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The Commoner
.VOL. 14, NO. 12
10
President Wilson's Annual Message to Congress
1,1 Delivered at a Joint Session of the Two Houses of. Congress, December S, 1914
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GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS:
The session upon which you aro' now entering
will b.o the closing session of tho sixty-third
congress, a congress, I venture to say, which will
long ho remembered for tho great body of
thoughtful and constructive work which it has
done, in loyal response to tho thought and needs
of tho country. I should Hko in this address to
review tho notable record and try to make ade
quate assessment of it; but no doubt we stand
too near tho work that has been done and aro
ourselves too much part of It to play the part of
historians toward it.
Moreover, our thoughts are now more of tho
future than of tho past. While we have worked
at, our tasks of peacd the circumstances of the
whole ago have been altered by war., What we
have done for our own land and our own people
wo 'did with the best that was in us, whether of
character or of intelligence, with sober enthusi
asm and a confidence in the principles, upon
which we were acting which sustained us at
every step of the difficult undertaking; but. it is
done. It hag passed from our hands. It is, now
an established part of the. legislation of the coun
try. Its usefulness, its effects will disclose them;
selves in experience. What chiefly strikes us
notf , a,s wo look about . us during these clos
ing days of a year which will be forever memor
able in tho history of. the world, ,is that we face
new tasks, have been facing them the.se six
months, must face them in tho months to pome
face them without partisan feeling, like men
who have forgotten everything but a, common
duty and tho fact that wo are representatives of
a great people whose thought is not of. us but
of what America owes to herself and to ali man
kind In such circumstances as these .upon, wtiiqh
we look amazed and anxious.
War has interrupted tho means of ; trade. npt;
only but also the process ,of production. . In!
Europe it is destroying men and resources whole
sale, and upon a scale .unprecedented and ap
palling. There is reason to fear that the time
is near, if it be not already at hand, when sev
eral of the countries of Europe, will find it diffi
cult to do for their people what they "have hith
erto been always easily able to do' many essen
tial and fundamental things. At, any rate, they,
will need our help and our manifold services. as
they have never needed them, before ;; and .we
should bo .ready, more fit and ready "thanwe .
have ever been.
LOOKING-TO THE UNITED STATES
It is of equal consequence' .that the nations,
whom' Europe has usually supp'lled with innu-'
merable articles, of manufacture, arid, commerce,
of which .they are in constant .n' and yrl'thput
which, their economic development limits an$
stands still can now get only a smal part of
what they formerly imported and' eagerly' look
to us to supply their all but empty markets. This,
is particularly true of our Own, neighbors, the
states, great and small, of Central and'Squtii
America. Their lines of trade have hitherto run
chiefly athwart the seas, not to our ports but to
tho ports of Great Britain and of the older continent-of
Europe. I do not stop to inquire why,
or to make any comment on probable causes.
What interests us just now is not the explana-.
tlou but the fact, and our duty and opportunity
in the presence of it. Here are markets which
we must supply and we must find-means of ac
tion. The United States, this great people 'for
whom wo Bpeak and act, should be ready, as
never before; to serve itself and to serve inan
. kind; ready with its resources, its emergencies,
its forces of production, and its means of distri
bution. ....
It is a very practical matter, n, matter of ways
and means. We have the resources, but are we
fully ready to use them? And, if we can make
ready what we have, have we the means athand
to distribute ft? We are not fully ready; neither
have wo the means of distribution. We are
willing, but, we are not fully able We haye the
-wish to serve nd to corve greatly, generously;
but we are not prepared as we should be. We
are not ready to mobilize our resources at once.
W- ate not prepared to use them immediately
and at their best, without delay and without
waste. ,' ..
To speak plainly, we have grossly erred in the
way in which we have stunted and hindered the
development of our merchant marine. And
now, when we need ships, we have not got them.
Wo have year after year debated, without end
or conclusion, the best policy to pursue with
regard to the use of the ores and forests and
water powers of our national domain in the rich
states of the west, when we should have. acted;
and they are still locked up. The key is still
turned upon them, the door shut fast at which
thousands of vigorous men, full of initiative,
knock clamorously for admittance. The water
power of our navigable streams outside the na
tional domain also, even in the eastern states,
where we have worked and planned for genera
tions, is still not used as it might be, because we
will and we won't; because the laws we have
made do not intelligently balance the encourage
ment against restraint. We withhold by regu
lation. REMEDY OMISSIONS .
I have come to ask you to remedy and cor
rect these mistakes and omissions, even at ..thlc
short session of a congress which would certain
ly seem to have done all the work that could
reasonably be expected of it. The time and the
circumstances 'are extraordinary, and so must
our efforts be also.
Fortunately, two great measures., finely con
ceived, the .one to unlock, with proper safeguards,
the resources of the national domain, the other
to encourage the use of the navigable waters
outside that domain for the generation of power f
Have already passed the house of representatives
and" are "ready for immediate consideration and
actibh'JDy the senate. With the deepest earnest
ness I urge their prompt passage. In them'bptb, v
turn' bur backs upon lesltatfbn "and makeshift
and formulate a genuine policy 'of use and con
servation, in the beBt sense -of'tHpse words, "Vtfe
owe trie One. measure not only to the Pebpl pjt
that gite'at western country for whose free and
systeitfa'tie" development, as" it seems to me", "our
legislation has done so little, but also to the
people of the nation as a whole; and we as
clearly owe the other in fulfillment of our re
peated promises that the water power "of the
country Bhould in fact as well as in name be put
at the disposal of the great industries which, can
make economical and profitable use of it,-the
rights of -the public being adequately guarded'
the -while, and monopoly in the use prevented.
To have begun- such measures and riot completed
them' would indeed mar the record Of this great
congress very seriously. I hope arid confidently
believe that they will be completed'" !"
" , ' . , THE PHILIPPINE BILL . ..'
And there'is another great piece of legislation
which awaits and should' receive the sanction of
the senate; I mean the bill which gives a larger
measure of self-government to the people of the
Philippines. -How better, in this time of anxious
questioning and perplexed policy, could we show
our confidence in the principles of liberty, as. the
source as well. as the expression of life, how 'bet
ter could we demonstrate our own self-possession
and steadfastness in the courses of justice and
disinterestedness than by thus going calmly for
ward to fulfill our promises to a 'dependent peo
ple, wko will now look more anxiously than
ever to see whether we have indeed the liberal
ity, the unselfishness, the courage, the faith' we
have boasted and professed. I can not believe
that the senate will let this great measure of
constructive justice await the action of another
congress. Its passage would nobly crown the
record of these two years of memorable labor
But I think that you will agree with me that
this does not complete the toll of our duty How
are we to carry our goods to the empty markets
of which I have spoken if we have not the ships?
How are we to build up a great trade if we have
not the certain and constant means of transpor
tation upon which all profitable and useful com
merce depends? And how are we to get the
ships if we wait for the trade to develop without
them? To correct the many mistakes by which
we have discouraged and all but destroyed thA
merchant marine of the country, to retrace the
steps by which we have, it seems almost delib
erately, withdrawn our flag from the seas, except
where, here and there, a 'ship of war is bidden to
carry it or some wandering yacht displays it,
would take a long 'time' and involve many detaiU
ed items of legislation, and the trade which
we ought immediately to hantfie would disap
pear or find other channels while we debated
tho items.
The case is not unlike that which confronted
us when our own continent w'as to be opened
up to settlement and industry, and we needed
long lines of railway, extended means of trans
portation prepared beforehand, if development
was not to lag intolerably and wait intermin
ably. We lavishly subsidized the building of
transcontinental railroads. We look back upon
that with regret now, because the subsidies led
to many scandals of which we are ashamed; but
we know that the railroads had to be built, and
if we had to do it over again, we should, of
course, build .them, but in another way. There
fore, I propose another way of providing the
means of. transportation, which must precede,
not tardily follow, the development of our trade
with-.our. neighbor states of America. It may
seem a reversal of the natural order of things,
but it is true, that the routes of trade must be
actually, opened by many ships- and regular
sailings and moderate charges-r-tbefore streams
of merchandise- will.. flow freely and profitably
through them.
THE SHIPPING BILL
Hence the pending shipping bill, discussed at
the last session hut, as. : yet; -passed.. by. neither
house. In my, judgment su.cn- legislation. im
peratively needed and,, can np.t wisely be. post
poned. The government must open these gates
of trade, ami Qp.en them wide, open, them before
it is altogether profitable to.. open them, or al
together reasonable, to. -ask. private capital to
open them at a venture ,fy .13 not, a . question
of the. government, monopolizing the .field, i -U
should take action to. make.it certain, ihattransr
portatipriat, f easqnable ratesfrwilir.be., promptly
provided, eyen .where the. carriage! is not at first
profitable; arid; then when the .carriage bas be
come sufficiently, profitable, to attract and engage
private capital, and erigage.it In, abundance, the
governriient .ought to withdraw.;,! very earnestly
hope that , the congress! will ne of. this opinion,
and that. both bouses wifl adopt- this exceedingly
important bill. , .,V ,
The, great' subject, of rural credi.ts - still re
mains, to be .dealt w4tri, and.it is a- matter of
deep regret tbatthe, .difficulties, of tne subject
have seemed to render it impossible to qomplete
a bill for passage, at .this session. But it can not
be perfected yet .arid, .therefore there are no other
constructive measures .jtfoe necessity. -for which
I, will at .this timet '.gall your attention to; but I
would be. negligent .of, a,.v,ery manliest duty were
I not q .call trie attention of' the. senate to the
fact .that., the proposed, contention for safety at
sea awaits 4 ts, confirmation and , that the limit
fixed in the. convention itself, for. ;its acceptance
is the last day, pf the present month. The con
ference in which this convention originated was
cabled by trie United States; the representatives
of the, United States, played a very influential
Part .Indeed in, framing.Jhe, prpvisions of the
proposed .qpnventlon and those provisions are in
themselves . for the most part admirable. It
would. hardly be cpnsistent with the part we have
played, in the .whole matter ' to 'let it drop and
SO, Dy the ftp'ard, as .if , f qrgotten. and neglected,
It was ratified.in IIaylast by the German govern
ment and in August by the parliament of Great
Britain. . It marks, a uiost hopeful, and decided
advance in international. civilization, We should
show our earnest good jaith in a great matter
by adding pur own acceptarice of it. .
FUNDS' FOR ALASKA
There is another matter of which I must make
special mention, if I am to discharge my consci
ence, lest it should escape your attention. It may
seem a very small thing. It affects only a single
item of appropriation. But" many human lives
and many great enterprises 'hang upon it. It is
the matter of making adequate provision for the
survey and charting Of our coasts. It is imme
diately pressing and' exigent in connection with
the immense coast lihe of Alaska, a coast line
greater than that of the United States them
selves, though it is alsb very important indeed
with regard to the older coasts of the continent.
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