
 The session upon which you are now entering will be the closing session of the Sixty-third Congress, a Congress, I venture to say, which will long be remembered for the great body of thoughtful and constructive work which it has done, in loyal response to the thought and needs of the country. I should like in this address to review the notable record and try to make adequate assessment of it; but no doubt we stand too near the work that has been done and are ourselves too much part of it to play the part of historians toward it.
 Our program of legislation with regard to the regulation of business is now virtually complete. It has been put forth, as we intended, as a whole, and leaves no conjecture as to what is to follow. The road at last lies clear and firm before business. It is a road which it can travel without fear or embarrassment. It is the road to ungrudged, unclouded success. In it every honest man, every man who believes that the public interest is part of his own interest, may walk with perfect confidence.
 Moreover, our thoughts are now more of the future than of the past. While we have worked at our tasks of peace the circumstances of the whole age have been altered by war. What we have done for our own land and our own people we did with the best that was in us, whether of character or of intelligence, with sober enthusiasm and a confidence in the principles upon which we were acting which sustained us at every step of the difficult undertaking; but it is done. It has passed from our hands. It is now an established part of the legislation of the country. Its usefulness, its effects will disclose themselves in experience. What chiefly strikes us now, as we look about us during these closing days of a year which will be forever memorable in the history of the world, is that we face new tasks, have been facing them these six months, must face them in the months to come,-face them without partisan feeling, like men who have forgotten everything but a common duty and the fact that we are representatives of a great people whose thought is not of us but of what America owes to herself and to all mankind in such circumstances as these upon which we look amazed and anxious.
 War has interrupted the means of trade not only but also the processes of production. In Europe it is destroying men and resources wholesale and upon a scale unprecedented and appalling, There is reason to fear that the time is near, if it be not already at hand, when several of the countries of Europe will find it difficult to do for their people what they have hitherto been always easily able to do,--many essential and fundamental things. At any rate, they will need our help and our manifold services as they have never needed them before; and we should be ready, more fit and ready than we have ever been.
 It is of equal consequence that the nations whom Europe has usually supplied with innumerable articles of manufacture and commerce of which they are in constant need and without which their economic development halts and stands still can now get only a small part of what they formerly imported and eagerly look to us to supply their all but empty markets. This is particularly true of our own neighbors, the States, great and small, of Central and South America. Their lines of trade have hitherto run chiefly athwart the seas, not to our ports but to the ports of Great Britain and of the older continent of Europe. I do not stop to inquire why, or to make any comment on probable causes. What interests us just now is not the explanation but the fact, and our duty and opportunity in the presence of it. Here are markets which we must supply, and we must find the means of action. The United States, this great people for whom we speak and act, should be ready, as never before, to serve itself and to serve mankind; ready with its resources, its energies, its forces of production, and its means of distribution.
 It is a very practical matter, a matter of ways and means. We have the resources, but are we fully ready to use them? And, if we can make ready what we have, have we the means at hand to distribute it? We are not fully ready; neither have we the means of distribution. We are willing, but we are not fully able. We have the wish to serve and to serve greatly, generously; but we are not prepared as we should be. We are not ready to mobilize our resources at once. We are not prepared to use them immediately and at their best, without delay and without waste.
 To speak plainly, we have grossly erred in the way in which we have stunted and hindered the development of our merchant marine. And now, when we need ships, we have not got them. We have year after year debated, without end or conclusion, the best policy to pursue with regard to the use of the ores and forests and water powers of our national domain in the rich States of the West, when we should have acted; and they are still locked up. The key is still turned upon them, the door shut fast at which thousands of vigorous men, full of initiative, knock clamorously for admittance. The water power of our navigable streams outside the national domain also, even in the eastern States, where we have worked and planned for generations, is still not used as it might be, because we will and we won't; because the laws we have made do not intelligently balance encouragement against restraint. We withhold by regulation.
 I have come to ask you to remedy and correct these mistakes and omissions, even at this short session of a Congress which would certainly seem to have done all the work that could reasonably be expected of it. The time and the circumstances are extraordinary, and so must our efforts be also.
 Fortunately, two great measures, finely conceived, the one to unlock, with proper safeguards, the resources of the national domain, the other to encourage the use of the navigable waters outside that domain for the generation of power, have already passed the House of Representatives and are ready for immediate consideration and action by the Senate. With the deepest earnestness I urge their prompt passage. In them both we turn our backs upon hesitation and makeshift and formulate a genuine policy of use and conservation, in the best sense of those words. We owe the one measure not only to the people of that great western country for whose free and systematic development, as it seems to me, our legislation has done so little, but also to the people of the Nation as a whole; and we as clearly owe the other fulfillment of our repeated promises that the water power of the country should in fact as well as in name be put at the disposal of great industries which can make economical and profitable use of it, the rights of the public being adequately guarded the while, and monopoly in the use prevented. To have begun such measures and not completed them would indeed mar the record of this great Congress very seriously. I hope and confidently believe that they will be completed.
 And there is another great piece of legislation which awaits and should receive the sanction of the Senate: I mean the bill which gives a larger measure of self-government to the people of the Philippines. How better, in this time of anxious questioning and perplexed policy, could we show our confidence in the principles of liberty, as the source as well as the expression of life, how better could we demonstrate our own self-possession and steadfastness in the courses of justice and disinterestedness than by thus going calmly forward to fulfill our promises to a dependent people, who will now look more anxiously than ever to see whether we have indeed the liberality, the unselfishness, the courage, the faith we have boasted and professed. I can not believe that the Senate will let this great measure of constructive justice await the action of another Congress. Its passage would nobly crown the record of these two years of memorable labor.
 But I think that you will agree with me that this does not complete the toll of our duty. How are we to carry our goods to the empty markets of which I have spoken if we have not the ships? How are we to build tip a great trade if we have not the certain and con,;tpnt means of transportation upon which all profitable and useful commerce depends? And how are we to get the ships if we wait for the trade to develop without them? To correct the many mistakes by which we have discouraged and all but destroyed the merchant marine of the country, to retrace the steps by which we have.. it seems almost deliberately, withdrawn our flag from the seas.. except where, here and there, a ship of war is bidden carry it or some wandering yacht displays it, would take a long time and involve many detailed items of legislation, and tile trade which we ought immediately to handle would disappear or find other channels while we debated the items.
 The case is not unlike that which confronted us when our own continent was to be opened up to settlement and industry, and we needed long lines of railway, extended means of transportation prepared beforehand, if development was not to lag intolerably and wait interminably. We lavishly subsidized the building of transcontinental railroads. We look back upon that with regret now, because the subsidies led to many scandals of which we are ashamed; but we know that the railroads had to be built, and if we had it to do over again we should of course build them, but in another way. Therefore I propose another way of providing the means of transportation, which must precede, not tardily follow, the development of our trade with our neighbor states of America. It may seem a reversal of the natural order of things, but it is true, that the routes of trade must be actually opened-by many ships and regular sailings and moderate charges-before streams of merchandise will flow freely and profitably through them.
 Hence the pending shipping bill, discussed at the last session but as yet passed by neither House. In my judgment such legislation is imperatively needed and can not wisely be postponed. The Government must open these gates of trade, and open them wide; open them before it is altogether profitable to open them, or altogether reasonable to ask private capital to open them at a venture. It is not a question of the Government monopolizing the field. It should take action to make it certain that transportation at reasonable rates will be promptly provided, even where the carriage is not at first profitable; and then, when the carriage has become sufficiently profitable to attract and engage private capital, and engage it in abundance, the Government ought to withdraw. I very earnestly hope that the Congress will be of this opinion, and that both Houses will adopt this exceedingly important bill.
 The great subject of rural credits still remains to be dealt with, and it is a matter of deep regret that the difficulties of the subject have seemed to render it impossible to complete a bill for passage at this session. But it can not be perfected yet, and therefore there are no other constructive measures the necessity for which I will at this time call your attention to; but I would be negligent of a very manifest duty were I not to call the attention of the Senate to the fact that the proposed convention for safety at sea awaits its confirmation and that the limit fixed in the convention itself for its acceptance is the last day of the present month. The conference in which this convention originated was called by the United States; the representatives of the United States played a very influential part indeed in framing the provisions of the proposed convention; and those provisions are in themselves for the most part admirable. It would hardly be consistent with the part we have played in the whole matter to let it drop and go by the board as if forgotten and neglected. It was ratified in May by the German Government and in August by the Parliament of Great Britain. It marks a most hopeful and decided advance in international civilization. We should show our earnest good faith in a great matter by adding our own acceptance of it.
 There is another matter of which I must make special mention, if I am to discharge my conscience, lest it should escape your attention. It may seem a very small thing. It affects only a single item of appropriation. But many human lives and many great enterprises hang upon it. It is the matter of making adequate provision for the survey and charting of our coasts. It is immediately pressing and exigent in connection with the immense coast line of Alaska, a coast line greater than that of the United States themselves, though it is also very important indeed with regard to the older coasts of the continent. We can not use our great Alaskan domain, ships will not ply thither, if those coasts and their many hidden dangers are not thoroughly surveyed and charted. The work is incomplete at almost every point. Ships and lives have been lost in threading what were supposed to be well-known main channels. We have not provided adequate vessels or adequate machinery for the survey and charting. We have used old vessels that were not big enough or strong enough and which were so nearly unseaworthy that our inspectors would not have allowed private owners to send them to sea. This is a matter which, as I have said, seems small, but is in reality very great. Its importance has only to be looked into to be appreciated.
 Before I close may I say a few words upon two topics, much discussed out of doors, upon which it is highly important that our judgment should be clear, definite, and steadfast?
 One of these is economy in government expenditures. The duty of economy is not debatable. It is manifest and imperative. In the appropriations we pass we are spending the money of the great people whose servants we are,-not our own. We are trustees and responsible stewards in the spending. The only thing debatable and upon which we should be careful to make our thought and purpose clear is the kind of economy demanded of us. I assert with the greatest confidence that the people of the United States are not jealous of the amount their Government costs if they are sure that they get what they need and desire for the outlay, that the money is being spent for objects of which they approve, and that it is being applied with good business sense and management.
 Governments grow, piecemeal, both in their tasks and in the means by which those tasks are to be performed, and very few Governments are organized, I venture to say, as wise and experienced business men would organize them if they had a clean sheet of paper to write upon. Certainly the Government of the United States is not. I think that it is generally agreed that there should be a systematic reorganization and reassembling of its parts so as to secure greater efficiency and effect considerable savings in expense. But the amount of money saved in that way would, I believe, though no doubt considerable in itself, running, it may be, into the millions, be relatively small,-small, I mean, in proportion to the total necessary outlays of the Government. It would be thoroughly worth effecting, as every saving would, great or small. Our duty is not altered by the scale of the saving. But my point is that the people of the United States do not wish to curtail the activities of this Government; they wish, rather, to enlarge them; and with every enlargement, with the mere growth, indeed, of the country itself, there must come, of course, the inevitable increase of expense. The sort of economy we ought to practice may be effected, and ought to be effected, by a careful study and assessment of the tasks to be performed; and the money spent ought to be made to yield the best possible returns in efficiency and achievement. And, like good stewards, we should so account for every dollar of our appropriations as to make it perfectly evident what it was spent for and in what way it was spent.
 It is not expenditure but extravagance that we should fear being criticized for; not paying for the legitimate enterprise and undertakings of a great Government whose people command what it should do, but adding what will benefit only a few or pouring money out for what need not have been undertaken at all or might have been postponed or better and more economically conceived and carried out. The Nation is not niggardly; it is very generous. It will chide us only if we forget for whom we pay money out and whose money it is we pay. These are large and general standards, but they are not very difficult of application to particular cases.
 The other topic I shall take leave to mention goes deeper into the principles of our national life and policy. It is the subject of national defense.
 It can not be discussed without first answering some very searching questions. It is said in some quarters that we are not prepared for war. What is meant by being prepared? Is it meant that we are not ready upon brief notice to put a nation in the field, a nation of men trained to arms? Of course we are not ready to do that; and we shall never be in time of peace so long as we retain our present political principles and institutions. And what is it that it is suggested we should be prepared to do? To defend ourselves against attack? We have always found means to do that, and shall find them whenever it is necessary without calling our people away from their necessary tasks to render compulsory military service in times of peace.
 Allow me to speak with great plainness and directness upon this great matter and to avow my convictions with deep earnestness. I have tried to know what America is, what her people think, what they are, what they most cherish and hold dear. I hope that some of their finer passions are in my own heart, --some of the great conceptions and desires which gave birth to this Government and which have made the voice of this people a voice of peace and hope and liberty among the peoples of the world, and that, speaking my own thoughts, I shall, at least in part, speak theirs also, however faintly and inadequately, upon this vital matter.
 We are at peace with all the world. No one who speaks counsel based on fact or drawn from a just and candid interpretation of realities can say that there is reason to fear that from any quarter our independence or the integrity of our territory is threatened. Dread of the power of any other nation we are incapable of. We are not jealous of rivalry in the fields of commerce or of any other peaceful achievement. We mean to live our own lives as we will; but we mean also to let live. We are, indeed, a true friend to all the nations of the world, because we threaten none, covet the possessions of none, desire the overthrow of none. Our friendship can be accepted and is accepted without reservation, because it is offered in a spirit and for a purpose which no one need ever question or suspect. Therein lies our greatness. We are the champions of peace and of concord. And we should be very jealous of this distinction which we have sought to earn. just now we should be particularly jealous of it because it is our dearest present hope that this character and reputation may presently, in God's providence, bring us an opportunity such as has seldom been vouchsafed any nation, the opportunity to counsel and obtain peace in the world and reconciliation and a healing settlement of many a matter that has cooled and interrupted the friendship of nations. This is the time above all others when we should wish and resolve to keep our strength by self-possession, our influence by preserving our ancient principles of action.
 From the first we have had a clear and settled policy with regard to military establishments. We never have had, and while we retain our present principles and ideals we never shall have, a large standing army. If asked, Are you ready to defend yourselves? we reply, Most assuredly, to the utmost; and yet we shall not turn America into a military camp. We will not ask our young men to spend the best years of their lives making soldiers of themselves. There is another sort of energy in us. It will know how to declare itself and make itself effective should occasion arise. And especially when half the world is on fire we shall be careful to make our moral insurance against the spread of the conflagration very definite and certain and adequate indeed.
 Let us remind ourselves, therefore, of the only thing we can do or will do. We must depend in every time of national peril, in the future as in the past, not upon a standing army, nor yet upon a reserve army, but upon a citizenry trained and accustomed to arms. It will be right enough, right American policy, based upon our accustomed principles and practices, to provide a system by which every citizen who will volunteer for the training may be made familiar with the use of modern arms, the rudiments of drill and maneuver, and the maintenance and sanitation of camps. We should encourage such training and make it a means of discipline which our young men will learn to value. It is right that we should provide it not only, but that we should make it as attractive as possible, and so induce our young men to undergo it at such times as they can command a little freedom and can seek the physical development they need, for mere health's sake, if for nothing more. Every means by which such things can be stimulated is legitimate, and such a method smacks of true American ideas. It is right, too, that the National Guard of the States should be developed and strengthened by every means which is not inconsistent with our obligations to our own people or with the established policy of our Government. And this, also, not because the time or occasion specially calls for such measures, but because it should be our constant policy to make these provisions for our national peace and safety.
 More than this carries with it a reversal of the whole history and character of our polity. More than this, proposed at this time, permit me to say, would mean merely that we had lost our self-possession, that we had been thrown off our balance by a war with which we have nothing to do, whose causes can not touch us, whose very existence affords us opportunities of friendship and disinterested service which should make us ashamed of any thought of hostility or fearful preparation for trouble. This is assuredly the opportunity for which a people and a government like ours were raised up, the opportunity not only to speak but actually to embody and exemplify the counsels of peace and amity and the lasting concord which is based on justice and fair and generous dealing.
 A powerful navy we have always regarded as our proper and natural means of defense, and it has always been of defense that we have thought, never of aggression or of conquest. But who shall tell us now what sort of navy to build? We shall take leave to be strong upon the seas, in the future as in the past; and there will be no thought of offense or of provocation in that. Our ships are our natural bulwarks. When will the experts tell us just what kind we should construct-and when will they be right for ten years together, if the relative efficiency of craft of different kinds and uses continues to change as we have seen it change under our very eyes in these last few months ?
 But I turn away from the subject. It is not new. There is no new need to discuss it. We shall not alter our attitude toward it because some amongst us are nervous and excited. We shall easily and sensibly agree upon a policy of defense. The question has not changed its aspects because the times are not normal. Our policy will not be for an occasion. It will be conceived as a permanent and settled thing, which we will pursue at all seasons, without haste and after a fashion perfectly consistent with the peace of the world, the abiding friendship of states, and the unhampered freedom of all with whom we deal. Let there be no misconception. The country has been misinformed. We have not been negligent of national defense. We are not unmindful of the great responsibility resting upon us. We shall learn and profit by the lesson of every experience and every new circumstance; and what is needed will be adequately done.
 I close, as I began, by reminding you of the great tasks and duties of peace which challenge our best powers and invite us to build what will last, the tasks to which we can address ourselves now and at all times with free-hearted zest and with all the finest gifts of constructive wisdom we possess. To develop our life and our resources; to supply our own people, and the people of the world as their need arises, from the abundant plenty of our fields and our marts of trade to enrich the commerce of our own States and of the world with the products of our mines, our farms, and our factories, with the creations of our thought and the fruits of our character,-this is what will hold our attention and our enthusiasm steadily, now and in the years to come, as we strive to show in our life as a nation what liberty and the inspirations of an emancipated spirit may do for men and for societies, for individuals, for states, and for mankind.
The session upon which you are now entering will be the closing session of the Sixty-third Congress, a Congress, I venture to say, which will long be remembered for the great body of thoughtful and constructive work which it has done, in loyal response to the thought and needs of the country. I should like in this address to review the notable record and try to make adequate assessment of it; but no doubt we stand too near the work that has been done and are ourselves too much part of it to play the part of historians toward it. Our program of legislation with regard to the regulation of business is now virtually complete. It has been put forth, as we intended, as a whole, and leaves no conjecture as to what is to follow. The road at last lies clear and firm before business. It is a road which it can travel without fear or embarrassment. It is the road to ungrudged, unclouded success. In it every honest man, every man who believes that the public interest is part of his own interest, may walk with perfect confidence. Moreover, our thoughts are now more of the future than of the past. While we have worked at our tasks of peace the circumstances of the whole age have been altered by war. What we have done for our own land and our own people we did with the best that was in us, whether of character or of intelligence, with sober enthusiasm and a confidence in the principles upon which we were acting which sustained us at every step of the difficult undertaking; but it is done. It has passed from our hands. It is now an established part of the legislation of the country. Its usefulness, its effects will disclose themselves in experience. What chiefly strikes us now, as we look about us during these closing days of a year which will be forever memorable in the history of the world, is that we face new tasks, have been facing them these six months, must face them in the months to come,-face them without partisan feeling, like men who have forgotten everything but a common duty and the fact that we are representatives of a great people whose thought is not of us but of what America owes to herself and to all mankind in such circumstances as these upon which we look amazed and anxious. War has interrupted the means of trade not only but also the processes of production. In Europe it is destroying men and resources wholesale and upon a scale unprecedented and appalling, There is reason to fear that the time is near, if it be not already at hand, when several of the countries of Europe will find it difficult to do for their people what they have hitherto been always easily able to do,--many essential and fundamental things. At any rate, they will need our help and our manifold services as they have never needed them before; and we should be ready, more fit and ready than we have ever been. It is of equal consequence that the nations whom Europe has usually supplied with innumerable articles of manufacture and commerce of which they are in constant need and without which their economic development halts and stands still can now get only a small part of what they formerly imported and eagerly look to us to supply their all but empty markets. This is particularly true of our own neighbors, the States, great and small, of Central and South America. Their lines of trade have hitherto run chiefly athwart the seas, not to our ports but to the ports of Great Britain and of the older continent of Europe. I do not stop to inquire why, or to make any comment on probable causes. What interests us just now is not the explanation but the fact, and our duty and opportunity in the presence of it. Here are markets which we must supply, and we must find the means of action. The United States, this great people for whom we speak and act, should be ready, as never before, to serve itself and to serve mankind; ready with its resources, its energies, its forces of production, and its means of distribution. It is a very practical matter, a matter of ways and means. We have the resources, but are we fully ready to use them? And, if we can make ready what we have, have we the means at hand to distribute it? We are not fully ready; neither have we the means of distribution. We are willing, but we are not fully able. We have the wish to serve and to serve greatly, generously; but we are not prepared as we should be. We are not ready to mobilize our resources at once. We are not prepared to use them immediately and at their best, without delay and without waste. To speak plainly, we have grossly erred in the way in which we have stunted and hindered the development of our merchant marine. And now, when we need ships, we have not got them. We have year after year debated, without end or conclusion, the best policy to pursue with regard to the use of the ores and forests and water powers of our national domain in the rich States of the West, when we should have acted; and they are still locked up. The key is still turned upon them, the door shut fast at which thousands of vigorous men, full of initiative, knock clamorously for admittance. The water power of our navigable streams outside the national domain also, even in the eastern States, where we have worked and planned for generations, is still not used as it might be, because we will and we will not; because the laws we have made do not intelligently balance encouragement against restraint. We withhold by regulation. I have come to ask you to remedy and correct these mistakes and omissions, even at this short session of a Congress which would certainly seem to have done all the work that could reasonably be expected of it. The time and the circumstances are extraordinary, and so must our efforts be also. Fortunately, two great measures, finely conceived, the one to unlock, with proper safeguards, the resources of the national domain, the other to encourage the use of the navigable waters outside that domain for the generation of power, have already passed the House of Representatives and are ready for immediate consideration and action by the Senate. With the deepest earnestness I urge their prompt passage. In them both we turn our backs upon hesitation and makeshift and formulate a genuine policy of use and conservation, in the best sense of those words. We owe the one measure not only to the people of that great western country for whose free and systematic development, as it seems to me, our legislation has done so little, but also to the people of the Nation as a whole; and we as clearly owe the other fulfillment of our repeated promises that the water power of the country should in fact as well as in name be put at the disposal of great industries which can make economical and profitable use of it, the rights of the public being adequately guarded the while, and monopoly in the use prevented. To have begun such measures and not completed them would indeed mar the record of this great Congress very seriously. I hope and confidently believe that they will be completed. And there is another great piece of legislation which awaits and should receive the sanction of the Senate: I mean the bill which gives a larger measure of self-government to the people of the Philippines. How better, in this time of anxious questioning and perplexed policy, could we show our confidence in the principles of liberty, as the source as well as the expression of life, how better could we demonstrate our own self-possession and steadfastness in the courses of justice and disinterestedness than by thus going calmly forward to fulfill our promises to a dependent people, who will now look more anxiously than ever to see whether we have indeed the liberality, the unselfishness, the courage, the faith we have boasted and professed. I can not believe that the Senate will let this great measure of constructive justice await the action of another Congress. Its passage would nobly crown the record of these two years of memorable labor. But I think that you will agree with me that this does not complete the toll of our duty. How are we to carry our goods to the empty markets of which I have spoken if we have not the ships? How are we to build tip a great trade if we have not the certain and con,;tpnt means of transportation upon which all profitable and useful commerce depends? And how are we to get the ships if we wait for the trade to develop without them? To correct the many mistakes by which we have discouraged and all but destroyed the merchant marine of the country, to retrace the steps by which we have.. it seems almost deliberately, withdrawn our flag from the seas.. except where, here and there, a ship of war is bidden carry it or some wandering yacht displays it, would take a long time and involve many detailed items of legislation, and tile trade which we ought immediately to handle would disappear or find other channels while we debated the items. The case is not unlike that which confronted us when our own continent was to be opened up to settlement and industry, and we needed long lines of railway, extended means of transportation prepared beforehand, if development was not to lag intolerably and wait interminably. We lavishly subsidized the building of transcontinental railroads. We look back upon that with regret now, because the subsidies led to many scandals of which we are ashamed; but we know that the railroads had to be built, and if we had it to do over again we should of course build them, but in another way. Therefore I propose another way of providing the means of transportation, which must precede, not tardily follow, the development of our trade with our neighbor states of America. It may seem a reversal of the natural order of things, but it is true, that the routes of trade must be actually opened-by many ships and regular sailings and moderate charges-before streams of merchandise will flow freely and profitably through them. Hence the pending shipping bill, discussed at the last session but as yet passed by neither House. In my judgment such legislation is imperatively needed and can not wisely be postponed. The Government must open these gates of trade, and open them wide; open them before it is altogether profitable to open them, or altogether reasonable to ask private capital to open them at a venture. It is not a question of the Government monopolizing the field. It should take action to make it certain that transportation at reasonable rates will be promptly provided, even where the carriage is not at first profitable; and then, when the carriage has become sufficiently profitable to attract and engage private capital, and engage it in abundance, the Government ought to withdraw. I very earnestly hope that the Congress will be of this opinion, and that both Houses will adopt this exceedingly important bill. The great subject of rural credits still remains to be dealt with, and it is a matter of deep regret that the difficulties of the subject have seemed to render it impossible to complete a bill for passage at this session. But it can not be perfected yet, and therefore there are no other constructive measures the necessity for which I will at this time call your attention to; but I would be negligent of a very manifest duty were I not to call the attention of the Senate to the fact that the proposed convention for safety at sea awaits its confirmation and that the limit fixed in the convention itself for its acceptance is the last day of the present month. The conference in which this convention originated was called by the United States; the representatives of the United States played a very influential part indeed in framing the provisions of the proposed convention; and those provisions are in themselves for the most part admirable. It would hardly be consistent with the part we have played in the whole matter to let it drop and go by the board as if forgotten and neglected. It was ratified in May by the German Government and in August by the Parliament of Great Britain. It marks a most hopeful and decided advance in international civilization. We should show our earnest good faith in a great matter by adding our own acceptance of it. There is another matter of which I must make special mention, if I am to discharge my conscience, lest it should escape your attention. It may seem a very small thing. It affects only a single item of appropriation. But many human lives and many great enterprises hang upon it. It is the matter of making adequate provision for the survey and charting of our coasts. It is immediately pressing and exigent in connection with the immense coast line of Alaska, a coast line greater than that of the United States themselves, though it is also very important indeed with regard to the older coasts of the continent. We can not use our great Alaskan domain, ships will not ply thither, if those coasts and their many hidden dangers are not thoroughly surveyed and charted. The work is incomplete at almost every point. Ships and lives have been lost in threading what were supposed to be well-known main channels. We have not provided adequate vessels or adequate machinery for the survey and charting. We have used old vessels that were not big enough or strong enough and which were so nearly unseaworthy that our inspectors would not have allowed private owners to send them to sea. This is a matter which, as I have said, seems small, but is in reality very great. Its importance has only to be looked into to be appreciated. Before I close may I say a few words upon two topics, much discussed out of doors, upon which it is highly important that our judgment should be clear, definite, and steadfast? One of these is economy in government expenditures. The duty of economy is not debatable. It is manifest and imperative. In the appropriations we pass we are spending the money of the great people whose servants we are,-not our own. We are trustees and responsible stewards in the spending. The only thing debatable and upon which we should be careful to make our thought and purpose clear is the kind of economy demanded of us. I assert with the greatest confidence that the people of the United States are not jealous of the amount their Government costs if they are sure that they get what they need and desire for the outlay, that the money is being spent for objects of which they approve, and that it is being applied with good business sense and management. Governments grow, piecemeal, both in their tasks and in the means by which those tasks are to be performed, and very few Governments are organized, I venture to say, as wise and experienced business men would organize them if they had a clean sheet of paper to write upon. Certainly the Government of the United States is not. I think that it is generally agreed that there should be a systematic reorganization and reassembling of its parts so as to secure greater efficiency and effect considerable savings in expense. But the amount of money saved in that way would, I believe, though no doubt considerable in itself, running, it may be, into the millions, be relatively small,-small, I mean, in proportion to the total necessary outlays of the Government. It would be thoroughly worth effecting, as every saving would, great or small. Our duty is not altered by the scale of the saving. But my point is that the people of the United States do not wish to curtail the activities of this Government; they wish, rather, to enlarge them; and with every enlargement, with the mere growth, indeed, of the country itself, there must come, of course, the inevitable increase of expense. The sort of economy we ought to practice may be effected, and ought to be effected, by a careful study and assessment of the tasks to be performed; and the money spent ought to be made to yield the best possible returns in efficiency and achievement. And, like good stewards, we should so account for every dollar of our appropriations as to make it perfectly evident what it was spent for and in what way it was spent. It is not expenditure but extravagance that we should fear being criticized for; not paying for the legitimate enterprise and undertakings of a great Government whose people command what it should do, but adding what will benefit only a few or pouring money out for what need not have been undertaken at all or might have been postponed or better and more economically conceived and carried out. The Nation is not niggardly; it is very generous. It will chide us only if we forget for whom we pay money out and whose money it is we pay. These are large and general standards, but they are not very difficult of application to particular cases. The other topic I shall take leave to mention goes deeper into the principles of our national life and policy. It is the subject of national defense. It can not be discussed without first answering some very searching questions. It is said in some quarters that we are not prepared for war. What is meant by being prepared? Is it meant that we are not ready upon brief notice to put a nation in the field, a nation of men trained to arms? Of course we are not ready to do that; and we shall never be in time of peace so long as we retain our present political principles and institutions. And what is it that it is suggested we should be prepared to do? To defend ourselves against attack? We have always found means to do that, and shall find them whenever it is necessary without calling our people away from their necessary tasks to render compulsory military service in times of peace. Allow me to speak with great plainness and directness upon this great matter and to avow my convictions with deep earnestness. I have tried to know what America is, what her people think, what they are, what they most cherish and hold dear. I hope that some of their finer passions are in my own heart, --some of the great conceptions and desires which gave birth to this Government and which have made the voice of this people a voice of peace and hope and liberty among the peoples of the world, and that, speaking my own thoughts, I shall, at least in part, speak theirs also, however faintly and inadequately, upon this vital matter. We are at peace with all the world. No one who speaks counsel based on fact or drawn from a just and candid interpretation of realities can say that there is reason to fear that from any quarter our independence or the integrity of our territory is threatened. Dread of the power of any other nation we are incapable of. We are not jealous of rivalry in the fields of commerce or of any other peaceful achievement. We mean to live our own lives as we will; but we mean also to let live. We are, indeed, a true friend to all the nations of the world, because we threaten none, covet the possessions of none, desire the overthrow of none. Our friendship can be accepted and is accepted without reservation, because it is offered in a spirit and for a purpose which no one need ever question or suspect. Therein lies our greatness. We are the champions of peace and of concord. And we should be very jealous of this distinction which we have sought to earn. just now we should be particularly jealous of it because it is our dearest present hope that this character and reputation may presently, in God's providence, bring us an opportunity such as has seldom been vouchsafed any nation, the opportunity to counsel and obtain peace in the world and reconciliation and a healing settlement of many a matter that has cooled and interrupted the friendship of nations. This is the time above all others when we should wish and resolve to keep our strength by self-possession, our influence by preserving our ancient principles of action. From the first we have had a clear and settled policy with regard to military establishments. We never have had, and while we retain our present principles and ideals we never shall have, a large standing army. If asked, Are you ready to defend yourselves? we reply, Most assuredly, to the utmost; and yet we shall not turn America into a military camp. We will not ask our young men to spend the best years of their lives making soldiers of themselves. There is another sort of energy in us. It will know how to declare itself and make itself effective should occasion arise. And especially when half the world is on fire we shall be careful to make our moral insurance against the spread of the conflagration very definite and certain and adequate indeed. Let us remind ourselves, therefore, of the only thing we can do or will do. We must depend in every time of national peril, in the future as in the past, not upon a standing army, nor yet upon a reserve army, but upon a citizenry trained and accustomed to arms. It will be right enough, right American policy, based upon our accustomed principles and practices, to provide a system by which every citizen who will volunteer for the training may be made familiar with the use of modern arms, the rudiments of drill and maneuver, and the maintenance and sanitation of camps. We should encourage such training and make it a means of discipline which our young men will learn to value. It is right that we should provide it not only, but that we should make it as attractive as possible, and so induce our young men to undergo it at such times as they can command a little freedom and can seek the physical development they need, for mere health's sake, if for nothing more. Every means by which such things can be stimulated is legitimate, and such a method smacks of true American ideas. It is right, too, that the National Guard of the States should be developed and strengthened by every means which is not inconsistent with our obligations to our own people or with the established policy of our Government. And this, also, not because the time or occasion specially calls for such measures, but because it should be our constant policy to make these provisions for our national peace and safety. More than this carries with it a reversal of the whole history and character of our polity. More than this, proposed at this time, permit me to say, would mean merely that we had lost our self-possession, that we had been thrown off our balance by a war with which we have nothing to do, whose causes can not touch us, whose very existence affords us opportunities of friendship and disinterested service which should make us ashamed of any thought of hostility or fearful preparation for trouble. This is assuredly the opportunity for which a people and a government like ours were raised up, the opportunity not only to speak but actually to embody and exemplify the counsels of peace and amity and the lasting concord which is based on justice and fair and generous dealing. A powerful navy we have always regarded as our proper and natural means of defense, and it has always been of defense that we have thought, never of aggression or of conquest. But who shall tell us now what sort of navy to build? We shall take leave to be strong upon the seas, in the future as in the past; and there will be no thought of offense or of provocation in that. Our ships are our natural bulwarks. When will the experts tell us just what kind we should construct-and when will they be right for ten years together, if the relative efficiency of craft of different kinds and uses continues to change as we have seen it change under our very eyes in these last few months ? But I turn away from the subject. It is not new. There is no new need to discuss it. We shall not alter our attitude toward it because some amongst us are nervous and excited. We shall easily and sensibly agree upon a policy of defense. The question has not changed its aspects because the times are not normal. Our policy will not be for an occasion. It will be conceived as a permanent and settled thing, which we will pursue at all seasons, without haste and after a fashion perfectly consistent with the peace of the world, the abiding friendship of states, and the unhampered freedom of all with whom we deal. Let there be no misconception. The country has been misinformed. We have not been negligent of national defense. We are not unmindful of the great responsibility resting upon us. We shall learn and profit by the lesson of every experience and every new circumstance; and what is needed will be adequately done. I close, as I began, by reminding you of the great tasks and duties of peace which challenge our best powers and invite us to build what will last, the tasks to which we can address ourselves now and at all times with free-hearted zest and with all the finest gifts of constructive wisdom we possess. To develop our life and our resources; to supply our own people, and the people of the world as their need arises, from the abundant plenty of our fields and our marts of trade to enrich the commerce of our own States and of the world with the products of our mines, our farms, and our factories, with the creations of our thought and the fruits of our character,-this is what will hold our attention and our enthusiasm steadily, now and in the years to come, as we strive to show in our life as a nation what liberty and the inspirations of an emancipated spirit may do for men and for societies, for individuals, for states, and for mankind.
the session upon which you are now entering will be the closing session of the congress a congress i venture to say which will long be remembered for the great body of thoughtful and constructive work which it has done in loyal response to the thought and needs of the country i should like in this address to review the notable record and try to make adequate assessment of it but no doubt we stand too near the work that has been done and are ourselves too much part of it to play the part of historians toward it our program of legislation with regard to the regulation of business is now virtually complete it has been put forth as we intended as a whole and leaves no conjecture as to what is to follow the road at last lies clear and firm before business it is a road which it can travel without fear or embarrassment it is the road to ungrudged unclouded success in it every honest man every man who believes that the public interest is part of his own interest may walk with perfect confidence moreover our thoughts are now more of the future than of the past while we have worked at our tasks of peace the circumstances of the whole age have been altered by war what we have done for our own land and our own people we did with the best that was in us whether of character or of intelligence with sober enthusiasm and a confidence in the principles upon which we were acting which sustained us at every step of the difficult undertaking but it is done it has passed from our hands it is now an established part of the legislation of the country its usefulness its effects will disclose themselves in experience what chiefly strikes us now as we look about us during these closing days of a year which will be forever memorable in the history of the world is that we face new tasks have been facing them these six months must face them in the months to come them without partisan feeling like men who have forgotten everything but a common duty and the fact that we are representatives of a great people whose thought is not of us but of what america owes to herself and to all mankind in such circumstances as these upon which we look amazed and anxious war has interrupted the means of trade not only but also the processes of production in europe it is destroying men and resources wholesale and upon a scale unprecedented and appalling there is reason to fear that the time is near if it be not already at hand when several of the countries of europe will find it difficult to do for their people what they have hitherto been always easily able to do many essential and fundamental things at any rate they will need our help and our manifold services as they have never needed them before and we should be ready more fit and ready than we have ever been it is of equal consequence that the nations whom europe has usually supplied with innumerable articles of manufacture and commerce of which they are in constant need and without which their economic development halts and stands still can now get only a small part of what they formerly imported and eagerly look to us to supply their all but empty markets this is particularly true of our own neighbors the states great and small of central and south america their lines of trade have hitherto run chiefly athwart the seas not to our ports but to the ports of great britain and of the older continent of europe i do not stop to inquire why or to make any comment on probable causes what interests us just now is not the explanation but the fact and our duty and opportunity in the presence of it here are markets which we must supply and we must find the means of action the united states this great people for whom we speak and act should be ready as never before to serve itself and to serve mankind ready with its resources its energies its forces of production and its means of distribution it is a very practical matter a matter of ways and means we have the resources but are we fully ready to use them and if we can make ready what we have have we the means at hand to distribute it we are not fully ready neither have we the means of distribution we are willing but we are not fully able we have the wish to serve and to serve greatly generously but we are not prepared as we should be we are not ready to mobilize our resources at once we are not prepared to use them immediately and at their best without delay and without waste to speak plainly we have grossly erred in the way in which we have stunted and hindered the development of our merchant marine and now when we need ships we have not got them we have year after year debated without end or conclusion the best policy to pursue with regard to the use of the ores and forests and water powers of our national domain in the rich states of the west when we should have acted and they are still locked up the key is still turned upon them the door shut fast at which thousands of vigorous men full of initiative knock clamorously for admittance the water power of our navigable streams outside the national domain also even in the eastern states where we have worked and planned for generations is still not used as it might be because we will and we will not because the laws we have made do not intelligently balance encouragement against restraint we withhold by regulation i have come to ask you to remedy and correct these mistakes and omissions even at this short session of a congress which would certainly seem to have done all the work that could reasonably be expected of it the time and the circumstances are extraordinary and so must our efforts be also fortunately two great measures finely conceived the one to unlock with proper safeguards the resources of the national domain the other to encourage the use of the navigable waters outside that domain for the generation of power have already passed the house of representatives and are ready for immediate consideration and action by the senate with the deepest earnestness i urge their prompt passage in them both we turn our backs upon hesitation and makeshift and formulate a genuine policy of use and conservation in the best sense of those words we owe the one measure not only to the people of that great western country for whose free and systematic development as it seems to me our legislation has done so little but also to the people of the nation as a whole and we as clearly owe the other fulfillment of our repeated promises that the water power of the country should in fact as well as in name be put at the disposal of great industries which can make economical and profitable use of it the rights of the public being adequately guarded the while and monopoly in the use prevented to have begun such measures and not completed them would indeed mar the record of this great congress very seriously i hope and confidently believe that they will be completed and there is another great piece of legislation which awaits and should receive the sanction of the senate i mean the bill which gives a larger measure of to the people of the philippines how better in this time of anxious questioning and perplexed policy could we show our confidence in the principles of liberty as the source as well as the expression of life how better could we demonstrate our own and steadfastness in the courses of justice and disinterestedness than by thus going calmly forward to fulfill our promises to a dependent people who will now look more anxiously than ever to see whether we have indeed the liberality the unselfishness the courage the faith we have boasted and professed i can not believe that the senate will let this great measure of constructive justice await the action of another congress its passage would nobly crown the record of these two years of memorable labor but i think that you will agree with me that this does not complete the toll of our duty how are we to carry our goods to the empty markets of which i have spoken if we have not the ships how are we to build tip a great trade if we have not the certain and con tpnt means of transportation upon which all profitable and useful commerce depends and how are we to get the ships if we wait for the trade to develop without them to correct the many mistakes by which we have discouraged and all but destroyed the merchant marine of the country to retrace the steps by which we have it seems almost deliberately withdrawn our flag from the seas except where here and there a ship of war is bidden carry it or some wandering yacht displays it would take a long time and involve many detailed items of legislation and tile trade which we ought immediately to handle would disappear or find other channels while we debated the items the case is not unlike that which confronted us when our own continent was to be opened up to settlement and industry and we needed long lines of railway extended means of transportation prepared beforehand if development was not to lag intolerably and wait interminably we lavishly subsidized the building of transcontinental railroads we look back upon that with regret now because the subsidies led to many scandals of which we are ashamed but we know that the railroads had to be built and if we had it to do over again we should of course build them but in another way therefore i propose another way of providing the means of transportation which must precede not tardily follow the development of our trade with our neighbor states of america it may seem a reversal of the natural order of things but it is true that the routes of trade must be actually many ships and regular sailings and moderate streams of merchandise will flow freely and profitably through them hence the pending shipping bill discussed at the last session but as yet passed by neither house in my judgment such legislation is imperatively needed and can not wisely be postponed the government must open these gates of trade and open them wide open them before it is altogether profitable to open them or altogether reasonable to ask private capital to open them at a venture it is not a question of the government monopolizing the field it should take action to make it certain that transportation at reasonable rates will be promptly provided even where the carriage is not at first profitable and then when the carriage has become sufficiently profitable to attract and engage private capital and engage it in abundance the government ought to withdraw i very earnestly hope that the congress will be of this opinion and that both houses will adopt this exceedingly important bill the great subject of rural credits still remains to be dealt with and it is a matter of deep regret that the difficulties of the subject have seemed to render it impossible to complete a bill for passage at this session but it can not be perfected yet and therefore there are no other constructive measures the necessity for which i will at this time call your attention to but i would be negligent of a very manifest duty were i not to call the attention of the senate to the fact that the proposed convention for safety at sea awaits its confirmation and that the limit fixed in the convention itself for its acceptance is the last day of the present month the conference in which this convention originated was called by the united states the representatives of the united states played a very influential part indeed in framing the provisions of the proposed convention and those provisions are in themselves for the most part admirable it would hardly be consistent with the part we have played in the whole matter to let it drop and go by the board as if forgotten and neglected it was ratified in may by the german government and in august by the parliament of great britain it marks a most hopeful and decided advance in international civilization we should show our earnest good faith in a great matter by adding our own acceptance of it there is another matter of which i must make special mention if i am to discharge my conscience lest it should escape your attention it may seem a very small thing it affects only a single item of appropriation but many human lives and many great enterprises hang upon it it is the matter of making adequate provision for the survey and charting of our coasts it is immediately pressing and exigent in connection with the immense coast line of alaska a coast line greater than that of the united states themselves though it is also very important indeed with regard to the older coasts of the continent we can not use our great alaskan domain ships will not ply thither if those coasts and their many hidden dangers are not thoroughly surveyed and charted the work is incomplete at almost every point ships and lives have been lost in threading what were supposed to be main channels we have not provided adequate vessels or adequate machinery for the survey and charting we have used old vessels that were not big enough or strong enough and which were so nearly unseaworthy that our inspectors would not have allowed private owners to send them to sea this is a matter which as i have said seems small but is in reality very great its importance has only to be looked into to be appreciated before i close may i say a few words upon two topics much discussed out of doors upon which it is highly important that our judgment should be clear definite and steadfast one of these is economy in government expenditures the duty of economy is not debatable it is manifest and imperative in the appropriations we pass we are spending the money of the great people whose servants we are our own we are trustees and responsible stewards in the spending the only thing debatable and upon which we should be careful to make our thought and purpose clear is the kind of economy demanded of us i assert with the greatest confidence that the people of the united states are not jealous of the amount their government costs if they are sure that they get what they need and desire for the outlay that the money is being spent for objects of which they approve and that it is being applied with good business sense and management governments grow piecemeal both in their tasks and in the means by which those tasks are to be performed and very few governments are organized i venture to say as wise and experienced business men would organize them if they had a clean sheet of paper to write upon certainly the government of the united states is not i think that it is generally agreed that there should be a systematic reorganization and reassembling of its parts so as to secure greater efficiency and effect considerable savings in expense but the amount of money saved in that way would i believe though no doubt considerable in itself running it may be into the millions be relatively small i mean in proportion to the total necessary outlays of the government it would be thoroughly worth effecting as every saving would great or small our duty is not altered by the scale of the saving but my point is that the people of the united states do not wish to curtail the activities of this government they wish rather to enlarge them and with every enlargement with the mere growth indeed of the country itself there must come of course the inevitable increase of expense the sort of economy we ought to practice may be effected and ought to be effected by a careful study and assessment of the tasks to be performed and the money spent ought to be made to yield the best possible returns in efficiency and achievement and like good stewards we should so account for every dollar of our appropriations as to make it perfectly evident what it was spent for and in what way it was spent it is not expenditure but extravagance that we should fear being criticized for not paying for the legitimate enterprise and undertakings of a great government whose people command what it should do but adding what will benefit only a few or pouring money out for what need not have been undertaken at all or might have been postponed or better and more economically conceived and carried out the nation is not niggardly it is very generous it will chide us only if we forget for whom we pay money out and whose money it is we pay these are large and general standards but they are not very difficult of application to particular cases the other topic i shall take leave to mention goes deeper into the principles of our national life and policy it is the subject of national defense it can not be discussed without first answering some very searching questions it is said in some quarters that we are not prepared for war what is meant by being prepared is it meant that we are not ready upon brief notice to put a nation in the field a nation of men trained to arms of course we are not ready to do that and we shall never be in time of peace so long as we retain our present political principles and institutions and what is it that it is suggested we should be prepared to do to defend ourselves against attack we have always found means to do that and shall find them whenever it is necessary without calling our people away from their necessary tasks to render compulsory military service in times of peace allow me to speak with great plainness and directness upon this great matter and to avow my convictions with deep earnestness i have tried to know what america is what her people think what they are what they most cherish and hold dear i hope that some of their finer passions are in my own heart some of the great conceptions and desires which gave birth to this government and which have made the voice of this people a voice of peace and hope and liberty among the peoples of the world and that speaking my own thoughts i shall at least in part speak theirs also however faintly and inadequately upon this vital matter we are at peace with all the world no one who speaks counsel based on fact or drawn from a just and candid interpretation of realities can say that there is reason to fear that from any quarter our independence or the integrity of our territory is threatened dread of the power of any other nation we are incapable of we are not jealous of rivalry in the fields of commerce or of any other peaceful achievement we mean to live our own lives as we will but we mean also to let live we are indeed a true friend to all the nations of the world because we threaten none covet the possessions of none desire the overthrow of none our friendship can be accepted and is accepted without reservation because it is offered in a spirit and for a purpose which no one need ever question or suspect therein lies our greatness we are the champions of peace and of concord and we should be very jealous of this distinction which we have sought to earn just now we should be particularly jealous of it because it is our dearest present hope that this character and reputation may presently in god providence bring us an opportunity such as has seldom been vouchsafed any nation the opportunity to counsel and obtain peace in the world and reconciliation and a healing settlement of many a matter that has cooled and interrupted the friendship of nations this is the time above all others when we should wish and resolve to keep our strength by our influence by preserving our ancient principles of action from the first we have had a clear and settled policy with regard to military establishments we never have had and while we retain our present principles and ideals we never shall have a large standing army if asked are you ready to defend yourselves we reply most assuredly to the utmost and yet we shall not turn america into a military camp we will not ask our young men to spend the best years of their lives making soldiers of themselves there is another sort of energy in us it will know how to declare itself and make itself effective should occasion arise and especially when half the world is on fire we shall be careful to make our moral insurance against the spread of the conflagration very definite and certain and adequate indeed let us remind ourselves therefore of the only thing we can do or will do we must depend in every time of national peril in the future as in the past not upon a standing army nor yet upon a reserve army but upon a citizenry trained and accustomed to arms it will be right enough right american policy based upon our accustomed principles and practices to provide a system by which every citizen who will volunteer for the training may be made familiar with the use of modern arms the rudiments of drill and maneuver and the maintenance and sanitation of camps we should encourage such training and make it a means of discipline which our young men will learn to value it is right that we should provide it not only but that we should make it as attractive as possible and so induce our young men to undergo it at such times as they can command a little freedom and can seek the physical development they need for mere health sake if for nothing more every means by which such things can be stimulated is legitimate and such a method smacks of true american ideas it is right too that the national guard of the states should be developed and strengthened by every means which is not inconsistent with our obligations to our own people or with the established policy of our government and this also not because the time or occasion specially calls for such measures but because it should be our constant policy to make these provisions for our national peace and safety more than this carries with it a reversal of the whole history and character of our polity more than this proposed at this time permit me to say would mean merely that we had lost our that we had been thrown off our balance by a war with which we have nothing to do whose causes can not touch us whose very existence affords us opportunities of friendship and disinterested service which should make us ashamed of any thought of hostility or fearful preparation for trouble this is assuredly the opportunity for which a people and a government like ours were raised up the opportunity not only to speak but actually to embody and exemplify the counsels of peace and amity and the lasting concord which is based on justice and fair and generous dealing a powerful navy we have always regarded as our proper and natural means of defense and it has always been of defense that we have thought never of aggression or of conquest but who shall tell us now what sort of navy to build we shall take leave to be strong upon the seas in the future as in the past and there will be no thought of offense or of provocation in that our ships are our natural bulwarks when will the experts tell us just what kind we should when will they be right for ten years together if the relative efficiency of craft of different kinds and uses continues to change as we have seen it change under our very eyes in these last few months but i turn away from the subject it is not new there is no new need to discuss it we shall not alter our attitude toward it because some amongst us are nervous and excited we shall easily and sensibly agree upon a policy of defense the question has not changed its aspects because the times are not normal our policy will not be for an occasion it will be conceived as a permanent and settled thing which we will pursue at all seasons without haste and after a fashion perfectly consistent with the peace of the world the abiding friendship of states and the unhampered freedom of all with whom we deal let there be no misconception the country has been misinformed we have not been negligent of national defense we are not unmindful of the great responsibility resting upon us we shall learn and profit by the lesson of every experience and every new circumstance and what is needed will be adequately done i close as i began by reminding you of the great tasks and duties of peace which challenge our best powers and invite us to build what will last the tasks to which we can address ourselves now and at all times with zest and with all the finest gifts of constructive wisdom we possess to develop our life and our resources to supply our own people and the people of the world as their need arises from the abundant plenty of our fields and our marts of trade to enrich the commerce of our own states and of the world with the products of our mines our farms and our factories with the creations of our thought and the fruits of our character is what will hold our attention and our enthusiasm steadily now and in the years to come as we strive to show in our life as a nation what liberty and the inspirations of an emancipated spirit may do for men and for societies for individuals for states and for mankind
session upon entering closing session congress congress venture say long remembered great body thoughtful constructive work done loyal response thought needs country like address review notable record try make adequate assessment doubt stand near work done much part play part historians toward program legislation regard regulation business virtually complete put forth intended whole leaves conjecture follow road last lies clear firm business road travel without fear embarrassment road ungrudged unclouded success every honest man every man believes public interest part interest may walk perfect confidence moreover thoughts future past worked tasks peace circumstances whole age altered war done land people best us whether character intelligence sober enthusiasm confidence principles upon acting sustained us every step difficult undertaking done passed hands established part legislation country usefulness effects disclose experience chiefly strikes us look us closing days year forever memorable history world face new tasks facing six months must face months come without partisan feeling like men forgotten everything common duty fact representatives great people whose thought us america owes mankind circumstances upon look amazed anxious war interrupted means trade also processes production europe destroying men resources wholesale upon scale unprecedented appalling reason fear time near already hand several countries europe find difficult people hitherto always easily able many essential fundamental things rate need help manifold services never needed ready fit ready ever equal consequence nations europe usually supplied innumerable articles manufacture commerce constant need without economic development halts stands still get small part formerly imported eagerly look us supply empty markets particularly true neighbors states great small central south america lines trade hitherto run chiefly athwart seas ports ports great britain older continent europe stop inquire make comment probable causes interests us explanation fact duty opportunity presence markets must supply must find means action united states great people speak act ready never serve serve mankind ready resources energies forces production means distribution practical matter matter ways means resources fully ready use make ready means hand distribute fully ready neither means distribution willing fully able wish serve serve greatly generously prepared ready mobilize resources prepared use immediately best without delay without waste speak plainly grossly erred way stunted hindered development merchant marine need ships got year year debated without end conclusion best policy pursue regard use ores forests water powers national domain rich states west acted still locked key still turned upon door shut fast thousands vigorous men full initiative knock clamorously admittance water power navigable streams outside national domain also even eastern states worked planned generations still used might laws made intelligently balance encouragement restraint withhold regulation come ask remedy correct mistakes omissions even short session congress would certainly seem done work could reasonably expected time circumstances extraordinary must efforts also fortunately two great measures finely conceived one unlock proper safeguards resources national domain encourage use navigable waters outside domain generation power already passed house representatives ready immediate consideration action senate deepest earnestness urge prompt passage turn backs upon hesitation makeshift formulate genuine policy use conservation best sense words owe one measure people great western country whose free systematic development seems legislation done little also people nation whole clearly owe fulfillment repeated promises water power country fact well name put disposal great industries make economical profitable use rights public adequately guarded monopoly use prevented begun measures completed would indeed mar record great congress seriously hope confidently believe completed another great piece legislation awaits receive sanction senate mean bill gives larger measure people philippines better time anxious questioning perplexed policy could show confidence principles liberty source well expression life better could demonstrate steadfastness courses justice disinterestedness thus going calmly forward fulfill promises dependent people look anxiously ever see whether indeed liberality unselfishness courage faith boasted professed believe senate let great measure constructive justice await action another congress passage would nobly crown record two years memorable labor think agree complete toll duty carry goods empty markets spoken ships build tip great trade certain con tpnt means transportation upon profitable useful commerce depends get ships wait trade develop without correct many mistakes discouraged destroyed merchant marine country retrace steps seems almost deliberately withdrawn flag seas except ship war bidden carry wandering yacht displays would take long time involve many detailed items legislation tile trade ought immediately handle would disappear find channels debated items case unlike confronted us continent opened settlement industry needed long lines railway extended means transportation prepared beforehand development lag intolerably wait interminably lavishly subsidized building transcontinental railroads look back upon regret subsidies led many scandals ashamed know railroads built course build another way therefore propose another way providing means transportation must precede tardily follow development trade neighbor states america may seem reversal natural order things true routes trade must actually many ships regular sailings moderate streams merchandise flow freely profitably hence pending shipping bill discussed last session yet passed neither house judgment legislation imperatively needed wisely postponed government must open gates trade open wide open altogether profitable open altogether reasonable ask private capital open venture question government monopolizing field take action make certain transportation reasonable rates promptly provided even carriage first profitable carriage become sufficiently profitable attract engage private capital engage abundance government ought withdraw earnestly hope congress opinion houses adopt exceedingly important bill great subject rural credits still remains dealt matter deep regret difficulties subject seemed render impossible complete bill passage session perfected yet therefore constructive measures necessity time call attention would negligent manifest duty call attention senate fact proposed convention safety sea awaits confirmation limit fixed convention acceptance last day present month conference convention originated called united states representatives united states played influential part indeed framing provisions proposed convention provisions part admirable would hardly consistent part played whole matter let drop go board forgotten neglected ratified may german government august parliament great britain marks hopeful decided advance international civilization show earnest good faith great matter adding acceptance another matter must make special mention discharge conscience lest escape attention may seem small thing affects single item appropriation many human lives many great enterprises hang upon matter making adequate provision survey charting coasts immediately pressing exigent connection immense coast line alaska coast line greater united states though also important indeed regard older coasts continent use great alaskan domain ships ply thither coasts many hidden dangers thoroughly surveyed charted work incomplete almost every point ships lives lost threading supposed main channels provided adequate vessels adequate machinery survey charting used old vessels big enough strong enough nearly unseaworthy inspectors would allowed private owners send sea matter said seems small reality great importance looked appreciated close may say words upon two topics much discussed doors upon highly important judgment clear definite steadfast one economy government expenditures duty economy debatable manifest imperative appropriations pass spending money great people whose servants trustees responsible stewards spending thing debatable upon careful make thought purpose clear kind economy demanded us assert greatest confidence people united states jealous amount government costs sure get need desire outlay money spent objects approve applied good business sense management governments grow piecemeal tasks means tasks performed governments organized venture say wise experienced business men would organize clean sheet paper write upon certainly government united states think generally agreed systematic reorganization reassembling parts secure greater efficiency effect considerable savings expense amount money saved way would believe though doubt considerable running may millions relatively small mean proportion total necessary outlays government would thoroughly worth effecting every saving would great small duty altered scale saving point people united states wish curtail activities government wish rather enlarge every enlargement mere growth indeed country must come course inevitable increase expense sort economy ought practice may effected ought effected careful study assessment tasks performed money spent ought made yield best possible returns efficiency achievement like good stewards account every dollar appropriations make perfectly evident spent way spent expenditure extravagance fear criticized paying legitimate enterprise undertakings great government whose people command adding benefit pouring money need undertaken might postponed better economically conceived carried nation niggardly generous chide us forget pay money whose money pay large general standards difficult application particular cases topic shall take leave mention goes deeper principles national life policy subject national defense discussed without first answering searching questions said quarters prepared war meant prepared meant ready upon brief notice put nation field nation men trained arms course ready shall never time peace long retain present political principles institutions suggested prepared defend attack always found means shall find whenever necessary without calling people away necessary tasks render compulsory military service times peace allow speak great plainness directness upon great matter avow convictions deep earnestness tried know america people think cherish hold dear hope finer passions heart great conceptions desires gave birth government made voice people voice peace hope liberty among peoples world speaking thoughts shall least part speak also however faintly inadequately upon vital matter peace world one speaks counsel based fact drawn candid interpretation realities say reason fear quarter independence integrity territory threatened dread power nation incapable jealous rivalry fields commerce peaceful achievement mean live lives mean also let live indeed true friend nations world threaten none covet possessions none desire overthrow none friendship accepted accepted without reservation offered spirit purpose one need ever question suspect therein lies greatness champions peace concord jealous distinction sought earn particularly jealous dearest present hope character reputation may presently god providence bring us opportunity seldom vouchsafed nation opportunity counsel obtain peace world reconciliation healing settlement many matter cooled interrupted friendship nations time others wish resolve keep strength influence preserving ancient principles action first clear settled policy regard military establishments never retain present principles ideals never shall large standing army asked ready defend reply assuredly utmost yet shall turn america military camp ask young men spend best years lives making soldiers another sort energy us know declare make effective occasion arise especially half world fire shall careful make moral insurance spread conflagration definite certain adequate indeed let us remind therefore thing must depend every time national peril future past upon standing army yet upon reserve army upon citizenry trained accustomed arms right enough right american policy based upon accustomed principles practices provide system every citizen volunteer training may made familiar use modern arms rudiments drill maneuver maintenance sanitation camps encourage training make means discipline young men learn value right provide make attractive possible induce young men undergo times command little freedom seek physical development need mere health sake nothing every means things stimulated legitimate method smacks true american ideas right national guard states developed strengthened every means inconsistent obligations people established policy government also time occasion specially calls measures constant policy make provisions national peace safety carries reversal whole history character polity proposed time permit say would mean merely lost thrown balance war nothing whose causes touch us whose existence affords us opportunities friendship disinterested service make us ashamed thought hostility fearful preparation trouble assuredly opportunity people government like raised opportunity speak actually embody exemplify counsels peace amity lasting concord based justice fair generous dealing powerful navy always regarded proper natural means defense always defense thought never aggression conquest shall tell us sort navy build shall take leave strong upon seas future past thought offense provocation ships natural bulwarks experts tell us kind right ten years together relative efficiency craft different kinds uses continues change seen change eyes last months turn away subject new new need discuss shall alter attitude toward amongst us nervous excited shall easily sensibly agree upon policy defense question changed aspects times normal policy occasion conceived permanent settled thing pursue seasons without haste fashion perfectly consistent peace world abiding friendship states unhampered freedom deal let misconception country misinformed negligent national defense unmindful great responsibility resting upon us shall learn profit lesson every experience every new circumstance needed adequately done close began reminding great tasks duties peace challenge best powers invite us build last tasks address times zest finest gifts constructive wisdom possess develop life resources supply people people world need arises abundant plenty fields marts trade enrich commerce states world products mines farms factories creations thought fruits character hold attention enthusiasm steadily years come strive show life nation liberty inspirations emancipated spirit may men societies individuals states mankind
session upon enter closing session congress congress venture say long remembered great body thoughtful constructive work do loyal response think need country like address review notable record try make adequate assessment doubt stand near work do much part play part historian toward program legislation regard regulation business virtually complete put forth intend whole leaf conjecture follow road last lie clear firm business road travel without fear embarrassment road ungrudged unclouded success every honest man every man believe public interest part interest may walk perfect confidence moreover thought future past worked task peace circumstance whole age alter war do land people best u whether character intelligence sober enthusiasm confidence principle upon act sustain u every step difficult undertake do pass hand establish part legislation country usefulness effect disclose experience chiefly strike u look u closing day year forever memorable history world face new task face six month must face month come without partisan feel like men forget everything common duty fact representative great people whose think u america owes mankind circumstance upon look amaze anxious war interrupt mean trade also process production europe destroy men resource wholesale upon scale unprecedented appal reason fear time near already hand several country europe find difficult people hitherto always easily able many essential fundamental thing rate need help manifold service never need ready fit ready ever equal consequence nation europe usually supply innumerable article manufacture commerce constant need without economic development halt stand still get small part formerly import eagerly look u supply empty market particularly true neighbor state great small central south america line trade hitherto run chiefly athwart seas port port great britain old continent europe stop inquire make comment probable cause interest u explanation fact duty opportunity presence market must supply must find means action united state great people speak act ready never serve serve mankind ready resource energy force production mean distribution practical matter matter way mean resource fully ready use make ready mean hand distribute fully ready neither mean distribution willing fully able wish serve serve greatly generously prepared ready mobilize resource prepare use immediately best without delay without waste speak plainly grossly erred way stunt hindered development merchant marine need ship get year year debate without end conclusion best policy pursue regard use ores forest water power national domain rich state west act still lock key still turn upon door shut fast thousand vigorous men full initiative knock clamorously admittance water power navigable stream outside national domain also even eastern state work planned generation still use might law make intelligently balance encouragement restraint withhold regulation come ask remedy correct mistake omission even short session congress would certainly seem do work could reasonably expect time circumstance extraordinary must effort also fortunately two great measure finely conceive one unlock proper safeguard resource national domain encourage use navigable water outside domain generation power already pass house representative ready immediate consideration action senate deepest earnestness urge prompt passage turn back upon hesitation makeshift formulate genuine policy use conservation best sense word owe one measure people great western country whose free systematic development seem legislation do little also people nation whole clearly owe fulfillment repeat promise water power country fact well name put disposal great industry make economical profitable use right public adequately guard monopoly use prevent begin measure complete would indeed mar record great congress seriously hope confidently believe complete another great piece legislation awaits receive sanction senate mean bill give large measure people philippines good time anxious question perplexed policy could show confidence principle liberty source well expression life well could demonstrate steadfastness course justice disinterestedness thus go calmly forward fulfill promise dependent people look anxiously ever see whether indeed liberality unselfishness courage faith boast professed believe senate let great measure constructive justice await action another congress passage would nobly crown record two year memorable labor think agree complete toll duty carry good empty market speak ship build tip great trade certain con tpnt mean transportation upon profitable useful commerce depend get ships wait trade develop without correct many mistake discourage destroyed merchant marine country retrace step seem almost deliberately withdrawn flag sea except ship war bidden carry wander yacht display would take long time involve many detailed item legislation tile trade ought immediately handle would disappear find channel debate item case unlike confront u continent open settlement industry need long line railway extend mean transportation prepare beforehand development lag intolerably wait interminably lavishly subsidize building transcontinental railroad look back upon regret subsidy lead many scandal ashamed know railroad build course build another way therefore propose another way provide mean transportation must precede tardily follow development trade neighbor state america may seem reversal natural order thing true route trade must actually many ship regular sailing moderate stream merchandise flow freely profitably hence pending ship bill discuss last session yet pass neither house judgment legislation imperatively need wisely postponed government must open gate trade open wide open altogether profitable open altogether reasonable ask private capital open venture question government monopolize field take action make certain transportation reasonable rate promptly provide even carriage first profitable carriage become sufficiently profitable attract engage private capital engage abundance government ought withdraw earnestly hope congress opinion house adopt exceedingly important bill great subject rural credit still remain dealt matter deep regret difficulty subject seem render impossible complete bill passage session perfect yet therefore constructive measure necessity time call attention would negligent manifest duty call attention senate fact propose convention safety sea awaits confirmation limit fix convention acceptance last day present month conference convention originate call united state representative united state play influential part indeed frame provision propose convention provision part admirable would hardly consistent part play whole matter let drop go board forgotten neglect ratify may german government august parliament great britain mark hopeful decide advance international civilization show earnest good faith great matter add acceptance another matter must make special mention discharge conscience l escape attention may seem small thing affect single item appropriation many human live many great enterprise hang upon matter make adequate provision survey chart coast immediately press exigent connection immense coast line alaska coast line great united state though also important indeed regard old coast continent use great alaskan domain ship ply thither coast many hidden danger thoroughly survey chart work incomplete almost every point ship live lose thread suppose main channel provide adequate vessel adequate machinery survey chart use old vessel big enough strong enough nearly unseaworthy inspector would allow private owner send sea matter say seem small reality great importance look appreciate close may say word upon two topic much discuss door upon highly important judgment clear definite steadfast one economy government expenditures duty economy debatable manifest imperative appropriation pass spend money great people whose servant trustees responsible steward spend thing debatable upon careful make think purpose clear kind economy demand u assert great confidence people united state jealous amount government cost sure get need desire outlay money spend object approve apply good business sense management government grow piecemeal task mean task perform government organized venture say wise experienced business men would organize clean sheet paper write upon certainly government united state think generally agree systematic reorganization reassemble part secure great efficiency effect considerable saving expense amount money save way would believe though doubt considerable running may million relatively small mean proportion total necessary outlay government would thoroughly worth effect every saving would great small duty alter scale save point people united state wish curtail activity government wish rather enlarge every enlargement mere growth indeed country must come course inevitable increase expense sort economy ought practice may effect ought effect careful study assessment task perform money spent ought make yield best possible return efficiency achievement like good steward account every dollar appropriation make perfectly evident spent way spend expenditure extravagance fear criticize pay legitimate enterprise undertaking great government whose people command add benefit pour money need undertaken might postpone well economically conceive carried nation niggardly generous chide u forget pay money whose money pay large general standard difficult application particular case topic shall take leave mention go deep principle national life policy subject national defense discuss without first answer search question say quarter prepare war meant prepare meant ready upon brief notice put nation field nation men train arm course ready shall never time peace long retain present political principle institution suggest prepared defend attack always find mean shall find whenever necessary without call people away necessary task render compulsory military service time peace allow speak great plainness directness upon great matter avow conviction deep earnestness try know america people think cherish hold dear hope finer passion heart great conception desire give birth government make voice people voice peace hope liberty among people world speak thought shall least part speak also however faintly inadequately upon vital matter peace world one speak counsel base fact drawn candid interpretation reality say reason fear quarter independence integrity territory threaten dread power nation incapable jealous rivalry field commerce peaceful achievement mean live life mean also let live indeed true friend nation world threaten none covet possession none desire overthrow none friendship accept accept without reservation offer spirit purpose one need ever question suspect therein lie greatness champion peace concord jealous distinction seek earn particularly jealous dear present hope character reputation may presently god providence bring u opportunity seldom vouchsafed nation opportunity counsel obtain peace world reconciliation heal settlement many matter cool interrupted friendship nation time others wish resolve keep strength influence preserve ancient principle action first clear settle policy regard military establishment never retain present principle ideal never shall large stand army ask ready defend reply assuredly utmost yet shall turn america military camp ask young men spend best year live make soldier another sort energy u know declare make effective occasion arise especially half world fire shall careful make moral insurance spread conflagration definite certain adequate indeed let u remind therefore thing must depend every time national peril future past upon stand army yet upon reserve army upon citizenry train accustomed arm right enough right american policy base upon accustomed principle practice provide system every citizen volunteer training may make familiar use modern arm rudiment drill maneuver maintenance sanitation camp encourage train make mean discipline young men learn value right provide make attractive possible induce young men undergo time command little freedom seek physical development need mere health sake nothing every mean thing stimulate legitimate method smack true american idea right national guard state develop strengthen every mean inconsistent obligation people establish policy government also time occasion specially call measure constant policy make provision national peace safety carry reversal whole history character polity propose time permit say would mean merely lose thrown balance war nothing whose cause touch u whose existence affords u opportunity friendship disinterested service make u ashamed thought hostility fearful preparation trouble assuredly opportunity people government like raise opportunity speak actually embody exemplify counsel peace amity last concord base justice fair generous deal powerful navy always regard proper natural mean defense always defense think never aggression conquest shall tell u sort navy build shall take leave strong upon seas future past thought offense provocation ship natural bulwark expert tell u kind right ten year together relative efficiency craft different kind use continue change see change eye last month turn away subject new new need discuss shall alter attitude toward amongst u nervous excite shall easily sensibly agree upon policy defense question change aspect time normal policy occasion conceive permanent settled thing pursue season without haste fashion perfectly consistent peace world abide friendship state unhampered freedom deal let misconception country misinform negligent national defense unmindful great responsibility rest upon u shall learn profit lesson every experience every new circumstance need adequately do close begin remind great tasks duty peace challenge best power invite u build last task address time zest fine gift constructive wisdom possess develop life resource supply people people world need arises abundant plenty field mart trade enrich commerce state world product mine farm factory creation think fruit character hold attention enthusiasm steadily year come strive show life nation liberty inspiration emancipate spirit may men society individual state mankind