Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1914-12-17
PRESIDENT DISCUSSES
MILITARY STRENGTH
Wilson's Message to Congress
Says Large Standing Army
Is Not Needed.
Washington Special: President Will

Gentlemen of the Congress-:
The session upon which you are now
Sixty-third congress-. a congress, I VEN
ture to say. which will long be remem-
bered for the great body of thoughtful
and constructive work which it has done,
in loyal respons to the thought and
needs Of the country. | should like in
this address to review the notable record
1t; but no doubt W. stand too near the
work that has been done and are our
selves too much part Of it to play the part
or 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
been altered by war. What we have done
ior our WI land and our own people. we
did with the best that was in us. whether
enthusiasm and a confidence in the prin-
ciples upon which we We're acting which
sustained sustain us at every step Of the difficult
passed from our hands. 1t is now an
established part of the legislation Of the
country. Its usefulness, its effects will
chiefly strikes US now. as we look about
US during. these closing days of a year
which viii be forever memorable in the
tasks. have been facing them these six
months, must face them in the months
TO comerface them without partisan
everything but a onmon duty and the
fact that we are representatives Of a
great people whose thought is not of US
and to all mankind in such circumstance
as these upo which we look amazed
and anxious.
Must Help Europe.
War has interrupted the means of trade
NOT only, put also the processes OF pro-
d%uction. In Europe ii is destroying men
ana resources wholesale and upon a scale
unprecedented and appalling. There is
reason TO rear that the fjra ic Tonar jf
1T be not already at hand, when sew
eral OF the countries of Europe will find
they have hitherto been always easily
able to do-rnany 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 AT and
ready than we have ever been.
lH Is OF equa! that the
piled with innumerable articles of man
ufacture and OF which they are
economic development halts and stands
still can now get only a small part of
what they formerly imported and eagerly
markets.: This is particularly true of our
own. %neighbors. the states. great and
small, of Central and South America.
Their lines OF rad nave hitherto run
chiefly athwart the seas, not to our ports,
but to the ports of Great Britain and of
the older continent of Europe. | do not
comment on probable causes. What in
terests us just now is not the explana-
ton but the fact, and our duty and OPP
p e ar9lG n IN the pr presence of it, Here are
must find the means of action. The
United States, this great people for whom
we speak and act, should be ready. as
never before. to serve itself and to serve
itself and to serve manlsind; ready with
Its resources. its energies, it forces OF
production and it's means of dist.ibu-
ton.
Urges Merchant Marine.
1t is u very practical matter. a mat
ter OF ways and means. We have the
resources. but are we fully ready to use
them? And, If 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 distribu-
ton. We are willing, but we are not full
ly able. We have The wish to serve
and to serve greatly, generously: hut
we are not prepared as we should be.
sources at once. We are not prepared
to use them Immediately and at their
best, without delay and without waste.
To sepak plainly, we have grossly erred
in the way in which we AVE 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 for
ests and water power of our national do
main in the rich states of the west, wher
we should have acted; and they are still
Locked up. The key is SIN turned npor
sands of vigorous men, full of initiative
knock clamorously for admittance. The
WntaG pq Phe na Of oar d nayiSi1ol s,sa streams snnI
the eastern states. where we have worked
and planned for generations, is still no,
used as it might be, because we will ant
we won't; because the laws we have
made do not i~ntelligently balance en-,
couragenent against restraint. We with.
hold by regulation.
/ nave come to ask YOU to renely ant
correct these mistakes and omissions
even at this short session of 4 congress!
all the work that could reasonably b,
expected of it. The time and the cir
curnstances are extraordinary, and 81
must our efforts be also.
Conservation Measures.
Fortunately. two great measures, finel
conceived. the one to unlock. with prope
safeguards, the resources OF the nationa
domain, the other to encourage the use O
tie navigabie waters outside cha, domail
for the generation of power, have alread
passed the House of Representatives an
are ready for immediate consideration an
action by the Senate. With the decpes
earnestness urge their prompt passage
In them both we turn our backs upo
hesitation and m%akeshift and formulate
genuine policy of Use and conservation
in the best sense of those words. We CIV
the one measure not only to the peopl
of that great country for whose free an
systematic development, as it seems I
me, our legislation has done so little. bu
also to the people of the nation as
whole; and we as clearly owe the othe
In fullillment of our repeated promise
that the water power of the countr
should in fact as we'll as in name be pr
at the disposal of great industries whic
) can make economical and profitable use {
X, the right of the public being a%dequatel
guarded the while. and monopoly in tn
use prevented. To have begun such meas
ures and not completed them would ir
deed mar the record of this great cor
gress very seriously. | hope and conf
IDENTIFY believe that they will be cor
plctcd.
And there is another great piece Z
legislation which awaits and should r,
ceive the sanction of the Senate: l mea
the bill which gives a larger measure {
self-government to the people of the Phi
!, ippines. How better, in this time of an,
ious questioning and pcrplexed polio,
could We show our confidence in the pril
ciples OF liberty. as the source as we'll 6
tho expression of life. how better couI
we demonstrate our own ~self-possessio
and steadfastness in the courses OF i'll;
ticn and tisfnterestedncss thar b. thus q,
Ing calmly forward to fulfill our promise
to a dependent people, who will roy loo
more anxiously than ever to see wiletlt
we have indeed the liherality. the III
~sellshness. the courage. the. faith we lia,
: boosted ard professed. j cat, not belle,
tkat the Senate viii let this great mea