The states-graphic. (Brownsville, Tenn.) 1???-1984, 1917-04-06

the best means OF dealing With tn
enemy's submarines.
II will involve the immediate add
ton to the army forces of the Unites
States already provided for by law il
case of war at least five hundred thou
sand men, who should, in my opinion
be chosen upon the principal of univer'
sal liability to service, and also the
authorization of subsequent additional
increments of equal force so soon as
they may be needed and can be hand
led in training. 1t will involve also, Of
course, the granting of adequate cred
its to the government, sustained,
hope, so far as they can equitably be
sustained, by the present generation,
by well conceived taxation.
say sustained so far as may be
equitable by taxation because it seems
to me that it would be most unwise
to base the credits which will now be
necessary entirely on money borrowed.
II is our duty, most respectfully
urge, to protect our people so far as
we may against the very serious hard
ships and evils which would be likely
to arise but of the imitation which
would be produced by vast loans.
In carrying out the measures by
which these things are to be accom-
plished, we should keep constantly in
mind the wisdom Of interfering as lit
tie as possible on our own preparation
and in the equipment of our military
forces with the duty-for it will be
very practical duty-of supplying the
nations already at war with Germany.
with the materials which they can OBJ
tain only from us or by our assistance.
They are in the field and we should
help them in every way to be effective
there.
| shall take the liberty of suggesting
through the several executive depart
ments Of the government for the con-
sideration of your committee, meas
ures for the accomplishment Of the sew
eral objects | have mentioned. l
hope that it will be your pleasure to
deal with them as having been framed
after very careful thought, by the
branch of the government upon which
the responsibility of conducting the
war and safeguarding the nation will
most directly fall.
While we do these things-thesel
deeply momentous things-let us be
very clear, and make very clear to all
the world what our motives and our
objects are, My own thought has not
been driven from its habitual normal
course by the unhappy events Of the
last two months, and | do not believe
that the thought Of the nation has been
altered or clouded by them.
| have exactly the same things in
mind now that ! had in mind when |
addressed the senate on the 22nd of
last January; the same that | had in
mind when | addressed the congress
on the 3rd of February. Our object
now, as then, is to vindcate the prin-
ciples of peace and justice in the life |
of the world as against selfish and au-
tocratic power and to set up amongst |
the really free and self-governed peo-
pies of the world such a concert of I
purpose and of action as will hence
forth insure the observance of those /
principles.
Neutrality is no longer feasible or
desirable when the peace of the world
is involved and the freedom of its peo-
Piles, and the menace to that peace and
freedom lies in the existence of auto
cratic governments backed by organ
lied force which is controlled wholly
by their will, not by the will of the
people. We have seen the last of neu-
trality in such circumstances.
We are at the beginning of an age
in which it will be insisted that the
same standards of conduct and of res
possibility for wrong done shall be OBJ
served among nations and their gov
ernments that are observed among the
individual citizens of civilized states.
We have no quarrel with the German
people. We have no feeling toward
them but of sympathy and friendship.
1t was not upon their impulse that
their government acted in entering
this war. 1t was not with their pre-
vious knowledge or approval.
1t was a war determined upon as
wars used to be determined upon in
the old unhappy days when people
were nowhere consulted by their rul-
ers and wars were provoked and wag-
ed in the interest of dynasties or of lit
tie groups of ambitious men who were
accustomed to use their fellow men as
pawns and tools.
Self-governed nations do not fill
their neghborhood states with spies or
set the course of intrigue to bring
about some critical posture of affairs
which will give them an opportunity
to strike and make conquest. Such
designs can be successfully worked (.
only under cover and where no one has
the right to ask questions.
Cunningly contrived plans of decep-
ton or aggression, carried, it may be,
from generation to generation, can be
worked out and kept from the light
only within the privacy of courts or
behind the carefully guarded conf
dences of a narrow and privileged
class. They are happily impossible
where public opinion commands and
insists upon full information concern
ing all the nations affairs.