Omaha daily bee., 1914-12-09

sion upon which you are now entering
will be the closing session of the sixty
third congress, a congress, venture to
say, which will long be remembered for
the great body of thoughtful and con-
structive work which it has done. in loyal
response to the thought and needs of the
country. l should like in this address to
review the notable record and Try to
mako adequate assessment of it: but
no doubt we stand too near the work that
has been done and are ourselves too much
part Of it to play the part of historians
toward it,
Looking 70 the Future.
Moreover. our thoughts are now more
OF the future than of the past. While
we have worked at our tasks of beace
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 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 it is
done. 1t has passed from our hands. 1t
- INV dh cSNNOAShCu part VI NiC itklSid-
ton Of the country. Its usefulness, its
effects will disclose themselves in ex-
perience 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 representa-
tives of great people whose thought is
not OF us. but of what America owes to
herself and to ali mankind in such cir
cumstances as these upon which we look
amazed and anxious.
Production Also Interrupted.
War has interrupted the means of trade
not only. but also the processes of pro-
duction. In Europe 1t is destroying men
and resources wholesale, and upon a
scale unprecedented and appalling There
is reason to fear that the time is near
IL 1t be not already at hand. when sew
eral of the countries of Europe will find
1t difficult to do for their people what
they have hitherto been always easily
able to do-many essential and funda-
mental 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
lions whom Europe has usually supplied
with innumerable articles of manufacture
and commerce of which they are in con-
slant need and without which their eco
nomic development halts and stands still
can now get only a small part of what
they formerly imported and eagerly look
to us to supply their all but empty mar
kets. This is particularly true of our owr
neighbors. the states, great and small. OF
Central and South America. Their lines
of trade have hitherto run chiefly ath-
wart the seas, not to our ports, but to
the ports of Great Britain and Of the
older continent of Europe. / do not stor
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, and we must find
the means of action. The United States
this great people for whom we speak and
act, should be ready, as never before. tc
serve itself and to serve mankind; ready
with it's resources its energies, its forces
of production and it's means of distribu-
tlon.
Merchant Marine Needed.
1t Is a very 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
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, generously; but we are not pre-
pared as we should be. We are not read,
to mobilize our resources at once. We
are not prepared to use them immedi-