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Show IIIL1WS PLEA PRESIDENT ASKS MANUFACTURERS MANUFAC-TURERS AND MINE OWNERS TO BACK U. S. IN WAR. TOLD TO FORGET PRICES President Declares Victory or Defeat Depends on Prices Denounces Dollar Patriots Everyone Must Make Sacrifices. Washington President Wilson appealed ap-pealed to the country's business interests in-terests Wednesday to put aside every selfish consideration and to give their aid to tho nation as freely as those who go to offer their lives on the battlefield. bat-tlefield. In a statement addressed to the coal operators and manufacturers he gave assurance that just prices will be paid by the government and the public during dur-ing the war, but warned that no attempt at-tempt to extort unusual profits will be tolerated. The president's statement follows : "The government is about to attempt to determine the prices at which It will ask you henceforth to .furnish various va-rious supplies which are necessary for the prosecution of the war, and various vari-ous materials which will be needed in the industries by which the war must be sustained. We shall, of course, try to determine them justly and to the best advantage of the nation as a whole; but justice is easier to speak of than to arrive at, and there are some considerations which I hope we . shall keep steadily in mind while this particular problem of justice is being worked out. Promises Just Price. "Therefore I take the liberty of staling very candidly my own view of the situation and of the principles which should guide both the government govern-ment and the mine owners and manufacturers man-ufacturers of the country in this difficult dif-ficult matter. "A just price must, of course, be paid foi everything the government buys. By a just price I mean a price which will sustain the industries concerned con-cerned in a high state of efficiency, provide a living for those who conduct con-duct them, enable them to pay good wages, and make possible the expansions ex-pansions of their enterprises which will from time to time become necessary neces-sary as the stupendous undertakings of this great war develop. Must Face the Facts. "We could not wisely or reasonably do less than pay such prices. They are necessary for the maintenance and development of industry, and the maintenance and development of industry in-dustry are necessary for the great task we have in hand. "But I trust that we shall not sur round the matter with a mist of sentiment. sen-timent. Facts are our masters now. We ought not to put the acceptance of such prices on the ground of patriotism." patri-otism." "Patriotism has nothing to do with profits in a case like this. Patriotism and profits ought never In the present circumstances be mentioned together. "It Is perfectly proper to discuss profits as a matter of business, with a view to maintaining the integrity of capital and the efficiency of labor In these tragical months, when the liberty lib-erty of free men everywhere and of Industry itself trembles In the balance; bal-ance; but it would be absurd to discuss dis-cuss them as a motive for helping to serve and save our country. "Patriotism leaves profits out of the question. In these days of our supreme su-preme trial, when we are sending hundreds hun-dreds of thousands of our yonng men across the seas to serve a great cause, " no true man who stays behind to work for them and sustain them by his labor will ask himself what he is personolly going to make out of that labor. "No true patriot will permit himself to take toll of their heroism In money or seek to grow rich by the shedding of their blood. He will give as freely and with as unstinted self-sacrifice as they. When they are giving their lives, will he -not at least give his money? Assails "Bribery." "I hear It insisted that more than a just price, more than a price that will sustain our Industries, must he paid; that it is necessary to pay very liberal and unusual profits In order to 'stimulate' production ; that nothing but pecuniary rewards will do rewards re-wards paid In money, not in the mere liberation of the world. "I take it for granted that those who argue thus do not stop to think what that moans. "Do they mean that you must be paid, must be bribed, to make your contribution, a contribution that costs you neither a drop of blood nor a tear, when the whole world Is in travail and men everywhere depend upon and call to you to bring them out of bondage and make the world a fit place to live In again, amidst peace and justice? "Do they mean that you will exact a price, drive u bargain, with (lit men v'-io are enduring the agony of this war on the battlefields, In the trenches, amidst the lurking (lungers of the sea. or wllh the bereaved women and pitiful piti-ful children, before you will conic forward for-ward to do your duty and give some part nf your life. In easy, peaceful fashion, for the things we are fighting fight-ing for, the things we have pledged our fortunes, our lives, our sacred honor hon-or to vindicate and defend liberty and justice and fair dealing and the peace of nations? "Of course you will not. It is Inconceivable. In-conceivable. Your patriotism is of the same self-denying stuff as the patriotism pa-triotism of the men dead or maimed on the fields of France, or else it Is not patriotism at all. Full Dollar's Worth. "Let us never speak, then, of profits and of patriotism in the same sentence, sen-tence, but face facts and meet them. Let us do sound business, but not in the midst of a mist. "Many a grievous burden of taxa tion will be laid on this nation, in this generation and In the next, to pay for this war; let us see to it that for every dollar that Is token from the people's pockets it shall be possible to obtain a dollar's worth of the sound stuff they need. "Let me turn for a moment to the ship owners of the United States and the other ocean carriers whose example ex-ample they have followed, and ask them If they realize what obstacles, what almost insuperable obstacles, they have been putting in the way of the successful prosecution of this war by the ocean freight rates they have been exacting. . Making War a Failure. "They are doing everything that high freight charges can do to make the war a failure, to make It impossible. impos-sible. "I do not say that they realize this or Intend it. The thing has happened naturally enough because the commercial commer-cial processes which we are content to see operate In ordinary times have without sufficient thought been continued con-tinued into a period where they have no proper place. "I am not questioning motives. I am merely stating a fact, and stating it In order that attention may be fixed upon it. "The fact is that those who have fixed war freight rates have taken the most effective means in their power to defeat the armies engaged against Germany. Ger-many. When they realize this we may, I take it for granted, count upon them to reconsider the whole matter. It is high time. Their extra hazards are covered by war risk Insurance. Warning Is Sounded. "I know, and you know, what response re-sponse to this great challenge of duty and of opportunity the nation will expect ex-pect of you ; and I know what response re-sponse you will make. "Those who do not respond, who do not respond In the spirit of those who have gone to give their lives for us on bloody fields far away, may safely be left to be dealt with by opinion and the law for the law must, of course, command those things. "I am dealing with the matter thus publicly and frankly, not because I have any doubt or fear as to the result but only in order that in all our thinking and In all our dealings with one another an-other we may move in a perfectly clear air of mutual understanding. Must Have Same Prices. "And there is something more that we must add to our thinking. The public is now as much a part of the government as are the army and navy themselves.; the whole people in all their activities are now mobilized and In service for the accomplishment of the nation's task in this war; it Is In such circumstances Impossible justly just-ly to distinguish between Industrial purchases made by the government and Industrial purchases made by the managers of Industries, and it Is just as much our duty to sustain the industrials indus-trials of the country with all the industries in-dustries that contribute to Its life as It Is to sustain our forces In the field and on the sea. Think Not of Self. "We must make prices to the public pub-lic the same as the prices to the government. gov-ernment. Prices mean the same thing everywhere now. They mean the efficiency effi-ciency or the inefficiency of the nation, na-tion, whether It Is the government that pays them or not. They mean victory or defeat. They mean that America will win her place once for all among the foremost free nations of the world or that she will sink to defeat and become be-come a second-rate power alike in thought and in action. This Is a day of her reckoning and every man among us must personally face that reckoning along with her. "The case needs no arguing. I assume as-sume that I am only expressing your own thoughts what must b In the mind of every true man when he faces the tragedy and the solemn glory of the present war, for the emancipation of mankind. "I summon you to a great duty, a great privilege, a shining dignity and distinction. I shall expect every man who Is not a slacker to be at my side throughout this great enterprise. In it no man can win honor who thinks of himself." |