Middletown transcript., 1920-12-11
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE !
READ TO CONGRESS
Calls on Members to Enact Leg
isIation Which Would Put the
United States in the Fore
front Of World Regen.
GRAFTON Movement.

GRAFTON Movement.
Washington.-President Wilson call
ed on Congress to enact program OF
legislation which he said would put
the United States in the forefront of
movement to make the spiritual
power Of democracy prevail through
out the world.
Text Of the Message.
Following Is the text Of the Presi-
dents message:
When I addressed myself to per-
forming the duty laid upon the Presi-
dent by the Constitution to present to
you an annual report on the state of
the Union l found myself dominated
by an immortal sentence of Abraham
Lincoln's, "Let US have faith that right
makes might, and in that faith let us
dare to do our duty as we understand
It," a sentence immortal because it
embodies in q form of utter simplicity
and purity the essential state Of the
nation, the faith in which It was con-
ceived and the faith in which it has
grown to glory and power.
Faith Which Defeated Germany.
With that faith and the birth Of
nation founded upon 1t came the hope
into the world that q new order would
prevail throughout the affairs of man.
kind, an order in which reason and
right would take precedence of covet-
BUSINESS and force, and believe that
express the wish and purpose of every
thoughtful American when say that
this sentence marks for US in the
plainest manner the part we should
play alike in the arrangements of our
domestic affairs and in our exercise
of influence upon the affairs of the
world. BY this faith and by this faith
alone can the world be lifted out of
its present confusion and despair.
1t was this faith which prevailed
over the wicked force of Germany.
You will remember that the beginning
of the end OF the war came when the
German people found themselves face
to face with the conscience of the
world and realized that right was ev-
erywhere arrayed against the wrong
that their government was attempting
to perpetrate think, therefore, that
it is true to say that this was the faith
which won the war. Certainly this is
the faith with which our gallant men
went into the field and out upon the
seas to make sure Of victory.
This is the mission upon which de-
came into the world. DemOc-
racy is an assertion Of the right of the
individual to live and to be treated
Justly as against any attempt on the
part of any combination of individuals
to make laws which will overburden
him or which will destroy his equality
among his fellows in the matter of right
or privilege, and think we all realize
that the day has come when democracy
is being put upon its final test. The
old world is just now suffering from q
wantOn rejection Of the principle of
and substitution of the
principle of autocracy as asserted in
the name. but without the authority
and sanction of the multitude. This is
the time of all others when democra-
cy should prove its purity and its spir-
ltual power to prevail. 1t is surely the
manifest destiny of the United States
to lead in the attempt to make this
spirit prevail.
United States as Example.
There are two ways il which the
United States can assist to accomplish
this great object: First, by offering the
example within her own borders of the
will and power of democracy to make
and enforce laws which are unques-
just and which are equal to
their administration-laws which Sc
cure its full right to labor and yet at
the same time safeguard the integrity
Of property, and particularly of that
which Is devoted to the de-
velopment of industry and the increase
Of the necessary wealth of the world.
Second, by standing for right and JUS
tice as towards individual nations. The
law Of democracy is for the protection
Of the weak. and the influence Of every
In the world should be for
the protection of the weak nation. the
nation which Is struggling towards it's
right and towards its proper recogni-
ton and privilege in the family of M.
tions.
The United States cannot refuse this
role Of champion without putting the
stigma Of rejection upon the great and
devoted men who brought it's govern
ment into existence and established it
In the face If almost universal opposi-
tion and intrigue, even in the face of
wanton force, as, for example. against
the orders in council of Great Britain
and the arbitrary NapoleOnic DEGREES
which involved us in what we know
as the War of 1912.
l urge you to consider that the dis
play of an immediate disposition on
the part Of the Congress to remedy any
lnjustices or evils that may have shown
in our national life will af-
ford the most effectual offset to the
forces of chaos and tyranny which are
playing so disastrous part in the for
tunes of the free peoples of more than
Dne part Of the world. The United
States is Of necessity the sample de-
Of the world. and the triumph
of democracy depends upon its sue
cess.
Budget System u Urged.
Legislation which 1t seems to me
We ought to attempt, to assist that
recovery and prove the indestructible |
force of great govern