The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1917-12-04

| Washington. Dec. 4.-President VIII
son delivered to congress an address
considered so important in it's relation
to international affairs. that IT has been
| transmitted in advance to practically
every capital in the world. The presi-
dent spoke as follows:
Gentlemen of the Congress:
Eight months have elapsed since |
last had the honor of addressing you.
They have been most crowded with
events of immense and grave signifi-
canoe for us. | shall not undertake to
recall or even to summarize those
events.
"The practical prospects of the part
we have played in them will be laid be-
fore you in the reports of the execu-
tive departments. l shall discuss only
our preset outlook upon these past af-
fairs our present duties and the i'm
mediate means of accomplishing the OBJ
ject we shall hold always in view.
Outrageous and OdiOus
81 shall not go back to debate the
causes of the war. The intolerable
wrongs dane and planned against us
by the sinister masters of Germany
have log since become too grossly out
rageous and odious to every true Amer
lean TO need to be rehearsed. But
shall ask you to consider again. and
with very grave scrutiny our OBJ
jectives and the mea:ares by which
we mean to attain them; for the pur-
pose of discussion here in this place is
action, and our action must move
straight towards definite ends. Our OBJ
ject is, of course, to win the war and
we shall not slacken or suffer ourselves
to be diverted until il is won. But il is
worth while asking and answering the
question, when shall we consider the
war won?
From one point of view IL is not
worth while to broach this fundamental
matter. / do not doubt that the Amer
ican people know what the war is about
and what sort of an outcome they will
regard as a realization of their pur-
pose in IL.
AS a nation we are united in spirit
and intention. | pay little heed to those
who tell me otherwise. | hear the voices
OF dissent-who does not? | hear the
criticism and the clamor of the oisy,
thoughtless and troublesome. also see
men here and there fling themselves in
lmpotent disloyalty against the calm
lndomitable power of the nation. /
hear men debate peace who understand
neither its nature nor the way in which
we may attain it with uplifted eyes and
upiohth sphlts. but L Know tnat none
of these speaks for the nation. They
do not touch the heart of anything.
They may safely be left to strut their
uneasy hour and be forgotten.
But from another point of view. I
believe that it is necessary to say plain.
ly what we here at the seat of action
consider the war to be for and what
part we mean 10 play in the settlement
of its searching issues. We are the
spokesmen of the American people. and
they have a right to know whether their
purpose is ours
They desire peace by the overcoming
OF evil, of the defeat once for all of
the sinister forces that interrupt peace
and render it impossible and they wish
to know how closely our thought runs
with their, and what action we propose
They are impatient with those who de- |
sire peace by any sort OF compromise /
deeply and Indignantly impatient. but
they will be equally impatient with us |
II we do not make IL plain to them
what our objectives are, and what we |
are planning for in seeking 20 make |
conquest Of peace by arms.
Il believe that / speak for them |
when 1 say twe things; First. that this
thing of which the masters
of Germany have shown us the ugly
ice. this menace Of combined intrigue