"SPEAK, ACT AND SERVE TOGETHER"
(_Message to the American People, April 15, 1917_)
MY FELLOW COUNTRYMEN,--The entrance of our own beloved
country into the grim and terrible war for democracy and human rights
which has shaken the world creates so many problems of national life
and action which call for immediate consideration and settlement that
I hope you will permit me to address to you a few words of earnest
counsel and appeal with regard to them.
We are rapidly putting our navy upon an effective war footing and are
about to create and equip a great army, but these are the simplest
parts of the great task to which we have addressed ourselves. There
is not a single selfish element, so far as I can see, in the cause we
are fighting for. We are fighting for what we believe and wish to be
the rights of mankind and for the future peace and security of the
world. To do this great thing worthily and successfully we must
devote ourselves to the service without regard to profit or material
advantage and with an energy and intelligence that will rise to the
level of the enterprise itself. We must realize to the full how great
the task is and how many things, how many kinds and elements of
capacity and service and self-sacrifice it involves.