so. I am their servant and have no license to stand in their
way. But I do not believe that they have. I respectfully submit that no
one can quote their mandate to that effect. Has any political party ever
avowed a policy of restriction in this fundamental matter, gone to the
country on it, and been commissioned to control its legislation? Does
this bill rest upon the conscious and universal assent and desire of the
American people? I doubt it. It is because I doubt it that I make bold
to dissent from it. I am willing to abide by the verdict, but not until
it has been rendered. Let the platforms of parties speak out upon this
policy and the people pronounce their wish. The matter is too
fundamental to be settled otherwise.

I have no pride of opinion in this question. I am not foolish enough to
profess to know the wishes and ideals of America better than the body of
her chosen representatives know them. I only want instruction direct
from those whose fortunes, with ours and all men's, are involved.

WOODROW WILSON.

THE WHITE HOUSE, _28 January, 1915_.

ADDRESS BEFORE THE UNITED STATES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

[Delivered in Washington, February 3, 1915.]

MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

I feel that it is hardly fair to you for me to come in in this casual
fashion among a body of men who have been seriously discussing great
questions, and it is hardly fair to me, because I come in cold, not
having had the advantage of sharing the atmosphere of your deliberations
and catching the feeling of your conference. Moreover, I hardly know
just how to express my interest in the things you are undertaking. When
a man stands outside an organization and speaks to it he is too apt to
have the tone of outside commendation, as who should say, "I would
desire to pat you on the back and say 'Good boys; you are doing well!'"
I would a great deal rather have you receive me as if for the time being
I were one of your own number.

Because the longer I occupy the office that I now occupy the more I
regret any lines of separation; the more I deplore any feeling that one
set of men has one set of interests and another set of men another set
of interests; the more I feel the solidarity of the Nation--the
impossibility of separating one interest from another without
misconceiving it; the necessity that we should all understand one
another, in order that we may understand ourselves.

There is an illustration which I have used a