Eight months have elapsed since I last had the honor of addressing you. They have been months crowded with events of immense and grave significance for us. I shall not undertake to retail or even to summarize those events. The practical particulars of the part we have played in them will be laid before you in the reports of the Executive Departments. I shall discuss only our present outlook upon these vast affairs, our present duties, and the immediate means of accomplishing the objects we shall hold always in view. I shall not go back to debate the causes of the war. The intolerable wrongs done and planned against us by the sinister masters of Germany have long since become too grossly obvious and odious to every true American to need to be rehearsed. But I shall ask you to consider again and with a very grave scrutiny our objectives and the measures by which we mean to attain them; for the purpose of discussion here in this place is action, and our action must move straight towards definite ends. Our object is, of course, to win the war; and we shall not slacken or suffer ourselves to be diverted until it is won. But it is worth while asking and answering the question, When shall we consider the war won? From one point of view it is not necessary to broach this fundamental matter. I do not doubt that the American people know what the war is about and what sort of an outcome they will regard as a realization of their purpose in it. As a nation we are united in spirit and intention. I pay little heed to those who tell me otherwise. I hear the voices of dissent; who does not? I hear the criticism and the clamor of the noisily thoughtless and troublesome. I also see men here and there fling themselves in impotent disloyalty against the calm, indomitable power of the nation. I hear men debate peace who understand neither its nature not the way in which we may attain it with uplifted eyes and unbroken spirits. But I know that none of these speaks for the nation. They do not touch the heart of anything. They may safely be left to strut their uneasy hour and be forgotten. But from another point of view I believe that it is necessary to say plainly what we here at the seat of action consider the war to be for and what part we mean to play in the settlement of its searching issues. We are the spokesmen of the American people and they have a right to know whether their purpose is ours. They desire peace by the overcoming of evil, by the defeat once for all of the sinister forces that interrupt peace and render it impossible, and they wish to know how closely our thought runs with theirs and what action we propose. They are impatient with those who desire peace by any sort of compromise--deeply and indignantly impatient--but they will be equally impatient with us if we do not make it plain to them what our objectives are and what we are planning for in seeking to make conquest of peace by arms. I believe that I speak for them when I say two things: First, that this intolerable Thing of which the masters of Germany have shown us the ugly face, this menace of combined intrigue and force which we now see so clearly as the German power, a Thing without conscience or honor or capacity for covenanted peace, must be crushed and, if it be not utterly brought to an end, at least shut out from the friendly intercourse of the nations; and, second, that when this Thing and its power are indeed defeated and the time comes that we can discuss peace--when the German people have spokesmen whose word we can believe and when those spokesmen are ready in the name of their people to accept the common judgment of the nations as to what shall henceforth be the bases of law and of covenant for the life of the world--we shall be willing and glad to pay the full price for peace, and pay it ungrudgingly. We know what that price will be. It will be full, impartial justice--justice done at every point and to every nation that the final settlement must affect, our enemies as well as our friends. You catch, with me, the voices of humanity that are in the air. They grow daily more audible, more articulate, more persuasive, and they come from the hearts of men everywhere. They insist that the war shall not end in vindictive action of any kind; that no nation or people shall be robbed or punished because the irresponsible rulers of a single country have themselves done deep and abominable wrong. It is this thought that has been expressed in the formula "No annexations, no contributions, no punitive indemnities." Just because this crude formula expresses the instinctive judgment as to right of plain men everywhere it has been made diligent use of by the masters of German intrigue to lead the people of Russia astray, and the people of every other country their agents could reach, in order that a premature peace might be brought about before autocracy has been taught its final and convincing lesson, and the people of the world put in control of their own destinies. But the fact that a wrong use has been made of a just idea is no reason why a right use should not be made of it. It ought to be brought under the patronage of its real friends. Let it be said again that autocracy must first be shown the utter futility of its claims to power or leadership in the modern world. It is impossible to apply any standard of justice so long as such forces are unchecked and undefeated as the present masters of Germany command. Not until that has been done can Right be set up as arbiter and peace-maker among the nations. But when that has been done--as, God willing, it assuredly will be--we shall at last be free to do an unprecedented thing, and this is the time to avow our purpose to do it. We shall be free to base peace on generosity and justice, to the exclusion of all selfish claims to advantage even on the part of the victors. Let there be no misunderstanding. Our present and immediate task is to win the war, and nothing shall turn us aside from it until it is accomplished. Every power and resource we possess, whether of men, of money, or of materials, is being devoted and will continue to be devoted to that purpose until it is achieved. Those who desire to bring peace about before that purpose is achieved I counsel to carry their advice elsewhere. We will not entertain it. We shall regard the war as won only when the German people say to us, through properly accredited representatives, that they are ready to agree to a settlement based upon justice and the reparation of the wrongs their rulers have done. They have done a wrong to Belgium which must be repaired. They have established a power over other lands and peoples than their own--over the great Empire of Austria-Hungary, over hitherto free Balkan states, over Turkey, and within Asia--which must be relinquished. Germany's success by skill, by industry, by knowledge, by enterprise we did not grudge or oppose, but admired, rather. She had built up for herself a real empire of trade and influence, secured by the peace of the world. We were content to abide the rivalries of manufacture, science, and commerce that were involved for us in her success and stand or fall as we had or did not have the brains and the initiative to surpass her. But at the moment when she had conspicuously won her triumphs of peace she threw them away, to establish in their stead what the world will no longer permit to be established, military and political domination by arms, by which to oust where she could not excel the rivals she most feared and hated. The peace we make must remedy that wrong. It must deliver the once fair lands and happy peoples of Belgium and northern France from the Prussian conquest and the Prussian menace, but it must also deliver the peoples of Austria-Hungary, the peoples of the Balkans, and the peoples of Turkey, alike in Europe and in Asia, from the impudent and alien dominion of the Prussian military and commercial autocracy. We owe it, however, to ourselves to say that we do not wish in any way to impair or to rearrange the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is no affair of ours what they do with their own life, either industrially or politically. We do not purpose or desire to dictate to them in any way. We only desire to see that their affairs are left in their own hands, in all matters, great or small. We shall hope to secure for the peoples of the Balkan peninsula and for the people of the Turkish Empire the right and opportunity to make their own lives safe, their own fortunes secure against oppression or injustice and from the dictation of foreign courts or parties. And our attitude and purpose with regard to Germany herself are of a like kind. We intend no wrong against the German Empire, no interference with her internal affairs. We should deem either the one or the other absolutely unjustifiable, absolutely contrary to the principles we have professed to live by and to hold most sacred throughout our life as a nation. The people of Germany are being told by the men whom they now permit to deceive them and to act as their masters that they are fighting for the very life and existence of their Empire, a war of desperate self-defense against deliberate aggression. Nothing could be more grossly or wantonly false, and we must seek by the utmost openness and candor as to our real aims to convince them of its falseness. We are in fact fighting for their emancipation from fear, along with our own--from the fear as well as from the fact of unjust attack by neighbors or rivals or schemers after world empire. No one is threatening the existence or the independence or the peaceful enterprise of the German Empire. The worst that can happen to the detriment of the German people is this, that if they should still, after the war is over, continue to be obliged to live under ambitious and intriguing masters interested to disturb the peace of the world, men or classes of men whom the other peoples of the world could not trust, it might be impossible to admit them to the partnership of nations which must henceforth guarantee the world's peace. That partnership must be a partnership of peoples, not a mere partnership of governments. It might be impossible, also, in such untoward circumstances, to admit Germany to the free economic intercourse which must inevitably spring out of the other partnerships of a real peace. But there would be no aggression in that; and such a situation, inevitable because of distrust, would in the very nature of things sooner or later cure itself, by processes which would assuredly set in. The wrongs, the very deep wrongs, committed in this war will have to be righted. That of course. But they cannot and must not be righted by the commission of similar wrongs against Germany and her allies. The world will not permit the commission of similar wrongs as a means of reparation and settlement. Statesmen must by this time have learned that the opinion of the world is everywhere wide awake and fully comprehends the issues involved. No representative of any self-governed nation will dare disregard it by attempting any such covenants of selfishness and compromise as were entered into at the Congress of Vienna. The thought of the plain people here and everywhere throughout the world, the people who enjoy no privilege and have very simple and unsophisticated standards of right and wrong, is the air all governments must henceforth breathe if they would live. It is in the full disclosing light of that thought that all policies must be conceived and executed in this midday hour of the world's life. German rulers have been able to upset the peace of the world only because the German people were not suffered under their tutelage to share the comradeship of the other peoples of the world either in thought or in purpose. They were allowed to have no opinion of their own which might be set up as a rule of conduct for those who exercised authority over them. But the congress that concludes this war will feel the full strength of the tides that run now in the hearts and consciences of free men everywhere. Its conclusions will run with those tides. All these things have been true from the very beginning of this stupendous war; and I cannot help thinking that if they had been made plain at the very outset the sympathy and enthusiasm of the Russian people might have been once for all enlisted on the side of the Allies, suspicion and distrust swept away, and a real and lasting union of purpose effected. Had they believed these things at the very moment of their revolution and had they been confirmed in that belief since, the sad reverses which have recently marked the progress of their affairs towards an ordered and stable government of free men might have been avoided. The Russian people have been poisoned by the very same falsehoods that have kept the German people in the dark, and the poison has been administered by the very same hands. The only possible antidote is the truth. It cannot be uttered too plainly or too often. From every point of view, therefore, it has seemed to be my duty to speak these declarations of purpose, to add these specific interpretations to what I took the liberty of saying to the Senate in January. Our entrance into the war has not altered our attitude towards the settlement that must come when it is over. When I said in January that the nations of the world were entitled not only to free pathways upon the sea but also to assured and unmolested access to those pathways I was thinking, and I am thinking now, not of the smaller and weaker nations alone, which need our countenance and support, but also of the great and powerful nations, and of our present enemies as well as our present associates in the war. I was thinking, and am thinking now, of Austria herself, among the rest, as well as of Serbia and of Poland. Justice and equality of rights can be had only at a great price. We are seeking permanent, not temporary, foundations for the peace of the world and must seek them candidly and fearlessly. As always, the right will prove to be the expedient. What shall we do, then, to push this great war of freedom and justice to its righteous conclusion? We must clear away with a thorough hand all impediments to success and we must make every adjustment of law that will facilitate the full and free use of our whole capacity and force as a fighting unit. One very embarrassing obstacle that stands in our way is that we are at war with Germany but not with her allies. I therefore very earnestly recommend that the Congress immediately declare the United States in a state of war with Austria-Hungary. Does it seem strange to you that this should be the conclusion of the argument I have just addressed to you? It is not. It is in fact the inevitable logic of what I have said. Austria-Hungary is for the time being not her own mistress but simply the vassal of the German Government. We must face the facts as they are and act upon them without sentiment in this stern business. The government of Austria-Hungary is not acting upon its own initiative or in response to the wishes and feelings of its own peoples but as the instrument of another nation. We must meet its force with our own and regard the Central Powers as but one. The war can be successfully conducted in no other way. The same logic would lead also to a declaration of war against Turkey and Bulgaria. They also are the tools of Germany. But they are mere tools and do not yet stand in the direct path of our necessary action. We shall go wherever the necessities of this war carry us, but it seems to me that we should go only where immediate and practical considerations lead us and not heed any others. The financial and military measures which must be adopted will suggest themselves as the war and its undertakings develop, but I will take the liberty of proposing to you certain other acts of legislation which seem to me to be needed for the support of the war and for the release of our whole force and energy. It will be necessary to extend in certain particulars the legislation of the last session with regard to alien enemies; and also necessary, I believe, to create a very definite and particular control over the entrance and departure of all persons into and from the United States. Legislation should be enacted defining as a criminal offense every willful violation of the presidential proclamations relating to alien enemies promulgated under section 4067 of the Revised Statutes and providing appropriate punishments; and women as well as men should be included under the terms of the acts placing restraints upon alien enemies. It is likely that as time goes on many alien enemies will be willing to be fed and housed at the expense of the Government in the detention camps and it would be the purpose of the legislation I have suggested to confine offenders among them in penitentiaries and other similar institutions where they could be made to work as other criminals do. Recent experience has convinced me that the Congress must go further in authorizing the Government to set limits to prices. The law of supply and demand, I am sorry to say, has been replaced by the law of unrestrained selfishness. While we have eliminated profiteering in several branches of industry it still runs impudently rampant in others. The farmers, for example, complain with a great deal of justice that, while the regulation of food prices restricts their incomes, no restraints are placed upon the prices of most of the things they must themselves purchase; and similar inequities obtain on all sides. It is imperatively necessary that the consideration of the full use of the water power of the country and also the consideration of the systematic and yet economical development of such of the natural resources of the country as are still under the control of the federal government should be immediately resumed and affirmatively and constructively dealt with at the earliest possible moment. The pressing need of such legislation is daily becoming more obvious. The legislation proposed at the last session with regard to regulated combinations among our exporters, in order to provide for our foreign trade a more effective organization and method of cooperation, ought by all means to be completed at this session. And I beg that the members of the House of Representatives will permit me to express the opinion that it will be impossible to deal in any but a very wasteful and extravagant fashion with the enormous appropriations of the public moneys which must continue to be made, if the war is to be properly sustained, unless the House will consent to return to its former practice of initiating and preparing all appropriation bills through a single committee, in order that responsibility may be centered, expenditures standardized and made uniform, and waste and duplication as much as possible avoided. Additional legislation may also become necessary before the present Congress again adjourns in order to effect the most efficient coordination and operation of the railway and other transportation systems of the country; but to that I shall, if circumstances should demand, call the attention of the Congress upon another occasion. If I have overlooked anything that ought to be done for the more effective conduct of the war, your own counsels will supply the omission. What I am perfectly clear about is that in the present session of the Congress our whole attention and energy should be concentrated on the vigorous, rapid, and successful prosecution of the great task of winning the war. We can do this with all the greater zeal and enthusiasm because we know that for us this is a war of high principle, debased by no selfish ambition of conquest or spoliation; because we know, and all the world knows, that we have been forced into it to save the very institutions we live under from corruption and destruction. The purposes of the Central Powers strike straight at the very heart of everything we believe in; their methods of warfare outrage every principle of humanity and of knightly honor; their intrigue has corrupted the very thought and spirit of many of our people; their sinister and secret diplomacy has sought to take our very territory away from us and disrupt the Union of the States. Our safety would be at an end, our honor forever sullied and brought into contempt were we to permit their triumph. They are striking at the very existence of democracy and liberty. It is because it is for us a war of high, disinterested purpose, in which all the free peoples of the world are banded together for the vindication of right, a war for the preservation of our nation and of all that it has held dear of principle and of purpose, that we feel ourselves doubly constrained to propose for its outcome only that which is righteous and of irreproachable intention, for our foes as well as for our friends. The cause being just and holy, the settlement must be of like motive and quality. For this we can fight, but for nothing less noble or less worthy of our traditions. For this cause we entered the war and for this cause will we battle until the last gun is fired. I have spoken plainly because this seems to me the time when it is most necessary to speak plainly, in order that all the world may know that even in the heat and ardor of the struggle and when our whole thought is of carrying the war through to its end we have not forgotten any ideal or principle for which the name of America has been held in honor among the nations and for which it has been our glory to contend in the great generations that went before us. A supreme moment of history has come. The eyes of the people have been opened and they see. The hand of God is laid upon the nations. He will show them favor, I devoutly believe, only if they rise to the clear heights of His own justice and mercy.
Eight months have elapsed since I last had the honor of addressing you. They have been months crowded with events of immense and grave significance for us. I shall not undertake to retail or even to summarize those events. The practical particulars of the part we have played in them will be laid before you in the reports of the Executive Departments. I shall discuss only our present outlook upon these vast affairs, our present duties, and the immediate means of accomplishing the objects we shall hold always in view. I shall not go back to debate the causes of the war. The intolerable wrongs done and planned against us by the sinister masters of Germany have long since become too grossly obvious and odious to every true American to need to be rehearsed. But I shall ask you to consider again and with a very grave scrutiny our objectives and the measures by which we mean to attain them; for the purpose of discussion here in this place is action, and our action must move straight towards definite ends. Our object is, of course, to win the war; and we shall not slacken or suffer ourselves to be diverted until it is won. But it is worth while asking and answering the question, When shall we consider the war won? From one point of view it is not necessary to broach this fundamental matter. I do not doubt that the American people know what the war is about and what sort of an outcome they will regard as a realization of their purpose in it. As a nation we are united in spirit and intention. I pay little heed to those who tell me otherwise. I hear the voices of dissent; who does not? I hear the criticism and the clamor of the noisily thoughtless and troublesome. I also see men here and there fling themselves in impotent disloyalty against the calm, indomitable power of the nation. I hear men debate peace who understand neither its nature not the way in which we may attain it with uplifted eyes and unbroken spirits. But I know that none of these speaks for the nation. They do not touch the heart of anything. They may safely be left to strut their uneasy hour and be forgotten. But from another point of view I believe that it is necessary to say plainly what we here at the seat of action consider the war to be for and what part we mean to play in the settlement of its searching issues. We are the spokesmen of the American people and they have a right to know whether their purpose is ours. They desire peace by the overcoming of evil, by the defeat once for all of the sinister forces that interrupt peace and render it impossible, and they wish to know how closely our thought runs with theirs and what action we propose. They are impatient with those who desire peace by any sort of compromise--deeply and indignantly impatient--but they will be equally impatient with us if we do not make it plain to them what our objectives are and what we are planning for in seeking to make conquest of peace by arms. I believe that I speak for them when I say two things: First, that this intolerable Thing of which the masters of Germany have shown us the ugly face, this menace of combined intrigue and force which we now see so clearly as the German power, a Thing without conscience or honor or capacity for covenanted peace, must be crushed and, if it be not utterly brought to an end, at least shut out from the friendly intercourse of the nations; and, second, that when this Thing and its power are indeed defeated and the time comes that we can discuss peace--when the German people have spokesmen whose word we can believe and when those spokesmen are ready in the name of their people to accept the common judgment of the nations as to what shall henceforth be the bases of law and of covenant for the life of the world--we shall be willing and glad to pay the full price for peace, and pay it ungrudgingly. We know what that price will be. It will be full, impartial justice--justice done at every point and to every nation that the final settlement must affect, our enemies as well as our friends. You catch, with me, the voices of humanity that are in the air. They grow daily more audible, more articulate, more persuasive, and they come from the hearts of men everywhere. They insist that the war shall not end in vindictive action of any kind; that no nation or people shall be robbed or punished because the irresponsible rulers of a single country have themselves done deep and abominable wrong. It is this thought that has been expressed in the formula "No annexations, no contributions, no punitive indemnities." Just because this crude formula expresses the instinctive judgment as to right of plain men everywhere it has been made diligent use of by the masters of German intrigue to lead the people of Russia astray, and the people of every other country their agents could reach, in order that a premature peace might be brought about before autocracy has been taught its final and convincing lesson, and the people of the world put in control of their own destinies. But the fact that a wrong use has been made of a just idea is no reason why a right use should not be made of it. It ought to be brought under the patronage of its real friends. Let it be said again that autocracy must first be shown the utter futility of its claims to power or leadership in the modern world. It is impossible to apply any standard of justice so long as such forces are unchecked and undefeated as the present masters of Germany command. Not until that has been done can Right be set up as arbiter and peace-maker among the nations. But when that has been done--as, God willing, it assuredly will be--we shall at last be free to do an unprecedented thing, and this is the time to avow our purpose to do it. We shall be free to base peace on generosity and justice, to the exclusion of all selfish claims to advantage even on the part of the victors. Let there be no misunderstanding. Our present and immediate task is to win the war, and nothing shall turn us aside from it until it is accomplished. Every power and resource we possess, whether of men, of money, or of materials, is being devoted and will continue to be devoted to that purpose until it is achieved. Those who desire to bring peace about before that purpose is achieved I counsel to carry their advice elsewhere. We will not entertain it. We shall regard the war as won only when the German people say to us, through properly accredited representatives, that they are ready to agree to a settlement based upon justice and the reparation of the wrongs their rulers have done. They have done a wrong to Belgium which must be repaired. They have established a power over other lands and peoples than their own--over the great Empire of Austria-Hungary, over hitherto free Balkan states, over Turkey, and within Asia--which must be relinquished. Germany's success by skill, by industry, by knowledge, by enterprise we did not grudge or oppose, but admired, rather. She had built up for herself a real empire of trade and influence, secured by the peace of the world. We were content to abide the rivalries of manufacture, science, and commerce that were involved for us in her success and stand or fall as we had or did not have the brains and the initiative to surpass her. But at the moment when she had conspicuously won her triumphs of peace she threw them away, to establish in their stead what the world will no longer permit to be established, military and political domination by arms, by which to oust where she could not excel the rivals she most feared and hated. The peace we make must remedy that wrong. It must deliver the once fair lands and happy peoples of Belgium and northern France from the Prussian conquest and the Prussian menace, but it must also deliver the peoples of Austria-Hungary, the peoples of the Balkans, and the peoples of Turkey, alike in Europe and in Asia, from the impudent and alien dominion of the Prussian military and commercial autocracy. We owe it, however, to ourselves to say that we do not wish in any way to impair or to rearrange the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is no affair of ours what they do with their own life, either industrially or politically. We do not purpose or desire to dictate to them in any way. We only desire to see that their affairs are left in their own hands, in all matters, great or small. We shall hope to secure for the peoples of the Balkan peninsula and for the people of the Turkish Empire the right and opportunity to make their own lives safe, their own fortunes secure against oppression or injustice and from the dictation of foreign courts or parties. And our attitude and purpose with regard to Germany herself are of a like kind. We intend no wrong against the German Empire, no interference with her internal affairs. We should deem either the one or the other absolutely unjustifiable, absolutely contrary to the principles we have professed to live by and to hold most sacred throughout our life as a nation. The people of Germany are being told by the men whom they now permit to deceive them and to act as their masters that they are fighting for the very life and existence of their Empire, a war of desperate self-defense against deliberate aggression. Nothing could be more grossly or wantonly false, and we must seek by the utmost openness and candor as to our real aims to convince them of its falseness. We are in fact fighting for their emancipation from fear, along with our own--from the fear as well as from the fact of unjust attack by neighbors or rivals or schemers after world empire. No one is threatening the existence or the independence or the peaceful enterprise of the German Empire. The worst that can happen to the detriment of the German people is this, that if they should still, after the war is over, continue to be obliged to live under ambitious and intriguing masters interested to disturb the peace of the world, men or classes of men whom the other peoples of the world could not trust, it might be impossible to admit them to the partnership of nations which must henceforth guarantee the world's peace. That partnership must be a partnership of peoples, not a mere partnership of governments. It might be impossible, also, in such untoward circumstances, to admit Germany to the free economic intercourse which must inevitably spring out of the other partnerships of a real peace. But there would be no aggression in that; and such a situation, inevitable because of distrust, would in the very nature of things sooner or later cure itself, by processes which would assuredly set in. The wrongs, the very deep wrongs, committed in this war will have to be righted. That of course. But they cannot and must not be righted by the commission of similar wrongs against Germany and her allies. The world will not permit the commission of similar wrongs as a means of reparation and settlement. Statesmen must by this time have learned that the opinion of the world is everywhere wide awake and fully comprehends the issues involved. No representative of any self-governed nation will dare disregard it by attempting any such covenants of selfishness and compromise as were entered into at the Congress of Vienna. The thought of the plain people here and everywhere throughout the world, the people who enjoy no privilege and have very simple and unsophisticated standards of right and wrong, is the air all governments must henceforth breathe if they would live. It is in the full disclosing light of that thought that all policies must be conceived and executed in this midday hour of the world's life. German rulers have been able to upset the peace of the world only because the German people were not suffered under their tutelage to share the comradeship of the other peoples of the world either in thought or in purpose. They were allowed to have no opinion of their own which might be set up as a rule of conduct for those who exercised authority over them. But the congress that concludes this war will feel the full strength of the tides that run now in the hearts and consciences of free men everywhere. Its conclusions will run with those tides. All these things have been true from the very beginning of this stupendous war; and I cannot help thinking that if they had been made plain at the very outset the sympathy and enthusiasm of the Russian people might have been once for all enlisted on the side of the Allies, suspicion and distrust swept away, and a real and lasting union of purpose effected. Had they believed these things at the very moment of their revolution and had they been confirmed in that belief since, the sad reverses which have recently marked the progress of their affairs towards an ordered and stable government of free men might have been avoided. The Russian people have been poisoned by the very same falsehoods that have kept the German people in the dark, and the poison has been administered by the very same hands. The only possible antidote is the truth. It cannot be uttered too plainly or too often. From every point of view, therefore, it has seemed to be my duty to speak these declarations of purpose, to add these specific interpretations to what I took the liberty of saying to the Senate in January. Our entrance into the war has not altered our attitude towards the settlement that must come when it is over. When I said in January that the nations of the world were entitled not only to free pathways upon the sea but also to assured and unmolested access to those pathways I was thinking, and I am thinking now, not of the smaller and weaker nations alone, which need our countenance and support, but also of the great and powerful nations, and of our present enemies as well as our present associates in the war. I was thinking, and am thinking now, of Austria herself, among the rest, as well as of Serbia and of Poland. Justice and equality of rights can be had only at a great price. We are seeking permanent, not temporary, foundations for the peace of the world and must seek them candidly and fearlessly. As always, the right will prove to be the expedient. What shall we do, then, to push this great war of freedom and justice to its righteous conclusion? We must clear away with a thorough hand all impediments to success and we must make every adjustment of law that will facilitate the full and free use of our whole capacity and force as a fighting unit. One very embarrassing obstacle that stands in our way is that we are at war with Germany but not with her allies. I therefore very earnestly recommend that the Congress immediately declare the United States in a state of war with Austria-Hungary. Does it seem strange to you that this should be the conclusion of the argument I have just addressed to you? It is not. It is in fact the inevitable logic of what I have said. Austria-Hungary is for the time being not her own mistress but simply the vassal of the German Government. We must face the facts as they are and act upon them without sentiment in this stern business. The government of Austria-Hungary is not acting upon its own initiative or in response to the wishes and feelings of its own peoples but as the instrument of another nation. We must meet its force with our own and regard the Central Powers as but one. The war can be successfully conducted in no other way. The same logic would lead also to a declaration of war against Turkey and Bulgaria. They also are the tools of Germany. But they are mere tools and do not yet stand in the direct path of our necessary action. We shall go wherever the necessities of this war carry us, but it seems to me that we should go only where immediate and practical considerations lead us and not heed any others. The financial and military measures which must be adopted will suggest themselves as the war and its undertakings develop, but I will take the liberty of proposing to you certain other acts of legislation which seem to me to be needed for the support of the war and for the release of our whole force and energy. It will be necessary to extend in certain particulars the legislation of the last session with regard to alien enemies; and also necessary, I believe, to create a very definite and particular control over the entrance and departure of all persons into and from the United States. Legislation should be enacted defining as a criminal offense every willful violation of the presidential proclamations relating to alien enemies promulgated under section 4067 of the Revised Statutes and providing appropriate punishments; and women as well as men should be included under the terms of the acts placing restraints upon alien enemies. It is likely that as time goes on many alien enemies will be willing to be fed and housed at the expense of the Government in the detention camps and it would be the purpose of the legislation I have suggested to confine offenders among them in penitentiaries and other similar institutions where they could be made to work as other criminals do. Recent experience has convinced me that the Congress must go further in authorizing the Government to set limits to prices. The law of supply and demand, I am sorry to say, has been replaced by the law of unrestrained selfishness. While we have eliminated profiteering in several branches of industry it still runs impudently rampant in others. The farmers, for example, complain with a great deal of justice that, while the regulation of food prices restricts their incomes, no restraints are placed upon the prices of most of the things they must themselves purchase; and similar inequities obtain on all sides. It is imperatively necessary that the consideration of the full use of the water power of the country and also the consideration of the systematic and yet economical development of such of the natural resources of the country as are still under the control of the federal government should be immediately resumed and affirmatively and constructively dealt with at the earliest possible moment. The pressing need of such legislation is daily becoming more obvious. The legislation proposed at the last session with regard to regulated combinations among our exporters, in order to provide for our foreign trade a more effective organization and method of cooperation, ought by all means to be completed at this session. And I beg that the members of the House of Representatives will permit me to express the opinion that it will be impossible to deal in any but a very wasteful and extravagant fashion with the enormous appropriations of the public moneys which must continue to be made, if the war is to be properly sustained, unless the House will consent to return to its former practice of initiating and preparing all appropriation bills through a single committee, in order that responsibility may be centered, expenditures standardized and made uniform, and waste and duplication as much as possible avoided. Additional legislation may also become necessary before the present Congress again adjourns in order to effect the most efficient coordination and operation of the railway and other transportation systems of the country; but to that I shall, if circumstances should demand, call the attention of the Congress upon another occasion. If I have overlooked anything that ought to be done for the more effective conduct of the war, your own counsels will supply the omission. What I am perfectly clear about is that in the present session of the Congress our whole attention and energy should be concentrated on the vigorous, rapid, and successful prosecution of the great task of winning the war. We can do this with all the greater zeal and enthusiasm because we know that for us this is a war of high principle, debased by no selfish ambition of conquest or spoliation; because we know, and all the world knows, that we have been forced into it to save the very institutions we live under from corruption and destruction. The purposes of the Central Powers strike straight at the very heart of everything we believe in; their methods of warfare outrage every principle of humanity and of knightly honor; their intrigue has corrupted the very thought and spirit of many of our people; their sinister and secret diplomacy has sought to take our very territory away from us and disrupt the Union of the States. Our safety would be at an end, our honor forever sullied and brought into contempt were we to permit their triumph. They are striking at the very existence of democracy and liberty. It is because it is for us a war of high, disinterested purpose, in which all the free peoples of the world are banded together for the vindication of right, a war for the preservation of our nation and of all that it has held dear of principle and of purpose, that we feel ourselves doubly constrained to propose for its outcome only that which is righteous and of irreproachable intention, for our foes as well as for our friends. The because being just and holy, the settlement must be of like motive and quality. For this we can fight, but for nothing less noble or less worthy of our traditions. For this because we entered the war and for this because will we battle until the last gun is fired. I have spoken plainly because this seems to me the time when it is most necessary to speak plainly, in order that all the world may know that even in the heat and ardor of the struggle and when our whole thought is of carrying the war through to its end we have not forgotten any ideal or principle for which the name of America has been held in honor among the nations and for which it has been our glory to contend in the great generations that went before us. A supreme moment of history has come. The eyes of the people have been opened and they see. The hand of God is laid upon the nations. He will show them favor, I devoutly believe, only if they rise to the clear heights of His own justice and mercy.
eight months have elapsed since i last had the honor of addressing you they have been months crowded with events of immense and grave significance for us i shall not undertake to retail or even to summarize those events the practical particulars of the part we have played in them will be laid before you in the reports of the executive departments i shall discuss only our present outlook upon these vast affairs our present duties and the immediate means of accomplishing the objects we shall hold always in view i shall not go back to debate the causes of the war the intolerable wrongs done and planned against us by the sinister masters of germany have long since become too grossly obvious and odious to every true american to need to be rehearsed but i shall ask you to consider again and with a very grave scrutiny our objectives and the measures by which we mean to attain them for the purpose of discussion here in this place is action and our action must move straight towards definite ends our object is of course to win the war and we shall not slacken or suffer ourselves to be diverted until it is won but it is worth while asking and answering the question when shall we consider the war won from one point of view it is not necessary to broach this fundamental matter i do not doubt that the american people know what the war is about and what sort of an outcome they will regard as a realization of their purpose in it as a nation we are united in spirit and intention i pay little heed to those who tell me otherwise i hear the voices of dissent who does not i hear the criticism and the clamor of the noisily thoughtless and troublesome i also see men here and there fling themselves in impotent disloyalty against the calm indomitable power of the nation i hear men debate peace who understand neither its nature not the way in which we may attain it with uplifted eyes and unbroken spirits but i know that none of these speaks for the nation they do not touch the heart of anything they may safely be left to strut their uneasy hour and be forgotten but from another point of view i believe that it is necessary to say plainly what we here at the seat of action consider the war to be for and what part we mean to play in the settlement of its searching issues we are the spokesmen of the american people and they have a right to know whether their purpose is ours they desire peace by the overcoming of evil by the defeat once for all of the sinister forces that interrupt peace and render it impossible and they wish to know how closely our thought runs with theirs and what action we propose they are impatient with those who desire peace by any sort of compromise deeply and indignantly impatient but they will be equally impatient with us if we do not make it plain to them what our objectives are and what we are planning for in seeking to make conquest of peace by arms i believe that i speak for them when i say two things first that this intolerable thing of which the masters of germany have shown us the ugly face this menace of combined intrigue and force which we now see so clearly as the german power a thing without conscience or honor or capacity for covenanted peace must be crushed and if it be not utterly brought to an end at least shut out from the friendly intercourse of the nations and second that when this thing and its power are indeed defeated and the time comes that we can discuss peace when the german people have spokesmen whose word we can believe and when those spokesmen are ready in the name of their people to accept the common judgment of the nations as to what shall henceforth be the bases of law and of covenant for the life of the world we shall be willing and glad to pay the full price for peace and pay it ungrudgingly we know what that price will be it will be full impartial justice justice done at every point and to every nation that the final settlement must affect our enemies as well as our friends you catch with me the voices of humanity that are in the air they grow daily more audible more articulate more persuasive and they come from the hearts of men everywhere they insist that the war shall not end in vindictive action of any kind that no nation or people shall be robbed or punished because the irresponsible rulers of a single country have themselves done deep and abominable wrong it is this thought that has been expressed in the formula no annexations no contributions no punitive indemnities just because this crude formula expresses the instinctive judgment as to right of plain men everywhere it has been made diligent use of by the masters of german intrigue to lead the people of russia astray and the people of every other country their agents could reach in order that a premature peace might be brought about before autocracy has been taught its final and convincing lesson and the people of the world put in control of their own destinies but the fact that a wrong use has been made of a just idea is no reason why a right use should not be made of it it ought to be brought under the patronage of its real friends let it be said again that autocracy must first be shown the utter futility of its claims to power or leadership in the modern world it is impossible to apply any standard of justice so long as such forces are unchecked and undefeated as the present masters of germany command not until that has been done can right be set up as arbiter and among the nations but when that has been done as god willing it assuredly will be we shall at last be free to do an unprecedented thing and this is the time to avow our purpose to do it we shall be free to base peace on generosity and justice to the exclusion of all selfish claims to advantage even on the part of the victors let there be no misunderstanding our present and immediate task is to win the war and nothing shall turn us aside from it until it is accomplished every power and resource we possess whether of men of money or of materials is being devoted and will continue to be devoted to that purpose until it is achieved those who desire to bring peace about before that purpose is achieved i counsel to carry their advice elsewhere we will not entertain it we shall regard the war as won only when the german people say to us through properly accredited representatives that they are ready to agree to a settlement based upon justice and the reparation of the wrongs their rulers have done they have done a wrong to belgium which must be repaired they have established a power over other lands and peoples than their own over the great empire of over hitherto free balkan states over turkey and within asia which must be relinquished germany success by skill by industry by knowledge by enterprise we did not grudge or oppose but admired rather she had built up for herself a real empire of trade and influence secured by the peace of the world we were content to abide the rivalries of manufacture science and commerce that were involved for us in her success and stand or fall as we had or did not have the brains and the initiative to surpass her but at the moment when she had conspicuously won her triumphs of peace she threw them away to establish in their stead what the world will no longer permit to be established military and political domination by arms by which to oust where she could not excel the rivals she most feared and hated the peace we make must remedy that wrong it must deliver the once fair lands and happy peoples of belgium and northern france from the prussian conquest and the prussian menace but it must also deliver the peoples of the peoples of the balkans and the peoples of turkey alike in europe and in asia from the impudent and alien dominion of the prussian military and commercial autocracy we owe it however to ourselves to say that we do not wish in any way to impair or to rearrange the empire it is no affair of ours what they do with their own life either industrially or politically we do not purpose or desire to dictate to them in any way we only desire to see that their affairs are left in their own hands in all matters great or small we shall hope to secure for the peoples of the balkan peninsula and for the people of the turkish empire the right and opportunity to make their own lives safe their own fortunes secure against oppression or injustice and from the dictation of foreign courts or parties and our attitude and purpose with regard to germany herself are of a like kind we intend no wrong against the german empire no interference with her internal affairs we should deem either the one or the other absolutely unjustifiable absolutely contrary to the principles we have professed to live by and to hold most sacred throughout our life as a nation the people of germany are being told by the men whom they now permit to deceive them and to act as their masters that they are fighting for the very life and existence of their empire a war of desperate against deliberate aggression nothing could be more grossly or wantonly false and we must seek by the utmost openness and candor as to our real aims to convince them of its falseness we are in fact fighting for their emancipation from fear along with our own from the fear as well as from the fact of unjust attack by neighbors or rivals or schemers after world empire no one is threatening the existence or the independence or the peaceful enterprise of the german empire the worst that can happen to the detriment of the german people is this that if they should still after the war is over continue to be obliged to live under ambitious and intriguing masters interested to disturb the peace of the world men or classes of men whom the other peoples of the world could not trust it might be impossible to admit them to the partnership of nations which must henceforth guarantee the world peace that partnership must be a partnership of peoples not a mere partnership of governments it might be impossible also in such untoward circumstances to admit germany to the free economic intercourse which must inevitably spring out of the other partnerships of a real peace but there would be no aggression in that and such a situation inevitable because of distrust would in the very nature of things sooner or later cure itself by processes which would assuredly set in the wrongs the very deep wrongs committed in this war will have to be righted that of course but they can not and must not be righted by the commission of similar wrongs against germany and her allies the world will not permit the commission of similar wrongs as a means of reparation and settlement statesmen must by this time have learned that the opinion of the world is everywhere wide awake and fully comprehends the issues involved no representative of any nation will dare disregard it by attempting any such covenants of selfishness and compromise as were entered into at the congress of vienna the thought of the plain people here and everywhere throughout the world the people who enjoy no privilege and have very simple and unsophisticated standards of right and wrong is the air all governments must henceforth breathe if they would live it is in the full disclosing light of that thought that all policies must be conceived and executed in this midday hour of the world life german rulers have been able to upset the peace of the world only because the german people were not suffered under their tutelage to share the comradeship of the other peoples of the world either in thought or in purpose they were allowed to have no opinion of their own which might be set up as a rule of conduct for those who exercised authority over them but the congress that concludes this war will feel the full strength of the tides that run now in the hearts and consciences of free men everywhere its conclusions will run with those tides all these things have been true from the very beginning of this stupendous war and i can not help thinking that if they had been made plain at the very outset the sympathy and enthusiasm of the russian people might have been once for all enlisted on the side of the allies suspicion and distrust swept away and a real and lasting union of purpose effected had they believed these things at the very moment of their revolution and had they been confirmed in that belief since the sad reverses which have recently marked the progress of their affairs towards an ordered and stable government of free men might have been avoided the russian people have been poisoned by the very same falsehoods that have kept the german people in the dark and the poison has been administered by the very same hands the only possible antidote is the truth it can not be uttered too plainly or too often from every point of view therefore it has seemed to be my duty to speak these declarations of purpose to add these specific interpretations to what i took the liberty of saying to the senate in january our entrance into the war has not altered our attitude towards the settlement that must come when it is over when i said in january that the nations of the world were entitled not only to free pathways upon the sea but also to assured and unmolested access to those pathways i was thinking and i am thinking now not of the smaller and weaker nations alone which need our countenance and support but also of the great and powerful nations and of our present enemies as well as our present associates in the war i was thinking and am thinking now of austria herself among the rest as well as of serbia and of poland justice and equality of rights can be had only at a great price we are seeking permanent not temporary foundations for the peace of the world and must seek them candidly and fearlessly as always the right will prove to be the expedient what shall we do then to push this great war of freedom and justice to its righteous conclusion we must clear away with a thorough hand all impediments to success and we must make every adjustment of law that will facilitate the full and free use of our whole capacity and force as a fighting unit one very embarrassing obstacle that stands in our way is that we are at war with germany but not with her allies i therefore very earnestly recommend that the congress immediately declare the united states in a state of war with does it seem strange to you that this should be the conclusion of the argument i have just addressed to you it is not it is in fact the inevitable logic of what i have said is for the time being not her own mistress but simply the vassal of the german government we must face the facts as they are and act upon them without sentiment in this stern business the government of is not acting upon its own initiative or in response to the wishes and feelings of its own peoples but as the instrument of another nation we must meet its force with our own and regard the central powers as but one the war can be successfully conducted in no other way the same logic would lead also to a declaration of war against turkey and bulgaria they also are the tools of germany but they are mere tools and do not yet stand in the direct path of our necessary action we shall go wherever the necessities of this war carry us but it seems to me that we should go only where immediate and practical considerations lead us and not heed any others the financial and military measures which must be adopted will suggest themselves as the war and its undertakings develop but i will take the liberty of proposing to you certain other acts of legislation which seem to me to be needed for the support of the war and for the release of our whole force and energy it will be necessary to extend in certain particulars the legislation of the last session with regard to alien enemies and also necessary i believe to create a very definite and particular control over the entrance and departure of all persons into and from the united states legislation should be enacted defining as a criminal offense every willful violation of the presidential proclamations relating to alien enemies promulgated under section 4067 of the revised statutes and providing appropriate punishments and women as well as men should be included under the terms of the acts placing restraints upon alien enemies it is likely that as time goes on many alien enemies will be willing to be fed and housed at the expense of the government in the detention camps and it would be the purpose of the legislation i have suggested to confine offenders among them in penitentiaries and other similar institutions where they could be made to work as other criminals do recent experience has convinced me that the congress must go further in authorizing the government to set limits to prices the law of supply and demand i am sorry to say has been replaced by the law of unrestrained selfishness while we have eliminated profiteering in several branches of industry it still runs impudently rampant in others the farmers for example complain with a great deal of justice that while the regulation of food prices restricts their incomes no restraints are placed upon the prices of most of the things they must themselves purchase and similar inequities obtain on all sides it is imperatively necessary that the consideration of the full use of the water power of the country and also the consideration of the systematic and yet economical development of such of the natural resources of the country as are still under the control of the federal government should be immediately resumed and affirmatively and constructively dealt with at the earliest possible moment the pressing need of such legislation is daily becoming more obvious the legislation proposed at the last session with regard to regulated combinations among our exporters in order to provide for our foreign trade a more effective organization and method of cooperation ought by all means to be completed at this session and i beg that the members of the house of representatives will permit me to express the opinion that it will be impossible to deal in any but a very wasteful and extravagant fashion with the enormous appropriations of the public moneys which must continue to be made if the war is to be properly sustained unless the house will consent to return to its former practice of initiating and preparing all appropriation bills through a single committee in order that responsibility may be centered expenditures standardized and made uniform and waste and duplication as much as possible avoided additional legislation may also become necessary before the present congress again adjourns in order to effect the most efficient coordination and operation of the railway and other transportation systems of the country but to that i shall if circumstances should demand call the attention of the congress upon another occasion if i have overlooked anything that ought to be done for the more effective conduct of the war your own counsels will supply the omission what i am perfectly clear about is that in the present session of the congress our whole attention and energy should be concentrated on the vigorous rapid and successful prosecution of the great task of winning the war we can do this with all the greater zeal and enthusiasm because we know that for us this is a war of high principle debased by no selfish ambition of conquest or spoliation because we know and all the world knows that we have been forced into it to save the very institutions we live under from corruption and destruction the purposes of the central powers strike straight at the very heart of everything we believe in their methods of warfare outrage every principle of humanity and of knightly honor their intrigue has corrupted the very thought and spirit of many of our people their sinister and secret diplomacy has sought to take our very territory away from us and disrupt the union of the states our safety would be at an end our honor forever sullied and brought into contempt were we to permit their triumph they are striking at the very existence of democracy and liberty it is because it is for us a war of high disinterested purpose in which all the free peoples of the world are banded together for the vindication of right a war for the preservation of our nation and of all that it has held dear of principle and of purpose that we feel ourselves doubly constrained to propose for its outcome only that which is righteous and of irreproachable intention for our foes as well as for our friends the because being just and holy the settlement must be of like motive and quality for this we can fight but for nothing less noble or less worthy of our traditions for this because we entered the war and for this because will we battle until the last gun is fired i have spoken plainly because this seems to me the time when it is most necessary to speak plainly in order that all the world may know that even in the heat and ardor of the struggle and when our whole thought is of carrying the war through to its end we have not forgotten any ideal or principle for which the name of america has been held in honor among the nations and for which it has been our glory to contend in the great generations that went before us a supreme moment of history has come the eyes of the people have been opened and they see the hand of god is laid upon the nations he will show them favor i devoutly believe only if they rise to the clear heights of his own justice and mercy
eight months elapsed since last honor addressing months crowded events immense grave significance us shall undertake retail even summarize events practical particulars part played laid reports executive departments shall discuss present outlook upon vast affairs present duties immediate means accomplishing objects shall hold always view shall go back debate causes war intolerable wrongs done planned us sinister masters germany long since become grossly obvious odious every true american need rehearsed shall ask consider grave scrutiny objectives measures mean attain purpose discussion place action action must move straight towards definite ends object course win war shall slacken suffer diverted worth asking answering question shall consider war one point view necessary broach fundamental matter doubt american people know war sort outcome regard realization purpose nation united spirit intention pay little heed tell otherwise hear voices dissent hear criticism clamor noisily thoughtless troublesome also see men fling impotent disloyalty calm indomitable power nation hear men debate peace understand neither nature way may attain uplifted eyes unbroken spirits know none speaks nation touch heart anything may safely left strut uneasy hour forgotten another point view believe necessary say plainly seat action consider war part mean play settlement searching issues spokesmen american people right know whether purpose desire peace overcoming evil defeat sinister forces interrupt peace render impossible wish know closely thought runs action propose impatient desire peace sort compromise deeply indignantly impatient equally impatient us make plain objectives planning seeking make conquest peace arms believe speak say two things first intolerable thing masters germany shown us ugly face menace combined intrigue force see clearly german power thing without conscience honor capacity covenanted peace must crushed utterly brought end least shut friendly intercourse nations second thing power indeed defeated time comes discuss peace german people spokesmen whose word believe spokesmen ready name people accept common judgment nations shall henceforth bases law covenant life world shall willing glad pay full price peace pay ungrudgingly know price full impartial justice justice done every point every nation final settlement must affect enemies well friends catch voices humanity air grow daily audible articulate persuasive come hearts men everywhere insist war shall end vindictive action kind nation people shall robbed punished irresponsible rulers single country done deep abominable wrong thought expressed formula annexations contributions punitive indemnities crude formula expresses instinctive judgment right plain men everywhere made diligent use masters german intrigue lead people russia astray people every country agents could reach order premature peace might brought autocracy taught final convincing lesson people world put control destinies fact wrong use made idea reason right use made ought brought patronage real friends let said autocracy must first shown utter futility claims power leadership modern world impossible apply standard justice long forces unchecked undefeated present masters germany command done right set arbiter among nations done god willing assuredly shall last free unprecedented thing time avow purpose shall free base peace generosity justice exclusion selfish claims advantage even part victors let misunderstanding present immediate task win war nothing shall turn us aside accomplished every power resource possess whether men money materials devoted continue devoted purpose achieved desire bring peace purpose achieved counsel carry advice elsewhere entertain shall regard war german people say us properly accredited representatives ready agree settlement based upon justice reparation wrongs rulers done done wrong belgium must repaired established power lands peoples great empire hitherto free balkan states turkey within asia must relinquished germany success skill industry knowledge enterprise grudge oppose admired rather built real empire trade influence secured peace world content abide rivalries manufacture science commerce involved us success stand fall brains initiative surpass moment conspicuously triumphs peace threw away establish stead world longer permit established military political domination arms oust could excel rivals feared hated peace make must remedy wrong must deliver fair lands happy peoples belgium northern france prussian conquest prussian menace must also deliver peoples peoples balkans peoples turkey alike europe asia impudent alien dominion prussian military commercial autocracy owe however say wish way impair rearrange empire affair life either industrially politically purpose desire dictate way desire see affairs left hands matters great small shall hope secure peoples balkan peninsula people turkish empire right opportunity make lives safe fortunes secure oppression injustice dictation foreign courts parties attitude purpose regard germany like kind intend wrong german empire interference internal affairs deem either one absolutely unjustifiable absolutely contrary principles professed live hold sacred throughout life nation people germany told men permit deceive act masters fighting life existence empire war desperate deliberate aggression nothing could grossly wantonly false must seek utmost openness candor real aims convince falseness fact fighting emancipation fear along fear well fact unjust attack neighbors rivals schemers world empire one threatening existence independence peaceful enterprise german empire worst happen detriment german people still war continue obliged live ambitious intriguing masters interested disturb peace world men classes men peoples world could trust might impossible admit partnership nations must henceforth guarantee world peace partnership must partnership peoples mere partnership governments might impossible also untoward circumstances admit germany free economic intercourse must inevitably spring partnerships real peace would aggression situation inevitable distrust would nature things sooner later cure processes would assuredly set wrongs deep wrongs committed war righted course must righted commission similar wrongs germany allies world permit commission similar wrongs means reparation settlement statesmen must time learned opinion world everywhere wide awake fully comprehends issues involved representative nation dare disregard attempting covenants selfishness compromise entered congress vienna thought plain people everywhere throughout world people enjoy privilege simple unsophisticated standards right wrong air governments must henceforth breathe would live full disclosing light thought policies must conceived executed midday hour world life german rulers able upset peace world german people suffered tutelage share comradeship peoples world either thought purpose allowed opinion might set rule conduct exercised authority congress concludes war feel full strength tides run hearts consciences free men everywhere conclusions run tides things true beginning stupendous war help thinking made plain outset sympathy enthusiasm russian people might enlisted side allies suspicion distrust swept away real lasting union purpose effected believed things moment revolution confirmed belief since sad reverses recently marked progress affairs towards ordered stable government free men might avoided russian people poisoned falsehoods kept german people dark poison administered hands possible antidote truth uttered plainly often every point view therefore seemed duty speak declarations purpose add specific interpretations took liberty saying senate january entrance war altered attitude towards settlement must come said january nations world entitled free pathways upon sea also assured unmolested access pathways thinking thinking smaller weaker nations alone need countenance support also great powerful nations present enemies well present associates war thinking thinking austria among rest well serbia poland justice equality rights great price seeking permanent temporary foundations peace world must seek candidly fearlessly always right prove expedient shall push great war freedom justice righteous conclusion must clear away thorough hand impediments success must make every adjustment law facilitate full free use whole capacity force fighting unit one embarrassing obstacle stands way war germany allies therefore earnestly recommend congress immediately declare united states state war seem strange conclusion argument addressed fact inevitable logic said time mistress simply vassal german government must face facts act upon without sentiment stern business government acting upon initiative response wishes feelings peoples instrument another nation must meet force regard central powers one war successfully conducted way logic would lead also declaration war turkey bulgaria also tools germany mere tools yet stand direct path necessary action shall go wherever necessities war carry us seems go immediate practical considerations lead us heed others financial military measures must adopted suggest war undertakings develop take liberty proposing certain acts legislation seem needed support war release whole force energy necessary extend certain particulars legislation last session regard alien enemies also necessary believe create definite particular control entrance departure persons united states legislation enacted defining criminal offense every willful violation presidential proclamations relating alien enemies promulgated section 4067 revised statutes providing appropriate punishments women well men included terms acts placing restraints upon alien enemies likely time goes many alien enemies willing fed housed expense government detention camps would purpose legislation suggested confine offenders among penitentiaries similar institutions could made work criminals recent experience convinced congress must go authorizing government set limits prices law supply demand sorry say replaced law unrestrained selfishness eliminated profiteering several branches industry still runs impudently rampant others farmers example complain great deal justice regulation food prices restricts incomes restraints placed upon prices things must purchase similar inequities obtain sides imperatively necessary consideration full use water power country also consideration systematic yet economical development natural resources country still control federal government immediately resumed affirmatively constructively dealt earliest possible moment pressing need legislation daily becoming obvious legislation proposed last session regard regulated combinations among exporters order provide foreign trade effective organization method cooperation ought means completed session beg members house representatives permit express opinion impossible deal wasteful extravagant fashion enormous appropriations public moneys must continue made war properly sustained unless house consent return former practice initiating preparing appropriation bills single committee order responsibility may centered expenditures standardized made uniform waste duplication much possible avoided additional legislation may also become necessary present congress adjourns order effect efficient coordination operation railway transportation systems country shall circumstances demand call attention congress upon another occasion overlooked anything ought done effective conduct war counsels supply omission perfectly clear present session congress whole attention energy concentrated vigorous rapid successful prosecution great task winning war greater zeal enthusiasm know us war high principle debased selfish ambition conquest spoliation know world knows forced save institutions live corruption destruction purposes central powers strike straight heart everything believe methods warfare outrage every principle humanity knightly honor intrigue corrupted thought spirit many people sinister secret diplomacy sought take territory away us disrupt union states safety would end honor forever sullied brought contempt permit triumph striking existence democracy liberty us war high disinterested purpose free peoples world banded together vindication right war preservation nation held dear principle purpose feel doubly constrained propose outcome righteous irreproachable intention foes well friends holy settlement must like motive quality fight nothing less noble less worthy traditions entered war battle last gun fired spoken plainly seems time necessary speak plainly order world may know even heat ardor struggle whole thought carrying war end forgotten ideal principle name america held honor among nations glory contend great generations went us supreme moment history come eyes people opened see hand god laid upon nations show favor devoutly believe rise clear heights justice mercy
eight month elapse since last honor address month crowd event immense grave significance u shall undertake retail even summarize event practical particular part play laid report executive department shall discuss present outlook upon vast affair present duty immediate mean accomplish object shall hold always view shall go back debate cause war intolerable wrong do plan u sinister master germany long since become grossly obvious odious every true american need rehearse shall ask consider grave scrutiny objective measure mean attain purpose discussion place action action must move straight towards definite end object course win war shall slacken suffer divert worth ask answer question shall consider war one point view necessary broach fundamental matter doubt american people know war sort outcome regard realization purpose nation unite spirit intention pay little heed tell otherwise hear voice dissent hear criticism clamor noisily thoughtless troublesome also see men fling impotent disloyalty calm indomitable power nation hear men debate peace understand neither nature way may attain uplifted eye unbroken spirit know none speaks nation touch heart anything may safely leave strut uneasy hour forgotten another point view believe necessary say plainly seat action consider war part mean play settlement search issue spokesman american people right know whether purpose desire peace overcome evil defeat sinister force interrupt peace render impossible wish know closely think run action propose impatient desire peace sort compromise deeply indignantly impatient equally impatient u make plain objective plan seek make conquest peace arm believe speak say two thing first intolerable thing master germany show u ugly face menace combine intrigue force see clearly german power thing without conscience honor capacity covenant peace must crush utterly brought end least shut friendly intercourse nation second thing power indeed defeat time come discuss peace german people spokesman whose word believe spokesman ready name people accept common judgment nation shall henceforth base law covenant life world shall willing glad pay full price peace pay ungrudgingly know price full impartial justice justice do every point every nation final settlement must affect enemy well friend catch voice humanity air grow daily audible articulate persuasive come heart men everywhere insist war shall end vindictive action kind nation people shall rob punished irresponsible ruler single country do deep abominable wrong thought express formula annexation contribution punitive indemnity crude formula express instinctive judgment right plain men everywhere make diligent use master german intrigue lead people russia astray people every country agent could reach order premature peace might bring autocracy taught final convincing lesson people world put control destiny fact wrong use make idea reason right use make ought bring patronage real friend let say autocracy must first show utter futility claim power leadership modern world impossible apply standard justice long force unchecked undefeated present master germany command do right set arbiter among nation do god willing assuredly shall last free unprecedented thing time avow purpose shall free base peace generosity justice exclusion selfish claim advantage even part victor let misunderstand present immediate task win war nothing shall turn u aside accomplish every power resource possess whether men money material devote continue devote purpose achieve desire bring peace purpose achieve counsel carry advice elsewhere entertain shall regard war german people say u properly accredit representative ready agree settlement base upon justice reparation wrong ruler do do wrong belgium must repair established power land people great empire hitherto free balkan state turkey within asia must relinquish germany success skill industry knowledge enterprise grudge oppose admire rather build real empire trade influence secure peace world content abide rivalry manufacture science commerce involve u success stand fall brain initiative surpass moment conspicuously triumphs peace throw away establish stead world longer permit establish military political domination arm oust could excel rival fear hat peace make must remedy wrong must deliver fair land happy people belgium northern france prussian conquest prussian menace must also deliver people people balkan people turkey alike europe asia impudent alien dominion prussian military commercial autocracy owe however say wish way impair rearrange empire affair life either industrially politically purpose desire dictate way desire see affair leave hand matter great small shall hope secure people balkan peninsula people turkish empire right opportunity make life safe fortune secure oppression injustice dictation foreign court party attitude purpose regard germany like kind intend wrong german empire interference internal affair deem either one absolutely unjustifiable absolutely contrary principle profess live hold sacred throughout life nation people germany tell men permit deceive act master fight life existence empire war desperate deliberate aggression nothing could grossly wantonly false must seek utmost openness candor real aim convince falseness fact fight emancipation fear along fear well fact unjust attack neighbor rival schemer world empire one threaten existence independence peaceful enterprise german empire bad happen detriment german people still war continue oblige live ambitious intrigue master interested disturb peace world men class men people world could trust might impossible admit partnership nation must henceforth guarantee world peace partnership must partnership people mere partnership government might impossible also untoward circumstance admit germany free economic intercourse must inevitably spring partnership real peace would aggression situation inevitable distrust would nature thing sooner later cure process would assuredly set wrong deep wrong commit war righted course must right commission similar wrong germany ally world permit commission similar wrong mean reparation settlement statesman must time learn opinion world everywhere wide awake fully comprehend issue involve representative nation dare disregard attempt covenant selfishness compromise enter congress vienna think plain people everywhere throughout world people enjoy privilege simple unsophisticated standard right wrong air government must henceforth breathe would live full disclose light thought policy must conceive execute midday hour world life german ruler able upset peace world german people suffer tutelage share comradeship people world either think purpose allow opinion might set rule conduct exercise authority congress conclude war feel full strength tide run heart conscience free men everywhere conclusion run tides thing true begin stupendous war help think make plain outset sympathy enthusiasm russian people might enlist side ally suspicion distrust sweep away real last union purpose effect believed thing moment revolution confirm belief since sad revers recently mark progress affair towards order stable government free men might avoid russian people poison falsehood kept german people dark poison administer hand possible antidote truth utter plainly often every point view therefore seem duty speak declaration purpose add specific interpretation take liberty say senate january entrance war alter attitude towards settlement must come say january nation world entitle free pathway upon sea also assure unmolested access pathway think think small weaker nation alone need countenance support also great powerful nation present enemy well present associate war think think austria among rest well serbia poland justice equality right great price seek permanent temporary foundation peace world must seek candidly fearlessly always right prove expedient shall push great war freedom justice righteous conclusion must clear away thorough hand impediment success must make every adjustment law facilitate full free use whole capacity force fight unit one embarrassing obstacle stand way war germany ally therefore earnestly recommend congress immediately declare united state state war seem strange conclusion argument address fact inevitable logic say time mistress simply vassal german government must face fact act upon without sentiment stern business government act upon initiative response wish feeling people instrument another nation must meet force regard central power one war successfully conduct way logic would lead also declaration war turkey bulgaria also tool germany mere tool yet stand direct path necessary action shall go wherever necessity war carry u seem go immediate practical consideration lead u heed others financial military measure must adopt suggest war undertaking develop take liberty propose certain act legislation seem need support war release whole force energy necessary extend certain particular legislation last session regard alien enemy also necessary believe create definite particular control entrance departure person united state legislation enact define criminal offense every willful violation presidential proclamation relate alien enemy promulgate section 4067 revise statute provide appropriate punishment woman well men include term act place restraint upon alien enemy likely time go many alien enemy willing fed house expense government detention camp would purpose legislation suggest confine offender among penitentiary similar institution could make work criminal recent experience convince congress must go authorizing government set limit price law supply demand sorry say replace law unrestrained selfishness eliminate profiteer several branch industry still run impudently rampant others farmer example complain great deal justice regulation food price restrict incomes restraint place upon price thing must purchase similar inequity obtain side imperatively necessary consideration full use water power country also consideration systematic yet economical development natural resource country still control federal government immediately resume affirmatively constructively dealt early possible moment press need legislation daily become obvious legislation propose last session regard regulate combination among exporter order provide foreign trade effective organization method cooperation ought mean complete session beg member house representative permit express opinion impossible deal wasteful extravagant fashion enormous appropriation public money must continue make war properly sustain unless house consent return former practice initiate prepare appropriation bill single committee order responsibility may center expenditure standardize make uniform waste duplication much possible avoid additional legislation may also become necessary present congress adjourn order effect efficient coordination operation railway transportation system country shall circumstance demand call attention congress upon another occasion overlook anything ought do effective conduct war counsel supply omission perfectly clear present session congress whole attention energy concentrate vigorous rapid successful prosecution great task win war great zeal enthusiasm know u war high principle debase selfish ambition conquest spoliation know world know force save institution live corruption destruction purpose central power strike straight heart everything believe method warfare outrage every principle humanity knightly honor intrigue corrupt thought spirit many people sinister secret diplomacy seek take territory away u disrupt union state safety would end honor forever sully brought contempt permit triumph strike existence democracy liberty u war high disinterested purpose free people world band together vindication right war preservation nation hold dear principle purpose feel doubly constrain propose outcome righteous irreproachable intention foe well friends holy settlement must like motive quality fight nothing less noble less worthy tradition enter war battle last gun fire spoken plainly seem time necessary speak plainly order world may know even heat ardor struggle whole think carry war end forgotten ideal principle name america hold honor among nation glory contend great generation go u supreme moment history come eye people open see hand god lay upon nation show favor devoutly believe rise clear height justice mercy