The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-05-20

Washington, May 2O.-The presi-
dents message to congress. cabled
from Paris, follows:
Gentlemen of the Congress:
I deeply regret my inability to be present
at the opening of the extraordinary ses-
sion of congress. 1t still seems to be my
duty to take part in the counsels of the
peace conference and contribute what |
can to the solution of the innumerable
questions TO whose settlement 1t has had
to address itself. For they are Ques-
lions which affect the peace of the
whole world and from them, therefore, the
United States cannot stand apart.
/ deemed it my duty to call the congress
together at this time because it was not
wise to postpone longer the provisions
which must be made for the support of the
government. Many of the appropriations
which are absolutely necessary for the
maintenance of the government and the
fulfillment of its varied obligations for the
fiscal year 1919-192O have not yet been
made: and the end of the present fiscal
year is at hand, and action upon these APP
preparations can no longer be prudently de-
layed.
Peace Address on His Return.
1t is necessary, therefore. that l should
Immediately call your attention to this
critical need. 1t is hardly necessary for
me to urge that it may receive your prompt
attention. l shall take the liberty of adj
dressing you on my return on the subjects
which have most engrossed our attention
and the attention of the world during these
last anxious months, since the armistice of
last November was signed the interna-
tional settlements which must form the
subject matter of the present treaties OF
peace and of our national action in the
immediate future. 1t would be premature
to discuss them or to express a Judgment
their complete formulation by the agree
ments which are now being sought Mt the
table of the conference ] shall hope to
Law them before you in their many aspects
as soon agreements have been reached.
l hesitate to venture any opinion or press
any recommendation with regard to d1mes-
-, h. fnI
States and out of daily touch with init
mate sources of information and counsel.
l am conscious that l need. after so long
an absence from Washington. to seek the
advice of those who have remained in con-
slant contact with domestic problems and
who have known them close at hand from
soon be possible for do so. But
there are several questions pressing for
consideration to which l feel that l may,
and indeed must, even now direct your at
tention if in only general terms. In speak
ing of them l shall. 1 dare say. be doing
little more than speak your own thoughts.
l hope that l shall speak your own judg-
ment also.
Labor Most Pressing Issue.
The question which stands at the front
of all others in every country amidst the
labor; and perhaps l can speak of it with
a s great advantage while engrossed in the
consideration of interests which affect all
countries alike, as | could at home and
amidst the interests which naturally most
affect my thoughts because they are the
interests of our own people.
BY the question of labor / do not mean
the question of efficient Industrial produce
ton the question of how labor is to
be obtained and made effective in the great
process of sustaining populations and win
ming success amidst commercial and indus
trial rivals. L mean that much greater
and more vital question, how are the men
and women who do the daily labor of the
world to obtain progressive improvement
in the conditions Of their labor, to be made