The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1917-11-15
WILSON'S SPEECH
BEFORE A. F. OF |.

Duhdio, ~. L., NOV. lo.-HreSlQent
wilson made a personal appeal here
Tor the support of organized labor for
the government for the conduct of the
war. Speaking before the annual con-
Vention of the American Federation
or Labor, he declared the war could
not be won unless ali factions unite.
The text of the Presidents speech
follows:
Mr.. President, Delegates of the
American Federation of Labor, Ladies
and Gentlemen:
i esteem it a great privilege and a
real honor to be thus admitted to your
public cotnsels. When your executive
committee paid me the compliment of
inviting rue here. ! gladly accepted the
invitation because it seems to me that
this above all other times in our his
tory is the time for common counsel
for the drawing not only of the ener-
gies but OF the minds of the nation to-
gether. ] thought that it was a vel
come opportunity for disclosing to you
some of the thoughts that have been
gathering in my mind during the last
momentous months.
Would Danish Thought Of Office.
ain i~RlTOuuCSu W you do tue
President If the United States. and
yet | would be pleased if you would
put the thought Of the office into the
background and regard me as n CT
your fellow citizens who has come
here to speak. not the words of au-
thority but the words Of counsel, the
words which men should speak to enc
another who wish to be frank in a mo-
-, ra1~A art1taat n1rha sc &hnn fhn
history Of the world has ever vet
known, a moment when it Is every
mans drty to forget himself, 20 for
get his owr interests, TO fill himself
with the nobility of a great national
and world conception and act upon a
new platform elevated above the ordil-
men have views of the long destiny
of mankind.
81 think that in order to realize
Just what this moment of counsel is.
It is very desirable that we should
remind ourselves just how this war
came about and just what it is for.
You can explain most wars very simp-
Iy. but the explanation of this is not
so simple. Its roots run deep into all
the obscure soils of history, and in
my view this is the last decisive issue
between the old principles of power
and the new principles of freedom.
Germany Started War.
THE war was started by Germany.
Her authorities deny that they started
1t. But ! am willing to let the state
ment | have just made await the YER
die OF history. And the thing that
needs to he explained is why Germany
started tie war Remember what the
position Of Germany in the world was
as enviable a position as any nation
has ever occupied. The whole world
stood at admiration at her wonderful
intellectual and material achievements
and all the intellectual men of the
world went to school to her. AS a
university man ! have been surround
ed by men trained in Germany, men
who had resorted to Germany because
nowhere else could they get such thor
ough and searching training, particu-
larly in the principles Of science and
material achievements.
A Leader in Industrial World.
".Her men of science had made her
Industries perhaps the most competent
industries in tue world and the label
Made in Germany a a guarantee
of good workm anship and of sound
material She had access to all the
markets of the w,prld anG every other
man who traded i'm those markets fear
ed Germany because of effective and
almost irresistible competition. She
had a place in the syn. Why was she
not satisfied? What more did she
went? There was nothing IN the world
of peace that she did not already have
and have in abundance.
Such Methods Unlawful Here.
you have only to itsk any man
whom you meet who is familiar with
the conditions that prevailed before
the war in the matter of International
competition to find out the methods OF
competition which the GERMAN manu-
facturers and exporters usSd under
the patronage and support OF the gov
eminent of Germany. You VIII find
that they were the same sorts cT com
petition that we have tried to prevent
by law within our borders. If they
could not sell their goods cheaper than
we could sell ours at a profit to them-
selves they could get a subsidy from
the government which made it pss-
sibIe to sell them cheaper anyhow and
the conditions Of the competition wera
thus controlled in large measure by
the German government itself. But
that did not satisfy the German gov
eminent.
"All the while there was lying be-
hind it's thought, in its dreams of the
future, a political control which would
enable 1t in the long run to dominate
the labor and the industry of the
world. They were not content with the
success by superior achievement; they
wanted success by authority. 81 sup.
pose very few OF you have thought
much about the Berlin-to-B agdad rail-
way. The Berlin-to-Bagdad railway
was constructed in order to run the
threat of force down the flank of the
Industrial undertakings OF half a
dozen other countries so that when
German competition came In 1t would
not be resisted too far-because there
was always the possibility OF getting
,Gernfan armies into the heart OF that
ountry quicker than n other armies
could be got there. Look at the map
of Europe now. Germany is thrusting
upon US again and again the discussion
of peace talks about what: Talks