Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-12-10
Answers Attack Made Upon
the Efficiency of the
National Defense
DENIES NEED FOR
ANY LARGER ARMY
Tells Business That There
Will Be No Further Eff
fort at Regulation

Oent wilson departed from the pre-
pared text of his annual address to
congress today which was devoted
principally to answering those who
contend the United States is unpre-
pared for national defense, to say:
"Our program of legislation with re-
gard to the regulation of business is
now virtually complete. It has been
put forth, as we intended as whole
and leaves no conjecture as to what
is to follow. The road at last lies
clear and firm before business. It is
a road which it can travel without
fear or embarrassment. 1t is the road
to ungrudged. unloaded success In
1t every honest man, every man who
believes that the public interest is
part of his own interest, may walk
with perfect confidence"
In his prepared address. which
touched on the administration legisla-
tive program for the session, urging
passage of bills for Philippine indie
pendence. government owned mer-
chant marine, and some other projects
begun but unfinished at the last ses-
sion, the president devoted most of
the time to discussing the question of
national defense, deploring a policy OF
militarism but endorsing develop
ment Of the national guard and mill
tary training for citizens
The presidents address, the long
est he had yet delivered to congress,
occupied about forty minutes in the
reading: ...
The complete message follows:
Text Of Message.
Gentlemen of the Congress:
The session upon which you are
now entering will be the closing SEES
sion Of the Sixty-third congress, a con-
gress, venture to say, which will
long be remembered for the great
body of thoughtful and constructive
work which it has done, in loyal re-
Spouse to the thought and needs of
the country. I should like in this ad-
dress to review the notable record and
try to make adequate assessment of
it; but no doubt we stand too near
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.
What we have done for our own land
and our own people we did with the
%Ho< in w
acter or of intelligence, with sober en-
thusiasm and a confidence in the prln-
ciples upon which we were acting
which sustained us at every step OF
the difficult undertaking; but it is
done. It has passed from our hands.
1t is now an established part of the
legislation of the country. Its useful
ness. its effects will disclose them
selves in experience. What chiefly
strikes us now, as We look about us
during these closing days OF 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-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.
War has interrupted the means OF
trade not only but also the processes
Of production. In Europe it is de-
stroying men and resources whole
sale and upon a scale unprecedented
and appalling There is reason to
fear that the time is near. if it be not
already at hand, when several OF the
countries of Europe will find it diff
cult to do for their people what they
have hitherto been always easily able
to do-many essential and fundamen-
tai things At any rate, they WILL
need our help and our manifold ser
vices as they have never needed them
before; and We should be ready, more
fit and ready than We have ever been.
It is of equal consequence that the
nations whom Europe has usually sup
Piled with innumerable articles or
manufacture and commerce of which
tneY are III Constant uScu eIHu "i'iioN.
which their economic development
halts and stands still can now get
only a small part of what they for
merly imported and eagerly look to
us to supply their all but empty mar
kets. This is particularly true OF our
own neighbors, the states, great and
small, of Central and South America
Their lines of trade have hitherto run
chiefly athwart the seas, not to our
ports hut to ports of Great Britain and
of the older continent of Europe. |
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 1t.
Here are markets which we must sup.
ply and WE must find the means or
action. The United States, this great
people tori whom we speak and act