.V
The Commoner
NOVEMBER, 1915
17
i
President Wilson's New York Speech
President Wilson's apeach before the Manhat
tan club, November 4, was as follows:
"Mr. Toastmaster and Gentlemen: I warmly
felicitate the club on the completion of fifty years
of successful and interesting life. Club life may
be made to mean a great deal to those who know
how to use It. I haveno doubt that to a great
many of you has come genuine stimulation in
the associations of this place, and that as the
years have multiplied you have seen more and
moro the useful ends which may bo served by
organizations of this sort.
"But I have not come to speak wholly of that,
for there are others of your own members who
can speak of the club with a knowledge and an
intelligence which no one can have who has
not been intimately associated with it.
"Men band themselves together for the sake
of the association no doubt, but for something
greater and deeper than that because they are
conscious of common interests lying outside
their business occupations, because they are
members pf the same community and in fre
quent intercourse find mutual stimulation and
a real maximum of vitality and power.
"I shall assume that around the dinner table
on this memorial occasion our talk should prop
erly turn to the wide and common interests
which are most vital in our thoughts, whether
they be interests of the community or of tho
nation.
TELLS OF NEW PROBLEMS
"A year and' a half ago our thoughts would
have been almost altogether of great domestic
questions. They are many and of vital conse
quence. Wo must and shall address ourselves to
their solution with diligence, firmness and self
possession, notwithstanding we find ourselves in
the midst of a world disturbed by great disaster
and ablaze, with terrible war; but our thought is
now inevitably of new things about which form
erly we gave ourselves little concern.
"We are thinking now chiefly of our relation
with the rest of the world not our commercial
relations; about those we have thought and
planned always but about our political rela
tions, our duties as an individual and Independ
ent force In the world to ourselves, our neigh
bors and tho world Itself.
"Our principles are well known. It is not
necessary to avow them again. We believe in
political liberty, and founded our great govern
ment to obtain it, the liberty of men and of peo
ples of men to choose their own lives and of
peoples to choose their own allegiance.
"Our ambition, also, all the world has knowl
edge of. It is not only to be free and prosper
ous ourselves, but also to be tho friend and
thoughtful partisan of those who are free or
who desire freedom the world over.
"If we.have had aggressive purposes and cov
etous ambitions, they were the fruit of our
thoughtless youth as a nation and we have put
them aside.
WANTS NO MORE CONQUEST
"We shall, I confidently believe, never again
take another foot of territory by conquest.
"We shall never in any circumstances seek to
make an independent people subject to our do
minion; because we believe, we passionately be
lieve, in the right of every people to choose their
own allegiance and be free of masters altogether.
"For ourselves we wish nothing but the full
liberty of self-development; and with ourselves
in this greater matter we associate all the peo
ples of our own hemisphere.
"We wish, not only for the United States, but
for them the fullest freedom of Independent
growth and of action, for we know that through
out this hemisphere the same aspirations . are
everywhere being worked out, under diverse con
ditions, but with the same impulse and ultimate
object.
"All this is very clear to us and will, I confi
dently predict, become more and more clear to
the whole world as the great processes of the fu
ture unfold themselves. It is with a full con
sciousness of such principles and such ambitions
that we are asking ourselves at present what our
duty is with regard to the armed force of the
nation. Within a year we have witnessed what
we did not believe possible, a great European
onfiict involving many of the greatest nations
of tho world. The influences of a great war
are everywhere In the air. All Europo is om
battled. "Force everywhere speakB out with a loud and
Imperious voice In a titanic struggle of govern
ments, and from one end of our own dear coun
try to tho other mon are asking one another
what our own force is, how far wo are prepared
to maintain ourselves against Interference with
our national action or development.
PREPAREDNESS FOR SAFETY
"In no man's mind, I am sure, Is thoro even
raised the question of willful use of forco on our
part against any nation or any people No mat
ter what military or naval forco tho United States
might develop, statesmen throughout tho wholo
world might reBt assured that we are gathering
that force not for attack In any quarter, not for
aggression of any kind, not for tho satisfaction
of any political or international ambition, but
merely to mako sure of our own security.
"Wo have it in mind to bo prepared not for
war but only for defense; and with tho thought
constantly in our minds that the principles wo
hold most dear can bo achieved by the slow pro
cesses of history only in tho kindly and whole
some atmosphere of peace, and not by tho uso
of hostile force.
"The mission of America in tho world Is es
sentially a mission of peace and good will among
men. She has become tho homo and asylum of
men of all creeds and races.
"Within her hospitable borders they have
found homes and congenial associations and free
dom and a wide and cordial welcome, and they
have become part of tho bone and sinew and
spirit of America itself.
"America has been made up out of the nations
of the world and is the friend of the nations of
tho world.
WHY HE FAVORS RESERVE
"But wo feel justified in preparing ourselves
to vindicate our right to independent and unmo
lested action by making the forco that Is In us
ready for assertion.
"And we know that we can do this In a way
that will be itself an illustration of the American
spirit.
"In accordance with our American traditions
wo want and shall work for only an army ade
quate to the constant and legitimate uses of
times of international peace. But we do want
to feel that there is a great body of citizens who
have received at least the most rudimentary and
necessary forms of military training; that they
will be ready to form themselves into a fighting
force at the call of the nation and that tho na
tion has the munitions and supplies with which
to equip them without delay, should It be neces
sary to call them Into action.
'"We wish to supply them with tho training
they need, and we think we can do so without
calling them at any time too long away from
their civilian pursuits.
ASKS 400,000 CITIZEN SOLDIERS
"It is with this Idea, with this conception In
mind, that tho plans have been made which It
will be my privilege to lay before the congress at
its. next session. That plan calls, for only such
an increase In the regular army of the United
States as experience has proved to be required
for the. performance of the necessary duties of
the army in the Philippines, in Hawaii, in Porto
Rico, on the borders of the United States and at
military posts of the interior.
"For the rest, it calls forth training within
the next three years of a force of 400,000 citi
zen soldiers to be raised in annual contingents
of 133,000, who would, be aaked to enlist for
three years with the colors, and three years on
furlough, but who during their three years of
enlistment with the colors would not be organ
ized as a standing force, but would' be expected
merely to undergo intensive training for a very
brief period of each year. . . , ,
"Their training would take place in imme
diate association with the organized units of the
regular array. It would have no touch of the
amateur about it, neither would it exact of the
volunteers more than they could give in any one
year from their civilian pursuits.
HELPS THE NATIONAL GUARD
"And none of this would be done in such a
way as in the slightest degree to supersede or
subordinate our present serviceable and efficient
national guard.
"On tho contrary tho national guard iuelf
would bo used as part of tho instrumentality by '
which training would bo given tho citizens who
enlisted under tho new condtlonn, and I should
hopo and oxpect that tho legislation by which all
this would bo accomplished would put tho na
tional guard Itself on a better and moro perma
nent footing than It has over boon before, giving
It not only tho recognition which it desorves but
a more definite support from tho national gov
ernment and a more doflnlto connection with the
military organization of tho nation.
"What wo all wish to accomplish is that the
forces of tho nation should indeed be part of
tlio nation and not a separate professional force,
and tho chief cost of the system would not bo In
tho enlistment or in tho training of the mon, but
in tho providing of ample equipment in caso It
should be necessary to call all forces into tho
field.
PLAN FOR GIANT NAVY
"Moreover, it has boon Amorican policy time
out of mind to look to tho navy as tho first and
chleMIno of defense. Tho navy of tho Unilcd
Statcfral ready is a very great and efficient force.
Not rapidly, but slowly, with careful attention,
our naval forco has been developed until the
navy of the United States stands recognized as
one of tho most efficient and notable of tho mod
ern time.
"All that Is needed in order to bring It to a
point of extraordinary force and efficiency as
compared with tho other navies of tho world is
that wo should hasten our pace in tho policy we
have long been pursuing, and that chief of all
wo should have a doflnlto policy of development,
not made year to year, but looking well Into the
future and planning for a definite consumma
tion. "Wo can and should profit In all that we do
by tho experlenco and example that have boon
mado obvious to us by tho military and naval
events of tho actual present.
WANTS MEN AND MUNITIONS
"It is not merely a matter of building battle
ships and cruisers and submarines, but also 'a
matter of making suro that wo shall have the
adequate equipment of men and munitions and
supplies for the vessels wo build and Intend to
build.
"Part of our problem Is the problem of what
I may call the mobilization of tho resources of
tho nation at tho proper time if It should ever
be necessary to mobilize them for national de
fense. "Wo shall study efficiency and adequato cquip
mentras carefully as wo shall study tho number
and slzo of our ships, and I believo that tho plans
already in part mado public by tho navy depart
ment are plans which tho wholo nation can ap
prove with rational enthusiasm.
UNITED STATES NOT THREATENED
"No thoughtful man feels any panic haste in
this matter. The country is not threatened
from any quarter. She stands in friendly rela
tions with all the world. Her resources are
known and her self-respect and her capacity to
caro for her own citizens and her own rights.
"There Is no fear among us. Under the new
world conditions we have become thoughtful of
tho things which all reasonable men consider
necessary for security and self-defense on the
part of every nation confronted with the great
enterprise of human liberty and independence.
That is all.
"Is tho plan we propose sane and reasonable
and suited to tho needs of tho hour?
"Does it not conform to the ancient traditions
of America?
"Has any better plan been proposed than this
program that we now place before tho country?
PUTS NATION'S HONOR FIRST
"In it there is no pride of opinion. It repre
sents the best professional and expert judgment
of the country. But I am not so much interested
in programs as I am in safeguarding at every
cost the good faith and honor of the country. If
men differ with me in this vital matter I shall
. ask them to make It clear how far and In what
way they are Interested In making the persaa
nent interests of the country safe against dis
turbance. "In tho fulfillment of the program I proposs
I shall ask for tho hearty support of the cosa
try, of the rank and file of America, of men tf
all shades of political opinion. For my position
In this important matter Is different from that of
the private individual who is free to speak ki
&"