The Washington herald., 1917-04-16
My FeIlow-countrymen:

My FeIlow-countrymen:
The entrance of our own beloved
country into the grim and terrible
war for democracy and human rights
which has shaken the world creates
so many problems of national life
and action which call for immediate
consideration and settlement that I
hope you will permit me to address to
you a few words of earnest counsel
and appeal with regard TO them.
We are rapidly putting our navy
upon an effective war footing and are
about to create and equip q great
army, but these are the simplest
parts of the great task to which we
have addressed ourselves. There Is
not a single selfish, element, 80 far
as 1 can see, in the cause we are
fighting for. We are fighting for
what we believe and wish TO be the
rights OF mankind and for the future
peace and security of the world To
do this great thing worthily and sue
cessfully we must devote ourselves to
the service without regard to profit
or material advantage and with an
energy and intelligence that will rise
to the level OF the enterprise itself
We must realize to the full how great
the task Is and how many things,
how many kinds and elements OF ca
pacity and self-sacrifice, it involves.
These, then, are the things we must
do. and do well, besides fighting
the things without which mere fight
ing would be fruitless:
We must supply abundant food for
ourselves and for our armies and our
seamen not only. but also for a large
part Of the nations with whom we
have now made common cause. in
whose support and by whose sides we
shall be figting:
We must supply ships by the hun
dreds out of our shipyards to carry
to the other side of the sea, subma-
rines or no submarines, what will
every day be needed there, and
abundant materials out Of our fields
and our mines and our factories with
which not only to clothe and equip
our own forces on land and sea but
also to clothe and support our people
for whom the gallant fellows under
arms can no longer work, to help
clothe and equip the armies with
which We are cooperating in Eu-
rope, and to keep the looms and man
ufactories there in raw material;
coal to keep the fires going in ships
at sea and in the furnaces OF hun
dreds of factories across the sea; steel
out of which to make arms and am
munition both here and there; ralls
for worn-out railways back of the
fighting fronts; locomotives and roll
ing stock to take the place OF those
every day going to pieces; mules,
horses. cattle for labor and for mill
tSry service; everything with which
the people of England and France
and Italy and Russia have usually
supplied themselves but can not now
AFFORD the men, the materials, or the
machinery to make.
1t is evident to every thinking
man that our industries, on the
farms, in the shipyards, In the
mines, in the factories, must be
made more prolific and more eff
cient than ever and that they must
be more economically managed and
better adapted to the particular re-
quirements of our task than they
have been; and what l want to say
is that the men and the women who
devote their thought and their
energy to these things will be serv-
ing the country and conducting the
fight for peace and freedom just as
truly and just as effectively as the
men on the battlefield or in the