The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1914-12-11
Washington, D. C.-President Will
sons message, delivered to congress
Tuesday, is as follows:

sons message, delivered to congress
Tuesday, is as follows:
Gentlemen of the Congress: The session
upon which you are now entering will be
the closing session Of the esd Congress, q
Congress- venture to say which Will
long be remembered for the great body
of thoughtful and constructive work which
1t has done, in loyal response to the
thought and needs Of the country ! should
like in this address to review the notable
record and trv to make adequate assess
ment Of 1t. but no doubt we stand too
rear the work that has been done and are
ourselves too much part Of 1t to play the
part of historians toward It,
Moreover, our thoughts are now more Of
the future than of the past. While we
have worked at our tasks Of peace. the
circumstances of the whole age have been
altered by war.
New Tasks Are Faced.
! What we have done for our own land
and for our own people we did with the
best that was in us. whether of character
or Of Intelligence. with sober enthusiasm
and confidence in the principles upon
which we were acting which sustained us
at every step Of the difficult undertaking,
but 1t is done. 1t has passed from our
hands. 1t is now an established part Of
the legislation of the country. Its useful
ness. its effects. will disclose themselves in
experience.
about US during these closing days Of a
year which will be forever memorable in
the history of the world. is that we face
new tasks. have been facing them these
six months. must face them in the months
to come-follow them without partisan
feeling. like men who have forgotten every
thing but common duty and the fact
that we are representatives OF great
people whose thought is not Of us but OF
what America owes to herself and to all
mankind In such circumstances as these
upon which we look amazed and anxious
Europe VIII Need Our Help.
War has interrupted the means of trade
not only but also the process Of produc-
tion, In Europe 1t is destroying men and
resources wholesale and upon scale un-
precedented and appalling. There Is rea-
son to fear that the time is near. II 1t
be not already at hand, when several Of the
countries Of Europe will find It difficult to
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 be ready, more fit and
ready than we have ever BEEN.
1t Is of equal consequence that the Ma,
tons whom Europe has usually supplied
with innumerable articles Of manufacture
and commerce, of which they are In con-
stant need and without which their economic
development halts and stands still can
merly imported and eagerly look to us to
supply their all but empty markets.
New Markets Must Be Supplied.
This Is particularly true Of our own neigh
bors, the states, great and small, of Cen
tral and South America. Their lines OF
trade have hitherto run chiefly athwar,
the seas. not to our ports. but to the ports
Of Great Britain and Of the older con"
tinent 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 explanation. but the fact and our duty
and opportunity In the presence OF it. Here
are markets which we must supply ano
for which we must find the means OF action
whom we speak and act. should be ready
as never before to serve itself and serve
mankind: ready with its resources, its
energies, its forces of production, and It'll
II IL q practical matter, matter OF ways
and means We have the resources, but
are we fully ready to use them? And II
we can make ready what we have have We
the means at hand to distribute 1t? We
are never fully ready; neither have we the
means of distribution. We are willing, but
we are not fully able. We have the wish
to serve and to serve greatly, generously
We are not ready to mobilize our resources
at once. We are not prepared to use them
Immediately and at their best, without de-
lay and without waste
lN Errors Must Be Corrected.
To speak plainly. we have grossly erred
In the way in which we have stunted ano
hindered the development of our merchant
marine. And now, when we need ships. ws
have not got them. We have year aftel
year debated without end or conclusion
ths best policy to pursue with regard tt
the use OF the ores and forests and water
powers of our National domain in the ricf
states Of the West, when we should have
acted; and they are still locked up. Tht
key is still turned upon them the door shu
fast at which thousands Of vigorous men
full Of Initiative, knock clamorousiy for ad
mittance. The waterpower OF our navigabl'
streams outside the National domain also
even In the Eastern states, where we hav'
worked and planned for generations, is still
not used as 1t might be, because we will
and we won't; because the laws we hav'
made do not intelligently balance. encour
agement against restraint. We withhold b!
regulation
I have come to ask you to remedy ant
correct these mistakes and omissions, ever
at this short session Of Congress which
would certainly seem to have done all th
work that could reasonably be expected o
It, The time and the circumstances ar
extraordinary, and so must our efforts b.
also.
Unlocking Of Resources Urged.
Fortunately, two great measures. finel,
conceived, the one to unlock, with prope
safeguards, the resources of the Nationa
domain, the other to encourage the use o
the navigable waters outside that domain
for generation of power, have alread
passed the House of Representatives an
are ready for immediate consideration an
action by the Senate With the deepes
eanestness I urge their prompt passage. Il
them both we. turn our backs upon hesita
tIon and makeshift and formulate genu
Inc policy Of use and conservation, i~ tn
best sense of those words We owe the on
measure not only to the people of that grea
Western country for whose free and sys
tematic development, az It seems to me
our legislation has done SO little. but ais
to the people of the nation as whole; an
we as clearly owe the other in fulfillmen
OF our repeated promises that the water
power Of the country should In fact as we
as In name be put at the disposal OF grea
profitable use of It, the rights Of the publ
being adequately guarded the while, an
monopoly In the use prevented.
To have begun such measures and nc
completed them would indeed mar the rec
ord Of this great Congress very seriously
hope and confidently believe that they wi
be completed.
And there Is another great piece of legil
lation which awaits and should receive tt
sanction Of the Senate. l mean the bi
which gives q larger measure of seif-go,
ernment to the people Of the Philippine
How better. in this time Of anxio,
questioning and perplexed policy, could v
show our confidence in the principles of Ill
erty. as the source as we'll as the EXPIRE
sion Of life? How better could we demon
strate our own self possession and steat
fastness in the courses Of Justice and di
interestedness than by thus going calm
forward to fulfill our promises to depend
ent people, who will now look more an,
iously than ever to bee whether we hay
indeed the liberaiity, the unselfishness, II
courage, the faith we have boasted and PR
fessed? 1 cannot believe that the Sena