The reader will at once notice that this book includes a variety of forms of communication between the President and the People. First come the public expositions of the President's policy, in his first inaugural address, some of his annual messages, and the numerous addresses to Congress which have been a feature of the administration. No President between John Adams and Wilson approached Congress in any other way than through the written messages sent by a subordinate, which were begun by President Thomas Jefferson. The three Presidents who immediately preceded President Wilson had the habit of expressing views intended to affect Congress, through newspaper interviews and official statements given cut at the White House. They often succeeded in creating public opinion that reacted upon Congress. President Wilson has accomplished the same end by the more dramatic method of making addresses to Con gress intended for the people at large. These speeches have usually been spread widely through the press; most of them are brief. Each of them enforces one or at most a few suggestions and appeals. In those speeches will be found clear and forceful statements of the President's policy upon such topics as the tariff, trusts, foreign trade, shipbuilding, submarine warfare, conditions of the railroad men, and the declaration of war. Only a part of those addresses can be brought within the limits of a modest volume such as this.
Some very characteristic short pieces in this volume are the letters and telegrams, sent on various occasions, such as the dedication of Cleveland's birthplace, the seventieth birthday of the great scientific man, Edison, and greetings to the French and Russian governments.
The White House is well acquainted with the effect of short, snappy statements circulated through the unofficial methods of the press-such are the political bomb on the tariff lobby in 1913; the announcement on the expedition into Mexico in 1916; an appeal for support for the Red Cross and a call to school officers in 1917; proclamations to the school children and to the drafted men in September, 1917; and the taking over of the railroads.
Another group is made up of letters written to public