This is our who handle it on its way to the consumer. opportunity to demonstrate the efficiency of the great Democracy and we shall not fall short of it. This let me say to the middlemen of every sort, whether they are handling our food stuffs or our raw materials of 5 manufacture or the products of our mills and factories; the eyes of the country will be especially upon you. This is your opportunity for signal service, efficient and disinterested. The country expects you, as it expects all others, to forego unusual profits to organize and expedite 10 shipments of supplies of every kind, but especially of food with an eye to the service you are rendering and in the spirit of those who enlist in the ranks, for their people, not for themselves. I shall confidently expect you to deserve and win the confidence of the people of every sort and 15 station. To the men who run the railways of the country, whether they be managers or operative employees, let me say that the railways are the arteries of the nation's life and that upon them rests the immense responsibility of seeing to it 20 that those arteries suffer no obstruction of any kind, no inefficiency or slackened power. To the merchant let me suggest the motto, "Small profits and quick service"; and to the shipbuilder the thought that the life of the war depends upon him. The food and the war supplies must 25 be carried across the seas no matter how many ships are sent to the bottom. The places of those that go down must be supplied and supplied at once. To the miner let me say that he stands where the farmer does; the work of the world waits on him. If he slackens or fails, armies 30 and statesmen are helpless. He also is enlisted in the great Service Army. The manufacturer does not need to be told, I hope, that the nation looks to him to speed and perfect every process; and I want only to remind his employees that their service is absolutely indispensable. and is counted on by every man who loves the country 5 and its liberties. Let me suggest, also, that everyone who creates or cultivates a garden helps, and helps greatly, to solve the problem of the feeding of nations; and that every housewife who practices strict economy puts herself in the ranks Io of those who serve the nation. This is the time for America to correct her unpardonable fault of wastefulness and extravagance. Let every man and every woman assume the duty of careful, provident use and expenditure as a public duty, as a dictate of patriotism which no one 15 can now expect ever to be excused or forgiven for ignoring. In the hope that this statement of the needs of the nation and of the world in this hour of supreme crisis may stimulate those to whom it comes and remind all who need reminder of the solemn duties of a time such as the world 20 has never seen before, I beg that all editors and publishers everywhere will give as prominent publication and as wide circulation as possible to this appeal. I venture to suggest, also, to all advertising agencies that they would perhaps render a very substantial and timely service to the country if they would give it widespread repetition. And I hope that clergymen will not think the theme of it an unworthy or inappropriate subject of comment and homily from their pulpits. 25 The supreme test of the nation has come. We must 30 all speak, act, and serve together. WOODROW WILSON 23. MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS MAY 30, 1917 THE program has conferred an unmerited dignity upon the remarks I am going to make by calling them an address, because I am not here to deliver an address; I am here merely to show in my official capacity the sympathy of this great Government with the object of 5 this occasion, and also to speak just a word of the sentiment that is in my own heart. Any Memorial Day° of this sort is, of course, a day touched with sorrowful memory, and yet I for one do not see how we can have any thought of pity for the 10 men whose memory we honor to-day. I do not pity them. I envy them, rather, because theirs is a great work for liberty accomplished and we are in the midst of a work unfinished, testing our strength where their strength already has been tested. There is a touch of 15 sorrow, but there is a touch of reassurance also in a day like this, because we know how the men of America have responded to the call of the cause of liberty, and it fills our minds with a perfect assurance that that response will come again in equal measure, with equal majesty, and 20 with a result which will hold the attention of all mankind. When you reflect upon it, these men who died to preserve the Union, died to preserve the instrument which we are now using to serve the world a free nation espousing the cause of human liberty. In one sense the great struggle into which we have now entered is an American struggle, because it is in the sense of Amer5 ican honor and American rights, but it is something even greater than that; it is a world struggle. It is a struggle of men who love liberty everywhere, and in this cause America will show herself greater than ever because she will rise to a greater thing. We have said in the be10 ginning that we planned this great Government that men who wish freedom might have a place of refuge and a place where their hope could be realized and now, having established such a Government, having preserved such a Government, having indicated the power of such a Gov15 ernment, we are saying to all mankind, "We did not set this Government up in order that we might have a selfish and separate liberty, for we are now ready to come to your assistance and fight out upon the fields of the world the cause of human liberty." In this thing America attains 20 her full dignity and the full fruition of her great purpose. 25 No man can be glad that such things have happened as we have witnessed in these last fateful years, but perhaps it may be permitted to us to be glad that we have an opportunity to show the principles that we profess to be living, principles that live in our hearts, and to have a chance by the pouring out of our blood and treasure to vindicate the things that we have professed. For, my friends, the real fruition of life is to do the things we have said we wished to do. There are times when work seems 30 empty and only action seems great. Such a time has come, and in the providence of God America will once more have an opportunity to show to the world that she was born to serve mankind. WOODROW WILSON 24. THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM A MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE AND NEW GOVERNMENT OF RUSSIA, JUNE 9, 1917 In view of the approaching visit of the American delegation to Russia to express the deep friendship of the American people for the people of Russia and to discuss the best and most practical means of coöperation between the two peoples in carrying the present struggle for the freedom of all peoples to a successful consummation, it seems opportune and appropriate that I should state again, in the light of this new partnership, the objects the United States has had in mind in entering the war. Those objects have been very much beclouded during the past few weeks by mistaken and misleading statements, and the issues at stake are too momentous, too tremendous, too significant for the whole human race to permit any misinterpretations or misunderstandings, however slight, to remain uncorrected for a moment. 5 ΙΟ 15 The war has begun to go against Germany, and in their desperate desire to escape the inevitable ultimate defeat those who are in authority in Germany are using every possible instrumentality, are making use even of the influence of groups and parties among their own sub- 20 jects to whom they have never been just or fair or even |