The Forrest City times., 1914-12-11
President Points Out Big Prob lemS Which Confront
 Congress.
MUST OPEN GATES OF TRADE
ships to Carry Goods to Emr>y Mar kets Ia Imperative Necessity Our National Defense Lies in
 Our Citizenry-Nced
 of Economy.

Washington, Dec. S.-The new tasks and duties imposNd upon the United States as a result of the European war occupied the greater portion of Presi- dent Wilson 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, congress, venture to say, which will long be re- membered for the great body of thoughtful and constructive work which 1t has done, in loyal response to the thought and needs of the coun- try. 1 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 confidence in the principles upon which we were acting h s,1, ,t,N the difficult undertaking; but it is done. It has passed from our hands It Is now an established part of the legislation of the country. Its useful ness, it's effects, will disclose them selves in experience. 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 with out partisan feeling, like men who have forgotten everything but 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 all mankind in such circumstances as these upon which we look amazed and anxious.
 Europe Will Need Our Help.
 War has interrupted the means of trade not only but also the processes of production. In Europe it is destroy ing men and resources wholesale and upon scale unprecedented and ap- 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 to 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 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.
 It is of equal consequence that the nations whom Europe has usually sup
 
 manufacture and commerce can now get only small part of what they for merly imported and eagerly look to us to supply their all but empty mar kets. This Is particularly true of our own neighbors, the states. great anG small, of Central and South America Here are markets which we must sup ply. and we must find the means of ac tion. 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 its resources, it's energies its forces of production, and its means of distribution.
 We Need Ships.
 It Is very practical matter, mat ter of ways and means. We have the resources. but are we fully ready tc use them? And if we can make ready what we have, have we the means al hand to distribute it? We are not fully 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 We should be. We are not ready to mo bilize 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