Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1914)
The Commoner VOL. 14, NO. 7 Lincoln, Nebraska, July, 1914 Whole Number 663 President Wilson on Business Conditions Address Delivered by the President Before the Virginia Editorial Association, the White House, June 25, 1914 Mr. Cook, Mr. Carlin: I think it is appropriate, ladies and gentle men, in receiving you to say just a word or two in assistance of your judgment about the exist ing conditions. You are largely responsible for the state of public opinion. You furnish the public with information, and in your editorials you furnish it with the interpretation of that information. We are in the presence of a busi ness situation which is variously interpreted. Here in Washington, through the bureau of com merce and other instrumentalities that are at our disposal 'and through a correspondence which comes in to us from all parts of the nation, we ;are perhaps in a pppitidn to Judge of the actual condition of business better than those can judge who' are at any other single Ppint in thfr'coury,; and i; want to say to you ttiat'ia a matter of fact the signs of a very -strong busi ness revival are becoming more and more evi dent from day to day. I want to suggest this to you: Business has been in a feverish and apprehensive condition in this country for more than ten years. I will not stop to point out the time at which it began to be apprehensive, but during more than ten years business has been the object of sharp criticism in the United States, a criticism growing in volume and growing in particularity; and as a natural consequence, as the volume of criticism has increased business has grown more and more anxious. Business men have acted as some men do who fear they will have to undergo an opera tion, and who are not sure that when they get on the table the operation will not be a capital operation. As a matter of fact, as the diagnosis has progressed it has become more and more evident that no capital operation was necessary; that at the most a minor operation was necessary to remove admitted distempers and evils. The treatment is to be constitutional rather than surgical, affecting habits of life and action which have been hurtful. For on all harids it is ad mitted that there aTe processes of business or have been processes of business in this country which ought to bo corrected; but the correction has been postponed, and in proportion to the postponement the fever has increased, the fever of apprehension. There is nothing more fatal 'to business than to be kept guessing from month to month and from year to year whether something serious Is going to happen to it or not and what in partic ular is going to happen to it if anything does. It is impossible to forecast the prospects of any line of business unless you know what the year is going to bring forth. Nothing is more unfair, nothing has been declared by business men to be more harmful, than to keep them guessing. The guessing went on, the air was full of in terrogation points, for ten years and more. Then came an administration which for the first time had a definite program of constructive correc tion; not of destructive correction, but of a con structive correction of admitted evil, a very clear program, disclosed, so far as possible in a general program, in its particulars as well as in its general features. And the administration proceeded to carry out this program. First, there was the tariff, and business shivered. "We don't like to go in; the water looks cold;" but when the tariff had been passed it was found that the readjustment was possible without any serious disturbance whatever. So that men said with a sense of relief, "Well, we are glad to get that behind us, and it wasn't bad after, all." ,,, , jTheh cahfe the currency - reform. You re member with what resistance, with what criti cism, with what systematic holding back, a large body of bankers in this country met the pro posals of that reform, and you know how, im mediately after Its passage, they recognized its benefits and its beneficence, and how ever since the passage of that reform bankers throughout the United States have been congratulating themselves that it was possible to carry out this great reform upon sensible and solid lines. Then we advanced to the trust program and again the same dread, the same hesitation, the same urgency that the thing should be post poned. It will not be postponed, and it will not be postponed because we are the friends of busi ness. We know what we are doing; we purposo to do it under the advice, for we have been for tunate enough to obtain the advice, of men who understand the business of the country; and wo know that the effect is going to be exactly what the effect of the currency reform was, a sense of relief and of security. Because when the program is finished, it Is CONTENTS PRESIDENT WILSON ON BUSINESS CONDITIONS ANOTHER PLEDGE KEPT THE ROOSEVELT ATTACK VOTES FOR WOMEN A NEW RECORD RURAL CREDIT LEGISLATION LOCATING THE BLAME FOR DELAYS THE MENACE OF BIGNESS SECRETARY REDFIELD ON FOREIGN TRADH DEMOCRACY IN BANKING CURRENT TOPICS WORK OF THE PRESIDENT'S CABINET finished; tho Interrogation points are rubbed off tho slate; business is given its constitution of freedom and is bidden gq forward under that constitution. And just so soon as it gets that leave and freedom there will bo a boom of busi ness in this country such as wo have never wit nessed in the United States. I, as a friend of business and a servant of tho country, would not dare stop in this program and bring on another long period of agitation. Agitation longer continued would bo fatal to the business of tills country, and if this program is delayed there will come agitation with every letter in the word a capital letter. Tho choice is a sober and sensible program now completed or months upon months of additional conjecturo and danger. I for one could not ask this coun try to excuse a policy which subjected business to longer continued agitation and uncertainty) and, therefore, I am suro that it Is beginning to be evident to tho whole press of this cpuntry, and by the same token to the people, that a construc tive program is at last not only to bo proposed but completed, and that when It is completed business can get and will get what it can get in no other way, rest, recuperation, and success ful adjustment. I can not get rest if you senfl me to bed wondering what is going to happen to me in the morning; but If you send me to bed knowing what tho course of business is to be tomorrow morning, I can rest. How much better is CERTAIN justice to the man engaged in busi ness! It is a matter of conscience as Well as a matter of largo public policy to do what this congress I am now certain is going to do, finish tho pror gram. And I do not think that it Is going to take a very long time. I believe that the temper of those engaged in this great thing is admirable, that the various elements sometimes in antagon ism in the congress of the United States are drawing together, and that we shall witness an early statesmanliko result for which we shall all have abundant reason to bo thankful. ANOTHER PLEDGE KEPT The Jones bill, introduced j the author with the approval of tho president, fulfills another platform pledge. It declares that it has never been tho intention of the people of the United States to make the war with Spain a war of con quest or territorial aggrandizement, but that ob the contrary it has always been the purpose of the United States to recognize the Independence of the Philippines as soon as a stable govern- -nient could be established there. This bill pror vides for increased participation by Fillpinoos In their government and will, when passed, re store the prestige which the nation lost when & entered upon a career of imperialism. W. J. BRYAN. ' ii 'i n i & - t 5 I I i 7 s. f" "" "'.' WWWHH) 1 1
