at the very heart of everything we believe in;
their methods of warfare outrage every principle of humanity and of
knightly honor; their intrigue has corrupted the very thought and spirit
of many of our people; their sinister and secret diplomacy has sought to
take our very territory away from us and disrupt the Union of the
States. Our safety would be at an end, our honor forever sullied and
brought into contempt were we to permit their triumph. They are striking
at the very existence of democracy and liberty.

It is because it is for us a war of high, disinterested purpose, in
which all the free peoples of the world are banded together for the
vindication of right, a war for the preservation of our nation and of
all that it has held dear of principle and of purpose, that we feel
ourselves doubly constrained to propose for its outcome only that which
is righteous and of irreproachable intention, for our foes as well as
for our friends. The cause being just and holy, the settlement must be
of like motive and quality. For this we can fight, but for nothing less
noble or less worthy of our traditions. For this cause we entered the
war and for this cause will we battle until the last gun is fired.

I have spoken plainly because this seems to me the time when it is most
necessary to speak plainly, in order that all the world may know that
even in the heat and ardor of the struggle and when our whole thought is
of carrying the war through to its end we have not forgotten any ideal
or principle for which the name of America has been held in honor among
the nations and for which it has been our glory to contend in the great
generations that went before us. A supreme moment of history has come.
The eyes of the people have been opened and they see. The hand of God is
laid upon the nations. He will show them favor, I devoutly believe, only
if they rise to the clear heights of His own justice and mercy.

GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION OF RAILWAYS

[Address delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress,
January 4, 1918.]

GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS:

I have asked the privilege of addressing you in order to report to you
that on the twenty-eighth of December last, during the recess of the
Congress, acting through the Secretary of War and under the authority
conferred upon me by the Act of Congress approved August 29, 1916, I
took possession and assumed control of the railway lines of the country
and the systems