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President[ Warren Harding

         Date[ December 8, 1922

MEMBERS OF THE CONGRESS:

So many problems are calling for solution that a recital of all of them, in

the face of the known limitations of a short session of Congress, would

seem to lack sincerity of purpose. It is four years since the World War

ended, but the inevitable readjustment of the social and economic order is

not more than barely begun. There is no acceptance of pre-war conditions

anywhere in the world. In a very general way humanity harbors individual

wishes to go on with war-time compensation for production, with pre-war

requirements in expenditure. In short, everyone, speaking broadly, craves

readjustment for everybody except himself, while there can be no just and

permanent readjustment except when all participate.

The civilization which measured its strength of genius and the power of

science and the resources of industries, in addition to testing the limits

of man power and the endurance and heroism of men and women--that same

civilization is brought to its severest test in restoring a tranquil order

and committing humanity to the stable ways of peace.

If the sober and deliberate appraisal of pre-war civilization makes it seem

a worth-while inheritance, then with patience and good courage it will be

preserved. There never again will be precisely the old order; indeed, I

know of no one who thinks it to be desirable For out of the old order came

the war itself, and the new order, established and made secure, never will

permit its recurrence.

It is no figure of speech to say we have come to the test of Our

civilization. The world has been passing--is today passing through of a

great crisis. The conduct of war itself is not more difficult than the

solution of the problems which necessarily follow. I am not speaking at

this moment of the problem in its wider aspect of world rehabilitation or

of international relationships. The reference is to our own social,

financial, and economic problems at home. These things are not to be

considered solely as problems apart from all international relationship,

but every nation must be able to carry on for itself, else its

international relationship will have scant importance.

Doubtless our own people have emerged from the World War tumult less

impaired than most belligerent powers; probably we have made larger

progress toward reconstruction. Surely we have been fortunate in

diminishing unemployment, and our industrial and business activities, which

are the lifeblood of our material existence, have been restored as in no

other reconstruction period of like length in the history of the world. Had

we escaped the coal and railway strikes, which had no excuse for their

beginning and less justification for their delayed settlement, we should

have done infinitely better. But labor was insistent on holding to the war

heights, and heedless forces of reaction sought the pre-war levels, and

both were wrong. In the folly of conflict our progress was hindered, and

the heavy cost has not yet been fully estimated. There can be neither

adjustment nor the penalty of the failure to readjust in which all do not

somehow participate.

The railway strike accentuated the difficulty of the American farmer. The

first distress of readjustment came to the farmer, and it will not be a

readjustment fit to abide until he is relieved. The distress brought to the

farmer does not affect him alone. Agricultural ill fortune is a national

ill fortune. That one-fourth of our population which produces the food of

the Republic and adds so largely to our export commerce must participate in

the good fortunes of the Nation, else there is none worth retaining.

Agriculture is a vital activity in our national life. In it we had our

beginning, and its westward march with the star of the empire has reflected

the growth of the Republic. It has its vicissitudes which no legislation

will prevent, its hardships for which no law can provide escape. But the

Congress can make available to the farmer the financial facilities which

have been built up under Government aid and supervision for other

commercial and industrial enterprises. It may be done on the same solid

fundamentals and make the vitally important agricultural industry more

secure, and it must be done.

This Congress already has taken cognizance of the misfortune which

precipitate deflation brought to American agriculture. Your measures of

relief and the reduction of the Federal reserve discount rate undoubtedly

saved the country from widespread disaster. The very proof of helpfulness

already given is the strongest argument for the permanent establishment of

widened credits, heretofore temporarily extended through the War Finance

Corporation.

The Farm Loan Bureau, which already has proven its usefulness through the

Federal land banks, may well have its powers enlarged to provide ample farm

production credits as well as enlarged land credits. It is entirely

practical to create a division in the Federal land banks to deal with

production credits, with the limitations of time so adjusted to the farm

turnover as the Federal reserve system provides for the turnover in the

manufacturing and mercantile world. Special provision must be made for

live-stock production credits, and the limit of land loans may be safely

enlarged. Various measures are pending before you, and the best judgment of

Congress ought to be expressed in a prompt enactment at the present

session.

But American agriculture needs more than added credit facilities. The

credits will help to solve the pressing problems growing out of

war-inflated land values and the drastic deflation of three years ago, but

permanent and deserved agricultural good fortune depends on better and

cheaper transportation.

Here is an outstanding problem, demanding the most rigorous consideration

of the Congress and the country. It has to do with more than agriculture.

It provides the channel for the flow of the country's commerce. But the

farmer is particularly hard hit. His market, so affected by the world

consumption, does not admit of the price adjustment to meet carrying

charges. In the last half of the year now closing the railways, broken in

carrying capacity because of motive power and rolling stock out of order,

though insistently declaring to the contrary, embargoed his shipments or

denied him cars when fortunate markets were calling. Too frequently

transportation failed while perishable products were turning from possible

profit to losses counted in tens of millions.

I know of no problem exceeding in importance this one of transportation. In

our complex and interdependent modern life transportation is essential to

our very existence. Let us pass for the moment the menace in the possible

paralysis of such service as we have and note the failure, for whatever

reason, to expand our transportation to meet the Nation's needs.

The census of 1880 recorded a population of 50,000,000. In two decades more

we may reasonably expect to count thrice that number. In the three decades

ending in 1920 the country's freight by rail increased from 631,000,000

tons to 2,234,000,000 tons; that is to say, while our population was

increasing, less than 70 per cent, the freight movement increased over 250

per cent.

We have built 40 per cent of the world's railroad mileage, and yet find it

inadequate to our present requirements. When we contemplate the inadequacy

of to-day it is easy to believe that the next few decades will witness the

paralysis of our transportation-using social scheme or a complete

reorganization on some new basis. Mindful of the tremendous costs of

betterments, extensions, and expansions, and mindful of the staggering

debts of the world to-day, the difficulty is magnified. Here is a problem

demanding wide vision and the avoidance of mere makeshifts. No matter what

the errors of the past, no matter how we acclaimed construction and then

condemned operations in the past, we have the transportation and the honest

investment in the transportation which sped us on to what we are, and we

face conditions which reflect its inadequacy to-day, its greater inadequacy

to-morrow, and we contemplate transportation costs which much of the

traffic can not and will not continue to pay.

Manifestly, we have need to begin on plans to coordinate all transportation

facilities. We should more effectively connect up our rail lines with our

carriers by sea. We ought to reap some benefit from the hundreds of

millions expended on inland waterways, proving our capacity to utilize as

well as expend. We ought to turn the motor truck into a railway feeder and

distributor instead of a destroying competitor.

It would be folly to ignore that we live in a motor age. The motor car

reflects our standard of living and gauges the speed of our present-day

life. It long ago ran down Simple Living, and never halted to inquire about

the prostrate figure which fell as its victim. With full recognition of

motor-car transportation we must turn it to the most practical use. It can

not supersede the railway lines, no matter how generously we afford it

highways out of the Public Treasury. If freight traffic by motor were

charged with its proper and proportionate share of highway construction, we

should find much of it wasteful and more costly than like service by rail.

Yet we have paralleled the railways, a most natural line of construction,

and thereby taken away from the agency of expected service much of its

profitable traffic, which the taxpayers have been providing the highways,

whose cost of maintenance is not yet realized.

The Federal Government has a right to inquire into the wisdom of this

policy, because the National Treasury is contributing largely to this

highway construction. Costly highways ought to be made to serve as feeders

rather than competitors of the railroads, and the motor truck should become

a coordinate factor in our great distributing system.

This transportation problem can not be waived aside. The demand for lowered

costs on farm products and basic materials can not be ignored. Rates

horizontally increased, to meet increased wage outlays during the war

inflation, are not easily reduced. When some very moderate wage reductions

were effected last summer there was a 5 per cent horizontal reduction in

rates. I sought at that time, in a very informal way, to have the railway

managers go before the Interstate Commerce Commission and agree to a

heavier reduction on farm products and coal and other basic commodities,

and leave unchanged the freight tariffs which a very large portion of the

traffic was able to bear. Neither the managers nor the commission tile@@

suggestion, so we had the horizontal reduction saw fit to adopt too slight

to be felt by the higher class cargoes and too little to benefit the heavy

tonnage calling most loudly for relief.

Railways are not to be expected to render the most essential service in our

social organization without a air return on capital invested, but the

Government has gone so far in the regulation of rates and rules of

operation that it has the responsibility of pointing the way to the reduced

freight costs so essential to our national welfare.

Government operation does not afford the cure. It was Government operation

which brought us to the very order of things against which we now rebel,

and we are still liquidating the costs of that supreme folly.

Surely the genius of the railway builders has not become extinct among the

railway managers. New economies, new efficiencies in cooperation must be

found. The fact that labor takes 50 to 60 per cent of total railway

earnings makes limitations within which to effect economies very difficult,

but the demand is no less insistent on that account.

Clearly the managers are without that intercarrier, cooperative

relationship so highly essential to the best and most economical operation.

They could not function in harmony when the strike threatened the paralysis

of all railway transportation. The relationship of the service to public

welfare, so intimately affected by State and Federal regulation, demands

the effective correlation and a concerted drive to meet an insistent and

justified public demand.

The merger of lines into systems, a facilitated interchange of freight

cars, the economic use of terminals, and the consolidation of facilities

are suggested ways of economy and efficiency.

I remind you that Congress provided a Joint Commission of Agricultural

Inquiry which made an exhaustive investigation of car service and

transportation, and unanimously recommended in its report of October 15,

1921, the pooling of freight cars under a central agency. This report well

deserves your serious consideration. I think well of the central agency,

which shall be a creation of the railways themselves, to provide, under the

jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the means for financing

equipment for carriers which are otherwise unable to provide their

proportion of car equipment adequate to transportation needs. This same

agency ought to point the way to every possible economy in maintained

equipment and the necessary interchanges in railway commerce.

In a previous address to the Congress I called to your attention the

insufficiency of power to enforce the decisions of the Railroad Labor

Board. Carriers have ignored its decisions, on the one hand, railway

workmen have challenged its decisions by a strike, on the other hand.

The intent of Congress to establish a tribunal to which railway labor and

managers may appeal respecting questions of wages and working conditions

can not be too strongly commended. It is vitally important that some such

agency should be a guaranty against suspended operation. The public must be

spared even the threat of discontinued service.

Sponsoring the railroads as we do, it is an obligation that labor shall be

assured the highest justice and every proper consideration of wage and

working conditions, but it is an equal obligation to see that no concerted

action in forcing demands shall deprive the public of the transportation

service essential to its very existence. It is now impossible to safeguard

public interest, because the decrees of the board are unenforceable against

either employer or employee.

The Labor Board itself is not so constituted as best to serve the public

interest. With six partisan members on a board of nine, three partisans

nominated by the employees and three by the railway managers, it is

inevitable that the partisan viewpoint is maintained throughout hearings

and in decisions handed down. Indeed, the few exceptions to a strictly

partisan expression in decisions thus far rendered have been followed by

accusations of betrayal of the partisan interests represented. Only the

public group of three is free to function in unbiased decisions. Therefore

the partisan membership may well be abolished, and decisions should be made

by an impartial tribunal.

I am well convinced that the functions of this tribunal could be much

better carried on here in Washington. Even were it to be continued as a

separate tribunal, there ought to be contact with the Interstate Commerce

Commission, which has supreme authority in the rate making to which wage

cost bears an indissoluble relationship Theoretically, a fair and living

wage must be determined quite apart from the employer's earning capacity,

but in practice, in the railway service, they are inseparable. The record

of advanced rates to meet increased wages, both determined by the

Government, is proof enough.

The substitution of a labor division in the Interstate Commerce Commission

made up from its membership, to hear and decide disputes relating to wages

and working conditions which have failed of adjustment by proper committees

created by the railways and their employees, offers a more effective plan.

It need not be surprising that there is dissatisfaction over delayed

hearings and decisions by the present board when every trivial dispute is

carried to that tribunal. The law should require the railroads and their

employees to institute means and methods to negotiate between themselves

their constantly arising differences, limiting appeals to the Government

tribunal to disputes of such character as are likely to affect the public

welfare.

This suggested substitution will involve a necessary increase in the

membership of the commission, probably four, to constitute the labor

division. If the suggestion appeals to the Congress, it will be well to

specify that the labor division shall be constituted of representatives of

the four rate-making territories, thereby assuring a tribunal conversant

with the conditions which obtain in the different ratemaking sections of

the country.

I wish I could bring to you the precise recommendation for the prevention

of strikes which threaten the welfare of the people and menace public

safety. It is an impotent civilization and an inadequate government which

lacks the genius and the courage to guard against such a menace to public

welfare as we experienced last summer. You were aware of the Government's

great concern and its futile attempt to aid in an adjustment. It will

reveal the inexcusable obstinacy which was responsible for so much distress

to the country to recall now that, though all disputes are not yet

adjusted, the many settlements which have been made were on the terms which

the Government proposed in mediation.

Public interest demands that ample power shall be conferred upon the. labor

tribunal, whether it is the present board or the suggested substitute, to

require its rulings to be accepted by both parties to a disputed question.

Let there be no confusion about the purpose of the suggested conferment of

power to make decisions effective. There can be no denial of constitutional

rights of either railway workmen or railway managers. No man can be denied

his right to labor when and how he chooses, or cease to labor when he so

elects, but, since the Government assumes to safeguard his interests while

employed in an essential public service, the security of society itself

demands his retirement from the service shall not be so timed and related

as to effect the destruction of that service. This vitally essential public

transportation service, demanding so much of brain and brawn, so much for

efficiency and security, ought to offer the most attractive working

conditions and the highest of wages paid to workmen in any employment.

In essentially every branch, from track repairer to the man at the

locomotive throttle, the railroad worker is responsible for the safety of

human lives and the care of vast property. His high responsibility might

well rate high his pay within the limits the traffic will bear; but the

same responsibility, plus governmental protection, may justly deny him and

his associates a withdrawal from service without a warning or under

circumstances which involve the paralysis of necessary transportation. We

have assumed so great a responsibility in necessary regulation that we

unconsciously have assumed the responsibility for maintained service;

therefore the lawful power for the enforcement of decisions is necessary

to sustain the majesty of government and to administer to the public

welfare.

During its longer session the present Congress enacted a new tariff law.

The protection of the American standards of living demanded the insurance

it provides against the distorted conditions of world commerce The framers

of the law made provision for a certain flexibility of customs duties,

whereby it is possible to readjust them as developing conditions may

require. The enactment has imposed a large responsibility upon the

Executive, but that responsibility will be discharged with a broad

mindfulness of the whole business situation. The provision itself admits

either the possible fallibility of rates or their unsuitableness to

changing conditions. I believe the grant of authority may be promptly and

discreetly exercised, ever mindful of the intent and purpose to safeguard

American industrial activity, and at the same time prevent the exploitation

of the American consumer and keep open the paths of such liberal exchanges

as do not endanger our own productivity.

No one contemplates commercial aloofness nor any other aloofness

contradictory to the best American traditions or loftiest human purposes.

Our fortunate capacity for comparative self-containment affords the firm

foundation on which to build for our own security, and a like foundation on

which to build for a future of influence and importance in world commerce.

Our trade expansion must come of capacity and of policies of righteousness

and reasonableness in till our commercial relations.

Let no one assume that our provision for maintained good fortune at home,

and our unwillingness to assume the correction of all the ills of the

world, means a reluctance to cooperate with other peoples or to assume

every just obligation to promote human advancement anywhere in the world.

War made its a creditor Nation. We did not seek an excess possession of the

world's gold, and we have neither desire to profit Unduly by its possession

nor permanently retain it. We do not seek to become an international

dictator because of its power.

The voice of the United States has a respectful hearing in international

councils, because we have convinced the world that we have no selfish ends

to serve, no old grievances to avenge, no territorial or other greed to

satisfy. But the voice being heard is that of good counsel, not of

dictation. It is the voice of sympathy and fraternity and helpfulness,

seeking to assist but not assume for the United States burdens which

nations must bear for themselves. We would rejoice to help rehabilitate

currency systems and facilitate all commerce which does not drag us to the

very levels of those we seek to lift up.

While I have everlasting faith in our Republic, it would be folly, indeed,

to blind ourselves to our problems at home. Abusing the hospitality of our

shores are the advocates of revolution, finding their deluded followers

among those who take on the habiliments of an American without knowing an

American soul. There is the recrudescence of hyphenated Americanism which

we thought to have been stamped out when we committed the Nation, life and

soul, to the World War.

There is a call to make the alien respect our institutions while he

accepts our hospitality. There is need to magnify the American viewpoint to

the alien who seeks a citizenship among us. There is need to magnify the

national viewpoint to Americans throughout the land. More there is a demand

for every living being in the United States to respect and abide by the

laws of the Republic. Let men who are rending the moral fiber of the

Republic through easy contempt for the prohibition law, because they think

it restricts their personal liberty, remember that they set the example and

breed a contempt for law which will ultimately destroy the Republic.

Constitutional prohibition has been adopted by the Nation. It is the

supreme law of the land. In plain speaking, there are conditions relating

to its enforcement which savor of nation-wide scandal. It is the most

demoralizing factor in our public life.

Most of our people assumed that the adoption of the eighteenth amendment

meant the elimination of the question from our politics. On the contrary,

it has been so intensified as an issue that many voters are disposed to

make all political decisions with reference to this single question. It is

distracting the public mind and prejudicing the judgment of the

electorate.

The day is unlikely to come when the eighteenth amendment will be repealed.

The fact may as well be recognized and our course adapted accordingly. If

the statutory provisions for its enforcement are contrary to deliberate

public opinion, which I do not believe the rigorous and literal enforcement

will concentrate public attention on any requisite modification. Such a

course, conforms with the law and saves the humiliation of the Government

and the humiliation of our people before the world, and challenges the

destructive forces engaged in widespread violation, official corruption and

individual demoralization.

The eighteenth amendment involves the concurrent authority of State and

Federal Governments, for the enforcement of the policy it defines. A

certain lack of definiteness, through division of responsibility is thus

introduced. In order to bring about a full understanding of duties and

responsibilities as thus distributed, I purpose to invite the governors of

the States and Territories, at an early opportunity, to a conference with

the Federal Executive authority. Out of the full and free considerations

which will thus be possible, it is confidently believed, will emerge a more

adequate, comprehension of the whole problem, and definite policies of

National and State cooperation in administering the laws.

There are pending bills for the registration of the alien who has come to

our shores. I wish the passage of such an act might be expedited. Life amid

American opportunities is worth the cost of registration if it is worth the

seeking, and the Nation has the right to know who are citizens in the

making or who live among us anti share our advantages while seeking to

undermine our cherished institutions. This provision will enable us to

guard against the abuses in immigration, checking the undesirable whose

irregular Willing is his first violation of our laws. More, it will

facilitate the needed Americanizing of those who mean to enroll as fellow

citizens.

Before enlarging the immigration quotas we had better provide registration

for aliens, those now here or continually pressing for admission, and

establish our examination boards abroad, to make sure of desirables only.

By the examination abroad we could end the pathos at our ports, when men

and women find our doors closed, after long voyages and wasted savings,

because they are unfit for admission It would be kindlier and safer to tell

them before they embark.

Our program of admission and treatment of immigrants is very intimately

related to the educational policy of the Republic With illiteracy estimated

at front two-tenths of 1 per cent to less than 2 per cent in 10 of the

foremost nations of Europe it rivets our attention to it serious problem

when we are reminded of a 6 per cent illiteracy in the United States. The

figures are based on the test which defines an Illiterate as one having no

schooling whatever. Remembering the wide freedom of our public schools

with compulsory attendance in many States in the Union, one is convinced

that much of our excessive illiteracy comes to us from abroad, and the

education of the immigrant becomes it requisite to his Americanization. It

must be done if he is fittingly to exercise the duties as well as enjoy the

privileges of American citizenship. Here is revealed the special field for

Federal cooperation in furthering education.

From the very beginning public education has been left mainly in the hands

of the States. So far as schooling youth is concerned the policy has been

justified, because no responsibility can be so effective as that of the

local community alive to its task. I believe in the cooperation of the

national authority to stimulate, encourage, and broaden the work of the

local authorities. But it is the especial obligation of the Federal

Government to devise means and effectively assist in the education of the

newcomer from foreign lands, so that the level of American education may be

made the highest that is humanly possible.

Closely related to this problem of education is the abolition of child

labor. Twice Congress has attempted the correction of the evils incident to

child employment. The decision of the Supreme Court has put this problem

outside the proper domain of Federal regulation until the Constitution is

so amended as to give the Congress indubitable authority. I recommend the

submission of such an amendment.

We have two schools of thought relating to amendment of the Constitution.

One need not be committed to the belief that amendment is weakening the

fundamental law, or that excessive amendment is essential to meet every

ephemeral whim. We ought to amend to meet the demands of the people when

sanctioned by deliberate public opinion.

One year ago I suggested the submission of an amendment so that we may

lawfully restrict the issues of tax-exempt securities, and I renew that

recommendation now. Tax-exempt securities are drying up the sources of

Federal taxation and they are encouraging unproductive and extravagant

expenditures by States and municipalities. There is more than the menace in

mounting public debt, there is the dissipation of capital which should be

made available to the needs of productive industry. The proposed amendment

will place the State and Federal Governments and all political subdivisions

on an exact equality, and will correct the growing menace of public

borrowing, which if left unchecked may soon threaten the stability of our

institutions.

We are so vast and so varied in our national interests that scores of

problems are pressing for attention. I must not risk the wearying of your

patience with detailed reference.

Reclamation and irrigation projects, where waste land may be made available

for settlement and productivity, are worthy of your favorable

consideration.

When it is realized that we are consuming our timber four times as rapidly

as we are growing it, we must encourage the greatest possible cooperation

between the Federal Government, the various States, and the owners of

forest lands, to the end that protection from fire shall be made more

effective and replanting encouraged.

The fuel problem is under study now by a very capable fact-finding

commission, and any attempt to deal with the coal problem, of such deep

concern to the entire Nation, must await the report of the commission.

There are necessary studies of great problems which Congress might well

initiate. The wide spread between production costs and prices which

consumers pay concerns every citizen of the Republic. It contributes very

largely to the unrest in agriculture and must stand sponsor for much

against which we inveigh in that familiar term--the high cost of living.

No one doubts the excess is traceable to the levy of the middleman, but it

would be unfair to charge him with all responsibility before we appraise

what is exacted of him by our modernly complex life. We have attacked the

problem on one side by the promotion of cooperative marketing, and we might

well inquire into the benefits of cooperative buying. Admittedly, the

consumer is much to blame himself, because of his prodigal expenditure and

his exaction of service, but Government might well serve to point the way

of narrowing the spread of price, especially between the production of food

and its consumption.

A superpower survey of the eastern industrial region has recently been

completed, looking to unification of steam, water, and electric powers, and

to a unified scheme of power distribution. The survey proved that vast

economies in tonnage movement of freights, and in the efficiency of the

railroads, would be effected if the superpower program were adopted. I am

convinced that constructive measures calculated to promote such an

industrial development--I am tempted to say, such an industrial

revolution-would be well worthy the careful attention and fostering

interest of the National Government.

The proposed survey of a plan to draft all the resources of the Republic,

human and material, for national defense may well have your approval. I

commended such a program in case of future war, in the inaugural address.

of March 4, 1921, and every experience in the adjustment and liquidation of

war claims and the settlement of war obligations persuades me we ought to

be prepared for such universal call to armed defense.

I bring you no apprehension of war. The world is abhorrent of it, and our

own relations are not only free from every threatening cloud, but we have

contributed our larger influence toward making armed conflict less likely.

Those who assume that we played our part in the World War and later took

ourselves aloof and apart, unmindful of world obligations, give scant

credit to the helpful part we assume in international relationships.

Whether all nations signatory ratify all the treaties growing out of the

Washington Conference on Limitation of Armament or some withhold approval,

the underlying policy of limiting naval armament has the sanction of the

larger naval powers, and naval competition is suspended. Of course,

unanimous ratification is much to be desired.

The four-power pact, which abolishes every probability of war on the

Pacific, has brought new confidence in a maintained peace, and I can well

believe it might be made a model for like assurances wherever in the world

any common interests are concerned.

We have had expressed the hostility of the American people to a

supergovernment or to any commitment where either a council or an assembly

of leagued powers may chart our course. Treaties of armed alliance can have

no likelihood of American sanction, but we believe in respecting the rights

of nations, in the value of conference and consultation, in the

effectiveness of leaders of nations looking each other in the face ace

before resorting to the arbitrament of arms.

It has been our fortune both to preach and promote international

understanding. The influence of the United States in bringing near the

settlement of an ancient dispute between South American nations is added

proof of the glow of peace in ample understanding. In Washington to-day are

met the delegates of the Central American nations, gathered at the table of

international understanding, to stabilize their Republics and remove every

vestige of disagreement. They are met here by our invitation, not in our

aloofness, and they accept our hospitality because they have faith in our

unselfishness and believe in our helpfulness. Perhaps we are selfish in

craving their confidence and friendship, but such a selfishness we proclaim

to the world, regardless of hemisphere, or seas dividing.

I would like the Congress and the people of the Nation to believe that in a

firm and considerate way we are insistent on American rights wherever they

may be questioned, and deny no rights of others in the assertion of our

own. Moreover we are cognizant of the world's struggles for full

readjustment and rehabilitation, and we have shirked no duty which comes of

sympathy, or fraternity, or highest fellowship among nations. Every

obligation consonant with American ideals and sanctioned under our form of

government is willingly met. When we can not support we do not demand. Our

constitutional limitations do not forbid the exercise of a moral influence,

the measure of which is not less than the high purposes we have sought to

serve.

After all there is less difference about the part this great Republic shall

play in furthering peace and advancing humanity than in the manner of

playing it. We ask no one to assume responsibility for us; we assume no

responsibility which others must bear for themselves, unless nationality is

hopelessly swallowed up in internationalism.

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