The citizen., 1914-12-11

portation Of our commerce by sea was
strongly urged by President Wilson in
his Message to congress today. Tne
| president pointed out that the markets
of the greater part of the world are
empty and that ours is the duty to sup
ply the needs not only Of the coun-
tries of EuropG, but also of the coun-
tries which hitherto have looked to
Europe for their supplies. The mes
sage in part follows:
The session upon which you are now
entering will be the closing session OF
the Sixty-third congress, congress,
venture to say, which will long be re-
membered for the great body of
thoughtful and constructive work
which it has done, in loyal response
to the thought and needs of the coun-
try.
While we have worked at our tasks
of peace the circumstances of the
whole age have been altered by war.
I What we have done for our own land
and our own people we did with the
best that was in us, whether OF char
acter 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 it is
done. 1t has passed from our hands.
/ We face new tasks, have been facing
them these six months, must face them
| in the months to come-face them
without partisan feeling, like men
who have forgotten everything but a
common duty and the fact that we are
representatives of a 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 Will Need Our Help.
War has interrupted the means of
trade not only but also the processes
of production. In Europe it is destroy
ing men and resources wholesale and
upon scale unprecedented and ap-
palling. There is reason to fear that
the time is near, if it be not already
at hand, when several of the coun-
tries of Europe will find it difficult to
do for their people what they have
hitherto been always easily able to do,
many essential 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.
If is of equal consequence that the
nations whom Europe has usually sup
piled with innumerable articles of
manufacture and commerce can now
get only small part of what they
formerly imported and eagerly look
to us to supply their all but empty
markets. Here are markets which we
must supply, and we must find the
means of action.
We Need Ships.
1t is very practical matter, mat
ter of ways and means. We have the
resources, but are we fully ready to
use them? And if we can made ready
what we have. have we the means at
hand to distribute it? We are not 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. gener-
ously; but we are not prepared as we
should be. We are not ready to mo-
bilize our resources at once. We are
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.
have come to ask you to remedy
and correct these mistakes and omis-
sions. The time and the circum-
stances are extraordinary, and so
must our efforts be also.
Use and Conservation.
Fortunately, two great measures,
finely conceived, 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, have already
passed the house of representatives
and are ready for immediate consider
alton and action by the senate. With
the deepest earnestness urge their
prompt passage.
And there is another great piece Of
legislation which awaits and should
receive the sanction Of the senate:
mean the bill which gives larger
measure of self-government to the peo-
pie of the Philippines. cannot believe
that the senate will let this great
measure of constructive justice await
| the action of another congress. Its