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.

WHAT THIS WILL INVOLVE

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.

It will involve the immediate addition to the armed forces 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 principle
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 people so
far as we may against the very serious hardships and evils which
would be likely to arise out of the inflation which would be produced
by vast loans.

In carrying out the measures by which these things are to be
accomplished we should keep constantly in mind the wisdom of
interfering as little as possible in our own preparation and in the
equipment of our own military forces with the duty--for it will be a
very practical duty--of supplying the nations already at war with