The Washington herald., 1917-07-12
PRESIDENT APPEALS
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stupendous undertakings of this great
war develop. We could not wisely or
! reasonably do less than pay such
prices. They are necessary for the
maintenance and development OF in
1 dustry; for the great task we have
in hand. But trust that We shall not
surround the matter with mist of
sentiment. Facts are our masters
now. We ought not to put the ac-
ceptance of such prices on the ground
of patriotism. Patriotism has nothing
| to do with profits in a case like this.
Patriotism and profits ought never in
the present circumstances to be mem
toned together. 1t is perfectly proper
to discuss profits as a matter of busi-
ness, with a view to maintaining the
integrity of capital and the efficiency
Of labor in these tragical months when
| the liberty of free men everywhere
and of industry itself trembles in
the balance; but 1t would be absurd
to discuss them as a motive for help
ing to serve and save our country.
Patriotism leaves profits out of the
question. In these days OF our su-
preme trial, when We are sending
hundreds Of thousands of our young
men across the seas to serve a great
cause, no true man who stays be-
hind to work for them and sustain
them by his labor will ask himself
what he is personally going to make
| out of that labor. No true patriot
will permit himself to take toll of
their heroism in money or seek to
grow rich by the shedding of their
blood. He will give as freely and with
| as unstinted self-sa crifice as they
When they are giving their lives VIII
he not give at least his money?
| Fail to Consider Result.
"I hear it insisted that more than
| a Just price, more than a price that
will sustain our industries, must be
paid: that 1t is necessary to pay very
! liberal and unusual profits in order
to stimulate productions; that moth
| ing but pecuniary rewards will do
it-rewards paid in money, not in the
mere liberation Of the world. l take
it for granted that those who argue
thus do not stop to think what that
means. Do they mean that you must
be paid. must be bribed. to make your
contribution, a contribution that cost
YOU neither a drop of blood nor
T,
all and men everywhere depend upon
and call to you to bring them out
of bondage and make the world fit
place to live in again amidst peace
and justice? Do they mean that you
will exact a price, drive a bargain,
with the men who are enduring the
agony of this war on the battlefield,
in the trenches, amidst the lurking
AP the with the no.
reaved women and the pitiful chill
dren, before you will come forward
to do your duty and give some part
of your life. in easy peaceful fashion,
for the things We are fighting for, the
things we have pledged our fortunes,
our lives, our sacred honor to vindi-
cate and defend-liberty and Justice
and fair dealing and the peace OF ma
tions? OF course you will not 1t is
inconceivable. Your patriotism is of
the same self-denying stuff ms the
patriotism of the men dead or MANNED
on the fields of France, or else it Is
no patriotism at all. Let us never
speak, then, of profits and of pa
triotism in the same sentence, but
face facts and meet them. Let us
do sound business, but not in the
midst OF a mist. Many a grievous
burden of taxation will be laid on this
nation, in this generation and in the
next to pay for this war: let us
see to il that for every dollar that
is taken from the peoples pockets it
shall be possible to obtain a dollars
worth OF the sound stuffs they need.
Let me turn for a moment to the
ship-owners of the United States and
the other ocean carriers whose exam
pie they have followed and ask them
If they realize what obstacles, what
almost insuperable obstacles, they
have been putting in the way of the
successful prosecution of this war by
the ocean freight rates they have been
exacting. They are doing everything
that high freight charges can do to
make the war a failure. to make 1t
impossible. I do not say that they
realize this or intend it. The thing has
happende naturally enough, because
the commercial processes which we
are content to see operate in ordinary
times have without sufficient thought
been continued into a period where
they have no proper place. 1 am not
questioning motives. 1 am merely
stating a fact, and stating it in order
that attention may be fixed upon it.
The fact is that those who have fixed
war freight rates have taken the most
effective means in their power to de-
feat the armies engaged against Ger
mny.
Has Confidence in Business Men.
"I know, and you know, what re-
sponse to this great challenge of duty
and of opportunity the nation will ex-
pect OF you; and I know what re-
Spouse you will make. Those who do
not respond. who do not respond in
the spirit Of those who have gone to
give their lives for us on bloody fields
far away. may safely be left to be
dealt with by opinion and the law
for the law must of course command
these things. I am dealing with the
matter thus publicly and frankly, not
because 1 have any doubt or fear as
to the result. but only in order that
in all our thinking and in all our
dealings with one another we may
move in a perfectly clear air of mu-
tual understanding.
"And there is something more that
We must add to our thinking. The
public is now as much part of the gov-'
ernment as are the army and navy
their activities are now modified and
in service for the accomplishment OF
the nations task in this war; it is
in such circumstances impossible just
ly to distinguish between industrial
purchases made by the government
and Industrial purchases made by the