of employers--and we must interject into this some
instrumentality of co-operation by which the fair thing will be done
all around.

I am hopeful that some such instrumentalities may be devised, but
whether they are or not we must use those that we have, and upon
every occasion where it is necessary to have such an instrumentality,
originated upon that occasion, if necessary.

And so, my fellow-citizens, the reason that I came away from
Washington is that I sometimes get lonely down there--there are so
many people in Washington who know things that are not so, and there
are so few people in Washington who know anything about what the
people of the United States are thinking about. I have to come away
to get reminded of the rest of the country. I have come away and talk
to men who are up against the real thing and say to them, I am with
you if you are with me. The only test of being with me is not to
think about me personally at all, but merely to think of me as the
expression for the time being of the power and dignity and hope of
the American people.

XVII

ADDRESS TO CONGRESS (_December 4, 1917_)

Gentlemen of the Congress,--Eight months have elapsed since
I last had the honor of addressing you. They have been months crowded
with events of immense and grave significance for us. I shall not
undertake to detail or even to summarize these events. The practical
particulars of the part we have played in them will be laid before
you in the reports of the executive departments. I shall discuss only
our present outlook upon these vast affairs, our present duties and
the immediate means of accomplishing the objects we shall hold always
in view.

I shall not go back to debate the causes of the war. The intolerable
wrongs done and planned against us by the sinister masters of Germany
have long since become too grossly obvious and odious to every true
American to need to be rehearsed. But I shall ask you to consider
again, and with very grave scrutiny, our objectives and the measures
by which we mean to attain them; for the purpose of discussion here
in this place is action, and our action must move straight toward
definite ends. Our object is, of course, to win the war, and we shall
not slacken or suffer ourselves to be diverted until it is won. But
it is worth while asking and answering the question, When shall we
consider the war won?

From one point of view it is not necessary to broach this fundamental
ma