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Show WATCHFUL WAITINGJMEXICAN POLICY President Wilson Says Huerta's Prestige Is Fast Crumbling-Message Crumbling-Message Asks Legislation for Facilitating Credits Needed by Farmers Urges Presidential Primaries. Washington. Dec. 2. The president today delivered the following message to congress: In pursuance of my constitutional duty to "give to the congress information informa-tion of the state of the Union," I take the liberty of addressing you on several sev-eral matters which ought, as it seems to me, particularly to engage the attention at-tention of your honorable bddies, as of all who study the welfare of the nation. I shall ask your indulgence if I venture ven-ture to depart in some degree frorn the usual custom of setting before you in formal review the many matters which have engaged the attention and called for the action of the several departments of the government or w-hich look to them for early treatment treat-ment in the future, because the list is long, very long, and would suffer in the abbreviation to which I should have to subject it. I shall submit to you the reports of the heads of the several departments, in which these subjects are set forth in careful detail, de-tail, and beg that they may receive the thoughtful attention of your committees commit-tees and of all members of the congress con-gress who may have the leisure to study them. Their obvious importance, as constituting the very substance of the business of the government, makes comment and emphasis on my part unnecessary. un-necessary. Country Is at Peace. The country, I am thankful to say. Is at peace with ail the world, and many happy manifestations multiply about us of a growing cordiality and sense of community of interest among the nations, foreshadowing an age of settled peace and good will. There is only one possible standard by which to determine controversies between the United States and other nations, and that is compounded of these two elements: Our own honor and our obligations to the peace of the world. A test so compounded ought easily to be made to govern both the establishment of new treaty obligations obli-gations and the interpretation of those already assumed. Huerta Must Let Go. There is but one cloud upon our horizon. ho-rizon. That has shown itself to the south of us, and hangs over Mexico. There can be no certain prospect of peace in America until General Huerta has surrendered his usurped authority In Mexico; until it is understood on all hands, indeed, that such pretended governments will not be countenanced or dealt with by the government of the United States. We are the friends of constitutional government in America; we are more than its friends, we are its champions; because in no other way can our neighbors, to whom we would wish in every way to make proof of our friendship, work out their own development in peace and liberty. Mexico has no government. govern-ment. The attempt to maintain one at the City of Mexico has broken down, and a mere military despotism has been set up which has hardly more than the semblance of national authority. author-ity. It originated in the usurpation of Victoriano Huerta, who, after a brief attempt to play the part of constitutional con-stitutional president, has at last cast aside ev-en the pretense of legal right and declared himself dictator. As a consequence, a condition of affairs now exists in Mexico which has made it doubtful whether even the most elementary and fundamental rights either of her own people or of the citizens of other countries resident within her territory can long be successfully suc-cessfully safeguarded, and which threatens, if long continued, to imperil im-peril the interests of peace, order and tolerable life in the lands immedi-, ately to the south of us. Even if the usurper had succeeded in his purposes, In despite of the constitution of the republic and the rights of its people, he would have set up nothing hut a precarious and hateful power, which could have lasted but a little while, and whose eventful downfall would have left the country in a more deplorable de-plorable condition than ever. But h? has not succeeded. He has forfeited the respect and the moral support even of those who were at one time willing to see him succeed. Uittle by little he' has been completely isolated. By a little every day his power and prestige are crumbling and the collapse col-lapse is not far away. We shall not, I believe, be obliged to alter our policy pol-icy of watchful waiting. And then, when the end comes, we shall hope to see constitutional order restored in distressed Mexico by the concert and energv of such of her leaders as prefer pre-fer the liberty of their people to their own ambitions. Currency Reform. I turn to matters of domestic concern con-cern You already have under consideration con-sideration a bill for the reform of our system of banking and currency for which the country waits with nnpau- ence, as for something fundamental to its whole business life and necessary neces-sary to set credit free from arbitrary and artificial restraints. I need not say how earnestly I hope for its early enactment en-actment into law. I present to you, in addition, the urgent necessity that special provision be made also for facilitating the credits cred-its needed by the farmers of the country. coun-try. The pending currency bill does the farmers a great service. It puts them upon an equal footing with other oth-er business men and masters bf enterprise, en-terprise, as it should; and upon its passage they will find themselves quit of many of the difficulties which now hamper them in the field of credit The farmers, of course, ask and should be given no special privilege, such as extending to them the credit of the government itself. What they need and should obtain is legislation which will make their own abundant and substantial credit resources available avail-able as a foundation for joint, concerted con-certed local action in their own behalf be-half in getting the capital they must use. It is to this we should now address ad-dress ourselves. Allowed to Lag. It has, singularly enough, come to pass that we have allowed the industry indus-try of our farms to lag behind the other activities of the country in its development. I need not stop to tell you how fundamental to the life of the Nation is the production of its food. Our thoughts may ordinarily be concentrated upon the cities and the hives of industry, upon the cries of the crowded market place and the clangor of the factory, but it is from the quiet interspaces of the open valleys val-leys and the free hillsides that we draw the sources of life and of prosperity, pros-perity, from the farm and the ranch, from the forest and the mine. Without With-out these every street would be silent, si-lent, every office deserted, every factory fac-tory fallen into disrepair. And yet the farmer does not stand upon the same footing with the forester and the miner in the market of credit. He is the servant of the seasons. Nature determines how long he must wait for his crops, and will not be hurried in her processes. He may give his note, but the season of its maturity depends upon the season when his crop matures, ma-tures, lies at the gates of the market where his products are sold. And the security he gives is of a character not known in the broker's office or as familiarly fa-miliarly as it might he on the counter of the banker. Efficiency in Farming. The agricultural department of the government is seeking to assist as never before to make farming an efficient effi-cient business, of wide co-operative effort, ef-fort, in quick touch with the markets for foodstuffs. The farmers and the government will henceforth work together to-gether as real partners in this field, where we now begin to see our way very clearly and where many intelligent intelli-gent plans are already being put into execution. The treasury of the United Uni-ted States has, by a timely and well-considered well-considered distribution of its deposits, depos-its, facilitated the moving of the crops in the present season and prevented the scarcity of available funds too often oft-en experienced at such times. But we must not allow ourselves to depend de-pend upon extraordinary expedients. We must add the means by which the farmer may make his credit constantly constant-ly and easily available and command when he will the capital by which to support and expand his business. We lag behind many other great countries of the modern world in attempting to do this. Systems of rural credit have been studied and developed on the other side of the water while we left our farmers to shift for themselves in the ordinary money market. You have but to look about you in any rural district to see the result, the handicap and embarrassment which have been put upon those who produce pro-duce our food. Study Rural Credit. Conscious of this backwardness and neglect on our part, the congress recently re-cently authorized the creation of a special commission to study the vari ous systems of rural credit which have been put into operation in Europe, Eur-ope, and this commission is already prepared to report. Its report ought to make it easier for us to determine what methods will be best suited to our own farmers. Let Sherman Law Stand. Turn from the farm to the world of business which centers in the city and in the factory, and I think that all thoughtful observers will agree that the immediate service we owe the business communities of the country is to prevent private monopoly more effectually thau it has yet been prevented. pre-vented. I think it will be easily agreed that we should let the Sherman antitrust anti-trust law stand, unaltered, as it is, with its debatable ground about it. but that we should as muoh as possible possi-ble reduce the area of that debatable ground by further and more explicit i legislation; and should also supplement supple-ment that great act by legislation which will not enly clarify it but also facilitate its administration and make it fairer to all concerned. No doubt we shall all wish, and the country will expect, this to be the central subject of our deliberations during the present pres-ent session; but it is a subject so many-sided and so deserving of careful care-ful and discriminating discussion that I shall take the liberty of addressing you upon it in a special message at a later date than this. It is of capital importance that the business men of this country should be relieved of all uncertainties of law with regard to their enterprises and investments and a clear path indicated which they can travel without anxiety. It is as important im-portant that they should be relieved of embarrassment and set free to prosper as that private monopoly should be destroyed. The ways of action should be thrown wide open. I turn to a subject which I hope can be handled promptly and without with-out serious controversy of any kind. I mean the method of selecting nominees nomi-nees for the presidency of the United States. I fdel confident that I do not misinterpret the wishes or the expectations of the country when I urge the prompt enactment of legislation which will provide for primary elections throughout through-out the country at w-hich the voters of the several parties may choose their nominees for the presidency without the intervention of nominating conventions. con-ventions. Independence for Philippines. These are all matters of vital domestic do-mestic concern, and besides them, outside out-side the charmed circle of our own national life in which our affections command us, as well as our consciences, con-sciences, there stand out our obligations obliga-tions toward our territories over sea. Here we are trustees. Porto Rico, Hawaii, the Philippines, are ours, once regarded as mere possessions, are no longer to be selfishly exploited; they are part of the domain of public conscience con-science and of serviceable and enlightened enlight-ened statesmanship. We must admin-' ister them for the people who live in them and with the same sense of responsibility re-sponsibility to them as toward our own people in our domestic affairs. No doubt we shall successfully enough bind Porto Rico and the Hawaiian islands is-lands to ourselves by ties of justce and affection, hut the performance of our duty toward the Philippines is a more difficult and debatable matter. We can satisfy the obligations of generous gen-erous justice toward the people of Porto Rico by giving them the ample and familiar rights and privileges accorded ac-corded our own citizens in our own territory and our obligations toward the people of Hawaii by perfecting the provisions of self-government already-granted already-granted them, but in the Philippines we must go further. We must hold steadily in view their ultimate independence, inde-pendence, and we must move toward the time of that independence as steadily as the w:ay can be cleared and the foundations thoughtfully and permanently per-manently laid. Double Duty Toward Alaska. A duty faces us with regard to Alaska Alas-ka which seems to me very pressing and very imperative; perhaps I should say a double duty, for it concerns both th J political and the material development develop-ment of the territory. The people of Alaska should be given the full territorial terri-torial form of government, and Alaska, Alas-ka, as a storehouse, should be unlocked. un-locked. One key to it is a system of railways. These the government should itself build and administer, and the ports and terminals it should itself control in the interest of all who wish to use them for the service and development de-velopment of the country and its people. peo-ple. Specially Important. Three or four matters of special importance im-portance and significance I beg that you will permit me to mention in closing. clos-ing. Our bureau of mines ought to be equipped and empowered to render even more effectual service than it renders now in Improving the conditions condi-tions of mine labor and making the mines more economically productive as well as more safe. This is an all-important all-important part of the work of conservation: con-servation: and the conservation of human life and energy lies even nearer near-er to our interest than the preservation preserva-tion from waste of our material resources. re-sources. We owe it. in mere justice to the railway employes of the country, to provide for them a fair and effective employers' liability act; and a law that we can stand by In this matter will be no less to the advantage of those who administer the railroads of the country than to the advantage of those whom they employ. The experience experi-ence of a large number of the states abundantly proves that. We ought to devote ourselves to meeting pressing demands of plain justice like this as earnestly ns to the accomplishment of political and economic reforms. Social ' justice comes first. Law is the machinery for its realization and is vital only as It expresses and embodies it. |