The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-12-05
pLete Text of Presidents Address

OOSEEPdGG GS Washington, December An his ad- dress to Congress the President spoke as follows:
 "Gentlemen of the Congress: Eight months have elapsed since I last had the honor of addressing you. They have been months crowded with events of immense and grave signifi- canoe for us. I shall not undertake to recall or even attempt to summar- ize those events. The practical par ticulars of the part we have played in them will be laid before you in the reports of the executive departments. I shall discuss only our present outlook upon these vast af- fairs, our present duties and the im- mediate means of accomplishing the objects we shall always hold in view. I shall not go back to debate the causes of the war. The intolerable wrongs done and planned against US by the sinister masters of Germany have long since become too grossly ob- vious to every true American to need to be rehearsed.
 ASKS CONGRESS TO
 SCRUTINIZE DETECTIVES
 But I shall ask you to consider again, and with very grave scrutiny our objectives, and the measures by which we mean to attain them, for the purpose of discussion here in this place of action, and our action must move straight towards definite ends. Our objective Is, of course, to win the war, and we shall not slaeken or suf- fer ourselves to be diverted until it Is won. But it is worth while asking and answering the question: When shall we consider the war won?
 "From one point of view it is not necessary to broach this fundamental ican people know what the war IS about, and what sort of an outcome they will regard as a realization of their purpose in it.. As a nation, we are united in spirit and intention. l pay little heed to those who tell me otherwise. I hear the voices of dissent who does not? I hear the criticism and the clamor of the noisy, thought less and troublesome.
 MEN DEBATE PEACE WHO
 DO NOT UNDERSTAND
 q also see men here and there
 fling themselves in important dis
 loyalty against the calm indomi-
 table power of the nation. l henr
 men debate peace who understand
 neither it's nature the way
 in which we may attain it with
 uplifted eyes and unbrOlxen spirits.
 Hut I know that 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 forgot
 ten.
 But from another point of view I believe it is necessary to say plainly that those here at the seat of the ad ministration know what the war i3 for and for what part we mean to play in the settlement of it's searching recesses We are the spokesmen of the American people, and they have right to know whether their purpose Is ours.
 "They desire peace by the overcom- ing of evil, by the defeat once and for all of the sinister forces that in terrupt peace and render it impos- sible and they wish to know how closely our thoughts run with theirs, and what action we propose. PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW
 AIMS OF GOVERNMENTS
 "They are impatient with those who desire peace by any sort of compro- mise-deeply and indignantly impa- tient-but they will be equally impa- lrenl with us if we do not make it plain to them what our objectives are, and what we are planning for in seek : ing the better way to make perma- uent peace by conquest of arms.
 sI believe that I speak for them
 when l sny two things: First,
 that this intolerabIe thing of
 which the mastery of Germany
 have shown thU ugly face, this
 menace of combined in-
 trigue and force which we now
 sec so clearly ns the German peo-
 ple-is a thing without conscience
 or honor, capacity for cOvenated
 peace-must be crushed, and if it
 he not utterly brought to an end,
 at least shut out from the friend
 Iy intercourse of the nations; and
 second, that when this thing and
 its power are indeed defeated. and
 the time comes that we can discuss
 peace--yIien the German people
 have spOkesmen whose word we
 can believe and when those
 spokesmen are ready in the name
 of their people to accept the conn
 mon judgment of the nations ns to
 what shall hencefOrth be the bases
 of law and cOnvenant for the of
 ficial life of the wOrid--we shall
 be willing and glad to pay the full
 price for peace. and pay 1t un-
 grudginEly. We know what that
 price will be. It will be full, inn