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The Commoner
14
VOI. 15, NO. 5
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bo among ub in private or public life those un
willing to listen and to learn from the truth
when spoken fairly and meant constructively. Ho
who gives criticism of this kind, even when it
runs counter to prejudice or conviction docs a
public service and leaves things better than he
found thorn. Tho destructive critic is of another
tompor. Ho builds nothing up. Ho tears only
down. Of him it is true as the ancient proverb
gaid, which being translated runs:
"Out of nothing, nothing comes."
Of him another old saying is also true:
"A voice, and nothing else."
This typo of mind, which in private life we
call tho faultfinder or the scold, and to which we
apply tho word of "nagging," can always find
that upon which to fasten its fangs. Living in a
world of men and not of angels there will always
bo given by human weakness that upon which
theso prowlers may pounce. I refuse to believe,
however, that these little men, whose better pur
pose it would be to walk about seeking for them
selves dishonorable graves, represent any large
element of any great party in our country. If
they do represent any considerable portion of
any groat organization, so much the worse for
that organization. For this American people is
of a constructive sort. It sets its face forward.
It will not be drawn back and it will shake with
scorn from off its skirts those who throw mud at
it from behind.
I wait, therefore, for the early abandonment
of this negative and feeble policy on the part
even of those good men who may have been mis-,
led temporarily into this misbehavior. I look
to them for better things and things which will
more certainly accompany political salvation. For
the American public knows that it has had at the
hands of tho present administration affirmative
and constructive service, and as it sees tho days
of prosperity returning and the mills reopening
and the miner and the farmer busier and more
prosperous than before, it will say to these pro
phets of evil, "What have you to offer better than
the foundation on which these things are build
ed?" It will have small patience with the howl
of tho wolves beside the track that has long since
been traveled. It will look for the constructive
services of men instead. ,
It is hardly necessary for mo to tell you tho
history of the last two years, and yet it may bo
wise for our encouragement to look back over
them and see what tho facts have been. They
fall into two separate groups, viz., the facts con
cerning the administration and the facts concern
ing tho position of tho United States at home and
abroad. I shall not attempt any detailed re
view of recent political history. Suffice to say
that three times in succession has the country
chosen a democratic house of representatives to
do its work. Two of these are passed and one
will assemble. Two of them received a mandate
from the people to undo the tariff wrong perpe
trated in the Payne law, which the public justly
felt to be a breach of faith. So far as the dem
ocratic house of representatives could so do in the
Sixty-second congress it obeyed the people's in
structions. In the Sixty-third congress it car
ried them out with the aid of a democratic son
ate and president. On that record it fearlessly
stands. It does not apologize for it. It does
not excuse it. Tho record is one of which it is
proud, and standing thereon it confidently looks
for the coming of the better business days that
have already dawned.
It was with this record before it that again tho
people elected a third democratic house of rep
resentatives and a senate in which the democratic
majority was increased. Here rises up some
little soul to say, "Look how the democratic ma
jority in the house of representatives was re
duced!" True, my friend, but look farther still
and see what took place at similar periods in our
past history, and you will find that the condition
in the congress about to assemble is not siich
compared with former similar times as to give
anything of encouragement to the foes of tho
democratic party.
PARTY HAS KEPT PLEDGE
Our party has kept its faith. It has not been
given, orders by the people to revise the tariff
downward only to answer by revising it upward.
Ono thing at least no one dares say about tho
tariff law, namely, that it was prepared by any
body in his own interest. The beneficiaries, if
. there bo such, of that law did not draw it for
their own benefit. Never was there a measure of
tho kind more free from personal taint, more
purely intended for public as distinguished from
private purposes. I believe, and men of all par
ties confirm me in the belief, that upon the
whole, the country through, manufacturers are
well content with the tariff as it stands. I do
not believe, and in this I am confirmed by man
ufacturers the land over, of all parties, that it is
any material factor in depressing business con
ditions. Upon it has been fastened by hostile
hands everything of evil that from any cause can
occur in this broad land. But these attachments,
which it was hoped would weight the legislation
down, have been shaken off. Those who hoped
to profit by its ill success have charged it with
failure; but like the Phoenix it has risen from
what were alleged to be its ashes to confound its
enemies.
Here and there a voice is lifted in language
once familiar but now archaic to speak in phrases
once mighty, but now weak, of the pauper labor
of Europe and of the flooding of our markets
with this, and that, and the other thing. To all
we turn a deaf ear, for we have regained some
thing of industrial self-respect. We are no long
er willing to admit national incompetence. We
cower no more behind the tariff wall but are
reaching out toward willing hands, which in turn
are extended to us from every quarter of the
globe. We have copied in practice the fine motto
of the Australian commonwealth .and are saying
everywhere, "Advance, America." We no longer
wish to shut our people in. We seek rather to
. send our money and our goods out to those who
have need of both and find them best of all in our
favored land.
THE PANIC OF 1907
I recall that not many years ago under the
reign of Theodore and with the Dingley tariff in
full force and vigor, for it had lasted ten years,
that something serious happened. It was in Oc
tober of 1907 when a great bank failed. Others
were threatened and men and women stood in
long lines upon the city streets seeking to save
their savings from what they feared would be
general wreck. That was the time when the
business barometer sank lower than it ever since
has done. The early months of 1908 represented
the lowest point of business inaction since the
century opened.
I shall not associate myself with dealers in
abuse by saying who or what caused these things
to be. I simply remind you that the winter of
1907-1908 was a hard one; that men were out
of work and currency was hard to get and banks
resorted to all sorts of expedients throughout the
land in order to keep things moving, and remind
you at the same time that a republican president
was in power and. vigorously if not wisely using
his power, and that the high protective tariff
whose apostles claim for it power to bring and to
maintain prosperity was then in existence and
apparently unttireatened.
We speak, however, of those evil days not to
make partisan charges out of them though they
form an interesting background against which
to project statements of prosperity based on the
tariff but to remind you that those evil days
have forever passed away.
For long years the money system of our land had
had great and unknown weaknesses. Let us not
minimize the attempts which were made in good
faith by men of all parties to set things right
Give them credit for all of thought and knowl
edge which they contributed to the problem This
one thing remains true: Nothing was done about
it until the democratic administration came into
power. Then, and only then, it was taken up
and against the opposition of some who now ad
mit it to be good, the thing was settled, and set
tled well. Today you and I know, and we never
knew it before until the federal reserve law was
passed, that not only has there been released in
to the channels of trade vast sums unnecessarily
held back as reserves, but that through the es
tablishment of the federal reserve system the
power of panic has been destroyed. The basis of
the fear that produces panic has been taken
away. Men know that they can get cash if thev
have credit, and the foundation of credit his
been made sure and the way to credit has been
made simple. "
Look and see how many are there of our par
tisan opponents that venture to rise in public imi
denounce the federal reserve law. It is admitti i
on all hands, if not in words at least in nence
by our adversaries that this thing has been rtnno
well. On it with confidence resf the operations
of some of the very men who cry loudest in crti
cism of our policies.
HONEST BUSINESS NOT HIT
Aye, but business legislation. Well let ,.
face tho question of business legislation boldly
for concerning it there is naught we have to
fear We have made plainer the way of the Hon
est business man; our opponents themselves be
ing witnesses, tho Clayton law and the federal
trade commission law are good. They put
obstacle in the path of any honorable man Tliov
make his road more plain. They give him a forum
in which he may be heard. They give him
point on which with more confidence he may lean
What is there in this legislation that our on
ponents would like to have taken away' it is
either in its spirit or its substance that they wish
it changed. To which does their criticism ex
tend? Is the spirit of the law wrong? if so
what spirit should be substituted? Shall it be
a spirit which says that unfair competition shall
continue or that the restraints against excesses
(which it is well known have prevailed) shall be
removed? Taken at large, is it their wish that
the interlocking directorates shall be restored
as they were? Do they desire that there shall
not be a forum like the federal trade commission
which shall hear and consider without litigation
the pleas of business men? The answer to the
criticisms that are made in tho direct question
what would you do? or what would you leave
undone?
Let us revert for the moment to the question
of spirit and deal with it frankly as regards not
only the legislation but the executive acts that
have occurred. Let us take for example tho in
vestigations that have been made and their re
sult. When this was written three such were
before the public. None of them was original
in thought or purpose with the administration.
Each of them arose either from the invitation or
the attack of our adversaries. All were under
taken in the spirit of equity and calm and truth
fulness. The reports arising from them are
notable for the presence of fairness and for the
absence of adjectives. Here and now let me
frankly say that we have been much indebted to
the courtesy of manufacturers, who in a broad
and kindly spirit have opened 'the way to the
knowledge of their own individual industries.
There is not one of them today who has com
plained or who in my judgment can complain
that his confidence has been betrayed. They have
been invited to show if they desire in what re
spect the confidential data relating to their own
establishments or the inferences taken therefrom
are at fault, and none has yet arisen to respond
to this invitation.
On the contrary, we hear that money is appro
priated for closer research into their own indus
tries; that new equipment is replacing the old,
and men of all parties in press and in industry
have come to mo with commendation for the can
did and courteous work that has oeen so quietly
and constructively done, and to express their re
gret at the hasty and baseless attacks that cer
tain individuals to their own regret have prema
turely made. o
NOT AFRAID OF TRUTH
I do not believe that American manufacturers
when their confidence is respected are afraid of
the truth. There could be no more serious con
demnation passed upon any industry than to say
it was so afraid. No man among us but admits
he has much to learn. A wise friend handed me
long ago a motto, which is hung in my own home.
It reads: "Every man I meet is my master in some
point, and in this I learn of him." The spirit of
that motto, the author of which was a trained
and successful business man, is, I believe, the
spirit in which the mass of our American manu
facturers are ready to meet the problems of to
day. Some there are who by partisan persuasion
may have put themselves in false positions, from
which it is difficult to extricate themselves, but
even these men in their quiet thought do not de
sire to be unfair. They wish to know in their
better moments whether their methods or their
equipment are good or not. They are entitled to
have that knowledge but they are entitled to
have it in a spirit of confidence and not of at
tack; in a spirit of. courtesy and not of criticism:
in a spirit of helpfulness and not of injury, and
there is no man that can truthfully say that the
problems have received treatment save in these
better ways."
The best way, however, in which to show one's
spirit is by deeds. Has the democratic party been
content in the department of commerce to do the
same practical work or business as its predeces
sor, or has it done less, or more? The total an
nual sum which the republican party saw fit to
appropriate for the promotion of our foreign
trade was $60,000, less than many a department
store expends for its advertising. In the current
fiscal year this will be more than three times as
great. In the next fiscal year it will be over four
times greater. If to spend much more than ever
was spent before to advance our trade is an
evidence of indifference, then we are guilty, for
wo have done just that thing. Nay, we have done
more. An entirely new force in the foreign field
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