Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-12
ALL AMERICANS MUST HELP
WIN WAR, SAYS PRESIDENT
man government. compounds for its
own destruction
The Presidents Speech
CONTINUED from First Page.l

own destruction"
The Presidents Speech
The text of the Presidents speech
to-day before the American Fedora
ton of Labor follows:
MIR. President, Delegates of the
American Federation of Labor,
Ladies and Gentlemen: / esteem 1t a
great privilege and a real honor to be
mus admitted to your public coun-
ellis. When your executive committee
paid me the compliment of inviting
me, l gladly accepted the invitation
because 1T seems to me that this,
above all other times in our history,
is the time for common counsel for
the drawing not only of the energies
but of the minds of the nation to-
gether. l thought that it was a well
come opportunity for disclosing to
you some ofSthe thoughts that have
been gathering in my mind during
the last momentouS months.
Il am introduced to you as the
President of the United States, and
yet l would be pleased if you would
put the thought of the office into the
Background and regard me as one of
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 one another, who wish to be frank
in moment more critical perhaps
than the history of the world has
ever yet known moment when it is
every mans duty to forget himself,
to forget his own interests, to fill
himself with the nobility of great
national and world conception, and
act upon a new platform elevated
above the ordinary affairs of life,
elevated to where men have views of
the long destiny of mankind.
II 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 fer.
You can explain most wars very
simply, 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 de-
cisive issue between the old prin-
ciples of power and the new prin-
ciples of freedom.
Germany Responsible
THE war was started by Germany.
Her authorities deny that they start
ed 1t. But l am willing to let the
statement l have just made await
that needs to be explained is why
Germany started the 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 of
her wonderful intellectual and ma
terial achievements and all the in
tellectual men of the world went to
school to her. AS a university man, l
have been surrounded by men train
ed in Germany, men who had re-
sorted to Germany because nowhere
else could they get such thorough
and searching training, particularly
in the principles of science and the
principles that underly modern ma
teral achievements.
Made in Germany
Her men of science had made her
industries perhaps the most COM
petent industries in the world and
the label Made in Gerany' was a
guarantee of good workmanship and
of sound material. She had access to
all the markets of the world and
every other man who traded in those
markets feared Germany because of
her effective and almost irresistible
competition. She had q place in the
sun. why was she not satisfied?
What more did she want? There was
nothing in the world of peace that
she did not already have and have
in abundance. We boast of the eX-
traordinary pace of American ad-
Vancement.
1--WE show with pride the statistics
of the increase of our industries and
of the population of our cities. Well,
those statistics did not match the re-
cent statistics of Germany. Her old
cities took on youth, grew faster than
any American cities ever grew; her
old industries opened their eyes and
saw Il new world and vert out for its
conquest; and yet the authorities of
Germany were not satisfied. You
have one part of the answer to the
question why she was not satisfied
in her methods of competition. There
is no important industry in Germany
upon which the government has not
laid it's hands to direct it and when
necessity arises, control 1t.
Methods of Competition
You have only to ask any man
whom you meet, who is familiar with
the conditions. that prevailed before
the war in the matter of interna-
tional competition, to find out the
methods OF competition which the
German manufacturers and export
ers used under the patronage and
support of the government of Ger
many. You will find that they were
the same sorts of competition that
we have tried to prevent by law with
in our own borders. If they could
not sell their goods cheaper than we
could sell ours, at a profit to them
selves, they could not get a subsidy
from the poNernment which made il
possible to sell them cheaper, any
how, and the conditions of competi-
ton were thus controlled in large
measure by the German government
itself. But that did not satisfy the
German government.
Would Dominate World
"All the while there was lying be-
hind its thought, in its dreams of the
future political control, which
would enable it in the long run to
dominate the labor and the industry
of the world. They were not content
with success by superior achieve
ment, they wanted success by author
ity. ! suppose very few of you nave
Bagdad railway. 1t was constructed
in order to run the threat of force
down the flank of the industrial TN
dertakings of half a dozen other
countries, so that when German COM
petition came in it would not be re-
sisted too far-because there was al
ways the possibility of getting Ger
man armies into the part of that
country before other armies could be
got there. Look at the map of Eu-
rope now, Germany, in thrustlng
upon us again and again the discus
sion of peace. talks about what?
mi N -. "a