In a very remarkable message read to Congress on January 8,1918,President Wilson laid down his famous "fourteen points"summarizing the ideals for which we were fighting.They included open treaties of peace,openly arrived at;absolute ******* of navigation upon the seas;the removal,as far as possible,of trade barriers among nations;reduction of armaments;adjustment of colonial claims in the interest of the populations concerned;fair and friendly treatment of Russia;the restoration of Belgium;righting the wrong done to France in 1871in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine;adjustment of Italian frontiers along the lines of nationality;more liberty for the peoples of Austria-Hungary;the restoration of Serbia and Rumania;the readjustment of the Turkish Empire;an independent Poland;and an association of nations to afford mutual guarantees to all states great and small.On a later occasion President Wilson elaborated the last point,namely,the formation of a league of nations to guarantee peace and establish justice among the powers of the world.Democracy,the right of nations to determine their own fate,a covenant of enduring peace-these were the ideals for which the American people were to pour out their blood and treasure.
The Selective Draft.-The World War became a war of nations.The pow-ers against which we were arrayed had every able-bodied man in service and all their resources,human and material,thrown into the scale.For this reason,President Wilson summoned the whole people of the United States to make every sacrifice necessary for victory.Congress by law decreed that the national army should be chosen from all male citizens and males not enemy aliens who had declared their intention of becoming citizens.By the first act of May 18,1917,it fixed the age limits at twenty-one to thirty-one inclusive.Later,in Au-gust,1918,it extended them to eighteen and forty-five.From the men of the first group so enrolled were chosen by lot the soldiers for the World War who,with the regular army and the national guard,formed the American Expedi-tionary Force upholding the American cause on the battlefields of Europe."The whole nation,"said the President,"must be a team in which each man shall play the part for which he is best fitted."
Liberty Loans and Taxes.-In order that the military and naval forces should be stinted in no respect,the nation was called upon to place its financial resources at the service of the government.Some urged the "conion ofwealth as well as men,"meaning the support of the war out of taxes upon great fortunes;but more conservative counsels prevailed.Four great Liberty Loans were floated,all the agencies of modern publicity being employed to enlist pop-ular interest.The first loan had four and a half million subscribers;the fourth more than twenty million.Combined with loans were heavy taxes.A progres-sive tax was laid upon incomes beginning with four per cent on incomes in the lower ranges and rising to sixty-three per cent of that part of any income above$2,000,000.A progressive tax was levied upon inheritances.An excess profits tax was laid upon all corporations and partnerships,rising in amount to sixty per cent of the net income in excess of thirty-three per cent on the invested cap-ital."This,"said a distinguished economist,"is the high-water mark in the his-tory of taxation.Never before in the annals of civilization has an attempt been made to take as much as two-thirds of a man's income by taxation."
Mobilizing Material Resources.-No stone was left unturned to provide the arms,munitions,supplies,and transportation required in the gigantic under-taking.Between the declaration of war and the armistice,Congress enacted law after law relative to food supplies,raw materials,railways,mines,ships,forests,and industrial enterprises.No power over the lives and property of citizens,deemed necessary to the prosecution of the armed conflict,was withheld from the government.The farmer's wheat,the housewife's sugar,coal at the mines,labor in the factories,ships at the wharves,trade with friendly countries,the railways,banks,stores,private fortunes-all were mobilized and laid under whatever obligations the government deemed imperative.Never was a nation more completely devoted to a single cause.
A law of August 10,1917,gave the President power to fix the prices of wheat and coal and to take almost any steps necessary to prevent monopoly and excessive prices.By a series of measures,enlarging the principles of the shipping act of 1916,ships and shipyards were brought under public control and the government was empowered to embark upon a great ship-building program.In December,1917,the government assumed for the period of the war the operation of the railways under a presidential proclamation which was elaborated in March,1918,by act of Congress.In the summer of 1918the express,telephone,and telegraph business of the entire country passed under government control.By war risk insurance acts allowances were made for the families of enlisted men,compensation for injuries was provided,death benefits were instituted,and a system of national insurance was established in the interest of the men in service.Never before in the history of the country had the government taken such a wise and humane view of its obligations to those who served on the field of battle or on the seas.