The states-graphic. (Brownsville, Tenn.) 1???-1984, 1917-11-16

Buffalo, N. Y, Nov. 12-The text OF
the presidents speech today before
the American Federation of Labor
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 councils.
"When the executive committee paid
me the compliment of inviting me
here l gladly accepted the invitation,
because it seems to me that this above
all other times in our history is the
time for common counsel for the draw
ing not only of the energies but of the
minds of thenationtogether. Thought
that it was a welcome opportunity for
disclosing to you some of the thoughts
that have been gathering in my mind
during the last momentous months.
II am introduced to you as the Pres
ident of the United States and | yet
would be pleased if you would put the
thought of the Office into the back
ground and regard me as n of your
fellow-citizens who has come here to
speak, not the words of authority, but
the words of counsel, the words which
men should speak to one another, who
wish to be frank in a moment more
critical perhaps than the history of
the world has ever known. A moment
when it is every mans duty to forget
himself, to forget his own interests,
to fill himself with the nobility of a
great national and world conception,
and act upon a new platform elevated
above the ordinary affairs of life, ele-
waited to where 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 desi gable that we should remind
ourselves just how this war came
about and Just what it is for. You
can explain most wars very simply,
6ar the ~explanaSi6n &c this u not 50
simple. It's roots run deep in all the
obscure soils Of history, and in my
view, this is the last decisive issue be-
tween the old principles Of power and
the new principles of freedom.
'The war was started by Germany.
Her authorities deny that they started
it. But | am willing to let the state
ment | have just made await the YER
dict of history. And the thing that
needs to be explained is why Germany
started the war. Remember what the
position of Germany in the war was
as enviable a position as any nation
has ever occupied. The whole world
stood at admiration of 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. partic-
ularly in the principles Of science and
the principles that underlie modern
material achievements.
"Her men Of science had made her
industries perhaps the most complete
in the world, and the label "Made in
Germany was a guarantee of good
workmanship and good material. She
had access to all the markets in the
world and every other mar who traded
in these markets feared Germany be.
cause of her effective and almost ire.
sistable competition. She had a place
in the sun. Why was she not salts.
fed? What more did she want? There
was nothing in the world of peace that
she did not already have, and have II
abundance.
"We boast of the extraordinary pace
of American advancement. We show
with pride the statistics of the increase
of our industries and of the population
of u cites. Well, these statistics die
not match the recent statistics of Ger
many. Her old cities took on a you'll
grew faster than any American cities
ever grew; her old industries opened
their eyes and saw a new world anC
went out for its conquest; and yet tht
authorities of Germany were not sat.
isfed. You have one part of the an.
swer to the question why she was no
satisfied in her methods of competi
ton. There is no important industry
in Germany on which the government
has not laid its hand to direct it, anC
when necessity arises, control it.
"You have only to ask any mai
whom you have met, who is familiar
with the conditions that prevailed be
fore the war in the matter Of interna
tional competition, to find out the metl
DDS of competition which the German
manufacturers and exporters used un
der the patronage and support of tn
government of Germany. You vii
find that they were the same sorts o
competition that we have tried to pre-