Woodrow Wilson: “Germany felt the pinch of the blockade more than she felt the stress of the blow.”

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

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.

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…

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