tions shall be suffered to run against such litigants only from the date of the conclusion of the Government's action. It is not fair that the private litigant should be obliged to set up and establish again the facts which the Government has proved. He can not afford, he has not the power, to make use of such processes of inquiry as the Government has command of. Thus shall individual justice be done while the processes of business are rectified and squared with the general conscience.

I have laid the case before you, no doubt, as it lies in your own mind, as it lies in the thought of the country. What must every candid man say of the suggestions I have laid before you, of the plain obligations of which I have reminded you? That these are new things for which the country is not prepared? No; but that they are old things, now familiar, and must of course be undertaken if we are to square our laws with the thought and desire of the country. Until these things are done, conscientious business men the country over will be unsatisfied. They are in these things our mentors and colleagues. We are now about to write the additional articles of our constitution of peace, the peace that is honor and freedom and prosperity.

THE TWO PROCLAMATIONS CONCERNING THE SHIPMENT OF ARMS INTO MEXICO

Whereas, by a proclamation of the President issued on March 14, 1912, under a Joint Resolution of Congress approved by the President on the same day, it was declared that there existed in Mexico conditions of domestic violence which were promoted by the use of arms or munitions of war procured from the United States; and

Whereas, by the Joint Resolution above mentioned it thereupon became unlawful to export arms or munitions of war to Mexico except under such limitations and exceptions as the President should prescribe:

Now, therefore, I, WOODROW WILSON, President of the United States of America, hereby proclaim that, as the conditions on which the Proclamation of March 14, 1912, was based have essentially changed, and as it is desirable to place the United States with reference to the exportation of arms or munitions of war to Mexico in the same position as other Powers, the said Proclamation is hereby revoked.

Done at the City of Washington this third day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fourteen, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and thirty-eighth.

By the President:

WOODROW WILSON.

W. J. BRYAN, Secretary of State.

Whereas, a Joint Resolution of Congress, approved March 14, 1912, provides: "That whenever the President shall find that in any American country conditions of domestic violence exist which are promoted by the use of arms or munitions of war procured from the United States, and shall make proclamation thereof, it shall be unlawful to export except under such limitations as the President shall prescribe any arms or munitions of war from the United States to such country until otherwise ordered by the President or by Congress";

Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim that I have found that there exist in Mexico such conditions of domestic violence promoted by the use of arms or munitions of war procured from the United States as contemplated by the said Joint Resolution; and I do hereby admonish all citizens of the United States and every person to abstain from every violation of the provisions of the Joint Resolution above set forth, hereby made applicable to Mexico, and I do hereby warn them that all violations of such provisions will be rigorously prosecuted. And I do hereby enjoin upon all

officers of the United States, charged with the execution of the laws thereof, the utmost diligence in preventing violations of the said Joint Resolution and this my Proclamation issued thereunder, and in bringing to trial and punishment any offenders against the same.

Done at the city of Washington this nineteenth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifteen and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and fortieth.

By the President:

WOODROW WILSON.

ROBERT LANSING, Secretary of State.

[On the same day (October 19) the President ordered that an exception be made in favor of the Carranza de facto government, by permitting arms shipments into the territory under that government's control.]

WILSON URGES REPEAL OF LAW GIVING AMERICAN COASTWISE SHIPS FREEDOM FROM PANAMA TOLLS

(Delivered before Congress, Joint Session, March 5, 1914.) [EDITORIAL NOTE: The Panama Canal Act had granted passage of the canal to American coastwise ships free of tolls. The question of whether or not this was a violation of the treaty with Great Britain was vehemently debated in the United States, but the debate was, on the whole, based more on differing National instincts and opinions than on clearly understood facts. The history of Anglo-American treaties and negotiations over Central American canal projects is highly involved and only a few specialists in diplomatic history and international law could really assert authoritative knowledge. As nearly as the temper of so huge a population as ours could be gauged, it seems correct to say that the majority favored a repeal of the act on the ground that it was better for American justice to surrender a possible right than to commit a possible injustice. Congress responded favorably to the Message.]

Gentlemen of the Congress:

I have come to you upon an errand which can be very briefly performed, but I beg that you will not measure its importance by the number of sentences in which I state it. No communication I have addressed to the Congress carried with it graver or more far-reaching implications as to the interest of the country, and I come now to speak upon a matter with regard to which I am charged in a peculiar degree, by the Constitution itself, with personal responsibility.

I have come to ask you for the repeal of that provision of the Panama Canal Act of August 24, 1912, which exempts vessels engaged in the coastwise trade of the United States from payment of tolls, and to urge upon you the justice, the wisdom, and the large policy of such a repeal with the utmost earnestness of which I am capable.

In my own judgment, very fully considered and maturely formed, that exemption constitutes a mistaken economic policy from every point of view, and is, moreover, in plain contravention of the treaty with Great Britain concerning the canal concluded on November 18, 1901. But I have not come to urge upon you my personal views. I have come to state to you a fact and a situation. Whatever may be our own differences of opinion concerning this much debated measure, its meaning is not debated outside the United States. Everywhere else the language of the treaty is given but one interpretation, and that interpretation precludes the exemption I am asking you to repeal. We consented to the treaty; its language we accepted, if we did not originate it; and we are too big, too powerful, too selfrespecting a nation to interpret with a too strained or refined reading the words of our own promises just because we have power enough to give us leave to read them as we please. The large thing to do is the only thing we can afford to do, a voluntary withdrawal from a position everywhere questioned and misunderstood. We ought to reverse

our action without raising the question whether we were right or wrong, and so once more deserve our reputation for generosity and for the redemption of every obligation without quibble or hesitation.

I ask this of you in support of the foreign policy of the administration. I shall not know how to deal with other matters of even greater delicacy and nearer consequence if you do not grant it to me in ungrudging measure.

WILSON'S SPECIAL MESSAGE ON THE TAMPICO AFFAIR

(Delivered before Congress in Joint Session April 20, 1914.)

Gentlemen of the Congress:

It is my duty to call your attention to a situation which has arisen in our dealings with Gen. Victoriano Huerta at Mexico City which calls for action, and to ask your advice and co-operation.

On April 9 a Paymaster of the U. S. S. Dolphin landed at the Iturbide bridge landing at Tampico with a whaleboat and boat's crew to take off certain supplies for his ship, and while engaged in loading the boat was arrested by an officer and squad of men of the army of General Huerta. Neither the Paymaster nor any one of the crew was armed. Two of the men were in the boat when the arrest was made, and were obliged to leave it and submit to be taken into custody, notwithstanding that the boat carried, both at her bow and her stern, the flag of the United States. The officer who made the arrest was proceeding up one of the streets of the town with his prisoners when met by an officer of higher authority, who ordered him to return to the landing and await orders, and within an hour and a half from the time of the arrest, orders were received from the commander of the Huertista forces at Tampico for the release of the Paymaster and his men. The release was followed by apologies from the commander