gs against
which we now array ourselves are no common wrongs. They cut to the very
roots of human life.

MUST ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY

"With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of the
step I am taking and of the grave responsibilities which it involves,
but in unhesitating obedience to what I deem my constitutional duty,
I advise that the congress declare the recent course of the imperial
German government to be in fact nothing less than war against the
government and people of the United States; that it formally accept the
status of belligerent which has thus been thrust upon it; and that it
take immediate steps not only to put the country in a more thorough
state of defense but also to exert all its power and employ all its
resources to bring the government of the German empire to terms and end
the war.

COURSE WE MUST PURSUE

"What this will involve is clear. It will involve the utmost practicable
co-operation in counsel and action with the governments now at war with
Germany and, as incident to that, the extension to those governments of
the most liberal financial credits, in order that our resources may so
far as possible be added to theirs.

"It will involve the organization and mobilization of all the material
resources of the country to supply the materials of war and serve the
incidental needs of the nation in the most abundant and yet the most
economical and efficient way possible.

"It will involve the immediate full equipment of the navy in all
respects, but particularly in supplying it with the best means of
dealing with the enemy's submarines.

ARMY OF 500,000 MEN

"It will involve the immediate addition to the armed force of the United
States already provided for by law in case of war at least 500,000 men,
who should, in my opinion, be chosen upon the principal of universal
liability to service, and also the authorization of subsequent
additional increments of equal force so soon as they may be needed and
can be handled in training.

"It will involve also, of course, the granting of adequate credits to
the government, sustained, I hope, so far as they can equitably be
sustained by the present generation, by well conceived taxation.

"I say sustained so far as may be equitable by taxation because it seems
to me that it would be most unwise to base the credits which will now
be necessary entirely on money borrowed. It is our duty, I most
respectfully urge, to protect our p