State of the Union AddressesTaft, William H. (William Howard)
History
State of the Union Addresses
Taft, William H. (William Howard)
Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
There are many ways in which through hearty cooperation the legislative and
executive branches of this Government can do much. The absolute essential
is the spirit of united effort and singleness of purpose. I will allude
only to a very few specific examples of action which ought then to result.
America can not take its proper place in the most important fields for its
commercial activity and enterprise unless we have a merchant marine.
American commerce and enterprise can not be effectively fostered in those
fields unless we have good American banks in the countries referred to. We
need American newspapers in those countries and proper means for public
information about them. We need to assure the permanency of a trained
foreign service. We need legislation enabling the members of the foreign
service to be systematically brought in direct contact with the industrial,
manufacturing, and exporting interests of this country in order that
American business men may enter the foreign field with a clear perception
of the exact conditions to be dealt with and the officers themselves may
prosecute their work with a clear idea of what American industrial and
manufacturing interests require.
CONCLUSION
Congress should fully realize the conditions which obtain in the world as
we find ourselves at the threshold of our middle age as a Nation. We have
emerged full grown as a peer in the great concourse of nations. We have
passed through various formative periods. We have been self-centered in the
struggle to develop our domestic resources and deal with our domestic
questions. The Nation is now too matured to continue in its foreign
relations those temporary expedients natural to a people to whom domestic
affairs are the sole concern. In the past our diplomacy has often
consisted, in normal times, in a mere assertion of the right to
international existence. We are now in a larger relation with broader
rights of our own and obligations to others than ourselves. A number of
great guiding principles were laid down early in the history of this
Government. The recent task of our diplomacy has been to adjust those
principles to the conditions of to-day, to develop their corollaries, to
find practical applications of the old principles expanded to meet new
situations. Thus are being evolved bases upon which can rest the
superstructure of policies which must grow with the destined progress of
this Nation. The successful conduct of our foreign relations demands a
broad and a modern view. We can not meet new questions nor build for the
future if we confine ourselves to outworn dogmas of the past and to the
perspective appropriate at our emergence from colonial times and
conditions. The opening of the Panama Canal will mark a new era in our
international life and create new and worldwide conditions which, with
their vast correlations and consequences, will obtain for hundreds of years
to come. We must not wait for events to overtake us unawares. With
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account