Denver labor bulletin., 1916-09-02
Am erica's S
Opportunity
By
PRES. WOODROW WILSON
From General Federation Magazine for
From General Federation Magazine for
September

future of the world will be crowded with
quick changes. Every true lover of
America must wish the United States
to play part in those changes which
will be worthy of her ideals and her
character. Almost alone among the
great nations of the world she will be
unhampered in meeting great oppor-
tunity.
In the first place, her resources are
unimpaired Not only has the war and
all its attendant circumstances made no
hurtful drain upon her men or her mate
rails; it has even enhanced her skill and
added to her resources, because of the
very circumstances of her situation, cut
off from her usual trade with many
parts of the world and called upon to
supply what she never supplied before,
to the nations engaged in the great
struggle not only, but also to her own
people. She has developed industries
that she had before neglected, has
found new uses for her material and
new material to use. She has thus been
enabled to realize what she can do more
fully than she ever did before. No
other nation will stand quite so ready
as she to serve the world in every work
of peace and development.
In the second place, she will probab-
ly of necessity be the chief reliance OF
the rest of the world in the field of
finance. Probably the chief part in
supplying the means necessary for the
great construction which will have to
follow the war will fall to her. When
the war began America was, striking
the large balances, a debtor nation. When
the war closes she will be a creditor OF
all the world. Her financiers will have
it within their choice to play a part
they have never played before in the eco
nomic development of other nations and
of distant regions of the earth. 1t is
to be hoped that they will have the
vision to accept the opportunity with
far-sighted courage and a quick adap
tatiOn to the new conditions.
In the third place. | think it is evi-
dent that the United States will under
stand herself better than she ever did
before. The war and all its attendant
circumstances have cried her wide awake
to both the dangers OF her life and its
enormous possibilities and advantages.
There have been many things to disturb
us during these two years of long drawn
out tragedy. We had not realized be
fore that there were certain elements I'm
our citizenship which had not in then
heart of hearts devoted themselves in
full loyalty and allegiance to the coun-
try of their adoption. A new problem
of disunion, more subtle, more difficult
to meet with direct checkmate and cor
rection than the old problem which cul
minated in the Civn war, has engaged
and disturbed our thought, and We have
realized that We must devote a new en-
ergy and ardor to binding together the
forces which will produce a new union, |
a union of spirits triumphant over every
n NJ Rnt
discovery, this very anxiety, has quick |
ened the pulse of every loyal and de-
voted American thruout the length and |
breadth of the land, whether his birth.
place was on this side of the water or |
on the other. A new and wholesome |
force has arisen amongst us of thought.
ful, watchful energetic patriotism, and |
| venture to think that the nation is |
better prepared on that account, to face |
the problems of a new day in which |
it will marshal all its energies and as
semble all its resources to enable the |
country we love to play the part it
should seek to play in the counsels of
the great world
Fortunately, America can play her
part in the days to come unselfishly and
impartially, because she covets nothing
that other nations have unless it be their
dertakings OF science and industry and |
these things she can obtain, not by CON
quest of force, but by the mere careful
use of the extraordinary capacity of her |
people She can produce like skill ana |
knowledge for herself. That is one of |
the things these days of struggle and in
terrupted trade have taught her. She |
has nothing that she wishes to take |
away from the other nations of the |
world, and she is better prepared than |
she ever was before to make rich con-
tribution to the development of other |
nations.
The opportunity is at hand, therefore,
for which she has waited. Her prin-
ciples are suited to the freedom of man.
kind and the peace of the world. She |
can now exemplify those principles in
action with a new leadership, new OPP |
portunity to exhibit them upon a great
scale. She can now afford an example
of energy in justice as well as in enter
prise, in fair and honorable competition,
in thoughtful adaptation of her resources
to the needs of the world, which may
help to inaugurate new era in the In
tercourse and friendly interdependence of
the peoples of the world.
That she will rise to this great oppor-
tunity no man who knows her can
doubt. 1t should be the pride and
thoughtful purpose of every American
so to equip himself with knowledge and
so to purge his own heart that he may
play a suitable part in this rebirtlt
Americanism.