I do not
stop to inquire why, or to make any comment on probable causes. What
interests us just now is not the explanation but the fact, and our duty
and opportunity in the presence of it. Here are markets which we must
supply, and we must find the means of action. The United States, this
great people for whom we speak and act, should be ready, as never
before, to serve itself and to serve mankind; ready with its resources,
its energies, its forces of production, and its means of distribution.
It is a very practical matter, a matter of ways and means. We have the
resources, but are we fully ready to use them? And, if we can make ready
what we have, have we the means at hand to distribute it? We are not
fully ready; neither have we the means of distribution. We are willing,
but we are not fully able. We have the wish to serve and to serve
greatly, generously; but we are not prepared as we should be. We are not
ready to mobilize our resources at once. We are not prepared to use them
immediately and at their best, without delay and without waste.
To speak plainly, we have grossly erred in the way in which we have
stunted and hindered the development of our merchant marine.
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