Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1914-12-16
PRESIDENT DISCUSSES
MILITARY STRENGTH
Wilson's Message to Congress
Says Large Standing Army
i Is Not Needed.

-~6S So0A0AAA8 AMY
Il Is Not Needed.
Washington Special: President Will
sons message to congress was as fol-
lows:
Gemtlemen OF the Congress-:
me session upon which you are now
ssni 1er viii be the closing session of the
ture to say. which win long be remem-
oerea for the great body of thoughtful
ana constructive work which it has done,
needs OF the country. l should like in
enlS address to review the notable record
naHuo Try 70 make adequate assessment of
~. Out no doubt We stand too near the
work that has been lone and are our
s too much part OF it to play the part
Oh historians toward it.
moreover, our thoughts are now more
o.. the future than of the past. While
We lave worked at our tasks of peace
neen altered by war. What we have done
lor our own and and our own people, We
NJ ofa W. WIN the best that was in us. whether
enthusiasm and Il confidence in the prin-
s,pies upon which we We're acting which
s nndertaHin US at every step Of the difficult
passed from our hands. It is now an
esunfrs I part Of the legislation of the
disclose Iu 6 th uen aIsaaln 1e its effects win
CHIEFLY strikes US now, as we look about
w US ohnri mig, these closing lays of a year
history OF the world, is that we face new
tasks; have been facing them these six
m must face them in the months
aeeiing. like men who nave forgotten
ee sef thh,g b but a common duty and the
great people whose thought is not Of IF ua
put OF what America owes to herself
ana to an mankind in such circumstances
and anxious.
Must Help Europe.
war mas interrupted the means of trade
not only' but also the processes of pro-
ana resources wholesale and upon a scale
unprecedented and appalling. There is
reason SO to fear that the time is near. if
sral OF the countries of Europe win find
they have hitherto been always easily
mental things. At any rate, they win
need our help and our manifold services
and 'h @e hhye never Ha needed them before;
ready than we have ever been.
,, III; is OF equal consequences that the
Piled with innumerable articles of man
u.facture and of which they are
IN constant need and without which their
ec9nomic development halts and stands
still can now get only a small part of
what they formerly imported and eagerly
hook to us r to supply their all but empty
own neighbors, the states. great and
.sTmnaall,l.. Of Central and South America.
chiefly athwart the seas, not to our norts'
but to the ports of Great Britain and of
the older continent of Europe. l do not
stop to inquire why. OF to make any
ommen on probable causes. What in
terests US just now is not the explana-
ton but the fact, and our duty and OPP
poftunlty IN the presence of it. Here are
markets which we must supply, and We
must find the means of action. The
we We't spes sSat ana 'a act. great sbon Rso pr f for whom n n
never before, to serve itself and to serve
user and to serve mankind; ready with
It's resources. its energies. it forces of
production and its means of distribu-
Urges Merchant Marine.
1t Is a very practical matter, a mat
them? And, II we can make ready what
W we di haye, hax y, We We the means at hand
neither have we the means of distribu-
ton. We are willing, but we are not full
~ ND ABLE n We have the wish to serve
We are not prepared as We Should be-.
We are not ready to mobilize our re-
to use them Immediately and at their
best. without delay and without waste.
To sepak plainly, we have grossly erred
and hindered the development of our mer-
chant marine. And now, when we need
ships AYE we have xsa, not dshg got them; We have
conclusion, the best policy to pursue with
regard to the use Of the ores and for
ests and water powers of our national do
main 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 DANGEROUSLY for ad,mittance: TIL
outside %a.aG p9 eSe ns af oaT d nagi5}n1l s,sa streams aYss
the eastern states, where we have worked
and planned for generations. is still not
used as it might be, because we will and
we won't; because the laws we have
made do not intelligently. balance en-
hold by regulation.
l have come to ask you to remedy and
correct these mistakes and omissions,
which would certainly seem to have done
all the work that could reasonably be
expected Of it: The time and the cir
must our efforts be also.
Conservation Measures.
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 consideration and
action by the Senate. With the deepest
In them both we turn our backs upon
hesitation and makeshift 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 country for whose free and
systematic development. as 1t seems to
me. our legislation has lone SO little, but
whole; and We as clearly owe the other
in fulffllment of our repeated promises
that the water power Of the country