The Washington herald., 1914-12-09
Wilson RepieWS Record
In Addressing Congress

sthwart the seas, not to our ports, but to
the ports OF Great Britain and of the
oioer continent OF Europe. I do not STOP
10 inquire why, or to make any comment
on probable causes. What Interests us
Just now is not the explanation, but the
tact, and our duty and opportunity in
the presence of ii. 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 be-
fore, to serve itself and to serve man.
kind; ready with its resources, its ener-
gies. its forces of production, and its
means of distribution.
1t is very practical matter, a matter
of ways and means. We have the re-
sources, but are we fully ready TO use
them? And, If We can make ready whai
We have, have we the means at hand 20
distribute It? We are not fully ready;
neither have We the means of distribu-
tion. We are willing, but we are not
fully able. We have the wish to serve
and to serve greatly, generously; but we
are not prepared as we should be- We
are not ready to mobilize 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 mer-
chant marine. And now, when we need
ships, We have not got them We have
year after year debated, without end or
conclusion. the best policy to pursue with
regard to the use Of the ores and forests
water powers of our national domain in
the rich States of the West, when we
should have acted: and they are still
locked up. The key is still turned upon
them, the door shut fast at which thou
sands Of vigorous men, full of initiative,
knock clamorously for admittance. The
water power of our navigable streams
outside the national domain also, even
in the Eastern States. where we have
worked and planned for generations, is
stil not used as 1t might be, because We
will and we won't because the laws we
have made do not intelligently balance
announcement against restraint We
withhold by regulation.
Asks Congress for Remedy.
have come to ask you to remedy and
correct these mistakes and omissions,
even at this short session of a Congress
which would certainly seem to have done
all the work that could reasonably be
expected of it. The time and the cir
cumstances are extraordinary, and so
must our efforts be also.
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 do
main for the generation of power. have
already passed the House of Representa-
tives and are ready for immediate con-
sideration and action by the Senate With
the deepest earnestness urge their
DTOmnf In them hhfh f,Yry
our backs upon hesitation and make
shift and formulate a genuine policy of
use and conservation, in the best sense
of those words. We owe the one measure
not only to the people OF that great West
ern country for whose free and system
attic development, as il seems to me, our
legislation has done so little, but also to
the people of TIM nation as a whole: and
We as clearly owe the other in fulfill
ment of our repeated promises that the
water power Of the country should In
fact. as we'll as in name, be put at the
disposal of great industries which can
make economical and profitable use Of
1t, the rights of the public being ade-
quately guarded the while. and monopoly
in the use prevented. To have begun
such measures and not completed them
would indeed mar the record of this great
Congress very seriously. 1 hope and con-
fdently believe that they will be com.
pleted.
SeIf-Eovernment for Philippines.
And there is another great piece OF
legislation which awaits and should re-
ceive the sanction of the Senate: 1 mean
the bill which gives a larger measure
of self-government to the people of the
Philippines. How better. in this time
of anxious questioning and perplexed
policy, could we show our confidence in
the principles of liberty. as the source
as well as the expression Of life, how
better could We demonstrate our own
and steadfastness in the
courses Of justice and disinterestedness
than by thus going calmly forward to
fulfill our promises to a dependent people,
who will now look more anxiously than
ever to see whether we have indeed the
liberality, the unselfishness, the courage,
the faith we have boasted and professed
l cannot believe that the Senate will
let this great measure of constructive
justice await the action of another Con-
gress. Its passage would nobly crown
the record of these two years of memoir
able labor.
But 1 think that you will agree with |
me that this does not complete the toll of |