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President[ Woodrow Wilson

         Date[ December 5, 1916

GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS:

In fulfilling at this time the duty laid upon me by the Constitution of

communicating to you from time to time information of the state of the

Union and recommending to your consideration such legislative measures as

may be judged necessary and expedient, I shall continue the practice, which

I hope has been acceptable to you, of leaving to the reports of the several

heads of the executive departments the elaboration of the detailed needs of

the public service and confine myself to those matters of more general

public policy with which it seems necessary and feasible to deal at the

present session of the Congress.

I realize the limitations of time under which you will necessarily act at

this session and shall make my suggestions as few as possible; but there

were some things left undone at the last session which there will now be

time to complete and which it seems necessary in the interest of the public

to do at once.

In the first place, it seems to me imperatively necessary that the earliest

possible consideration and action should be accorded the remaining measures

of the program of settlement and regulation which I had occasion to

recommend to you at the close of your last session in view of the public

dangers disclosed by the unaccommodated difficulties which then existed,

and which still unhappily continue to exist, between the railroads of the

country and their locomotive engineers, conductors and trainmen.

I then recommended:

First, immediate provision for the enlargement and administrative

reorganization of the Interstate Commerce Commission along the lines

embodied in the bill recently passed by the House of Representatives and

now awaiting action by the Senate; in order that the Commission may be

enabled to deal with the many great and various duties now devolving upon

it with a promptness and thoroughness which are, with its present

constitution and means of action, practically impossible.

Second, the establishment of an eight-hour day as the legal basis alike of

work and wages in the employment of all railway employes who are actually

engaged in the work of operating trains in interstate transportation.

Third, the authorization of the appointment by the President of a small

body of men to observe actual results in experience of the adoption of the

eight-hour day in railway transportation alike for the men and for the

railroads.

Fourth, explicit approval by the Congress of the consideration by the

Interstate Commerce Commission of an increase of freight rates to meet such

additional expenditures by the railroads as may have been rendered

necessary by the adoption of the eight-hour day and which have not been

offset by administrative readjustments and economies, should the facts

disclosed justify the increase.

Fifth, an amendment of the existing Federal statute which provides for the

mediation, conciliation and arbitration of such controversies as the

present by adding to it a provision that, in case the methods of

accommodation now provided for should fail, a full public investigation of

the merits of every such dispute shall be instituted and completed before a

strike or lockout may lawfully be attempted.

And, sixth, the lodgment in the hands of the Executive of the power, in

case of military necessity, to take control of such portions and such

rolling stock of the railways of the country as may be required for

military use and to operate them for military purposes, with authority to

draft into the military service of the United States such train crews and

administrative officials as the circumstances require for their safe and

efficient use.

The second and third of these recommendations the Congress immediately

acted on: it established the eight-hour day as the legal basis of work and

wages in train service and it authorized the appointment of a commission to

observe and report upon the practical results, deeming these the measures

most immediately needed; but it postponed action upon the other suggestions

until an opportunity should be offered for a more deliberate consideration

of them.

The fourth recommendation I do not deem it necessary to renew. The power of

the Interstate Commerce Commission to grant an increase of rates on the

ground referred to is indisputably clear and a recommendation by the

Congress with regard to such a matter might seem to draw in question the

scope of the commission's authority or its inclination to do justice when

there is no reason to doubt either.

The other suggestions-the increase in the Interstate Commerce Commission's

membership and in its facilities for performing its manifold duties; the

provision for full public investigation and assessment of industrial

disputes, and the grant to the Executive of the power to control and

operate the railways when necessary in time of war or other like public

necessity-I now very earnestly renew.

The necessity for such legislation is manifest and pressing. Those who have

entrusted us with the responsibility and duty of serving and safeguarding

them in such matters would find it hard, I believe, to excuse a failure to

act upon these grave matters or any unnecessary postponement of action upon

them.

Not only does the Interstate Commerce Commission now find it practically

impossible, with its present membership and organization, to perform its

great functions promptly and thoroughly, but it is not unlikely that it may

presently be found advisable to add to its duties still others equally

heavy and exacting. It must first be perfected as an administrative

instrument.

The country cannot and should not consent to remain any longer exposed to

profound industrial disturbances for lack of additional means of

arbitration and conciliation which the Congress can easily and promptly

supply.

And all will agree that there must be no doubt as to the power of the

Executive to make immediate and uninterrupted use of the railroads for the

concentration of the military forces of the nation wherever they are needed

and whenever they are needed.

This is a program of regulation, prevention and administrative efficiency

which argues its own case in the mere statement of it. With regard to one

of its items, the increase in the efficiency of the Interstate Commerce

Commission, the House of Representatives has already acted; its action

needs only the concurrence of the Senate.

I would hesitate to recommend, and I dare say the Congress would hesitate

to act upon the suggestion should I make it, that any man in any I

occupation should be obliged by law to continue in an employment which he

desired to leave.

To pass a law which forbade or prevented the individual workman to leave

his work before receiving the approval of society in doing so would be to

adopt a new principle into our jurisprudence, which I take it for granted

we are not prepared to introduce.

But the proposal that the operation of the railways of the country shall

not be stopped or interrupted by the concerted action of organized bodies

of men until a public investigation shall have been instituted, which shall

make the whole question at issue plain for the judgment of the opinion of

the nation, is not to propose any such principle.

It is based upon the very different principle that the concerted action of

powerful bodies of men shall not be permitted to stop the industrial

processes of the nation, at any rate before the nation shall have had an

opportunity to acquaint itself with the merits of the case as between

employe and employer, time to form its opinion upon an impartial statement

of the merits, and opportunity to consider all practicable means of

conciliation or arbitration.

I can see nothing in that proposition but the justifiable safeguarding by

society of the necessary processes of its very life. There is nothing

arbitrary or unjust in it unless it be arbitrarily and unjustly done. It

can and should be done with a full and scrupulous regard for the interests

and liberties of all concerned as well as for the permanent interests of

society itself.

Three matters of capital importance await the action of the Senate which

have already been acted upon by the House of Representatives; the bill

which seeks to extend greater freedom of combination to those engaged in

promoting the foreign commerce of the country than is now thought by some

to be legal under the terms of the laws against monopoly; the bill amending

the present organic law of Porto Rico; and the bill proposing a more

thorough and systematic regulation of the expenditure of money in

elections, commonly called the Corrupt Practices Act.

I need not labor my advice that these measures be enacted into law. Their

urgency lies in the manifest circumstances which render their adoption at

this time not only opportune but necessary. Even delay would seriously

jeopard the interests of the country and of the Government.

Immediate passage of the bill to regulate the expenditure of money in

elections may seem to be less necessary than the immediate enactment of the

other measures to which I refer, because at least two years will elapse

before another election in which Federal offices are to be filled; but it

would greatly relieve the public mind if this important matter were dealt

with while the circumstances and the dangers to the public morals of the

present method of obtaining and spending campaign funds stand clear under

recent observation, and the methods of expenditure can be frankly studied

in the light of present experience; and a delay would have the further very

serious disadvantage of postponing action until another election was at

hand and some special object connected with it might be thought to be in

the mind of those who urged it. Action can be taken now with facts for

guidance and without suspicion of partisan purpose.

I shall not argue at length the desirability of giving a freer hand in the

matter of combined and concerted effort to those who shall undertake the

essential enterprise of building up our export trade. That enterprise will

presently, will immediately assume, has indeed already assumed a magnitude

unprecedented in our experience. We have not the necessary

instrumentalities for its prosecution; it is deemed to be doubtful whether

they could be created upon an adequate scale under our present laws.

We should clear away all legal obstacles and create a basis of undoubted

law for it which will give freedom without permitting unregulated license.

The thing must be done now, because the opportunity is here and may escape

us if we hesitate or delay.

The argument for the proposed amendments of the organic law of Porto Rico

is brief and conclusive. The present laws governing the island and

regulating the rights and privileges of its people are not just. We have

created expectations of extended privilege which we have not satisfied.

There is uneasiness among the people of the island and even a suspicious

doubt with regard to our intentions concerning them which the adoption of

the pending measure would happily remove. We do not doubt what we wish to

do in any essential particular. We ought to do it at once.

At the last session of the Congress a bill was passed by the Senate which

provides for the promotion of vocational and industrial education, which is

of vital importance to the whole country because it concerns a matter, too

long neglected, upon which the thorough industrial preparation of the

country for the critical years of economic development immediately ahead of

us in very large measure depends.

May I not urge its early and favorable consideration by the House of

Representatives and its early enactment into law? It contains plans which

affect all interests and all parts of the country, and I am sure that there

is no legislation now pending before the Congress whose passage the country

awaits with more thoughtful approval or greater impatience to see a great

and admirable thing set in the way of being done.

There are other matters already advanced to the stage of conference between

the two houses of which it is not necessary that I should speak. Some

practicable basis of agreement concerning them will no doubt be found an

action taken upon them.

Inasmuch as this is, gentlemen, probably the last occasion I shall have to

address the Sixty-fourth Congress, I hope that you will permit me to say

with what genuine pleasure and satisfaction I have co-operated with you in

the many measures of constructive policy with which you have enriched the

legislative annals of the country. It has been a privilege to labor in such

company. I take the liberty of congratulating you upon the completion of a

record of rare serviceableness and distinction.

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