The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1914-12-11
President Points Out Big Prob
lens Which Confront
Congress.
MUST OPEN GATES OF TRADE
Ships to Carry Goods to Empty Mar
kets Is Imperative Necessity
Our National Defense Lies in
Our citizenry-Nesd
of Economy.

Washington, Dec. S,--The new tasks
and duties imposed upon the United
States as result of the European war
occupied the greater portion of Presi-
dent Wslsol. message to congress
read today before joint session of
the two houses. The message follows:
Gentlemen of the Congress:
The session 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 re-
membered for the great body of
thoughtful and constructive work
which it has done, in loyal response
TO the thought and needs of the coun-
try. | should like in this address to re-
view 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 it 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
best that was in us, whether of char
acter or of intelligence, with sober
enthusiasm and a 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 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 a 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 with
out partisan feeling, like men who
have forgotten everything but a com
mon duty and the fact that we are
representatives of great people
whose thought is not of us but of what
America owes to herself and to al
mankind in. such circumstances as
these upon which We look amazed and
xnxious
Europc Will Need Our Help.
War has interrupted the means oil
trade not only but also the processes
of production. In Europe it is destroy
upon a scale unprecedented and APP
palling. There is reason to fear that
the time is near, If it be not already
at hand, when several of the coun
tries of Europe will find it difficult tC
do for their people what they have
hitherto been always, easily able to do
many essential and Fundamental
things: AT any rate they will need oul
help and our manifold services as they
have never needed them before; anC
ready than We have ever been.
1t is o. equal consequence that the
nations whom Europe has usually sup
piled with innumerable articles o.
manufacture and commerce can nov
get only a small part of what they for
merly imported and eagerly look to u.
to supply their all but empty mar
kets. This is particularly true of oul
own peighbors, the states, great anC
small, of Central and South America
Eere are markets which we must sup
ply. and We must find the means of &C
ton. The United States, this grea
people for whom we speak and act
should be ready, as never before, t.
serve itself and TO serve mankind
ready with its resources, its energies
its forces of production, and its mean.
OF distribution.
We Need Ships.
IL is a very practical matter, a mat
ter of ways and means. We have the
resources. out are we fully ready Il
use them? And If We can make ready
what We have, have we the means al
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. gener
ously; but We are not prepared as us
should be. We are not ready 70 mo
bilize our resources az once We are
not prepared 70 use them immediately
and at their best. without delay and
without waste.
To speak plainly we have grossly