system of banking and currency, for which the +country waits with impatience, as for something fundamental to its whole +business life and necessary to set credit free from arbitrary and +artificial restraints. I need not say how earnestly I hope for its early +enactment into law. I take leave to beg that the whole energy and attention +of the Senate be concentrated upon it till the matter is successfully +disposed of. And yet I feel that the request is not needed-that the Members +of that great House need no urging in this service to the country. + +I present to you, in addition, the urgent necessity that special provision +be made also for facilitating the credits needed by the farmers of the +country. The pending currency bill does the farmers a great service. It +puts them upon an equal footing with other business men and masters of +enterprise, as it should; and upon its passage they will find themselves +quit of many of the difficulties which now hamper them in the field of +credit. The farmers, of course, ask and should be given no special +privilege, such as extending to them the credit of the Government itself. +What they need and should obtain is legislation which will make their own +abundant and substantial credit resources available as a foundation for +joint, concerted local action in their own behalf in getting the capital +they must use. It is to this we should now address ourselves. + +It has, singularly enough, come to pass that we have allowed the industry +of our farms to lag behind the other activities of the country in its +development. I need not stop to tell you how fundamental to the life of the +Nation is the production of its food. Our thoughts may ordinarily be +concentrated upon the cities and the hives of industry, upon the cries of +the crowded market place and the clangor of the factory, but it is from the +quiet interspaces of the open valleys and the free hillsides that we draw +the sources of life and of prosperity, from the farm and the ranch, from +the forest and the mine. Without these every street would be silent, every +office deserted, every factory fallen into disrepair. And yet the farmer +does not stand upon the same footing with the forester and the miner in the +market of credit. He is the servant of the seasons. Nature determines how +long he must wait for his crops, and will not be hurried in her processes. +He may give his note, but the season of its maturity depends upon the +season when his crop matures, lies at the gates of the market where his +products are sold. And the security he gives is of a character not known in +the broker's office or as familiarly as it might be on the counter of the +banker. + +The Agricultural Department of the Government is seeking to assist as never +before to make farming an efficient business, of wide co-operative effort, +in quick touch with the markets for foodstuffs. The farmers and the +Government will henceforth work together as real partners in this field, +where we now begin to see our way very clearly and where many intelligent +plans are already being put into execution. The Treasury of the United +States has, by a timely and well-considered distribution of its deposits, +facilitated the moving of the crops in the present season and prevented the +scarcity of available funds too often experienced at such times. But we +must not allow ourselves to depend upon extraordinary expedients. We must +add the means by which the, farmer may make his credit constantly and +easily available and command when he will the capital by which to support +and expand his business. We lag behind many other great countries of the +modern world in attempting to do this. Systems of rural credit have been +studied and developed on the other side of the water while we left our +farmers to shift for themselves in the ordinary money market. You have but +to look about you in any rural district to see the result, the handicap and +embarrassment which have been put upon those who produce our food. + +Conscious of this backwardness and neglect on our part, the Congress +recently authorized the creation of a special commission to study the +various systems of rural credit which have been put into operation in +Europe, and this commission is already prepared to report. Its report ought +to make it easier for us to determine what methods will be best suited to +our own farmers. I hope and believe that the committees of the Senate and +House will address themselves to this matter with the most fruitful +results, and I believe that the studies and recently formed plans of the +Department of Agriculture may be made to serve them very greatly in their +work of framing appropriate and adequate legislation. It would be +indiscreet and presumptuous in anyone to dogmatize upon so great and +many-sided a question, but I feel confident that common counsel will +produce the results we must all desire. + +Turn from the farm to the world of business which centers in the city and +in the factory, and I think that all thoughtful observers will agree that +the immediate service we owe the business communities of the country is to +prevent private monopoly more effectually than it has yet been prevented. I +think it will be easily agreed that we should let the Sherman anti-trust +law stand, unaltered, as it is, with its debatable ground about it, but +that we should as much as possible reduce the area of that debatable ground +by further and more explicit legislation; and should also supplement that +great act by legislation which will not only clarify it but also facilitate +its administration and make it fairer to all concerned. No doubt we shall +all wish, and the country will expect, this to be the central subject of +our deliberations during the present session; but it is a subject so +many-sided and so deserving of careful and discriminating discussion that I +shall take the liberty of addressing you upon it in a special message at a +later date than this. It is of capital importance that the business men of +this country should be relieved of all uncertainties of law with regard to +their enterprises and investments and a clear path indicated which they can +travel without anxiety. It is as important that they should be relieved of +embarrassment and set free to prosper as that private monopoly should be +destroyed. The ways of action should be thrown wide open. + +I turn to a subject which I hope can be handled promptly and without +serious controversy of any kind. I mean the method of selecting nominees +for the Presidency of the United States. I feel confident that I do not +misinterpret the wishes or the expectations of the country when I urge the +prompt enactment of legislation which will provide for primary elections +throughout the country at which the voters of the several parties may +choose their nominees for the Presidency without the intervention of +nominating conventions. I venture the suggestion that this legislation +should provide for the retention of party conventions, but only for the +purpose of declaring and accepting the verdict of the primaries and +formulating the platforms of the parties; and I suggest that these +conventions should consist not of delegates chosen for this single purpose, +but of the nominees for Congress, the nominees for vacant seats in the +Senate of the United States, the Senators whose terms have not yet closed, +the national committees, and the candidates for the Presidency themselves, +in order that platforms may be framed by those responsible to the people +for carrying them into effect. + +These are all matters of vital domestic concern, and besides them, outside +the charmed circle of our own national life in which our affections command +us, as well as our consciences, there stand out our obligations toward our +territories over sea. Here we are trustees. Porto Rico, Hawaii, the +Philippines, are ours, indeed, but not ours to do what we please with. Such +territories, once regarded as mere possessions, are no longer to be +selfishly exploited; they are part of the domain of public conscience and +of serviceable and enlightened statesmanship. We must administer them for +the people who live in them and with the same sense of responsibility to +them as toward our own people in our domestic affairs. No doubt we shall +successfully enough bind Porto Rico and the Hawaiian Islands to ourselves +by ties of justice and interest and affection, but the performance of our +duty toward the Philippines is a more difficult and debatable matter. We +can satisfy the obligations of generous justice toward the people of Porto +Rico by giving them the ample and familiar rights and privileges accorded +our own citizens in our own territories and our obligations toward the +people of Hawaii by perfecting the provisions for self-government already +granted them, but in the Philippines we must go further. We must hold +steadily in view their ultimate independence, and we must move toward the +time of that independence as steadily as the way can be cleared and the +foundations thoughtfully and permanently laid. + +Acting under the authority conferred upon the President by Congress, I have +already accorded the people of the islands a majority in both houses of +their legislative body by appointing five instead of four native citizens +to the membership of the commission. I believe that in this way we shall +make proof of their capacity in counsel and their sense of responsibility +in the exercise of political power, and that the success of this step will +be sure to clear our view for the steps which are to follow. Step by step +we should extend and perfect the system of self-government in the islands, +making test of them and modifying them as experience discloses their +successes and their failures; that we should more and more put under the +control of the native citizens of the archipelago the essential instruments +of their life, their local instrumentalities of government, their schools, +all the common interests of their communities, and so by counsel and +experience set up a government which all the world will see to be suitable +to a people whose affairs are under their own control. At last, I hope and +believe, we are beginning to gain the confidence of the Filipino peoples. +By their counsel and experience, rather than by our own, we shall learn how +best to serve them and how soon it will be possible and wise to withdraw +our supervision. Let us once find the path and set out with firm and +confident 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 and +very imperative; perhaps I should say a double duty, for it concerns both +the political and the material development of the Territory. The people of +Alaska 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 and +terminals it should itself control in the interest of all who wish to use +them for the service and development of the country and its people. + +But the construction of railways is only the first step; is only thrusting +in the key to the storehouse and throwing back the lock and opening the +door. How the tempting resources of the country are to be exploited is +another matter, to which I shall take the liberty of from time to time +calling your attention, for it is a policy which must be worked out by +well-considered stages, not upon theory, but upon lines of practical +expediency. It is part of our general problem of conservation. We have a +freer hand in working out the problem in Alaska than in the States of the +Union; and yet the principle and object are the same, wherever we touch it. +We must use the resources of the country, not lock them up. There need be +no conflict or jealousy as between State and Federal authorities, for there +can be no essential difference of purpose between them. The resources in +question must be used, but not destroyed or wasted; used, but not +monopolized upon any narrow idea of individual rights as against the +abiding interests of communities. That a policy can be worked out by +conference and concession which will release these resources and yet not +jeopard or dissipate them, I for one have no doubt; and it can be done on +lines of regulation which need be no less acceptable to the people and +governments of the States concerned than to the people and Government of +the Nation at large, whose heritage these resources are. We must bend our +counsels to this end. A common purpose ought to make agreement easy. + +Three or four matters of special importance and significance I beg, that +you will permit me to mention in closing. + +Our Bureau of Mines ought to be equipped and empowered to render even more +effectual service than it renders now in improving the conditions of mine +labor and making the mines more economically productive as well as more +safe. This is an all-important part of the work of conservation; and the +conservation of human life and energy lies even nearer to our interests +than the preservation from waste of our material resources. + +We owe it, in mere justice to the railway employees of the country, to +provide for them a fair and effective employers' liability act; and a law +that we can stand by in this matter will be no less to the advantage of +those who administer the railroads of the country than to the advantage of +those whom they employ. The experience of a large number of the States +abundantly proves that. + +We ought to devote ourselves to meeting pressing demands of plain justice +like this as earnestly as to the accomplishment of political and economic +reforms. Social justice comes first. Law is the machinery for its +realization and is vital only as it expresses and embodies it. + +An international congress for the discussion of all questions that affect +safety at sea is now sitting in London at the suggestion of our own +Government. So soon as the conclusions of that congress can be learned and +considered we ought to address ourselves, among other things, to the prompt +alleviation of the very unsafe, unjust, and burdensome conditions which now +surround the employment of sailors and render it extremely difficult to +obtain the services of spirited and competent men such as every ship needs +if it is to be safely handled and brought to port. + +May I not express the very real pleas-are I have experienced in +co-operating with this Congress and sharing with it the labors of common +service to which it has devoted itself so unreservedly during the past +seven months of uncomplaining concentration upon the business of +legislation? Surely it is a proper and pertinent part of my report on "the +state of the Union" to express my admiration for the diligence, the good +temper, and the full comprehension of public duty which has already been +manifested by both the Houses; and I hope that it may not be deemed an +impertinent intrusion of myself into the picture if I say with how much and +how constant satisfaction I have availed myself of the privilege of putting +my time and energy at their disposal alike in counsel and in action. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Woodrow Wilson +December 8, 1914 + +GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS: + +The session upon which you are now entering will be the closing session of +the Sixty-third Congress, a Congress, I venture to say, which will long be +remembered for the great body of thoughtful and constructive work which it +has done, in loyal response to the thought and needs of the country. I +should like in this address to review the notable record and try to make +adequate assessment of it; but no doubt we stand too near the work that has +been done and are ourselves too much part of it to play the part of +historians toward it. + +Our program of legislation with regard to the regulation of business is now +virtually complete. It has been put forth, as we intended, as a whole, and +leaves no conjecture as to what is to follow. The road at last lies clear +and firm before business. It is a road which it can travel without fear or +embarrassment. It is the road to ungrudged, unclouded success. In it every +honest man, every man who believes that the public interest is part of his +own interest, may walk with perfect confidence. + +Moreover, our thoughts are now more of the future than of the past. While +we have worked at our tasks of peace the circumstances of the whole age +have been altered by war. What we have done for our own land and our own +people we did with the best that was in us, whether of character or of +intelligence, with sober enthusiasm and a confidence in the principles upon +which we were acting which sustained us at every step of the difficult +undertaking; but it is done. It has passed from our hands. It is now an +established part of the legislation of the country. Its usefulness, its +effects will disclose themselves in experience. What chiefly strikes us +now, as we look about us during these closing days of a year which will be +forever memorable in the history of the world, is that we face new tasks, +have been facing them these six months, must face them in the months to +come,-face them without partisan feeling, like men who have forgotten +everything but a common duty and the fact that we are representatives of a +great people whose thought is not of us but of what America owes to herself +and to all mankind in such circumstances as these upon which we look amazed +and anxious. + +War has interrupted the means of trade not only but also the processes of +production. In Europe it is destroying men and resources wholesale and upon +a scale unprecedented and appalling, There is reason to fear that the time +is near, if it be not already at hand, when several of the countries of +Europe will find it difficult to do for their people what they have +hitherto been always easily able to do,--many essential and fundamental +things. At any rate, they will need our help and our manifold services as +they have never needed them before; and we should be ready, more fit and +ready than we have ever been. + +It is of equal consequence that the nations whom Europe has usually +supplied with innumerable articles of manufacture and commerce of which +they are in constant need and without which their economic development +halts and stands still can now get only a small part of what they formerly +imported and eagerly look to us to supply their all but empty markets. This +is particularly true of our own neighbors, the States, great and small, of +Central and South America. Their lines of trade have hitherto run chiefly +athwart the seas, not to our ports but to the ports of Great Britain and of +the older continent of Europe. I do not stop to inquire why, or to make any +comment on probable causes. What interests us just now is not the +explanation but the fact, and our duty and opportunity in the presence of +it. Here are markets which we must supply, and we must find the means of +action. The United States, this great people for whom we speak and act, +should be ready, as never before, to serve itself and to serve mankind; +ready with its resources, its energies, its forces of production, and its +means of distribution. + +It is a very practical matter, a matter of ways and means. We have the +resources, but are we fully ready to use them? And, if we can make ready +what we have, have we the means at hand to distribute it? We are not fully +ready; neither have we the means of distribution. We are willing, but we +are not fully able. We have the wish to serve and to serve greatly, +generously; but we are not prepared as we should be. We are not ready to +mobilize our resources at once. We are not prepared to use them immediately +and at their best, without delay and without waste. + +To speak plainly, we have grossly erred in the way in which we have stunted +and hindered the development of our merchant marine. And now, when we need +ships, we have not got them. We have year after year debated, without end +or conclusion, the best policy to pursue with regard to the use of the ores +and forests and water powers of our national domain in the rich States of +the West, when we should have acted; and they are still locked up. The key +is still turned upon them, the door shut fast at which thousands of +vigorous men, full of initiative, knock clamorously for admittance. The +water power of our navigable streams outside the national domain also, even +in the eastern States, where we have worked and planned for generations, is +still not used as it might be, because we will and we won't; because the +laws we have made do not intelligently balance encouragement against +restraint. 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 have +done all the work that could reasonably be expected of it. The time and the +circumstances are extraordinary, and so must our efforts be also. + +Fortunately, two great measures, finely conceived, the one to unlock, with +proper safeguards, the resources of the national domain, the other to +encourage the use of the navigable waters outside that domain for the +generation of power, have already passed the House of Representatives and +are ready for immediate consideration and action by the Senate. With the +deepest earnestness I urge their prompt passage. In them both we turn our +backs upon hesitation and makeshift and formulate a genuine policy of use +and conservation, in the best sense of those words. We owe the one measure +not only to the people of that great western country for whose free and +systematic development, as it seems to me, our legislation has done so +little, but also to the people of the Nation as a whole; and we as clearly +owe the other fulfillment of our repeated promises that the water power of +the country should in fact as well as in name be put at the disposal of +great industries which can make economical and profitable use of it, the +rights of the public being adequately guarded the while, and monopoly in +the use prevented. To have begun such measures and not completed them would +indeed mar the record of this great Congress very seriously. I hope and +confidently believe that they will be completed. + +And there is another great piece of legislation which awaits and should +receive the sanction of the Senate: I mean the bill which gives a larger +measure of self-government to the people of the Philippines. How better, in +this time of anxious questioning and perplexed policy, could we show our +confidence in the principles of liberty, as the source as well as the +expression of life, how better could we demonstrate our own self-possession +and steadfastness in the courses of justice and disinterestedness than by +thus going calmly forward to fulfill our promises to a dependent people, +who will now look more anxiously than ever to see whether we have indeed +the liberality, the unselfishness, the courage, the faith we have boasted +and professed. I can not believe that the Senate will let this great +measure of constructive justice await the action of another Congress. Its +passage would nobly crown the record of these two years of memorable +labor. + +But I think that you will agree with me that this does not complete the +toll of our duty. How are we to carry our goods to the empty markets of +which I have spoken if we have not the ships? How are we to build up a +great trade if we have not the certain and constant means of +transportation upon which all profitable and useful commerce depends? And +how are we to get the ships if we wait for the trade to develop without +them? To correct the many mistakes by which we have discouraged and all but +destroyed the merchant marine of the country, to retrace the steps by which +we 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 some +wandering yacht displays it, would take a long time and involve many +detailed items of legislation, and the trade which we ought immediately to +handle would disappear or find other channels while we debated the items. + +The case is not unlike that which confronted us when our own continent was +to be opened up to settlement and industry, and we needed long lines of +railway, extended means of transportation prepared beforehand, if +development was not to lag intolerably and wait interminably. We lavishly +subsidized the building of transcontinental railroads. We look back upon +that with regret now, because the subsidies led to many scandals of which +we are ashamed; but we know that the railroads had to be built, and if we +had it to do over again we should of course build them, but in another way. +Therefore I propose another way of providing the means of transportation, +which must precede, not tardily follow, the development of our trade with +our neighbor states of America. It may seem a reversal of the natural order +of things, but it is true, that the routes of trade must be actually +opened-by many ships and regular sailings and moderate charges-before +streams of merchandise will flow freely and profitably through them. + +Hence the pending shipping bill, discussed at the last session but as yet +passed by neither House. In my judgment such legislation is imperatively +needed and can not wisely be postponed. The Government must open these +gates of trade, and open them wide; open them before it is altogether +profitable to open them, or altogether reasonable to ask private capital to +open them at a venture. It is not a question of the Government monopolizing +the field. It should take action to make it certain that transportation at +reasonable rates will be promptly provided, even where the carriage is not +at first profitable; and then, when the carriage has become sufficiently +profitable to attract and engage private capital, and engage it in +abundance, the Government ought to withdraw. I very earnestly hope that the +Congress will be of this opinion, and that both Houses will adopt this +exceedingly important bill. + +The great subject of rural credits still remains to be dealt with, and it +is a matter of deep regret that the difficulties of the subject have seemed +to render it impossible to complete a bill for passage at this session. But +it can not be perfected yet, and therefore there are no other constructive +measures the necessity for which I will at this time call your attention +to; but I would be negligent of a very manifest duty were I not to call the +attention of the Senate to the fact that the proposed convention for safety +at sea awaits its confirmation and that the limit fixed in the convention +itself for its acceptance is the last day of the present month. The +conference in which this convention originated was called by the United +States; the representatives of the United States played a very influential +part indeed in framing the provisions of the proposed convention; and those +provisions are in themselves for the most part admirable. It would hardly +be consistent with the part we have played in the whole matter to let it +drop and go by the board as if forgotten and neglected. It was ratified in +May by the German Government and in August by the Parliament of Great +Britain. It marks a most hopeful and decided advance in international +civilization. We should show our earnest good faith in a great matter by +adding our own acceptance of it. + +There is another matter of which I must make special mention, if I am to +discharge my conscience, lest it should escape your attention. It may seem +a very small thing. It affects only a single item of appropriation. But +many human lives and many great enterprises hang upon it. It is the matter +of making adequate provision for the survey and charting of our coasts. It +is immediately pressing and exigent in connection with the immense coast +line of Alaska, a coast line greater than that of the United States +themselves, though it is also very important indeed with regard to the +older coasts of the continent. We can not use our great Alaskan domain, +ships will not ply thither, if those coasts and their many hidden dangers +are not thoroughly surveyed and charted. The work is incomplete at almost +every point. Ships and lives have been lost in threading what were supposed +to be well-known main channels. We have not provided adequate vessels or +adequate machinery for the survey and charting. We have used old vessels +that were not big enough or strong enough and which were so nearly +unseaworthy that our inspectors would not have allowed private owners to +send them to sea. This is a matter which, as I have said, seems small, but +is in reality very great. Its importance has only to be looked into to be +appreciated. + +Before I close may I say a few words upon two topics, much discussed out of +doors, 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 is +not debatable. It is manifest and imperative. In the appropriations we pass +we are spending the money of the great people whose servants we are,-not +our own. We are trustees and responsible stewards in the spending. The only +thing debatable and upon which we should be careful to make our thought and +purpose clear is the kind of economy demanded of us. I assert with the +greatest confidence that the people of the United States are not jealous of +the amount their Government costs if they are sure that they get what they +need and desire for the outlay, that the money is being spent for objects +of which they approve, and that it is being applied with good business +sense and management. + +Governments grow, piecemeal, both in their tasks and in the means by which +those tasks are to be performed, and very few Governments are organized, I +venture to say, as wise and experienced business men would organize them if +they had a clean sheet of paper to write upon. Certainly the Government of +the United States is not. I think that it is generally agreed that there +should be a systematic reorganization and reassembling of its parts so as +to secure greater efficiency and effect considerable savings in expense. +But the amount of money saved in that way would, I believe, though no doubt +considerable in itself, running, it may be, into the millions, be +relatively small,-small, I mean, in proportion to the total necessary +outlays of the Government. It would be thoroughly worth effecting, as every +saving would, great or small. Our duty is not altered by the scale of the +saving. But my point is that the people of the United States do not wish to +curtail the activities of this Government; they wish, rather, to enlarge +them; and with every enlargement, with the mere growth, indeed, of the +country itself, there must come, of course, the inevitable increase of +expense. The sort of economy we ought to practice may be effected, and +ought to be effected, by a careful study and assessment of the tasks to be +performed; and the money spent ought to be made to yield the best possible +returns in efficiency and achievement. And, like good stewards, we should +so account for every dollar of our appropriations as to make it perfectly +evident what it was spent for and in what way it was spent. + +It is not expenditure but extravagance that we should fear being criticized +for; not paying for the legitimate enterprise and undertakings of a great +Government whose people command what it should do, but adding what will +benefit only a few or pouring money out for what need not have been +undertaken at all or might have been postponed or better and more +economically conceived and carried out. The Nation is not niggardly; it is +very generous. It will chide us only if we forget for whom we pay money out +and whose money it is we pay. These are large and general standards, but +they are not very difficult of application to particular cases. + +The other topic I shall take leave to mention goes deeper into the +principles of our national life and policy. It is the subject of national +defense. + +It can not be discussed without first answering some very searching +questions. 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 upon +brief 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 of +peace so long as we retain our present political principles and +institutions. And what is it that it is suggested we should be prepared to +do? To defend ourselves against attack? We have always found means to do +that, and shall find them whenever it is necessary without calling our +people away from their necessary tasks to render compulsory military +service in times of peace. + +Allow me to speak with great plainness and directness upon this great +matter and to avow my convictions with deep earnestness. I have tried to +know what America is, what her people think, what they are, what they most +cherish and hold dear. I hope that some of their finer passions are in my +own heart,--some of the great conceptions and desires which gave birth to +this Government and which have made the voice of this people a voice of +peace 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 fact +or drawn from a just and candid interpretation of realities can say that +there is reason to fear that from any quarter our independence or the +integrity of our territory is threatened. Dread of the power of any other +nation we are incapable of. We are not jealous of rivalry in the fields of +commerce or of any other peaceful achievement. We mean to live our own +lives as we will; but we mean also to let live. We are, indeed, a true +friend to all the nations of the world, because we threaten none, covet the +possessions of none, desire the overthrow of none. Our friendship can be +accepted and is accepted without reservation, because it is offered in a +spirit 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 to +earn. Just now we should be particularly jealous of it because it is our +dearest present hope that this character and reputation may presently, in +God's providence, bring us an opportunity such as has seldom been +vouchsafed any nation, the opportunity to counsel and obtain peace in the +world and reconciliation and a healing settlement of many a matter that has +cooled and interrupted the friendship of nations. This is the time above +all others when we should wish and resolve to keep our strength by +self-possession, our influence by preserving our ancient principles of +action. + +From the first we have had a clear and settled policy with regard to +military establishments. We never have had, and while we retain our present +principles and ideals we never shall have, a large standing army. If asked, +Are you ready to defend yourselves? we reply, Most assuredly, to the +utmost; and yet we shall not turn America into a military camp. We will not +ask our young men to spend the best years of their lives making soldiers of +themselves. There is another sort of energy in us. It will know how to +declare itself and make itself effective should occasion arise. And +especially when half the world is on fire we shall be careful to make our +moral insurance against the spread of the conflagration very definite and +certain 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 the +past, not upon a standing army, nor yet upon a reserve army, but upon a +citizenry trained and accustomed to arms. It will be right enough, right +American policy, based upon our accustomed principles and practices, to +provide a system by which every citizen who will volunteer for the training +may be made familiar with the use of modern arms, the rudiments of drill +and maneuver, and the maintenance and sanitation of camps. We should +encourage such training and make it a means of discipline which our young +men 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 our +young men to undergo it at such times as they can command a little freedom +and can seek the physical development they need, for mere health's sake, if +for nothing more. Every means by which such things can be stimulated is +legitimate, and such a method smacks of true American ideas. It is right, +too, that the National Guard of the States should be developed and +strengthened by every means which is not inconsistent with our obligations +to our own people or with the established policy of our Government. And +this, also, not because the time or occasion specially calls for such +measures, but because it should be our constant policy to make these +provisions for our national peace and safety. + +More than this carries with it a reversal of the whole history and +character of our polity. More than this, proposed at this time, permit me +to say, would mean merely that we had lost our self-possession, that we had +been thrown off our balance by a war with which we have nothing to do, +whose causes can not touch us, whose very existence affords us +opportunities of friendship and disinterested service which should make us +ashamed of any thought of hostility or fearful preparation for trouble. +This is assuredly the opportunity for which a people and a government like +ours were raised up, the opportunity not only to speak but actually to +embody and exemplify the counsels of peace and amity and the lasting +concord which is based on justice and fair and generous dealing. + +A powerful navy we have always regarded as our proper and natural means of +defense, and it has always been of defense that we have thought, never of +aggression or of conquest. But who shall tell us now what sort of navy to +build? We shall take leave to be strong upon the seas, in the future as in +the past; and there will be no thought of offense or of provocation in +that. Our ships are our natural bulwarks. When will the experts tell us +just what kind we should construct-and when will they be right for ten +years together, if the relative efficiency of craft of different kinds and +uses continues to change as we have seen it change under our very eyes in +these last few months? + +But I turn away from the subject. It is not new. There is no new need to +discuss it. We shall not alter our attitude toward it because some amongst +us are nervous and excited. We shall easily and sensibly agree upon a +policy of defense. The question has not changed its aspects because the +times are not normal. Our policy will not be for an occasion. It will be +conceived as a permanent and settled thing, which we will pursue at all +seasons, without haste and after a fashion perfectly consistent with the +peace of the world, the abiding friendship of states, and the unhampered +freedom of all with whom we deal. Let there be no misconception. The +country has been misinformed. We have not been negligent of national +defense. We are not unmindful of the great responsibility resting upon us. +We shall learn and profit by the lesson of every experience and every new +circumstance; and what is needed will be adequately done. + +I close, as I began, by reminding you of the great tasks and duties of +peace which challenge our best powers and invite us to build what will +last, the tasks to which we can address ourselves now and at all times with +free-hearted zest and with all the finest gifts of constructive wisdom we +possess. 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 plenty +of our fields and our marts of trade to enrich the commerce of our own +States and of the world with the products of our mines, our farms, and our +factories, with the creations of our thought and the fruits of our +character,-this is what will hold our attention and our enthusiasm +steadily, now and in the years to come, as we strive to show in our life as +a nation what liberty and the inspirations of an emancipated spirit may do +for men and for societies, for individuals, for states, and for mankind. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Woodrow Wilson +December 7, 1915 + +GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS: + +Since I last had the privilege of addressing you on the state of the Union +the war of nations on the other side of the sea, which had then only begun +to disclose its portentous proportions, has extended its threatening and +sinister scope until it has swept within its flame some portion of every +quarter of the globe, not excepting our own hemisphere, has altered the +whole face of international affairs, and now presents a prospect of +reorganization and reconstruction such as statesmen and peoples have never +been 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 have +brought the conflict on; it was necessary, if a universal catastrophe was +to be avoided, that a limit should be set to the sweep of destructive war +and that some part of the great family of nations should keep the processes +of peace alive, if only to prevent collective economic ruin and the +breakdown throughout the world of the industries by which its populations +are fed and sustained. It was manifestly the duty of the self-governed +nations of this hemisphere to redress, if possible, the balance of economic +loss and confusion in the other, if they could do nothing more. In the day +of readjustment and recuperation we earnestly hope and believe that they +can be of infinite service. + +In this neutrality, to which they were bidden not only by their separate +life and their habitual detachment from the politics of Europe but also by +a clear perception of international duty, the states of America have become +conscious of a new and more vital community of interest and moral +partnership in affairs, more clearly conscious of the many common +sympathies and interests and duties which bid them stand together. + +There was a time in the early days of our own great nation and of the +republics fighting their way to independence in Central and South America +when the government of the United States looked upon itself as in some sort +the guardian of the republics to the South of her as against any +encroachments or efforts at political control from the other side of the +water; 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 and +disinterested enthusiasm for the freedom of the Americas and the unmolested +Self-government of her independent peoples. But it was always difficult to +maintain such a role without offense to the pride of the peoples whose +freedom of action we sought to protect, and without provoking serious +misconceptions of our motives, and every thoughtful man of affairs must +welcome the altered circumstances of the new day in whose light we now +stand, when there is no claim of guardianship or thought of wards but, +instead, a full and honorable association as of partners between ourselves +and our neighbors, in the interest of all America, north and south. Our +concern for the independence and prosperity of the states of Central and +South America is not altered. We retain unabated the spirit that has +inspired us throughout the whole life of our government and which was so +frankly put into words by President Monroe. We still mean always to make a +common 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 no +thought of taking advantage of any government in this hemisphere or playing +its political fortunes for our own benefit. All the governments of America +stand, so far as we are concerned, upon a footing of genuine equality and +unquestioned independence. + +We have been put to the test in the case of Mexico, and we have stood the +test. Whether we have benefited Mexico by the course we have pursued +remains to be seen. Her fortunes are in her own hands. But we have at least +proved that we will not take advantage of her in her distress and undertake +to impose upon her an order and government of our own choosing. Liberty is +often a fierce and intractable thing, to which no bounds can be set, and to +which no bounds of a few men's choosing ought ever to be set. Every +American who has drunk at the true fountains of principle and tradition +must subscribe without reservation to the high doctrine of the Virginia +Bill of Rights, which in the great days in which our government was set up +was everywhere amongst us accepted as the creed of free men. That doctrine +is, "That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, +protection, and security of the people, nation, or community"; that "of all +the various modes and forms of government, that is the best which is +capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is +most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and that, +when any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these +purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable, and +indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall +be judged most conducive to the public weal." We have unhesitatingly +applied that heroic principle to the case of Mexico, and now hopefully +await the rebirth of the troubled Republic, which had so much of which to +purge itself and so little sympathy from any outside quarter in the radical +but necessary process. We will aid and befriend Mexico, but we will not +coerce her; and our course with regard to her ought to be sufficient proof +to all America that we seek no political suzerainty or selfish control. + +The moral is, that the states of America are not hostile rivals but +cooperating friends, and that their growing sense of community or interest, +alike in matters political and in matters economic, is likely to give them +a new significance as factors in international affairs and in the political +history of the world. It presents them as in a very deep and true sense a +unit in world affairs, spiritual partners, standing together because +thinking together, quick with common sympathies and common ideals. +Separated they are subject to all the cross currents of the confused +politics of a world of hostile rivalries; united in spirit and purpose they +cannot be disappointed of their peaceful destiny. + +This is Pan-Americanism. It has none of the spirit of empire in it. It is +the embodiment, the effectual embodiment, of the spirit of law and +independence and liberty and mutual service. + +A very notable body of men recently met in the City of Washington, at the +invitation and as the guests of this Government, whose deliberations are +likely to be looked back to as marking a memorable turning point in the +history of America. They were representative spokesmen of the several +independent states of this hemisphere and were assembled to discuss the +financial and commercial relations of the republics of the two continents +which nature and political fortune have so intimately linked together. I +earnestly recommend to your perusal the reports of their proceedings and of +the actions of their committees. You will get from them, I think, a fresh +conception of the ease and intelligence and advantage with which Americans +of both continents may draw together in practical cooperation and of what +the material foundations of this hopeful partnership of interest must +consist,-of how we should build them and of how necessary it is that we +should hasten their building. + +There is, I venture to point out, an especial significance just now +attaching to this whole matter of drawing the Americans together in bonds +of honorable partnership and mutual advantage because of the economic +readjustments which the world must inevitably witness within the next +generation, when peace shall have at last resumed its healthful tasks. In +the performance of these tasks I believe the Americas to be destined to +play their parts together. I am interested to fix your attention on this +prospect now because unless you take it within your view and permit the +full significance of it to command your thought I cannot find the right +light in which to set forth the particular matter that lies at the very +font 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 we +are appointed to speak can fail to perceive that their passion is for +peace, 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 supports +life and the uncensored thought that quickens it. Conquest and dominion are +not in our reckoning, or agreeable to our principles. But just because we +demand unmolested development and the undisturbed government of our own +lives upon our own principles of right and liberty, we resent, from +whatever quarter it may come, the aggression we ourselves will not +practice. We insist upon security in prosecuting our self-chosen lines of +national development. We do more than that. We demand it also for others. +We do not confine our enthusiasm for individual liberty and free national +development to the incidents and movements of affairs which affect only +ourselves. We feel it wherever there is a people that tries to walk in +these difficult paths of independence and right. From the first we have +made common cause with all partisans of liberty on this side the sea, and +have deemed it as important that our neighbors should be free from all +outside domination as that we ourselves should be. We have set America +aside 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 means +of asserting the rights of a people against aggression. And we are as +fiercely jealous of coercive or dictatorial power within our own nation as +of aggression from without. We will not maintain a standing army except for +uses which are as necessary in times of peace as in times of war; and we +shall always see to it that our military peace establishment is no larger +than is actually and continuously needed for the uses of days in which no +enemies move against us. But we do believe in a body of free citizens ready +and sufficient to take care of themselves and of the governments which they +have set up to serve them. In our constitutions themselves we have +commanded that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be +infringed," and our confidence has been that our safety in times of danger +would lie in the rising of the nation to take care of itself, as the +farmers rose at Lexington. + +But war has never been a mere matter of men and guns. It is a thing of +disciplined might. If our citizens are ever to fight effectively upon a +sudden summons, they must know how modern fighting is done, and what to do +when the summons comes to render themselves immediately available and +immediately effective. And the government must be their servant in this +matter, must supply them with the training they need to take care of +themselves and of it. The military arm of their government, which they will +not allow to direct them, they may properly use to serve them and make +their independence secure,-and not their own independence merely but the +rights also of those with whom they have made common cause, should they +also be put in jeopardy. They must be fitted to play the great role in the +world, and particularly in this hemisphere, for which they are qualified by +principle and by chastened ambition to play. + +It is with these ideals in mind that the plans of the Department of War for +more adequate national defense were conceived which will be laid before +you, and which I urge you to sanction and put into effect as soon as they +can be properly scrutinized and discussed. They seem to me the essential +first steps, and they seem to me for the present sufficient. + +They contemplate an increase of the standing force of the regular army from +its present strength of five thousand and twenty-three officers and one +hundred and two thousand nine hundred and eighty-five enlisted men of all +services to a strength of seven thousand one hundred and thirty-six +officers and one hundred and thirty-four thousand seven hundred and seven +enlisted men, or 141,843, all told, all services, rank and file, by the +addition of fifty-two companies of coast artillery, fifteen companies of +engineers, ten regiments of infantry, four regiments of field artillery, +and four aero squadrons, besides seven hundred and fifty officers required +for a great variety of extra service, especially the all important duty of +training the citizen force of which I shall presently speak, seven hundred +and ninety-two noncommissioned officers for service in drill, recruiting +and the like, and the necessary quota of enlisted men for the Quartermaster +Corps, the Hospital Corps, the Ordnance Department, and other similar +auxiliary services. These are the additions necessary to render the army +adequate for its present duties, duties which it has to perform not only +upon our own continental coasts and borders and at our interior army posts, +but also in the Philippines, in the Hawaiian Islands, at the Isthmus, and +in Porto Rico. + +By way of making the country ready to assert some part of its real power +promptly and upon a larger scale, should occasion arise, the plan also +contemplates supplementing the army by a force of four hundred thousand +disciplined citizens, raised in increments of one hundred and thirty-three +thousand a year throughout a period of three years. This it is proposed to +do by a process of enlistment under which the serviceable men of the +country would be asked to bind themselves to serve with the colors for +purposes of training for short periods throughout three years, and to come +to the colors at call at any time throughout an additional "furlough" +period of three years. This force of four hundred thousand men would be +provided with personal accoutrements as fast as enlisted and their +equipment for the field made ready to be supplied at any time. They would +be assembled for training at stated intervals at convenient places in +association with suitable units of the regular army. Their period of annual +training would not necessarily exceed two months in the year. + +It would depend upon the patriotic feeling of the younger men of the +country whether they responded to such a call to service or not. It would +depend upon the patriotic spirit of the employers of the country whether +they made it possible for the younger men in their employ to respond under +favorable conditions or not. I, for one, do not doubt the patriotic +devotion either of our young men or of those who give them +employment,--those for whose benefit and protection they would in fact +enlist. I would look forward to the success of such an experiment with +entire confidence. + +At least so much by way of preparation for defense seems to me to be +absolutely imperative now. We cannot do less. + +The programme which will be laid before you by the Secretary of the Navy is +similarly conceived. It involves only a shortening of the time within which +plans long matured shall be carried out; but it does make definite and +explicit a programme which has heretofore been only implicit, held in the +minds of the Committees on Naval Affairs and disclosed in the debates of +the two Houses but nowhere formulated or formally adopted. It seems to me +very clear that it will be to the advantage of the country for the Congress +to adopt a comprehensive plan for putting the navy upon a final footing of +strength and efficiency and to press that plan to completion within the +next five years. We have always looked to the navy of the country as our +first and chief line of defense; we have always seen it to be our manifest +course of prudence to be strong on the seas. Year by year we have been +creating a navy which now ranks very high indeed among the navies of the +maritime nations. We should now definitely determine how we shall complete +what we have begun, and how soon. + +The programme to be laid before you contemplates the construction within +five 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 first +year 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; the +second year, two battleships, one scout cruiser, ten destroyers, four fleet +submarines, 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; the +fourth year, two battleships, two battle cruisers, two scout cruisers, ten +destroyers, two fleet submarines, fifteen coast submarines, one ammunition +ship, and one fuel oil ship; and the fifth year, two battleships, one +battle cruiser, two scout cruisers, ten destroyers, two fleet submarines, +fifteen coast submarines, one gunboat, one ammunition ship, and one repair +ship. + +The Secretary of the Navy is asking also for the immediate addition to the +personnel of the navy of seven thousand five hundred sailors, twenty-five +hundred apprentice seamen, and fifteen hundred marines. This increase would +be sufficient to care for the ships which are to be completed within the +fiscal year 1917 and also for the number of men which must be put in +training to man the ships which will be completed early in 1918. It is also +necessary that the number of midshipmen at the Naval academy at Annapolis +should be increased by at least three hundred in order that the force of +officers should be more rapidly added to; and authority is asked to +appoint, for engineering duties only, approved graduates of engineering +colleges, and for service in the aviation corps a certain number of men +taken from civil life. + +If this full programme should be carried out we should have built or +building in 1921, according to the estimates of survival and standards of +classification followed by the General Board of the Department, an +effective navy consisting of twenty-seven battleships of the first line, +six battle cruisers, twenty-five battleships of the second line, ten +armored cruisers, thirteen scout cruisers, five first class cruisers, three +second class cruisers, ten third class cruisers, one hundred and eight +destroyers, eighteen fleet submarines, one hundred and fifty-seven coast +submarines, six monitors, twenty gunboats, four supply ships, fifteen fuel +ships, four transports, three tenders to torpedo vessels, eight vessels of +special types, and two ammunition ships. This would be a navy fitted to our +needs and worthy of our traditions. + +But armies and instruments of war are only part of what has to be +considered if we are to provide for the supreme matter of national +self-sufficiency and security in all its aspects. There are other great +matters which will be thrust upon our attention whether we will or not. +There is, for example, a very pressing question of trade and shipping +involved in this great problem of national adequacy. It is necessary for +many weighty reasons of national efficiency and development that we should +have a great merchant marine. The great merchant fleet we once used to make +us rich, that great body of sturdy sailors who used to carry our flag into +every sea, and who were the pride and often the bulwark of the nation, we +have almost driven out of existence by inexcusable neglect and indifference +and by a hopelessly blind and provincial policy of so-called economic +protection. It is high time we repaired our mistake and resumed our +commercial independence on the seas. + +For it is a question of independence. If other nations go to war or seek to +hamper 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 they +determine. We have not ships enough of our own. We cannot handle our own +commerce on the seas. Our independence is provincial, and is only on land +and within our own borders. We are not likely to be permitted to use even +the ships of other nations in rivalry of their own trade, and are without +means to extend our commerce even where the doors are wide open and our +goods desired. Such a situation is not to be endured. It is of capital +importance not only that the United States should be its own carrier on the +seas and enjoy the economic independence which only an adequate merchant +marine would give it, but also that the American hemisphere as a whole +should enjoy a like independence and self-sufficiency, if it is not to be +drawn into the tangle of European affairs. Without such independence the +whole question of our political unity and self-determination is very +seriously clouded and complicated indeed. + +Moreover, we can develop no true or effective American policy without ships +of our own,--not ships of war, but ships of peace, carrying goods and +carrying much more: creating friendships and rendering indispensable +services to all interests on this side the water. They must move constantly +back and forth between the Americas. They are the only shuttles that can +weave the delicate fabric of sympathy, comprehension, confidence, and +mutual dependence in which we wish to clothe our policy of America for +Americans. + +The task of building up an adequate merchant marine for America private +capital must ultimately undertake and achieve, as it has undertaken and +achieved every other like task amongst us in the past, with admirable +enterprise, intelligence, and vigor; and it seems to me a manifest dictate +of wisdom that we should promptly remove every legal obstacle that may +stand in the way of this much to be desired revival of our old independence +and should facilitate in every possible way the building, purchase, and +American registration of ships. But capital cannot accomplish this great +task of a sudden. It must embark upon it by degrees, as the opportunities +of trade develop. Something must be done at once; done to open routes and +develop opportunities where they are as yet undeveloped; done to open the +arteries of trade where the currents have not yet learned to +run,-especially between the two American continents, where they are, +singularly enough, yet to be created and quickened; and it is evident that +only the government can undertake such beginnings and assume the initial +financial risks. When the risk has passed and private capital begins to +find its way in sufficient abundance into these new channels, the +government may withdraw. But it cannot omit to begin. It should take the +first steps, and should take them at once. Our goods must not lie piled up +at our ports and stored upon side tracks in freight cars which are daily +needed on the roads; must not be left without means of transport to any +foreign quarter. We must not await the permission of foreign ship-owners +and foreign governments to send them where we will. + +With a view to meeting these pressing necessities of our commerce and +availing ourselves at the earliest possible moment of the present +unparalleled opportunity of linking the two Americas together in bonds of +mutual interest and service, an opportunity which may never return again if +we miss it now, proposals will be made to the present Congress for the +purchase or construction of ships to be owned and directed by the +government similar to those made to the last Congress, but modified in some +essential particulars. I recommend these proposals to you for your prompt +acceptance with the more confidence because every month that has elapsed +since the former proposals were made has made the necessity for such action +more and more manifestly imperative. That need was then foreseen; it is now +acutely felt and everywhere realized by those for whom trade is waiting but +who can find no conveyance for their goods. I am not so much interested in +the particulars of the programme as I am in taking immediate advantage of +the 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 should +prevail, and out of it should come an early solution of this pressing +problem. + +There is another matter which seems to me to be very intimately associated +with the question of national safety and preparation for defense. That is +our policy towards the Philippines and the people of Porto Rico. Our +treatment of them and their attitude towards us are manifestly of the first +consequence in the development of our duties in the world and in getting a +free hand to perform those duties. We must be free from every unnecessary +burden or embarrassment; and there is no better way to be clear of +embarrassment than to fulfil our promises and promote the interests of +those dependent on us to the utmost. Bills for the alteration and reform of +the government of the Philippines and for rendering fuller political +justice to the people of Porto Rico were submitted to the sixty-third +Congress. They will be submitted also to you. I need not particularize +their details. You are most of you already familiar with them. But I do +recommend them to your early adoption with the sincere conviction that +there are few measures you could adopt which would more serviceably clear +the way for the great policies by which we wish to make good, now and +always, our right to lead in enterprises of peace and good will and +economic and political freedom. + +The plans for the armed forces of the nation which I have outlined, and for +the general policy of adequate preparation for mobilization and defense, +involve of course very large additional expenditures of money,-expenditures +which will considerably exceed the estimated revenues of the government. It +is made my duty by law, whenever the estimates of expenditure exceed the +estimates of revenue, to call the attention of the Congress to the fact and +suggest any means of meeting the deficiency that it may be wise or possible +for me to suggest. I am ready to believe that it would be my duty to do so +in any case; and I feel particularly bound to speak of the matter when it +appears that the deficiency will arise directly out of the adoption by the +Congress 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 fiscal +problems which the next year will probably disclose. + +On the thirtieth of June last there was an available balance in the general +fund of the Treasury Of $104,170,105.78. The total estimated receipts for +the year 1916, on the assumption that the emergency revenue measure passed +by the last Congress will not be extended beyond its present limit, the +thirty-first of December, 1915, and that the present duty of one cent per +pound 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 estimated +disbursements for the present fiscal year, including twenty-five millions +for the Panama Canal, twelve millions for probable deficiency +appropriations, and fifty thousand dollars for miscellaneous debt +redemptions, will be $753,891,000; and the balance in the general fund of +the Treasury will be reduced to $20,644,605.78. The emergency revenue act, +if continued beyond its present time limitation, would produce, during the +half year then remaining, about forty-one millions. The duty of one cent +per pound on sugar, if continued, would produce during the two months of +the fiscal year remaining after the first of May, about fifteen millions. +These two sums, amounting together to fifty-six millions, if added to the +revenues of the second half of the fiscal year, would yield the Treasury at +the end of the year an available balance Of $76,644,605-78. + +The additional revenues required to carry out the programme of military and +naval preparation of which I have spoken, would, as at present estimated, +be for the fiscal year, 1917, $93,800,000. Those figures, taken with the +figures for the present fiscal year which I have already given, disclose +our financial problem for the year 1917. Assuming that the taxes imposed by +the emergency revenue act and the present duty on sugar are to be +discontinued, and that the balance at the close of the present fiscal year +will be only $20,644,605.78, that the disbursements for the Panama Canal +will again be about twenty-five millions, and that the additional +expenditures for the army and navy are authorized by the Congress, the +deficit 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 least +fifty millions should be added to represent a safe working balance for the +Treasury, and twelve millions to include the usual deficiency estimates in +1917; and these additions would make a total deficit of some two hundred +and ninety-seven millions. If the present taxes should be continued +throughout this year and the next, however, there would be a balance in the +Treasury of some seventy-six and a half millions at the end of the present +fiscal year, and a deficit at the end of the next year of only some fifty +millions, or, reckoning in sixty-two millions for deficiency appropriations +and a safe Treasury balance at the end of the year, a total deficit of some +one hundred and twelve millions. The obvious moral of the figures is that +it is a plain counsel of prudence to continue all of the present taxes or +their equivalents, and confine ourselves to the problem of providing one +hundred and twelve millions of new revenue rather than two hundred and +ninety-seven millions. + +How shall we obtain the new revenue? We are frequently reminded that there +are many millions of bonds which the Treasury is authorized under existing +law to sell to reimburse the sums paid out of current revenues for the +construction of the Panama Canal; and it is true that bonds to the amount +of approximately $222,000,000 are now available for that purpose. Prior to +1913, $134,631,980 of these bonds had actually been sold to recoup the +expenditures at the Isthmus; and now constitute a considerable item of the +public debt. But I, for one, do not believe that the people of this country +approve of postponing the payment of their bills. Borrowing money is +short-sighted finance. It can be justified only when permanent things are +to be accomplished which many generations will certainly benefit by and +which it seems hardly fair that a single generation should pay for. The +objects 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 in +the interest of posterity as well as in our own. It seems to me a clear +dictate 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 the +country are entitled to know just what burdens of taxation they are to +carry, and to know from the outset, now. The new bills should be paid by +internal taxation. + +To what sources, then, shall we turn? This is so peculiarly a question +which the gentlemen of the House of Representatives are expected under the +Constitution to propose an answer to that you will hardly expect me to do +more than discuss it in very general terms. We should be following an +almost universal example of modern governments if we were to draw the +greater part or even the whole of the revenues we need from the income +taxes. By somewhat lowering the present limits of exemption and the figure +at which the surtax shall begin to be imposed, and by increasing, step by +step throughout the present graduation, the surtax itself, the income taxes +as at present apportioned would yield sums sufficient to balance the books +of the Treasury at the end of the fiscal year 1917 without anywhere making +the burden unreasonably or oppressively heavy. The precise reckonings are +fully and accurately set out in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury +which will be immediately laid before you. + +And there are many additional sources of revenue which can justly be +resorted to without hampering the industries of the country or putting any +too great charge upon individual expenditure. A tax of one cent per gallon +on gasoline and naphtha would yield, at the present estimated production, +$10,000,000; a tax of fifty cents per horse power on automobiles and +internal 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 and +steel, probably $10,000,000. In a country of great industries like this it +ought to be easy to distribute the burdens of taxation without making them +anywhere bear too heavily or too exclusively upon any one set of persons or +undertakings. What is clear is, that the industry of this generation should +pay the bills of this generation. + +I have spoken to you to-day, Gentlemen, upon a single theme, the thorough +preparation of the nation to care for its own security and to make sure of +entire freedom to play the impartial role in this hemisphere and in the +world which we all believe to have been providentially assigned to it. I +have had in my mind no thought of any immediate or particular danger +arising out of our relations with other nations. We are at peace with all +the nations of the world, and there is reason to hope that no question in +controversy between this and other Governments will lead to any serious +breach of amicable relations, grave as some differences of attitude and +policy have been land may yet turn out to be. I am sorry to say that the +gravest threats against our national peace and safety have been uttered +within our own borders. There are citizens of the United States, I blush to +admit, born under other flags but welcomed under our generous +naturalization laws to the full freedom and opportunity of America, who +have poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national +life; who have sought to bring the authority and good name of our +Government into contempt, to destroy our industries wherever they thought +it effective for their vindictive purposes to strike at them, and to debase +our politics to the uses of foreign intrigue. Their number is not great as +compared with the whole number of those sturdy hosts by which our nation +has been enriched in recent generations out of virile foreign stock; but it +is great enough to have brought deep disgrace upon us and to have made it +necessary that we should promptly make use of processes of law by which we +may be purged of their corrupt distempers. America never witnessed anything +like this before. It never dreamed it possible that men sworn into its own +citizenship, men drawn out of great free stocks such as supplied some of +the best and strongest elements of that little, but how heroic, nation that +in a high day of old staked its very life to free itself from every +entanglement that had darkened the fortunes of the older nations and set up +a new standard here, that men of such origins and such free choices of +allegiance would ever turn in malign reaction against the Government and +people who had welcomed and nurtured them and seek to make this proud +country once more a hotbed of European passion. A little while ago such a +thing would have seemed incredible. Because it was incredible we made no +preparation for it. We would have been almost ashamed to prepare for it, as +if we were suspicious of ourselves, our own comrades and neighbors! But the +ugly and incredible thing has actually come about and we are without +adequate federal laws to deal with it. I urge you to enact such laws at the +earliest possible moment and feel that in doing so I am urging you to do +nothing less than save the honor and self-respect of the nation. Such +creatures of passion, disloyalty, and anarchy must be crushed out. They are +not many, but they are infinitely malignant, and the hand of our power +should close over them at once. They have formed plots to destroy property, +they have entered into conspiracies against the neutrality of the +Government, they have sought to pry into every confidential transaction of +the Government in order to serve interests alien to our own. It is possible +to deal with these things very effectually. I need not suggest the terms in +which they may be dealt with. + +I wish that it could be said that only a few men, misled by mistaken +sentiments of allegiance to the governments under which they were born, had +been guilty of disturbing the self-possession and misrepresenting the +temper and principles of the country during these days of terrible war, +when it would seem that every man who was truly an American would +instinctively make it his duty and his pride to keep the scales of judgment +even 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 and +bred in the United States and calling themselves Americans, have so +forgotten themselves and their honor as citizens as to put their passionate +sympathy with one or the other side in the great European conflict above +their regard for the peace and dignity of the United States. They also +preach and practice disloyalty. No laws, I suppose, can reach corruptions +of the mind and heart; but I should not speak of others without also +speaking of these and expressing the even deeper humiliation and scorn +which every self-possessed and thoughtfully patriotic American must feel +when he thinks of them and of the discredit they are daily bringing upon +us. + +While we speak of the preparation of the nation to make sure of her +security and her effective power we must not fall into the patent error of +supposing that her real strength comes from armaments and mere safeguards +of written law. It comes, of course, from her people, their energy, their +success in their undertakings, their free opportunity to use the natural +resources of our great home land and of the lands outside our continental +borders which look to us for protection, for encouragement, and for +assistance in their development; from the organization and freedom and +vitality of our economic life. The domestic questions which engaged the +attention of the last Congress are more vital to the nation in this its +time of test than at any other time. We cannot adequately make ready for +any trial of our strength unless we wisely and promptly direct the force of +our laws into these all-important fields of domestic action. A matter which +it seems to me we should have very much at heart is the creation of the +right instrumentalities by which to mobilize our economic resources in any +time of national necessity. I take it for granted that I do not need your +authority to call into systematic consultation with the directing officers +of the army and navy men of recognized leadership and ability from among +our citizens who are thoroughly familiar, for example, with the +transportation facilities of the country and therefore competent to advise +how they may be coordinated when the need arises, those who can suggest the +best way in which to bring about prompt cooperation among the manufacturers +of the country, should it be necessary, and those who could assist to bring +the technical skill of the country to the aid of the Government in the +solution of particular problems of defense. I only hope that if I should +find it feasible to constitute such an advisory body the Congress would be +willing to vote the small sum of money that would be needed to defray the +expenses that would probably be necessary to give it the clerical and +administrative Machinery with which to do serviceable work. + +What is more important is, that the industries and resources of the country +should be available and ready for mobilization. It is the more imperatively +necessary, therefore, that we should promptly devise means for doing what +we have not yet done: that we should give intelligent federal aid and +stimulation to industrial and vocational education, as we have long done in +the large field of our agricultural industry; that, at the same time that +we safeguard and conserve the natural resources of the country we should +put them at the disposal of those who will use them promptly and +intelligently, as was sought to be done in the admirable bills submitted to +the last Congress from its committees on the public lands, bills which I +earnestly recommend in principle to your consideration; that we should put +into early operation some provision for rural credits which will add to the +extensive borrowing facilities already afforded the farmer by the Reserve +Bank Act, adequate instrumentalities by which long credits may be obtained +on land mortgages; and that we should study more carefully than they have +hitherto been studied the right adaptation of our economic arrangements to +changing conditions. + +Many conditions about which we I-lave repeatedly legislated are being +altered from decade to decade, it is evident, under our very eyes, and are +likely to change even more rapidly and more radically in the days +immediately ahead of us, when peace has returned to the world and the +nations of Europe once more take up their tasks of commerce and industry +with the energy of those who must bestir themselves to build anew. Just +what these changes will be no one can certainly foresee or confidently +predict. There are no calculable, because no stable, elements in the +problem. The most we can do is to make certain that we have the necessary +instrumentalities of information constantly at our service so that we may +be 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 what +it is that we are seeking to adapt ourselves to. I may ask the privilege of +addressing you more at length on this important matter a little later in +your session. + +In the meantime may I make this suggestion? The transportation problem is +an exceedingly serious and pressing one in this country. There has from +time to time of late been reason to fear that our railroads would not much +longer be able to cope with it successfully, as at present equipped and +coordinated I suggest that it would be wise to provide for a commission of +inquiry to ascertain by a thorough canvass of the whole question whether +our laws as at present framed and administered are as serviceable as they +might be in the solution of the problem. It is obviously a problem that +lies at the very foundation of our efficiency as a people. Such an inquiry +ought to draw out every circumstance and opinion worth considering and we +need to know all sides of the matter if we mean to do anything in the field +of federal legislation. + +No one, I am sure, would wish to take any backward step. The regulation of +the railways of the country by federal commission has had admirable results +and has fully justified the hopes and expectations of those by whom the +policy of regulation was originally proposed. The question is not what +should we undo? It is, whether there is anything else we can do that would +supply us with effective means, in the very process of regulation, for +bettering the conditions under which the railroads are operated and for +making them more useful servants of the country as a whole. It seems to me +that it might be the part of wisdom, therefore, before further legislation +in this field is attempted, to look at the whole problem of coordination +and efficiency in the full light of a fresh assessment of circumstance and +opinion, 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 this +message, is national efficiency and security. We serve a great nation. We +should serve it in the spirit of its peculiar genius. It is the genius of +common men for self-government, industry, justice, liberty and peace. We +should 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 assured +success. In this we are no partisans but heralds and prophets of a new age. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Woodrow Wilson +December 5, 1916 + +GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS: + +In fulfilling at this time the duty laid upon me by the Constitution of +communicating to you from time to time information of the state of the +Union and recommending to your consideration such legislative measures as +may be judged necessary and expedient, I shall continue the practice, which +I hope has been acceptable to you, of leaving to the reports of the several +heads of the executive departments the elaboration of the detailed needs of +the public service and confine myself to those matters of more general +public policy with which it seems necessary and feasible to deal at the +present session of the Congress. + +I realize the limitations of time under which you will necessarily act at +this session and shall make my suggestions as few as possible; but there +were some things left undone at the last session which there will now be +time to complete and which it seems necessary in the interest of the public +to do at once. + +In the first place, it seems to me imperatively necessary that the earliest +possible consideration and action should be accorded the remaining measures +of the program of settlement and regulation which I had occasion to +recommend to you at the close of your last session in view of the public +dangers disclosed by the unaccommodated difficulties which then existed, +and which still unhappily continue to exist, between the railroads of the +country and their locomotive engineers, conductors and trainmen. + +I then recommended: + +First, immediate provision for the enlargement and administrative +reorganization of the Interstate Commerce Commission along the lines +embodied in the bill recently passed by the House of Representatives and +now awaiting action by the Senate; in order that the Commission may be +enabled to deal with the many great and various duties now devolving upon +it with a promptness and thoroughness which are, with its present +constitution and means of action, practically impossible. + +Second, the establishment of an eight-hour day as the legal basis alike of +work and wages in the employment of all railway employes who are actually +engaged in the work of operating trains in interstate transportation. + +Third, the authorization of the appointment by the President of a small +body of men to observe actual results in experience of the adoption of the +eight-hour day in railway transportation alike for the men and for the +railroads. + +Fourth, explicit approval by the Congress of the consideration by the +Interstate Commerce Commission of an increase of freight rates to meet such +additional expenditures by the railroads as may have been rendered +necessary by the adoption of the eight-hour day and which have not been +offset by administrative readjustments and economies, should the facts +disclosed justify the increase. + +Fifth, an amendment of the existing Federal statute which provides for the +mediation, conciliation and arbitration of such controversies as the +present by adding to it a provision that, in case the methods of +accommodation now provided for should fail, a full public investigation of +the merits of every such dispute shall be instituted and completed before a +strike or lockout may lawfully be attempted. + +And, sixth, the lodgment in the hands of the Executive of the power, in +case of military necessity, to take control of such portions and such +rolling stock of the railways of the country as may be required for +military use and to operate them for military purposes, with authority to +draft into the military service of the United States such train crews and +administrative officials as the circumstances require for their safe and +efficient use. + +The second and third of these recommendations the Congress immediately +acted on: it established the eight-hour day as the legal basis of work and +wages in train service and it authorized the appointment of a commission to +observe and report upon the practical results, deeming these the measures +most immediately needed; but it postponed action upon the other suggestions +until an opportunity should be offered for a more deliberate consideration +of them. + +The fourth recommendation I do not deem it necessary to renew. The power of +the Interstate Commerce Commission to grant an increase of rates on the +ground referred to is indisputably clear and a recommendation by the +Congress with regard to such a matter might seem to draw in question the +scope of the commission's authority or its inclination to do justice when +there is no reason to doubt either. + +The other suggestions-the increase in the Interstate Commerce Commission's +membership and in its facilities for performing its manifold duties; the +provision for full public investigation and assessment of industrial +disputes, and the grant to the Executive of the power to control and +operate the railways when necessary in time of war or other like public +necessity-I now very earnestly renew. + +The necessity for such legislation is manifest and pressing. Those who have +entrusted us with the responsibility and duty of serving and safeguarding +them in such matters would find it hard, I believe, to excuse a failure to +act upon these grave matters or any unnecessary postponement of action upon +them. + +Not only does the Interstate Commerce Commission now find it practically +impossible, with its present membership and organization, to perform its +great functions promptly and thoroughly, but it is not unlikely that it may +presently be found advisable to add to its duties still others equally +heavy and exacting. It must first be perfected as an administrative +instrument. + +The country cannot and should not consent to remain any longer exposed to +profound industrial disturbances for lack of additional means of +arbitration and conciliation which the Congress can easily and promptly +supply. + +And all will agree that there must be no doubt as to the power of the +Executive to make immediate and uninterrupted use of the railroads for the +concentration of the military forces of the nation wherever they are needed +and whenever they are needed. + +This is a program of regulation, prevention and administrative efficiency +which argues its own case in the mere statement of it. With regard to one +of its items, the increase in the efficiency of the Interstate Commerce +Commission, the House of Representatives has already acted; its action +needs only the concurrence of the Senate. + +I would hesitate to recommend, and I dare say the Congress would hesitate +to act upon the suggestion should I make it, that any man in any I +occupation should be obliged by law to continue in an employment which he +desired to leave. + +To pass a law which forbade or prevented the individual workman to leave +his work before receiving the approval of society in doing so would be to +adopt a new principle into our jurisprudence, which I take it for granted +we are not prepared to introduce. + +But the proposal that the operation of the railways of the country shall +not be stopped or interrupted by the concerted action of organized bodies +of men until a public investigation shall have been instituted, which shall +make the whole question at issue plain for the judgment of the opinion of +the nation, is not to propose any such principle. + +It is based upon the very different principle that the concerted action of +powerful bodies of men shall not be permitted to stop the industrial +processes of the nation, at any rate before the nation shall have had an +opportunity to acquaint itself with the merits of the case as between +employe and employer, time to form its opinion upon an impartial statement +of the merits, and opportunity to consider all practicable means of +conciliation or arbitration. + +I can see nothing in that proposition but the justifiable safeguarding by +society of the necessary processes of its very life. There is nothing +arbitrary or unjust in it unless it be arbitrarily and unjustly done. It +can and should be done with a full and scrupulous regard for the interests +and liberties of all concerned as well as for the permanent interests of +society itself. + +Three matters of capital importance await the action of the Senate which +have already been acted upon by the House of Representatives; the bill +which seeks to extend greater freedom of combination to those engaged in +promoting the foreign commerce of the country than is now thought by some +to be legal under the terms of the laws against monopoly; the bill amending +the present organic law of Porto Rico; and the bill proposing a more +thorough and systematic regulation of the expenditure of money in +elections, commonly called the Corrupt Practices Act. + +I need not labor my advice that these measures be enacted into law. Their +urgency lies in the manifest circumstances which render their adoption at +this time not only opportune but necessary. Even delay would seriously +jeopard the interests of the country and of the Government. + +Immediate passage of the bill to regulate the expenditure of money in +elections may seem to be less necessary than the immediate enactment of the +other measures to which I refer, because at least two years will elapse +before another election in which Federal offices are to be filled; but it +would greatly relieve the public mind if this important matter were dealt +with while the circumstances and the dangers to the public morals of the +present method of obtaining and spending campaign funds stand clear under +recent observation, and the methods of expenditure can be frankly studied +in the light of present experience; and a delay would have the further very +serious disadvantage of postponing action until another election was at +hand and some special object connected with it might be thought to be in +the mind of those who urged it. Action can be taken now with facts for +guidance and without suspicion of partisan purpose. + +I shall not argue at length the desirability of giving a freer hand in the +matter of combined and concerted effort to those who shall undertake the +essential enterprise of building up our export trade. That enterprise will +presently, will immediately assume, has indeed already assumed a magnitude +unprecedented in our experience. We have not the necessary +instrumentalities for its prosecution; it is deemed to be doubtful whether +they could be created upon an adequate scale under our present laws. + +We should clear away all legal obstacles and create a basis of undoubted +law for it which will give freedom without permitting unregulated license. +The thing must be done now, because the opportunity is here and may escape +us if we hesitate or delay. + +The argument for the proposed amendments of the organic law of Porto Rico +is brief and conclusive. The present laws governing the island and +regulating the rights and privileges of its people are not just. We have +created expectations of extended privilege which we have not satisfied. +There is uneasiness among the people of the island and even a suspicious +doubt with regard to our intentions concerning them which the adoption of +the pending measure would happily remove. We do not doubt what we wish to +do 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 which +provides for the promotion of vocational and industrial education, which is +of vital importance to the whole country because it concerns a matter, too +long neglected, upon which the thorough industrial preparation of the +country for the critical years of economic development immediately ahead of +us in very large measure depends. + +May I not urge its early and favorable consideration by the House of +Representatives and its early enactment into law? It contains plans which +affect all interests and all parts of the country, and I am sure that there +is no legislation now pending before the Congress whose passage the country +awaits with more thoughtful approval or greater impatience to see a great +and admirable thing set in the way of being done. + +There are other matters already advanced to the stage of conference between +the two houses of which it is not necessary that I should speak. Some +practicable basis of agreement concerning them will no doubt be found an +action taken upon them. + +Inasmuch as this is, gentlemen, probably the last occasion I shall have to +address the Sixty-fourth Congress, I hope that you will permit me to say +with what genuine pleasure and satisfaction I have co-operated with you in +the many measures of constructive policy with which you have enriched the +legislative annals of the country. It has been a privilege to labor in such +company. I take the liberty of congratulating you upon the completion of a +record of rare serviceableness and distinction. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Woodrow Wilson +December 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 significance +for 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 laid +before you in the reports of the executive departments. I shall discuss +only our present outlook upon these vast affairs, our present duties, and +the immediate means of accomplishing the objects we shall hold always in +view. + +I shall not go back to debate the causes of the war. The intolerable wrongs +done and planned against us by the sinister masters of Germany have long +since become too grossly obvious and odious to every true American to need +to be rehearsed. But I shall ask you to consider again and with a very +grave scrutiny our objectives and the measures by which we mean to attain +them; for the purpose of discussion here in this place is action, and our +action 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 diverted +until 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 fundamental +matter. I do not doubt that the American people know what the war is about +and what sort of an outcome they will regard as a realization of their +purpose in it. + +As a nation we are united in spirit and intention. I pay little heed to +those who tell me otherwise. I hear the voices of dissent-who does not? I +bear the criticism and the clamor of the noisily thoughtless and +troublesome. I also see men here and there fling themselves in impotent +disloyalty against the calm, indomitable power of the Nation. I hear men +debate peace who understand neither its nature nor the way in which we may +attain it with uplifted eyes and unbroken spirits. But I know that none of +these speaks for the Nation. They do not touch the heart of anything. They +may safely be left to strut their uneasy hour and be forgotten. + +But from another point of view I believe that it is necessary to say +plainly what we here at the seat of action consider the war to be for and +what part we mean to play in the settlement of its searching issues. We are +the spokesmen of the American people, and they have a right to know whether +their purpose is ours. They desire peace by the overcoming of evil, by the +defeat once for all of the sinister forces that interrupt peace and render +it impossible, and they wish to know how closely our thought runs with +theirs and what action we propose. They are impatient with those who desire +peace by any sort of compromise deeply and indignantly impatient--but they +will be equally impatient with us if we do not make it plain to them what +our objectives are and what we are planning for in seeking to make conquest +of peace by arms. + +I believe that I speak for them when I say two things: First, that this +intolerable thing of which the masters of Germany have shown us the ugly +face, this menace of combined intrigue and force which we now see so +clearly as the German power, a thing without conscience or honor of +capacity for covenanted peace, must be crushed and, if it be not utterly +brought to an end, at least shut out from the friendly intercourse of the +nations; and second, that when this thing and its power are indeed defeated +and the time comes that we can discuss peace when the German people have +spokesmen whose word we can believe and when those spokesmen are ready in +the name of their people to accept the common judgment of the nations as to +what shall henceforth be the bases of law and of covenant for the life of +the world-we shall be willing and glad to pay the full price for peace, and +pay it ungrudgingly. + +We know what that price will be. It will be full, impartial justice-justice +done at every point and to every nation that the final settlement must +affect, our enemies as well as our friends. + +You catch, with me, the voices of humanity that are in the air. They grow +daily more audible, more articulate, more persuasive, and they come from +the hearts of men everywhere. They insist that the war shall not end in +vindictive action of any kind; that no nation or people shall be robbed or +punished because the irresponsible rulers of a single country have +themselves done deep and abominable wrong. It is this thought that has been +expressed in the formula, "No annexations, no contributions, no punitive +indemnities." + +Just because this crude formula expresses the instinctive judgment as to +right of plain men everywhere, it has been made diligent use of by the +masters of German intrigue to lead the people of Russia astray and the +people of every other country their agents could reach-in order that a +premature peace might be brought about before autocracy has been taught its +final and convincing lesson and the people of the world put in control of +their own destinies. + +But the fact that a wrong use has been made of a just idea is no reason why +a right use should not be made of it. It ought to be brought under the +patronage of its real friends. Let it be said again that autocracy must +first be shown the utter futility of its claim to power or leadership in +the modern world. It is impossible to apply any standard of justice so long +as such forces are unchecked and undefeated as the present masters of +Germany command. Not until that has been done can right be set up as +arbiter 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 an +unprecedented thing, and this is the time to avow our purpose to do it. We +shall be free to base peace on generosity and justice, to the exclusions of +all selfish claims to advantage even on the part of the victors. + +Let there be no misunderstanding. Our present and immediate task is to win +the war and nothing shall turn us aside from it until it is +accomplished. Every power and resource we possess, whether of men, of +money, or of materials, is being devoted and will continue to be devoted to +that purpose until it is achieved. Those who desire to bring peace about +before that purpose is achieved I counsel to carry their advice elsewhere. +We will not entertain it. We shall regard the war as won only when the +German people say to us, through properly accredited representatives, that +they are ready to agree to a settlement based upon justice and reparation +of the wrongs their rulers have done. They have done a wrong to Belgium +which must be repaired. They have established a power over other lands and +peoples than their own--over the great empire of Austria-Hungary, over +hitherto free Balkan states, over Turkey and within Asia-which must be +relinquished. + +Germany's success by skill, by industry, by knowledge, by enterprise we did +not grudge or oppose, but admired, rather. She had built up for herself a +real empire of trade and influence, secured by the peace of the world. We +were content to abide by the rivalries of manufacture, science and commerce +that were involved for us in her success, and stand or fall as we had or +did not have the brains and the initiative to surpass her. But at the +moment when she had conspicuously won her triumphs of peace she threw them +away, to establish in their stead what the world will no longer permit to +be established, military and political domination by arms, by which to oust +where she could not excel the rivals she most feared and hated. The peace +we make must remedy that wrong. It must deliver the once fair lands and +happy peoples of Belgium and Northern France from the Prussian conquest and +the Prussian menace, but it must deliver also the peoples of +Austria-Hungary, the peoples of the Balkans and the peoples of Turkey, +alike in Europe and Asia, from the impudent and alien dominion of the +Prussian military and commercial autocracy. + +We owe it, however, to ourselves, to say that we do not wish in any way to +impair or to rearrange the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is no affair of ours +what they do with their own life, either industrially or politically. We do +not purpose or desire to dictate to them in any way. We only desire to see +that their affairs are left in their own hands, in all matters, great or +small. We shall hope to secure for the peoples of the Balkan peninsula and +for the people of the Turkish Empire the right and opportunity to make +their own lives safe, their own fortunes secure against oppression or +injustice and from the dictation of foreign courts or parties. + +And our attitude and purpose with regard to Germany herself are of a like +kind. We intend no wrong against the German Empire, no interference with +her internal affairs. We should deem either the one or the other absolutely +unjustifiable, absolutely contrary to the principles we have professed to +live by and to hold most sacred throughout our life as a nation. + +The people of Germany are being told by the men whom they now permit to +deceive them and to act as their masters that they are fighting for the +very life and existence of their empire, a war of desperate self-defense +against deliberate aggression. Nothing could be more grossly or wantonly +false, and we must seek by the utmost openness and candor as to our real +aims to convince them of its falseness. We are in fact fighting for their +emancipation from the fear, along with our own-from the fear as well as +from the fact of unjust attack by neighbors or rivals or schemers after +world empire. No one is threatening the existence or the independence of +the peaceful enterprise of the German Empire. + +The worst that can happen to the detriment the German people is this, that +if they should still, after the war is over, continue to be obliged to live +under ambitious and intriguing masters interested to disturb the peace of +the world, men or classes of men whom the other peoples of the world could +not trust, it might be impossible to admit them to the partnership of +nations which must henceforth guarantee the world's peace. That partnership +must be a partnership of peoples, not a mere partnership of governments. It +might be impossible, also, in such untoward circumstances, to admit Germany +to the free economic intercourse which must inevitably spring out of the +other partnerships of a real peace. But there would be no aggression in +that; and such a situation, inevitable, because of distrust, would in the +very nature of things sooner or later cure itself, by processes which would +assuredly set in. + +The wrongs, the very deep wrongs, committed in this war will have to be +righted. That, of course. But they cannot and must not be righted by the +commission of similar wrongs against Germany and her allies. The world will +not permit the commission of similar wrongs as a means of reparation and +settlement. Statesmen must by this time have learned that the opinion of +the world is everywhere wide awake and fully comprehends the issues +involved. No representative of any self-governed nation will dare disregard +it by attempting any such covenants of selfishness and compromise as were +entered into at the Congress of Vienna. The thought of the plain people +here and everywhere throughout the world, the people who enjoy no privilege +and have very simple and unsophisticated standards of right and wrong, is +the air all governments must henceforth breathe if they would live. + +It is in the full disclosing light of that thought that all policies must +be received and executed in this midday hour of the world's life. Ger. man +rulers have been able to upset the peace of the world only because the +German people were not suffered under their tutelage to share the +comradeship of the other peoples of the world either in thought or in +purpose. They were allowed to have no opinion of their own which might be +set 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 the +tides 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 stupendous +war; and I cannot help thinking that if they had been made plain at the +very outset the sympathy and enthusiasm of the Russian people might have +been once for all enlisted on the side of the Allies, suspicion and +distrust swept away, and a real and lasting union of purpose effected. Had +they believed these things at the very moment of their revolution, and had +they been confirmed in that belief since, the sad reverses which have +recently marked the progress of their affairs towards an ordered and stable +government of free men might have been avoided. The Russian people have +been poisoned by the very same falsehoods that have kept the German people +in 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 plainly +or too often. + +From every point of view, therefore, it has seemed to be my duty to speak +these declarations of purpose, to add these specific interpretations to +what I took the liberty of saying to the Senate in January. Our entrance +into the war has not altered out attitude towards the settlement that must +come when it is over. + +When I said in January that the nations of the world were entitled not only +to free pathways upon the sea, but also to assured and unmolested access to +those-pathways, I was thinking, and I am thinking now, not of the smaller +and weaker nations alone which need our countenance and support, but also +of the great and powerful nations and of our present enemies as well as our +present associates in the war. I was thinking, and am thinking now, of +Austria herself, among the rest, as well as of Serbia and of Poland. + +Justice and equality of rights can be had only at a great price. We are +seeking permanent, not temporary, foundations for the peace of the world, +and must seek them candidly and fearlessly. As always, the right will prove +to be the expedient. + +What shall we do, then, to push this great war of freedom and justice to +its righteous conclusion? We must clear away with a thorough hand all +impediments to success, and we must make every adjustment of law that will +facilitate the full and free use of our whole capacity and force as a +fighting unit. + +One very embarrassing obstacle that stands hi our way is that we are at war +with Germany but not with her allies. I, therefore, very earnestly +recommend that the Congress immediately declare the United States in a +state of war with Austria-Hungary. Does it seem strange to you that this +should be the conclusion of the argument I have just addressed to you? It +is not. It is in fact the inevitable logic of what I have said. +Austria-Hungary is for the time being not her own mistress but simply the +vassal of the German Government. + +We must face the facts as they are and act upon them without sentiment in +this stern business. The Government of Austria and Hungary is not acting +upon its own initiative or in response to the wishes and feelings of its +own peoples, but as the instrument of another nation. We must meet its +force with our own and regard the Central Powers as but one. The war can be +successfully conducted in no other way. + +The same logic would lead also to a declaration of war against Turkey and +Bulgaria. They also are the tools of Germany, but they are mere tools and +do not yet stand in the direct path of our necessary action. We shall go +wherever the necessities of this war carry us, but it seems to me that we +should go only where immediate and practical considerations lead us, and +not heed any others. + +The financial and military measures which must be adopted will suggest +themselves as the war and its undertakings develop, but I will take the +liberty of proposing to you certain other acts of legislation which seem to +me to be needed for the support of the war and for the release of our whole +force and energy. + +It will be necessary to extend in certain particulars the legislation of +the last session with regard to alien enemies, and also necessary, I +believe, to create a very definite and particular control over the entrance +and departure of all persons into and from the United States. + +Legislation should be enacted defining as a criminal offense every wilful +violation of the presidential proclamation relating to alien enemies +promulgated under section 4o67 of the revised statutes and providing +appropriate punishments; and women, as well as men, should be included +under 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 be +fed and housed at the expense of the Government in the detention camps, and +it would be the purpose of the legislation I have suggested to confine +offenders among them in the penitentiaries and other similar institutions +where they could be made to work as other criminals do. + +Recent experience has convinced me that the Congress must go further in +authorizing the Government to set limits to prices. The law of supply and +demand, I am sorry to say, has been replaced by the law of unrestrained +selfishness. While we have eliminated profiteering in several branches of +industry, it still runs impudently rampant in others. The farmers for +example, complain with a great deal of justice that, while the regulation +of food prices restricts their incomes, no restraints are placed upon the +prices of most of the things they must themselves purchase; and similar +inequities obtain on all sides. + +It is imperatively necessary that the consideration of the full use of the +water power of the country, and also of the consideration of the systematic +and yet economical development of such of the natural resources of the +country as are still under the control of the Federal Government should be +immediately resumed and affirmatively and constructively dealt with at the +earliest possible moment. The pressing need of such legislation is daily +becoming more obvious. + +The legislation proposed at the last session with regard to regulated +combinations among our exporters in order to provide for our foreign trade +a more effective organization and method of co-operation ought by all means +to be completed at this session. + +And I beg that the members of the House of Representatives will permit me +to express the opinion that it will be impossible to deal in any but a very +wasteful and extravagant fashion with the enormous appropriations of the +public moneys which must continue to be made if the war is to be properly +sustained, unless the House will consent to return to its former practice +of initiating and preparing all appropriation bills through a single +committee, in order that responsibility may be centered, expenditures +standardized and made uniform, and waste and duplication as much as +possible avoided. + +Additional legislation may also become necessary before the present +Congress again adjourns in order to effect the most efficient co-ordination +and operation of the railways and other transportation systems of the +country; but to that I shall, if circumstances should demand, call the +attention of Congress upon another occasion. + +If I have overlooked anything that ought to be done for the more effective +conduct of the war, your own counsels will supply the omission. What I am +perfectly clear about is that in the present session of the Congress our +whole attention and energy should be concentrated on the vigorous, rapid +and successful prosecution of the great task of winning the war. + +We can do this with all the greater zeal and enthusiasm because we know +that for us this is a war of high principle, debased by no selfish ambition +of conquest or spoliation; because we know, and all the world knows, that +we have been forced into it to save the very institutions we five under +from corruption and destruction. The purpose of the Central Powers strikes +straight at the very heart of everything we believe in; their methods of +warfare outrage every principle of humanity and of knightly honor; their +intrigue has corrupted the very thought and spirit of many of our people; +their sinister and secret diplomacy has sought to take our very territory +away from us and disrupt the union of the states. Our safety would be at an +end, our honor forever sullied and brought into contempt, were we to permit +their triumph. They are striking at the very existence of democracy and +liberty. + +It is because it is for us a war of high, disinterested purpose, in which +all the free peoples of the world are banded together for the vindication +of right, a war for the preservation of our nation, of all that it has held +dear, of principle and of purpose, that we feel ourselves doubly +constrained to propose for its outcome only that which is righteous and of +irreproachable intention, for our foes as well as for our friends. The +cause being just and holy, the settlement must be of like motive and +equality. For this we can fight, but for nothing less noble or less worthy +of our traditions. For this cause we entered the war and for this cause +will we battle until the last gun is fired. + +I have spoken plainly because this seems to me the time when it is most +necessary to speak plainly, in order that all the world may know that, even +in the heat and ardor of the struggle and when our whole thought is of +carrying the war through to its end, we have not forgotten any ideal or +principle for which the name of America has been held in honor among the +nations and for which it has been our glory to contend in the great +generations that went before us. A supreme moment of history has come. The +eyes of the people have been opened and they see. The hand of God is laid +upon the nations. He will show them favor, I devoutly believe, only if they +rise to the clear heights of His own justice and mercy. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Woodrow Wilson +December 2, 1918 + +GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS: + +The year that has elapsed since I last stood before you to fulfil my +constitutional duty to give to the Congress from time to time information +on the state of the Union has been so crowded with great events, great +processes, and great results that I cannot hope to give you an adequate +picture of its transactions or of the far-reaching changes which have been +wrought of our nation and of the world. You have yourselves witnessed these +things, as I have. It is too soon to assess them; and we who stand in the +midst of them and are part of them are less qualified than men of another +generation will be to say what they mean, or even what they have been. But +some great outstanding facts are unmistakable and constitute, in a sense, +part of the public business with which it is our duty to deal. To state +them is to set the stage for the legislative and executive action which +must grow out of them and which we have yet to shape and determine. + +A year ago we had sent 145,918 men overseas. Since then we have sent +1,950,513, an average of 162,542 each month, the number in fact rising, in +May last, to 245,951, in June to 278,760, in July to 307,182, and +continuing to reach similar figures in August and September, in August +289,570 and in September 257,438. No such movement of troops ever took +place before, across three thousand miles of sea, followed by adequate +equipment and supplies, and carried safely through extraordinary dangers of +attack,-dangers which were alike strange and infinitely difficult to guard +against. In all this movement only seven hundred and fifty-eight men were +lost by enemy attack, six hundred and thirty of whom were upon a single +English transport which was sunk near the Orkney Islands. + +I need not tell you what lay back of this great movement of men and +material. It is not invidious to say that back of it lay a supporting +organization of the industries of the country and of all its productive +activities more complete, more thorough in method and effective in result, +more spirited and unanimous in purpose and effort than any other great +belligerent had been able to effect. We profited greatly by the experience +of the nations which had already been engaged for nearly three years in the +exigent and exacting business, their every resource and every executive +proficiency taxed to the utmost. We were their pupils. But we learned +quickly and acted with a promptness and a readiness of cooperation that +justify our great pride that we were able to serve the world with +unparalleled 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 and +quality of the officers and men we sent over and of the sailors who kept +the seas, and the spirit of the nation that stood behind them. No soldiers +or sailors ever proved themselves more quickly ready for the test of battle +or acquitted themselves with more splendid courage and achievement when put +to the test. Those of us who played some part in directing the great +processes by which the war was pushed irresistibly forward to the final +triumph may now forget all that and delight our thoughts with the story of +what our men did. Their officers understood the grim and exacting task they +had undertaken and performed it with an audacity, efficiency, and +unhesitating courage that touch the story of convoy and battle with +imperishable distinction at every turn, whether the enterprise were great +or small, from their great chiefs, Pershing and Sims, down to the youngest +lieutenant; and their men were worthy of them,-such men as hardly need to +be commanded, and go to their terrible adventure blithely and with the +quick 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. Those +of us who stayed at home did our duty; the war could not have been won or +the gallant men who fought it given their opportunity to win it otherwise; +but for many a long day we shall think ourselves "accurs'd we were not +there, and hold our manhoods cheap while any speaks that fought" with these +at St. Mihiel or Thierry. The memory of those days of triumphant battle +will go with these fortunate men to their graves; and each will have his +favorite memory. "Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, but hell +remember with advantages what feats he did that day!" + +What we all thank God for with deepest gratitude is that our men went in +force into the line of battle just at the critical moment when the whole +fate of the world seemed to hang in the balance and threw their fresh +strength into the ranks of freedom in time to turn the whole tide and sweep +of the fateful struggle,-turn it once for all, so that thenceforth it was +back, back, back for their enemies, always back, never again forward! After +that it was only a scant four months before the commanders of the Central +Empires knew themselves beaten; and now their very empires are in +liquidation! + +And throughout it all how fine the spirit of the nation was: what unity of +purpose, what untiring zeal! What elevation of purpose ran through all its +splendid display of strength, its untiring accomplishment! I have said that +those of us who stayed at home to do the work of organization and supply +will always wish that we had been with the men whom we sustained by our +labor; but we can never be ashamed. It has been an inspiring thing to be +here in the midst of fine men who had turned aside from every private +interest of their own and devoted the whole of their trained capacity to +the tasks that supplied the sinews of the whole great undertaking! The +patriotism, the unselfishness, the thoroughgoing devotion and distinguished +capacity that marked their toilsome labors, day after day, month after +month, have made them fit mates and comrades of the men in the trenches and +on the sea. And not the men here in Washington only. They have but directed +the vast achievement. Throughout innumerable factories, upon innumerable +farms, in the depths of coal mines and iron mines and copper mines, +wherever the stuffs of industry were to be obtained and prepared, in the +shipyards, on the railways, at the docks, on the sea, in every labor that +was needed to sustain the battle lines, men have vied with each other to do +their part and do it well. They can look any man-at-arms in the face, and +say, We also strove to win and gave the best that was in us to make our +fleets 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 organization +and cooperation, which gave their action discipline and enhanced the +effectiveness of everything they attempted; their aptitude at tasks to +which they had never before set their hands; their utter self-sacrifice +alike in what they did and in what they gave? Their contribution to the +great result is beyond appraisal. They have added a new lustre to the +annals of American womanhood. + +The least tribute we can pay them is to make them the equals of men in +political rights as they have proved themselves their equals in every field +of practical work they have entered, whether for themselves or for their +country. These great days of completed achievement would be sadly marred +were we to omit that act of justice. Besides the immense practical services +they have rendered the women of the country have been the moving spirits in +the systematic economies by which our people have voluntarily assisted to +supply the suffering peoples of the world and the armies upon every front +with food and everything else that we had that might serve the common +cause. The details of such a story can never be fully written, but we carry +them at our hearts and thank God that we can say that we are the kinsmen of +such. + +And now we are sure of the great triumph for which every sacrifice was +made. It has come, come in its completeness, and with the pride and +inspiration of these days of achievement quick within us, we turn to the +tasks of peace again,-a peace secure against the violence of irresponsible +monarchs and ambitious military coteries and made ready for a new order, +for new foundations of justice and fair dealing. + +We are about to give order and organization to this peace not only for +ourselves but for the other peoples of the world as well, so far as they +will suffer us to serve them. It is international justice that we seek, not +domestic safety merely. Our thoughts have dwelt of late upon Europe, upon +Asia, upon the near and the far East, very little upon the acts of peace +and accommodation that wait to be performed at our own doors. While we are +adjusting our relations with the rest of the world is it not of capital +importance that we should clear away all grounds of misunderstanding with +our immediate neighbors and give proof of the friendship we really feel? I +hope that the members of the Senate will permit me to speak once more of +the unratified treaty of friendship and adjustment with the Republic of +Colombia. I very earnestly urge upon them an early and favorable action +upon that vital matter. I believe that they will feel, with me, that the +stage of affairs is now set for such action as will be not only just but +generous and in the spirit of the new age upon which we have so happily +entered. + +So far as our domestic affairs are concerned the problem of our return to +peace is a problem of economic and industrial readjustment. That problem is +less serious for us than it may turn out too he for the nations which have +suffered the disarrangements and the losses of war longer than we. Our +people, moreover, do not wait to be coached and led. They know their own +business, are quick and resourceful at every readjustment, definite in +purpose, and self-reliant in action. Any leading strings we might seek to +put them in would speedily become hopelessly tangled because they would pay +no attention to them and go their own way. All that we can do as their +legislative and executive servants is to mediate the process of change +here, there, and elsewhere as we may. I have heard much counsel as to the +plans that should be formed and personally conducted to a happy +consummation, but from no quarter have I seen any general scheme of +"reconstruction" emerge which I thought it likely we could force our +spirited business men and self-reliant laborers to accept with due pliancy +and obedience. + +While the war lasted we set up many agencies by which to direct the +industries of the country in the services it was necessary for them to +render, by which to make sure of an abundant supply of the materials +needed, by which to check undertakings that could for the time be dispensed +with and stimulate those that were most serviceable in war, by which to +gain for the purchasing departments of the Government a certain control +over the prices of essential articles and materials, by which to restrain +trade with alien enemies, make the most of the available shipping, and +systematize financial transactions, both public and private, so that there +would be no unnecessary conflict or confusion,-by which, in short, to put +every material energy of the country in harness to draw the common load +and make of us one team in the accomplishment of a great task. But the +moment 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 there +should not be enough for the industries that supplied the armies have been +released and put into the general market again. Great industrial plants +whose whole output and machinery had been taken over for the uses of the +Government have been set free to return to the uses to which they were put +before the war. It has not been possible to remove so readily or so quickly +the control of foodstuffs and of shipping, because the world has still to +be fed from our granaries and the ships are still needed to send supplies +to our men overseas and to bring the men back as fast as the disturbed +conditions on the other side of the water permit; but even there restraints +are 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 which +knew so much of the field of supply, of labor, and of industry as the War +Industries Board, the War Trade Board, the Labor Department, the Food +Administration, and the Fuel Administration have known since their labors +became thoroughly systematized; and they have not been isolated agencies; +they have been directed by men who represented the permanent Departments of +the Government and so have been the centres of unified and cooperative +action. It has been the policy of the Executive, therefore, since the +armistice was assured (which is in effect a complete submission of the +enemy) to put the knowledge of these bodies at the disposal of the business +men of the country and to offer their intelligent mediation at every point +and in every matter where it was desired. It is surprising how fast the +process of return to a peace footing has moved in the three weeks since the +fighting stopped. It promises to outrun any inquiry that may be instituted +and any aid that may be offered. It will not be easy to direct it any +better than it will direct itself. The American business man is of quick +initiative. + +The ordinary and normal processes of private initiative will not, however, +provide immediate employment for all of the men of our returning armies. +Those who are of trained capacity, those who are skilled workmen, those who +have acquired familiarity with established businesses, those who are ready +and willing to go to the farms, all those whose aptitudes are known or will +be sought out by employers will find no difficulty, it is safe to say, in +finding place and employment. But there will be others who will be at a +loss where to gain a livelihood unless pains are taken to guide them and +put them in the way of work. There will be a large floating residuum of +labor which should not be left wholly to shift for itself. It seems to me +important, therefore, that the development of public works of every sort +should be promptly resumed, in order that opportunities should be created +for unskilled labor in particular, and that plans should be made for such +developments of our unused lands and our natural resources as we have +hitherto lacked stimulation to undertake. + +I particularly direct your attention to the very practical plans which the +Secretary of the Interior has developed in his annual report and before +your Committees for the reclamation of arid, swamp, and cutover lands which +might, if the States were willing and able to cooperate, redeem some three +hundred million acres of land for cultivation. There are said to be fifteen +or twenty million acres of land in the West, at present arid, for whose +reclamation water is available, if properly conserved. There are about two +hundred and thirty million acres from which the forests have been cut but +which have never yet been cleared for the plow and which lie waste and +desolate. These lie scattered all over the Union. And there are nearly +eighty million acres of land that lie under swamps or subject to periodical +overflow or too wet for anything but grazing, which it is perfectly +feasible to drain and protect and redeem. The Congress can at once direct +thousands of the returning soldiers to the reclamation of the arid lands +which it has already undertaken, if it will but enlarge the plans and +appropriations which it has entrusted to the Department of the Interior. It +is possible in dealing with our unused land to effect a great rural and +agricultural development which will afford the best sort of opportunity to +men who want to help themselves and the Secretary of the Interior has +thought the possible methods out in a way which is worthy of your most +friendly attention. + +I have spoken of the control which must yet for a while, perhaps for a long +long while, be exercised over shipping because of the priority of service +to which our forces overseas are entitled and which should also be accorded +the shipments which are to save recently liberated peoples from starvation +and many devastated regions from permanent ruin. May I not say a special +word about the needs of Belgium and northern France? No sums of money paid +by way of indemnity will serve of themselves to save them from hopeless +disadvantage for years to come. Something more must be done than merely +find the money. If they had money and raw materials in abundance to-morrow +they could not resume their place in the industry of the world +to-morrow,-the very important place they held before the flame of war swept +across them. Many of their factories are razed to the ground. Much of their +machinery is destroyed or has been taken away. Their people are scattered +and many of their best workmen are dead. Their markets will be taken by +others, if they are not in some special way assisted to rebuild their +factories and replace their lost instruments of manufacture. They should +not be left to the vicissitudes of the sharp competition for materials and +for industrial facilities which is now to set in. I hope, therefore, that +the Congress will not be unwilling, if it should become necessary, to grant +to some such agency as the War Trade Board the right to establish +priorities of export and supply for the benefit of these people whom we +have been so happy to assist in saving from the German terror and whom we +must not now thoughtlessly leave to shift for themselves in a pitiless +competitive market. + +For the steadying, and facilitation of our own domestic business +readjustments nothing is more important than the immediate determination of +the taxes that are to be levied for 1918, 1919, and 1920. As much of the +burden of taxation must be lifted from business as sound methods of +financing the Government will permit, and those who conduct the great +essential industries of the country must be told as exactly as possible +what obligations to the Government they will be expected to meet in the +years immediately ahead of them. It will be of serious consequence to the +country to delay removing all uncertainties in this matter a single day +longer than the right processes of debate justify. It is idle to talk of +successful and confident business reconstruction before those uncertainties +are resolved. + +If the war had continued it would have been necessary to raise at least +eight billion dollars by taxation payable in the year 1919; but the war has +ended and I agree with the Secretary of the Treasury that it will be safe +to reduce the amount to six billions. An immediate rapid decline in the +expenses of the Government is not to be looked for. Contracts made for war +supplies will, indeed, be rapidly cancelled and liquidated, but their +immediate liquidation will make heavy drains on the Treasury for the months +just ahead of us. The maintenance of our forces on the other side of the +sea is still necessary. A considerable proportion of those forces must +remain in Europe during the period of occupation, and those which are +brought home will be transported and demobilized at heavy expense for +months to come. The interest on our war debt must of course be paid and +provision made for the retirement of the obligations of the Government +which represent it. But these demands will of course fall much below what a +continuation of military operations would have entailed and six billions +should suffice to supply a sound foundation for the financial operations of +the year. + +I entirely concur with the Secretary of the Treasury in recommending that +the two billions needed in addition to the four billions provided by +existing law be obtained from the profits which have accrued and shall +accrue from war contracts and distinctively war business, but that these +taxes be confined to the war profits accruing in 1918, or in 1919 from +business originating in war contracts. I urge your acceptance of his +recommendation that provision be made now, not subsequently, that the taxes +to be paid in 1920 should be reduced from six to four billions. Any +arrangements less definite than these would add elements of doubt and +confusion to the critical period of industrial readjustment through which +the country must now immediately pass, and which no true friend of the +nation's essential business interests can afford to be responsible for +creating or prolonging. Clearly determined conditions, clearly and simply +charted, are indispensable to the economic revival and rapid industrial +development which may confidently be expected if we act now and sweep all +interrogation points away. + +I take it for granted that the Congress will carry out the naval programme +which was undertaken before we entered the war. The Secretary of the Navy +has submitted to your Committees for authorization that part of the +programme which covers the building plans of the next three years. These +plans have been prepared along the lines and in accordance with the policy +which the Congress established, not under the exceptional conditions of the +war, but with the intention of adhering to a definite method of development +for the navy. I earnestly recommend the uninterrupted pursuit of that +policy. It would clearly be unwise for us to attempt to adjust our +programmes to a future world policy as yet undetermined. + +The question which causes me the greatest concern is the question of the +policy to be adopted towards the railroads. I frankly turn to you for +counsel upon it. I have no confident judgment of my own. I do not see how +any thoughtful man can have who knows anything of the complexity of the +problem. It is a problem which must be studied, studied immediately, and +studied without bias or prejudice. Nothing can be gained by becoming +partisans of any particular plan of settlement. + +It was necessary that the administration of the railways should be taken +over by the Government so long as the war lasted. It would have been +impossible otherwise to establish and carry through under a single +direction the necessary priorities of shipment. It would have been +impossible otherwise to combine maximum production at the factories and +mines and farms with the maximum possible car supply to take the products +to the ports and markets; impossible to route troop shipments and freight +shipments without regard to the advantage or-disadvantage of the roads +employed; impossible to subordinate, when necessary, all questions of +convenience to the public necessity; impossible to give the necessary +financial support to the roads from the public treasury. But all these +necessities have now been served, and the question is, What is best for the +railroads and for the public in the future? + +Exceptional circumstances and exceptional methods of administration were +not needed to convince us that the railroads were not equal to the immense +tasks of transportation imposed upon them by the rapid and continuous +development of the industries of the country. We knew that already. And we +knew that they were unequal to it partly because their full cooperation was +rendered impossible by law and their competition made obligatory, so that +it has been impossible to assign to them severally the traffic which could +best be carried by their respective lines in the interest of expedition and +national economy. + +We may hope, I believe, for the formal conclusion of the war by treaty by +the time Spring has come. The twenty-one months to which the present control +of the railways is limited after formal proclamation of peace shall have +been made will run at the farthest, I take it for granted, only to the +January of 1921. The full equipment of the railways which the federal +administration had planned could not be completed within any such period. +The present law does not permit the use of the revenues of the several +roads for the execution of such plans except by formal contract with their +directors, some of whom will consent while some will not, and therefore +does not afford sufficient authority to undertake improvements upon the +scale upon which it would be necessary to undertake them. Every approach to +this difficult subject-matter of decision brings us face to face, +therefore, with this unanswered question: What is it right that we should +do with the railroads, in the interest of the public and in fairness to +their owners? + +Let me say at once that I have no answer ready. The only thing that is +perfectly clear to me is that it is not fair either to the public or to the +owners of the railroads to leave the question unanswered and that it will +presently become my duty to relinquish control of the roads, even before +the expiration of the statutory period, unless there should appear some +clear prospect in the meantime of a legislative solution. Their release +would at least produce one element of a solution, namely certainty and a +quick stimulation of private initiative. + +I believe that it will be serviceable for me to set forth as explicitly as +possible the alternative courses that lie open to our choice. We can simply +release the roads and go back to the old conditions of private management, +unrestricted competition, and multiform regulation by both state and +federal authorities; or we can go to the opposite extreme and establish +complete government control, accompanied, if necessary, by actual +government ownership; or we can adopt an intermediate course of modified +private control, under a more unified and affirmative public regulation and +under such alterations of the law as will permit wasteful competition to be +avoided and a considerable degree of unification of administration to be +effected, as, for example, by regional corporations under which the +railways of definable areas would be in effect combined in single systems. + +The one conclusion that I am ready to state with confidence is that it +would be a disservice alike to the country and to the owners of the +railroads to return to the old conditions unmodified. Those are conditions +of restraint without development. There is nothing affirmative or helpful +about them. What the country chiefly needs is that all its means of +transportation should be developed, its railways, its waterways, its +highways, and its countryside roads. Some new element of policy, therefore, +is absolutely necessary--necessary for the service of the public, necessary +for the release of credit to those who are administering the railways, +necessary for the protection of their security holders. The old policy may +be changed much or little, but surely it cannot wisely be left as it was. I +hope that the Con will have a complete and impartial study of the whole +problem instituted at once and prosecuted as rapidly as possible. I stand +ready and anxious to release the roads from the present control and I must +do so at a very early date if by waiting until the statutory limit of time +is reached I shall be merely prolonging the period of doubt and uncertainty +which is hurtful to every interest concerned. + +I welcome this occasion to announce to the Congress my purpose to join in +Paris the representatives of the governments with which we have been +associated in the war against the Central Empires for the purpose of +discussing with them the main features of the treaty of peace. I realize +the great inconveniences that will attend my leaving the country, +particularly at this time, but the conclusion that it was my paramount duty +to go has been forced upon me by considerations which I hope will seem as +conclusive to you as they have seemed to me. + +The Allied governments have accepted the bases of peace which I outlined to +the Congress on the eighth of January last, as the Central Empires also +have, and very reasonably desire my personal counsel in their +interpretation and application, and it is highly desirable that I should +give it in order that the sincere desire of our Government to contribute +without selfish purpose of any kind to settlements that will be of common +benefit to all the nations concerned may be made fully manifest. The peace +settlements which are now to be agreed upon are of transcendent importance +both to us and to the rest of the world, and I know of no business or +interest which should take precedence of them. The gallant men of our armed +forces on land and sea have consciously fought for the ideals which they +knew to be the ideals of their country; I have sought to express those +ideals; they have accepted my statements of them as the substance of their +own thought and purpose, as the associated governments have accepted them; +I owe it to them to see to it, so far as in me lies, that no false or +mistaken interpretation is put upon them, and no possible effort omitted to +realize them. It is now my duty to play my full part in making good what +they offered their life's blood to obtain. I can think of no call to +service which 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 English +governments have absolutely removed the censorship of cable news which +until within a fortnight they had maintained and there is now no censorship +whatever exercised at this end except upon attempted trade communications +with enemy countries. It has been necessary to keep an open wire constantly +available between Paris and the Department of State and another between +France and the Department of War. In order that this might be done with the +least possible interference with the other uses of the cables, I have +temporarily taken over the control of both cables in order that they may be +used as a single system. I did so at the advice of the most experienced +cable officials, and I hope that the results will justify my hope that the +news of the next few months may pass with the utmost freedom and with the +least possible delay from each side of the sea to the other. + +May I not hope, Gentlemen of the Congress, that in the delicate tasks I +shall have to perform on the other side of the sea, in my efforts truly and +faithfully to interpret the principles and purposes of the country we love, +I may have the encouragement and the added strength of your united support? +I realize the magnitude and difficulty of the duty I am undertaking; I am +poignantly aware of its grave responsibilities. I am the servant of the +nation. I can have no private thought or purpose of my own in performing +such an errand. I go to give the best that is in me to the common +settlements which I must now assist in arriving at in conference with the +other working heads of the associated governments. I shall count upon your +friendly countenance and encouragement. I shall not be inaccessible. The +cables and the wireless will render me available for any counsel or service +you may desire of me, and I shall be happy in the thought that I am +constantly in touch with the weighty matters of domestic policy with which +we shall have to deal. I shall make my absence as brief as possible and +shall hope to return with the happy assurance that it has been possible to +translate into action the great ideals for which America has striven. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Woodrow Wilson +December 2, 1919 + +TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: + +I sincerely regret that I cannot be present at the opening of this session +of the Congress. I am thus prevented from presenting in as direct a way as +I could wish the many questions that are pressing for solution at this +time. Happily, I have had the advantage of the advice of the heads of the +several executive departments who have kept in close touch with affairs in +their detail and whose thoughtful recommendations I earnestly second. + +In the matter of the railroads and the readjustment of their affairs +growing out of Federal control, I shall take the liberty at a later date of +addressing you. + +I hope that Congress will bring to a conclusion at this session legislation +looking to the establishment of a budget system. That there should be one +single authority responsible for the making of all appropriations and that +appropriations should be made not independently of each other, but with +reference to one single comprehensive plan of expenditure properly related +to the nation's income, there can be no doubt I believe the burden of +preparing the budget must, in the nature of the case, if the work is to be +properly done and responsibility concentrated instead of divided, rest upon +the executive. The budget so prepared should be submitted to and approved +or amended by a single committee of each House of Congress and no single +appropriation should be made by the Congress, except such as may have been +included in the budget prepared by the executive or added by the particular +committee of Congress charged with the budget legislation. + +Another and not less important aspect of the problem is the ascertainment +of the economy and efficiency with which the moneys appropriated are +expended. Under existing law the only audit is for the purpose of +ascertaining whether expenditures have been lawfully made within the +appropriations. No one is authorized or equipped to ascertain whether the +money has been spent wisely, economically and effectively. The auditors +should be highly trained officials with permanent tenure in the Treasury +Department, free of obligations to or motives of consideration for this or +any subsequent administration, and authorized and empowered to examine into +and make report upon the methods employed and the results obtained by the +executive departments of the Government. Their reports should be made to +the Congress and to the Secretary of the Treasury. + +I trust that the Congress will give its immediate consideration to the +problem of future taxation. Simplification of the income and profits taxes +has become an immediate necessity. These taxes performed indispensable +service during the war. They must, however, be simplified, not only to save +the taxpayer inconvenience and expense, but in order that his liability may +be made certain and definite. + +With reference to the details of the Revenue Law, the Secretary of the +Treasury and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue will lay before you for +your consideration certain amendments necessary or desirable in connection +with the administration of the law-recommendations which have my approval +and support. It is of the utmost importance that in dealing with this +matter the present law should not be disturbed so far as regards taxes for +the calendar year 1920 payable in the calendar year 1921. The Congress +might well consider whether the higher rates of income and profits taxes +can in peace times be effectively productive of revenue, and whether they +may not, on the contrary, be destructive of business activity and +productive of waste and inefficiency. There is a point at which in peace +times high rates of income and profits taxes discourage energy, remove the +incentive to new enterprises, encourage extravagant expenditures and +produce industrial stagnation with consequent unemployment and other +attendant evils. + +The problem is not an easy one. A fundamental change has taken place with +reference to the position of America in the world's affairs. The prejudice +and passions engendered by decades of controversy between two schools of +political and economic thought,-the one believers in protection of American +industries, the other believers in tariff for revenue only,-must be +subordinated to the single consideration of the public interest in the light +of utterly changed conditions. Before the war America was heavily the +debtor of the rest of the world and the interest payments she had to make +to foreign countries on American securities held abroad, the expenditures +of American travelers abroad and the ocean freight charges she had to pay +to others, about balanced the value of her pre-war favorable balance of +trade. During the war America's exports have been greatly stimulated, and +increased prices have increased their value. On the other hand, she has +purchased a large proportion of the American securities previously held +abroad, has loaned some $9,000,000,000 to foreign governments, and has +built her own ships. Our favorable balance of trade has thus been greatly +increased and Europe has been deprived of the means of meeting it +heretofore existing. Europe can have only three ways of meeting the +favorable balance of trade in peace times: by imports into this country of +gold or of goods, or by establishing new credits. Europe is in no position +at the present time to ship gold to us nor could we contemplate large +further imports of gold into this country without concern. The time has +nearly passed for international governmental loans and it will take time to +develop in this country a market for foreign securities. Anything, +therefore, which would tend to prevent foreign countries from settling for +our exports by shipments of goods into this country could only have the +effect of preventing them from paying for our exports and therefore of +preventing the exports from being made. The productivity of the country, +greatly stimulated by the war, must find an outlet by exports to foreign +countries, and any measures taken to prevent imports will inevitably +curtail exports, force curtailment of production, load the banking +machinery of the country with credits to carry unsold products and produce +industrial stagnation and unemployment. If we want to sell, we must be +prepared to buy. Whatever, therefore, may have been our views during the +period of growth of American business concerning tariff legislation, we +must now adjust our own economic life to a changed condition growing out of +the fact that American business is full grown and that America is the +greatest capitalist in the world. + +No policy of isolation will satisfy the growing needs and opportunities of +America. The provincial standards and policies of the past, which have held +American business as if in a strait-jacket, must yield and give way to the +needs and exigencies of the new day in which we live, a day full of hope +and promise for American business, if we will but take advantage of the +opportunities that are ours for the asking. The recent war has ended our +isolation and thrown upon us a great duty and responsibility. The United +States must share the expanding world market. The United States desires for +itself only equal opportunity with the other nations of the world, and that +through the process of friendly cooperation and fair competition the +legitimate interests of the nations concerned may be successfully and +equitably adjusted. + +There are other matters of importance upon which I urged action at the last +session of Congress which are still pressing for solution. I am sure it is +not necessary for me again to remind you that there is one immediate and +very practicable question resulting from the war which we should meet in +the most liberal spirit. It is a matter of recognition and relief to our +soldiers. I can do no better than to quote from my last message urging this +very action: + +"We must see to it that our returning soldiers are assisted in every +practicable way to find the places for which they are fitted in the daily +work of the country. This can be done by developing and maintaining upon an +adequate scale the admirable organization created by the Department of +Labor for placing men seeking work; and it can also be done, in at least +one very great field, by creating new opportunities for individual +enterprise. The Secretary of the Interior has pointed out the way by which +returning soldiers may be helped to find and take up land in the hitherto +undeveloped regions of the country which the Federal Government has already +prepared, or can readily prepare, for cultivation and also on many of the +cutover or neglected areas which lie within the limits of the older states; +and I once more take the liberty of recommending very urgently that his +plans shall receive the immediate and substantial support of the +Congress." + +In the matter of tariff legislation, I beg to call your attention to the +statements contained in my last message urging legislation with reference +to the establishment of the chemical and dyestuffs industry in America: + +"Among the industries to which special consideration should be given is +that of the manufacture of dyestuffs and related chemicals. Our complete +dependence upon German supplies before the war made the interruption of +trade a cause of exceptional economic disturbance. The close relation +between the manufacture of dyestuffs, on the one hand, and of explosive and +poisonous gases, on the other, moreover, has given the industry an +exceptional significance and value. Although the United States will gladly +and unhesitatingly join in the programme of international disarmament, it +will, nevertheless, be a policy of obvious prudence to make certain of the +successful maintenance of many strong and well-equipped chemical plants. +The German chemical industry, with which we will be brought into +competition, was and may well be again, a thoroughly knit monopoly capable +of exercising a competition of a peculiarly insidious and dangerous kind." + +During the war the farmer performed a vital and willing service to the +nation. By materially increasing the production of his land, he supplied +America and the Allies with the increased amounts of food necessary to keep +their 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 of +encouraging effort along these lines. The importance of doing everything +possible to promote production along economical lines, to improve +marketing, and to make rural life more attractive and healthful, is +obvious. I would urge approval of the plans already proposed to the +Congress by the Secretary of Agriculture, to secure the essential facts +required for the proper study of this question, through the proposed +enlarged programmes for farm management studies and crop estimates. I would +urge, also, the continuance of Federal participation in the building of +good roads, under the terms of existing law and under the direction of +present agencies; the need of further action on the part of the States and +the Federal Government to preserve and develop our forest resources, +especially through the practice of better forestry methods on private +holdings and the extension of the publicly owned forests; better support +for country schools and the more definite direction of their courses of +study along lines related to rural problems; and fuller provision for +sanitation in rural districts and the building up of needed hospital and +medical facilities in these localities. Perhaps the way might be cleared +for many of these desirable reforms by a fresh, comprehensive survey made +of rural conditions by a conference composed of representatives of the +farmers and of the agricultural agencies responsible for leadership. + +I would call your attention to the widespread condition of political +restlessness in our body politic. The causes of this unrest, while various +and complicated, are superficial rather than deep-seated. Broadly, they +arise from or are connected with the failure on the part of our Government +to arrive speedily at a just and permanent peace permitting return to +normal conditions, from the transfusion of radical theories from seething +European centers pending such delay, from heartless profiteering resulting +in the increase of the cost of living, and lastly from the machinations of +passionate and malevolent agitators. With the return to normal conditions, +this unrest will rapidly disappear. In the meantime, it does much evil. It +seems to me that in dealing with this situation Congress should not be +impatient or drastic but should seek rather to remove the causes. It should +endeavor to bring our country back speedily to a peace basis, with +ameliorated living conditions under the minimum of restrictions upon +personal liberty that is consistent with our reconstruction problems. And +it should arm the Federal Government with power to deal in its criminal +courts with those persons who by violent methods would abrogate our +time-tested institutions. With the free expression of opinion and with the +advocacy of orderly political change, however fundamental, there must be no +interference, but towards passion and malevolence tending to incite crime +and insurrection under guise of political evolution there should be no +leniency. Legislation to this end has been recommended by the Attorney +General and should be enacted. In this direct connection, I would call your +attention to my recommendations on August 8th, pointing out legislative +measures which would be effective in controlling and bringing down the +present cost of living, which contributes so largely to this unrest. On +only one of these recommendations has the Congress acted. If the +Government's campaign is to be effective, it is necessary that the other +steps suggested should be acted on at once. + +I renew and strongly urge the necessity of the extension of the present +Food Control Act as to the period of time in which it shall remain in +operation. The Attorney General has submitted a bill providing for an +extension of this Act for a period of six months. As it now stands, it is +limited in operation to the period of the war and becomes inoperative upon +the formal proclamation of peace. It is imperative that it should be +extended at once. The Department of justice has built up extensive +machinery for the purpose of enforcing its provisions; all of which must be +abandoned upon the conclusion of peace unless the provisions of this Act +are extended. + +During this period the Congress will have an opportunity to make similar +permanent provisions and regulations with regard to all goods destined for +interstate commerce and to exclude them from interstate shipment, if the +requirements of the law are not compiled with. Some such regulation is +imperatively necessary. The abuses that have grown up in the manipulation +of prices by the withholding of foodstuffs and other necessaries of life +cannot otherwise be effectively prevented. There can be no doubt of either +the necessity of the legitimacy of such measures. + +As I pointed out in my last message, publicity can accomplish a great deal +in this campaign. The aims of the Government must be clearly brought to the +attention of the consuming public, civic organizations and state officials, +who are in a position to lend their assistance to our efforts. You have +made available funds with which to carry on this campaign, but there is no +provision in the law authorizing their expenditure for the purpose of +making the public fully informed about the efforts of the Government. +Specific recommendation has been made by the Attorney General in this +regard. I would strongly urge upon you its immediate adoption, as it +constitutes one of the preliminary steps to this campaign. + +I also renew my recommendation that the Congress pass a law regulating cold +storage as it is regulated, for example, by the laws of the State of New +Jersey, which limit the time during which goods may be kept in storage, +prescribe the method of disposing of them if kept beyond the permitted +period, and require that goods released from storage shall in all cases +bear the date of their receipt. It would materially add to the +serviceability of the law, for the purpose we now have in view, if it were +also prescribed that all goods released from storage for interstate +shipment should have plainly marked upon each package the selling or market +price at which they went into storage. By this means the purchaser would +always be able to learn what profits stood between him and the producer or +the wholesale dealer. + +I would also renew my recommendation that all goods destined for interstate +commerce should in every case, where their form or package makes it +possible, be plainly marked with the price at which they left the hands of +the producer. + +We should formulate a law requiring a Federal license of all corporations +engaged in interstate commerce and embodying in the license or in the +conditions under which it is to be issued, specific regulations designed to +secure competitive selling and prevent unconscionable profits in the method +of marketing. Such a law would afford a welcome opportunity to effect other +much needed reforms in the business of interstate shipment and in the +methods of corporations which are engaged in it; but for the moment I +confine my recommendations to the object immediately in hand, which is to +lower the cost of living. + +No one who has observed the march of events in the last year can fail to +note the absolute need of a definite programme to bring about an +improvement in the conditions of labor. There can be no settled conditions +leading to increased production and a reduction in the cost of living if +labor and capital are to be antagonists instead of partners. Sound thinking +and an honest desire to serve the interests of the whole nation, as +distinguished from the interests of a class, must be applied to the +solution of this great and pressing problem. The failure of other nations +to consider this matter in a vigorous way has produced bitterness and +jealousies and antagonisms, the food of radicalism. The only way to keep +men from agitating against grievances is to remove the grievances. An +unwillingness even to discuss these matters produces only dissatisfaction +and gives comfort to the extreme elements in our country which endeavor to +stir up disturbances in order to provoke governments to embark upon a +course of retaliation and repression. The seed of revolution is repression. +The remedy for these things must not be negative in character. It must be +constructive. It must comprehend the general interest. The real antidote +for the unrest which manifests itself is not suppression, but a deep +consideration of the wrongs that beset our national life and the +application of a remedy. + +Congress has already shown its willingness to deal with these industrial +wrongs by establishing the eight-hour day as the standard in every field of +labor. It has sought to find a way to prevent child labor. It has served +the whole country by leading the way in developing the means of preserving +and safeguarding lives and health in dangerous industries. It must now help +in the difficult task of finding a method that will bring about a genuine +democratization of industry, based upon the full recognition of the right +of those who work, in whatever rank, to participate in some organic way in +every decision which directly affects their welfare. It is with this +purpose in mind that I called a conference to meet in Washington on +December 1st, to consider these problems in all their broad aspects, with +the idea of bringing about a better understanding between these two +interests. + +The great unrest throughout the world, out of which has emerged a demand +for an immediate consideration of the difficulties between capital and +labor, bids us put our own house in order. Frankly, there can be no +permanent and lasting settlements between capital and labor which do not +recognize the fundamental concepts for which labor has been struggling +through the years. The whole world gave its recognition and endorsement to +these fundamental purposes in the League of Notions. The statesmen gathered +at Versailles recognized the fact that world stability could not be had by +reverting to industrial standards and conditions against which the average +workman of the world had revolted. It is, therefore, the task of the states +men of this new day of change and readjustment to recognize world +conditions and to seek to bring about, through legislation, conditions that +will mean the ending of age-long antagonisms between capital and labor and +that will hopefully lead to the building up of a comradeship which will +result not only in greater contentment among the mass of workmen but also +bring about a greater production and a greater prosperity to business +itself. + +To analyze the particulars in the demands of labor is to admit the justice +of their complaint in many matters that lie at their basis. The workman +demands 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 the +right to live and the right to work amidst sanitary surroundings, both in +home and in workshop, surroundings that develop and do not retard his own +health and wellbeing; and the right to provide for his children's wants in +the matter of health and education. In other words, it is his desire to +make the conditions of his life and the lives of those dear to him +tolerable and easy to bear. + +The establishment of the principles regarding labor laid down ill the +covenant of the League of Nations offers us the way to industrial peace and +conciliation. No other road lies open to us. Not to pursue this one is +longer to invite enmities, bitterness, and antagonisms which in the end +only lead to industrial and social disaster. The unwilling workman is not a +profitable servant. An employee whose industrial life is hedged about by +hard and unjust conditions, which he did not create and over which he has +no control, lacks that fine spirit of enthusiasm and volunteer effort which +are the necessary ingredients of a great producing entity. Let us be frank +about this solemn matter. The evidences of world-wide unrest which manifest +themselves in violence throughout the world bid us pause and consider the +means to be found to stop the spread of this contagious thing before it +saps the very vitality of the nation itself. Do we gain strength by +withholding the remedy? Or is it not the business of statesmen to treat +these manifestations of unrest which meet us on every hand as evidences of +an economic disorder and to apply constructive remedies wherever necessary, +being sure that in the application of the remedy we touch not the vital +tissues of our industrial and economic life? There can be no recession of +the tide of unrest until constructive instrumentalities are set up to stem +that tide. + +Governments must recognize the right of men collectively to bargain for +humane objects that have at their base the mutual protection and welfare of +those engaged in all industries. Labor must not be longer treated as a +commodity. It must be regarded as the activity of human beings, possessed +of deep yearnings and desires. The business man gives his best thought to +the repair and replenishment of his machinery, so that its usefulness will +not be impaired and its power to produce may always be at its height and +kept in full vigor and motion. No less regard ought to be paid to the human +machine, which after all propels the machinery of the world and is the +great dynamic force that lies back of all industry and progress. Return to +the old standards of wage and industry in employment are unthinkable. The +terrible tragedy of war which has just ended and which has brought the +world to the verge of chaos and disaster would be in vain if there should +ensue a return to the conditions of the past. Europe itself, whence has +come the unrest which now holds the world at bay, is an example of +standpatism in these vital human matters which America might well accept as +an example, not to be followed but studiously to be avoided. Europe made +labor the differential, and the price of it all is enmity and antagonism +and prostrated industry, The right of labor to live in peace and comfort +must be recognized by governments and America should be the first to lay +the foundation stones upon which industrial peace shall be built. + +Labor not only is entitled to an adequate wage, but capital should receive +a reasonable return upon its investment and is entitled to protection at +the hands of the Government in every emergency. No Government worthy of the +name can "play" these elements against each other, for there is a mutuality +of interest between them which the Government must seek to express and to +safeguard at all cost. + +The right of individuals to strike is inviolate and ought not to be +interfered with by any process of Government, but there is a predominant +right and that is the right of the Government to protect all of its people +and to assert its power and majesty against the challenge of any class. The +Government, when it asserts that right, seeks not to antagonize a class but +simply to defend the right of the whole people as against the irreparable +harm and injury that might be done by the attempt by any class to usurp a +power that only Government itself has a right to exercise as a protection +to all. + +In the matter of international disputes which have led to war, statesmen +have sought to set up as a remedy arbitration for war. Does this not point +the way for the settlement of industrial disputes, by the establishment of +a tribunal, fair and just alike to all, which will settle industrial +disputes which in the past have led to war and disaster? America, +witnessing the evil consequences which have followed out of such disputes +between these contending forces, must not admit itself impotent to deal +with these matters by means of peaceful processes. Surely, there must be +some method of bringing together in a council of peace and amity these two +great interests, out of which will come a happier day of peace and +cooperation, a day that will make men more hopeful and enthusiastic in +their various tasks, that will make for more comfort and happiness in +living and a more tolerable condition among all classes of men. Certainly +human intelligence can devise some acceptable tribunal for adjusting the +differences between capital and labor. + +This is the hour of test and trial for America. By her prowess and +strength, and the indomitable courage of her soldiers, she demonstrated her +power to vindicate on foreign battlefields her conceptions of liberty and +justice. Let not her influence as a mediator between capital and labor be +weakened and her own failure to settle matters of purely domestic concern +be proclaimed to the world. There are those in this country who threaten +direct action to force their will, upon a majority. Russia today, with its +blood and terror, is a painful object lesson of the power of minorities. It +makes little difference what minority it is; whether capital or labor, or +any other class; no sort of privilege will ever be permitted to dominate +this country. We are a partnership or nothing that is worth while. We are a +democracy, where the majority are the masters, or all the hopes and +purposes of the men who founded this government have been defeated and +forgotten. In America there is but one way by which great reforms can be +accomplished and the relief sought by classes obtained, and that is through +the orderly processes of representative government. Those who would propose +any other method of reform are enemies of this country. America will not be +daunted by threats nor lose her composure or calmness in these distressing +times. We can afford, in the midst of this day of passion and unrest, to be +self-contained and sure. The instrument of all reform in America is the +ballot. The road to economic and social reform in America is the straight +road of justice to all classes and conditions of men. Men have but to +follow this road to realize the full fruition of their objects and +purposes. Let those beware who would take the shorter road of disorder and +revolution. The right road is the road of justice and orderly process. + +*** + +State of the Union Address +Woodrow Wilson +December 7, 1920 + +GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS: + +When I addressed myself to performing the duty laid upon the President by +the Constitution to present to you an annual report on the state of the +Union, I found my thought dominated by an immortal sentence of Abraham +Lincoln's--"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let +us dare to do our duty as we understand it"--a sentence immortal because it +embodies in a form of utter simplicity and purity the essential faith of +the nation, the faith in which it was conceived, and the faith in which it +has grown to glory and power. With that faith and the birth of a nation +founded upon it came the hope into the world that a new order would prevail +throughout the affairs of mankind, an order in which reason and right would +take precedence over covetousness and force; and I believe that I express +the wish and purpose of every thoughtful American when I say that this +sentence marks for us in the plainest manner the part we should play alike +in the arrangement of our domestic affairs and in our exercise of influence +upon the affairs of the world. + +By this faith, and by this faith alone, can the world be lifted out of its +present confusion and despair. It was this faith which prevailed over the +wicked force of Germany. You will remember that the beginning of the end of +the war came when the German people found themselves face to face with the +conscience of the world and realized that right was everywhere arrayed +against the wrong that their government was attempting to perpetrate. I +think, therefore, that it is true to say that this was the faith which won +the war. Certainly this is the faith with which our gallant men went into +the field and out upon the seas to make sure of victory. + +This is the mission upon which Democracy came into the world. Democracy is +an assertion of the right of the individual to live and to be treated +justly as against any attempt on the part of any combination of individuals +to make laws which will overburden him or which will destroy his equality +among his fellows in the matter of right or privilege; and I think we all +realize that the day has come when Democracy is being put upon its final +test. The Old World is just now suffering from a wanton rejection of the +principle of democracy and a substitution of the principle of autocracy as +asserted in the name, but without the authority and sanction, of the +multitude. This is the time of all others when Democracy should prove its +purity and its spiritual power to prevail. It is surely the manifest +destiny of the United States to lead in the attempt to make this spirit +prevail. + +There are two ways in which the United States can assist to accomplish this +great object. First, by offering the example within her own borders of the +will and power of Democracy to make and enforce laws which are +unquestionably just and which are equal in their administration-laws which +secure its full right to Labor and yet at the same time safeguard the +integrity of property, and particularly of that property which is devoted +to the development of industry and the increase of the necessary wealth of +the world. Second, by standing for right and justice as toward individual +nations. The law of Democracy is for the protection of the weak, and the +influence of every democracy in the world should be for the protection of +the weak nation, the nation which is struggling toward its right and toward +its proper recognition and privilege in the family of nations. + +The United States cannot refuse this role of champion without putting the +stigma of rejection upon the great and devoted men who brought its +government into existence and established it in the face of almost +universal opposition and intrigue, even in the face of wanton force, as, +for example, against the Orders in Council of Great Britain and the +arbitrary Napoleonic decrees which involved us in what we know as the War +of 1812. + +I urge you to consider that the display of an immediate disposition on the +part of the Congress to remedy any injustices or evils that may have shown +themselves in our own national life will afford the most effectual offset +to the forces of chaos and tyranny which are playing so disastrous a part +in the fortunes of the free peoples of more than one part of the world. The +United States is of necessity the sample democracy of the world, and the +triumph of Democracy depends upon its success. + +Recovery from the disturbing and sometimes disastrous effects of the late +war has been exceedingly slow on the other side of the water, and has given +promise, I venture-to say, of early completion only in our own fortunate +country; but even with us the recovery halts and is impeded at times, and +there are immediately serviceable acts of legislation which it seems to me +we ought to attempt, to assist that recovery and prove the indestructible +recuperative force of a great government of the people. One of these is to +prove that a great democracy can keep house as successfully and in as +business-like a fashion as any other government. It seems to me that the +first step toward providing this is to supply ourselves with a systematic +method of handling our estimates and expenditures and bringing them to the +point where they will not be an unnecessary strain upon our income or +necessitate unreasonable taxation; in other words, a workable budget +system. And I respectfully suggest that two elements are essential to such +a system-namely, not only that the proposal of appropriations should be in +the hands of a single body, such as a single appropriations committee in +each house of the Congress, but also that this body should be brought into +such cooperation with the Departments of the Government and with the +Treasury of the United States as would enable it to act upon a complete +conspectus of the needs of the Government and the resources from which it +must draw its income. + +I reluctantly vetoed the budget bill passed by the last session of the +Congress because of a constitutional objection. The House of +Representatives subsequently modified the bill in order to meet this +objection. In the revised form, I believe that the bill, coupled with +action already taken by the Congress to revise its rules and procedure, +furnishes the foundation for an effective national budget system. I +earnestly hope, therefore, that one of the first steps to be taken by the +present 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 1920 +exceeded those for 1919 by $1,542,000,000, while the total net ordinary +expenditures decreased from $18,514,000,000 to $6,403,000,000. The gross +public debt, which reached its highest point on August 31, 1919, when it +was $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 war +securities by the banking institutions of the country, as well as in the +amount of bills held by the Federal Reserve Banks secured by government war +obligations. This fortunate result has relieved the banks and left them +freer to finance the needs of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce. It has +been due in large part to the reduction of the public debt, especially of +the floating debt, but more particularly to the improved distribution of +government securities among permanent investors. The cessation of the +Government's borrowings, except through short-term certificates of +indebtedness, has been a matter of great consequence to the people of the +country at large, as well as to the holders of Liberty Bonds and Victory +Notes, and has had an important bearing on the matter of effective credit +control. + +The year has been characterized by the progressive withdrawal of the +Treasury from the domestic credit market and from a position of dominant +influence in that market. The future course will necessarily depend upon +the extent to which economies are practiced and upon the burdens placed +upon the Treasury, as well as upon industrial developments and the +maintenance of tax receipts at a sufficiently high level. The fundamental +fact which at present dominates the Government's financial situation is +that seven and a half billions of its war indebtedness mature within the +next two and a half years. Of this amount, two and a half billions are +floating debt and five billions, Victory Notes and War. Savings +Certificates. The fiscal program of the Government must be determined with +reference to these maturities. Sound policy demands that Government +expenditures be reduced to the lowest amount which will permit the various +services to operate efficiently and that Government receipts from taxes and +salvage be maintained sufficiently high to provide for current +requirements, including interest and sinking fund charges on the public +debt, and at the same time retire the floating debt and part of the Victory +Loan before maturity. + +With rigid economy, vigorous salvage operations, and adequate revenues from +taxation, a surplus of current receipts over current expenditures can be +realized and should be applied to the floating debt. All branches of the +Government should cooperate to see that this program is realized. I cannot +overemphasize the necessity of economy in Government appropriations and +expenditures and the avoidance by the Congress of practices which take +money from the Treasury by indefinite or revolving fund appropriations. The +estimates for the present year show that over a billion dollars of +expenditures were authorized by the last Congress in addition to the +amounts shown in the usual compiled statements of appropriations. This +strikingly illustrates the importance of making direct and specific +appropriations. The relation between the current receipts and current +expenditures of the Government during the present fiscal year, as well as +during the last half of the last fiscal year, has been disturbed by the +extraordinary 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 this +act-$350,000,000 during the present fiscal year; and it is estimated that +further payments aggregating possibly $650,000,000 must still be made to +the railroads during the current year. It is obvious that these large +payments have already seriously limited the Government's progress in +retiring the floating debt. + +Closely connected with this, it seems to me, is the necessity for an +immediate consideration of the revision of our tax laws. Simplification of +the income and profits taxes has become an immediate necessity. These taxes +performed an indispensable service during the war. The need for their +simplification, however, is very great, in order to save the taxpayer +inconvenience and expense and in order to make his liability more certain +and definite. Other and more detailed recommendations with regard to taxes +will no doubt be laid before you by the Secretary of the Treasury and the +Commissioner of Internal Revenue. + +It is my privilege to draw to the attention of Congress for very +sympathetic consideration the problem of providing adequate facilities for +the care and treatment of former members of the military and naval forces +who 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 they +patriotically rendered the nation. Their reward will lie rather in +realization of the fact that they vindicated the rights of their country +and aided in safeguarding civilization. The nation's gratitude must be +effectively revealed to them by the most ample provision for their medical +care and treatment as well as for their vocational training and placement. +The time has come when a more complete program can be formulated and more +satisfactorily administered for their treatment and training, and I +earnestly urge that the Congress give the matter its early consideration. +The Secretary of the Treasury and the Board for Vocational Education will +outline in their annual reports proposals covering medical care and +rehabilitation which I am sure will engage your earnest study and commend +your most generous support. + +Permit me to emphasize once more the need for action upon certain matters +upon which I dwelt at some length in my message to the second session of +the Sixty-sixth Congress. The necessity, for example, of encouraging the +manufacture of dyestuffs and related chemicals; the importance of doing +everything possible to promote agricultural production along economic +lines, to improve agricultural marketing, and to make rural life more +attractive and healthful; the need for a law regulating cold storage in +such 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 permitted +period, and requiring goods released from storage in all cases to bear the +date of their receipt. It would also be most serviceable if it were +provided that all goods released from cold storage for interstate shipment +should have plainly marked upon each package the selling or market price at +which they went into storage, in order that the purchaser might be able to +learn what profits stood between him and the producer or the wholesale +dealer. Indeed, It would be very serviceable to the public if all goods +destined for interstate commerce were made to carry upon every packing case +whose form made it possible a plain statement of the price at which they +left the hands of the producer. I respectfully call your attention also to +the recommendations of the message referred to with regard to a federal +license for all corporations engaged in interstate commerce. + +In brief, the immediate legislative need of the time is the removal of all +obstacles to the realization of the best ambitions of our people in their +several classes of employment and the strengthening of all +instrumentalities by. which difficulties are to be met and removed and +justice dealt out, whether by law or by some form of mediation and +conciliation. I do not feel it to be my privilege at present to, suggest +the detailed and particular methods by which these objects may be attained, +but I have faith that the inquiries of your several committees will +discover the way and the method. + +In response to what I believe to be the impulse of sympathy and opinion +throughout the United States, I earnestly suggest that the Congress +authorize the Treasury of the United States to make to the struggling +government of Armenia such a loan as was made to several of the Allied +governments during the war, and I would also suggest that it would be +desirable to provide in the legislation itself that the expenditure of the +money thus loaned should be under the supervision of a commission, or at +least a commissioner, from the United States in order that revolutionary +tendencies within Armenia itself might not be afforded by the loan a +further tempting opportunity. + +Allow me to call your attention to the fact that the people of the +Philippine Islands have succeeded in maintaining a stable government since +the last action of the Congress in their behalf, and have thus fulfilled +the condition set by the Congress as precedent to a consideration of +granting independence to the Islands. I respectfully submit that this +condition precedent having been fulfilled, it is now our liberty and our +duty to keep our promise to the people of those islands by granting them +the 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 bred +and which it is my solemn purpose to stand by until my last fighting day. I +believe this to be the faith of America, the faith of the future, and of +all the victories which await national action in the days to come, whether +in America or elsewhere. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF ADDRESSES BY WOODROW WILSON *** + +This file should be named suwil11.txt or suwil11.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, suwil12.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, suwil10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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