We entered the war to make the world safe for democracy, and before our armies enter the lists of battle and our fleets engage the enemy, the President demands authority and power unequalled by any autocratic ruler in the world. To make democracy safe, apparently we have to employ the methods of monarchy, and evidently the principle upon which we are proceeding is that the end justifies the means.

No matter how exalted the motive was that prompted our entrance into the war, there is no longer any doubt that the most effective and most drastic means must be adopted if we are to win the war.

Against the might of allied powers, outnumbering her six to one, Germany and her allies have swept across middle Europe and hold in iron grasp most of the territory which they have conquered. "Germany is far from defeated and America must send intelligent, active young men to the front if the combined forces of the United States, France and their Allies are to whip her," is the mes

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sage recently brought to Washington by a Canadian officer just back from the trenches of Northern France. And the same urgent appeal for aid has been voiced by the Commissioners of our Allies who have brought to us much useful advice as well as appeals for money and men.

Mr. Hoover, who has been in a position to ascertain the truth, in a recent interview, said: "From a purely military view the Central Powers have a greater man power and armament than hitherto, and this, together with interior lines, enables them to put up a steady resistance to the continually growing strength of the Allies."

Jules Cambon, general secretary to the French ministry of foreign affairs, at a war council held in Paris, said: "More and more it is becoming evident that the future conduct of the war is going to depend upon America, the moral, material, military and naval forces of which constitute factors of the very highest importance." Enrico Arlotta, who heads the Italian commission sent

to the United States, said in an interview on his arrival: "While we are confident of absolute success in the end, at the same time the situation demands the closest union and co-operation among the Allies, in which we now dare count the United States." America and her allies are doomed to defeat and the fate of the democratic world hangs in the balance unless the German blockade can be broken, President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard declared at a meeting of college presidents. "Without ships we cannot break the blockade, and if the blockade cannot be broken the world is gone," he said.

In one of his eloquent speeches, while touring the country, M. Viviani, the brilliant French Commissioner, said: "Come to us, American brothers. Come and fight side by side with your French brothers, with your allied brotherhood. Come under your glorious banner to fight for the democracy of the world, and show our men that when the rights of a single nation are violated, the rights of all nations are trampled under foot."

No longer is any attempt made to hold off America "from the present conflict with which the rest of the world is ablaze." No longer are we told that the war in Europe is of no concern to us. No longer are we too proud to fight, and no one today calls the advocates of preparedness nervous and excited. We see now that it is our cause, and the cause of democracy throughout the world that the Allies have been fighting for.

And the world's greatest democracy, the world's oldest republic, is gathering itself for the struggle and mobilizing its industrial and military forces for the vindication of its rights and the preservation of its institutions.

In this hour of supreme need and at this time of national effort no member of the family of free nations, no citizen of the Republic, can be a laggard or a slacker. It is not America alone that needs you. It is the hope of the world that is at stake, and the liberties of mankind.

Every American must give his utmost support to his Government and to the Flag of his country. It is not alone the men who bear arms on the firing line or serve guns on our battleships who are fighting for our country. Every boy, every man, every woman who throws heart and soul into necessary work in this crisis is just as truly enrolled in his country's service. The cause is as big as the country and every one in the country can serve it, and not the least valuable service will be a willing acquiescence in the steps which the Government deems necessary to a successful prosecution of the war.

If the present attitude of Russia is a fair example of how a democracy carries on a war, the sooner we abandon the "democratic" method of conducting a war the better it will be for us and for the democracy of the world. We want war with victory, even if we must be autocratic about it.

I welcome and greet you at our gathering. We have come together, not in any provincial spirit. The atmosphere of this room where we met the French Commission last Saturday permits no special study of economics; tonight, we are in a world's atmosphere. On every breeze from the four quarters of the earth voices are calling us to secure the blessings of liberty not to ourselves and our posterity alone, but to the whole world and its posterity. To help secure this we look only in part to our Army and Navy; the industrial interests of the nation must prosper if we are to be victors. Upon industrial preparation and preservation rests the effectiveness of our fighting forces.

We stand tonight on the threshold of a new epoch in our history. We have been tested before in the fires of war, but these wars have been have been waged at home or near our own borders and we fought to establish our independence and maintain our integrity as a nation. Both our independence and our national existence are at stake in this conflict. We have entered the war to maintain international obligations, and to defend de

mocracy.

All the instrumentalities of the nation must be mobilized for service in the great task to which we have set our hands. Our Army, gallantly led and with the ranks filled with the

world's bravest men, can be depended

upon to uphold the best traditions of the service; but a vast amount of work is needed to make it adequate in numbers, equipment and training. The United States Navy has covered itself with glory in all our wars and to a ship and to a man it will do its duty. The pity is that there are not more ships and more men, for a greater task has never been assigned to our Navy than that which faces it today.

Through years of neglect our merchant marine has been allowed to decline and we must improvise the means of ocean transportation. The lesson of these recent years should not be forgotten. All legitimate means of government encouragement of shipping and ship-building should be utilized to prevent any such catastrophe in the future, and public sentiment should be aroused in earnest support of universal military training.

So far as its industries are concerned the United States is better prepared for this emergency than it is in any other way. Taught by the bitter experiences of our struggle for independence, the fathers of the nation realized the absolute necessity of diversified industries and they adopted a definite and successful policy of encouragement and protection of manufactures.

We owe it to the wise forethought

and to the deliberate judgment of the American electorate, expressed so often at our national elections, that our industries are so capable today of meeting the demands of this critical hour. We had to fight for the establishment of these industries and their successful operation throughout the past hundred years against the bitterest opposition of the older manufacturing nations of the world. Great Britain, the nation that hoped to be the workshop of the world and that tried most persistently to prevent our industrial development, is as glad as we are today that her efforts to crush our industries in their infancy failed and that our efforts to become a great manufacturing nation succeeded, for it is upon these American industries, the product of a century of protection, that Great Britain and her allies depend in this time of need.

No more striking vindication of a national industrial policy could be afforded than this present demonstration of the world's need of the American manufacturer, of the American workingman, of the American producer. It is upon the products of the mills, the factories and the farms of the United States that the issues of this war depend. More than upon our Army, more than upon our Navy, though their service and their sacrifice will be upon an unparalleled scale, the issues of this war depend upon the productive industries of our country, and that we have these industries today is due to the fact that throughout most of our history we have maintained a policy of encouraging and protecting American farming and American manufacturing.

We face the most critical period in the history of our country; the most critical period in the history of the world. Every man from the highest official to the humblest citizen should

render to the country the best service of which he is capable; and every man capable of rendering service should be given his chance, whether it is in industry or leading a brigade here or on the battlefields of France.

This task requires all the effort of all our people, the united strength of the United States. Political issues and partisan manoeuvres must be forgotten and only the fundamental principles of national security and preservation can be considered.

Beware of a false economy, keep conditions normal. It is only by the steady flow of merchandise, the constant throb of machinery, the uninterrupted operation of mill and factory that the supplies requisite for a successful prosecution of the war can be obtained, As Lloyd George has said, it is not so much a war of army against army as of factory against factory. So it is most important to keep up all of the industrial processes of the nation. Full and constant production means a speedier end of the war and a more rapid overcoming of the menace which confronts us. We face this crisis as a loyal and united people, as Americans, not as partisans, and to the President of the United States; to our Army and our Navy, and to the Flag of our Country we pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.