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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/24668-h.zip b/24668-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9294318 --- /dev/null +++ b/24668-h.zip diff --git a/24668-h/24668-h.htm b/24668-h/24668-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ac1317 --- /dev/null +++ b/24668-h/24668-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4751 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-xhtml1-20020801/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of In Our First Year of War, by Woodrow Wilson + </title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> +<style type="text/css"> + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; } +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} +.figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} +.center {text-align: center;} +.list {margin-left: 5%;} /* indented text for use in lists */ +.tleft {text-align: left;} +.tright {text-align: right;} +.books {margin-left: 30%; text-indent: -1em;} +table {margin-left: 5%; margin-top: .75em; margin-bottom: .75em;} +table tr td {padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; /* all headings centered */clear: both;} +.pagenum {display: inline; + position: absolute; right: 2%; + padding: 1px 3px; + font-size: small; + font-style: normal; + font-variant:normal; + font-weight:normal; + text-align: right; + text-decoration: none; + color: #444; } +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's In Our First Year of the War, by Woodrow Wilson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: In Our First Year of the War + Messages and Addresses to the Congress and the People, + March 5, 1917 to January 6, 1918 + +Author: Woodrow Wilson + +Illustrator: Wilfrid Muir Evans + +Release Date: February 22, 2008 [EBook #24668] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN OUR FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR *** + + + + +Produced by Jennie Gottschalk, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/001.jpg" width="300" height="381" alt="sketch of Woodrow Wilson" /> +</div> +<br /><br /> + + +<h1>IN OUR<br /> +FIRST YEAR OF WAR</h1> + +<h4>MESSAGES AND ADDRESSES TO<br /> +THE CONGRESS AND THE PEOPLE<br /> +MARCH 5, 1917, TO JANUARY 8, 1918<br /></h4><br /> + +<p class="center">BY</p> + +<h2>WOODROW WILSON</h2> + +<p class="center">PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES</p><br /><br /> + +<p class="center">Frontispiece from drawing by <br />WILFRID MUIR EVANS</p><br /><br /> + +<h3>HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS<br /> +NEW YORK AND LONDON</h3> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<h4><span class="smcap">BOOKS BY</span></h4> + +<h3>WOODROW WILSON</h3> + +<div class="books"><p>IN OUR FIRST YEAR OF WAR </p> +<p>WHY WE ARE AT WAR. 16mo</p> + +<p>A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE <br /> + Profusely illustrated. 5 volumes. 8vo <br /> + Cloth <br /> + Three-quarter Calf <br /> + Three-quarter Levant</p> + +<p>GEORGE WASHINGTON. Illustrated. 8vo <br /> + Popular Edition</p> + +<p>WHEN A MAN COMES TO HIMSELF.<br /> + 16mo. Cloth. Leather</p> + +<p>ON BEING HUMAN <br /> + 16mo. Cloth. Leather</p> + +<p>THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 16mo. Cloth. Leather </p></div> +<hr style="width: 10%;" /> +<p class="center">HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK </p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<p>CHAP. </p> + +<p><a href="#foreword"><span class="smcap">Foreword</span></a> <br /></p> + +<p><a href="#I">I. <span class="smcap"> The Second Inaugural Address</span></a> <br /> +(<i>March 5, 1917</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#II">II. <span class="smcap"> We Must Accept War </span></a> <br /> +(<i>Message to the Congress, April 2, 1917)</i></p> + +<p><a href="#III">III. <span class="smcap"> A State of War</span></a> <br /> +(<i>The President's Proclamation of April 6, 1917</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#IV">IV. <span class="smcap">"Speak, Act and Serve Together"</span></a> <br /> +(<i>Message to the American people, April 15, 1917</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#V">V. <span class="smcap">The Conscription Proclamation</span></a> <br /> +(<i>May 18, 1917</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#VI">VI. <span class="smcap">Conserving the Nation's Food</span></a> <br /> +(<i>May 19, 1917</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#VII">VII. <span class="smcap">An Answer to Critics</span></a> <br /> +(<i>May 22, 1917</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#VIII">VIII. <span class="smcap">Memorial Day Address</span></a> <br /> +(<i>May 30, 1917</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#IX">IX. <span class="smcap">A Statement to Russia</span></a> <br /> +(<i>June 9, 1917</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#X">X. <span class="smcap">Flag-day Address</span></a> <br /> +(<i>June 14, 1917</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#XI">XI. <span class="smcap">An Appeal to the Business Interests</span></a> <br /> +(<i>July 11, 1917</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#XII">XII. <span class="smcap">Reply to the Pope</span> </a> <br /> +(<i>August 27, 1917</i>) </p> + +<p><a href="#XIII">XIII. <span class="smcap">A Message to Teachers and School Officers</span> </a> + <br /> +(<i>September 30, 1917</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#XIV">XIV. <span class="smcap">Woman Suffrage Must Come Now</span> </a> <br /> +(<i>October 25, 1917</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#XV">XV. <span class="smcap">The Thanksgiving Day Proclamation</span> </a> <br /> +(<i>November 7, 1917</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#XVI">XVI. <span class="smcap">Labor Must Bear Its Part</span> </a> <br /> +(<i>November 12, 1917</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#XVII">XVII. <span class="smcap">Address to the Congress</span></a> <br /> +(<i>December 4, 1917</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#XVIII">XVIII. <span class="smcap">Proclamation of War Against Austria-Hungary</span></a> <br /> +(<i>December 12, 1917</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#XIX">XIX. <span class="smcap">The Government Takes Over the Railroads</span></a><br /> (<i>A +Statement by the President, December 26, 1917</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#XX">XX. <span class="smcap">Government Operation of Railroads</span> </a> <br /> +(<i>Address to the Congress, January 4, 1918</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#XXI">XXI. <span class="smcap">The Terms of Peace</span> </a> <br /> +(<i>January 8, 1918</i>)</p> + +<p><a href="#Appendix"><span class="smcap">Appendix</span> </a> </p> +<br /> +<br /><br /><br /> + + +<h2><a name="foreword">FOREWORD</a></h2> + + +<p>This book opens with the second inaugural address and contains the +President's messages and addresses since the United States was forced +to take up arms against Germany. These pages may be said to picture +not only official phases of the great crisis, but also the highest +significance of liberty and democracy and the reactions of President +and people to the great developments of the times. The second +Inaugural Address with its sense of solemn responsibility serves as a +prophecy as well as prelude to the declaration of war and the message +to the people which followed so soon.</p> + +<p>The extracts from the Conscription Proclamation, the messages on +Conservation and the Fixing of Prices, the Appeal to Business +Interests, the Address to the Federation of Labor and the Railroad +messages present the solid every-day realities and the vast +responsibilities of war-time as they affect every American. These are +concrete messages which should be at hand for frequent reference, +just as the uplift and inspiration of lofty appeals like the Memorial +Day and Flag Day addresses should be a constant source of +inspiration. There are also the clarifying and vigorous definitions +of American purpose afforded in utterances like the statement to +Russia, the reply to the communication of the Pope, and, most +emphatically, the President's restatement of War Aims on January 8th. +These and other state papers from the early spring of 1917 to +January, 1918, have a significance and value in this collected form +which has been attested by the many requests that have come to Harper +& Brothers, as President Wilson's publishers, for a war volume of the +President's messages to follow <i>Why We Are At War</i>.</p> + +<p>As a matter of course, the President has been consulted in regard to +the plan of publication, and the conditions which he requested have +been observed. For title, arrangement, headings, and like details the +publishers are responsible. They have held the publication of the +President's words of enlightenment and inspiration to be a public +service. And they think that there is no impropriety in adding that +in the case of this book, and <i>Why We Are At War</i>, the American +Red Cross receives all author's royalties.</p> + +<p>In the case of the former book the evolution of events which led to +war was illustrated in messages from January to April 15th. In the +preparation of this book, which begins with the second inaugural, it +has seemed desirable to present practically all the messages of +war-time, and therefore three papers are included which appeared in +the former and smaller book, in addition to the twenty-one messages +and addresses which have been collected for this volume.</p> + +<br /><br /> + + +<h2>IN OUR FIRST YEAR <br />OF WAR</h2> + + + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1"></a>1</span> +<h2>IN OUR FIRST YEAR <br />OF WAR</h2> + + +<h2><a name="I">I</a></h2> + +<h2>THE SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>March 5, 1917</i>)</p> + + +<p>My Fellow-citizens,--The four years which have elapsed since last I +stood in this place have been crowded with counsel and action of the +most vital interest and consequence. Perhaps no equal period in our +history has been so fruitful of important reforms in our economic and +industrial life or so full of significant changes in the spirit and +purpose of our political action. We have sought very thoughtfully to +set our house in order, correct the grosser errors and abuses of our +industrial life, liberate and quicken the processes of our national +genius and energy, and lift our politics to a broader view of the +people's essential interests. It is a record of singular variety and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2"></a>2</span>singular distinction. +But I shall not attempt to review it. It speaks +for itself and will be of increasing influence as the years go by. +This is not the time for retrospect. It is time, rather, to speak our +thoughts and purposes concerning the present and the immediate +future.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>A COSMOPOLITAN EPOCH AT HAND</h3> + +<p>Although we have centered counsel and action with such unusual +concentration and success upon the great problems of domestic +legislation to which we addressed ourselves four years ago, other +matters have more and more forced themselves upon our attention, +matters lying outside our own life as a nation and over which we had +no control, but which, despite our wish to keep free of them, have +drawn us more and more irresistibly into their own current and +influence.</p> + +<p>It has been impossible to avoid them. They have affected the life of +the whole world. They have shaken men everywhere with a passion and +an apprehension they never knew before. It has been hard to preserve +calm counsel while the thought of our own people swayed this way and +that under their influence. We are a composite and cosmopolitan +people. We are of the blood of all the nations that are at war. The +currents of our thoughts as well as the currents of our trade run +quick at <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3"></a>3</span>all seasons +back and forth between us and them. The war +inevitably set its mark from the first alike upon our minds, our +industries, our commerce, our politics, and our social action. To be +indifferent to it or independent of it was out of the question.</p> + +<p>And yet all the while we have been conscious that we were not part of +it. In that consciousness, despite many divisions, we have drawn +closer together. We have been deeply wronged upon the seas, but we +have not wished to wrong or injure in return; have retained +throughout the consciousness of standing in some sort apart, intent +upon an interest that transcended the immediate issues of the war +itself. As some of the injuries done us have become intolerable, we +have still been clear that we wished nothing for ourselves that we +were not ready to demand for all mankind,--fair dealing, justice, the +freedom to live and be at ease against organized wrong.</p> + +<p>It is in this spirit and with this thought that we have grown more +and more aware, more and more certain that the part we wished to play +was the part of those who mean to vindicate and fortify peace. We +have been obliged to arm ourselves to make good our claim to a +certain minimum of right and of freedom of action. We stand firm in +armed neutrality since it seems that in no other way we can +demonstrate what it is we insist upon <span class="pagenum"> +<a name="Page_4"></a>4</span>and cannot forego. We may even +be drawn on, by circumstances, not by our own purpose or desire, to a +more active assertion of our rights as we see them and a more +immediate association with the great struggle itself. But nothing +will alter our thought or our purpose. They are too clear to be +obscured. They are too deeply rooted in the principles of our +national life to be altered. We desire neither conquest nor +advantage. We wish nothing that can be had only at the cost of +another people. We have always professed unselfish purpose and we +covet the opportunity to prove that our professions are sincere.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>THE SPIRIT OF CO-OPERATION</h3> + +<p>There are many things still to do at home, to clarify our own +politics and give new vitality to the industrial processes of our own +life, and we shall do them as time and opportunity serve; but we +realize that the greatest things that remain to be done must be done +with the whole world for stage and in co-operation with the wide and +universal forces of mankind, and we are making our spirits ready for +those things. They will follow in the immediate wake of the war +itself and will set civilization up again. We are provincials no +longer. The tragical events of the thirty months of vital turmoil +through which we have just passed have made us citizens of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5"></a>5</span>world. +There can be no turning back. Our own fortunes as a nation are +involved, whether we would have it so or not.</p> + +<p>And yet we are not the less Americans on that account. We shall be +the more American if we but remain true to the principles in which we +have been bred. They are not the principles of a province or of a +single continent. We have known and boasted all along that they were +the principles of a liberated mankind. These, therefore, are the +things we shall stand for, whether in war or in peace:</p> +<br /><br /> + +<h3>OUR NATIONAL PLATFORM</h3> + +<p>That all nations are equally interested in the peace of the world and +in the political stability of free peoples, and equally responsible +for their maintenance;</p> + +<p>That the essential principle of peace is the actual equality of +nations in all matters of right or privilege;</p> + +<p>That peace cannot securely or justly rest upon an armed balance of +power;</p> + +<p>That Governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the +governed and that no other powers should be supported by the common +thought, purpose or power of the family of nations;</p> + +<p>That the seas should be equally free and safe for the use of all +peoples, under rules set up by common agreement and consent, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6"></a>6</span>that, so far as practicable, they should be accessible to all upon +equal terms;</p> + +<p>That national armaments should be limited to the necessities of +national order and domestic safety;</p> + +<p>That the community of interest and of power upon which peace must +henceforth depend imposes upon each nation the duty of seeing to it +that all influences proceeding from its own citizens meant to +encourage or assist revolution in other states should be sternly and +effectually suppressed and prevented.</p> + +<br /><br /> +<h3>A UNITY OF PURPOSE AND ACTION</h3> + +<p>I need not argue these principles to you, my fellow-countrymen: they +are your own, part and parcel of your own thinking and your own +motive in affairs. They spring up native amongst us. Upon this as a +platform of purpose and of action we can stand together.</p> + +<p>And it is imperative that we should stand together. We are being +forged into a new unity amidst the fires that now blaze throughout +the world. In their ardent heat we shall, in God's providence, let us +hope, be purged of faction and division, purified of the errant +humors of party and of private interest, and shall stand forth in the +days to come with a new dignity of national pride and spirit. Let +each man see to it that the dedication is in his own heart, the high +purpose of the nation <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7"></a>7</span>in his own mind, ruler of his own will and +desire.</p> + +<p>I stand here and have taken the high and solemn oath to which you +have been audience because the people of the United States have +chosen me for this august delegation of power and have by their +gracious judgment named me their leader in affairs. I know now what +the task means. I realize to the full the responsibility which it +involves. I pray God I may be given the wisdom and the prudence to do +my duty in the true spirit of this great people. I am their servant +and can succeed only as they sustain and guide me by their confidence +and their counsel. The thing I shall count upon, the thing without +which neither counsel nor action will avail, is the unity of +America--an America united in feeling, in purpose, and in its vision +of duty, of opportunity, and of service. We are to beware of all men +who would turn the tasks and the necessities of the nation to their +own private profit or use them for the building up of private power; +beware that no faction or disloyal intrigue break the harmony or +embarrass the spirit of our people; beware that our Government be +kept pure and incorrupt in all its parts. United alike in the +conception of our duty and in the high resolve to perform it in the +face of all men, let us dedicate ourselves to the great task to which +we must now set our <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8"></a>8</span>hand. For myself I beg your tolerance, your +countenance, and your united aid. The shadows that now lie dark upon +our path will soon be dispelled and we shall walk with the light all +about us if we be but true to ourselves--to ourselves as we have +wished to be known in the counsels of the world and in the thought of +all those who love liberty and justice and the right exalted.</p> +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + + + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9"></a>9</span><h2><a name="II">II</a> +<br /></h2> +<h2>WE MUST ACCEPT WAR</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>Message to the Congress, April 2, 1917</i>)</p> +<br /> +<p>Gentlemen of the Congress,--I have called the Congress into +extraordinary session because there are serious, very serious, +choices of policy to be made, and made immediately, which it was +neither right nor constitutionally permissible that I should assume +the responsibility of making.</p> + +<p>On the 3d of February last I officially laid before you the +extraordinary announcement of the Imperial German Government that on +and after the first day of February it was its purpose to put aside +all restraints of law or of humanity and use its submarines to sink +every vessel that sought to approach either the ports of Great +Britain and Ireland or the western coasts of Europe or any of the +ports controlled by the enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean. +That had seemed to be the object of the German submarine warfare +earlier in the war, but since April of last year the Imperial +Government had somewhat restrained the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10"></a>10</span>commanders of its undersea +craft in conformity with its promise then given to us that +passenger-boats should not be sunk, and that due warning would be +given to all other vessels which its submarines might seek to destroy +when no resistance was offered or escape attempted, and care taken +that their crews were given at least a fair chance to save their +lives in their open boats.</p> + +<p>The precautions taken were meager and haphazard enough, as was proved +in distressing instance after instance in the progress of the cruel +and unmanly business, but a certain degree of restraint was observed.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>GERMANY'S RUTHLESS POLICY</h3> + +<p>The new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of every +kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their +destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom +without warning, and without thought of help or mercy for those on +board, the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of +belligerents. Even hospital-ships and ships carrying relief to the +sorely bereaved and stricken people of Belgium, though the latter +were provided with safe conduct through the proscribed areas by the +German Government itself and were distinguished by unmistakable marks +of identity, have been sunk with the same reckless lack of compassion +or of principle.</p> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11"></a>11</span><p>I was for a little while unable to believe that such things would, in +fact, be done by any Government that had hitherto subscribed to the +humane practices of civilized nations. International law had its +origin in the attempt to set up some law which would be respected and +observed upon the seas, where no nation had right of dominion, and +where lay the free highways of the world. By painful stage after +stage has that law been built up with meager enough results, indeed, +after all was accomplished that could be accomplished, but always +with a clear view at least of what the heart and conscience of +mankind demanded.</p> + +<p>This minimum of right the German Government has swept aside under the +plea of retaliation and necessity, and because it had no weapons +which it could use at sea except these, which it is impossible to +employ as it is employing them without throwing to the winds all +scruples of humanity or of respect for the understandings that were +supposed to underlie the intercourse of the world.</p> + +<p>I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and +serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction +of the lives of non-combatants, men, women and children engaged in +pursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern +history, been deemed innocent and legitimate.</p> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12"></a>12</span><p>Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent people +cannot be.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>GERMAN WARFARE AGAINST MANKIND</h3> + +<p>The present German warfare against commerce is a warfare against +mankind. It is a war against all nations. American ships have been +sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very +deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and +friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the +same way. There has been no discrimination. The challenge is to all +mankind. Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The +choice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of +counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our character and +our motives as a nation. We must put excited feeling away.</p> + +<p>Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the +physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of +human right, of which we are only a single champion.</p> + +<p>When I addressed the Congress on the 26th of February last I thought +that it would suffice to assert our neutral rights with arms, our +right to use the seas against unlawful interference, our right to +keep our people safe against unlawful violence. But armed neutrality,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13"></a>13</span> +it now appears, is impracticable. Because submarines are in effect +outlaws when used as the German submarines have been used against +merchant shipping, it is impossible to defend ships against their +attacks as the law of nations has assumed that merchantmen would +defend themselves against privateers or cruisers, visible craft +giving chase upon the open sea.</p> + +<p>It is common prudence in such circumstances, grim necessity, indeed, +to endeavor to destroy them before they have shown their own +intention. They must be dealt with upon sight, if dealt with at all.</p> + +<p>The German Government denies the right of neutrals to use arms at all +within the areas of the sea which it has proscribed, even in the +defense of rights which no modern publicist has ever before +questioned their right to defend. The intimation is conveyed that the +armed guards which we have placed on our merchant-ships will be +treated as beyond the pale of law and subject to be dealt with as +pirates would be.</p> + +<p>Armed neutrality is ineffectual enough at best; in such circumstances +and in the face of such pretensions it is worse than ineffectual; it +is likely to produce what it was meant to prevent; it is practically +certain to draw us into the war without either the rights or the +effectiveness of belligerents.</p> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14"></a>14</span><p>There is one choice we cannot make, we are incapable of making: we +will not choose the path of submission and suffer the most sacred +rights of our nation and our people to be ignored or violated. The +wrongs against which we now array ourselves are not common wrongs; +they reach out to the very roots of human life.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>BELLIGERENCY THRUST UPON US</h3> + +<p>With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of +the step I am taking and of the grave responsibilities which it +involves, but in unhesitating obedience to what I deem my +constitutional duty, I advise that the Congress declare the recent +course of the Imperial German Government to be in fact nothing less +than war against the Government and people of the United States. That +it formally accept the status of belligerent which has thus been +thrust upon it and that it take immediate steps not only to put the +country in a more thorough state of defense, but also to exert all +its power and employ all its resources to bring the Government of the +German Empire to terms and end the war.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>WHAT THIS WILL INVOLVE</h3> + +<p>What this will involve is clear. It will involve the utmost +practicable co-operation in counsel and action with the Governments +now <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15"></a>15</span>at war with Germany, and as incident to that the extension to +those Governments of the most liberal financial credits in order that +our resources may so far as possible be added to theirs.</p> + +<p>It will involve the organization and mobilization of all the material +resources of the country to supply the materials of war and serve the +incidental needs of the nation in the most abundant and yet the most +economical and efficient way possible.</p> + +<p>It will involve the immediate full equipment of the navy in all +respects, but particularly in supplying it with the best means of +dealing with the enemy's submarines.</p> + +<p>It will involve the immediate addition to the armed forces of the +United States already provided for by law in case of war at least +500,000 men, who should, in my opinion, be chosen upon the principle +of universal liability to service, and also the authorization of +subsequent additional increments of equal force so soon as they may +be needed and can be handled in training.</p> + +<p>It will involve also, of course, the granting of adequate credits to +the Government, sustained, I hope, so far as they can equitably be +sustained by the present generation, by well-conceived taxation. I +say sustained so far as may be equitable by taxation because it seems +to me that it would be most unwise to base <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16"></a>16</span>the credits which will now +be necessary entirely on money borrowed.</p> + +<p>It is our duty, I most respectfully urge, to protect our people so +far as we may against the very serious hardships and evils which +would be likely to arise out of the inflation which would be produced +by vast loans.</p> + +<p>In carrying out the measures by which these things are to be +accomplished we should keep constantly in mind the wisdom of +interfering as little as possible in our own preparation and in the +equipment of our own military forces with the duty--for it will be a +very practical duty--of supplying the nations already at war with +Germany with the materials which they can obtain only from us or by +our assistance. They are in the field and we should help them in +every way to be effective there.</p> + +<p>I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through the several executive +departments of the Government, for the consideration of your +committees measures for the accomplishment of the several objects I +have mentioned. I hope that it will be your pleasure to deal with +them as having been framed after very careful thought by the branch +of the Government upon which the responsibility of conducting the war +and safeguarding the nation will most directly fall.</p> + +<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17"></a>17</span><h3>OUR MOTIVES AND OBJECTS</h3> + +<p>While we do these things, these deeply momentous things, let us be +very clear and make very clear to all the world what our motives and +our objects are. My own thought has not been driven from its habitual +and normal course by the unhappy events of the last two months, and I +do not believe that the thought of the nation has been altered or +clouded by them.</p> + +<p>I have exactly the same thing in mind now that I had in mind when I +addressed the Senate on the 22d of January last; the same that I had +in mind when I addressed the Congress on the 3d of February and on +the 26th of February.</p> + +<p>Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the principles of peace and +justice in the life of the world as against selfish and autocratic +power and to set up amongst the really free and self-governed peoples +of the world such a concert of purpose and of action as will +henceforth insure the observance of those principles.</p> + +<p>Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of the +world is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and the menace to +that peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic +Governments backed by organized force which is controlled wholly by +their will, not by the will of their people. We have <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18"></a>18</span>seen the last of +neutrality in such circumstances.</p> + +<p>We are at the beginning of an age in which it will be insisted that +the same standards of conduct and of responsibility for wrong done +shall be observed among nations and their Governments that are +observed among the individual citizens of civilized states.</p> + +<p>We have no quarrel with the German people. We have no feeling toward +them but one of sympathy and friendship. It was not upon their +impulse that their Government acted in entering this war. It was not +with their previous knowledge or approval.</p> + +<p>It was a war determined upon as wars used to be determined upon in +the old, unhappy days when peoples were nowhere consulted by their +rulers and wars were provoked and waged in the interest of dynasties +or of little groups of ambitious men who were accustomed to use their +fellow-men as pawns and tools.</p> + +<p>Self-governed nations do not fill their neighbor states with spies or +set the course of intrigue to bring about some critical posture of +affairs which will give them an opportunity to strike and make +conquest. Such designs can be successfully worked only under cover +and where no one has the right to ask questions.</p> + +<p>Cunningly contrived plans of deception or <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19"></a>19</span>aggression, carried, it may +be, from generation to generation, can be worked out and kept from +the light only within the privacy of courts or behind the carefully +guarded confidences of a narrow and privileged class. They are +happily impossible where public opinion commands and insists upon +full information concerning all the nation's affairs.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>PEACE THROUGH FREE PEOPLES</h3> + +<p>A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained except by a +partnership of democratic nations. No autocratic Government could be +trusted to keep faith within it or observe its covenants. It must be +a league of honor, a partnership of opinion. Intrigue would eat its +vitals away, the plottings of inner circles who could plan what they +would and render account to no one would be a corruption seated at +its very heart. Only free peoples can hold their purpose and their +honor steady to a common end and prefer the interests of mankind to +any narrow interest of their own.</p> + +<p>Does not every American feel that assurance has been added to our +hope for the future peace of the world by the wonderful and +heartening things that have been happening within the last few weeks +in Russia?</p> + +<p>Russia was known by those who know it best to have been always in +fact democratic at heart, in all the vital habits of her thought, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20"></a>20</span>in +all the intimate relationships of her people that spoke their natural +instinct, their habitual attitude toward life.</p> + +<p>Autocracy that crowned the summit of her political structure, long as +it had stood and terrible as was the reality of its power, was not in +fact Russian in origin, in character or purpose; and now it has been +shaken and the great, generous Russian people have been added, in all +their native majesty and might, to the forces that are fighting for +freedom in the world, for justice and for peace. Here is a fit +partner for a league of honor.</p> + +<p>One of the things that have served to convince us that the Prussian +autocracy was not and could never be our friend is that from the very +outset of the present war it has filled our unsuspecting communities +and even our offices of Government with spies and set criminal +intrigues everywhere afoot against our national unity of council, our +peace within and without, our industries and our commerce.</p> + +<p>Indeed, it is now evident that its spies were here even before the +war began, and it is, unhappily, not a matter of conjecture, but a +fact proved in our courts of justice, that the intrigues which have +more than once come perilously near to disturbing the peace and +dislocating the industries of the country have been carried on at the +instigation, with the support, and even under the personal direction, +of official <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21"></a>21</span>agents of the Imperial German Government accredited to +the Government of the United States.</p> + +<p>Even in checking these things and trying to extirpate them we have +sought to put the most generous interpretation possible upon them +because we knew that their source lay, not in any hostile feeling or +purpose of the German people toward us (who were, no doubt, as +ignorant of them as we ourselves were), but only in the selfish +designs of a Government that did what it pleased and told its people +nothing. But they have played their part in serving to convince us at +last that that Government entertains no real friendship for us and +means to act against our peace and security at its convenience. That +it means to stir up enemies against us at our very doors the +intercepted note to the German Minister at Mexico City is eloquent +evidence.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>A CHALLENGE OF HOSTILE PURPOSE</h3> + +<p>We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose because we know +that in such a Government, following such methods, we can never have +a friend; and that in the presence of its organized power, always +lying in wait to accomplish we know not what purpose, there can be no +assured security for the democratic Governments of the world.</p> + +<p>We are now about to accept the gage of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22"></a>22</span>battle with this natural foe +to liberty, and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the +nation to check and nullify its pretensions and its power. We are +glad, now that we see the facts with no veil of false pretense about +them, to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the +liberation of its peoples, the German people included; for the rights +of nations great and small and the privilege of men everywhere to +choose their way of life and of obedience. The world must be made +safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the trusted +foundations of political liberty.</p> + +<p>We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. +We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for +the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions +of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights +have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of the nation +can make them.</p> + +<p>Just because we fight without rancor and without selfish objects, +seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to share with +all free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our operations +as belligerents without passion and ourselves observe with proud +punctilio the principles of right and of fair play we profess to be +fighting for.</p> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23"></a>23</span><p>I have said nothing of the Governments allied with the Imperial +Government of Germany because they have not made war upon us or +challenged us to defend our right and our honor.</p> + +<p>The Austro-Hungarian Government has indeed avowed its unqualified +indorsement and acceptance of the reckless and lawless submarine +warfare adopted now without disguise by the Imperial German +Government, and it has therefore not been possible for this +Government to receive Count Tarnowski, the ambassador recently +accredited to this Government by the Imperial and Royal Government of +Austria-Hungary; but that Government has not actually engaged in +warfare against citizens of the United States on the seas, and I take +the liberty, for the present at least, of postponing a discussion of +our relations with the authorities at Vienna.</p> +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + + + +<h3>OPPOSITION TO THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT</h3> + + +<h3>FRIENDSHIP TOWARD THE GERMAN PEOPLE</h3> + + +<p>We enter this war only where we are clearly forced into it because +there are no other means of defending our rights.</p> + +<p>It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as belligerents +in a high spirit of right and fairness because we act without animus, +not in enmity toward a people or with the desire to bring any injury +or disadvantage <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24"></a>24</span>upon them, but only in armed opposition to an +irresponsible Government which has thrown aside all considerations of +humanity and of right and is running amuck.</p> + +<p>We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of the German people, +and shall desire nothing so much as the early re-establishment of +intimate relations of mutual advantage between us--however hard it +may be for them, for the time being, to believe that this is spoken +from our hearts. We have borne with their present Government through +all these bitter months because of that friendship--exercising a +patience and forbearance which would otherwise have been impossible.</p> + +<p>We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friendship +in our daily attitude and actions toward the millions of men and +women of German birth and native sympathy who live amongst us and +share our life, and we shall be proud to prove it toward all who are, +in fact, loyal to their neighbors and to the Government in the hour +of test. They are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans as if +they had never known any other fealty or allegiance. They will be +prompt to stand with us in rebuking and restraining the few who may +be of a different mind and purpose. If there should be disloyalty it +will be dealt with with a firm hand of stern repression; but, if it +lifts its head at all, it will lift it only here <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25"></a>25</span>and there and +without countenance except from a lawless and malignant few.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>RIGHT MORE PRECIOUS THAN PEACE</h3> + +<p>It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen of the Congress, +which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, +many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful +thing to lead this great, peaceful people into war, into the most +terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to +be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we +shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our +hearts--for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority +to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and +liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such +a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all +nations and make the world itself at last free.</p> + +<p>To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything +that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who +know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her +blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and +happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she +can do no other.</p> +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26"></a>26</span> +<h2><a name="III">III</a></h2> + +<h2>A STATE OF WAR</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>The President's Proclamation of April 6, 1917</i>)</p> + +<br /> +<p>Whereas, the Congress of the United States, in the exercise of the +constitutional authority vested in them, have resolved by joint +resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives, bearing +date this day, that a state of war between the United States and +the Imperial German Government, which has been thrust upon the +United States, is hereby formally declared;</p> + +<p>Whereas, It is provided by Section 4067 of the Revised Statutes as +follows:</p> + +<blockquote>Whenever there is declared a war between the United States +and any foreign nation or Government, or any invasion or +predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted or +threatened against the territory of the United States by +any foreign nation or Government, and the President makes +public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, +denizens or subjects of a hostile nation or Government +being male of the age of fourteen years and upward who +shall be within the United States and not actually +naturalized shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained +secured and removed as alien enemies.</blockquote> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27"></a>27</span><p>The President is authorized in any such event, by his proclamation +thereof or other public acts, to direct the conduct to be observed on +the part of the United States toward the aliens who become so liable; +the manner and degree of the restraint to which they shall be subject +and in what cases and upon what security their residence shall be +permitted and to provide for the removal of those who, not being +permitted to reside within the United States, refuse or neglect to +depart therefrom, and to establish any such regulations which are +found necessary in the premises and for the public safety;</p> + +<p>Whereas, By Sections 4068, 4069, and 4070 of the Revised Statutes +further provision is made relative to alien enemies;</p> + +<p>Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of +America, do hereby proclaim to all whom it may concern that a state +of war exists between the United States and the Imperial German +Government, and I do specially direct all officers, civil or +military, of the United States that they exercise vigilance and zeal +in the discharge of the duties incident to such a state of war, and I +do, moreover, earnestly appeal to all American citizens that they, in +loyal devotion to their country, dedicated from its foundation to the +principles of liberty and justice, uphold the laws of the land and +give undivided and willing <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28"></a>28</span>support to those measures which may be +adopted by the constitutional authorities in prosecuting the war to a +successful issue and in obtaining a secure and just peace;</p> + +<p>And acting under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the +Constitution of the United States and the said sections of the +Revised Statutes:</p> + +<p>I do hereby further proclaim and direct that the conduct to be +observed on the part of the United States toward all natives, +citizens, denizens or subjects of Germany, being male, of the age of +fourteen years and upward, who shall be within the United States and +not actually naturalized, who for the purpose of this proclamation +and under such sections of the Revised Statutes are termed alien +enemies, shall be as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p>All alien enemies are enjoined to preserve the peace +toward the United States and to refrain from crime against +the public safety and from violating the laws of the +United States and of the States and Territories thereof, +and to refrain from actual hostility or giving +information, aid or comfort to the enemies of the United +States, and to comply strictly with the regulations which +are hereby or which may be from time to time promulgated +by the President, and so long as they shall conduct +themselves in accordance with law they shall be +undisturbed in the peaceful pursuit of their lives and +occupations and be accorded the consideration due to all +peaceful and law-abiding persons, except so far as +restrictions may be necessary for their own protection and +for the safety of the United States, and toward such alien +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29"></a>29</span>enemies +as conduct themselves in accordance with law all +citizens of the United States are enjoined to preserve the +peace and to treat them with all such friendliness as may +be compatible with loyalty and allegiance to the United +States.</p> + +<p>And all alien enemies who fail to conduct themselves as so +enjoined, in addition to all other penalties prescribed by +law, shall be liable to restraint or to give security or +to remove and depart from the United States in the manner +prescribed by Sections 4069 and 4070 of the Revised +Statutes and as prescribed in the regulations duly +promulgated by the President.</p></blockquote> + +<p>And, pursuant to the authority vested in me, I hereby declare and +establish the following regulations, which I find necessary in the +premises and for the public safety:</p> + +<blockquote><p>First. An alien enemy shall not have in his possession at +any time or place any firearms, weapons or implement of +war, or component parts thereof; ammunition, Maxim or +other silencer, arms or explosives or material used in the +manufacture of explosives.</p> + +<p>Second. An alien enemy shall not have in his possession at +any time or place, or use or operate, any aircraft or +wireless apparatus, or any form of signaling device, or +any form of cipher code or any paper, document or book +written or printed in cipher, or in which there may be +invisible writing.</p> + +<p>Third. All property found in the possession of an alien +enemy in violation of the foregoing regulations shall be +subject to seizure by the United States.</p> + +<p>Fourth. An alien enemy shall not approach or be found +within one-half of a mile of any Federal or State fort, +camp, arsenal, aircraft station, Government or naval +vessel, navy-yard, factory or workshop for the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30"></a>30</span>manufacture of munitions of war or of any products for the +use of the army or navy.</p> + +<p>Fifth. An alien enemy shall not write, print or publish +any attack or threat against the Government or Congress of +the United States, or either branch thereof, or against +the measures or policy of the United States, or against +the persons or property of any person in the military, +naval or civil service of the United States, or of the +States or Territories, or of the District of Columbia, or +of the municipal governments therein.</p> + +<p>Sixth. An alien enemy shall not commit or abet any hostile +acts against the United States, or give information, aid +or comfort to its enemies.</p> + +<p>Seventh. An alien enemy shall not reside in or continue to +reside in, to remain in or enter any locality which the +President may from time to time designate by an executive +order as a prohibitive area in which residence by an alien +enemy shall be found by him to constitute a danger to the +public peace and safety of the United States except by +permit from the President and except under such +limitations or restrictions as the President may +prescribe.</p> + +<p>Eighth. An alien enemy whom the President shall have +reasonable cause to believe to be aiding or about to aid +the enemy, or to be at large to the danger of the public +peace or safety of the United States, or to have violated +or to be about to violate any of these regulations, shall +remove to any location designated by the President by +executive order, and shall not remove therefrom without +permit, or shall depart from the United States if so +required by the President.</p> + +<p>Ninth. No alien enemy shall depart from the United States +until he shall have received such permit as the President +shall prescribe, or except under order of a Court, Judge +or Justice, under Sections 4069 and 4070 of the Revised +Statutes.</p> + +<p>Tenth. No alien enemy shall land in or enter the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31"></a>31</span>United States except under such restrictions and at such +places as the President may prescribe.</p> + +<p>Eleventh. If necessary to prevent violation of the +regulations, all alien enemies will be obliged to +register.</p> + +<p>Twelfth. An alien enemy whom there may be reasonable cause +to believe to be aiding or about to aid the enemy, or to +be at large to the danger of the public peace or safety, +or who violates or who attempts to violate or of whom +there is reasonable grounds to believe that he is about to +violate any regulation to be promulgated by the President +or any criminal law of the United States or of the States +or Territories thereof, will be subject to summary arrest +by the United States, by the United States Marshal or his +deputy or such other officers as the President shall +designate, and to confinement in such penitentiary, +prison, jail, military camp, or other place of detention +as may be directed by the President.</p> </blockquote> + +<p>This proclamation and the regulations herein contained shall extend +and apply to all land and water, continental or insular, in any way +within the jurisdiction of the United States.</p> +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + + + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32"></a>32</span><h2><a name="IV">IV</a></h2> + +<h2>"SPEAK, ACT AND SERVE TOGETHER"</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>Message to the American People, April 15, 1917</i>)</p> +<br /> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Fellow Countrymen</span>,--The entrance of our own beloved +country into the grim and terrible war for democracy and human rights +which has shaken the world creates so many problems of national life +and action which call for immediate consideration and settlement that +I hope you will permit me to address to you a few words of earnest +counsel and appeal with regard to them.</p> + +<p>We are rapidly putting our navy upon an effective war footing and are +about to create and equip a great army, but these are the simplest +parts of the great task to which we have addressed ourselves. There +is not a single selfish element, so far as I can see, in the cause we +are fighting for. We are fighting for what we believe and wish to be +the rights of mankind and for the future peace and security of the +world. To do this great thing worthily and successfully we must +devote ourselves to the service without regard to profit or material +advantage <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33"></a>33</span>and with an energy and intelligence that will rise to the +level of the enterprise itself. We must realize to the full how great +the task is and how many things, how many kinds and elements of +capacity and service and self-sacrifice it involves.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>WHAT WE MUST DO</h3> + +<p>These, then, are the things we must do, and do well, besides +fighting--the things without which mere fighting would be fruitless:</p> + +<p>We must supply abundant food for ourselves and for our armies and our +seamen, not only, but also for a large part of the nations with whom +we have now made common cause, in whose support and by whose sides we +shall be fighting.</p> + +<p>We must supply ships by the hundreds out of our shipyards to carry to +the other side of the sea, submarines or no submarines, what will +every day be needed there, and abundant materials out of our fields +and our mines and our factories with which not only to clothe and +equip our own forces on land and sea, but also to clothe and support +our people, for whom the gallant fellows under arms can no longer +work; to help clothe and equip the armies with which we are +co-operating in Europe, and to keep the looms and manufactories there +in raw material; coal to keep the fires going in ships at sea and in +the furnaces <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34"></a>34</span>of hundreds of factories across the sea; steel out of +which to make arms and ammunition both here and there; rails for +wornout railways back of the fighting fronts; locomotives and +rolling-stock to take the place of those every day going to pieces; +mules, horses, cattle for labor and for military service; everything +with which the people of England and France and Italy and Russia have +usually supplied themselves, but cannot now afford the men, the +materials or the machinery to make.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>GREATER EFFICIENCY</h3> + +<p>It is evident to every thinking man that our industries, on the +farms, in the shipyards, in the mines, in the factories, must be made +more prolific and more efficient than ever, and that they must be +more economically managed and better adapted to the particular +requirements of our task than they have been; and what I want to say +is that the men and the women who devote their thought and their +energy to these things will be serving the country and conducting the +fight for peace and freedom just as truly and just as effectively as +the men on the battle-field or in the trenches. The industrial forces +of the country, men and women alike, will be a great national, a +great international, service army--a notable and honored host engaged +in the service of the nation and the world, the efficient friends and +saviors of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35"></a>35</span>free men everywhere. Thousands, nay, hundreds of +thousands, of men otherwise liable to military service will of right +and of necessity be excused from that service and assigned to the +fundamental sustaining work of the fields and factories and mines, +and they will be as much part of the great patriotic forces of the +nation as the men under fire.</p> + +<p>I take the liberty, therefore, of addressing this word to the farmers +of the country and to all who work on the farms: The supreme need of +our own nation and of the nations with which we are co-operating is +an abundance of supplies, and especially of foodstuffs. The +importance of an adequate food-supply, especially for the present +year, is superlative. Without abundant food, alike for the armies and +the peoples now at war, the whole great enterprise upon which we have +embarked will break down and fail. The world's food reserves are low. +Not only during the present emergency, but for some time after peace +shall have come, both our own people and a large proportion of the +people of Europe must rely upon the harvests in America.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE FARMERS</h3> + +<p>Upon the farmers of this country, therefore, in large measure rest +the fate of the war and the fate of the nations. May the nation not +count upon them to omit no step that will <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36"></a>36</span>increase the production of +their land or that will bring about the most effectual co-operation +in the sale and distribution of their products? The time is short. It +is of the most imperative importance that everything possible be +done, and done immediately, to make sure of large harvests. I call +upon young men and old alike and upon the able-bodied boys of the +land to accept and act upon this duty--to turn in hosts to the farms +and make certain that no pains and no labor is lacking in this great +matter.</p> + +<p>I particularly appeal to the farmers of the South to plant abundant +foodstuffs, as well as cotton. They can show their patriotism in no +better or more convincing way than by resisting the great temptation +of the present price of cotton and helping, helping upon a great +scale, to feed the nation and the peoples everywhere who are fighting +for their liberties and for our own. The variety of their crops will +be the visible measure of their comprehension of their national duty.</p> + +<p>The Government of the United States and the Governments of the +several States stand ready to co-operate. They will do everything +possible to assist farmers in securing an adequate supply of seed, an +adequate force of laborers when they are most needed, at +harvest-time, and the means of expediting shipments of fertilizers +and farm machinery, as well as <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37"></a>37</span>of the crops themselves when +harvested. The course of trade shall be as unhampered as it is +possible to make it, and there shall be no unwarranted manipulation +of the nation's food-supply by those who handle it on its way to the +consumer. This is our opportunity to demonstrate the efficiency of a +great democracy, and we shall not fall short of it!</p> +<br /> + +<h3>THE DUTY OF MIDDLEMEN</h3> + +<p>This let me say to the middlemen of every sort, whether they are +handling our foodstuffs or the raw materials of manufacture or the +products of our mills and factories: The eyes of the country will be +especially upon you. This is your opportunity for signal service, +efficient and disinterested. The country expects you, as it expects +all others, to forego unusual profits, to organize and expedite +shipments of supplies of every kind, but especially of food, with an +eye to the service you are rendering and in the spirit of those who +enlist in the ranks, for their people, not for themselves. I shall +confidently expect you to deserve and win the confidence of people of +every sort and station.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>THE MEN OF THE RAILWAYS</h3> + +<p>To the men who run the railways of the country, whether they be +managers or operative employees, let me say that the railways are <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38"></a>38</span>the +arteries of the nation's life and that upon them rests the immense +responsibility of seeing to it that those arteries suffer no +obstruction of any kind, no inefficiency or slackened power. To the +merchant let me suggest the motto, "Small profits and quick service," +and to the shipbuilder the thought that the life of the war depends +upon him. The food and the war supplies must be carried across the +seas, no matter how many ships are sent to the bottom. The places of +those that go down must be supplied, and supplied at once. To the +miner let me say that he stands where the farmer does: the work of +the world waits on him. If he slackens or fails, armies and statesmen +are helpless. He also is enlisted in the great Service Army. The +manufacturer does not need to be told, I hope, that the nation looks +to him to speed and perfect every process; and I want only to remind +his employees that their service is absolutely indispensable and is +counted on by every man who loves the country and its liberties.</p> + +<p>Let me suggest also that every one who creates or cultivates a garden +helps, and helps greatly, to solve the problem of the feeding of the +nations; and that every housewife who practises strict economy puts +herself in the ranks of those who serve the nation. This is the time +for America to correct her unpardonable fault of wastefulness and +extravagance. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39"></a>39</span>Let every man and every woman assume the duty of +careful, provident use and expenditure as a public duty, as a dictate +of patriotism which no one can now expect ever to be excused or +forgiven for ignoring.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>THE SUPREME TEST</h3> + +<p>In the hope that this statement of the needs of the nation and of the +world in this hour of supreme crisis may stimulate those to whom it +comes and remind all who need reminder of the solemn duties of a time +such as the world has never seen before, I beg that all editors and +publishers everywhere will give as prominent publication and as wide +circulation as possible to this appeal. I venture to suggest also to +all advertising agencies that they would perhaps render a very +substantial and timely service to the country if they would give it +widespread repetition. And I hope that clergymen will not think the +theme of it an unworthy or inappropriate subject of comment and +homily from their pulpits.</p> + +<p>The supreme test of the nation has come. We must all speak, act and +serve together.</p> +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40"></a>40</span> +<h2><a name="V">V</a></h2> + +<h2>THE CONSCRIPTION PROCLAMATION</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>May 18, 1917</i>)</p> + +<br /> +<p>Whereas, Congress has enacted and the President has on the 18th day +of May, 1917, approved a law which contains the following provisions:</p> + +<p>Section 5. That all male persons between the ages of twenty-one and +thirty, both inclusive, shall be subject to registration in +accordance with regulations to be prescribed by the President, and +upon proclamation by the President +or other public notice given by +him or by his direction, stating the time and place of such +registration, it shall be the duty of all persons of the designated +ages, except officers and enlisted men of the Regular Army, the Navy +and the National Guard and Naval Militia while in the service of the +United States, to present themselves for and submit to registration +under the provisions of this act.</p> + +<p>And every such person shall be deemed to have notice of the +requirements of this act upon the publication of said proclamation or +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41"></a>41</span>other notice as aforesaid given by the President or by his direction.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>THE PENALTY FOR FAILURE</h3> + +<p>And any person who shall wilfully fail or refuse to present himself +for registration or to submit thereto as herein provided, shall be +guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction in the District +Court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, be punished +by imprisonment for not more than one year, and shall thereupon be +duly registered.</p> + +<p>Provided, that in the call of the docket preference shall be given, +in courts trying the same, to the trial of criminal proceedings under +this act.</p> + +<p>Provided, further, that persons shall be subject to registration as +herein provided who shall have attained their twenty-first birthday +and who shall not have attained their thirty-first birthday on or +before the day set for the registration, and all persons so +registered shall be and remain subject to draft into the forces +hereby authorized unless exempted or excused therefrom, as in this +act provided.</p> + +<p>Provided, further, that in the case of temporary absence from actual +place of legal residence of any person liable to registration as +provided herein, such registration may be made by mail under +regulations to be prescribed by the President.</p> + +<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42"></a>42</span><h3>THE WORK OF REGISTRATION</h3> + +<p>Section 6. That the President is hereby authorized to utilize the +service of any or all departments and any or all officers or agents +of the United States and of the several States, Territories and the +District of Columbia and subdivisions thereof, in the execution of +this act, and all officers and agents of the United States and of the +several States, Territories and subdivisions thereof, and of the +District of Columbia, and all persons designated or appointed under +regulations prescribed by the President, whether such appointments +are made by the President himself or by the Governor or other officer +of any State or Territory to perform any duty in the execution of +this act, are hereby required to perform such duty as the President +shall order or direct, and all such officers and agents and persons +so designated or appointed shall hereby have full authority for all +acts done by them in the execution of this act, by the direction of +the President. Correspondence in the execution of this act may be +carried in penalty envelopes bearing the frank of the War Department.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>NEGLECT OF DUTY AND FRAUD</h3> + +<p>Any person charged, as herein provided, with the duty of carrying +into effect any of the provisions of this act or the regulations made +or <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43"></a>43</span>directions given thereunder who shall fail or neglect to perform +such duty, and any person charged with such duty or having and +exercising any authority under said act, regulations or directions, +who shall knowingly make or be a party to the making of any false or +incorrect registration, physical examination, exemption, enlistment, +enrolment or muster.</p> + +<p>And any person who shall make or be a party to the making of any +false statement or certificate as to the fitness or liability of +himself or any other person for service under the provisions of this +act, or regulations made by the President thereunder, or otherwise +evades or aids another to evade the requirements of this act or of +said regulations, or who, in any manner, shall fail or neglect fully +to perform any duty required of him in the execution of this act, +shall, if not subject to military law, be guilty of a misdemeanor and +upon conviction in the District Court of the United States having +jurisdiction thereof be punished by imprisonment for not more than +one year, or, if subject to military law, shall be tried by court +martial and suffer such punishment as a court martial may direct.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>A CALL TO GOVERNORS</h3> + +<p>Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, do +call upon the Governor of each of the several States and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44"></a>44</span>Territories, +the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia and all +officers and agents of the several States and Territories, of the +District of Columbia, and of the counties and municipalities therein, +to perform certain duties in the execution of the foregoing law, +which duties will be communicated to them directly in regulations of +even date herewith.</p> + +<p>And I do further proclaim and give notice to all persons subject to +registration in the several States and in the District of Columbia, +in accordance with the above law, that the time and place of such +registration shall be between 7 <span class="smcap">A.M.</span> and 7 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span> on +the 5th day of June, 1917, at the registration place in the precinct +wherein they have their permanent homes.</p> + +<p>Those who shall have attained their twenty-first birthday and who +shall not have attained their thirty-first birthday on or before the +day here named are required to register, excepting only officers and +enlisted men of the Regular Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps and the +National Guard and Naval Militia while in the service of the United +States, and officers in the Officers' Reserve Corps and enlisted men +in the enlisted Reserve Corps while in active service. In the +Territories of Alaska, Hawaii and Porto Rico a day for registration +will be named in a later proclamation.</p> + +<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45"></a>45</span><h3>REGISTRATION BY MAIL</h3> + +<p>And I do hereby charge those who, through sickness, shall be unable +to present themselves for registration that they apply on or before +the day of registration to the County Clerk of the county where they +may be for instructions as to how they may be registered by agent.</p> + +<p>Those who expect to be absent on the day named from the counties in +which they have their permanent homes may register by mail, but their +mailed registration cards must reach the places in which they have +their permanent homes by the day named herein. They should apply as +soon as practicable to the County Clerk of the county wherein they +may be for instructions as to how they may accomplish their +registration by mail.</p> + +<p>In case such persons as, through sickness or absence, may be unable +to present themselves personally for registration shall be sojourning +in cities of over 30,000 population, they shall apply to the City +Clerk of the city wherein they may be sojourning rather than to the +Clerk of the county.</p> + +<p>The Clerks of counties and of cities of over 30,000 population, in +which numerous applications from the sick and from non-residents are +expected, are authorized to establish such sub-agencies and to employ +and deputize such clerical <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46"></a>46</span>force as may be necessary to accommodate +these applications.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>THE WHOLE NATION AN ARMY</h3> + +<p>The Power against which we are arrayed has sought to impose its will +upon the world by force. To this end it has increased armament until +it has changed the face of war. In the sense in which we have been +wont to think of armies there are no armies in this struggle, there +are entire nations armed.</p> + +<p>Thus, the men who remain to till the soil and man the factories are +no less a part of the army that is in France than the men beneath the +battle flags.</p> + +<p>It must be so with us. It is not an army that we must shape and train +for war--it is a Nation. To this end our people must draw close in +one compact front against a common foe. But this cannot be if each +man pursues a private purpose. All must pursue one purpose. The +Nation needs all men, but it needs each man, not in the field that +will most pleasure him, but in the endeavor that will best serve the +common good.</p> + +<p>Thus, though a sharpshooter pleases to operate a trip-hammer for the +forging of great guns, and an expert machinist desires to march with +the flag, the Nation is being served only when the sharpshooter +marches and the machinist remains at his levers. The whole Nation +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47"></a>47</span>must be a team, in which each man shall play the part for which he is +best fitted.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>NOT A DRAFT OF THE UNWILLING</h3> + +<p>To this end Congress has provided that the Nation shall be organized +for war by selection, that each man shall be classified for service +in the place to which it shall best serve the general good to call +him.</p> + +<p>The significance of this cannot be overstated. It is a new thing in +our history and a landmark in our progress. It is a new manner of +accepting and vitalizing our duty to give ourselves with thoughtful +devotion to the common purpose of us all. It is in no sense a +conscription of the unwilling. It is, rather, selection from a Nation +which has volunteered in mass.</p> + +<p>It is no more a choosing of those who shall march with the colors +than it is a selection of those who shall serve an equally necessary +and devoted purpose in the industries that lie behind the +battle-lines.</p> + +<p>The day here named is the time upon which all shall present +themselves for assignment to their tasks. It is for that reason +destined to be remembered as one of the most conspicuous moments in +our history. It is nothing less than the day upon which the manhood +of the country shall step forward in one solid rank in defense of the +ideals to which this Nation is consecrated. It is important to those +ideals, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48"></a>48</span>no less than to the pride of this generation in manifesting +its devotion to them, that there be no gaps in the ranks.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>DAY OF PATRIOTIC DEVOTION</h3> + +<p>It is essential that the day be approached in thoughtful apprehension +of its significance and that we accord to it the honor and the +meaning that it deserves. Our industrial need prescribes that it be +not made a technical holiday, but the stern sacrifice that is before +us urges that it be carried in all our hearts as a great day of +patriotic devotion and obligation, when the duty shall lie upon every +man, whether he is himself to be registered or not, to see to it that +the name of every male person of the designated ages is written on +these lists of honor.</p> + +<p>In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed.</p> + +<p>Done at the city of Washington this 18th day of May, in the year of +our Lord, 1917, and of the independence of the United States of +America the one hundred and forty-first.</p> + +<p>By the President: + + + <span class="smcap">Robert Lansing</span>, <br /> + Secretary of State. </p> + +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + + + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49"></a>49</span><h2><a name="VI">VI</a></h2> + +<h2>CONSERVING THE NATION'S FOOD</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>May 19, 1917</i>)</p> +<br /> + +<p>It is very desirable, in order to prevent misunderstanding or alarms +and to assure co-operation in a vital matter, that the country should +understand exactly the scope and purpose of the very great powers +which I have thought it necessary, in the circumstances, to ask the +Congress to put in my hands with regard to our food-supplies.</p> + +<p>Those powers are very great, indeed, but they are no greater than it +has proved necessary to lodge in the other Governments which are +conducting this momentous war, and their object is stimulation and +conservation, not arbitrary restraint or injurious interference with +the normal processes of production. They are intended to benefit and +assist the farmer and all those who play a legitimate part in the +preparation, distribution and marketing of foodstuffs.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>A SHARP LINE OF DISTINCTION</h3> + +<p>It is proposed to draw a sharp line of distinction between the normal +activities of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50"></a>50</span>Government, represented in the Department of +Agriculture, in reference to food production, conservation and +marketing, on the one hand, and the emergency activities necessitated +by the war, in reference to the regulation of food distribution and +consumption, on the other.</p> + +<p>All measures intended directly to extend the normal activities of the +Department of Agriculture, in reference to the production, +conservation and the marketing of farm crops, will be administered, +as in normal times, through that department; and the powers asked for +over distribution and consumption, over exports, imports, prices, +purchase and requisition of commodities, storing and the like, which +may require regulation during the war, will be placed in the hands of +a Commissioner of Food Administration, appointed by the President and +directly responsible to him.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>THE END TO BE ATTAINED</h3> + +<p>The objects sought to be served by the legislation asked for are: +Full inquiry into the existing available stocks of foodstuffs and +into the costs and practices of the various food producing and +distributing trades; the prevention of all unwarranted hoarding of +every kind, and of the control of foodstuffs by persons who are not +in any legitimate sense producers, dealers or traders; the +requisition, when necessary for public use, of food supplies and of +the equipment <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51"></a>51</span>necessary for handling them properly; the licensing of +wholesome and legitimate mixtures and milling percentages, and the +prohibition of the unnecessary or wasteful use of foods.</p> + +<p>Authority is asked also to establish prices, but not in order to +limit the profits of the farmers, but only to guarantee to them, when +necessary, a minimum price, which will insure them a profit where +they are asked to attempt new crops, and to secure the consumer +against extortion by breaking up corners and attempts at speculation +when they occur, by fixing temporarily a reasonable price at which +middlemen must sell.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>THE FIXING OF PRICES</h3> + +<p>I have asked Mr. Herbert Hoover to undertake this all-important task +of food administration. He has expressed his willingness to do so, on +condition that he is to receive no payment for his services, and that +the whole of the force under him, exclusive of clerical assistance, +shall be employed, as far as possible, upon the same volunteer basis.</p> + +<p>He has expressed his confidence that this difficult matter of food +administration can be successfully accomplished through the voluntary +co-operation and direction of legitimate distributers of foodstuffs +and with the help of the women of the country.</p> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52"></a>52</span><p>Although it is absolutely necessary that unquestionable powers shall +be placed in my hands, in order to insure the success of this +administration of the food-supplies of the country, I am confident +that the exercise of those powers will be necessary only in the few +cases where some small and selfish minority proves unwilling to put +the Nation's interests above personal advantage, and that the whole +country will heartily support Mr. Hoover's efforts by supplying the +necessary volunteer agencies throughout the country for the +intelligent control of food consumption, and securing the +co-operation of the most capable leaders of the very interests most +directly affected, that the exercise of the powers deputed to him +will rest very successfully upon the good-will and co-operation of +the people themselves, and that the ordinary economic machinery of +the country will be left substantially undisturbed.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>NO FEAR OF BUREAUCRACY</h3> + +<p>The proposed food administration is intended, of course, only to meet +a manifest emergency and to continue only while the war lasts. Since +it will be composed for the most part of volunteers, there need be no +fear of the possibility of a permanent bureaucracy arising out of it.</p> + +<p>All control of consumption will disappear when the emergency has +passed. It is with that object in view that the Administration +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53"></a>53</span>considers it to be of pre-eminent importance that the existing +associations of producers and distributers of foodstuffs should be +mobilized and made use of on a volunteer basis. The successful +conduct of the projected food administration, by such means, will be +the finest possible demonstration of the willingness, the ability and +the efficiency of democracy and of its justified reliance upon the +freedom of individual initiative.</p> + +<p>The last thing that any American could contemplate with equanimity +would be the introduction of anything resembling Prussian autocracy +into the food control of this country.</p> + +<p>It is of vital interest and importance to every man who produces food +and to every man who takes part in its distribution that these +policies, thus liberally administered, should succeed and succeed +altogether. It is only in that way that we can prove it to be +absolutely unnecessary to resort to the rigorous and drastic measures +which have proved to be necessary in some of the European countries.</p> + +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54"></a>54</span><h2><a name="VII">VII</a> +</h2> +<h2>AN ANSWER TO CRITICS</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>May 22, 1917</i>)</p> +<br /> + +<p>In the following letter, addressed to Representative Heflin, +Democrat, of Alabama, President Wilson replies to criticisms +regarding his position with regard to the war and its objects:</p> + +<p>It is incomprehensible to me how any frank or honest person could +doubt or question my position with regard to the war and its objects. +I have again and again stated the very serious and long-continued +wrongs which the Imperial German Government has perpetrated against +the rights, the commerce and the citizens of the United States. The +list is long and overwhelming. No Nation that respected itself or the +rights of humanity could have borne those wrongs any longer.</p> + +<p>Our objects in going into the war have been stated with equal +clearness. The whole of the conception which I take to be the +conception of our fellow-countrymen with regard to the outcome of the +war and the terms of its settlement, I set forth with the utmost +explicitness <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55"></a>55</span>in an address to the Senate of the United States on the +22d of January last. Again, in my message to Congress on the 2d of +April last, those objects were stated in unmistakable terms.</p> + +<p>I can conceive no purpose in seeking to becloud this matter except +the purpose of weakening the hands of the Government and making the +part which the United States is to play in this great struggle for +human liberty an inefficient and hesitating part.</p> + +<p>We have entered the war for our own reasons and with our own objects +clearly stated, and shall forget neither the reasons nor the objects. +There is no hate in our hearts for the German people, but there is a +resolve which cannot be shaken even by misrepresentation, to overcome +the pretensions of the autocratic Government which acts upon purposes +to which the German people have never consented.</p> + + +<br /><br /><br /><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56"></a>56</span> +<h2><a name="VIII">VIII</a></h2> + +<h2>MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>May 30, 1917</i>)</p> +<br /> + +<p>In one sense the great struggle into which we have now entered is an +American struggle, because it is in defense of American honor and +American rights, but it is something even greater than that; it is a +world struggle. It is the struggle of men who love liberty +everywhere, and in this cause America will show herself greater than +ever because she will rise to a greater thing.</p> + +<p>The program has conferred an unmerited dignity upon the remarks I am +going to make by calling them an address, because I am not here to +deliver an address [said the President]. I am here merely to show in +my official capacity the sympathy of this great Government with the +object of this occasion, and also to speak just a word of the +sentiment that is in my own heart.</p> + +<p>Any memorial day of this sort is, of course, a day touched with +sorrowful memory, and yet I for one do not see how we can have any +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57"></a>57</span>thought of pity for the men whose memory we honor to-day. I do not +pity them. I envy them, rather, because their great work for liberty +is accomplished, and we are in the midst of a work unfinished, +testing our strength where their strength already has been tested.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>A HERITAGE FROM THE DEAD</h3> + +<p>There is a touch of sorrow, but there is a touch of reassurance also +in a day like this, because we know how the men of America have +responded to the call of the cause of liberty, and it fills our mind +with a perfect assurance that that response will come again in equal +measures, with equal majesty and with a result which will hold the +attention of all mankind.</p> + +<p>When you reflect upon it, these men who died to preserve the Union +died to preserve the instrument which we are now using to serve the +world--a free nation espousing the cause of human liberty. In one +sense the great struggle into which we have now entered is an +American struggle, because it is in the sense of American honor and +American rights, but it is something even greater than that; it is a +world struggle. It is a struggle of men who love liberty everywhere; +and in this cause America will show herself greater than ever because +she will rise to a greater thing.</p> + +<p>We have said in the beginning that we planned this great Government +that men who <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58"></a>58</span>wish freedom might have a place of refuge and a place +where their hope could be realized, and now, having established such +a Government, having preserved such a Government, having vindicated +the power of such a Government, we are saying to all mankind, "We did +not set this Government up in order that we might have a selfish and +separate liberty, for we are now ready to come to your assistance and +fight out upon the fields of the world the cause of human liberty."</p> + +<br /> +<h3>AMERICA'S FULL FRUITION</h3> + +<p>In this thing America attains her full dignity and the full fruition +of her great purpose.</p> + +<p>No man can be glad that such things have happened as we have +witnessed in these last fateful years, but perhaps it may be +permitted to us to be glad that we have an opportunity to show the +principles which we profess to be living--principles which live in +our hearts--and to have a chance by the pouring out of our blood and +treasure to vindicate the things which we have professed. For, my +friends, the real fruition of life is to do the things we have said +we wished to do. There are times when words seem empty and only +action seems great. Such a time has come, and in the providence of +God America will once more have an opportunity to show to the world +that she was born to serve mankind.</p> + +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59"></a>59</span><h2><a name="IX">IX</a></h2> + +<h2>A STATEMENT TO RUSSIA</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>June 9, 1917</i>)</p> +<br /> + +<p>In view of the approaching visit of the American delegation to Russia +to express the deep friendship of the American people for the people +of Russia and to discuss the best and most practical means of +co-operation between the two peoples in carrying the present struggle +for the freedom of all peoples to a successful consummation, it seems +opportune and appropriate that I should state again, in the light of +this new partnership, the objects the United States has had in mind +in entering the war. Those objects have been very much beclouded +during the past few weeks by mistaken and misleading statements, and +the issues at stake are too momentous, too tremendous, too +significant for the whole human race to permit any misinterpretations +or misunderstandings, however slight, to remain uncorrected for a +moment.</p> + +<p>The war has begun to go against Germany, and in their desperate +desire to escape the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60"></a>60</span>inevitable ultimate defeat, those who are in +authority in Germany are using every possible instrumentality, are +making use even of the influence of groups and parties among their +own subjects to whom they have never been just or fair, or even +tolerant, to promote a propaganda on both sides of the sea which will +preserve for them their influence at home and their power abroad, to +the undoing of the very men they are using.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>AMERICA SEEKS NO CONQUEST</h3> + +<p>The position of America in this war is so clearly avowed that no man +can be excused for mistaking it. She seeks no material profit or +aggrandizement of any kind. She is fighting for no advantage or +selfish object of her own, but for the liberation of peoples +everywhere from the aggressions of autocratic force. The ruling +classes in Germany have begun of late to profess a like liberality +and justice of purpose, but only to preserve the power they have set +up in Germany and the selfish advantages which they have wrongly +gained for themselves and their private projects of power all the way +from Berlin to Bagdad and beyond. Government after Government has, by +their influence, without open conquest of its territory, been linked +together in a net of intrigue directed against nothing less than the +peace and liberty of the world. The meshes of that <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61"></a>61</span>intrigue must be +broken, but cannot be broken unless wrongs already done are undone; +and adequate measures must be taken to prevent it from ever again +being rewoven or repaired.</p> + +<p>Of course the Imperial German Government and those whom it is using +for their own undoing are seeking to obtain pledges that the war will +end in the restoration of the <i>status quo ante</i>. It was the +<i>status quo ante</i> out of which this iniquitous war issued forth, +the power of the Imperial German Government within the empire and its +widespread domination and influence outside of that empire. That +status must be altered in such fashion as to prevent any such hideous +thing from ever happening again.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>THE PRINCIPLES THAT ARE INVOLVED</h3> + +<p>We are fighting for the liberty, self-government and the undictated +development of all peoples, and every feature of the settlement that +concludes this war must be conceived and executed for that purpose. +Wrongs must first be righted and then adequate safeguards must be +created to prevent their being committed again. We ought not to +consider remedies merely because they have a pleasing and sonorous +sound. Practical questions can be settled only by practical means. +Phrases will not accomplish the result. Effective readjustments will; +and whatever readjustments are necessary must be made.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62"></a>62</span> +<p>But they must follow a principle, and that principle is plain:</p> + +<p>No people must be forced under sovereignty under which it does not +wish to live.</p> + +<p>No territory must change hands except for the purpose of securing +those who inhabit it a fair chance of life and liberty.</p> + +<p>No indemnities must be insisted on except those that constitute +payment for manifest wrongs done.</p> + +<p>No readjustments of power must be made except such as will tend to +secure the future peace of the world and the future welfare and +happiness of its peoples.</p> + +<p>And then the free peoples of the world must draw together in some +common covenant, some genuine and practical co-operation, that will +in effect combine their force to secure peace and justice in the +dealings of nations with one another. The brotherhood of mankind must +no longer be a fair but empty phrase; it must be given a structure of +force and reality. The nations must realize their common life and +effect a workable partnership to secure that life against the +aggressions of autocratic and self-pleasing power.</p> + +<p>For these things we can afford to pour out blood and treasure. For +these are the things we have always professed to desire, and unless +we pour out blood and treasure now and succeed, we may never be able +to unite or show <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63"></a>63</span>conquering force again in the great cause of human +liberty. The day has come to conquer or submit. If the forces of +autocracy can divide us, they will overcome us; if we stand together, +victory is certain and the liberty which victory will secure.</p> + +<p>We can afford, then, to be generous, but we cannot afford then or now +to be weak or omit any single guarantee of justice and security.</p> + + +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64"></a>64</span><h2><a name="X">X</a></h2> + +<h2>FLAG-DAY ADDRESS</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>June 14, 1917</i>)</p> + +<br /> +<p>My Fellow-citizens,--We meet to celebrate Flag Day because this flag +which we honor and under which we serve is the emblem of our unity, +our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It has no other +character than that which we give it from generation to generation. +The choices are ours. It floats in majestic silence above the hosts +that execute those choices, whether in peace or in war. And yet, +though silent, it speaks to us--speaks to us of the past, of the men +and women who went before us and of the records they wrote upon it. +We celebrate the day of its birth; and from its birth until now it +has witnessed a great history, has floated on high the symbol of +great events, of a great plan of life worked out by a great people. +We are about to carry it into battle, to lift it where it will draw +the fire of our enemies. We are about to bid thousands, hundreds of +thousands, it may be millions, of our men--the young, the strong, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65"></a>65</span>the +capable men of the nation--to go forth and die beneath it on fields +of blood far away--for what? For some unaccustomed thing? For +something for which it has never sought the fire before? American +armies were never before sent across the seas. Why are they sent now? +For some new purpose, for which this great flag has never been +carried before, or for some old, familiar, heroic purpose for which +it has seen men, its own men, die on every battlefield upon which +Americans have borne arms since the Revolution?</p> + +<p>These are questions which must be answered. We are Americans. We in +our turn serve America, and can serve her with no private purpose. We +must use her flag as she has always used it. We are accountable at +the bar of history and must plead in utter frankness what purpose it +is we seek to serve.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>WHY WE ARE AT WAR</h3> + +<p>It is plain enough how we were forced into the war. The extraordinary +insults and aggressions of the Imperial German Government left us no +self-respecting choice but to take up arms in defense of our rights +as a free people and of our honor as a sovereign Government. The +military masters of Germany denied us the right to be neutral. They +filled our unsuspecting communities with vicious spies and +conspirators and sought to corrupt the opinion <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66"></a>66</span>of our people in their +own behalf. When they found that they could not do that, their agents +diligently spread sedition among us and sought to draw our own +citizens from their allegiance--and some of those agents were men +connected with the official embassy of the German Government itself +here in our own capital. They sought by violence to destroy our own +industries and arrest our commerce. They tried to incite Mexico to +take up arms against us and to draw Japan into a hostile alliance +with her--and that, not by indirection, but by direct suggestion from +the Foreign Office in Berlin. They impudently denied us the use of +the seas and repeatedly executed their threat that they would send to +their death any of our people who ventured to approach the coasts of +Europe. And many of our own people were corrupted. Men began to look +upon their own neighbors with suspicion and to wonder, in their hot +resentment and surprise, whether there was any community in which +hostile intrigue did not lurk. What great nation, in such +circumstances, would not have taken up arms? Much as we had desired +peace, it was denied us, and not of our own choice. This flag under +which we serve would have been dishonored had we withheld our hand.</p> + +<p>But that is only part of the story. We know now as clearly as we knew +before we were ourselves engaged that we are not the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67"></a>67</span>enemies of the +German people and that they are not our enemies. They did not +originate or desire this hideous war or wish that we should be drawn +into it; and we are vaguely conscious that we are fighting their +cause, as they will some day see it, as well as our own. They are +themselves in the grip of the same sinister power that has now at +last stretched its ugly talons out and drawn blood from us. The whole +world is at war because the whole world is in the grip of that power +and is trying out the great battle which shall determine whether it +is to be brought under its mastery or fling itself free.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CONFLICT</h3> + +<p>The war was begun by the military masters of Germany, who proved to +be also the masters of Austria-Hungary. These men have never regarded +nations as peoples, men, women and children of like blood and frame +as themselves, for whom governments existed and in whom governments +had their life. They have regarded them merely as serviceable +organizations which they could by force or intrigue bend or corrupt +to their own purpose. They have regarded the smaller states, in +particular, and the peoples who could be overwhelmed by force, as +their natural tools and instruments of domination. Their purpose has +long been avowed. The statesmen of other nations, to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68"></a>68</span>whom that +purpose was incredible, paid little attention; regarded what German +professors expounded in their class-rooms and German writers set +forth to the world as the goal of German policy as rather the dream +of minds detached from practical affairs, as preposterous private +conceptions of German destiny, than as the actual plans of +responsible rulers; but the rulers of Germany themselves knew all the +while what concrete plans, what well-advanced intrigues, lay back of +what the professors and the writers were saying, and were glad to go +forward unmolested, filling the thrones of Balkan states with German +princes, putting German officers at the service of Turkey to drill +her armies and make interest with her Government, developing plans of +sedition and rebellion in India and Egypt, setting their fires in +Persia. The demands made by Austria upon Serbia were a mere single +step in a plan which compassed Europe and Asia, from Berlin to +Bagdad. They hoped those demands might not arouse Europe, but they +meant to press them whether they did or not, for they thought +themselves ready for the final issue of arms.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>THE PLAN OF CONQUEST</h3> + +<p>Their plan was to throw a broad belt of German military power and +political control across the very center of Europe and beyond the +Mediterranean into the very heart of Asia; and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69"></a>69</span>Austria-Hungary was to +be as much their tool and pawn as Serbia or Bulgaria or Turkey or the +ponderous states of the East. Austria-Hungary, indeed, was to become +part of the central German Empire, absorbed and dominated by the same +forces and influences that had originally cemented the German states +themselves. The dream had its heart at Berlin. It could have had a +heart nowhere else! It rejected the idea of solidarity of race +entirely. The choice of peoples played no part in it at all. It +contemplated binding together racial and political units which could +be kept together only by force--Czechs, Magyars, Croats, Serbs, +Rumanians, Turks, Armenians--the proud states of Bohemia and Hungary, +the stout little commonwealths of the Balkans, the indomitable Turks, +the subtile peoples of the East. These peoples did not wish to be +united. They ardently desired to direct their own affairs, would be +satisfied only by undisputed independence. They could be kept quiet +only by the presence or the constant threat of armed men. They would +live under a common power only by sheer compulsion and await the day +of revolution. But the German military statesmen had reckoned with +all that and were ready to deal with it in their own way.</p> + +<p>And they have actually carried the greater part of that amazing plan +into execution! Look how things stand. Austria is at their mercy. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70"></a>70</span>It +has acted, not upon its own initiative or upon the choice of its own +people, but at Berlin's dictation, ever since the war began. Its +people now desire peace, but cannot have it until leave is granted +from Berlin. The so-called Central Powers are, in fact, but a single +Power. Serbia is at its mercy, should its hand be but for a moment +freed. Bulgaria has consented to its will, and Rumania is overrun. +The Turkish armies, which Germans trained, are serving Germany, +certainly not themselves, and the guns of German warships lying in +the harbor at Constantinople remind Turkish statesmen every day that +they have no choice but to take their orders from Berlin. From +Hamburg to the Persian Gulf the net is spread.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>THE TALK OF PEACE</h3> + +<p>Is it not easy to understand the eagerness for peace that has been +manifested from Berlin ever since the snare was set and sprung? +Peace, peace, peace has been the talk of her Foreign Office for now a +year and more; not peace upon her own initiative, but upon the +initiative of the nations over which she now deems herself to hold +the advantage. A little of the talk has been public, but most of it +has been private. Through all sorts of channels it has come to me, +and in all sorts of guises, but never with the terms disclosed which +the German <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71"></a>71</span>Government would be willing to accept. That Government has +other valuable pawns in its hands besides those I have mentioned. It +still holds a valuable part of France, though with slowly relaxing +grasp, and practically the whole of Belgium. Its armies press close +upon Russia and overrun Poland at their will. It cannot go farther; +it dare not go back. It wishes to close its bargain before it is too +late, and it has little left to offer for the pound of flesh it will +demand.</p> + +<p>The military masters under whom Germany is bleeding see very clearly +to what point Fate has brought them. If they fall back or are forced +back an inch, their power both abroad and at home will fall to pieces +like a house of cards. It is their power at home they are thinking +about now more than their power abroad. It is that power which is +trembling under their very feet; and deep fear has entered their +hearts. They have but one chance to perpetuate their military power, +or even their controlling political influence. If they can secure +peace now, with the immense advantages still in their hands which +they have up to this point apparently gained, they will have +justified themselves before the German people; they will have gained +by force what they promised to gain by it--an immense expansion of +German power, an immense enlargement of German industrial and +commercial opportunities. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72"></a>72</span>Their prestige will be secure, and with +their prestige their political power. If they fail, their people will +thrust them aside; a government accountable to the people themselves +will be set up in Germany, as it has been in England, in the United +States, in France, and in all the great countries of the modern time +except Germany. If they succeed they are safe and Germany and the +world are undone; if they fail Germany is saved and the world will be +at peace. If they succeed, America will fall within the menace. We +and all the rest of the world must remain armed, as they will remain, +and must make ready for the next step in their aggression; if they +fail, the world may unite for peace and Germany may be of the union.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>THE PRESENT AIM OF GERMANY</h3> + +<p>Do you not now understand the new intrigue, the intrigue for peace, +and why the masters of Germany do not hesitate to use any agency that +promises to effect their purpose, the deceit of the nations? Their +present particular aim is to deceive all those who throughout the +world stand for the rights of peoples and the self-government of +nations; for they see what immense strength the forces of justice and +of liberalism are gathering out of this war. They are employing +liberals in their enterprise. They are using men, in Germany and +without, as <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73"></a>73</span>their spokesmen whom they have hitherto despised and +oppressed, using them for their own destruction--socialists, the +leaders of labor, the thinkers they have hitherto sought to silence. +Let them once succeed and these men, now their tools, will be ground +to powder beneath the weight of the great military empire they will +have set up; the revolutionists in Russia will be cut off from all +succor or co-operation in western Europe and a counter revolution +fostered and supported; Germany herself will lose her chance of +freedom; and all Europe will arm for the next, the final struggle.</p> + +<p>The sinister intrigue is being no less actively conducted in this +country than in Russia, and in every country in Europe to which the +agents and dupes of the Imperial German Government can get access. +That Government has many spokesmen here, in places high and low. They +have learned discretion. They keep within the law. It is opinion they +utter now, not sedition. They proclaim the liberal purposes of their +masters; declare this a foreign war which can touch America with no +danger to either her lands or her institutions; set England at the +center of the stage and talk of her ambition to assert economic +dominion throughout the world; appeal to our ancient tradition of +isolation in the politics of the nations; and seek to undermine the +Government with false professions of loyalty to its principles.</p> + +<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74"></a>74</span> +<h3>THIS IS A PEOPLES' WAR</h3> + +<p>But they will make no headway. The false betray themselves always in +every accent. It is only friends and partisans of the German +Government whom we have already identified who utter these thinly +disguised disloyalties. The facts are patent to all the world, and +nowhere are they more plainly seen than in the United States, where +we are accustomed to deal with facts and not with sophistries; and +the great fact that stands out above all the rest is that this is a +Peoples' War, a war for freedom and justice and self-government +amongst all the nations of the world, a war to make the world safe +for the peoples who live in it and have made it their own, the German +people themselves included; and that with us rests the choice to +break through all these hypocrisies and patent cheats and masks of +brute force and help set the world free, or else stand aside and let +it be dominated a long age through by sheer weight of arms and the +arbitrary choices of self-constituted masters, by the nation which +can maintain the biggest armies and the most irresistible +armaments--a power to which the world has afforded no parallel and in +the face of which political freedom must wither and perish.</p> + +<p>For us there is but one choice. We have made it. Woe be to the man or +group of men <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75"></a>75</span>that seeks to stand in our way in this day of high +resolution, when every principle we hold dearest is to be vindicated +and made secure for the salvation of the nations. We are ready to +plead at the bar of history, and our flag shall wear a new luster. +Once more we shall make good with our lives and fortunes the great +faith to which we were born, and a new glory shall shine in the face +of our people.</p> + + +<br /><br /><br /><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76"></a>76</span> +<h2><a name="XI">XI</a></h2> + +<h2>AN APPEAL TO THE BUSINESS INTERESTS</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>July 11, 1917</i>)</p> +<br /> + +<p>My Fellow-countrymen,--The Government is about to attempt to +determine the prices at which it will ask you henceforth to furnish +various supplies which are necessary for the prosecution of the war, +and various materials which will be needed in the industries by which +the war must be sustained.</p> + +<p>We shall, of course, try to determine them justly and to the best +advantage of the nation as a whole. But justice is easier to speak of +than to arrive at, and there are some considerations which I hope we +shall keep steadily in mind while this particular problem of justice +is being worked out.</p> + +<p>I therefore take the liberty of stating very candidly my own view of +the situation and of the principles which should guide both the +Government and the mine-owners and manufacturers of the country in +this difficult matter.</p> + +<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77"></a>77</span> +<h3>PATRIOTISM AND PROFITS APART</h3> + +<p>A just price must, of course, be paid for everything the Government +buys. By a just price I mean a price which will sustain the +industries concerned in a high state of efficiency, provide a living +for those who conduct them, enable them to pay good wages, and make +possible the expansions of their enterprises, which will from time to +time become necessary as the stupendous undertakings of this great +war develop.</p> + +<p>We could not wisely or reasonably do less than pay such prices. They +are necessary for the maintenance and development of industry; and +the maintenance and development of industry are necessary for the +great task we have in hand.</p> + +<p>But I trust that we shall not surround the matter with a mist of +sentiment. Facts are our masters now. We ought not to put the +acceptance of such prices on the ground of patriotism. Patriotism has +nothing to do with profits in a case like this. Patriotism and +profits ought never in the present circumstances to be mentioned +together.</p> + +<p>It is perfectly proper to discuss profits as a matter of business, +with a view to maintaining the integrity of capital and the +efficiency of labor in these tragical months, when the liberty of +free men everywhere and of industry <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78"></a>78</span>itself trembles in the balance, +but it would be absurd to discuss them as a motive for helping to +serve and save our country.</p> + +<p>Patriotism leaves profits out of the question. In these days of our +supreme trial, when we are sending hundreds of thousands of our young +men across the seas to serve a great cause, no true man who stays +behind to work for them and sustain them by his labor will ask +himself what he is personally going to make out of that labor.</p> + +<p>No true patriot will permit himself to take toll of their heroism in +money or seek to grow rich by the shedding of their blood. He will +give as freely and with as unstinted self-sacrifice as they. When +they are giving their lives, will he not at least give his money?</p> + +<p>I hear it insisted that more than a just price, more than a price +that will sustain our industries, must be paid; that it is necessary +to pay very liberal and unusual profits in order to "stimulate +production," that nothing but pecuniary rewards will do--rewards paid +in money, not in the mere liberation of the world.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>IS A BRIBE NECESSARY?</h3> + +<p>I take it for granted that those who argue thus do not stop to think +what that means. Do they mean that you must be paid, must be bribed, +to make your contribution, a contribution <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79"></a>79</span>that costs you neither a +drop of blood, nor a tear, when the whole world is in travail and men +everywhere depend upon and call to you to bring them out of bondage +and make the world a fit place to live in again amidst peace and +justice?</p> + +<p>Do they mean that you will exact a price, drive a bargain, with the +men who are enduring the agony of this war on the battlefield, in the +trenches, amid the lurking dangers of the sea, or with the bereaved +women and pitiful children, before you will come forward to do your +duty and give some part of your life, in easy, peaceful fashion, for +the things we are fighting for, the things we have pledged our +fortunes, our lives, our sacred honor, to vindicate and +defend--liberty and justice and fair dealing and the peace of +nations?</p> + +<p>Of course you will not. It is inconceivable. Your patriotism is of +the same self-denying stuff as the patriotism of the men dead or +maimed on the fields of France, or else it is no patriotism at all. +Let us never speak, then, of profits and of patriotism in the same +sentence, but face facts and meet them. Let us do sound business, but +not in the midst of a mist.</p> + +<p>Many a grievous burden of taxation will be laid on this Nation, in +this generation and in the next, to pay for this war; let us see to +it that for every dollar that is <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80"></a>80</span>taken from the people's pockets it +shall be possible to obtain a dollar's worth of the sound stuffs they +need.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>HIGH FREIGHTS AID GERMANY</h3> + +<p>Let us for a moment turn to the ship-owners of the United States and +the other ocean carriers whose example they have followed, and ask +them if they realize what obstacles, what almost insuperable +obstacles, they have been putting in the way of the successful +prosecution of this war by the ocean freight rates they have been +exacting.</p> + +<p>They are doing everything that high freight charges can do to make +the war a failure, to make it impossible. I do not say that they +realize this or intend it.</p> + +<p>The thing has happened naturally enough, because the commercial +processes which we are content to see operate in ordinary times have +without sufficient thought been continued into a period where they +have no proper place. I am not questioning motives. I am merely +stating a fact, and stating it in order that attention may be fixed +upon it.</p> + +<p>The fact is that those who have fixed war freight rates have taken +the most effective means in their power to defeat the armies engaged +against Germany. When they realize this we may, I take it for +granted, count upon them to reconsider the whole matter. It is <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81"></a>81</span>high +time. Their extra hazards are covered by war-risk insurance.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>THE LAW TO DEAL WITH OFFENDERS</h3> + +<p>I know, and you know, what response to this great challenge of duty +and of opportunity the Nation will expect of you; and I know what +response you will make. Those who do not respond, who do not respond +in the spirit of those who have gone to give their lives for us on +bloody fields far away, may safely be left to be dealt with by +opinion and the law--for the law must, of course, command those +things.</p> + +<p>I am dealing with the matter thus publicly and frankly, not because I +have any doubt or fear as to the result, but only in order that, in +all our thinking and in all our dealings with one another we may move +in a perfectly clear air of mutual understanding.</p> + +<p>And there is something more that we must add to our thinking. The +public is now as much part of the Government as are the Army and Navy +themselves. The whole people, in all their activities, are now +mobilized and in service for the accomplishment of the Nation's task +in this war. It is in such circumstances impossible justly to +distinguish between industrial purchases made by the Government and +industries. And it is just as much our duty to sustain the industries +of the country, all the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82"></a>82</span>industries that contribute to its life, as it +is to sustain our forces in the field and on the sea. We must make +the prices to the public the same as the prices to the Government.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>PRICES MEAN VICTORY OR DEFEAT</h3> + +<p>Prices mean the same thing everywhere now. They mean the efficiency +or the inefficiency of the Nation, whether it is the Government that +pays them or not. They mean victory or defeat. They mean that America +will win her place once for all among the foremost free Nations of +the world, or that she will sink to defeat and become a second-rate +Power alike in thought and action. This is a day of her reckoning, +and every man among us must personally face that reckoning along with +her.</p> + +<p>The case needs no arguing. I assume that I am only expressing your +own thoughts--what must be in the mind of every true man when he +faces the tragedy and the solemn glory of the present war, for the +emancipation of mankind. I summon you to a great duty, a great +privilege, a shining dignity and distinction.</p> + +<p>I shall expect every man who is not a slacker to be at my side +throughout this great enterprise. In it no man can win honor who +thinks of himself.</p> +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83"></a>83</span> +<h2><a name="XII">XII</a></h2> + +<h2>REPLY OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE COMMUNICATION OF THE POPE TO THE +BELLIGERENT GOVERNMENTS</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>August 27, 1917</i>)</p><br /> + +<p><span class="smcap">To His Holiness Benedictus XV., Pope.</span></p> + +<p>In acknowledgment of the communication of Your Holiness to the +belligerent peoples, dated August 1, 1917, the President of the +United States requests me to transmit the following reply:</p> + +<p>Every heart that has not been blinded and hardened by this terrible +war must be touched by this moving appeal of His Holiness, the Pope, +must feel the dignity and force of the humane and generous motives +which prompted it, and must fervently wish that we might take the +path of peace he so persuasively points out. But it would be folly to +take it if it does not, in fact, lead to the goal he proposes. Our +response must be based upon the stern facts and upon nothing else. It +is not a mere cessation of arms he desires; it is a stable and +enduring peace. This agony must not be gone <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84"></a>84</span>through with again, and +it must be a matter of very sober judgment what will insure us +against it.</p> + +<br /> +<h2>THE PROPOSAL FROM THE VATICAN</h2> + +<p>His Holiness, in substance, proposes that we return to the <i>status +quo ante bellum</i>, and that then there be a general condonation, +disarmament, and a concert of nations based upon an acceptance of the +principle of arbitration; that by a similar concert freedom of the +seas be established; and that the territorial claims of France and +Italy, the perplexing problems of the Balkan states, and the +restitution of Poland be left to such conciliatory adjustments as may +be possible in the new temper of such a peace, due regard being paid +to the aspirations of the peoples whose political fortunes and +affiliations will be involved.</p> + +<p>It is manifest that no part of this program can be successfully +carried out unless the restitution of the <i>status quo ante</i> +furnishes a firm and satisfactory basis for it. The object of this +war is to deliver the free peoples of the world from the menace and +the actual power of a vast military establishment controlled by an +irresponsible Government, which, having secretly planned to dominate +the world, proceeded to carry the plan out without regard either to +the sacred obligations of treaty or the long-established practices +and long-cherished <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85"></a>85</span>principles of international action and honor; +which chose its own time for the war; delivered its blow fiercely and +suddenly; stopped at no barrier either of law or of mercy; swept a +whole continent within the tide of blood--not the blood of soldiers +only, but the blood of innocent women and children also, and of the +helpless poor; and now stands balked but not defeated, the enemy of +four-fifths of the world. This power is not the German people. It is +the ruthless master of the German people. It is no business of ours +how that great people came under its control or submitted with +temporary zest to the domination of its purpose; but it is our +business to see to it that the history of the rest of the world is no +longer left to its handling.</p> + +<p>To deal with such a power by way of peace upon the plan proposed by +His Holiness the Pope would, so far as we can see, involve a +recuperation of its strength and a renewal of its policy; would make +it necessary to create a permanent hostile combination of nations +against the German people who are its instruments; and would result +in abandoning the new-born Russia to the intrigue, the manifold +subtle interference, and the certain counter-revolution which would +be attempted by all the malign influences to which the German +Government has of late accustomed the world. Can peace be based upon +a restitution of its <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86"></a>86</span>power or upon any word of honor it could pledge +in a treaty of settlement and accommodation?</p> + +<p>Responsible statesmen must now everywhere see, if they never saw +before, that no peace can rest securely upon political or economic +restrictions meant to benefit some nations and cripple or embarrass +others, upon vindictive action of any sort, or any kind of revenge or +deliberate injury. The American people have suffered intolerable +wrongs at the hands of the Imperial German Government, but they +desire no reprisal upon the German people, who have themselves +suffered all things in this war which they did not choose. They +believe that peace should rest upon the rights of peoples, not the +rights of governments--the rights of peoples great or small, weak or +powerful--their equal right to freedom and security and +self-government and to a participation upon fair terms in the +economic opportunities of the world, the German people, of course, +included, if they will accept equality and not seek domination.</p> + +<p>The test, therefore, of every plan of peace is this: Is it based upon +the faith of all the peoples involved or merely upon the word of an +ambitious and intriguing Government on the one hand, and of a group +of free peoples on the other? This is a test which goes to the root +of the matter; and it is the test which must be applied.</p> + +<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87"></a>87</span> +<h3>THE TEST THAT MUST BE APPLIED</h3> + +<p>The purposes of the United States in this war are known to the whole +world, to every people to whom the truth has been permitted to come. +They do not need to be stated again. We seek no material advantage of +any kind. We believe that the intolerable wrongs done in this war by +the furious and brutal power of the Imperial German Government ought +to be repaired, but not at the expense of the sovereignty of any +people--rather a vindication of the sovereignty both of those that +are weak and of those that are strong. Punitive damages, the +dismemberment of empires, the establishment of selfish and exclusive +economic leagues, we deem inexpedient and in the end worse than +futile, no proper basis for a peace of any kind, least of all for an +enduring peace. That must be based upon justice and fairness and the +common rights of mankind.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>THE GERMAN RULERS CANNOT BE TRUSTED</h3> + +<p>We cannot take the word of the present rulers of Germany as a +guaranty of anything that is to endure, unless explicitly supported +by such conclusive evidence of the will and purpose of the German +people themselves as the other peoples of the world would be +justified in accepting. Without such guarantees treaties of +settlement, agreements for disarmament, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88"></a>88</span>covenants to set up +arbitration in the place of force, territorial adjustments, +reconstitutions of small nations, if made with the German Government, +no man, no nation could now depend on. We must await some new +evidence of the purposes of the great peoples of the Central Powers. +God grant it may be given soon, and in a way to restore the +confidence of all peoples everywhere in the faith of nations and the +possibility of a covenanted peace.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Robert Lansing</span>,</p> + +<p>Secretary of State of the United States of America.</p> +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89"></a>89</span> +<h2><a name="XIII">XIII</a></h2> + +<h2>A MESSAGE TO TEACHERS AND SCHOOL OFFICERS</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>September 30, 1917</i>)</p> + +<br /> +<p>The war is bringing to the minds of our people a new appreciation of +the problems of national life and a deeper understanding of the +meaning and aims of democracy. Matters which heretofore have seemed +commonplace and trivial are seen in a truer light. The urgent demand +for the production and proper distribution of food and other national +resources has made us aware of the close dependence of individual on +individual and nation on nation. The effort to keep up social and +industrial organizations, in spite of the withdrawal of men for the +army, has revealed the extent to which modern life has become complex +and specialized.</p> + +<p>These and other lessons of the war must be learned quickly if we are +intelligently and successfully to defend our institutions. When the +war is over <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90"></a>90</span>we must apply the wisdom which we have acquired in +purging and ennobling the life of the world.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>THE COMMON SCHOOL HAS A PART TO PLAY</h3> + +<p>In these vital tasks of acquiring a broader view of human +possibilities the common school must have large part. I urge that +teachers and other school officers increase materially the time and +attention devoted to instruction bearing directly on the problems of +community and national life.</p> + +<p>Such a plea is in no way foreign to the spirit of American public +education or of existing practices. Nor is it a plea for a temporary +enlargement of the school program appropriate merely to the period of +the war. It is a plea for a realization in public education of the +new emphasis which the war has given to the ideals of democracy and +to the broader conceptions of national life.</p> + +<p>In order that there may be definite material at hand with which the +schools may at once expand their teachings, I have asked Mr. Hoover +and Commissioner Claxton to organize the proper agencies for the +preparation and distribution of suitable lessons for the elementary +grades and for the high-school classes. Lessons thus suggested will +serve the double purpose of illustrating in a concrete way what can +be undertaken in the schools and of stimulating <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91"></a>91</span>teachers in all parts +of the country to formulate new and appropriate materials drawn +directly from the communities in which they live.</p> +<br /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Woodrow Wilson.</span></p> + +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92"></a>92</span> +<h2><a name="XIV">XIV</a></h2> + +<h2>WOMAN SUFFRAGE MUST COME NOW</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>October 25, 1917</i>)</p> + +<br /> +<p>The President received at the White House a delegation from the New +York State Woman Suffrage Party. Answering the address made by the +chairman, Mrs. Norman de R. Whitehouse, the President spoke as +follows:</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Whitehouse and Ladies</span>,--It is with great pleasure that +I receive you. I esteem it a privilege to do so. I know the +difficulties which you have been laboring under in New York State, so +clearly set forth by Mrs. Whitehouse, but in my judgment those +difficulties cannot be used as an excuse by the leaders of any party +or by the voters of any party for neglecting the question which you +are pressing upon them. Because, after all, the whole world now is +witnessing a struggle between two ideals of government. It is a +struggle which goes deeper and touches more of the foundations of the +organized life of men than any struggle that has ever taken place +before, and no settlement of the questions that lie on the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93"></a>93</span>surface +can satisfy a situation which requires that the questions which lie +underneath and at the foundation should also be settled and settled +right. I am free to say that I think the question of woman suffrage +is one of those questions which lie at the foundation.</p> + +<p>The world has witnessed a slow political reconstruction, and men have +generally been obliged to be satisfied with the slowness of the +process. In a sense it is wholesome that it should be slow, because +then it is solid and sure. But I believe that this war is going so to +quicken the convictions and the consciousness of mankind with regard +to political questions that the speed of reconstruction will be +greatly increased. And I believe that just because we are quickened +by the questions of this war, we ought to be quickened to give this +question of woman suffrage our immediate consideration.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT</h3> + +<p>As one of the spokesmen of a great party, I would be doing nothing +less than obeying the mandates of that party if I gave my hearty +support to the question of woman suffrage which you represent, but I +do not want to speak merely as one of the spokesmen of a party. I +want to speak for myself, and say that it seems to me that this is +the time for the States of this Union to take this action. I <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94"></a>94</span>perhaps +may be touched a little too much by the traditions of our politics, +traditions which lay such questions almost entirely upon the States, +but I want to see communities declare themselves quickened at this +time and show the consequence of the quickening.</p> + +<p>I think the whole country has appreciated the way in which the women +have risen to this great occasion. They not only have done what they +have been asked to do, and done it with ardor and efficiency, but +they have shown a power to organize for doing things of their own +initiative, which is quite a different thing, and a very much more +difficult thing, and I think the whole country has admired the spirit +and the capacity and the vision of the women of the United States.</p> + +<p>It is almost absurd to say that the country depends upon the women +for a large part of the inspiration of its life. That is too obvious +to say; but it is now depending upon the women also for suggestions +of service, which have been rendered in abundance and with the +distinction of originality. I, therefore, am very glad to add my +voice to those which are urging the people of the great State of New +York to set a great example by voting for woman suffrage. It would be +a pleasure if I might utter that advice in their presence. Inasmuch +as I am bound too close to my duties here to make that possible, I am +glad to have the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95"></a>95</span>privilege to ask you to convey that message to them.</p> + +<p>It seems to me that this is a time of privilege. All our principles, +all our hearts, all our purposes, are being searched; searched not +only by our own consciences, but searched by the world; and it is +time for the people of the States of this country to show the world +in what practical sense they have learned the lessons of +democracy--that they are fighting for democracy because they believe +it, and that there is no application of democracy which they do not +believe in.</p> + +<p>I feel, therefore, that I am standing upon the firmest foundations of +the age in bidding godspeed to the cause which you represent and in +expressing the ardent hope that the people of New York may realize +the great occasion which faces them on Election Day and may respond +to it in noble fashion.</p> + +<br /><br /><br /><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96"></a>96</span> +<h2><a name="XV">XV</a></h2> + + +<h2>THE THANKSGIVING DAY PROCLAMATION</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>November 7, 1917</i>)</p> + +<br /> +<p>It has long been the honored custom of our people to turn in the +fruitful autumn of the year in praise and thanksgiving to Almighty +God for His many blessings and mercies to us as a Nation. That custom +we can follow now, even in the midst of the tragedy of a world shaken +by war and immeasurable disaster, in the midst of sorrow and great +peril, because even amidst the darkness that has gathered about us we +can see the great blessings God has bestowed upon us; blessings that +are better than mere peace of mind and prosperity of enterprise.</p> + +<p>We have been given the opportunity to serve mankind as we once served +ourselves in the great day of our declaration of independence, by +taking up arms against a tyranny that threatened to master and debase +men everywhere and joining with other free peoples in demanding for +all the nations of the world what we then demanded and obtained for +ourselves. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97"></a>97</span>In this day of the revelation of our duty not only to +defend our rights as a Nation, but to defend also the rights of free +men throughout the world, there has been vouchsafed us in full and +inspiring measure the resolution and spirit of united action. We have +been brought to one mind and purpose. A new vigor of common counsel +and common action has been revealed in us.</p> + +<p>We should especially thank God that, in such circumstances, in the +midst of the greatest enterprise the spirits of men have ever entered +upon, we have, if we but observe a reasonable and practicable +economy, abundance with which to supply the needs of those associated +with us as well as our own.</p> + +<p>A new light shines about us. The great duties of a new day awaken a +new and greater national spirit in us. We shall never again be +divided or wonder what stuff we are made of.</p> + +<p>And while we render thanks for these things, let us pray Almighty God +that in all humbleness of spirit we may look always to Him for +guidance; that we may be kept constant in the spirit and purpose of +service; that by His grace our minds may be directed and our hands +strengthened, and that in His good time liberty and security and +peace and the comradeship of a common justice may be vouchsafed all +the nations of the earth.</p> + +<p>Wherefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98"></a>98</span>the United States of +America, do hereby designate Thursday, the 29th day of November next, +as a day of thanksgiving and prayer, and invite the people throughout +the land to cease upon that day from their ordinary occupations and +in their several homes and places of worship to render thanks to God, +the Great Ruler of nations.</p> + +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99"></a>99</span> +<h2><a name="XVI">XVI</a></h2> + +<h2>LABOR MUST BEAR ITS PART</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>November 12, 1917</i>)</p> + +<br /> +<p>In his address before the American Federation of Labor, assembled in +convention at Buffalo, New York, the President spoke as follows:</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President, Delegates of the American Federation of Labor, +Ladies and Gentlemen</span>,--I esteem it a great privilege and a real +honor to be thus admitted to your public councils. When your +executive committee paid me the compliment of inviting me here I +gladly accepted the invitation, because it seems to me that this, +above all other times in your history, is the time for common +counsel, for the drawing not only of the energies, but of the minds +of the nation together. I thought that it was a welcome opportunity +for disclosing to you some of the thoughts that have been gathering +in my mind during the last momentous months.</p> + +<p>I am introduced to you as the President of the United States, and yet +I would be pleased if you would put the thought of the office into +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100"></a>100</span>the background and regard me as one of your fellow-citizens who has +come here to speak, not the words of authority, but the words of +counsel, the words which men should speak to one another who wish to +be frank in a moment more critical, perhaps, than the history of the +world has ever yet known, a moment when it is every man's duty to +forget himself, to forget his own interests, to fill himself with the +nobility of a great national and world conception and act upon a new +platform elevated above the ordinary affairs of life, elevated to +where men have views of the long destiny of mankind.</p> + +<p>I think that in order to realize just what this moment of counsel is, +it is very desirable that we should remind ourselves just how this +war came about and just what it is for. You can explain most wars +very simply, but the explanation of this is not so simple. Its roots +run deep into all the obscure soils of history, and, in my view, this +is the last decisive issue between the old principles of power and +the new principles of freedom.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>GERMANY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WAR</h3> + +<p>The war was started by Germany. Her authorities deny that they +started it, but I am willing to let the statement I have just made +await the verdict of history. The thing that needs to be explained is +why Germany started the war. Remember what the position of Germany <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101"></a>101</span>in +the world was--as enviable a position as any nation has ever +occupied. The whole world stood at admiration of her wonderful +intellectual and material achievements, and all the intellectual men +of the world went to school to her. As a university man I have been +surrounded by men trained in Germany, men who had resorted to Germany +because nowhere else could they get such thorough and searching +training, particularly in the principles of science and the +principles that underlie modern material achievements.</p> + +<p>Her men of science had made her industries perhaps the most competent +industries in the world, and the label, "Made in Germany," was a +guarantee of good workmanship and of sound material. She had access +to all the markets of the world, and every other man who traded in +those markets feared Germany because of her effective and almost +irresistible competition. She had a place in the sun. Why was she not +satisfied? What more did she want? There was nothing in the world of +peace that she did not already have, and have in abundance.</p> + +<p>We boast of the extraordinary pace of American advancement. We show +with pride the statistics of the increase of our industries and of +the population of our cities. Well, those statistics did not match +the recent statistics of Germany. Her old cities took on <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102"></a>102</span>youth, grew +faster than any American cities ever grew; her old industries opened +their eyes and saw a new world and went out for its conquest, and yet +the authorities of Germany were not satisfied.</p> + +<p>You have one part of the answer to the question why she was not +satisfied in her methods of competition. There is no important +industry in Germany upon which the Government had not laid its hands +to direct it and, when necessity arose, control it.</p> + +<p>You have only to ask any man whom you meet who is familiar with the +conditions that prevailed before the war in the matter of +international competition to find out the methods of competition +which the German manufacturers and exporters used under the patronage +and support of the Government of Germany. You will find that they +were the same sorts of competition that we have decided to prevent by +law within our own borders. If they could not sell their goods +cheaper than we could sell ours, at a profit to themselves, they +could get a subsidy from the Government which made it possible to +sell them cheaper anyhow; and the conditions of competition were thus +controlled in large measure by the German Government itself.</p> + +<p>But that did not satisfy the German Government. All the while there +was lying behind its thought, in its dreams of the future, a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103"></a>103</span>political control which would enable it, in the long run, to dominate +the labor and the industry of the world.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>SUCCESS BY AUTHORITY</h3> + +<p>They were not content with success by superior achievement; they +wanted success by authority. I suppose very few of you have thought +much about the Berlin to Bagdad railway. The Berlin to Bagdad railway +was constructed in order to run the threat of force down the flank of +the industrial undertakings of half a dozen other countries, so that +when German competition came in it would not be resisted too +far--because there was always the possibility of getting German +armies into the heart of that country quicker than any other armies +could be got there.</p> + +<p>Look at the map of Europe now. Germany, in thrusting upon us again +and again the discussion of peace, talks about what? Talks about +Belgium, talks about northern France, talks about Alsace-Lorraine. +She has kept all that her dreams contemplated when the war began. If +she can keep that, her power can disturb the world as long as she +keeps it; always provided--for I feel bound to put this provision +in--always provided the present influences that control the German +Government continue to control it.</p> + +<p>I believe that the spirit of freedom can get <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104"></a>104</span>into the hearts of +Germans and find as fine a welcome there as it can find in any other +hearts. But the spirit of freedom does not suit the plans of the +Pan-Germans. Power cannot be used with concentrated force against +free peoples if it is used by free people. You know how many +intimations come to us from one of the Central Powers that it is more +anxious for peace than the chief Central Power, and you know that it +means that the people in that Central Power know that if the war ends +as it stands, they will in effect themselves be vassals of Germany, +notwithstanding that their populations are compounded with all the +people of that part of the world, and notwithstanding the fact that +they do not wish, in their pride and proper spirit of nationality, to +be so absorbed and dominated.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>THE POLITICAL POWER OF THE WORLD</h3> + +<p>Germany is determined that the political power of the world shall +belong to her. There have been such ambitions before. They have been +in part realized. But never before have those ambitions been based +upon so exact and precise and scientific a plan of domination.</p> + +<p>May I not say it is amazing to me that any group of people should be +so ill informed as to suppose, as some groups in Russia apparently +suppose, that any reforms planned in the interest of the people can +live in the presence of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105"></a>105</span>a Germany powerful enough to undermine or +overthrow them by intrigue or force?</p> + +<p>Any body of free men that compounds with the present German +Government is compounding for its own destruction. But that is not +the whole of the story. Any man in America or anywhere else who +supposes that the free industry and enterprise of the world can +continue if the Pan-German plan is achieved and German power fastened +upon the world is as fatuous as the dreamers of Russia.</p> + +<p>What I am opposed to is not the feeling of the pacifists, but their +stupidity. My heart is with them, but my mind has a contempt for +them. I want peace, but I know how to get it, and they do not.</p> + +<p>You will notice that I sent a friend of mine, Colonel House, to +Europe, who is as great a lover of peace as any man in the world; but +I did not send him on a peace mission. I sent him to take part in a +conference as to how the war was to be won. And he knows, as I know, +that that is the way to get peace if you want it for more than a few +minutes.</p> + +<p>If we are true friends of freedom--our own or anybody else's--we will +see that the power of this country and the productivity of this +country is raised to its absolute maximum and that absolutely nobody +is allowed to stand in the way of it.</p> + +<p>When I say that nobody ought to be <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106"></a>106</span>allowed to stand in the way, I +don't mean that they shall be prevented by the power of Government, +but by the power of the American spirit. Our duty, if we are to do +this great thing and show America to be what we believe her to be, +the greatest hope and energy in the world, then we must stand +together night and day until the job is finished.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>LABOR MUST BE FREE</h3> + +<p>While we are fighting for freedom we must see, among other things, +that labor is free, and that means a number of interesting things. It +means not only that we must do what we have declared our purpose to +do--see that the conditions of labor are not rendered more onerous by +the war--but also that we shall see to it that the instrumentalities +by which the conditions of labor are improved are not blocked or +checked. That we must do. That has been the matter about which I have +taken pleasure in conferring, from time to time, with your president, +Mr. Gompers; and if I may be permitted to do so, I want to express my +admiration of his patriotic courage, his large vision, his +statesman-like sense and a mind that knows how to pull in harness. +The horses that kick over the traces will have to be put in a corral.</p> + +<p>Now, to "stand together" means that nobody must interrupt the +processes of our energy <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107"></a>107</span>if the interruption can possibly be avoided +without the absolute invasion of freedom. To put it concretely, that +means this: Nobody has a right to stop the processes of labor until +all the methods of conciliation and settlement have been exhausted, +and I might as well say right here that I am not talking to you +alone. You sometimes stop the courses of labor, but there are others +who do the same. I am speaking of my own experience when I say that +you are reasonable in a larger number of cases than the capitalists.</p> + +<p>I am not saying these things to them personally yet, because I +haven't had a chance. But they have to be said, not in any spirit of +criticism.</p> + +<p>But, in order to clear the atmosphere and come down to business, +everybody on both sides has got to transact business, and the +settlement is never impossible when both sides want to do the square +and right thing. Moreover, a settlement is always hard to avoid when +the parties can be brought face to face. I can differ with a man much +more radically when he isn't in the room than I can when he is in the +room, because then the awkward thing is that he can come back at me +and answer what I say. It is always dangerous for a man to have the +floor entirely to himself. And, therefore, we must insist in every +instance that the parties come into each other's presence and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108"></a>108</span>there +discuss the issues between them, and not separately in places which +have no communication with each other.</p> + +<p>I like to remind myself of a delightful saying of an Englishman of a +past generation, Charles Lamb. He was with a group of friends and he +spoke harshly of some man who was not present. I ought to say that +Lamb stuttered a little bit. And one of his friends said, "Why, +Charles, I didn't know that you knew So-and-so?" "Oh," he said, "I +don't. I can't hate a man I know."</p> + +<p>There is a great deal of human nature, of very pleasant human nature, +in that saying. It is hard to hate a man you know. I may admit, +parenthetically, that there are some politicians whose methods I do +not at all believe in, but they are jolly good fellows, and if they +would not talk the wrong kind of politics with me I would love to be +with them. And so it is all along the line, in serious matters and +things less serious. We are all of the same clay and spirit, and we +can get together if we desire to get together.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>AMERICANS MUST CO-OPERATE</h3> + +<p>Therefore my counsel to you is this: Let us show ourselves Americans +by showing that we do not want to go off in separate camps or groups +by ourselves, but that we want to co-operate with all other classes +and all other <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109"></a>109</span>groups in a common enterprise, which is to release the +spirits of the world from bondage. I would be willing to set that up +as the final test of an American. That is the meaning of democracy.</p> + +<p>I have been very much distressed, my fellow-citizens, by some of the +things that have happened recently. The mob spirit is displaying +itself here and there in this country. I have no sympathy with what +some men are saying, but I have no sympathy with the men that take +their punishment into their own hands; and I want to say to every man +who does join such a mob that I recognize him as unworthy of the free +institutions of the United States.</p> + +<p>There are some organizations in this country whose object is anarchy +and the destruction of the law. I despise and hate their purpose as +much as any man, but I respect the ancient processes of justice, and +I would be too proud not to see them done justice, however wrong they +are. And so I want to utter my earnest protest against any +manifestation of the spirit of lawlessness anywhere or in any cause. +Why, gentlemen, look what it means.</p> + +<p>We claim to be the greatest democratic people in the world, and +democracy means, first of all, that we can govern ourselves. If our +men have not self-control, then they are not capable of that great +thing which we call <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110"></a>110</span>democratic government. A man who takes the law +into his own hands is not the right man to co-operate in any form of +orderly development of law and institutions.</p> + +<p>And some of the processes by which the struggle between capital and +labor is carried on are processes that come very near to taking the +law into your own hands. I do not mean for a moment to compare them +with what I have just been speaking of, but I want you to see that +they are mere gradations of the manifestations of the unwillingness +to co-operate. The fundamental lesson of the whole situation is that +we must not only take common counsel, but that we must yield to and +obey common counsel. Not all of the instrumentalities for this are at +hand.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>BETTER CONDITIONS MAY BE AT HAND</h3> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111"></a>111</span> +<p>I am hopeful that in the very near future new instrumentalities may +be organized by which we can see to it that various things that are +now going on shall not go on. There are various processes of the +dilution of labor and the unnecessary substitution of labor and +bidding in different markets and unfairly upsetting the whole +competition of labor which ought not to go on--I mean now, on the +part of employers--and we must interject into this some +instrumentality of co-operation by which the fair thing will be done +all around.</p> + +<p>I am hopeful that some such instrumentalities may be devised, but +whether they are or not we must use those that we have, and upon +every occasion where it is necessary to have such an instrumentality, +originated upon that occasion, if necessary.</p> + +<p>And so, my fellow-citizens, the reason that I came away from +Washington is that I sometimes get lonely down there--there are so +many people in Washington who know things that are not so, and there +are so few people in Washington who know anything about what the +people of the United States are thinking about. I have to come away +to get reminded of the rest of the country. I have come away and talk +to men who are up against the real thing and say to them, I am with +you if you are with me. The only test of being with me is not to +think about me personally at all, but merely to think of me as the +expression for the time being of the power and dignity and hope of +the American people.</p> + +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112"></a>112</span> +<h2><a name="XVII">XVII</a></h2> + +<h2>ADDRESS TO CONGRESS </h2> +<p class="center">(<i>December 4, 1917</i>)</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Gentlemen of the Congress</span>,--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 these 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.</p> + +<p>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 very grave scrutiny, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113"></a>113</span>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I pay little heed to those who tell me otherwise. I hear the voices +of dissent--who does not? I hear the criticism and the 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 about their uneasy hour and be forgotten.</p> +<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114"></a>114</span> +<h3>WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING FOR</h3> + +<p>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, but the defeat once and 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.</p> + +<p>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 or capacity for covenanted peace, must be crushed, and, if it +be not utterly brought to an end, at least shut out from the friendly +intercourse of the nations; and, second, that when <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115"></a>115</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116"></a>116</span>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."</p> +<br /> + +<h3>THE PEOPLE OF RUSSIA LED ASTRAY</h3> + +<p>Just because this crude formula expresses the instinctive judgment as +to the 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.</p> + +<p>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 claims +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 exclusion of all selfish +claims to advantage, even on the part of the victors.</p> + +<p>Let there be no misunderstanding. Our present and immediate task is +to win the war, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117"></a>117</span>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.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>JUSTICE AND REPARATION</h3> + +<p>We shall regard the war only as won when the German people say to us, +through properly accredited representatives, that they are ready to +agree to a settlement based upon justice and the reparation of the +wrongs their rulers have done. They have done a wrong to Belgium +which must be repaired. They have established a power over other +lands and peoples than their own--over the great empire of +Austria-Hungary, over hitherto free Balkan states, over Turkey, and +within Asia--which must be relinquished.</p> + +<p>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 the rivalries of manufacture, +science and commerce that were involved for us in her success, and +stand or fall as we had <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118"></a>118</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 also deliver +the peoples of Austria-Hungary, the peoples of the Balkans, and the +peoples of Turkey, alike in Europe and in Asia, from the impudent and +alien domination of the Prussian military and commercial autocracy.</p> + +<p>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 nor 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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119"></a>119</span>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.</p> + +<br /><br /><br /> +<h3>OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD GERMANY</h3> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 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 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 or the peaceful +enterprise of the German Empire.</p> + +<p>The worst that can happen to the detriment of the German people is +this, that if they should <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120"></a>120</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>THE RIGHTS OF THE CENTRAL POWERS</h3> + +<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121"></a>121</span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +conceived and executed in this midday hour of the world's life.</p> + +<p>German 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.</p> + +<p>All these 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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122"></a>122</span>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 toward an ordered and stable government of +free men might have been avoided.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>TRUTH AS THE ANTIDOTE</h3> + +<p>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 hands. The only possible antidote is +the truth. It cannot be uttered too plainly or too often.</p> + +<p>From every point of view, therefore, it has seemed to be my duty to +speak these declarations of purpose, to add these specific +interpretations to what I took the liberty of saying to the Senate in +January. Our entrance into the war has not altered our attitude +toward 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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123"></a>123</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>THE WAR AGAINST AUSTRIA</h3> + +<p>One very embarrassing obstacle that stands in our way is that we are +at war with Germany, but not with her allies. I therefore very +earnestly recommend that the Congress 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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124"></a>124</span>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.</p> + +<p>The Government of Austria-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.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>A STRICTER GRIP ON ENEMY ALIENS</h3> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It will be necessary to extend in certain particulars the legislation +of the last session with <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125"></a>125</span>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.</p> + +<p>Legislation should be enacted defining as a criminal offense every +wilful violation of the Presidential proclamations relating to enemy +aliens promulgated under Section 4067 of the Revised Statutes and +providing appropriate punishment; 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 penitentiaries and +other similar institutions, where they could be made to work as other +criminals do.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>A FURTHER LIMITING OF PRICES</h3> + +<p>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 <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126"></a>126</span>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.</p> + +<p>It is imperatively necessary that the consideration of the full use +of the water power of the country, and also 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 resumed and affirmatively and +constructively dealt with at the earliest possible moment. The +pressing need of such legislation is daily becoming more obvious.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 way but a very wasteful and extravagant fashion with the +enormous <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127"></a>127</span>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.</p> + +<p>Additional legislation may also become necessary before the present +Congress adjourns, in order to effect the most efficient +co-ordination and operation of the railway and other transportation +systems of the country; but to that I shall, if circumstances should +demand, call the attention of Congress upon another occasion.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>THE WINNING OF THE WAR</h3> + +<p>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 and rapid and successful prosecution of +the great task of winning the war.</p> + +<p>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 live under from corruption and destruction. The +purposes of the Central Powers strike <span class="pagenum"> +<a name="Page_128"></a>128</span>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.</p> + +<p>It is because it is for us a war of high, disinterested purpose, in +which all the free people of the world are banded together for the +vindication of right, a war for the preservation of our nation and 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.</p> + +<p>The cause being just and holy, the settlement must be of like motive +and quality. 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 we will battle until the last gun is fired.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129"></a>129</span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130"></a>130</span> +<h2><a name="XVIII">XVIII</a></h2> + +<h2>PROCLAMATION OF WAR AGAINST AUSTRIA-HUNGARY</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>December 12, 1917</i>)</p> + +<br /> +<p>The President's proclamation, after citing the resolution of Congress +authorizing the war with Austria, says:</p> + +<p>Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of +America, do hereby proclaim to all whom it may concern that a state +of war exists between the United States and the Imperial and Royal +Austro-Hungarian Government, and I do specially direct all officers, +civil or military, of the United States that they exercise vigilance +and zeal in the discharge of the duties incident to such a state of +war.</p> + +<p>And I do, moreover, earnestly appeal to all American citizens that +they, in loyal devotion to their country, dedicated from its +foundation to the principles of liberty and justice, uphold the laws +of the land and give undivided and willing support to those measures +which may be adopted by the constitutional authorities <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131"></a>131</span>in prosecuting +the war to a successful issue and obtaining a secure and just peace.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>NEED ONLY OBEY THE LAWS</h3> + +<p>And, acting under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the +Constitution of the United States, and the aforesaid sections of the +Revised Statutes, I do hereby further proclaim and direct that the +conduct to be observed on the part of the United States toward all +natives, citizens, denizens or subjects of Austria-Hungary, being +males of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall be within +the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p>All natives, citizens, denizens or subjects of +Austria-Hungary, being males of fourteen years and upward +who shall be within the United States and not actually +naturalized, are enjoined to preserve the peace toward the +United States and to refrain from crime against the public +safety and from violating the laws of the United States +and of the States and Territories thereof.</p> + +<p>And to refrain from actual hostility or giving +information, aid or comfort to the enemies of the United +States.</p> + +<p>And to comply strictly with the regulations which are +hereby or which may be, from time to time, promulgated by +the President.</p> + +<p>And so long as they shall conduct themselves in accordance +with law, they shall be undisturbed in the peaceful +pursuit of their lives and occupations and be accorded the +consideration due to all peaceful and law-abiding persons, +except so far as restrictions may be <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132"></a>132</span>necessary for their +own protection and for the safety of the United States. </p></blockquote> + +<br /> +<h3>A FRIENDLY ATTITUDE IS URGED</h3> + +<p>And toward such of said persons as conduct themselves in accordance +with law, all citizens of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133"></a>133</span>the United States are enjoined to preserve +the peace and to treat them with all such friendliness as may be +compatible with loyalty and allegiance to the United States.</p> + +<p>And all natives, citizens, denizens or subjects of Austria-Hungary, +being males of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall be +within the United States and not actually naturalized, who fail to +conduct themselves as so enjoined, in addition to all other penalties +prescribed by law, shall be liable to restraint or to give security, +or to remove and depart from the United States in the manner +prescribed by Sections 4069 and 4070 of the Revised Statutes and as +prescribed in regulations duly promulgated by the President:</p> + +<br /> +<h3>FEW REGULATIONS</h3> + +<p>And pursuant to the authority vested in me, I hereby declare and +establish the following regulations, which I find necessary in the +premises, and for the public safety:</p> + +<blockquote><p>1. No native, citizen, denizen or subject of +Austria-Hungary, being a male of the age of fourteen years +and upward and not actually naturalized, shall depart from +the United States until he shall have received such permit +as the President shall prescribe, or except under order of +a court, judge or justice, under Sections 4069 and 4070 of +the Revised Statutes.</p> + +<p>2. No such person shall land or enter the United States +except under such restrictions and at such places as the +President may prescribe.</p> + +<p>3. Every such person, of whom there may be reasonable +cause to believe that he is aiding or about to aid the +enemy, or who may be at large to the danger of the public +peace or safety, or who violates or attempts to violate, +or of whom there is reasonable ground to believe that he +is about to violate any regulation duly promulgated by the +President, or any criminal law of the United States, or of +the States or Territories thereof, will be subject to +summary arrest by the United States Marshal or his deputy, +or such other officers as the President shall designate, +and to confinement in such penitentiary, prison, jail, +military camp or other place of detention as may be +directed by the President.</p></blockquote> + +<p>This proclamation and the regulations herein contained shall extend +and apply to all land and water, continental or insular, in any way +within the jurisdiction of the United States.</p> + + +<br /><br /><br /><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134"></a>134</span> +<h2><a name="XIX">XIX</a></h2> + +<h2>THE GOVERNMENT TAKES OVER THE RAILROADS</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>A Statement by the President, December 26, 1917</i>)</p> + +<br /> +<p>I have exercised the powers over the transportation systems of the +country which were granted me by the Act of Congress of August, 1916, +because it has become imperatively necessary for me to do so.</p> + +<p>This is a war of resources no less than of men, perhaps even more +than of men, and it is necessary for the complete mobilization of our +resources that the transportation systems of the country should be +organized and employed under a single authority and a simplified +method of co-ordination which have not proved possible under private +management and control.</p> + +<p>The committee of railway executives who have been co-operating with +the Government in this all-important matter have done the utmost that +it was possible for them to do; have done it with patriotic zeal and +with great ability; <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135"></a>135</span>but there were differences that they could +neither escape nor neutralize.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>IN FAIRNESS TO THE RAILROADS</h3> + +<p>Complete unity of administration in the present circumstances +involves upon occasion and at many points a serious dislocation of +earnings, and the committee was, of course, without power or +authority to rearrange changes or effect proper compensations and +adjustments of earnings. Several roads which were willingly and with +admirable public spirit accepting the orders of the committee have +already suffered from these circumstances and should not be required +to suffer further. In mere fairness to them the full authority of the +Government must be substituted.</p> + +<p>The Government itself will thereby gain an immense increase of +efficiency in the conduct of the war and of the innumerable +activities upon which its successful conduct depends.</p> + +<p>The public interest must be first served, and in addition the +financial interests of the Government and the financial interests of +the railways must be brought under a common direction. The financial +operations of the railways need not then interfere with the +borrowings of the Government, and they themselves can be conducted at +a great advantage.</p> +<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136"></a>136</span> +<h3>INVESTORS TO BE PROTECTED</h3> + +<p>Investors in railway securities may rest assured that their rights +and interests will be as scrupulously looked after by the Government +as they could be by the directors of the several railway systems. +Immediately upon the reassembling of Congress I shall recommend that +these definite guarantees be given:</p> + +<p>First, of course, that the railway properties will be maintained +during the period of Federal control in as good repair and as +complete equipment as when taken over by the Government, and, second, +that the roads shall receive a net operating income equal in each +case to the average net income of the three years preceding June 30, +1917; and I am entirely confident that the Congress will be disposed +in this case, as in others, to see that justice is done and full +security assured to the owners and creditors of the great systems +which the Government must now use under its own direction or else +suffer serious embarrassment.</p> + +<p>The Secretary of War and I are agreed that, all the circumstances +being taken into consideration, the best results can be obtained +under the immediate executive direction of the Hon. William G. +McAdoo, whose practical experience peculiarly fits him for the +service, and whose authority as Secretary of the Treasury will enable +him to co-ordinate, as no other man <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137"></a>137</span>could, the many financial +interests which will be involved and which might, unless +systematically directed, suffer very embarrassing entanglements.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>A RECOGNITION OF FACTS</h3> + +<p>The Government of the United States is the only great Government now +engaged in the war which has not already assumed control of this +sort. It was thought to be in the spirit of American institutions to +attempt to do everything that was necessary through private +management, and if zeal and ability and patriotic motive could have +accomplished the necessary unification of administration, it would +certainly have been accomplished; but no zeal or ability could +overcome insuperable obstacles and I have deemed it my duty to +recognize that fact in all candor, now that it is demonstrated, and +to use without reserve the great authority reposed in me.</p> + +<p>A great national necessity dictated the action, and I was therefore +not at liberty to abstain from it.</p> + +<br /> +<p><span class="smcap">Woodrow Wilson.</span></p> + +<hr /> + +<p>The text of the proclamation follows:</p> + +<p>Whereas, the Congress of the United States, in the exercise of the +constitutional authority vested in them, by joint resolution of the +Senate and House of Representatives, bearing date April 6, 1917, +resolved: </p> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138"></a>138</span><blockquote><p>"That the state of war between the United States and the +Imperial German Government which has thus been thrust upon +the United States is hereby formally declared, and that +the President be, and he is hereby, authorized and +directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of +the United States and the resources of the Government to +carry on war against the Imperial German Government, and +to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of +the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the +Congress of the United States."</p></blockquote> + +<p>And by joint resolution bearing date of December 7, 1917, resolved:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"That a state of war is hereby declared to exist between +the United States of America and the Imperial and Royal +Austro-Hungarian Government, and that the President be, +and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the +entire naval and military forces of the United States and +the resources of the Government to carry on war against +the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Government, and to +bring the conflict to a successful termination, all the +resources of the country are hereby pledged by the +Congress of the United States."</p></blockquote> + +<p>And whereas, it is provided by Section 1 of the act approved August +29, 1916, entitled "An act making appropriations for the support of +the army for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1917, and for other +purposes," as follows:</p> + +<p>"The President, in time of war, is empowered, through the +Secretary of War, to take possession and assume control of +any system or systems of transportation, or any part +thereof, and to utilize the same, to the exclusion as far +as may be necessary of all other traffic thereon, for the +transfer or transportation of troops, war material and +equipment, or for such other <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139"></a>139</span>purposes connected with the +emergency as may be needful or desirable."</p> + +<p>And whereas, it has now become necessary in the national defense to +take possession and assume control of certain systems of +transportation and to utilize the same, to the exclusion as far as +may be necessary of other than war traffic thereon for the +transportation of troops, war material and equipment therefor, and +for other needful and desirable purposes connected with the +prosecution of the war.</p> + +<p>Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, +under and by virtue of the powers vested in me by the foregoing +resolutions and statute, and by virtue of all other powers thereto me +enabling, do hereby, through Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War, take +possession and assume control at 12 o'clock noon on the twenty-eighth +day of December, 1917, of each and every system of transportation and +the appurtenances thereof located wholly or in part within the +boundaries of the continental United States and consisting of +railroads, and owned or controlled systems of coastwise and inland +transportation, engaged in general transportation, whether operated +by steam or by electric power, including also terminals, terminal +companies and terminal associations, sleeping and parlor cars, +private cars and private car lines, elevators, warehouses, telegraph +and telephone lines and all other equipment and appurtenances +commonly used upon or operated as a part of such rail or combined +rail and water systems of transportation, to the end that such +systems of transportation be utilized for the transfer and +transportation of troops, war material and equipment to the exclusion +so far as may be necessary of all other traffic thereon, and that so +far as such exclusive use be not necessary or desirable, such systems +of transportation be operated and utilized in the performance of such +other services as the national interest <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140"></a>140</span>may require and of the usual +and ordinary business and duties of common carriers.</p> + +<p>It is hereby directed that the possession, control, operation and +utilization of such transportation systems hereby by me undertaken +shall be exercised by and through William G. McAdoo, who is hereby +appointed and designated Director-General of Railroads.</p> + +<p>Said director may perform the duties imposed upon him, so long and to +such extent as he shall determine, through the boards of directors, +receivers, officers and employees of said systems of transportation. +Until and except so far as said director shall from time to time by +general or special orders otherwise provide, the boards of directors, +receivers, officers and employees of the various transportation +systems shall continue the operation thereof in the usual and +ordinary course of the business of common carriers, in the names of +their respective companies.</p> + +<p>Until and except so far as said director shall from time to time +otherwise by general or special orders determine, such systems of +transportation shall remain subject to all existing statutes and +orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and to all statutes and +orders of regulating commissions of the various States in which said +systems or any part thereof may be situated. But any orders, general +or special, hereafter made by said director shall have paramount +authority and be obeyed as such.</p> + +<p>Nothing herein shall be construed as now affecting the possession, +operation and control of street electric passenger railways, +including railways commonly called interurban, whether such railways +be or be not owned or controlled by such railroad companies or +systems. By subsequent order and proclamation, if and when it shall +be found necessary or desirable, possession, control or operation may +be taken of all or any part of such street railway systems, including +subways and tunnels, and by subsequent order and proclamation +possession, control <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141"></a>141</span>and operation in whole or in part may also be +relinquished to the owners thereof of any part of the railroad +systems or rail and water systems, possession and control of which +are hereby assumed.</p> + +<p>The director shall as soon as may be after having assumed such +possession and control enter upon negotiations with the several +companies looking to agreements for just and reasonable compensation +for the possession, use and control of the respective properties on +the basis of an annual guaranteed compensation, above accruing +depreciation and the maintenance of their properties, equivalent, as +nearly as may be, to the average of the net operating income thereof +for the three year period ending June 30, 1917--the results of such +negotiations to be reported to me for such action as may be +appropriate and lawful.</p> + +<p>But nothing herein contained, expressed or implied, or hereafter done +or suffered hereunder, shall be deemed in any way to impair the +rights of the stockholders, bondholders, creditors and other persons +having interests in said systems of transportation or in the profits +thereof, to receive just and adequate compensation for the use and +control and operation of their property hereby assumed.</p> + +<p>Regular dividends hitherto declared, and maturing interest upon +bonds, debentures and other obligations, may be paid in due course, +and such regular dividends and interest may continue to be paid until +and unless the said director shall from time to time otherwise by +general or special orders determine, and, subject to the approval of +the director, the various carriers may agree upon and arrange for the +renewal and extension of maturing obligations.</p> + +<p>Except with the prior written assent of said director, no attachment +by mesne process or on execution shall be levied on or against any of +the property used by any of said transportation systems, in the +conduct of their <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142"></a>142</span>business as common carriers; but suits may be +brought by and against said carriers and judgments rendered as +hitherto until and except so far as said director may, by general or +special orders, otherwise determine.</p> + +<p>From and after 12 o'clock on said twenty-eighth day of December, +1917, all transportation systems included in this order and +proclamation shall conclusively be deemed within the possession and +control of said director without further act or notice, but for the +purpose of accounting said possession and control shall date from 12 +o'clock midnight on December 31, 1917.</p> + +<p>In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed.</p> + +<p>Done by the President, through Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War, in +the District of Columbia, this twenty-sixth day of December, in the +year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and seventeen, and of +Independence of the United States the one hundred and forty-second.</p> + +<br /> +<p><span class="smcap">Woodrow Wilson.</span></p> +<br /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Newton D. Baker</span>, Secretary of War. </p> + +<p>By the President:</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Robert Lansing</span>, Secretary of State.</p> + +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143"></a>143</span> +<h2><a name="XX">XX</a></h2> + +<h2>GOVERNMENT OPERATION OF RAILROADS</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>Address to the Congress, January 4, 1918</i>)</p> + +<br /> +<p>Gentlemen of the Congress,--I have asked the privilege of addressing +you in order to report that on the 28th of December last, during the +recess of Congress, acting through the Secretary of War, and under +the authority conferred upon me by the Act of Congress approved +August 29, 1916, I took possession and assumed control of the railway +lines of the country and the systems of water transportation under +their control. This step seemed to be imperatively necessary in the +interest of the public welfare, in the presence of the great tasks of +war with which we are now dealing. As our experience develops +difficulties and makes it clear what they are, I have deemed it my +duty to remove those difficulties wherever I have the legal power to +do so.</p> + +<p>To assume control of the vast railway systems of the country is, I +realize, a very great responsibility, but to fail to do so in the +existing circumstances would have been much greater. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144"></a>144</span>I assumed the +less responsibility rather than the weightier.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>NEED OF UNITED DIRECTION</h3> + +<p>I am sure that I am speaking the mind of all thoughtful Americans +when I say that it is our duty as the representatives of the nation +to do everything that it is necessary to do to secure the complete +mobilization of the whole resources of America by as rapid and +effective a means as can be found. Transportation supplies all the +arteries of mobilization. Unless it be under a single and unified +direction, the whole process of the nation's action is embarrassed.</p> + +<p>It was in the true spirit of America, and it was right, that we +should first try to effect the necessary unification under the +voluntary action of those who were in charge of the great railway +properties, and we did try it. The directors of the railways +responded to the need promptly and generously. The group of railway +executives who were charged with the task of actual co-ordination and +general direction performed their difficult duties with patriotic +zeal and marked ability, as was to have been expected, and did, I +believe, everything that it was possible for them to do in the +circumstances. If I have taken the task out of their hands, it has +not been because of any dereliction or failure on their part, but +only <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145"></a>145</span>because there were some things which the Government can do, and +private management cannot. We shall continue to value most highly the +advice and assistance of these gentlemen, and I am sure we shall not +find them withholding it.</p> + +<p>It had become unmistakably plain that only under Government +administration can the entire equipment of the several systems of +transportation be fully and unreservedly thrown into a common service +without injurious discrimination against particular properties; only +under Government administration can absolutely unrestricted and +unembarrassed common use be made of all tracks, terminal facilities +and equipment of every kind. Only under that authority can new +terminals be constructed and developed without regard to the +requirements or limitations of particular roads. But under Government +administration all these things will be possible--not instantly, but +as fast as practical difficulties, which cannot be merely conjured +away, give way before the new management.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>AS LITTLE DISTURBANCE AS POSSIBLE</h3> + +<p>The common administration will be carried out with as little +disturbance of the present operating organizations and personnel of +the railways as possible. Nothing will be altered or disturbed which +is not necessary to disturb. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146"></a>146</span>We are serving the public interest and +safeguarding the public safety, but we are also regardful of the +interest of those by whom these great properties are owned and glad +to avail ourselves of the experience and trained ability of those who +have been managing them. It is necessary that the transportation of +troops and of war materials, of food and of fuel, and of everything +that is necessary for the full mobilization of the energies and +resources of the country, should be first considered; but it is +clearly in the public interest also that the ordinary activities and +the normal industrial and commercial life of the country should be +interfered with and dislocated as little as possible, and the public +may rest assured that the interest and convenience of the private +shipper will be carefully served and safeguarded as it is possible to +serve and safeguard it in the present extraordinary circumstances.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>COMPENSATION SHOULD BE GUARANTEED</h3> + +<p>While the present authority of the Executive suffices for all +purposes of administration, and while, of course, all private +interests must for the present give way to the public necessity, it +is, I am sure you will agree with me, right and necessary that the +owners and creditors of the railways, the holders of their stocks and +bonds, should receive from the Government an unqualified guarantee +that their properties <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147"></a>147</span>will be maintained throughout the period of +Federal control in as good repair and as complete equipment as at +present, and that the several roads will receive, under Federal +management, such compensation as is equitable and just alike to their +owners and to the general public. I would suggest the average net +railway operating income of the three years ending June 30, 1917. I +earnestly recommend that these guarantees be given by appropriate +legislation, and given as promptly as circumstances permit.</p> + +<p>I need not point out the essential justice of such guarantees and +their great influence and significance as elements in the present +financial and industrial situation of the country. Indeed, one of the +strong arguments for assuming control of the railroads at this time +is the financial argument. It is necessary that the values of railway +securities should be justly and fairly protected, and that the +largest financial operations every year necessary in connection with +the maintenance, operation and development of the roads should, +during the period of the war, be wisely related to the financial +operations of the Government.</p> + +<p>Our first duty is, of course, to conserve the common interest and the +common safety, and to make certain that nothing stands in the way of +the successful prosecution of the great war for liberty and justice; +but it is an obligation <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148"></a>148</span>of public conscience and of public honor that +the private interests we disturb should be kept safe from unjust +injury, and it is of the utmost consequence to the Government itself +that all great financial operations should be stabilized and +co-ordinated with the financial operations of the Government. No +borrowing should run athwart the borrowings of the Federal Treasury, +and no fundamental industrial values should anywhere be unnecessarily +impaired. In the hands of many thousands of small investors in the +country, as well as in national banks, in insurance companies, in +savings banks, in trust companies, in financial agencies of every +kind, railway securities--the sum total of which runs up to some ten +or eleven thousand millions, constitute a vital part of the structure +of credit, and the unquestioned solidity of that structure must be +maintained.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>SELECTION OF MCADOO AS DIRECTOR</h3> + +<p>The Secretary of War and I easily agreed that, in view of the many +complex interests which must be safeguarded and harmonized, as well +as because of his exceptional experience and ability in this new +field of governmental action, the Hon. William G. McAdoo was the +right man to assume direct administrative control of this new +executive task. At our request, he consented to assume the authority +and duties of organizer and director-general of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149"></a>149</span>the new railway +administration. He has assumed those duties, and his work is in +active progress.</p> + +<p>It is probably too much to expect that, even under the unified +railway administration which will now be possible, sufficient +economies can be effected in the operation of the railways to make it +possible to add to their equipment and extend their operative +facilities as much as the present extraordinary demands upon their +use will render desirable, without resorting to the national Treasury +for the funds. If it is not possible, it will, of course, be +necessary to resort to the Congress for grants of money for that +purpose. The Secretary of the Treasury will advise with your +committees with regard to this very practical aspect of the matter. +For the present, I suggest only the guarantees I have indicated and +such appropriations as are necessary at the outset of this task.</p> + +<p>I take the liberty of expressing the hope that the Congress may grant +these promptly and ungrudgingly. We are dealing with great matters, +and will, I am sure, deal with them greatly.</p> + +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150"></a>150</span> +<h2><a name="XXI">XXI</a></h2> + +<h2>THE TERMS OF PEACE</h2> + +<p class="center">(<i>January 8, 1918</i>)</p> + +<br /> +<p>In an address to both Houses of Congress, assembled in joint session, +President Wilson enunciated the war and peace <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151"></a>151</span>program of the United +States in fourteen definite proposals. The President spoke as +follows:</p> + +<hr style="width: 30%;" /> + +<p>Gentlemen of the Congress,--Once more, as repeatedly before, the +spokesmen of the Central Empires have indicated their desires to +discuss the objects of the war and the possible basis of a general +peace. Parleys have been in progress at Brest-Litovsk between Russian +representatives and representatives of the Central Powers to which +the attention of all the belligerents has been invited for the +purpose of ascertaining whether it may be possible to extend these +parleys into a general conference with regard to terms of peace and +settlement.</p> + +<p>The Russian representatives presented not only a perfectly definite +statement of the principles upon which they would be willing to +conclude peace, but also an equally definite program of the concrete +application of those principles. The representatives of the Central +Powers, on their part, presented an outline of settlement which, if +much less definite, seemed susceptible of liberal interpretation +until their specific program of practical terms was added. That +program proposed no concessions at all, either to the sovereignty of +Russia or to the preferences of the population with whose fortunes it +dealt, but meant, in a word, that the Central Empires were to keep +every foot of territory their armed forces had occupied--every +province, every city, every point of vantage--as a permanent addition +to their territories and their power. It is a reasonable conjecture +that the general principles of settlement which they at first +suggested originated with the more liberal statesmen of Germany and +Austria, the men who have begun to feel the force of their own +people's thought and purpose, while the concrete terms of actual +settlement came from the military leaders who have no thought but to +keep what they have got. The negotiations have been broken off. The +Russian representatives were sincere and in earnest. They cannot +entertain such proposals of conquest and domination.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>SIGNIFICANCE IN PARLEYS</h3> + +<p>The whole incident is full of significance. It is also full of +perplexity. With whom are <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152"></a>152</span>the Russian representatives dealing? For +whom are the representatives of the Central Empires speaking? Are +they speaking for the majorities of their respective parliaments, or +for the minority parties--that military and imperialistic minority +which has so far dominated their whole policy and controlled the +affairs of Turkey and the Balkan states, which have felt obliged to +become their associates in this war? The Russian representatives have +insisted, very justly, very wisely, and in the true spirit of modern +democracy, that the conferences they have been holding with the +Teutonic and Turkish statesmen should be held within open, not +closed, doors, and all the world has been audience, as was desired.</p> + +<p>To whom have we been listening, then? To those who speak the spirit +and intention of the resolution of the German Reichstag of the 9th of +July last, the spirit and intention of the Liberal leaders and +parties of Germany, or to those who resist and defy that spirit and +intention and insist upon conquest and subjugation? Or are we +listening, in fact, to both, unreconciled and in open and hopeless +contradiction? These are very serious and pregnant questions. Upon +the answer to them depends the peace of the world.</p> + +<p>But, whatever the results of the parleys at Brest-Litovsk, whatever +the confusions of counsel and of purpose in the utterances of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153"></a>153</span>spokesmen of the Central Empires, they have again attempted to +acquaint the world with their objects in the war and have again +challenged their adversaries to say what their objects are and what +sort of settlement they would deem just and satisfactory. There is no +good reason why that challenge should not be responded to and +responded to with the utmost candor. We did not wait for it. Not +once, but again and again, we have laid our whole thought and purpose +before the world, not in general terms only, but each time with +sufficient definition to make it clear what sort of definitive terms +of settlement must necessarily spring out of them.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>LLOYD GEORGE'S AIMS APPROVED</h3> + +<p>Within the last week Mr. Lloyd George has spoken with admirable +candor and in admirable spirit for the people and Government of Great +Britain. There is no confusion of counsel among the adversaries of +the Central Powers, no uncertainty of principle, no vagueness of +detail. The only secrecy of counsel, the only lack of fearless +frankness, the only failure to make definite statement of the objects +of the war lies with Germany and her allies. The issues of life and +death hang upon these definitions. No statesman who has the least +conception of his responsibility ought for a moment to permit himself +to continue this <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154"></a>154</span>tragical and appalling outpouring of blood and +treasure unless he is sure beyond a peradventure that the objects of +the vital sacrifice are part and parcel of the very life of society, +and that the people for whom he speaks think them right and +imperative, as he does.</p> + +<p>There is, moreover, a voice calling for these definitions of +principle and of purpose which is, it seems to me, more thrilling and +more compelling than any of the many moving voices with which the +troubled air of the world is filled. It is the voice of the Russian +people. They are prostrate and all but helpless, it would seem, +before the grim power of Germany, which has hitherto known no +relenting and no pity. Their power apparently is shattered. And yet +their soul is not subservient. They will not yield either in +principle or in action. Their conception of what is right, of what it +is humane and honorable for them to accept, has been stated with a +frankness, a largeness of view, a generosity of spirit and a +universal human sympathy which must challenge the admiration of every +friend of mankind; and they have refused to compound their ideals or +desert others that they themselves may be safe.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>WOULD LIKE TO AID RUSSIA</h3> + +<p>They call to us to say what it is that we desire--in what, if in +anything, our purpose and our spirit differ from theirs; and I +believe <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155"></a>155</span>that the people of the United States would wish me to respond +with utter simplicity and frankness. Whether their present leaders +believe it or not, it is our heartfelt desire and hope that some way +may be opened whereby we may be privileged to assist the people of +Russia to attain their utmost hope of liberty and ordered peace.</p> + +<p>It will be our wish and purpose that the processes of peace, when +they are begun, shall be absolutely open, and that they shall involve +and permit henceforth no secret understandings of any kind. The day +of conquest and aggrandizement is gone by; so is also the day of +secret covenants entered into in the interest of particular +governments and likely, at some unlooked-for moment, to upset the +peace of the world. It is this happy fact, now clear to the view of +every public man whose thoughts do not still linger in an age that is +dead and gone, which makes it possible for every nation whose +purposes are consistent with justice and the peace of the world to +avow now, or at any other time, the objects it has in view.</p> + +<p>We entered this war because violations of right had occurred which +touched us to the quick and made the life of our own people +impossible unless they were corrected and the world secured once for +all against their recurrence. What we demand in this war, therefore, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156"></a>156</span>is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit +and safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every +peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, +determine its own institutions, be assured of justice and fair +dealing by the other peoples of the world as against force and +selfish aggression. All the peoples of the world are in effect +partners in this interest, and for our own part we see very clearly +that unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us.</p> +<br /> + +<h3>THE DEFINITE PROGRAM</h3> + +<p>The program of the world's peace, therefore, is our program, and that +program, the only possible program, as we see it, is this:</p> + +<p>I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there +shall be no private international understandings of any kind, but +diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.</p> + +<p>II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial +waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed +in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of +international covenants.</p> + +<p>III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and +the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the +nations <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157"></a>157</span>consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its +maintenance.</p> + +<p>IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will +be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.</p> + +<p>V. A free, open-minded and absolutely impartial adjustment of all +colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that +in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the +populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable +claims of the Government whose title is to be determined.</p> + +<p>VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of +all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest +co-operation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her +an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent +determination of her own political development and national policy +and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations +under institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, +assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself +desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations will be +the acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her needs +as distinguished from their own interests and of their intelligent +and unselfish sympathy.</p> + +<br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158"></a>158</span> +<h3>BELGIUM MUST BE RESTORED</h3> + +<p>VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and +restored, without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she +enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act +will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations +in the laws which they have themselves set and determined for the +government of their relations with one another. Without this healing +act the whole structure and validity of international law is forever +impaired.</p> + +<p>VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions +restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the +matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world +for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may +once more be made secure in the interest of all.</p> + +<p>IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along +clearly recognizable lines of nationality.</p> + +<p>X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we +wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest +opportunity of autonomous development.</p> + +<p>XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied +territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to the +sea; and the relations of the several Balkan states to one another +determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines +of allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees of the +political and economic independence and territorial integrity of the +several Balkan states should be entered into.</p> + +<p>XII. The Turkish portions of the present Ottoman Empire should be +assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are +now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of +life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous +development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a +free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under +international guarantees.</p> + +<br /> +<h3>INDEPENDENCE FOR POLAND</h3> + +<p>XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should +include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, +which should be assured a free and secure access <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159"></a>159</span>to the sea, and +whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity +should be guaranteed by international covenant.</p> + +<p>XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific +covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political +independence and territorial integrity to great and small states +alike.</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160"></a>160</span> +<p>In regard to these essential rectifications of wrong and assertions +of right, we feel ourselves to be intimate partners of all the +Governments and peoples associated together against the imperialists. +We cannot be separated in interest or divided in purpose. We stand +together until the end.</p> + +<p>For such arrangements and covenants we are willing to fight, and to +continue to fight, until they are achieved; but only because we wish +the right to prevail and desire a just and stable peace, such as can +be secured only by removing the chief provocations to war, which this +program does remove. We have no jealousy of German greatness, and +there is nothing in this program that impairs it. We grudge her no +achievement or distinction of learning or of pacific enterprise, such +as have made her record very bright and very enviable. We do not wish +to injure her or to block in any way her legitimate influence or +power. We do not wish to fight her either with arms or with hostile +arrangements of trade, if she is willing to associate herself with us +and the other peace-loving nations of the world in covenants of +justice and law and fair dealing. We wish her only to accept a place +of equality among the peoples of the world--the new world in which we +now live--instead of a place of mastery.</p> + +<br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161"></a>161</span> +<h3>GERMANY'S SPOKESMEN AN ISSUE</h3> + +<p>Neither do we presume to suggest to her any alteration or +modification of her institutions. But it is necessary, we must +frankly say, and necessary as a preliminary to any intelligent +dealings with her on our part, that we should know whom her spokesmen +speak for when they speak to us, whether for the Reichstag majority +or for the military party and the men whose creed is imperial +domination.</p> + +<p>We have spoken now surely in terms too concrete to admit of any +further doubt or question. An evident principle runs through the +whole program I have outlined. It is the principle of justice to all +peoples and nationalities and their right to live on equal terms of +liberty and safety with one another, whether they be strong or weak. +Unless this principle be made its foundation, no part of the +structure of international justice can stand. The people of the +United States could act upon no other principle, and to the +vindication of this principle they are ready to devote their lives, +their honor and everything that they possess. The moral climax of +this, the culminating and final war for human liberty, has come, and +they are ready to put their own strength, their own highest purpose, +their own integrity and devotion to the test.</p> + +<br /><br /><br /><br /> + +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163"></a>163</span> +<h2><a name="Appendix">APPENDIX</a></h2> + +<h3>STATE DEPARTMENT'S REVISED LIST OF <br /> +NATIONS AT WAR WHICH HAVE<br /> +BROKEN RELATIONS</h3> +<br /> + +<h3>DECLARATIONS OF WAR</h3> + +<p>The country declaring war is named first.</p> + +<p class="list"> +Austria--Belgium, Aug. 28, 1914. <br /> +Austria--Japan, Aug. 27, 1914.<br /> +Austria--Montenegro, Aug. 9, 1914. <br /> +Austria--Russia, Aug. 6, 1914.<br /> +Austria--Serbia, July 28, 1914. <br /> +Brazil--Germany, Oct. 26, 1917.<br /> +Bulgaria--Serbia, Oct. 14, 1915. <br /> +China--Austria, Aug. 14, 1917.<br /> +China--Germany, Aug. 14, 1917. <br /> +Cuba--Germany, April 7, 1917.<br /> +France--Austria, Aug. 13, 1914. <br /> +France--Bulgaria, Oct. 16, 1915.<br /> +France--Germany, Aug. 3, 1914. <br /> +France--Turkey, Nov. 5, 1914.<br /> +Germany--Belgium, Aug. 4, 1914. <br /> +Germany--France, Aug. 3, 1914.<br /> +Germany--Portugal, March 9, 1916. <br /> +Germany--Rumania, Sept. 14, 1916.<br /> +Germany--Russia, Aug. 1, 1914.<br /> +Great Britain--Austria, Aug. 13, 1914. <br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164"></a>164</span> +Great Britain--Bulgaria, Oct. 15, 1915. <br /> +Great Britain--Germany, Aug. 4, 1914. <br /> +Great Britain--Turkey, Nov. 5, 1914.<br /> +Greece--Bulgaria, Nov. 28, 1916. (Provisional Government.)<br /> +Greece--Bulgaria, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander.)<br /> +Greece--Germany, Nov. 28, 1916. (Provisional Government.)<br /> +Greece--Germany, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander.)<br /> +Italy--Austria, May 24, 1915. <br /> +Italy--Bulgaria, Oct. 19, 1915.<br /> +Italy--Germany, Aug. 28, 1916. <br /> +Italy--Turkey, Aug. 21, 1915.<br /> +Japan--Germany, Aug. 28, 1914. <br /> +Liberia--Germany, Aug. 4, 1917.<br /> +Montenegro--Austria, Aug. 8, 1914.<br /> +Montenegro--Germany, Aug. 9, 1914. <br /> +Panama--Germany, April 7, 1917. <br /> +Panama--Austria, Dec. 10, 1917. <br /> +Portugal--Germany, Nov. 23, 1914. (Resolutions passed authorizing <br /> + military intervention as ally of England.)<br /> +Portugal--Germany, May 19, 1915. (Military aid granted.)<br /> +Rumania--Austria, Aug. 27, 1916. (Allies of Austria also consider<br /> + it a declaration.) <br /> +Russia--Bulgaria, Oct. 19, 1915.<br /> +Russia--Turkey, Nov. 3, 1914. <br /> +San Marino--Austria, May 24, 1915.<br /> +Serbia--Bulgaria, Oct. 16, 1915. <br /> +Serbia--Germany, Aug. 6, 1914.<br /> +Serbia--Turkey, Dec. 2, 1914. <br /> +Siam--Austria, July 22, 1917.<br /> +Siam--Germany, July 22, 1917. <br /> +Turkey--Allies, Nov. 23, 1914.<br /> +Turkey--Rumania, Aug. 29, 1916. <br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165"></a>165</span> +United States--Austria-Hungary, Dec. 7, 1917. <br /> +United States--Germany, April 6, 1917. <br /> +</p> +<br /> +<h3>SEVERANCE OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS</h3> + +<br /> +<p class="list">Austria--Japan, Aug. 26, 1914. <br /> +Austria--Portugal, March 16, 1916.<br /> +Austria--Serbia, July 26, 1914. <br /> +Austria--United States, April 8, 1917. <br /> +Bolivia--Germany, April 14, 1917. <br /> +Brazil--Germany, April 11,1917. <br /> +China--Germany, March 14, 1917. <br /> +Costa Rica--Germany, Sept. 21, 1917. <br /> +Ecuador--Germany, Dec. 7, 1917. <br /> +Egypt--Germany, Aug. 13, 1914. <br /> +France--Austria, Aug. 10, 1914. <br /> +Greece--Turkey, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander.) <br /> +Greece--Austria, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander.) <br /> +Guatemala--Germany, April 27, 1917.<br /> +Haiti--Germany, June 17, 1917. <br /> +Honduras--Germany, May 17, 1917.<br /> +Nicaragua--Germany, May 18, 1917. <br /> +Peru--Germany, Oct. 6, 1917.<br /> +Turkey--United States, April 20, 1917. <br /> +United States--Germany, Feb. 3, 1917. <br /> +Uruguay--Germany, Oct. 7, 1917. </p> + +<p>--<i>From the Official Bulletin of the Committee on Public +Information.</i></p> + +<br /> +<h3>POPULATION OF THE NATIONS</h3> + +<br /> +<table border="0" width="50%" summary="Population of the nations"> +<tr><td class="tleft">Austria (including Hungary)</td> <td class="tright">50,000,000</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Belgium</td> <td class="tright">7,571,387</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Bolivia</td> <td class="tright"> 2,520,538 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Brazil</td> <td class="tright"> 22,992,937 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Bulgaria</td> <td class="tright"> 4,755,000 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">China</td> <td class="tright"> 413,000,000 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Costa Rica</td> <td class="tright"> 427,604 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Cuba</td> <td class="tright">2,406,117 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Ecuador</td> <td class="tright">1,500,000</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Egypt</td> <td class="tright">12,170,000 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">France</td> <td class="tright">39,601,509 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Germany</td> <td class="tright">66,715,000 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Great Britain</td> <td class="tright">40,834,790 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Greece</td> <td class="tright"> 5,000,000</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Guatemala</td> <td class="tright"> 2,092,824 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Haiti</td> <td class="tright"> 2,030,000 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Honduras</td> <td class="tright">592,675 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Italy</td> <td class="tright">35,598,000 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Japan</td> <td class="tright">53,696,358</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Liberia</td> <td class="tright"> 2,060,000 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Montenegro</td> <td class="tright"> 520,000 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Nicaragua</td> <td class="tright"> 689,891 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Panama</td> <td class="tright"> 386,891 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Peru</td> <td class="tright"> 4,500,000</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Portugal</td> <td class="tright"> 5,857,895 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Rumania</td> <td class="tright"> 7,600,000 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Russia </td> <td class="tright"> 175,137,000 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">San Marino </td> <td class="tright"> 10,655 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Serbia</td> <td class="tright"> 4,600,000 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Siam </td> <td class="tright"> 6,000,000 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Turkey </td> <td class="tright"> 21,274,000 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">United States</td> <td class="tright"> 102,826,309 </td></tr> +<tr><td class="tleft">Uruguay </td> <td class="tright"> 1,255,914</td></tr> </table> + + + +<h3>THE END</h3> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's In Our First Year of the War, by Woodrow Wilson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN OUR FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR *** + +***** This file should be named 24668-h.htm or 24668-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/6/24668/ + +Produced by Jennie Gottschalk, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: In Our First Year of the War + Messages and Addresses to the Congress and the People, + March 5, 1917 to January 6, 1918 + +Author: Woodrow Wilson + +Illustrator: Wilfrid Muir Evans + +Release Date: February 22, 2008 [EBook #24668] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN OUR FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR *** + + + + +Produced by Jennie Gottschalk, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + +IN OUR +FIRST YEAR OF WAR + +MESSAGES AND ADDRESSES TO +THE CONGRESS AND THE PEOPLE +MARCH 5, 1917, TO JANUARY 8, 1918 + +BY + +WOODROW WILSON + +PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES + +Frontispiece from drawing by WILFRID MUIR EVANS + +HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS +NEW YORK AND LONDON + + + + +BOOKS BY + +WOODROW WILSON + + IN OUR FIRST YEAR OF WAR + + WHY WE ARE AT WAR. 16mo + + A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE + Profusely illustrated. 5 volumes. 8vo + Cloth + Three-quarter Calf + Three-quarter Levant + + GEORGE WASHINGTON. Illustrated. 8vo + Popular Edition + + WHEN A MAN COMES TO HIMSELF. + 16mo. Cloth. Leather + + ON BEING HUMAN + 16mo. Cloth. Leather + + THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 16mo. Cloth. Leather + + HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAP. PAGE + +FOREWORD v + + I. THE SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS 1 + (_March 5, 1917_) + + II. WE MUST ACCEPT WAR 9 + (_Message to the Congress, April 2, 1917)_ + + III. A STATE OF WAR 26 + (_The President's Proclamation of April 6, 1917_) + + IV. "SPEAK, ACT AND SERVE TOGETHER" 32 + (_Message to the American people, April 15, 1917_) + + V. THE CONSCRIPTION PROCLAMATION 40 + (_May 18, 1917_) + + VI. CONSERVING THE NATION'S FOOD 49 + (_May 19, 1917_) + + VII. AN ANSWER TO CRITICS 54 + (_May 22, 1917_) + + VIII. MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS 56 + (_May 30, 1917_) + + IX. A STATEMENT TO RUSSIA 59 + (_June 9, 1917_) + + X. FLAG-DAY ADDRESS 64 + (_June 14, 1917_) + + XI. AN APPEAL TO THE BUSINESS INTERESTS 76 + (_July 11, 1917_) + + XII. REPLY TO THE POPE 83 + (_August 27, 1917_) + + XIII. A MESSAGE TO TEACHERS AND SCHOOL OFFICERS 89 + (_September 30, 1917_) + + XIV. WOMAN SUFFRAGE MUST COME NOW 92 + (_October 25, 1917_) + + XV. THE THANKSGIVING DAY PROCLAMATION 96 + (_November 7, 1917_) + + XVI. LABOR MUST BEAR ITS PART 99 + (_November 12, 1917_) + + XVII. ADDRESS TO THE CONGRESS 112 + (_December 4, 1917_) + + XVIII. PROCLAMATION OF WAR AGAINST AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 130 + (_December 12, 1917_) + + XIX. THE GOVERNMENT TAKES OVER THE RAILROADS 134 + (_A Statement by the President, December 26, 1917_) + + XX. GOVERNMENT OPERATION OF RAILROADS 143 + (_Address to the Congress, January 4, 1918_) + + XXI. THE TERMS OF PEACE 150 + (_January 8, 1918_) + + APPENDIX 162 + + + + +FOREWORD + + +This book opens with the second inaugural address and contains the +President's messages and addresses since the United States was forced +to take up arms against Germany. These pages may be said to picture +not only official phases of the great crisis, but also the highest +significance of liberty and democracy and the reactions of President +and people to the great developments of the times. The second +Inaugural Address with its sense of solemn responsibility serves as a +prophecy as well as prelude to the declaration of war and the message +to the people which followed so soon. + +The extracts from the Conscription Proclamation, the messages on +Conservation and the Fixing of Prices, the Appeal to Business +Interests, the Address to the Federation of Labor and the Railroad +messages present the solid every-day realities and the vast +responsibilities of war-time as they affect every American. These are +concrete messages which should be at hand for frequent reference, +just as the uplift and inspiration of lofty appeals like the Memorial +Day and Flag Day addresses should be a constant source of +inspiration. There are also the clarifying and vigorous definitions +of American purpose afforded in utterances like the statement to +Russia, the reply to the communication of the Pope, and, most +emphatically, the President's restatement of War Aims on January 8th. +These and other state papers from the early spring of 1917 to +January, 1918, have a significance and value in this collected form +which has been attested by the many requests that have come to Harper +& Brothers, as President Wilson's publishers, for a war volume of the +President's messages to follow _Why We Are At War_. + +As a matter of course, the President has been consulted in regard to +the plan of publication, and the conditions which he requested have +been observed. For title, arrangement, headings, and like details the +publishers are responsible. They have held the publication of the +President's words of enlightenment and inspiration to be a public +service. And they think that there is no impropriety in adding that +in the case of this book, and _Why We Are At War_, the American +Red Cross receives all author's royalties. + +In the case of the former book the evolution of events which led to +war was illustrated in messages from January to April 15th. In the +preparation of this book, which begins with the second inaugural, it +has seemed desirable to present practically all the messages of +war-time, and therefore three papers are included which appeared in +the former and smaller book, in addition to the twenty-one messages +and addresses which have been collected for this volume. + + + + +IN OUR FIRST YEAR OF WAR + + + + +IN OUR FIRST YEAR OF WAR + + +I + +THE SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS + +(_March 5, 1917_) + + +My Fellow-citizens,--The four years which have elapsed since last I +stood in this place have been crowded with counsel and action of the +most vital interest and consequence. Perhaps no equal period in our +history has been so fruitful of important reforms in our economic and +industrial life or so full of significant changes in the spirit and +purpose of our political action. We have sought very thoughtfully to +set our house in order, correct the grosser errors and abuses of our +industrial life, liberate and quicken the processes of our national +genius and energy, and lift our politics to a broader view of the +people's essential interests. It is a record of singular variety and +singular distinction. But I shall not attempt to review it. It speaks +for itself and will be of increasing influence as the years go by. +This is not the time for retrospect. It is time, rather, to speak our +thoughts and purposes concerning the present and the immediate +future. + + +A COSMOPOLITAN EPOCH AT HAND + +Although we have centered counsel and action with such unusual +concentration and success upon the great problems of domestic +legislation to which we addressed ourselves four years ago, other +matters have more and more forced themselves upon our attention, +matters lying outside our own life as a nation and over which we had +no control, but which, despite our wish to keep free of them, have +drawn us more and more irresistibly into their own current and +influence. + +It has been impossible to avoid them. They have affected the life of +the whole world. They have shaken men everywhere with a passion and +an apprehension they never knew before. It has been hard to preserve +calm counsel while the thought of our own people swayed this way and +that under their influence. We are a composite and cosmopolitan +people. We are of the blood of all the nations that are at war. The +currents of our thoughts as well as the currents of our trade run +quick at all seasons back and forth between us and them. The war +inevitably set its mark from the first alike upon our minds, our +industries, our commerce, our politics, and our social action. To be +indifferent to it or independent of it was out of the question. + +And yet all the while we have been conscious that we were not part of +it. In that consciousness, despite many divisions, we have drawn +closer together. We have been deeply wronged upon the seas, but we +have not wished to wrong or injure in return; have retained +throughout the consciousness of standing in some sort apart, intent +upon an interest that transcended the immediate issues of the war +itself. As some of the injuries done us have become intolerable, we +have still been clear that we wished nothing for ourselves that we +were not ready to demand for all mankind,--fair dealing, justice, the +freedom to live and be at ease against organized wrong. + +It is in this spirit and with this thought that we have grown more +and more aware, more and more certain that the part we wished to play +was the part of those who mean to vindicate and fortify peace. We +have been obliged to arm ourselves to make good our claim to a +certain minimum of right and of freedom of action. We stand firm in +armed neutrality since it seems that in no other way we can +demonstrate what it is we insist upon and cannot forego. We may even +be drawn on, by circumstances, not by our own purpose or desire, to a +more active assertion of our rights as we see them and a more +immediate association with the great struggle itself. But nothing +will alter our thought or our purpose. They are too clear to be +obscured. They are too deeply rooted in the principles of our +national life to be altered. We desire neither conquest nor +advantage. We wish nothing that can be had only at the cost of +another people. We have always professed unselfish purpose and we +covet the opportunity to prove that our professions are sincere. + + +THE SPIRIT OF CO-OPERATION + +There are many things still to do at home, to clarify our own +politics and give new vitality to the industrial processes of our own +life, and we shall do them as time and opportunity serve; but we +realize that the greatest things that remain to be done must be done +with the whole world for stage and in co-operation with the wide and +universal forces of mankind, and we are making our spirits ready for +those things. They will follow in the immediate wake of the war +itself and will set civilization up again. We are provincials no +longer. The tragical events of the thirty months of vital turmoil +through which we have just passed have made us citizens of the world. +There can be no turning back. Our own fortunes as a nation are +involved, whether we would have it so or not. + +And yet we are not the less Americans on that account. We shall be +the more American if we but remain true to the principles in which we +have been bred. They are not the principles of a province or of a +single continent. We have known and boasted all along that they were +the principles of a liberated mankind. These, therefore, are the +things we shall stand for, whether in war or in peace: + + +OUR NATIONAL PLATFORM + +That all nations are equally interested in the peace of the world and +in the political stability of free peoples, and equally responsible +for their maintenance; + +That the essential principle of peace is the actual equality of +nations in all matters of right or privilege; + +That peace cannot securely or justly rest upon an armed balance of +power; + +That Governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the +governed and that no other powers should be supported by the common +thought, purpose or power of the family of nations; + +That the seas should be equally free and safe for the use of all +peoples, under rules set up by common agreement and consent, and +that, so far as practicable, they should be accessible to all upon +equal terms; + +That national armaments should be limited to the necessities of +national order and domestic safety; + +That the community of interest and of power upon which peace must +henceforth depend imposes upon each nation the duty of seeing to it +that all influences proceeding from its own citizens meant to +encourage or assist revolution in other states should be sternly and +effectually suppressed and prevented. + + +A UNITY OF PURPOSE AND ACTION + +I need not argue these principles to you, my fellow-countrymen: they +are your own, part and parcel of your own thinking and your own +motive in affairs. They spring up native amongst us. Upon this as a +platform of purpose and of action we can stand together. + +And it is imperative that we should stand together. We are being +forged into a new unity amidst the fires that now blaze throughout +the world. In their ardent heat we shall, in God's providence, let us +hope, be purged of faction and division, purified of the errant +humors of party and of private interest, and shall stand forth in the +days to come with a new dignity of national pride and spirit. Let +each man see to it that the dedication is in his own heart, the high +purpose of the nation in his own mind, ruler of his own will and +desire. + +I stand here and have taken the high and solemn oath to which you +have been audience because the people of the United States have +chosen me for this august delegation of power and have by their +gracious judgment named me their leader in affairs. I know now what +the task means. I realize to the full the responsibility which it +involves. I pray God I may be given the wisdom and the prudence to do +my duty in the true spirit of this great people. I am their servant +and can succeed only as they sustain and guide me by their confidence +and their counsel. The thing I shall count upon, the thing without +which neither counsel nor action will avail, is the unity of +America--an America united in feeling, in purpose, and in its vision +of duty, of opportunity, and of service. We are to beware of all men +who would turn the tasks and the necessities of the nation to their +own private profit or use them for the building up of private power; +beware that no faction or disloyal intrigue break the harmony or +embarrass the spirit of our people; beware that our Government be +kept pure and incorrupt in all its parts. United alike in the +conception of our duty and in the high resolve to perform it in the +face of all men, let us dedicate ourselves to the great task to which +we must now set our hand. For myself I beg your tolerance, your +countenance, and your united aid. The shadows that now lie dark upon +our path will soon be dispelled and we shall walk with the light all +about us if we be but true to ourselves--to ourselves as we have +wished to be known in the counsels of the world and in the thought of +all those who love liberty and justice and the right exalted. + + + + +II + +WE MUST ACCEPT WAR + +(_Message to the Congress, April 2, 1917_) + +Gentlemen of the Congress,--I have called the Congress into +extraordinary session because there are serious, very serious, +choices of policy to be made, and made immediately, which it was +neither right nor constitutionally permissible that I should assume +the responsibility of making. + +On the 3d of February last I officially laid before you the +extraordinary announcement of the Imperial German Government that on +and after the first day of February it was its purpose to put aside +all restraints of law or of humanity and use its submarines to sink +every vessel that sought to approach either the ports of Great +Britain and Ireland or the western coasts of Europe or any of the +ports controlled by the enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean. +That had seemed to be the object of the German submarine warfare +earlier in the war, but since April of last year the Imperial +Government had somewhat restrained the commanders of its undersea +craft in conformity with its promise then given to us that +passenger-boats should not be sunk, and that due warning would be +given to all other vessels which its submarines might seek to destroy +when no resistance was offered or escape attempted, and care taken +that their crews were given at least a fair chance to save their +lives in their open boats. + +The precautions taken were meager and haphazard enough, as was proved +in distressing instance after instance in the progress of the cruel +and unmanly business, but a certain degree of restraint was observed. + + +GERMANY'S RUTHLESS POLICY + +The new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of every +kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their +destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom +without warning, and without thought of help or mercy for those on +board, the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of +belligerents. Even hospital-ships and ships carrying relief to the +sorely bereaved and stricken people of Belgium, though the latter +were provided with safe conduct through the proscribed areas by the +German Government itself and were distinguished by unmistakable marks +of identity, have been sunk with the same reckless lack of compassion +or of principle. + +I was for a little while unable to believe that such things would, in +fact, be done by any Government that had hitherto subscribed to the +humane practices of civilized nations. International law had its +origin in the attempt to set up some law which would be respected and +observed upon the seas, where no nation had right of dominion, and +where lay the free highways of the world. By painful stage after +stage has that law been built up with meager enough results, indeed, +after all was accomplished that could be accomplished, but always +with a clear view at least of what the heart and conscience of +mankind demanded. + +This minimum of right the German Government has swept aside under the +plea of retaliation and necessity, and because it had no weapons +which it could use at sea except these, which it is impossible to +employ as it is employing them without throwing to the winds all +scruples of humanity or of respect for the understandings that were +supposed to underlie the intercourse of the world. + +I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and +serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction +of the lives of non-combatants, men, women and children engaged in +pursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern +history, been deemed innocent and legitimate. + +Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent people +cannot be. + + +GERMAN WARFARE AGAINST MANKIND + +The present German warfare against commerce is a warfare against +mankind. It is a war against all nations. American ships have been +sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very +deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and +friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the +same way. There has been no discrimination. The challenge is to all +mankind. Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The +choice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of +counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our character and +our motives as a nation. We must put excited feeling away. + +Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the +physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of +human right, of which we are only a single champion. + +When I addressed the Congress on the 26th of February last I thought +that it would suffice to assert our neutral rights with arms, our +right to use the seas against unlawful interference, our right to +keep our people safe against unlawful violence. But armed neutrality, +it now appears, is impracticable. Because submarines are in effect +outlaws when used as the German submarines have been used against +merchant shipping, it is impossible to defend ships against their +attacks as the law of nations has assumed that merchantmen would +defend themselves against privateers or cruisers, visible craft +giving chase upon the open sea. + +It is common prudence in such circumstances, grim necessity, indeed, +to endeavor to destroy them before they have shown their own +intention. They must be dealt with upon sight, if dealt with at all. + +The German Government denies the right of neutrals to use arms at all +within the areas of the sea which it has proscribed, even in the +defense of rights which no modern publicist has ever before +questioned their right to defend. The intimation is conveyed that the +armed guards which we have placed on our merchant-ships will be +treated as beyond the pale of law and subject to be dealt with as +pirates would be. + +Armed neutrality is ineffectual enough at best; in such circumstances +and in the face of such pretensions it is worse than ineffectual; it +is likely to produce what it was meant to prevent; it is practically +certain to draw us into the war without either the rights or the +effectiveness of belligerents. + +There is one choice we cannot make, we are incapable of making: we +will not choose the path of submission and suffer the most sacred +rights of our nation and our people to be ignored or violated. The +wrongs against which we now array ourselves are not common wrongs; +they reach out to the very roots of human life. + + +BELLIGERENCY THRUST UPON US + +With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of +the step I am taking and of the grave responsibilities which it +involves, but in unhesitating obedience to what I deem my +constitutional duty, I advise that the Congress declare the recent +course of the Imperial German Government to be in fact nothing less +than war against the Government and people of the United States. That +it formally accept the status of belligerent which has thus been +thrust upon it and that it take immediate steps not only to put the +country in a more thorough state of defense, but also to exert all +its power and employ all its resources to bring the Government of the +German Empire to terms and end the war. + + +WHAT THIS WILL INVOLVE + +What this will involve is clear. It will involve the utmost +practicable co-operation in counsel and action with the Governments +now at war with Germany, and as incident to that the extension to +those Governments of the most liberal financial credits in order that +our resources may so far as possible be added to theirs. + +It will involve the organization and mobilization of all the material +resources of the country to supply the materials of war and serve the +incidental needs of the nation in the most abundant and yet the most +economical and efficient way possible. + +It will involve the immediate full equipment of the navy in all +respects, but particularly in supplying it with the best means of +dealing with the enemy's submarines. + +It will involve the immediate addition to the armed forces of the +United States already provided for by law in case of war at least +500,000 men, who should, in my opinion, be chosen upon the principle +of universal liability to service, and also the authorization of +subsequent additional increments of equal force so soon as they may +be needed and can be handled in training. + +It will involve also, of course, the granting of adequate credits to +the Government, sustained, I hope, so far as they can equitably be +sustained by the present generation, by well-conceived taxation. I +say sustained so far as may be equitable by taxation because it seems +to me that it would be most unwise to base the credits which will now +be necessary entirely on money borrowed. + +It is our duty, I most respectfully urge, to protect our people so +far as we may against the very serious hardships and evils which +would be likely to arise out of the inflation which would be produced +by vast loans. + +In carrying out the measures by which these things are to be +accomplished we should keep constantly in mind the wisdom of +interfering as little as possible in our own preparation and in the +equipment of our own military forces with the duty--for it will be a +very practical duty--of supplying the nations already at war with +Germany with the materials which they can obtain only from us or by +our assistance. They are in the field and we should help them in +every way to be effective there. + +I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through the several executive +departments of the Government, for the consideration of your +committees measures for the accomplishment of the several objects I +have mentioned. I hope that it will be your pleasure to deal with +them as having been framed after very careful thought by the branch +of the Government upon which the responsibility of conducting the war +and safeguarding the nation will most directly fall. + + +OUR MOTIVES AND OBJECTS + +While we do these things, these deeply momentous things, let us be +very clear and make very clear to all the world what our motives and +our objects are. My own thought has not been driven from its habitual +and normal course by the unhappy events of the last two months, and I +do not believe that the thought of the nation has been altered or +clouded by them. + +I have exactly the same thing in mind now that I had in mind when I +addressed the Senate on the 22d of January last; the same that I had +in mind when I addressed the Congress on the 3d of February and on +the 26th of February. + +Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the principles of peace and +justice in the life of the world as against selfish and autocratic +power and to set up amongst the really free and self-governed peoples +of the world such a concert of purpose and of action as will +henceforth insure the observance of those principles. + +Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of the +world is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and the menace to +that peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic +Governments backed by organized force which is controlled wholly by +their will, not by the will of their people. We have seen the last of +neutrality in such circumstances. + +We are at the beginning of an age in which it will be insisted that +the same standards of conduct and of responsibility for wrong done +shall be observed among nations and their Governments that are +observed among the individual citizens of civilized states. + +We have no quarrel with the German people. We have no feeling toward +them but one of sympathy and friendship. It was not upon their +impulse that their Government acted in entering this war. It was not +with their previous knowledge or approval. + +It was a war determined upon as wars used to be determined upon in +the old, unhappy days when peoples were nowhere consulted by their +rulers and wars were provoked and waged in the interest of dynasties +or of little groups of ambitious men who were accustomed to use their +fellow-men as pawns and tools. + +Self-governed nations do not fill their neighbor states with spies or +set the course of intrigue to bring about some critical posture of +affairs which will give them an opportunity to strike and make +conquest. Such designs can be successfully worked only under cover +and where no one has the right to ask questions. + +Cunningly contrived plans of deception or aggression, carried, it may +be, from generation to generation, can be worked out and kept from +the light only within the privacy of courts or behind the carefully +guarded confidences of a narrow and privileged class. They are +happily impossible where public opinion commands and insists upon +full information concerning all the nation's affairs. + + +PEACE THROUGH FREE PEOPLES + +A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained except by a +partnership of democratic nations. No autocratic Government could be +trusted to keep faith within it or observe its covenants. It must be +a league of honor, a partnership of opinion. Intrigue would eat its +vitals away, the plottings of inner circles who could plan what they +would and render account to no one would be a corruption seated at +its very heart. Only free peoples can hold their purpose and their +honor steady to a common end and prefer the interests of mankind to +any narrow interest of their own. + +Does not every American feel that assurance has been added to our +hope for the future peace of the world by the wonderful and +heartening things that have been happening within the last few weeks +in Russia? + +Russia was known by those who know it best to have been always in +fact democratic at heart, in all the vital habits of her thought, in +all the intimate relationships of her people that spoke their natural +instinct, their habitual attitude toward life. + +Autocracy that crowned the summit of her political structure, long as +it had stood and terrible as was the reality of its power, was not in +fact Russian in origin, in character or purpose; and now it has been +shaken and the great, generous Russian people have been added, in all +their native majesty and might, to the forces that are fighting for +freedom in the world, for justice and for peace. Here is a fit +partner for a league of honor. + +One of the things that have served to convince us that the Prussian +autocracy was not and could never be our friend is that from the very +outset of the present war it has filled our unsuspecting communities +and even our offices of Government with spies and set criminal +intrigues everywhere afoot against our national unity of council, our +peace within and without, our industries and our commerce. + +Indeed, it is now evident that its spies were here even before the +war began, and it is, unhappily, not a matter of conjecture, but a +fact proved in our courts of justice, that the intrigues which have +more than once come perilously near to disturbing the peace and +dislocating the industries of the country have been carried on at the +instigation, with the support, and even under the personal direction, +of official agents of the Imperial German Government accredited to +the Government of the United States. + +Even in checking these things and trying to extirpate them we have +sought to put the most generous interpretation possible upon them +because we knew that their source lay, not in any hostile feeling or +purpose of the German people toward us (who were, no doubt, as +ignorant of them as we ourselves were), but only in the selfish +designs of a Government that did what it pleased and told its people +nothing. But they have played their part in serving to convince us at +last that that Government entertains no real friendship for us and +means to act against our peace and security at its convenience. That +it means to stir up enemies against us at our very doors the +intercepted note to the German Minister at Mexico City is eloquent +evidence. + + +A CHALLENGE OF HOSTILE PURPOSE + +We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose because we know +that in such a Government, following such methods, we can never have +a friend; and that in the presence of its organized power, always +lying in wait to accomplish we know not what purpose, there can be no +assured security for the democratic Governments of the world. + +We are now about to accept the gage of battle with this natural foe +to liberty, and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the +nation to check and nullify its pretensions and its power. We are +glad, now that we see the facts with no veil of false pretense about +them, to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the +liberation of its peoples, the German people included; for the rights +of nations great and small and the privilege of men everywhere to +choose their way of life and of obedience. The world must be made +safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the trusted +foundations of political liberty. + +We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. +We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for +the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions +of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights +have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of the nation +can make them. + +Just because we fight without rancor and without selfish objects, +seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to share with +all free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our operations +as belligerents without passion and ourselves observe with proud +punctilio the principles of right and of fair play we profess to be +fighting for. + +I have said nothing of the Governments allied with the Imperial +Government of Germany because they have not made war upon us or +challenged us to defend our right and our honor. + +The Austro-Hungarian Government has indeed avowed its unqualified +indorsement and acceptance of the reckless and lawless submarine +warfare adopted now without disguise by the Imperial German +Government, and it has therefore not been possible for this +Government to receive Count Tarnowski, the ambassador recently +accredited to this Government by the Imperial and Royal Government of +Austria-Hungary; but that Government has not actually engaged in +warfare against citizens of the United States on the seas, and I take +the liberty, for the present at least, of postponing a discussion of +our relations with the authorities at Vienna. + + + + +OPPOSITION TO THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT + + +FRIENDSHIP TOWARD THE GERMAN PEOPLE + + +We enter this war only where we are clearly forced into it because +there are no other means of defending our rights. + +It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as belligerents +in a high spirit of right and fairness because we act without animus, +not in enmity toward a people or with the desire to bring any injury +or disadvantage upon them, but only in armed opposition to an +irresponsible Government which has thrown aside all considerations of +humanity and of right and is running amuck. + +We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of the German people, +and shall desire nothing so much as the early re-establishment of +intimate relations of mutual advantage between us--however hard it +may be for them, for the time being, to believe that this is spoken +from our hearts. We have borne with their present Government through +all these bitter months because of that friendship--exercising a +patience and forbearance which would otherwise have been impossible. + +We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friendship +in our daily attitude and actions toward the millions of men and +women of German birth and native sympathy who live amongst us and +share our life, and we shall be proud to prove it toward all who are, +in fact, loyal to their neighbors and to the Government in the hour +of test. They are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans as if +they had never known any other fealty or allegiance. They will be +prompt to stand with us in rebuking and restraining the few who may +be of a different mind and purpose. If there should be disloyalty it +will be dealt with with a firm hand of stern repression; but, if it +lifts its head at all, it will lift it only here and there and +without countenance except from a lawless and malignant few. + + +RIGHT MORE PRECIOUS THAN PEACE + +It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen of the Congress, +which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, +many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful +thing to lead this great, peaceful people into war, into the most +terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to +be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we +shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our +hearts--for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority +to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and +liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such +a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all +nations and make the world itself at last free. + +To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything +that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who +know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her +blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and +happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she +can do no other. + + + + +III + +A STATE OF WAR + +(_The President's Proclamation of April 6, 1917_) + + +Whereas, the Congress of the United States, in the exercise of the +constitutional authority vested in them, have resolved by joint +resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives, bearing +date this day, that a state of war between the United States and +the Imperial German Government, which has been thrust upon the +United States, is hereby formally declared; + +Whereas, It is provided by Section 4067 of the Revised Statutes as +follows: + + Whenever there is declared a war between the United States + and any foreign nation or Government, or any invasion or + predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted or + threatened against the territory of the United States by + any foreign nation or Government, and the President makes + public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, + denizens or subjects of a hostile nation or Government + being male of the age of fourteen years and upward who + shall be within the United States and not actually + naturalized shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained + secured and removed as alien enemies. + +The President is authorized in any such event, by his proclamation +thereof or other public acts, to direct the conduct to be observed on +the part of the United States toward the aliens who become so liable; +the manner and degree of the restraint to which they shall be subject +and in what cases and upon what security their residence shall be +permitted and to provide for the removal of those who, not being +permitted to reside within the United States, refuse or neglect to +depart therefrom, and to establish any such regulations which are +found necessary in the premises and for the public safety; + +Whereas, By Sections 4068, 4069, and 4070 of the Revised Statutes +further provision is made relative to alien enemies; + +Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of +America, do hereby proclaim to all whom it may concern that a state +of war exists between the United States and the Imperial German +Government, and I do specially direct all officers, civil or +military, of the United States that they exercise vigilance and zeal +in the discharge of the duties incident to such a state of war, and I +do, moreover, earnestly appeal to all American citizens that they, in +loyal devotion to their country, dedicated from its foundation to the +principles of liberty and justice, uphold the laws of the land and +give undivided and willing support to those measures which may be +adopted by the constitutional authorities in prosecuting the war to a +successful issue and in obtaining a secure and just peace; + +And acting under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the +Constitution of the United States and the said sections of the +Revised Statutes: + +I do hereby further proclaim and direct that the conduct to be +observed on the part of the United States toward all natives, +citizens, denizens or subjects of Germany, being male, of the age of +fourteen years and upward, who shall be within the United States and +not actually naturalized, who for the purpose of this proclamation +and under such sections of the Revised Statutes are termed alien +enemies, shall be as follows: + + All alien enemies are enjoined to preserve the peace + toward the United States and to refrain from crime against + the public safety and from violating the laws of the + United States and of the States and Territories thereof, + and to refrain from actual hostility or giving + information, aid or comfort to the enemies of the United + States, and to comply strictly with the regulations which + are hereby or which may be from time to time promulgated + by the President, and so long as they shall conduct + themselves in accordance with law they shall be + undisturbed in the peaceful pursuit of their lives and + occupations and be accorded the consideration due to all + peaceful and law-abiding persons, except so far as + restrictions may be necessary for their own protection and + for the safety of the United States, and toward such alien + enemies as conduct themselves in accordance with law all + citizens of the United States are enjoined to preserve the + peace and to treat them with all such friendliness as may + be compatible with loyalty and allegiance to the United + States. + + And all alien enemies who fail to conduct themselves as so + enjoined, in addition to all other penalties prescribed by + law, shall be liable to restraint or to give security or + to remove and depart from the United States in the manner + prescribed by Sections 4069 and 4070 of the Revised + Statutes and as prescribed in the regulations duly + promulgated by the President. + +And, pursuant to the authority vested in me, I hereby declare and +establish the following regulations, which I find necessary in the +premises and for the public safety: + + First. An alien enemy shall not have in his possession at + any time or place any firearms, weapons or implement of + war, or component parts thereof; ammunition, Maxim or + other silencer, arms or explosives or material used in the + manufacture of explosives. + + Second. An alien enemy shall not have in his possession at + any time or place, or use or operate, any aircraft or + wireless apparatus, or any form of signaling device, or + any form of cipher code or any paper, document or book + written or printed in cipher, or in which there may be + invisible writing. + + Third. All property found in the possession of an alien + enemy in violation of the foregoing regulations shall be + subject to seizure by the United States. + + Fourth. An alien enemy shall not approach or be found + within one-half of a mile of any Federal or State fort, + camp, arsenal, aircraft station, Government or naval + vessel, navy-yard, factory or workshop for the + manufacture of munitions of war or of any products for the + use of the army or navy. + + Fifth. An alien enemy shall not write, print or publish + any attack or threat against the Government or Congress of + the United States, or either branch thereof, or against + the measures or policy of the United States, or against + the persons or property of any person in the military, + naval or civil service of the United States, or of the + States or Territories, or of the District of Columbia, or + of the municipal governments therein. + + Sixth. An alien enemy shall not commit or abet any hostile + acts against the United States, or give information, aid + or comfort to its enemies. + + Seventh. An alien enemy shall not reside in or continue to + reside in, to remain in or enter any locality which the + President may from time to time designate by an executive + order as a prohibitive area in which residence by an alien + enemy shall be found by him to constitute a danger to the + public peace and safety of the United States except by + permit from the President and except under such + limitations or restrictions as the President may + prescribe. + + Eighth. An alien enemy whom the President shall have + reasonable cause to believe to be aiding or about to aid + the enemy, or to be at large to the danger of the public + peace or safety of the United States, or to have violated + or to be about to violate any of these regulations, shall + remove to any location designated by the President by + executive order, and shall not remove therefrom without + permit, or shall depart from the United States if so + required by the President. + + Ninth. No alien enemy shall depart from the United States + until he shall have received such permit as the President + shall prescribe, or except under order of a Court, Judge + or Justice, under Sections 4069 and 4070 of the Revised + Statutes. + + Tenth. No alien enemy shall land in or enter the + United States except under such restrictions and at such + places as the President may prescribe. + + Eleventh. If necessary to prevent violation of the + regulations, all alien enemies will be obliged to + register. + + Twelfth. An alien enemy whom there may be reasonable cause + to believe to be aiding or about to aid the enemy, or to + be at large to the danger of the public peace or safety, + or who violates or who attempts to violate or of whom + there is reasonable grounds to believe that he is about to + violate any regulation to be promulgated by the President + or any criminal law of the United States or of the States + or Territories thereof, will be subject to summary arrest + by the United States, by the United States Marshal or his + deputy or such other officers as the President shall + designate, and to confinement in such penitentiary, + prison, jail, military camp, or other place of detention + as may be directed by the President. + +This proclamation and the regulations herein contained shall extend +and apply to all land and water, continental or insular, in any way +within the jurisdiction of the United States. + + + + +IV + +"SPEAK, ACT AND SERVE TOGETHER" + +(_Message to the American People, April 15, 1917_) + + +MY FELLOW COUNTRYMEN,--The entrance of our own beloved +country into the grim and terrible war for democracy and human rights +which has shaken the world creates so many problems of national life +and action which call for immediate consideration and settlement that +I hope you will permit me to address to you a few words of earnest +counsel and appeal with regard to them. + +We are rapidly putting our navy upon an effective war footing and are +about to create and equip a great army, but these are the simplest +parts of the great task to which we have addressed ourselves. There +is not a single selfish element, so far as I can see, in the cause we +are fighting for. We are fighting for what we believe and wish to be +the rights of mankind and for the future peace and security of the +world. To do this great thing worthily and successfully we must +devote ourselves to the service without regard to profit or material +advantage and with an energy and intelligence that will rise to the +level of the enterprise itself. We must realize to the full how great +the task is and how many things, how many kinds and elements of +capacity and service and self-sacrifice it involves. + + +WHAT WE MUST DO + +These, then, are the things we must do, and do well, besides +fighting--the things without which mere fighting would be fruitless: + +We must supply abundant food for ourselves and for our armies and our +seamen, not only, but also for a large part of the nations with whom +we have now made common cause, in whose support and by whose sides we +shall be fighting. + +We must supply ships by the hundreds out of our shipyards to carry to +the other side of the sea, submarines or no submarines, what will +every day be needed there, and abundant materials out of our fields +and our mines and our factories with which not only to clothe and +equip our own forces on land and sea, but also to clothe and support +our people, for whom the gallant fellows under arms can no longer +work; to help clothe and equip the armies with which we are +co-operating in Europe, and to keep the looms and manufactories there +in raw material; coal to keep the fires going in ships at sea and in +the furnaces of hundreds of factories across the sea; steel out of +which to make arms and ammunition both here and there; rails for +wornout railways back of the fighting fronts; locomotives and +rolling-stock to take the place of those every day going to pieces; +mules, horses, cattle for labor and for military service; everything +with which the people of England and France and Italy and Russia have +usually supplied themselves, but cannot now afford the men, the +materials or the machinery to make. + + +GREATER EFFICIENCY + +It is evident to every thinking man that our industries, on the +farms, in the shipyards, in the mines, in the factories, must be made +more prolific and more efficient than ever, and that they must be +more economically managed and better adapted to the particular +requirements of our task than they have been; and what I want to say +is that the men and the women who devote their thought and their +energy to these things will be serving the country and conducting the +fight for peace and freedom just as truly and just as effectively as +the men on the battle-field or in the trenches. The industrial forces +of the country, men and women alike, will be a great national, a +great international, service army--a notable and honored host engaged +in the service of the nation and the world, the efficient friends and +saviors of free men everywhere. Thousands, nay, hundreds of +thousands, of men otherwise liable to military service will of right +and of necessity be excused from that service and assigned to the +fundamental sustaining work of the fields and factories and mines, +and they will be as much part of the great patriotic forces of the +nation as the men under fire. + +I take the liberty, therefore, of addressing this word to the farmers +of the country and to all who work on the farms: The supreme need of +our own nation and of the nations with which we are co-operating is +an abundance of supplies, and especially of foodstuffs. The +importance of an adequate food-supply, especially for the present +year, is superlative. Without abundant food, alike for the armies and +the peoples now at war, the whole great enterprise upon which we have +embarked will break down and fail. The world's food reserves are low. +Not only during the present emergency, but for some time after peace +shall have come, both our own people and a large proportion of the +people of Europe must rely upon the harvests in America. + + +THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE FARMERS + +Upon the farmers of this country, therefore, in large measure rest +the fate of the war and the fate of the nations. May the nation not +count upon them to omit no step that will increase the production of +their land or that will bring about the most effectual co-operation +in the sale and distribution of their products? The time is short. It +is of the most imperative importance that everything possible be +done, and done immediately, to make sure of large harvests. I call +upon young men and old alike and upon the able-bodied boys of the +land to accept and act upon this duty--to turn in hosts to the farms +and make certain that no pains and no labor is lacking in this great +matter. + +I particularly appeal to the farmers of the South to plant abundant +foodstuffs, as well as cotton. They can show their patriotism in no +better or more convincing way than by resisting the great temptation +of the present price of cotton and helping, helping upon a great +scale, to feed the nation and the peoples everywhere who are fighting +for their liberties and for our own. The variety of their crops will +be the visible measure of their comprehension of their national duty. + +The Government of the United States and the Governments of the +several States stand ready to co-operate. They will do everything +possible to assist farmers in securing an adequate supply of seed, an +adequate force of laborers when they are most needed, at +harvest-time, and the means of expediting shipments of fertilizers +and farm machinery, as well as of the crops themselves when +harvested. The course of trade shall be as unhampered as it is +possible to make it, and there shall be no unwarranted manipulation +of the nation's food-supply by those who handle it on its way to the +consumer. This is our opportunity to demonstrate the efficiency of a +great democracy, and we shall not fall short of it! + + +THE DUTY OF MIDDLEMEN + +This let me say to the middlemen of every sort, whether they are +handling our foodstuffs or the raw materials of manufacture or the +products of our mills and factories: The eyes of the country will be +especially upon you. This is your opportunity for signal service, +efficient and disinterested. The country expects you, as it expects +all others, to forego unusual profits, to organize and expedite +shipments of supplies of every kind, but especially of food, with an +eye to the service you are rendering and in the spirit of those who +enlist in the ranks, for their people, not for themselves. I shall +confidently expect you to deserve and win the confidence of people of +every sort and station. + + +THE MEN OF THE RAILWAYS + +To the men who run the railways of the country, whether they be +managers or operative employees, let me say that the railways are the +arteries of the nation's life and that upon them rests the immense +responsibility of seeing to it that those arteries suffer no +obstruction of any kind, no inefficiency or slackened power. To the +merchant let me suggest the motto, "Small profits and quick service," +and to the shipbuilder the thought that the life of the war depends +upon him. The food and the war supplies must be carried across the +seas, no matter how many ships are sent to the bottom. The places of +those that go down must be supplied, and supplied at once. To the +miner let me say that he stands where the farmer does: the work of +the world waits on him. If he slackens or fails, armies and statesmen +are helpless. He also is enlisted in the great Service Army. The +manufacturer does not need to be told, I hope, that the nation looks +to him to speed and perfect every process; and I want only to remind +his employees that their service is absolutely indispensable and is +counted on by every man who loves the country and its liberties. + +Let me suggest also that every one who creates or cultivates a garden +helps, and helps greatly, to solve the problem of the feeding of the +nations; and that every housewife who practises strict economy puts +herself in the ranks of those who serve the nation. This is the time +for America to correct her unpardonable fault of wastefulness and +extravagance. Let every man and every woman assume the duty of +careful, provident use and expenditure as a public duty, as a dictate +of patriotism which no one can now expect ever to be excused or +forgiven for ignoring. + + +THE SUPREME TEST + +In the hope that this statement of the needs of the nation and of the +world in this hour of supreme crisis may stimulate those to whom it +comes and remind all who need reminder of the solemn duties of a time +such as the world has never seen before, I beg that all editors and +publishers everywhere will give as prominent publication and as wide +circulation as possible to this appeal. I venture to suggest also to +all advertising agencies that they would perhaps render a very +substantial and timely service to the country if they would give it +widespread repetition. And I hope that clergymen will not think the +theme of it an unworthy or inappropriate subject of comment and +homily from their pulpits. + +The supreme test of the nation has come. We must all speak, act and +serve together. + + + + +V + +THE CONSCRIPTION PROCLAMATION + +(_May 18, 1917_) + + +Whereas, Congress has enacted and the President has on the 18th day +of May, 1917, approved a law which contains the following provisions: + +Section 5. That all male persons between the ages of twenty-one and +thirty, both inclusive, shall be subject to registration in +accordance with regulations to be prescribed by the President, and +upon proclamation by the President or other public notice given by +him or by his direction, stating the time and place of such +registration, it shall be the duty of all persons of the designated +ages, except officers and enlisted men of the Regular Army, the Navy +and the National Guard and Naval Militia while in the service of the +United States, to present themselves for and submit to registration +under the provisions of this act. + +And every such person shall be deemed to have notice of the +requirements of this act upon the publication of said proclamation or +other notice as aforesaid given by the President or by his direction. + + +THE PENALTY FOR FAILURE + +And any person who shall wilfully fail or refuse to present himself +for registration or to submit thereto as herein provided, shall be +guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction in the District +Court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, be punished +by imprisonment for not more than one year, and shall thereupon be +duly registered. + +Provided, that in the call of the docket preference shall be given, +in courts trying the same, to the trial of criminal proceedings under +this act. + +Provided, further, that persons shall be subject to registration as +herein provided who shall have attained their twenty-first birthday +and who shall not have attained their thirty-first birthday on or +before the day set for the registration, and all persons so +registered shall be and remain subject to draft into the forces +hereby authorized unless exempted or excused therefrom, as in this +act provided. + +Provided, further, that in the case of temporary absence from actual +place of legal residence of any person liable to registration as +provided herein, such registration may be made by mail under +regulations to be prescribed by the President. + + +THE WORK OF REGISTRATION + +Section 6. That the President is hereby authorized to utilize the +service of any or all departments and any or all officers or agents +of the United States and of the several States, Territories and the +District of Columbia and subdivisions thereof, in the execution of +this act, and all officers and agents of the United States and of the +several States, Territories and subdivisions thereof, and of the +District of Columbia, and all persons designated or appointed under +regulations prescribed by the President, whether such appointments +are made by the President himself or by the Governor or other officer +of any State or Territory to perform any duty in the execution of +this act, are hereby required to perform such duty as the President +shall order or direct, and all such officers and agents and persons +so designated or appointed shall hereby have full authority for all +acts done by them in the execution of this act, by the direction of +the President. Correspondence in the execution of this act may be +carried in penalty envelopes bearing the frank of the War Department. + + +NEGLECT OF DUTY AND FRAUD + +Any person charged, as herein provided, with the duty of carrying +into effect any of the provisions of this act or the regulations made +or directions given thereunder who shall fail or neglect to perform +such duty, and any person charged with such duty or having and +exercising any authority under said act, regulations or directions, +who shall knowingly make or be a party to the making of any false or +incorrect registration, physical examination, exemption, enlistment, +enrolment or muster. + +And any person who shall make or be a party to the making of any +false statement or certificate as to the fitness or liability of +himself or any other person for service under the provisions of this +act, or regulations made by the President thereunder, or otherwise +evades or aids another to evade the requirements of this act or of +said regulations, or who, in any manner, shall fail or neglect fully +to perform any duty required of him in the execution of this act, +shall, if not subject to military law, be guilty of a misdemeanor and +upon conviction in the District Court of the United States having +jurisdiction thereof be punished by imprisonment for not more than +one year, or, if subject to military law, shall be tried by court +martial and suffer such punishment as a court martial may direct. + + +A CALL TO GOVERNORS + +Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, do +call upon the Governor of each of the several States and Territories, +the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia and all +officers and agents of the several States and Territories, of the +District of Columbia, and of the counties and municipalities therein, +to perform certain duties in the execution of the foregoing law, +which duties will be communicated to them directly in regulations of +even date herewith. + +And I do further proclaim and give notice to all persons subject to +registration in the several States and in the District of Columbia, +in accordance with the above law, that the time and place of such +registration shall be between 7 A.M. and 7 P.M. on the 5th day of +June, 1917, at the registration place in the precinct wherein +they have their permanent homes. + +Those who shall have attained their twenty-first birthday and who +shall not have attained their thirty-first birthday on or before the +day here named are required to register, excepting only officers and +enlisted men of the Regular Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps and the +National Guard and Naval Militia while in the service of the United +States, and officers in the Officers' Reserve Corps and enlisted men +in the enlisted Reserve Corps while in active service. In the +Territories of Alaska, Hawaii and Porto Rico a day for registration +will be named in a later proclamation. + + +REGISTRATION BY MAIL + +And I do hereby charge those who, through sickness, shall be unable +to present themselves for registration that they apply on or before +the day of registration to the County Clerk of the county where they +may be for instructions as to how they may be registered by agent. + +Those who expect to be absent on the day named from the counties in +which they have their permanent homes may register by mail, but their +mailed registration cards must reach the places in which they have +their permanent homes by the day named herein. They should apply as +soon as practicable to the County Clerk of the county wherein they +may be for instructions as to how they may accomplish their +registration by mail. + +In case such persons as, through sickness or absence, may be unable +to present themselves personally for registration shall be sojourning +in cities of over 30,000 population, they shall apply to the City +Clerk of the city wherein they may be sojourning rather than to the +Clerk of the county. + +The Clerks of counties and of cities of over 30,000 population, in +which numerous applications from the sick and from non-residents are +expected, are authorized to establish such sub-agencies and to employ +and deputize such clerical force as may be necessary to accommodate +these applications. + + +THE WHOLE NATION AN ARMY + +The Power against which we are arrayed has sought to impose its will +upon the world by force. To this end it has increased armament until +it has changed the face of war. In the sense in which we have been +wont to think of armies there are no armies in this struggle, there +are entire nations armed. + +Thus, the men who remain to till the soil and man the factories are +no less a part of the army that is in France than the men beneath the +battle flags. + +It must be so with us. It is not an army that we must shape and train +for war--it is a Nation. To this end our people must draw close in +one compact front against a common foe. But this cannot be if each +man pursues a private purpose. All must pursue one purpose. The +Nation needs all men, but it needs each man, not in the field that +will most pleasure him, but in the endeavor that will best serve the +common good. + +Thus, though a sharpshooter pleases to operate a trip-hammer for the +forging of great guns, and an expert machinist desires to march with +the flag, the Nation is being served only when the sharpshooter +marches and the machinist remains at his levers. The whole Nation +must be a team, in which each man shall play the part for which he is +best fitted. + + +NOT A DRAFT OF THE UNWILLING + +To this end Congress has provided that the Nation shall be organized +for war by selection, that each man shall be classified for service +in the place to which it shall best serve the general good to call +him. + +The significance of this cannot be overstated. It is a new thing in +our history and a landmark in our progress. It is a new manner of +accepting and vitalizing our duty to give ourselves with thoughtful +devotion to the common purpose of us all. It is in no sense a +conscription of the unwilling. It is, rather, selection from a Nation +which has volunteered in mass. + +It is no more a choosing of those who shall march with the colors +than it is a selection of those who shall serve an equally necessary +and devoted purpose in the industries that lie behind the +battle-lines. + +The day here named is the time upon which all shall present +themselves for assignment to their tasks. It is for that reason +destined to be remembered as one of the most conspicuous moments in +our history. It is nothing less than the day upon which the manhood +of the country shall step forward in one solid rank in defense of the +ideals to which this Nation is consecrated. It is important to those +ideals, no less than to the pride of this generation in manifesting +its devotion to them, that there be no gaps in the ranks. + + +DAY OF PATRIOTIC DEVOTION + +It is essential that the day be approached in thoughtful apprehension +of its significance and that we accord to it the honor and the +meaning that it deserves. Our industrial need prescribes that it be +not made a technical holiday, but the stern sacrifice that is before +us urges that it be carried in all our hearts as a great day of +patriotic devotion and obligation, when the duty shall lie upon every +man, whether he is himself to be registered or not, to see to it that +the name of every male person of the designated ages is written on +these lists of honor. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. + +Done at the city of Washington this 18th day of May, in the year of +our Lord, 1917, and of the independence of the United States of +America the one hundred and forty-first. + +By the President: + + +ROBERT LANSING, Secretary of State. + + + + + +VI + +CONSERVING THE NATION'S FOOD + +(_May 19, 1917_) + + +It is very desirable, in order to prevent misunderstanding or alarms +and to assure co-operation in a vital matter, that the country should +understand exactly the scope and purpose of the very great powers +which I have thought it necessary, in the circumstances, to ask the +Congress to put in my hands with regard to our food-supplies. + +Those powers are very great, indeed, but they are no greater than it +has proved necessary to lodge in the other Governments which are +conducting this momentous war, and their object is stimulation and +conservation, not arbitrary restraint or injurious interference with +the normal processes of production. They are intended to benefit and +assist the farmer and all those who play a legitimate part in the +preparation, distribution and marketing of foodstuffs. + + +A SHARP LINE OF DISTINCTION + +It is proposed to draw a sharp line of distinction between the normal +activities of the Government, represented in the Department of +Agriculture, in reference to food production, conservation and +marketing, on the one hand, and the emergency activities necessitated +by the war, in reference to the regulation of food distribution and +consumption, on the other. + +All measures intended directly to extend the normal activities of the +Department of Agriculture, in reference to the production, +conservation and the marketing of farm crops, will be administered, +as in normal times, through that department; and the powers asked for +over distribution and consumption, over exports, imports, prices, +purchase and requisition of commodities, storing and the like, which +may require regulation during the war, will be placed in the hands of +a Commissioner of Food Administration, appointed by the President and +directly responsible to him. + + +THE END TO BE ATTAINED + +The objects sought to be served by the legislation asked for are: +Full inquiry into the existing available stocks of foodstuffs and +into the costs and practices of the various food producing and +distributing trades; the prevention of all unwarranted hoarding of +every kind, and of the control of foodstuffs by persons who are not +in any legitimate sense producers, dealers or traders; the +requisition, when necessary for public use, of food supplies and of +the equipment necessary for handling them properly; the licensing of +wholesome and legitimate mixtures and milling percentages, and the +prohibition of the unnecessary or wasteful use of foods. + +Authority is asked also to establish prices, but not in order to +limit the profits of the farmers, but only to guarantee to them, when +necessary, a minimum price, which will insure them a profit where +they are asked to attempt new crops, and to secure the consumer +against extortion by breaking up corners and attempts at speculation +when they occur, by fixing temporarily a reasonable price at which +middlemen must sell. + + +THE FIXING OF PRICES + +I have asked Mr. Herbert Hoover to undertake this all-important task +of food administration. He has expressed his willingness to do so, on +condition that he is to receive no payment for his services, and that +the whole of the force under him, exclusive of clerical assistance, +shall be employed, as far as possible, upon the same volunteer basis. + +He has expressed his confidence that this difficult matter of food +administration can be successfully accomplished through the voluntary +co-operation and direction of legitimate distributers of foodstuffs +and with the help of the women of the country. + +Although it is absolutely necessary that unquestionable powers shall +be placed in my hands, in order to insure the success of this +administration of the food-supplies of the country, I am confident +that the exercise of those powers will be necessary only in the few +cases where some small and selfish minority proves unwilling to put +the Nation's interests above personal advantage, and that the whole +country will heartily support Mr. Hoover's efforts by supplying the +necessary volunteer agencies throughout the country for the +intelligent control of food consumption, and securing the +co-operation of the most capable leaders of the very interests most +directly affected, that the exercise of the powers deputed to him +will rest very successfully upon the good-will and co-operation of +the people themselves, and that the ordinary economic machinery of +the country will be left substantially undisturbed. + + +NO FEAR OF BUREAUCRACY + +The proposed food administration is intended, of course, only to meet +a manifest emergency and to continue only while the war lasts. Since +it will be composed for the most part of volunteers, there need be no +fear of the possibility of a permanent bureaucracy arising out of it. + +All control of consumption will disappear when the emergency has +passed. It is with that object in view that the Administration +considers it to be of pre-eminent importance that the existing +associations of producers and distributers of foodstuffs should be +mobilized and made use of on a volunteer basis. The successful +conduct of the projected food administration, by such means, will be +the finest possible demonstration of the willingness, the ability and +the efficiency of democracy and of its justified reliance upon the +freedom of individual initiative. + +The last thing that any American could contemplate with equanimity +would be the introduction of anything resembling Prussian autocracy +into the food control of this country. + +It is of vital interest and importance to every man who produces food +and to every man who takes part in its distribution that these +policies, thus liberally administered, should succeed and succeed +altogether. It is only in that way that we can prove it to be +absolutely unnecessary to resort to the rigorous and drastic measures +which have proved to be necessary in some of the European countries. + + + + +VII + +AN ANSWER TO CRITICS + +(_May 22, 1917_) + + +In the following letter, addressed to Representative Heflin, +Democrat, of Alabama, President Wilson replies to criticisms +regarding his position with regard to the war and its objects: + +It is incomprehensible to me how any frank or honest person could +doubt or question my position with regard to the war and its objects. +I have again and again stated the very serious and long-continued +wrongs which the Imperial German Government has perpetrated against +the rights, the commerce and the citizens of the United States. The +list is long and overwhelming. No Nation that respected itself or the +rights of humanity could have borne those wrongs any longer. + +Our objects in going into the war have been stated with equal +clearness. The whole of the conception which I take to be the +conception of our fellow-countrymen with regard to the outcome of the +war and the terms of its settlement, I set forth with the utmost +explicitness in an address to the Senate of the United States on the +22d of January last. Again, in my message to Congress on the 2d of +April last, those objects were stated in unmistakable terms. + +I can conceive no purpose in seeking to becloud this matter except +the purpose of weakening the hands of the Government and making the +part which the United States is to play in this great struggle for +human liberty an inefficient and hesitating part. + +We have entered the war for our own reasons and with our own objects +clearly stated, and shall forget neither the reasons nor the objects. +There is no hate in our hearts for the German people, but there is a +resolve which cannot be shaken even by misrepresentation, to overcome +the pretensions of the autocratic Government which acts upon purposes +to which the German people have never consented. + + + + +VIII + +MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS + +(_May 30, 1917_) + + +In one sense the great struggle into which we have now entered is an +American struggle, because it is in defense of American honor and +American rights, but it is something even greater than that; it is a +world struggle. It is the struggle of men who love liberty +everywhere, and in this cause America will show herself greater than +ever because she will rise to a greater thing. + +The program has conferred an unmerited dignity upon the remarks I am +going to make by calling them an address, because I am not here to +deliver an address [said the President]. I am here merely to show in +my official capacity the sympathy of this great Government with the +object of this occasion, and also to speak just a word of the +sentiment that is in my own heart. + +Any memorial day of this sort is, of course, a day touched with +sorrowful memory, and yet I for one do not see how we can have any +thought of pity for the men whose memory we honor to-day. I do not +pity them. I envy them, rather, because their great work for liberty +is accomplished, and we are in the midst of a work unfinished, +testing our strength where their strength already has been tested. + + +A HERITAGE FROM THE DEAD + +There is a touch of sorrow, but there is a touch of reassurance also +in a day like this, because we know how the men of America have +responded to the call of the cause of liberty, and it fills our mind +with a perfect assurance that that response will come again in equal +measures, with equal majesty and with a result which will hold the +attention of all mankind. + +When you reflect upon it, these men who died to preserve the Union +died to preserve the instrument which we are now using to serve the +world--a free nation espousing the cause of human liberty. In one +sense the great struggle into which we have now entered is an +American struggle, because it is in the sense of American honor and +American rights, but it is something even greater than that; it is a +world struggle. It is a struggle of men who love liberty everywhere; +and in this cause America will show herself greater than ever because +she will rise to a greater thing. + +We have said in the beginning that we planned this great Government +that men who wish freedom might have a place of refuge and a place +where their hope could be realized, and now, having established such +a Government, having preserved such a Government, having vindicated +the power of such a Government, we are saying to all mankind, "We did +not set this Government up in order that we might have a selfish and +separate liberty, for we are now ready to come to your assistance and +fight out upon the fields of the world the cause of human liberty." + + +AMERICA'S FULL FRUITION + +In this thing America attains her full dignity and the full fruition +of her great purpose. + +No man can be glad that such things have happened as we have +witnessed in these last fateful years, but perhaps it may be +permitted to us to be glad that we have an opportunity to show the +principles which we profess to be living--principles which live in +our hearts--and to have a chance by the pouring out of our blood and +treasure to vindicate the things which we have professed. For, my +friends, the real fruition of life is to do the things we have said +we wished to do. There are times when words seem empty and only +action seems great. Such a time has come, and in the providence of +God America will once more have an opportunity to show to the world +that she was born to serve mankind. + + + + +IX + +A STATEMENT TO RUSSIA + +(_June 9, 1917_) + + +In view of the approaching visit of the American delegation to Russia +to express the deep friendship of the American people for the people +of Russia and to discuss the best and most practical means of +co-operation between the two peoples in carrying the present struggle +for the freedom of all peoples to a successful consummation, it seems +opportune and appropriate that I should state again, in the light of +this new partnership, the objects the United States has had in mind +in entering the war. Those objects have been very much beclouded +during the past few weeks by mistaken and misleading statements, and +the issues at stake are too momentous, too tremendous, too +significant for the whole human race to permit any misinterpretations +or misunderstandings, however slight, to remain uncorrected for a +moment. + +The war has begun to go against Germany, and in their desperate +desire to escape the inevitable ultimate defeat, those who are in +authority in Germany are using every possible instrumentality, are +making use even of the influence of groups and parties among their +own subjects to whom they have never been just or fair, or even +tolerant, to promote a propaganda on both sides of the sea which will +preserve for them their influence at home and their power abroad, to +the undoing of the very men they are using. + + +AMERICA SEEKS NO CONQUEST + +The position of America in this war is so clearly avowed that no man +can be excused for mistaking it. She seeks no material profit or +aggrandizement of any kind. She is fighting for no advantage or +selfish object of her own, but for the liberation of peoples +everywhere from the aggressions of autocratic force. The ruling +classes in Germany have begun of late to profess a like liberality +and justice of purpose, but only to preserve the power they have set +up in Germany and the selfish advantages which they have wrongly +gained for themselves and their private projects of power all the way +from Berlin to Bagdad and beyond. Government after Government has, by +their influence, without open conquest of its territory, been linked +together in a net of intrigue directed against nothing less than the +peace and liberty of the world. The meshes of that intrigue must be +broken, but cannot be broken unless wrongs already done are undone; +and adequate measures must be taken to prevent it from ever again +being rewoven or repaired. + +Of course the Imperial German Government and those whom it is using +for their own undoing are seeking to obtain pledges that the war will +end in the restoration of the _status quo ante_. It was the +_status quo ante_ out of which this iniquitous war issued forth, +the power of the Imperial German Government within the empire and its +widespread domination and influence outside of that empire. That +status must be altered in such fashion as to prevent any such hideous +thing from ever happening again. + + +THE PRINCIPLES THAT ARE INVOLVED + +We are fighting for the liberty, self-government and the undictated +development of all peoples, and every feature of the settlement that +concludes this war must be conceived and executed for that purpose. +Wrongs must first be righted and then adequate safeguards must be +created to prevent their being committed again. We ought not to +consider remedies merely because they have a pleasing and sonorous +sound. Practical questions can be settled only by practical means. +Phrases will not accomplish the result. Effective readjustments will; +and whatever readjustments are necessary must be made. + +But they must follow a principle, and that principle is plain: + +No people must be forced under sovereignty under which it does not +wish to live. + +No territory must change hands except for the purpose of securing +those who inhabit it a fair chance of life and liberty. + +No indemnities must be insisted on except those that constitute +payment for manifest wrongs done. + +No readjustments of power must be made except such as will tend to +secure the future peace of the world and the future welfare and +happiness of its peoples. + +And then the free peoples of the world must draw together in some +common covenant, some genuine and practical co-operation, that will +in effect combine their force to secure peace and justice in the +dealings of nations with one another. The brotherhood of mankind must +no longer be a fair but empty phrase; it must be given a structure of +force and reality. The nations must realize their common life and +effect a workable partnership to secure that life against the +aggressions of autocratic and self-pleasing power. + +For these things we can afford to pour out blood and treasure. For +these are the things we have always professed to desire, and unless +we pour out blood and treasure now and succeed, we may never be able +to unite or show conquering force again in the great cause of human +liberty. The day has come to conquer or submit. If the forces of +autocracy can divide us, they will overcome us; if we stand together, +victory is certain and the liberty which victory will secure. + +We can afford, then, to be generous, but we cannot afford then or now +to be weak or omit any single guarantee of justice and security. + + + + +X + +FLAG-DAY ADDRESS + +(_June 14, 1917_) + + +My Fellow-citizens,--We meet to celebrate Flag Day because this flag +which we honor and under which we serve is the emblem of our unity, +our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It has no other +character than that which we give it from generation to generation. +The choices are ours. It floats in majestic silence above the hosts +that execute those choices, whether in peace or in war. And yet, +though silent, it speaks to us--speaks to us of the past, of the men +and women who went before us and of the records they wrote upon it. +We celebrate the day of its birth; and from its birth until now it +has witnessed a great history, has floated on high the symbol of +great events, of a great plan of life worked out by a great people. +We are about to carry it into battle, to lift it where it will draw +the fire of our enemies. We are about to bid thousands, hundreds of +thousands, it may be millions, of our men--the young, the strong, the +capable men of the nation--to go forth and die beneath it on fields +of blood far away--for what? For some unaccustomed thing? For +something for which it has never sought the fire before? American +armies were never before sent across the seas. Why are they sent now? +For some new purpose, for which this great flag has never been +carried before, or for some old, familiar, heroic purpose for which +it has seen men, its own men, die on every battlefield upon which +Americans have borne arms since the Revolution? + +These are questions which must be answered. We are Americans. We in +our turn serve America, and can serve her with no private purpose. We +must use her flag as she has always used it. We are accountable at +the bar of history and must plead in utter frankness what purpose it +is we seek to serve. + + +WHY WE ARE AT WAR + +It is plain enough how we were forced into the war. The extraordinary +insults and aggressions of the Imperial German Government left us no +self-respecting choice but to take up arms in defense of our rights +as a free people and of our honor as a sovereign Government. The +military masters of Germany denied us the right to be neutral. They +filled our unsuspecting communities with vicious spies and +conspirators and sought to corrupt the opinion of our people in their +own behalf. When they found that they could not do that, their agents +diligently spread sedition among us and sought to draw our own +citizens from their allegiance--and some of those agents were men +connected with the official embassy of the German Government itself +here in our own capital. They sought by violence to destroy our own +industries and arrest our commerce. They tried to incite Mexico to +take up arms against us and to draw Japan into a hostile alliance +with her--and that, not by indirection, but by direct suggestion from +the Foreign Office in Berlin. They impudently denied us the use of +the seas and repeatedly executed their threat that they would send to +their death any of our people who ventured to approach the coasts of +Europe. And many of our own people were corrupted. Men began to look +upon their own neighbors with suspicion and to wonder, in their hot +resentment and surprise, whether there was any community in which +hostile intrigue did not lurk. What great nation, in such +circumstances, would not have taken up arms? Much as we had desired +peace, it was denied us, and not of our own choice. This flag under +which we serve would have been dishonored had we withheld our hand. + +But that is only part of the story. We know now as clearly as we knew +before we were ourselves engaged that we are not the enemies of the +German people and that they are not our enemies. They did not +originate or desire this hideous war or wish that we should be drawn +into it; and we are vaguely conscious that we are fighting their +cause, as they will some day see it, as well as our own. They are +themselves in the grip of the same sinister power that has now at +last stretched its ugly talons out and drawn blood from us. The whole +world is at war because the whole world is in the grip of that power +and is trying out the great battle which shall determine whether it +is to be brought under its mastery or fling itself free. + + +THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CONFLICT + +The war was begun by the military masters of Germany, who proved to +be also the masters of Austria-Hungary. These men have never regarded +nations as peoples, men, women and children of like blood and frame +as themselves, for whom governments existed and in whom governments +had their life. They have regarded them merely as serviceable +organizations which they could by force or intrigue bend or corrupt +to their own purpose. They have regarded the smaller states, in +particular, and the peoples who could be overwhelmed by force, as +their natural tools and instruments of domination. Their purpose has +long been avowed. The statesmen of other nations, to whom that +purpose was incredible, paid little attention; regarded what German +professors expounded in their class-rooms and German writers set +forth to the world as the goal of German policy as rather the dream +of minds detached from practical affairs, as preposterous private +conceptions of German destiny, than as the actual plans of +responsible rulers; but the rulers of Germany themselves knew all the +while what concrete plans, what well-advanced intrigues, lay back of +what the professors and the writers were saying, and were glad to go +forward unmolested, filling the thrones of Balkan states with German +princes, putting German officers at the service of Turkey to drill +her armies and make interest with her Government, developing plans of +sedition and rebellion in India and Egypt, setting their fires in +Persia. The demands made by Austria upon Serbia were a mere single +step in a plan which compassed Europe and Asia, from Berlin to +Bagdad. They hoped those demands might not arouse Europe, but they +meant to press them whether they did or not, for they thought +themselves ready for the final issue of arms. + + +THE PLAN OF CONQUEST + +Their plan was to throw a broad belt of German military power and +political control across the very center of Europe and beyond the +Mediterranean into the very heart of Asia; and Austria-Hungary was to +be as much their tool and pawn as Serbia or Bulgaria or Turkey or the +ponderous states of the East. Austria-Hungary, indeed, was to become +part of the central German Empire, absorbed and dominated by the same +forces and influences that had originally cemented the German states +themselves. The dream had its heart at Berlin. It could have had a +heart nowhere else! It rejected the idea of solidarity of race +entirely. The choice of peoples played no part in it at all. It +contemplated binding together racial and political units which could +be kept together only by force--Czechs, Magyars, Croats, Serbs, +Rumanians, Turks, Armenians--the proud states of Bohemia and Hungary, +the stout little commonwealths of the Balkans, the indomitable Turks, +the subtile peoples of the East. These peoples did not wish to be +united. They ardently desired to direct their own affairs, would be +satisfied only by undisputed independence. They could be kept quiet +only by the presence or the constant threat of armed men. They would +live under a common power only by sheer compulsion and await the day +of revolution. But the German military statesmen had reckoned with +all that and were ready to deal with it in their own way. + +And they have actually carried the greater part of that amazing plan +into execution! Look how things stand. Austria is at their mercy. It +has acted, not upon its own initiative or upon the choice of its own +people, but at Berlin's dictation, ever since the war began. Its +people now desire peace, but cannot have it until leave is granted +from Berlin. The so-called Central Powers are, in fact, but a single +Power. Serbia is at its mercy, should its hand be but for a moment +freed. Bulgaria has consented to its will, and Rumania is overrun. +The Turkish armies, which Germans trained, are serving Germany, +certainly not themselves, and the guns of German warships lying in +the harbor at Constantinople remind Turkish statesmen every day that +they have no choice but to take their orders from Berlin. From +Hamburg to the Persian Gulf the net is spread. + + +THE TALK OF PEACE + +Is it not easy to understand the eagerness for peace that has been +manifested from Berlin ever since the snare was set and sprung? +Peace, peace, peace has been the talk of her Foreign Office for now a +year and more; not peace upon her own initiative, but upon the +initiative of the nations over which she now deems herself to hold +the advantage. A little of the talk has been public, but most of it +has been private. Through all sorts of channels it has come to me, +and in all sorts of guises, but never with the terms disclosed which +the German Government would be willing to accept. That Government has +other valuable pawns in its hands besides those I have mentioned. It +still holds a valuable part of France, though with slowly relaxing +grasp, and practically the whole of Belgium. Its armies press close +upon Russia and overrun Poland at their will. It cannot go farther; +it dare not go back. It wishes to close its bargain before it is too +late, and it has little left to offer for the pound of flesh it will +demand. + +The military masters under whom Germany is bleeding see very clearly +to what point Fate has brought them. If they fall back or are forced +back an inch, their power both abroad and at home will fall to pieces +like a house of cards. It is their power at home they are thinking +about now more than their power abroad. It is that power which is +trembling under their very feet; and deep fear has entered their +hearts. They have but one chance to perpetuate their military power, +or even their controlling political influence. If they can secure +peace now, with the immense advantages still in their hands which +they have up to this point apparently gained, they will have +justified themselves before the German people; they will have gained +by force what they promised to gain by it--an immense expansion of +German power, an immense enlargement of German industrial and +commercial opportunities. Their prestige will be secure, and with +their prestige their political power. If they fail, their people will +thrust them aside; a government accountable to the people themselves +will be set up in Germany, as it has been in England, in the United +States, in France, and in all the great countries of the modern time +except Germany. If they succeed they are safe and Germany and the +world are undone; if they fail Germany is saved and the world will be +at peace. If they succeed, America will fall within the menace. We +and all the rest of the world must remain armed, as they will remain, +and must make ready for the next step in their aggression; if they +fail, the world may unite for peace and Germany may be of the union. + + +THE PRESENT AIM OF GERMANY + +Do you not now understand the new intrigue, the intrigue for peace, +and why the masters of Germany do not hesitate to use any agency that +promises to effect their purpose, the deceit of the nations? Their +present particular aim is to deceive all those who throughout the +world stand for the rights of peoples and the self-government of +nations; for they see what immense strength the forces of justice and +of liberalism are gathering out of this war. They are employing +liberals in their enterprise. They are using men, in Germany and +without, as their spokesmen whom they have hitherto despised and +oppressed, using them for their own destruction--socialists, the +leaders of labor, the thinkers they have hitherto sought to silence. +Let them once succeed and these men, now their tools, will be ground +to powder beneath the weight of the great military empire they will +have set up; the revolutionists in Russia will be cut off from all +succor or co-operation in western Europe and a counter revolution +fostered and supported; Germany herself will lose her chance of +freedom; and all Europe will arm for the next, the final struggle. + +The sinister intrigue is being no less actively conducted in this +country than in Russia, and in every country in Europe to which the +agents and dupes of the Imperial German Government can get access. +That Government has many spokesmen here, in places high and low. They +have learned discretion. They keep within the law. It is opinion they +utter now, not sedition. They proclaim the liberal purposes of their +masters; declare this a foreign war which can touch America with no +danger to either her lands or her institutions; set England at the +center of the stage and talk of her ambition to assert economic +dominion throughout the world; appeal to our ancient tradition of +isolation in the politics of the nations; and seek to undermine the +Government with false professions of loyalty to its principles. + + +THIS IS A PEOPLES' WAR + +But they will make no headway. The false betray themselves always in +every accent. It is only friends and partisans of the German +Government whom we have already identified who utter these thinly +disguised disloyalties. The facts are patent to all the world, and +nowhere are they more plainly seen than in the United States, where +we are accustomed to deal with facts and not with sophistries; and +the great fact that stands out above all the rest is that this is a +Peoples' War, a war for freedom and justice and self-government +amongst all the nations of the world, a war to make the world safe +for the peoples who live in it and have made it their own, the German +people themselves included; and that with us rests the choice to +break through all these hypocrisies and patent cheats and masks of +brute force and help set the world free, or else stand aside and let +it be dominated a long age through by sheer weight of arms and the +arbitrary choices of self-constituted masters, by the nation which +can maintain the biggest armies and the most irresistible +armaments--a power to which the world has afforded no parallel and in +the face of which political freedom must wither and perish. + +For us there is but one choice. We have made it. Woe be to the man or +group of men that seeks to stand in our way in this day of high +resolution, when every principle we hold dearest is to be vindicated +and made secure for the salvation of the nations. We are ready to +plead at the bar of history, and our flag shall wear a new luster. +Once more we shall make good with our lives and fortunes the great +faith to which we were born, and a new glory shall shine in the face +of our people. + + + + +XI + +AN APPEAL TO THE BUSINESS INTERESTS + +(_July 11, 1917_) + + +My Fellow-countrymen,--The Government is about to attempt to +determine the prices at which it will ask you henceforth to furnish +various supplies which are necessary for the prosecution of the war, +and various materials which will be needed in the industries by which +the war must be sustained. + +We shall, of course, try to determine them justly and to the best +advantage of the nation as a whole. But justice is easier to speak of +than to arrive at, and there are some considerations which I hope we +shall keep steadily in mind while this particular problem of justice +is being worked out. + +I therefore take the liberty of stating very candidly my own view of +the situation and of the principles which should guide both the +Government and the mine-owners and manufacturers of the country in +this difficult matter. + + +PATRIOTISM AND PROFITS APART + +A just price must, of course, be paid for everything the Government +buys. By a just price I mean a price which will sustain the +industries concerned in a high state of efficiency, provide a living +for those who conduct them, enable them to pay good wages, and make +possible the expansions of their enterprises, which will from time to +time become necessary as the stupendous undertakings of this great +war develop. + +We could not wisely or reasonably do less than pay such prices. They +are necessary for the maintenance and development of industry; and +the maintenance and development of industry are necessary for the +great task we have in hand. + +But I trust that we shall not surround the matter with a mist of +sentiment. Facts are our masters now. We ought not to put the +acceptance of such prices on the ground of patriotism. Patriotism has +nothing to do with profits in a case like this. Patriotism and +profits ought never in the present circumstances to be mentioned +together. + +It is perfectly proper to discuss profits as a matter of business, +with a view to maintaining the integrity of capital and the +efficiency of labor in these tragical months, when the liberty of +free men everywhere and of industry itself trembles in the balance, +but it would be absurd to discuss them as a motive for helping to +serve and save our country. + +Patriotism leaves profits out of the question. In these days of our +supreme trial, when we are sending hundreds of thousands of our young +men across the seas to serve a great cause, no true man who stays +behind to work for them and sustain them by his labor will ask +himself what he is personally going to make out of that labor. + +No true patriot will permit himself to take toll of their heroism in +money or seek to grow rich by the shedding of their blood. He will +give as freely and with as unstinted self-sacrifice as they. When +they are giving their lives, will he not at least give his money? + +I hear it insisted that more than a just price, more than a price +that will sustain our industries, must be paid; that it is necessary +to pay very liberal and unusual profits in order to "stimulate +production," that nothing but pecuniary rewards will do--rewards paid +in money, not in the mere liberation of the world. + + +IS A BRIBE NECESSARY? + +I take it for granted that those who argue thus do not stop to think +what that means. Do they mean that you must be paid, must be bribed, +to make your contribution, a contribution that costs you neither a +drop of blood, nor a tear, when the whole world is in travail and men +everywhere depend upon and call to you to bring them out of bondage +and make the world a fit place to live in again amidst peace and +justice? + +Do they mean that you will exact a price, drive a bargain, with the +men who are enduring the agony of this war on the battlefield, in the +trenches, amid the lurking dangers of the sea, or with the bereaved +women and pitiful children, before you will come forward to do your +duty and give some part of your life, in easy, peaceful fashion, for +the things we are fighting for, the things we have pledged our +fortunes, our lives, our sacred honor, to vindicate and +defend--liberty and justice and fair dealing and the peace of +nations? + +Of course you will not. It is inconceivable. Your patriotism is of +the same self-denying stuff as the patriotism of the men dead or +maimed on the fields of France, or else it is no patriotism at all. +Let us never speak, then, of profits and of patriotism in the same +sentence, but face facts and meet them. Let us do sound business, but +not in the midst of a mist. + +Many a grievous burden of taxation will be laid on this Nation, in +this generation and in the next, to pay for this war; let us see to +it that for every dollar that is taken from the people's pockets it +shall be possible to obtain a dollar's worth of the sound stuffs they +need. + + +HIGH FREIGHTS AID GERMANY + +Let us for a moment turn to the ship-owners of the United States and +the other ocean carriers whose example they have followed, and ask +them if they realize what obstacles, what almost insuperable +obstacles, they have been putting in the way of the successful +prosecution of this war by the ocean freight rates they have been +exacting. + +They are doing everything that high freight charges can do to make +the war a failure, to make it impossible. I do not say that they +realize this or intend it. + +The thing has happened naturally enough, because the commercial +processes which we are content to see operate in ordinary times have +without sufficient thought been continued into a period where they +have no proper place. I am not questioning motives. I am merely +stating a fact, and stating it in order that attention may be fixed +upon it. + +The fact is that those who have fixed war freight rates have taken +the most effective means in their power to defeat the armies engaged +against Germany. When they realize this we may, I take it for +granted, count upon them to reconsider the whole matter. It is high +time. Their extra hazards are covered by war-risk insurance. + + +THE LAW TO DEAL WITH OFFENDERS + +I know, and you know, what response to this great challenge of duty +and of opportunity the Nation will expect of you; and I know what +response you will make. Those who do not respond, who do not respond +in the spirit of those who have gone to give their lives for us on +bloody fields far away, may safely be left to be dealt with by +opinion and the law--for the law must, of course, command those +things. + +I am dealing with the matter thus publicly and frankly, not because I +have any doubt or fear as to the result, but only in order that, in +all our thinking and in all our dealings with one another we may move +in a perfectly clear air of mutual understanding. + +And there is something more that we must add to our thinking. The +public is now as much part of the Government as are the Army and Navy +themselves. The whole people, in all their activities, are now +mobilized and in service for the accomplishment of the Nation's task +in this war. It is in such circumstances impossible justly to +distinguish between industrial purchases made by the Government and +industries. And it is just as much our duty to sustain the industries +of the country, all the industries that contribute to its life, as it +is to sustain our forces in the field and on the sea. We must make +the prices to the public the same as the prices to the Government. + + +PRICES MEAN VICTORY OR DEFEAT + +Prices mean the same thing everywhere now. They mean the efficiency +or the inefficiency of the Nation, whether it is the Government that +pays them or not. They mean victory or defeat. They mean that America +will win her place once for all among the foremost free Nations of +the world, or that she will sink to defeat and become a second-rate +Power alike in thought and action. This is a day of her reckoning, +and every man among us must personally face that reckoning along with +her. + +The case needs no arguing. I assume that I am only expressing your +own thoughts--what must be in the mind of every true man when he +faces the tragedy and the solemn glory of the present war, for the +emancipation of mankind. I summon you to a great duty, a great +privilege, a shining dignity and distinction. + +I shall expect every man who is not a slacker to be at my side +throughout this great enterprise. In it no man can win honor who +thinks of himself. + + + + +XII + +REPLY OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE COMMUNICATION OF THE POPE TO THE +BELLIGERENT GOVERNMENTS + +(_August 27, 1917_) + +To His Holiness Benedictus XV., Pope. + +In acknowledgment of the communication of Your Holiness to the +belligerent peoples, dated August 1, 1917, the President of the +United States requests me to transmit the following reply: + +Every heart that has not been blinded and hardened by this terrible +war must be touched by this moving appeal of His Holiness, the Pope, +must feel the dignity and force of the humane and generous motives +which prompted it, and must fervently wish that we might take the +path of peace he so persuasively points out. But it would be folly to +take it if it does not, in fact, lead to the goal he proposes. Our +response must be based upon the stern facts and upon nothing else. It +is not a mere cessation of arms he desires; it is a stable and +enduring peace. This agony must not be gone through with again, and +it must be a matter of very sober judgment what will insure us +against it. + + +THE PROPOSAL FROM THE VATICAN + +His Holiness, in substance, proposes that we return to the _status +quo ante bellum_, and that then there be a general condonation, +disarmament, and a concert of nations based upon an acceptance of the +principle of arbitration; that by a similar concert freedom of the +seas be established; and that the territorial claims of France and +Italy, the perplexing problems of the Balkan states, and the +restitution of Poland be left to such conciliatory adjustments as may +be possible in the new temper of such a peace, due regard being paid +to the aspirations of the peoples whose political fortunes and +affiliations will be involved. + +It is manifest that no part of this program can be successfully +carried out unless the restitution of the _status quo ante_ +furnishes a firm and satisfactory basis for it. The object of this +war is to deliver the free peoples of the world from the menace and +the actual power of a vast military establishment controlled by an +irresponsible Government, which, having secretly planned to dominate +the world, proceeded to carry the plan out without regard either to +the sacred obligations of treaty or the long-established practices +and long-cherished principles of international action and honor; +which chose its own time for the war; delivered its blow fiercely and +suddenly; stopped at no barrier either of law or of mercy; swept a +whole continent within the tide of blood--not the blood of soldiers +only, but the blood of innocent women and children also, and of the +helpless poor; and now stands balked but not defeated, the enemy of +four-fifths of the world. This power is not the German people. It is +the ruthless master of the German people. It is no business of ours +how that great people came under its control or submitted with +temporary zest to the domination of its purpose; but it is our +business to see to it that the history of the rest of the world is no +longer left to its handling. + +To deal with such a power by way of peace upon the plan proposed by +His Holiness the Pope would, so far as we can see, involve a +recuperation of its strength and a renewal of its policy; would make +it necessary to create a permanent hostile combination of nations +against the German people who are its instruments; and would result +in abandoning the new-born Russia to the intrigue, the manifold +subtle interference, and the certain counter-revolution which would +be attempted by all the malign influences to which the German +Government has of late accustomed the world. Can peace be based upon +a restitution of its power or upon any word of honor it could pledge +in a treaty of settlement and accommodation? + +Responsible statesmen must now everywhere see, if they never saw +before, that no peace can rest securely upon political or economic +restrictions meant to benefit some nations and cripple or embarrass +others, upon vindictive action of any sort, or any kind of revenge or +deliberate injury. The American people have suffered intolerable +wrongs at the hands of the Imperial German Government, but they +desire no reprisal upon the German people, who have themselves +suffered all things in this war which they did not choose. They +believe that peace should rest upon the rights of peoples, not the +rights of governments--the rights of peoples great or small, weak or +powerful--their equal right to freedom and security and +self-government and to a participation upon fair terms in the +economic opportunities of the world, the German people, of course, +included, if they will accept equality and not seek domination. + +The test, therefore, of every plan of peace is this: Is it based upon +the faith of all the peoples involved or merely upon the word of an +ambitious and intriguing Government on the one hand, and of a group +of free peoples on the other? This is a test which goes to the root +of the matter; and it is the test which must be applied. + + +THE TEST THAT MUST BE APPLIED + +The purposes of the United States in this war are known to the whole +world, to every people to whom the truth has been permitted to come. +They do not need to be stated again. We seek no material advantage of +any kind. We believe that the intolerable wrongs done in this war by +the furious and brutal power of the Imperial German Government ought +to be repaired, but not at the expense of the sovereignty of any +people--rather a vindication of the sovereignty both of those that +are weak and of those that are strong. Punitive damages, the +dismemberment of empires, the establishment of selfish and exclusive +economic leagues, we deem inexpedient and in the end worse than +futile, no proper basis for a peace of any kind, least of all for an +enduring peace. That must be based upon justice and fairness and the +common rights of mankind. + + +THE GERMAN RULERS CANNOT BE TRUSTED + +We cannot take the word of the present rulers of Germany as a +guaranty of anything that is to endure, unless explicitly supported +by such conclusive evidence of the will and purpose of the German +people themselves as the other peoples of the world would be +justified in accepting. Without such guarantees treaties of +settlement, agreements for disarmament, covenants to set up +arbitration in the place of force, territorial adjustments, +reconstitutions of small nations, if made with the German Government, +no man, no nation could now depend on. We must await some new +evidence of the purposes of the great peoples of the Central Powers. +God grant it may be given soon, and in a way to restore the +confidence of all peoples everywhere in the faith of nations and the +possibility of a covenanted peace. + + +ROBERT LANSING, + +Secretary of State of the United States of America. + + + + +XIII + +A MESSAGE TO TEACHERS AND SCHOOL OFFICERS + +(_September 30, 1917_) + + +The war is bringing to the minds of our people a new appreciation of +the problems of national life and a deeper understanding of the +meaning and aims of democracy. Matters which heretofore have seemed +commonplace and trivial are seen in a truer light. The urgent demand +for the production and proper distribution of food and other national +resources has made us aware of the close dependence of individual on +individual and nation on nation. The effort to keep up social and +industrial organizations, in spite of the withdrawal of men for the +army, has revealed the extent to which modern life has become complex +and specialized. + +These and other lessons of the war must be learned quickly if we are +intelligently and successfully to defend our institutions. When the +war is over we must apply the wisdom which we have acquired in +purging and ennobling the life of the world. + + +THE COMMON SCHOOL HAS A PART TO PLAY + +In these vital tasks of acquiring a broader view of human +possibilities the common school must have large part. I urge that +teachers and other school officers increase materially the time and +attention devoted to instruction bearing directly on the problems of +community and national life. + +Such a plea is in no way foreign to the spirit of American public +education or of existing practices. Nor is it a plea for a temporary +enlargement of the school program appropriate merely to the period of +the war. It is a plea for a realization in public education of the +new emphasis which the war has given to the ideals of democracy and +to the broader conceptions of national life. + +In order that there may be definite material at hand with which the +schools may at once expand their teachings, I have asked Mr. Hoover +and Commissioner Claxton to organize the proper agencies for the +preparation and distribution of suitable lessons for the elementary +grades and for the high-school classes. Lessons thus suggested will +serve the double purpose of illustrating in a concrete way what can +be undertaken in the schools and of stimulating teachers in all parts +of the country to formulate new and appropriate materials drawn +directly from the communities in which they live. + + +WOODROW WILSON. + + + + +XIV + +WOMAN SUFFRAGE MUST COME NOW + +(_October 25, 1917_) + + +The President received at the White House a delegation from the New +York State Woman Suffrage Party. Answering the address made by the +chairman, Mrs. Norman de R. Whitehouse, the President spoke as +follows: + +Mrs. Whitehouse and Ladies,--It is with great pleasure that +I receive you. I esteem it a privilege to do so. I know the +difficulties which you have been laboring under in New York State, so +clearly set forth by Mrs. Whitehouse, but in my judgment those +difficulties cannot be used as an excuse by the leaders of any party +or by the voters of any party for neglecting the question which you +are pressing upon them. Because, after all, the whole world now is +witnessing a struggle between two ideals of government. It is a +struggle which goes deeper and touches more of the foundations of the +organized life of men than any struggle that has ever taken place +before, and no settlement of the questions that lie on the surface +can satisfy a situation which requires that the questions which lie +underneath and at the foundation should also be settled and settled +right. I am free to say that I think the question of woman suffrage +is one of those questions which lie at the foundation. + +The world has witnessed a slow political reconstruction, and men have +generally been obliged to be satisfied with the slowness of the +process. In a sense it is wholesome that it should be slow, because +then it is solid and sure. But I believe that this war is going so to +quicken the convictions and the consciousness of mankind with regard +to political questions that the speed of reconstruction will be +greatly increased. And I believe that just because we are quickened +by the questions of this war, we ought to be quickened to give this +question of woman suffrage our immediate consideration. + + +NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT + +As one of the spokesmen of a great party, I would be doing nothing +less than obeying the mandates of that party if I gave my hearty +support to the question of woman suffrage which you represent, but I +do not want to speak merely as one of the spokesmen of a party. I +want to speak for myself, and say that it seems to me that this is +the time for the States of this Union to take this action. I perhaps +may be touched a little too much by the traditions of our politics, +traditions which lay such questions almost entirely upon the States, +but I want to see communities declare themselves quickened at this +time and show the consequence of the quickening. + +I think the whole country has appreciated the way in which the women +have risen to this great occasion. They not only have done what they +have been asked to do, and done it with ardor and efficiency, but +they have shown a power to organize for doing things of their own +initiative, which is quite a different thing, and a very much more +difficult thing, and I think the whole country has admired the spirit +and the capacity and the vision of the women of the United States. + +It is almost absurd to say that the country depends upon the women +for a large part of the inspiration of its life. That is too obvious +to say; but it is now depending upon the women also for suggestions +of service, which have been rendered in abundance and with the +distinction of originality. I, therefore, am very glad to add my +voice to those which are urging the people of the great State of New +York to set a great example by voting for woman suffrage. It would be +a pleasure if I might utter that advice in their presence. Inasmuch +as I am bound too close to my duties here to make that possible, I am +glad to have the privilege to ask you to convey that message to them. + +It seems to me that this is a time of privilege. All our principles, +all our hearts, all our purposes, are being searched; searched not +only by our own consciences, but searched by the world; and it is +time for the people of the States of this country to show the world +in what practical sense they have learned the lessons of +democracy--that they are fighting for democracy because they believe +it, and that there is no application of democracy which they do not +believe in. + +I feel, therefore, that I am standing upon the firmest foundations of +the age in bidding godspeed to the cause which you represent and in +expressing the ardent hope that the people of New York may realize +the great occasion which faces them on Election Day and may respond +to it in noble fashion. + + + + +XV + +THE THANKSGIVING DAY PROCLAMATION + +(_November 7, 1917_) + + +It has long been the honored custom of our people to turn in the +fruitful autumn of the year in praise and thanksgiving to Almighty +God for His many blessings and mercies to us as a Nation. That custom +we can follow now, even in the midst of the tragedy of a world shaken +by war and immeasurable disaster, in the midst of sorrow and great +peril, because even amidst the darkness that has gathered about us we +can see the great blessings God has bestowed upon us; blessings that +are better than mere peace of mind and prosperity of enterprise. + +We have been given the opportunity to serve mankind as we once served +ourselves in the great day of our declaration of independence, by +taking up arms against a tyranny that threatened to master and debase +men everywhere and joining with other free peoples in demanding for +all the nations of the world what we then demanded and obtained for +ourselves. In this day of the revelation of our duty not only to +defend our rights as a Nation, but to defend also the rights of free +men throughout the world, there has been vouchsafed us in full and +inspiring measure the resolution and spirit of united action. We have +been brought to one mind and purpose. A new vigor of common counsel +and common action has been revealed in us. + +We should especially thank God that, in such circumstances, in the +midst of the greatest enterprise the spirits of men have ever entered +upon, we have, if we but observe a reasonable and practicable +economy, abundance with which to supply the needs of those associated +with us as well as our own. + +A new light shines about us. The great duties of a new day awaken a +new and greater national spirit in us. We shall never again be +divided or wonder what stuff we are made of. + +And while we render thanks for these things, let us pray Almighty God +that in all humbleness of spirit we may look always to Him for +guidance; that we may be kept constant in the spirit and purpose of +service; that by His grace our minds may be directed and our hands +strengthened, and that in His good time liberty and security and +peace and the comradeship of a common justice may be vouchsafed all +the nations of the earth. + +Wherefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of +America, do hereby designate Thursday, the 29th day of November next, +as a day of thanksgiving and prayer, and invite the people throughout +the land to cease upon that day from their ordinary occupations and +in their several homes and places of worship to render thanks to God, +the Great Ruler of nations. + + + + +XVI + +LABOR MUST BEAR ITS PART + +(_November 12, 1917_) + + +In his address before the American Federation of Labor, assembled in +convention at Buffalo, New York, the President spoke as follows: + +Mr. President, Delegates of the American Federation of Labor, Ladies +and Gentlemen,--I esteem it a great privilege and a real honor to be +thus admitted to your public councils. When your executive committee +paid me the compliment of inviting me here I gladly accepted the +invitation, because it seems to me that this, above all other times +in your history, is the time for common counsel, for the drawing not +only of the energies, but of the minds of the nation together. I +thought that it was a welcome opportunity for disclosing to you some +of the thoughts that have been gathering in my mind during the last +momentous months. + +I am introduced to you as the President of the United States, and yet +I would be pleased if you would put the thought of the office into +the background and regard me as one of your fellow-citizens who has +come here to speak, not the words of authority, but the words of +counsel, the words which men should speak to one another who wish to +be frank in a moment more critical, perhaps, than the history of the +world has ever yet known, a moment when it is every man's duty to +forget himself, to forget his own interests, to fill himself with the +nobility of a great national and world conception and act upon a new +platform elevated above the ordinary affairs of life, elevated to +where men have views of the long destiny of mankind. + +I think that in order to realize just what this moment of counsel is, +it is very desirable that we should remind ourselves just how this +war came about and just what it is for. You can explain most wars +very simply, but the explanation of this is not so simple. Its roots +run deep into all the obscure soils of history, and, in my view, this +is the last decisive issue between the old principles of power and +the new principles of freedom. + + +GERMANY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WAR + +The war was started by Germany. Her authorities deny that they +started it, but I am willing to let the statement I have just made +await the verdict of history. The thing that needs to be explained is +why Germany started the war. Remember what the position of Germany in +the world was--as enviable a position as any nation has ever +occupied. The whole world stood at admiration of her wonderful +intellectual and material achievements, and all the intellectual men +of the world went to school to her. As a university man I have been +surrounded by men trained in Germany, men who had resorted to Germany +because nowhere else could they get such thorough and searching +training, particularly in the principles of science and the +principles that underlie modern material achievements. + +Her men of science had made her industries perhaps the most competent +industries in the world, and the label, "Made in Germany," was a +guarantee of good workmanship and of sound material. She had access +to all the markets of the world, and every other man who traded in +those markets feared Germany because of her effective and almost +irresistible competition. She had a place in the sun. Why was she not +satisfied? What more did she want? There was nothing in the world of +peace that she did not already have, and have in abundance. + +We boast of the extraordinary pace of American advancement. We show +with pride the statistics of the increase of our industries and of +the population of our cities. Well, those statistics did not match +the recent statistics of Germany. Her old cities took on youth, grew +faster than any American cities ever grew; her old industries opened +their eyes and saw a new world and went out for its conquest, and yet +the authorities of Germany were not satisfied. + +You have one part of the answer to the question why she was not +satisfied in her methods of competition. There is no important +industry in Germany upon which the Government had not laid its hands +to direct it and, when necessity arose, control it. + +You have only to ask any man whom you meet who is familiar with the +conditions that prevailed before the war in the matter of +international competition to find out the methods of competition +which the German manufacturers and exporters used under the patronage +and support of the Government of Germany. You will find that they +were the same sorts of competition that we have decided to prevent by +law within our own borders. If they could not sell their goods +cheaper than we could sell ours, at a profit to themselves, they +could get a subsidy from the Government which made it possible to +sell them cheaper anyhow; and the conditions of competition were thus +controlled in large measure by the German Government itself. + +But that did not satisfy the German Government. All the while there +was lying behind its thought, in its dreams of the future, a +political control which would enable it, in the long run, to dominate +the labor and the industry of the world. + + +SUCCESS BY AUTHORITY + +They were not content with success by superior achievement; they +wanted success by authority. I suppose very few of you have thought +much about the Berlin to Bagdad railway. The Berlin to Bagdad railway +was constructed in order to run the threat of force down the flank of +the industrial undertakings of half a dozen other countries, so that +when German competition came in it would not be resisted too +far--because there was always the possibility of getting German +armies into the heart of that country quicker than any other armies +could be got there. + +Look at the map of Europe now. Germany, in thrusting upon us again +and again the discussion of peace, talks about what? Talks about +Belgium, talks about northern France, talks about Alsace-Lorraine. +She has kept all that her dreams contemplated when the war began. If +she can keep that, her power can disturb the world as long as she +keeps it; always provided--for I feel bound to put this provision +in--always provided the present influences that control the German +Government continue to control it. + +I believe that the spirit of freedom can get into the hearts of +Germans and find as fine a welcome there as it can find in any other +hearts. But the spirit of freedom does not suit the plans of the +Pan-Germans. Power cannot be used with concentrated force against +free peoples if it is used by free people. You know how many +intimations come to us from one of the Central Powers that it is more +anxious for peace than the chief Central Power, and you know that it +means that the people in that Central Power know that if the war ends +as it stands, they will in effect themselves be vassals of Germany, +notwithstanding that their populations are compounded with all the +people of that part of the world, and notwithstanding the fact that +they do not wish, in their pride and proper spirit of nationality, to +be so absorbed and dominated. + + +THE POLITICAL POWER OF THE WORLD + +Germany is determined that the political power of the world shall +belong to her. There have been such ambitions before. They have been +in part realized. But never before have those ambitions been based +upon so exact and precise and scientific a plan of domination. + +May I not say it is amazing to me that any group of people should be +so ill informed as to suppose, as some groups in Russia apparently +suppose, that any reforms planned in the interest of the people can +live in the presence of a Germany powerful enough to undermine or +overthrow them by intrigue or force? + +Any body of free men that compounds with the present German +Government is compounding for its own destruction. But that is not +the whole of the story. Any man in America or anywhere else who +supposes that the free industry and enterprise of the world can +continue if the Pan-German plan is achieved and German power fastened +upon the world is as fatuous as the dreamers of Russia. + +What I am opposed to is not the feeling of the pacifists, but their +stupidity. My heart is with them, but my mind has a contempt for +them. I want peace, but I know how to get it, and they do not. + +You will notice that I sent a friend of mine, Colonel House, to +Europe, who is as great a lover of peace as any man in the world; but +I did not send him on a peace mission. I sent him to take part in a +conference as to how the war was to be won. And he knows, as I know, +that that is the way to get peace if you want it for more than a few +minutes. + +If we are true friends of freedom--our own or anybody else's--we will +see that the power of this country and the productivity of this +country is raised to its absolute maximum and that absolutely nobody +is allowed to stand in the way of it. + +When I say that nobody ought to be allowed to stand in the way, I +don't mean that they shall be prevented by the power of Government, +but by the power of the American spirit. Our duty, if we are to do +this great thing and show America to be what we believe her to be, +the greatest hope and energy in the world, then we must stand +together night and day until the job is finished. + + +LABOR MUST BE FREE + +While we are fighting for freedom we must see, among other things, +that labor is free, and that means a number of interesting things. It +means not only that we must do what we have declared our purpose to +do--see that the conditions of labor are not rendered more onerous by +the war--but also that we shall see to it that the instrumentalities +by which the conditions of labor are improved are not blocked or +checked. That we must do. That has been the matter about which I have +taken pleasure in conferring, from time to time, with your president, +Mr. Gompers; and if I may be permitted to do so, I want to express my +admiration of his patriotic courage, his large vision, his +statesman-like sense and a mind that knows how to pull in harness. +The horses that kick over the traces will have to be put in a corral. + +Now, to "stand together" means that nobody must interrupt the +processes of our energy if the interruption can possibly be avoided +without the absolute invasion of freedom. To put it concretely, that +means this: Nobody has a right to stop the processes of labor until +all the methods of conciliation and settlement have been exhausted, +and I might as well say right here that I am not talking to you +alone. You sometimes stop the courses of labor, but there are others +who do the same. I am speaking of my own experience when I say that +you are reasonable in a larger number of cases than the capitalists. + +I am not saying these things to them personally yet, because I +haven't had a chance. But they have to be said, not in any spirit of +criticism. + +But, in order to clear the atmosphere and come down to business, +everybody on both sides has got to transact business, and the +settlement is never impossible when both sides want to do the square +and right thing. Moreover, a settlement is always hard to avoid when +the parties can be brought face to face. I can differ with a man much +more radically when he isn't in the room than I can when he is in the +room, because then the awkward thing is that he can come back at me +and answer what I say. It is always dangerous for a man to have the +floor entirely to himself. And, therefore, we must insist in every +instance that the parties come into each other's presence and there +discuss the issues between them, and not separately in places which +have no communication with each other. + +I like to remind myself of a delightful saying of an Englishman of a +past generation, Charles Lamb. He was with a group of friends and he +spoke harshly of some man who was not present. I ought to say that +Lamb stuttered a little bit. And one of his friends said, "Why, +Charles, I didn't know that you knew So-and-so?" "Oh," he said, "I +don't. I can't hate a man I know." + +There is a great deal of human nature, of very pleasant human nature, +in that saying. It is hard to hate a man you know. I may admit, +parenthetically, that there are some politicians whose methods I do +not at all believe in, but they are jolly good fellows, and if they +would not talk the wrong kind of politics with me I would love to be +with them. And so it is all along the line, in serious matters and +things less serious. We are all of the same clay and spirit, and we +can get together if we desire to get together. + + +AMERICANS MUST CO-OPERATE + +Therefore my counsel to you is this: Let us show ourselves Americans +by showing that we do not want to go off in separate camps or groups +by ourselves, but that we want to co-operate with all other classes +and all other groups in a common enterprise, which is to release the +spirits of the world from bondage. I would be willing to set that up +as the final test of an American. That is the meaning of democracy. + +I have been very much distressed, my fellow-citizens, by some of the +things that have happened recently. The mob spirit is displaying +itself here and there in this country. I have no sympathy with what +some men are saying, but I have no sympathy with the men that take +their punishment into their own hands; and I want to say to every man +who does join such a mob that I recognize him as unworthy of the free +institutions of the United States. + +There are some organizations in this country whose object is anarchy +and the destruction of the law. I despise and hate their purpose as +much as any man, but I respect the ancient processes of justice, and +I would be too proud not to see them done justice, however wrong they +are. And so I want to utter my earnest protest against any +manifestation of the spirit of lawlessness anywhere or in any cause. +Why, gentlemen, look what it means. + +We claim to be the greatest democratic people in the world, and +democracy means, first of all, that we can govern ourselves. If our +men have not self-control, then they are not capable of that great +thing which we call democratic government. A man who takes the law +into his own hands is not the right man to co-operate in any form of +orderly development of law and institutions. + +And some of the processes by which the struggle between capital and +labor is carried on are processes that come very near to taking the +law into your own hands. I do not mean for a moment to compare them +with what I have just been speaking of, but I want you to see that +they are mere gradations of the manifestations of the unwillingness +to co-operate. The fundamental lesson of the whole situation is that +we must not only take common counsel, but that we must yield to and +obey common counsel. Not all of the instrumentalities for this are at +hand. + + +BETTER CONDITIONS MAY BE AT HAND + +I am hopeful that in the very near future new instrumentalities may +be organized by which we can see to it that various things that are +now going on shall not go on. There are various processes of the +dilution of labor and the unnecessary substitution of labor and +bidding in different markets and unfairly upsetting the whole +competition of labor which ought not to go on--I mean now, on the +part of employers--and we must interject into this some +instrumentality of co-operation by which the fair thing will be done +all around. + +I am hopeful that some such instrumentalities may be devised, but +whether they are or not we must use those that we have, and upon +every occasion where it is necessary to have such an instrumentality, +originated upon that occasion, if necessary. + +And so, my fellow-citizens, the reason that I came away from +Washington is that I sometimes get lonely down there--there are so +many people in Washington who know things that are not so, and there +are so few people in Washington who know anything about what the +people of the United States are thinking about. I have to come away +to get reminded of the rest of the country. I have come away and talk +to men who are up against the real thing and say to them, I am with +you if you are with me. The only test of being with me is not to +think about me personally at all, but merely to think of me as the +expression for the time being of the power and dignity and hope of +the American people. + + + + +XVII + +ADDRESS TO CONGRESS (_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 these 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 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 hear 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 about their uneasy hour and be forgotten. + + +WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING FOR + +But from another point of view I believe that it is necessary to 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, but the defeat once and 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 or capacity for covenanted peace, must be crushed, and, if it +be not utterly brought to an end, at least shut out from the friendly +intercourse of the nations; and, second, that when this Thing and its +power are indeed defeated and the time comes that we can discuss +peace--when the German people have spokesmen whose word we can +believe, and when those spokesmen are ready, in the name of their +people, to accept the common judgment of the nations as to what shall +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." + + +THE PEOPLE OF RUSSIA LED ASTRAY + +Just because this crude formula expresses the instinctive judgment as +to the 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 claims +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 exclusion 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. + + +JUSTICE AND REPARATION + +We shall regard the war only as won when the German people say to us, +through properly accredited representatives, that they are ready to +agree to a settlement based upon justice and the reparation of the +wrongs their rulers have done. They have done a wrong to Belgium +which must be repaired. They have established a power over other +lands and peoples than their own--over the great empire of +Austria-Hungary, over 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 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 also deliver +the peoples of Austria-Hungary, the peoples of the Balkans, and the +peoples of Turkey, alike in Europe and in Asia, from the impudent and +alien domination 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 nor 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. + + +OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD GERMANY + +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 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 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 or the peaceful +enterprise of the German Empire. + +The worst that can happen to the detriment of 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 RIGHTS OF THE CENTRAL POWERS + +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 +conceived and executed in this midday hour of the world's life. + +German rulers have been able to upset the peace of the world only +because the German people were not 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 these 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 toward an ordered and stable government of +free men might have been avoided. + + +TRUTH AS THE ANTIDOTE + +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 hands. 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 our attitude +toward 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. + + +THE WAR AGAINST AUSTRIA + +One very embarrassing obstacle that stands in our way is that we are +at war with Germany, but not with her allies. I therefore very +earnestly recommend that the Congress 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-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. + + +A STRICTER GRIP ON ENEMY ALIENS + +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 proclamations relating to enemy +aliens promulgated under Section 4067 of the Revised Statutes and +providing appropriate punishment; 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 penitentiaries and +other similar institutions, where they could be made to work as other +criminals do. + + +A FURTHER LIMITING OF PRICES + +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 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 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 way 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 adjourns, in order to effect the most efficient +co-ordination and operation of the railway and other transportation +systems of the country; but to that I shall, if circumstances should +demand, call the attention of Congress upon another occasion. + + +THE WINNING OF THE WAR + +If I have overlooked anything that ought to be done for the 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 and 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 live under from corruption and destruction. The +purposes of the Central Powers strike 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 people of the world are banded together for the +vindication of right, a war for the preservation of our nation and 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 quality. 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 we will 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. + + + + +XVIII + +PROCLAMATION OF WAR AGAINST AUSTRIA-HUNGARY + +(_December 12, 1917_) + + +The President's proclamation, after citing the resolution of Congress +authorizing the war with Austria, says: + +Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of +America, do hereby proclaim to all whom it may concern that a state +of war exists between the United States and the Imperial and Royal +Austro-Hungarian Government, and I do specially direct all officers, +civil or military, of the United States that they exercise vigilance +and zeal in the discharge of the duties incident to such a state of +war. + +And I do, moreover, earnestly appeal to all American citizens that +they, in loyal devotion to their country, dedicated from its +foundation to the principles of liberty and justice, uphold the laws +of the land and give undivided and willing support to those measures +which may be adopted by the constitutional authorities in prosecuting +the war to a successful issue and obtaining a secure and just peace. + + +NEED ONLY OBEY THE LAWS + +And, acting under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the +Constitution of the United States, and the aforesaid sections of the +Revised Statutes, I do hereby further proclaim and direct that the +conduct to be observed on the part of the United States toward all +natives, citizens, denizens or subjects of Austria-Hungary, being +males of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall be within +the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be as follows: + + All natives, citizens, denizens or subjects of + Austria-Hungary, being males of fourteen years and upward + who shall be within the United States and not actually + naturalized, are enjoined to preserve the peace toward the + United States and to refrain from crime against the public + safety and from violating the laws of the United States + and of the States and Territories thereof. + + And to refrain from actual hostility or giving + information, aid or comfort to the enemies of the United + States. + + And to comply strictly with the regulations which are + hereby or which may be, from time to time, promulgated by + the President. + + And so long as they shall conduct themselves in accordance + with law, they shall be undisturbed in the peaceful + pursuit of their lives and occupations and be accorded the + consideration due to all peaceful and law-abiding persons, + except so far as restrictions may be necessary for their + own protection and for the safety of the United States. + + +A FRIENDLY ATTITUDE IS URGED + +And toward such of said persons as conduct themselves in accordance +with law, all citizens of the United States are enjoined to preserve +the peace and to treat them with all such friendliness as may be +compatible with loyalty and allegiance to the United States. + +And all natives, citizens, denizens or subjects of Austria-Hungary, +being males of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall be +within the United States and not actually naturalized, who fail to +conduct themselves as so enjoined, in addition to all other penalties +prescribed by law, shall be liable to restraint or to give security, +or to remove and depart from the United States in the manner +prescribed by Sections 4069 and 4070 of the Revised Statutes and as +prescribed in regulations duly promulgated by the President: + + +FEW REGULATIONS + +And pursuant to the authority vested in me, I hereby declare and +establish the following regulations, which I find necessary in the +premises, and for the public safety: + + 1. No native, citizen, denizen or subject of + Austria-Hungary, being a male of the age of fourteen years + and upward and not actually naturalized, shall depart from + the United States until he shall have received such permit + as the President shall prescribe, or except under order of + a court, judge or justice, under Sections 4069 and 4070 of + the Revised Statutes. + + 2. No such person shall land or enter the United States + except under such restrictions and at such places as the + President may prescribe. + + 3. Every such person, of whom there may be reasonable + cause to believe that he is aiding or about to aid the + enemy, or who may be at large to the danger of the public + peace or safety, or who violates or attempts to violate, + or of whom there is reasonable ground to believe that he + is about to violate any regulation duly promulgated by the + President, or any criminal law of the United States, or of + the States or Territories thereof, will be subject to + summary arrest by the United States Marshal or his deputy, + or such other officers as the President shall designate, + and to confinement in such penitentiary, prison, jail, + military camp or other place of detention as may be + directed by the President. + +This proclamation and the regulations herein contained shall extend +and apply to all land and water, continental or insular, in any way +within the jurisdiction of the United States. + + + + +XIX + +THE GOVERNMENT TAKES OVER THE RAILROADS + +(_A Statement by the President, December 26, 1917_) + + +I have exercised the powers over the transportation systems of the +country which were granted me by the Act of Congress of August, 1916, +because it has become imperatively necessary for me to do so. + +This is a war of resources no less than of men, perhaps even more +than of men, and it is necessary for the complete mobilization of our +resources that the transportation systems of the country should be +organized and employed under a single authority and a simplified +method of co-ordination which have not proved possible under private +management and control. + +The committee of railway executives who have been co-operating with +the Government in this all-important matter have done the utmost that +it was possible for them to do; have done it with patriotic zeal and +with great ability; but there were differences that they could +neither escape nor neutralize. + + +IN FAIRNESS TO THE RAILROADS + +Complete unity of administration in the present circumstances +involves upon occasion and at many points a serious dislocation of +earnings, and the committee was, of course, without power or +authority to rearrange changes or effect proper compensations and +adjustments of earnings. Several roads which were willingly and with +admirable public spirit accepting the orders of the committee have +already suffered from these circumstances and should not be required +to suffer further. In mere fairness to them the full authority of the +Government must be substituted. + +The Government itself will thereby gain an immense increase of +efficiency in the conduct of the war and of the innumerable +activities upon which its successful conduct depends. + +The public interest must be first served, and in addition the +financial interests of the Government and the financial interests of +the railways must be brought under a common direction. The financial +operations of the railways need not then interfere with the +borrowings of the Government, and they themselves can be conducted at +a great advantage. + + +INVESTORS TO BE PROTECTED + +Investors in railway securities may rest assured that their rights +and interests will be as scrupulously looked after by the Government +as they could be by the directors of the several railway systems. +Immediately upon the reassembling of Congress I shall recommend that +these definite guarantees be given: + +First, of course, that the railway properties will be maintained +during the period of Federal control in as good repair and as +complete equipment as when taken over by the Government, and, second, +that the roads shall receive a net operating income equal in each +case to the average net income of the three years preceding June 30, +1917; and I am entirely confident that the Congress will be disposed +in this case, as in others, to see that justice is done and full +security assured to the owners and creditors of the great systems +which the Government must now use under its own direction or else +suffer serious embarrassment. + +The Secretary of War and I are agreed that, all the circumstances +being taken into consideration, the best results can be obtained +under the immediate executive direction of the Hon. William G. +McAdoo, whose practical experience peculiarly fits him for the +service, and whose authority as Secretary of the Treasury will enable +him to co-ordinate, as no other man could, the many financial +interests which will be involved and which might, unless +systematically directed, suffer very embarrassing entanglements. + + +A RECOGNITION OF FACTS + +The Government of the United States is the only great Government now +engaged in the war which has not already assumed control of this +sort. It was thought to be in the spirit of American institutions to +attempt to do everything that was necessary through private +management, and if zeal and ability and patriotic motive could have +accomplished the necessary unification of administration, it would +certainly have been accomplished; but no zeal or ability could +overcome insuperable obstacles and I have deemed it my duty to +recognize that fact in all candor, now that it is demonstrated, and +to use without reserve the great authority reposed in me. + +A great national necessity dictated the action, and I was therefore +not at liberty to abstain from it. + + +WOODROW WILSON. + + * * * * * + +The text of the proclamation follows: + +Whereas, the Congress of the United States, in the exercise of the +constitutional authority vested in them, by joint resolution of the +Senate and House of Representatives, bearing date April 6, 1917, +resolved: + + "That the state of war between the United States and the + Imperial German Government which has thus been thrust upon + the United States is hereby formally declared, and that + the President be, and he is hereby, authorized and + directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of + the United States and the resources of the Government to + carry on war against the Imperial German Government, and + to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of + the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the + Congress of the United States." + +And by joint resolution bearing date of December 7, 1917, resolved: + + "That a state of war is hereby declared to exist between + the United States of America and the Imperial and Royal + Austro-Hungarian Government, and that the President be, + and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the + entire naval and military forces of the United States and + the resources of the Government to carry on war against + the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Government, and to + bring the conflict to a successful termination, all the + resources of the country are hereby pledged by the + Congress of the United States." + +And whereas, it is provided by Section 1 of the act approved August +29, 1916, entitled "An act making appropriations for the support of +the army for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1917, and for other +purposes," as follows: + + "The President, in time of war, is empowered, through the + Secretary of War, to take possession and assume control of + any system or systems of transportation, or any part + thereof, and to utilize the same, to the exclusion as far + as may be necessary of all other traffic thereon, for the + transfer or transportation of troops, war material and + equipment, or for such other purposes connected with the + emergency as may be needful or desirable." + +And whereas, it has now become necessary in the national defense to +take possession and assume control of certain systems of +transportation and to utilize the same, to the exclusion as far as +may be necessary of other than war traffic thereon for the +transportation of troops, war material and equipment therefor, and +for other needful and desirable purposes connected with the +prosecution of the war. + +Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, +under and by virtue of the powers vested in me by the foregoing +resolutions and statute, and by virtue of all other powers thereto me +enabling, do hereby, through Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War, take +possession and assume control at 12 o'clock noon on the twenty-eighth +day of December, 1917, of each and every system of transportation and +the appurtenances thereof located wholly or in part within the +boundaries of the continental United States and consisting of +railroads, and owned or controlled systems of coastwise and inland +transportation, engaged in general transportation, whether operated +by steam or by electric power, including also terminals, terminal +companies and terminal associations, sleeping and parlor cars, +private cars and private car lines, elevators, warehouses, telegraph +and telephone lines and all other equipment and appurtenances +commonly used upon or operated as a part of such rail or combined +rail and water systems of transportation, to the end that such +systems of transportation be utilized for the transfer and +transportation of troops, war material and equipment to the exclusion +so far as may be necessary of all other traffic thereon, and that so +far as such exclusive use be not necessary or desirable, such systems +of transportation be operated and utilized in the performance of such +other services as the national interest may require and of the usual +and ordinary business and duties of common carriers. + +It is hereby directed that the possession, control, operation and +utilization of such transportation systems hereby by me undertaken +shall be exercised by and through William G. McAdoo, who is hereby +appointed and designated Director-General of Railroads. + +Said director may perform the duties imposed upon him, so long and to +such extent as he shall determine, through the boards of directors, +receivers, officers and employees of said systems of transportation. +Until and except so far as said director shall from time to time by +general or special orders otherwise provide, the boards of directors, +receivers, officers and employees of the various transportation +systems shall continue the operation thereof in the usual and +ordinary course of the business of common carriers, in the names of +their respective companies. + +Until and except so far as said director shall from time to time +otherwise by general or special orders determine, such systems of +transportation shall remain subject to all existing statutes and +orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and to all statutes and +orders of regulating commissions of the various States in which said +systems or any part thereof may be situated. But any orders, general +or special, hereafter made by said director shall have paramount +authority and be obeyed as such. + +Nothing herein shall be construed as now affecting the possession, +operation and control of street electric passenger railways, +including railways commonly called interurban, whether such railways +be or be not owned or controlled by such railroad companies or +systems. By subsequent order and proclamation, if and when it shall +be found necessary or desirable, possession, control or operation may +be taken of all or any part of such street railway systems, including +subways and tunnels, and by subsequent order and proclamation +possession, control and operation in whole or in part may also be +relinquished to the owners thereof of any part of the railroad +systems or rail and water systems, possession and control of which +are hereby assumed. + +The director shall as soon as may be after having assumed such +possession and control enter upon negotiations with the several +companies looking to agreements for just and reasonable compensation +for the possession, use and control of the respective properties on +the basis of an annual guaranteed compensation, above accruing +depreciation and the maintenance of their properties, equivalent, as +nearly as may be, to the average of the net operating income thereof +for the three year period ending June 30, 1917--the results of such +negotiations to be reported to me for such action as may be +appropriate and lawful. + +But nothing herein contained, expressed or implied, or hereafter done +or suffered hereunder, shall be deemed in any way to impair the +rights of the stockholders, bondholders, creditors and other persons +having interests in said systems of transportation or in the profits +thereof, to receive just and adequate compensation for the use and +control and operation of their property hereby assumed. + +Regular dividends hitherto declared, and maturing interest upon +bonds, debentures and other obligations, may be paid in due course, +and such regular dividends and interest may continue to be paid until +and unless the said director shall from time to time otherwise by +general or special orders determine, and, subject to the approval of +the director, the various carriers may agree upon and arrange for the +renewal and extension of maturing obligations. + +Except with the prior written assent of said director, no attachment +by mesne process or on execution shall be levied on or against any of +the property used by any of said transportation systems, in the +conduct of their business as common carriers; but suits may be +brought by and against said carriers and judgments rendered as +hitherto until and except so far as said director may, by general or +special orders, otherwise determine. + +From and after 12 o'clock on said twenty-eighth day of December, +1917, all transportation systems included in this order and +proclamation shall conclusively be deemed within the possession and +control of said director without further act or notice, but for the +purpose of accounting said possession and control shall date from 12 +o'clock midnight on December 31, 1917. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal +of the United States to be affixed. + +Done by the President, through Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War, in +the District of Columbia, this twenty-sixth day of December, in the +year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and seventeen, and of +Independence of the United States the one hundred and forty-second. + + +WOODROW WILSON. + + +NEWTON D. BAKER, Secretary of War. + +By the President: + +ROBERT LANSING, Secretary of State. + + + + +XX + +GOVERNMENT OPERATION OF RAILROADS + +(_Address to the Congress, January 4, 1918_) + + +Gentlemen of the Congress,--I have asked the privilege of addressing +you in order to report that on the 28th of December last, during the +recess of Congress, acting through the Secretary of War, and under +the authority conferred upon me by the Act of Congress approved +August 29, 1916, I took possession and assumed control of the railway +lines of the country and the systems of water transportation under +their control. This step seemed to be imperatively necessary in the +interest of the public welfare, in the presence of the great tasks of +war with which we are now dealing. As our experience develops +difficulties and makes it clear what they are, I have deemed it my +duty to remove those difficulties wherever I have the legal power to +do so. + +To assume control of the vast railway systems of the country is, I +realize, a very great responsibility, but to fail to do so in the +existing circumstances would have been much greater. I assumed the +less responsibility rather than the weightier. + + +NEED OF UNITED DIRECTION + +I am sure that I am speaking the mind of all thoughtful Americans +when I say that it is our duty as the representatives of the nation +to do everything that it is necessary to do to secure the complete +mobilization of the whole resources of America by as rapid and +effective a means as can be found. Transportation supplies all the +arteries of mobilization. Unless it be under a single and unified +direction, the whole process of the nation's action is embarrassed. + +It was in the true spirit of America, and it was right, that we +should first try to effect the necessary unification under the +voluntary action of those who were in charge of the great railway +properties, and we did try it. The directors of the railways +responded to the need promptly and generously. The group of railway +executives who were charged with the task of actual co-ordination and +general direction performed their difficult duties with patriotic +zeal and marked ability, as was to have been expected, and did, I +believe, everything that it was possible for them to do in the +circumstances. If I have taken the task out of their hands, it has +not been because of any dereliction or failure on their part, but +only because there were some things which the Government can do, and +private management cannot. We shall continue to value most highly the +advice and assistance of these gentlemen, and I am sure we shall not +find them withholding it. + +It had become unmistakably plain that only under Government +administration can the entire equipment of the several systems of +transportation be fully and unreservedly thrown into a common service +without injurious discrimination against particular properties; only +under Government administration can absolutely unrestricted and +unembarrassed common use be made of all tracks, terminal facilities +and equipment of every kind. Only under that authority can new +terminals be constructed and developed without regard to the +requirements or limitations of particular roads. But under Government +administration all these things will be possible--not instantly, but +as fast as practical difficulties, which cannot be merely conjured +away, give way before the new management. + + +AS LITTLE DISTURBANCE AS POSSIBLE + +The common administration will be carried out with as little +disturbance of the present operating organizations and personnel of +the railways as possible. Nothing will be altered or disturbed which +is not necessary to disturb. We are serving the public interest and +safeguarding the public safety, but we are also regardful of the +interest of those by whom these great properties are owned and glad +to avail ourselves of the experience and trained ability of those who +have been managing them. It is necessary that the transportation of +troops and of war materials, of food and of fuel, and of everything +that is necessary for the full mobilization of the energies and +resources of the country, should be first considered; but it is +clearly in the public interest also that the ordinary activities and +the normal industrial and commercial life of the country should be +interfered with and dislocated as little as possible, and the public +may rest assured that the interest and convenience of the private +shipper will be carefully served and safeguarded as it is possible to +serve and safeguard it in the present extraordinary circumstances. + + +COMPENSATION SHOULD BE GUARANTEED + +While the present authority of the Executive suffices for all +purposes of administration, and while, of course, all private +interests must for the present give way to the public necessity, it +is, I am sure you will agree with me, right and necessary that the +owners and creditors of the railways, the holders of their stocks and +bonds, should receive from the Government an unqualified guarantee +that their properties will be maintained throughout the period of +Federal control in as good repair and as complete equipment as at +present, and that the several roads will receive, under Federal +management, such compensation as is equitable and just alike to their +owners and to the general public. I would suggest the average net +railway operating income of the three years ending June 30, 1917. I +earnestly recommend that these guarantees be given by appropriate +legislation, and given as promptly as circumstances permit. + +I need not point out the essential justice of such guarantees and +their great influence and significance as elements in the present +financial and industrial situation of the country. Indeed, one of the +strong arguments for assuming control of the railroads at this time +is the financial argument. It is necessary that the values of railway +securities should be justly and fairly protected, and that the +largest financial operations every year necessary in connection with +the maintenance, operation and development of the roads should, +during the period of the war, be wisely related to the financial +operations of the Government. + +Our first duty is, of course, to conserve the common interest and the +common safety, and to make certain that nothing stands in the way of +the successful prosecution of the great war for liberty and justice; +but it is an obligation of public conscience and of public honor that +the private interests we disturb should be kept safe from unjust +injury, and it is of the utmost consequence to the Government itself +that all great financial operations should be stabilized and +co-ordinated with the financial operations of the Government. No +borrowing should run athwart the borrowings of the Federal Treasury, +and no fundamental industrial values should anywhere be unnecessarily +impaired. In the hands of many thousands of small investors in the +country, as well as in national banks, in insurance companies, in +savings banks, in trust companies, in financial agencies of every +kind, railway securities--the sum total of which runs up to some ten +or eleven thousand millions, constitute a vital part of the structure +of credit, and the unquestioned solidity of that structure must be +maintained. + + +SELECTION OF MCADOO AS DIRECTOR + +The Secretary of War and I easily agreed that, in view of the many +complex interests which must be safeguarded and harmonized, as well +as because of his exceptional experience and ability in this new +field of governmental action, the Hon. William G. McAdoo was the +right man to assume direct administrative control of this new +executive task. At our request, he consented to assume the authority +and duties of organizer and director-general of the new railway +administration. He has assumed those duties, and his work is in +active progress. + +It is probably too much to expect that, even under the unified +railway administration which will now be possible, sufficient +economies can be effected in the operation of the railways to make it +possible to add to their equipment and extend their operative +facilities as much as the present extraordinary demands upon their +use will render desirable, without resorting to the national Treasury +for the funds. If it is not possible, it will, of course, be +necessary to resort to the Congress for grants of money for that +purpose. The Secretary of the Treasury will advise with your +committees with regard to this very practical aspect of the matter. +For the present, I suggest only the guarantees I have indicated and +such appropriations as are necessary at the outset of this task. + +I take the liberty of expressing the hope that the Congress may grant +these promptly and ungrudgingly. We are dealing with great matters, +and will, I am sure, deal with them greatly. + + + + +XXI + +THE TERMS OF PEACE + +(_January 8, 1918_) + + +In an address to both Houses of Congress, assembled in joint session, +President Wilson enunciated the war and peace program of the United +States in fourteen definite proposals. The President spoke as +follows: + + * * * * * + +Gentlemen of the Congress,--Once more, as repeatedly before, the +spokesmen of the Central Empires have indicated their desires to +discuss the objects of the war and the possible basis of a general +peace. Parleys have been in progress at Brest-Litovsk between Russian +representatives and representatives of the Central Powers to which +the attention of all the belligerents has been invited for the +purpose of ascertaining whether it may be possible to extend these +parleys into a general conference with regard to terms of peace and +settlement. + +The Russian representatives presented not only a perfectly definite +statement of the principles upon which they would be willing to +conclude peace, but also an equally definite program of the concrete +application of those principles. The representatives of the Central +Powers, on their part, presented an outline of settlement which, if +much less definite, seemed susceptible of liberal interpretation +until their specific program of practical terms was added. That +program proposed no concessions at all, either to the sovereignty of +Russia or to the preferences of the population with whose fortunes it +dealt, but meant, in a word, that the Central Empires were to keep +every foot of territory their armed forces had occupied--every +province, every city, every point of vantage--as a permanent addition +to their territories and their power. It is a reasonable conjecture +that the general principles of settlement which they at first +suggested originated with the more liberal statesmen of Germany and +Austria, the men who have begun to feel the force of their own +people's thought and purpose, while the concrete terms of actual +settlement came from the military leaders who have no thought but to +keep what they have got. The negotiations have been broken off. The +Russian representatives were sincere and in earnest. They cannot +entertain such proposals of conquest and domination. + + +SIGNIFICANCE IN PARLEYS + +The whole incident is full of significance. It is also full of +perplexity. With whom are the Russian representatives dealing? For +whom are the representatives of the Central Empires speaking? Are +they speaking for the majorities of their respective parliaments, or +for the minority parties--that military and imperialistic minority +which has so far dominated their whole policy and controlled the +affairs of Turkey and the Balkan states, which have felt obliged to +become their associates in this war? The Russian representatives have +insisted, very justly, very wisely, and in the true spirit of modern +democracy, that the conferences they have been holding with the +Teutonic and Turkish statesmen should be held within open, not +closed, doors, and all the world has been audience, as was desired. + +To whom have we been listening, then? To those who speak the spirit +and intention of the resolution of the German Reichstag of the 9th of +July last, the spirit and intention of the Liberal leaders and +parties of Germany, or to those who resist and defy that spirit and +intention and insist upon conquest and subjugation? Or are we +listening, in fact, to both, unreconciled and in open and hopeless +contradiction? These are very serious and pregnant questions. Upon +the answer to them depends the peace of the world. + +But, whatever the results of the parleys at Brest-Litovsk, whatever +the confusions of counsel and of purpose in the utterances of the +spokesmen of the Central Empires, they have again attempted to +acquaint the world with their objects in the war and have again +challenged their adversaries to say what their objects are and what +sort of settlement they would deem just and satisfactory. There is no +good reason why that challenge should not be responded to and +responded to with the utmost candor. We did not wait for it. Not +once, but again and again, we have laid our whole thought and purpose +before the world, not in general terms only, but each time with +sufficient definition to make it clear what sort of definitive terms +of settlement must necessarily spring out of them. + + +LLOYD GEORGE'S AIMS APPROVED + +Within the last week Mr. Lloyd George has spoken with admirable +candor and in admirable spirit for the people and Government of Great +Britain. There is no confusion of counsel among the adversaries of +the Central Powers, no uncertainty of principle, no vagueness of +detail. The only secrecy of counsel, the only lack of fearless +frankness, the only failure to make definite statement of the objects +of the war lies with Germany and her allies. The issues of life and +death hang upon these definitions. No statesman who has the least +conception of his responsibility ought for a moment to permit himself +to continue this tragical and appalling outpouring of blood and +treasure unless he is sure beyond a peradventure that the objects of +the vital sacrifice are part and parcel of the very life of society, +and that the people for whom he speaks think them right and +imperative, as he does. + +There is, moreover, a voice calling for these definitions of +principle and of purpose which is, it seems to me, more thrilling and +more compelling than any of the many moving voices with which the +troubled air of the world is filled. It is the voice of the Russian +people. They are prostrate and all but helpless, it would seem, +before the grim power of Germany, which has hitherto known no +relenting and no pity. Their power apparently is shattered. And yet +their soul is not subservient. They will not yield either in +principle or in action. Their conception of what is right, of what it +is humane and honorable for them to accept, has been stated with a +frankness, a largeness of view, a generosity of spirit and a +universal human sympathy which must challenge the admiration of every +friend of mankind; and they have refused to compound their ideals or +desert others that they themselves may be safe. + + +WOULD LIKE TO AID RUSSIA + +They call to us to say what it is that we desire--in what, if in +anything, our purpose and our spirit differ from theirs; and I +believe that the people of the United States would wish me to respond +with utter simplicity and frankness. Whether their present leaders +believe it or not, it is our heartfelt desire and hope that some way +may be opened whereby we may be privileged to assist the people of +Russia to attain their utmost hope of liberty and ordered peace. + +It will be our wish and purpose that the processes of peace, when +they are begun, shall be absolutely open, and that they shall involve +and permit henceforth no secret understandings of any kind. The day +of conquest and aggrandizement is gone by; so is also the day of +secret covenants entered into in the interest of particular +governments and likely, at some unlooked-for moment, to upset the +peace of the world. It is this happy fact, now clear to the view of +every public man whose thoughts do not still linger in an age that is +dead and gone, which makes it possible for every nation whose +purposes are consistent with justice and the peace of the world to +avow now, or at any other time, the objects it has in view. + +We entered this war because violations of right had occurred which +touched us to the quick and made the life of our own people +impossible unless they were corrected and the world secured once for +all against their recurrence. What we demand in this war, therefore, +is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit +and safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every +peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, +determine its own institutions, be assured of justice and fair +dealing by the other peoples of the world as against force and +selfish aggression. All the peoples of the world are in effect +partners in this interest, and for our own part we see very clearly +that unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us. + + +THE DEFINITE PROGRAM + +The program of the world's peace, therefore, is our program, and that +program, the only possible program, as we see it, is this: + +I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there +shall be no private international understandings of any kind, but +diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view. + +II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial +waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed +in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of +international covenants. + +III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and +the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the +nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its +maintenance. + +IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will +be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety. + +V. A free, open-minded and absolutely impartial adjustment of all +colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that +in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the +populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable +claims of the Government whose title is to be determined. + +VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of +all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest +co-operation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her +an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent +determination of her own political development and national policy +and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations +under institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, +assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself +desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations will be +the acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her needs +as distinguished from their own interests and of their intelligent +and unselfish sympathy. + + +BELGIUM MUST BE RESTORED + +VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and +restored, without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she +enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act +will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations +in the laws which they have themselves set and determined for the +government of their relations with one another. Without this healing +act the whole structure and validity of international law is forever +impaired. + +VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions +restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the +matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world +for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may +once more be made secure in the interest of all. + +IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along +clearly recognizable lines of nationality. + +X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we +wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest +opportunity of autonomous development. + +XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied +territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to the +sea; and the relations of the several Balkan states to one another +determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines +of allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees of the +political and economic independence and territorial integrity of the +several Balkan states should be entered into. + +XII. The Turkish portions of the present Ottoman Empire should be +assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are +now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of +life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous +development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a +free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under +international guarantees. + + +INDEPENDENCE FOR POLAND + +XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should +include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, +which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and +whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity +should be guaranteed by international covenant. + +XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific +covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political +independence and territorial integrity to great and small states +alike. + +In regard to these essential rectifications of wrong and assertions +of right, we feel ourselves to be intimate partners of all the +Governments and peoples associated together against the imperialists. +We cannot be separated in interest or divided in purpose. We stand +together until the end. + +For such arrangements and covenants we are willing to fight, and to +continue to fight, until they are achieved; but only because we wish +the right to prevail and desire a just and stable peace, such as can +be secured only by removing the chief provocations to war, which this +program does remove. We have no jealousy of German greatness, and +there is nothing in this program that impairs it. We grudge her no +achievement or distinction of learning or of pacific enterprise, such +as have made her record very bright and very enviable. We do not wish +to injure her or to block in any way her legitimate influence or +power. We do not wish to fight her either with arms or with hostile +arrangements of trade, if she is willing to associate herself with us +and the other peace-loving nations of the world in covenants of +justice and law and fair dealing. We wish her only to accept a place +of equality among the peoples of the world--the new world in which we +now live--instead of a place of mastery. + + +GERMANY'S SPOKESMEN AN ISSUE + +Neither do we presume to suggest to her any alteration or +modification of her institutions. But it is necessary, we must +frankly say, and necessary as a preliminary to any intelligent +dealings with her on our part, that we should know whom her spokesmen +speak for when they speak to us, whether for the Reichstag majority +or for the military party and the men whose creed is imperial +domination. + +We have spoken now surely in terms too concrete to admit of any +further doubt or question. An evident principle runs through the +whole program I have outlined. It is the principle of justice to all +peoples and nationalities and their right to live on equal terms of +liberty and safety with one another, whether they be strong or weak. +Unless this principle be made its foundation, no part of the +structure of international justice can stand. The people of the +United States could act upon no other principle, and to the +vindication of this principle they are ready to devote their lives, +their honor and everything that they possess. The moral climax of +this, the culminating and final war for human liberty, has come, and +they are ready to put their own strength, their own highest purpose, +their own integrity and devotion to the test. + + + + +APPENDIX + +STATE DEPARTMENT'S REVISED LIST OF +NATIONS AT WAR WHICH HAVE +BROKEN RELATIONS + + +DECLARATIONS OF WAR + +The country declaring war is named first. + + + Austria--Belgium, Aug. 28, 1914. + Austria--Japan, Aug. 27, 1914. + Austria--Montenegro, Aug. 9, 1914. + Austria--Russia, Aug. 6, 1914. + Austria--Serbia, July 28, 1914. + Brazil--Germany, Oct. 26, 1917. + Bulgaria--Serbia, Oct. 14, 1915. + China--Austria, Aug. 14, 1917. + China--Germany, Aug. 14, 1917. + Cuba--Germany, April 7, 1917. + France--Austria, Aug. 13, 1914. + France--Bulgaria, Oct. 16, 1915. + France--Germany, Aug. 3, 1914. + France--Turkey, Nov. 5, 1914. + Germany--Belgium, Aug. 4, 1914. + Germany--France, Aug. 3, 1914. + Germany--Portugal, March 9, 1916. + Germany--Rumania, Sept. 14, 1916. + Germany--Russia, Aug. 1, 1914. + Great Britain--Austria, Aug. 13, 1914. + Great Britain--Bulgaria, Oct. 15, 1915. + Great Britain--Germany, Aug. 4, 1914. + Great Britain--Turkey, Nov. 5, 1914. + Greece--Bulgaria, Nov. 28, 1916. (Provisional Government.) + Greece--Bulgaria, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander.) + Greece--Germany, Nov. 28, 1916. (Provisional Government.) + Greece--Germany, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander.) + Italy--Austria, May 24, 1915. + Italy--Bulgaria, Oct. 19, 1915. + Italy--Germany, Aug. 28, 1916. + Italy--Turkey, Aug. 21, 1915. + Japan--Germany, Aug. 28, 1914. + Liberia--Germany, Aug. 4, 1917. + Montenegro--Austria, Aug. 8, 1914. + Montenegro--Germany, Aug. 9, 1914. + Panama--Germany, April 7, 1917. + Panama--Austria, Dec. 10, 1917. + Portugal--Germany, Nov. 23, 1914. (Resolutions passed authorizing + military intervention as ally of England.) + Portugal--Germany, May 19, 1915. (Military aid granted.) + Rumania--Austria, Aug. 27, 1916. (Allies of Austria also consider + it a declaration.) + Russia--Bulgaria, Oct. 19, 1915. + Russia--Turkey, Nov. 3, 1914. + San Marino--Austria, May 24, 1915. + Serbia--Bulgaria, Oct. 16, 1915. + Serbia--Germany, Aug. 6, 1914. + Serbia--Turkey, Dec. 2, 1914. + Siam--Austria, July 22, 1917. + Siam--Germany, July 22, 1917. + Turkey--Allies, Nov. 23, 1914. + Turkey--Rumania, Aug. 29, 1916. + United States--Austria-Hungary, Dec. 7, 1917. + United States--Germany, April 6, 1917. + + +SEVERANCE OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS + + + Austria--Japan, Aug. 26, 1914. + Austria--Portugal, March 16, 1916. + Austria--Serbia, July 26, 1914. + Austria--United States, April 8, 1917. + Bolivia--Germany, April 14, 1917. + Brazil--Germany, April 11, 1917. + China--Germany, March 14, 1917. + Costa Rica--Germany, Sept. 21, 1917. + Ecuador--Germany, Dec. 7, 1917. + Egypt--Germany, Aug. 13, 1914. + France--Austria, Aug. 10, 1914. + Greece--Turkey, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander.) + Greece--Austria, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander.) + Guatemala--Germany, April 27, 1917. + Haiti--Germany, June 17, 1917. + Honduras--Germany, May 17, 1917. + Nicaragua--Germany, May 18, 1917. + Peru--Germany, Oct. 6, 1917. + Turkey--United States, April 20, 1917. + United States--Germany, Feb. 3, 1917. + Uruguay--Germany, Oct. 7, 1917. + +--_From the Official Bulletin of the Committee on Public +Information._ + + +POPULATION OF THE NATIONS + + + Austria (including Hungary) 50,000,000 + Belgium 7,571,387 + Bolivia 2,520,538 + Brazil 22,992,937 + Bulgaria 4,755,000 + China 413,000,000 + Costa Rica 427,604 + Cuba 2,406,117 + Ecuador 1,500,000 + Egypt 12,170,000 + France 39,601,509 + Germany 66,715,000 + Great Britain 40,834,790 + Greece 5,000,000 + Guatemala 2,092,824 + Haiti 2,030,000 + Honduras 592,675 + Italy 35,598,000 + Japan 53,696,358 + Liberia 2,060,000 + Montenegro 520,000 + Nicaragua 689,891 + Panama 386,891 + Peru 4,500,000 + Portugal 5,857,895 + Rumania 7,600,000 + Russia 175,137,000 + San Marino 10,655 + Serbia 4,600,000 + Siam 6,000,000 + Turkey 21,274,000 + United States 102,826,309 + Uruguay 1,255,914 + + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's In Our First Year of the War, by Woodrow Wilson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN OUR FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR *** + +***** This file should be named 24668.txt or 24668.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/6/24668/ + +Produced by Jennie Gottschalk, Suzanne Shell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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