Produced by Melanie Lybarger, Suzanne Lybarger and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team ENGLISH READINGS FOR SCHOOLS "The virtue of books is the perfecting of reason, which is indeed the happiness of man." _Richard De Bury._ "On bokes for to rede I me delyte." _Chaucer._ English Readings for Schools GENERAL EDITOR WILBUR LUCIUS CROSS PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN YALE UNIVERSITY [Illustration: Woodrow Wilson] PRESIDENT WILSON'S ADDRESSES EDITED BY GEORGE MCLEAN HARPER PROFESSOR IN PRINCETON UNIVERSITY; AUTHOR OF "MASTERS OF FRENCH LITERATURE," "LIFE OF SAINTE-BEUVE," AND "WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, HIS LIFE, WORKS, AND INFLUENCE" NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY Copyright 1918, BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY CONTENTS Introduction First Inaugural Address First Address to Congress Address on the Banking System Address at Gettysburg Address on Mexican Affairs Understanding America Address before the Southern Commercial Congress The State of the Union Trusts and Monopolies Panama Canal Tolls The Tampico Incident In the Firmament of Memory Memorial Day Address at Arlington Closing a Chapter Annapolis Commencement Address The Meaning of Liberty American Neutrality Appeal for Additional Revenue The Opinion of the World The Power of Christian Young Men Annual Address to Congress A Message Address before the United States Chamber of Commerce To Naturalized Citizens Address at Milwaukee The Submarine Question American Principles The Demands of Railway Employees Speech of Acceptance Lincoln's Beginnings The Triumph of Women's Suffrage The Terms of Peace Meeting Germany's Challenge Request for Authority Second Inaugural Address The Call to War To the Country The German Plot Reply to the Pope Labor must be Free The Call for War with Austria-Hungary Government Administration of Railways The Conditions of Peace Force to the Utmost INTRODUCTION These addresses of President Woodrow Wilson represent only the most recent phase of his intellectual activity. They are almost entirely concerned with political affairs, and more specifically with defining Americanism. It will not be forgotten, however, that the life of Mr. Wilson as President of the United States is but a short period compared with the whole of his public career as professor of jurisprudence, history, and politics, as President of Princeton University, as Governor of New Jersey, as an orator, and as a writer of many books. Surprise has been expressed that a man, after reaching the age of fifty, should be able to step from the "quiet" life of a teacher and author into the resounding regions of politics; but Mr. Wilson's life as a scholar, professor, and author was not at all quiet in the sense of being easy or untouched with exciting chances and changes, and, in the second place, he carried into politics the steadying ideals and the methodical habits of his former occupation.