America the
hope of the world.

ADDRESS AT MILWAUKEE

[Between January 27 and February 3, 1916, President Wilson made a series
of speeches in New York, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Chicago, Des
Moines, Topeka, Kansas City, and St. Louis. The address made at
Milwaukee, on January 31, has been chosen as representing the general
tenor and spirit of the whole series.]

MR. CHAIRMAN AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:

I need not inquire whether the citizens of Milwaukee and Wisconsin are
interested in the subject of my errand. The presence of this great body
in this vast hall sufficiently attests your interest, but I want at the
outset to remove a misapprehension that I fear may exist in your mind.
There is no sudden crisis; nothing new has happened; I am not out upon
this errand because of any unexpected situation. I have come to confer
with you upon a matter upon which it would, in any circumstances, be
necessary for us to confer when all the rest of the world is on fire and
our own house is not fireproof. Everywhere the atmosphere of the world
is thrilling with the passion of a disturbance such as the world has
never seen before, and it is wise, in the words just uttered by your
chairman, that we should see that our own house is set in order and that
everything is done to make certain that we shall not suffer by the
general conflagration.

There were some dangers to which this Nation seemed at the outset of the
war to be exposed, which, I think I can say with confidence, are now
passed and overcome. America has drawn her blood and her strength out of
almost all the nations of the world. It is true of a great many of us
that there lies deep in our hearts the recollection of an origin which
is not American. We are aware that our roots, our traditions, run back
into other national soils. There are songs that stir us; there are some
far-away historical recollections which engage our affections and stir
our memories. We cannot forget our forbears; we cannot altogether ignore
the fact of our essential blood relationship; and at the outset of this
war it did look as if there were a division of domestic sentiment which
might lead us to some errors of judgment and some errors of action; but
I, for one, believe that that danger is passed. I never doubted that the
danger was exaggerated, because I had learned long ago, and many of you
will corroborate me by your experience, that it is not the men who are
doing the talking alway