Woodrow Wilson: “America has to do at this moment nothing less than prove to the world whether she has meant what she said in the past.”

If there ever was a time when America had anything to fear from foreign competition, that time has passed.

A recommendation at this time that suitable legislative action should be taken may appear somewhat premature, but in view of the approaching termination of my administration I have brought this matter to your attention, hoping that…

We have been vigorously building up a great merchant marine and providing for improvement of marketing in foreign countries by the passage of an export trade law.

Clearly, this is no time for the erection here of high trade barriers.