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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1915)
-f -T-, " "V'V.'ym?'ffi$ The Commoner VOL. 15, NO. 12 12 The President's, Annual Address to Congress Delivered by President Wilson at a Joint Session of the Two Houses of Congress, December 7, 1915 w kv v to'. lt, (If tV m ' . Kr ?" tv-Vi- Gentlemen of the Congress: Since I last had the privilege of addressing you on the state of the Union the war of nations on the other side of the sea, which had then cnly begun to disclose Its portcntious proportions, has extended its threatening and sinister scope until it has Bwept within its flame some portion of every quarter of the globe, not excepting our own hemisphere, has altered the whole face of international af fairs, and now presents a prospect of reorgani sation and reconstruction such as statesmen and peoples have never been called upon to attempt before. We have stood apart, studiously neutral. It was our manifest duty to do so. Not only did wo have no part or interest in the policies which seem to have brought the conflict on; it was necessary, if a universal catastrophe was to be avoided, that a limit should be set to the sweep of destructive war and that some part of the great family of nations should keep the process es of peace alive, if only to prevent collective economic ruin and the breakdown throughout the world of the industries by which its popu lations are fed and sustained. It was manifest ly the duty of the self-governed nations of this hemisphere to redress, if possible, the balance of economic loss and confusion in the other, if they could do nothing more. In the day of re adjustment and recuperation we earnestly hope and believe that they can be of infinite service. In this neutrality, to which they were bidden not only by their separate life and their habit ual detachment from the politics of Europe but also by a clear perception of, international duty, the states of America have become conscious of a now and more vital community of interest and moral partnership in affairs, more clearly con scious of the many cjommon sympathies and in terests and duties which bid them stand to gether. There was a time in the early days of our own great nation and of the republics fighting their way to independence in Central and South Amer ica when the government of the United States looked upon itself as in some sort the guardian of the republics to the south of her against any encroachments or efforts at political control from the other side of the water; felt it its duty to play the part even without invitation from them ; and I think that we can claim that the task was undertaken with a true and disinterested en thusiasm for the freedom of the Americas and the unmolested self-government of her independ ent peoples. But it was always difficult to main tain such a role without offence to the pride of the peoples whose freedom of action wo sought to protect, and without provoking serious mis conception of our motives, and every thoughtful man of affairs must welcome the altered circum stances of the new day in whose light wo now stand, when there is no claim of guardianship or of thought of wards but, instead, a full and honor able association as of partners between ourselves and our neighbors, in the interest of all America, north and south. Our concern for the inde pendence and prosperity of the states of Central and South America is not altered. We retain unabated the spirit that has Inspired us through out the whole life of our government and which was so frankly put into words by President Monroe. We still mean always to make a com mon cause of national independence and of po litical liberty in America. But that purpose is now better understood ao far as it concerns our selves. It is known not to bo a selfish purpose. It ia known to have in it no thought of taking advantage of any government in this hemi sphere or playing its political fortunes for our own benefit. All the governments of America listand, so far as we are concerned, upon a footing pt genuine equality and unquestioned independ ence. , &- .UNITED STATES TUT TO TEST IN MEXICO; HOPEFULLY AWATT8 RE-BIRTH OP .T REPUBLIC v We "have been put to the test in the case of , Mexico, and we have stood the teal. Whether wo have benefited Mexico by the course we have pursued remains to be seen. Her fortunes are in her own hands. But we have at least proved that we will not take advantage of her in her distress and undertake to impose upon her an order and government of our own choosing. Liberty is often a fierce and intractable thing, to which no bounds can be set, and to which no bounds of a few men's choosing ought ever to be set. Every American who has drunk at the true fountains of principle and tradition must subscribe without reservation to the high doctrine of the Virginia Bill of Rights, which in the great days in which our government was set up was everywhere amongst us accepted as the creed of free men. That doctrine is, "That gov ernment is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community ;" that "of all the various modes and forms of government, that is the best which is capable of producing the great est degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of mal administration; and that, when any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal." We have unhesitatingly applied that heroic principle to the case of Mexico, and-now hopefully await the rebirth of the troubled re public, which had so much of which to purge itself and so little sympathy from any outside quarter in the radical but necessary process. We will aid and befriend Mexico, but we will not co erce her; and our course with regard to her ought to be sufficient proof to all America that we seek no political suzerainty or selfish con trol. The moral is, that the states of America are not hostile rivals but co-operating friends, and that their growing sense of community of inter est, alike in matters political and in matters economic, is likely to give them a new sig nificance as factors in international affairs and: in the political history of the world. It presents them as in a very deep and true sense a unit in world affairs, spiritual partners, standing to gether because thinking together, quick with common sympathies and common ideals. Sep arated they are subject to all the cross currents of the confused politics of a world of hostile rivalries; united in spirit and purpose they can not be disappointed of their peaceful destiny. This is Pan-Americanism. 4 has none of the spirit of empire in it. It is the embodiment, the effectual embodiment, of the spirit of law and independence and liberty and mutual service. A very notable body of men recently met in the city of Washington, at the invitation and as the guests of this government, whose delibera tions are likely to be looked back to as marking a memorable turning point in the history of America. They were representative spokesmen of the several independent states of this hemi sphere and were assembled to discuss the finan cial and commercial relations of the republics of the two continents which nature and political fortune have so intimately linked together I earnestly recommend to your perusal the reports of their proceedings and of the actions of their committees. You will get from them, I think, a fresh conception of the ease and intelligence and advantage with which Americans of both con tinents may draw together in practical co-operation and of what the material foundations of this hopeful partnership of interest must con sist, of how we should build them and of how bSildingf that We SUUld hasten th There is, I venture to point out, an esnecial significance juet now attaching to this who matter of drawing the Americas together in bonds of honorable partnership and mutual ad vaage because of th0 economic readjustments which the world must inevitably witness within the next generation, when peace shall havl at last resumed its healthful tasks. In the nerform ance of these tasks I believe tte America? to be destined to play their parts together I am interested to fix your attention on this prosneS now because unless you take it within your view and permit the full significance of it to com Jand your thought I can not find the right 12 which, to set forth the particular matter that lies at the very front of my whole thought as I address you today. I mean national defense. DEMAND UNMOLESTED DEVELOPMENT WITH PROTECTION PROM FOREIGN AGGRESSION No one who really comprehends the spirit of the great people for whom we are appointed to speak can fail to perceive that their passion is for peace, 'their genius best displayed in the practice of the arts of peace. Great democracies are not belligerent. They do not seek or desire war. Their thought is of individual liberty and of the free labor that supports life and the un censored thought that quickens it. Conquest and dominion are not in our reckoning, or agree able to our principles. But just because we de mand unmolested development and the undis turbed government of our own lives upon our own principles of right and liberty, we resent, from whatever quarter it may come, the aggres sion we ourselves will not practice. We insist upon security in prosecuting our self-chosen lines of national development. We do more than that. We demand it also for others. We do not confine our enthusiasm for individual liberty and free national development to the incidents and movements of affairs which affect only our selves. We feel it wherever there is a people that tries to walk in these difficult paths of in dependence and right. From the first we have made common cause with all partisans of lib erty on this side 'the sea, and have deemed it as important that our neighbors should be free from all outside domination as that we ourselves should be; have set America aside as a whole for the uses of independent nations and political freemen. Out of such thoughts grow all our policies. We regard war merely as a means of asserting the rights of a people against aggression. And we are as fiercely jealous of cotfrciye or dictatorial power within our own nation as of aggression from without. We will not maintain a standing army except for uses which-are as necessary in times of peace as in times of war; and we shall always see to it that our military peace estab lishment is no larger than is actually and con tinuously needed for the uses of days in which no enemies move against us. But we do believe In a body of free citizens ready and sufficient to take care of themselves and of the governments which they have set up to serve them. In our constitutions themselves we have commanded that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed," and our confidence has been, that our safety in times of danger would lie in the rising of the nation to take care of itself, as the farmers rose at Lexington. But war has never been a mere matter of men and guns. It is a thing of disciplined might. If our citizens are ever to fight effectively upon a sudden summons, they must know how modern fighting is done, and what to do when the sum mons comes to render themselves immediately available and immediately effective. And the government must be their servant in this mat ter, must supply them with the training they need to take care of themselves and of it. The military arm of their givernment, which they Will not allow to direct them, they may properly use to serve them and make their independence secure, and not their own independence mere ly but the rights also of those with whom they have made common cause, should they also he put in jeopardy. They must be fitted to play the great role in the world, and particularly in this hemisphere, for which they are qualified by prin ciple and by chastened ambition to play. It is with these ideals in mind that the plans vOf the department of war for more adequate na tional defense were conceived which will be laid before you, and which I urge you to sanction and put into effect as soon as they can be prop erly scrutinized and discussed. They seem to me the essential first steps, and they seem to me for the present sufficient. They contemplate an increase of the stand ing force of the regular army from its Prese"1 strength of five thousand and twenty-three ow cers and one hundred and two thousand mu hundred and etehtv-flve enlisted men of an sf vices to a strength of seven thousand one uuu mi .;; T . p - if jO-i