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 authorisation 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 by equitable 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
Germany with the materials which they can obtain only from us or by our
assistance. They are in the field, and we should help them in every
way to be effective there.

"I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through the several executive
departments of the Government, for the consideration of your committees
measures for the accomplishment of the several objects I have
mentioned. I hope that it will be your pleasure to deal with them as
having been framed after very careful thought by the branch of the
Government upon which the responsibility of conducting the war and
safeguarding the nation will most directly fall.

"While we do these things, these deeply momentous things, let us be
very clear, and make very clear to all the world what our motives and
our objects are. My own thought has not been driven from its habitual
and normal course by the unhappy events of the last two months, and I
do not believe that the thought of the nation has been altered or
clouded by them.

"I have exactly the same thing in mind now that I had in mind when I
addressed the Senate on the 22d of