PWfiM'(l'WWffwpW(
The Commoner
VOL. 17, NO. 3.
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and subject to bo dealt with as pirates would
bo.
"Armed neutrality is inefficient at best in
such circumstances and in the face of such pre
tensions, it is worse than ineffectual; It is likely
only to produce what it was meant to prevent;
it is practically certain to draw us into the war
without either the rights or the effectiveness of
bolligeronts.
"There is one choice we can not make, we
aro incapable of making we will not choose
tho path of submission and suffer the most
sacred rights of our nation and our people to
bo ignored or violated. Tho wrongs against
which wo now array ourselves are not common
wrongs; they cut to tho very roots of human
life.
URGES USB OF ALL POWER AND RE-
SOURCES
" "With a profound sense of the solemn and
even tragical character of the step I am taking
and of tho grave responsibilities which it in
volves, but in unhesitating obedience to what
.1 deem my constitutional duty, I advise that
tho congress declare the recent course of the
imperial German government to bo in fact
nothing less than war against the government
and people of tho United States; that it'.formally
accept the status of belligerent which -has been
thrust upon it, and that it take immediate steps
not only to put the country in a more thorough
state of dofonse but also to exert all its power
and employ all, its resources to bring the gov
ernment of the German Empire to terms and
ond tho war.
Volvo the utmost" practJcab fe "Yff-'uiitJ&JKti1 in"
counsel and action with the governments now
at war with Germany, and, as incident to that,
tho oxtonsion to thosq governments of tho most
liberal financial credits, in-order that our re
sources may, so far as possible, bo added to
theirs.
"It will inyolvo tho organization and .mobil
ization of all tho material resources of the
-cbuntry'to- supply tho , materials!; .of'.' war, ".and
"sdrvo the incidental needs' of the nation in' the
most abundant, and yet tho most economical
and efficient way possible.
"It will jnvolve the immediate full equip
ment of tho navy in all respects, but particu
larly in supplying it with tho best means of
dealing with the enemy's submarines.
"It will involve the immediate addition to
tho armed forces of the "United States already
provided for by law in case of ar, at' least
500,000 men, who would, in my opinion, be
chosen upon the principle of universal liability
to service, and also the authorization of sub
sequent additional increments .of equal force
,80 soon as they may be.needed and can be
handled in" training. , .
"It will involve also of course the granting of
adequate credits to the government, sustained,
I hope, so far as they can equitably be sustained,
b'y tho present generation, by well-conceived
taxation. ..".
WOULD FINANCE THE WAH BY EQUAL
TAXATION
"I-say sustained so far as may be equitable
by taxation, becauso it seems to mo that it
would be most unwise to base the credits which
will now be necessary entirely on money bor
rowed. It is our duty, I most respectfully
urge,, to protect our people -so- far as we may
against tho very serious hardships and evils
Whioh would bo likely to ariso out of the Infla
tion which would bo produced by vast Joans.
"In carrying out the measures by which these
things are to be accomplished, we should keep
, constantly in mind the wisdom of interfering as
little as possible" in our own preparation and in
the equipment of our own military forces with
"the duty for it will bo a very practical duty
1,1 of Supplying the nations already at war with
Germany AVith the materials which they can
obtain only from us or by our assistance.
" ("They are in tho field and we should help
them in every way to be effective there.
,, VI, shalt take the liberty of suggesting,
. .i-.through. ..the several executive departments of
4i;thQ..goYQrnmenC for the consideration of your
;'.$c.pmmittees, measures for the accomplishment
-j,(pf the. several objects I have mentioned.
'.v"I"h.QP9"it will bo your pleasure to deal with
;jthQraas having been framed after very careful
.ttiQVSht by the branch of the government upon
which tho responsibility of conducting the war
and safeguarding the nation will most directly,
fall.
SEEKS TO VINDICATE THE PRINCIPLE OF
PEACE
"While wo do these things, these deeply mo
mentous things, let us be very clear and make it
clear to all the world what our motives and our
objects are.
"My own thought has not been driven, from
its habitual and normal course by the unhappy
events of the last two months, and I do not be
lieve that the thought of the nation has been
altered or clouded by them.
"I have exactly the same things in mind now
that I had in mind when I addressed the sen
ate on the 2 2d of January last, the same that
I had in mind when I addressed the congress
on the 3d of February and on the 26th of
February.
"Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the
principles of peace and of justice in the life of
the world as against selfish and au.tocratic
power and to set up amongst the really free
and self-governed peoples of the world such a
concert of purpose and of action as will hence
forth Insure the observance of those principles.
"Neutrality is no longer feasible or desir
able where the peace of the world is involved
and the freedom of its peoples and the menace
to that peace and freedom lies in the existence
of autocratic governments backed by organ
ized force which is controlled wholly by their
will, not by the will of their people. We have
seen the last of neutrality in such circum
stances. it wllr beainUMii?teni? 2Lan !? l Wc
" '"io.vn ft fill
conduct and of responsibility for wrong done
shall be observed among nations and their 'gov
ernments that are observed' among the individ
ual citizens of civilized states. v f
WE HAVE NO QUARREL WITH THE GER
MAN PEOPLE
'"We have no quarre'l with 'the German peo
ple! t We have no feeling toward them fbut:,'one
of sympathy and friendship. It' was not upon
their impulse that their government acted' in.
entering this war. It was not with their pre
vious knowledge or approval.
"It was a war determined upon as wars used
to be determined on in the did, unhappy days
when peoples were nowhere consulted by their
rulers and wars were provoked and waged in
the interest of dynasties or of little groups of
ambitious men who were accustomed to use
their fellow men as pawns and tools.
"Self-governed nations do not fill their neigh
bor states with spies or set the course of in
trigue" to bring about some critical posture of
affairs which will give them an opportunity to
strike and make conquest. Such designs can
bo successfully worked only under cover and
where no one has the right to ask questions.
"Cunningly contrived plans of deception or
aggression, carried, it may be from generation
to generation, can be worked out and kept from
tho light only within the privacy of the courts
or behind the carefully guarded confidences of
a narrow and privileged class.
"They are happily Impossible where public
opinion commands and insists upon full in
formation concerning all the nation's affairs.
"A steadfast concert for peace can never be
maintained except by a partnership of demo
cratic nations. No autocratic government could
be trusted to keep faith within it or observe its
covenants.
"It must be a league of honor, a partnership
of opinion. Intrigue would eat its vitals away;
the plottings of inner circles who could plan
what they would and render account to no one
Would be a corruption seated at its very heart.
Only free peoples can hold their purpose
and their honor steady to a common end and
prefer the interests of mankind to-any narrow
interest of their own.
ASSURANCE OF PEACE FROM -RUSSIAN
REVOLT
"Does not every American feel that assur-'
ance has been added to our hope for the fu
SllV'T0 Z ,the world by tne wonderful and
Knl?S i h "f Umt have heon happening
within the last few weeks in Russia'
,mBfR.US3,ia wa,s known by those who knew it
best to have .been- always in fact democratic at
heart, in all the vital habits of her thourrhf
all the intimate relationships of her neonln A,
spoke their natural instinct, their habitual
titude toward life. nawtual at.
"The autocracy that crowned the summff ,
her political 'structure, long as it had stood am
terrible as was the reality of its power, was
in fact Russian in origin, character, or nurnZ
and now it has been shaken off and tho iW
generous Russian people have been added in a i
their native majesty and might to the forces tC
are fighting for freedom in the world, for Justl
and for peace. Here is a fit partner for a leatnm
of hQnor. 6
"One of the things that has served to con
vince us that the Prussian autocracy was not
arid could never be our friend is that from tho
very outset of the present war it has filled our
unsuspecting communities and even our offices
of government with spies and set criminal in
trigues everywhere afoot against our national
unity of council, our peace wthin and without
our industries and our commerce. '
PROOF OF INTRIGUES BEFORE WAR
BEGAN
"Indeed, it is now evident that its spies were
here even before the war began; and It Is, un
happily, not a matter of conjecture, but a fact
proved in our courts of justice, that tho in
trigues, which have more than once come peril
ously near to disturbing the peace and dislocat
ing the industries of the country, have been
carried on at the instigation, with the support
and even under the personal direction of offi
cial agents of the imperial government accred
ited to the government of the United States.
"Even in checking these things and trying to
extirpate them we have sought to put the most
generouo i".tornretations possible upon them,
because we knew tnm thoir oource lay, not In
anyr hostile feeling or purpose of the German
people toward us (who were, no doubt, as ig
norant of them as we ourselves were), but only
in the selfish designs of a government that did
What it pleased and told ito pooplo nothing1
- "But they have played their part in serving
to convince us at least that that government
.entertains no real . friendship for us and means
to act against our peace and security at its
convenience.
"That it means to stir up enemies against us
at our very doors, the intercepted note to the
German minister at Mexico City is eloquent
evidence.
"We are accepting this challenge of hostile
purpose because we know that in such a gov
ernment, following such methods, we can never
have a friend; and that in the presence of its
organized power, always lying in wait to ac
complish we know not what purpose, there can
be no assured security for the democratic gov
ernments of the w.orld.
JGAGE OF BATTLE TO BE ACCEPTED
NOW
"We are now about to accept the gage of
battle with this natural foe to liberty, and shall,
if necessary, spend the whole force of the na
tion to check and nullify its pretensions and
"its power.
"Wo are glad, now that we see the facts with
no veil of false pretense about them, to fight
thus for the ultimate peace of tho world and for
tho liberation of its peoples, the German peo
ples included; for the rights of nations great
and small and the privilege of men everywhere
to choose their way of life and of obedience.
"The world must be made safe for democ
racy. Its peace must bo planted upon the
trusted foundation of political liberty.
"We have no selfish eilds to serve. Wo de
sire no conquest, no dominion, JNo seek no
indemnities for ourselves, no material compen
sation for the sacrifices wo shall freely make.
"We are but one of the champions of tne
rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied wuen
thoso rights-havo been made as'securo as tne
fn'tli nnrl flic, frnnlnm nf fhfl nations Call maKB
fa'th and the freedom of the nations
them.
and
Tiiot hnnniiao wo firrTif without rancor
without selfish objects, seeking. nothing for our
selves but what we shall wish to share as ire
peoples, we shall, I feel confident, conduct ou
operations as belligerents without passion,
ourselves observe with proud punctilio Uie pi r
ciples of right and of fair play we profess i
fightings for: nmPnts
"I have said nothing of- the governments