The Commoner
WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
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VOL. 13, NO. 30
Lincoln, Nebraska, October, 1913
Whole Number 654
Tariff Bill Signed; President Urges Currency Reform
After affixing his signature to tlio new
tariff act, October 3, President Wilson de
livered an lmpressivo extemporaneous speech
that brought prolonged applause from his
hearers. The president declared that the
passage of the tariff bill, great as the accom
plishment is, is only half the Journey; that a
great service had been done for tho rank and
file of the people of the country, but that tho
second step in the emancipation of business
was currency reform. He earnestly urged
his xjollea'gues to go "the rest of the journey"
with fresh impulse. Tho president's address
follows:"
"Gentlemen: I feel a very peculiar pleasure
in what I havo just done by way of talcing
part in the completion of a great piece of
business. It .is a pleasure which is very hard
to express in words which are adequate to
express the feeling, because the feeling that
I have is that we have done the rank and file
of the people of this country a great service.
"It is hard to speak of these things with
out seeming to go off into campaign eloquence,
but that is not my feeling. It Is one very
profound a feeling of profound gratitude
that, working with the splendid men who have
carried this thing through with studious at
tention and doing justice all around, I should
have had part in serving the people of this
country as we have been striving to serve
them ever since I can remember.
"I have had the accomplishment of some-
Victory No. 1
At nine o'clock and ten minutes p. m., on
October 3rd, President Wilson, in tho presence
of some fifty persons, including representatives
of the administration, of congress, and of the
press, affixed his signature to the new tariff law
and gave expression to the satisfaction which it
gave him to participate In this long-promised
relief to the American people. It was a triumph
ant hour for him, for the party, and for the
country. As he said in the felicitious speech
which he delivered, he has been looking forward
to this legislation all his life It was the con
summation of his efforts at the lowering of tho
taxes. Millions of democrats share the rejoic
ing with him and among them no one is happier
than myself.
I became a tariff reformer in college; it was
the first subject that I presented from the stump,
and during the thirty-three years since I began
to i talk tariff reform I 'have felt an increasing
aversion toward a fiscal system that gives pro
tection for protection's sake.
;The tariff law that went Into force October
3rd is the. best tariff measure since the war, and
aWwho have taken part in preparing it are en
titled to great credit. It Is a better bill than
we were able to pass twenty years ago, and I
thing like this at heart ever since I was a
boy, and I know men standing around mo
who can say the same thing who havo been
waiting to see tho things done which it was
necessary to do in order that there might bo
justice in tho United States. And so it ia a
solemn moment that brings such a business
to a conclusion, and I hope I will not bo
thought to bo demanding too much of myself
or of my colleagues when I say that this,
great as it is, is the accomplishment of only
half tho Journey.
"Wo have set the business of this country
free from those conditions which havo made
monopoly not only possible but in a sense
easy and natural. But there Is no use taking
away the conditions of monopoly if we do
not take away also tho power to create
monopoly, and that is a financial rather than
a merely circumstantial and economic power.
"Tho power to control and guide and direct
the credits of the country Is the power to .say
who shall and who shall not build up the
industries of the country, in which direction
they shall be built, and In which direction
they shall not bo built.
"We are now about to tako the second
step, which will be the final step In setting tho
business of this country free. That is what
we shall do in tho currency bill, which tho
house has already passed and which I havo
the utmost confidence the senate will pass
much sooner than some pessimistic individ
uals believe.
"Becauso tho quoatlon now thnt this ploco
of work is done will ariso all ovor tho conn
try, 'For what do wo wait? Why should
wo wait to crown ourselves with consum
mate honor? Aro wo so self-denying that wo
do not wish to complete our success?'
"I was quoting tho othor day to somo of
my colleagues in tho somite thoso linos from
Shakespeare's Henry V., which havo always
appealed to me, 'If it be a uln to covet honor,
then am I tho most offending soul alive;'
and I am happy to say that I do not covot it
for myself alone.
"I covet it with equal ardor for tho men
who are associated with mo, and tho honor
is going to como from them. I am tholr
associate. I can only complete tho work
which they do. I can only counsel whon they
ask for my counsol. I can como in only whon
the laBt stages of tho business aro reached.
And I covot this honor for them quite aa
much as I covot It for myself. And I covet
it for tho great party of which I am a mem
ber; because that party is not honorablo
unless It redeems its namo and serves tho
people of tho United States.
"So I feel tonight like a man who Is lodging
happily in the inn which lies half way along
tho journey and that in tho morning with a
fresh impulse we shall go tho rest of the
journey and sleep at tho journey's end like
men with a quiet consclenco knowing that
we have served our fellow men, and havo,
thereby, tried to servo God."
rejoice that political conditions aro such as to
make the present law possible.
The Wilson law of 1894 was compelled to bear
a burden that will not fall upon tho present law
and ought not to have fallen on that law. The
Wilson law provided for an income tax which
was held unconstitutional by a Ivided vote,
the one majority having been secured by a
change of opinion on tho part of one judge be
tween the two hearings of tho case.
The nullification of tho income tax portion
of the Wilson law reduced the government's in
come until it would not meet expenses and this
CONTENTS
TARIFF BILL SIGNED; PRESIDENT
URGES CURRENCY REFORM
VICTORY NO. 1
NOW FOR CURRENCY REFORM
DIGNITY
MAYOR GAYNOR
THE PRESIDENT SIGNS NEW
TARIFF LAW
ULTIMATE INDEPENDENCE FOR
FILIPINOS
A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT
"BANKS EXIST FOR THE ACCOMMODA
TION OF THE PUBLIC AND NOT FOR
THE CONTROL OF BUSINESS."
THE MAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE
THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR
THE WORK OF THE PRESIDENT'S
CABINET
CURRENCY SPEECH OF CARTER GLASS
compelled an lncroaso of indebtedness that
threw upon the law an undeserved odium which,
together with the fact that tho senato deprived
tho bill of somo of its beat features, robbed the
party of the benefit which would ordinarily havo
como to it from a reduction In import duties
Then, too, tho law went into operation at it
time when financial conditions were bad, and
many attributed to tho law resulting defects
for which it was not at all responsiblo.
I mention tho law of nineteen years ago be
cause it is tho only thing sinco tho war with
which wo can compare tho present law. Econ
omic as well as political conditions make It pos
sible to do now what could not bo done then.
Wo have, too, at this timo a united party which
is a great asset.
The president and the democrats of the house
and senate have been in full sympathy and have
worked unitedly in the accomplishment of thig
important reform. .They share tho honors to
gether and the honors are sufficient to give dis
tinction to all who havo participated.
October 3rd marks an Important epoch in the
economic history of tho generation, and I am
confident, that it will not be long before the
country will be able to celebrate a second
triumph for tho president, congress, tho party
and the country, when the new currency bill
passes and receives tho president's signature.
W. J. BRYAN.
EVERY' READER OF THE COMMONER IH
URGED TO WRITE TO HIS SENATORS AT
ONCE, :MAKING KNOWN HIS VIEWS AND
URGING IMMEDIATE ACTION ON THE CUB
RENCY RILL.
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