The; Commoner
VOL. 16, NO. 9
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President Wilson Reviews His Administration
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a footing of equality with our own In respect
of 'tho1 terms of competition, and a tariff board
lias boon created whoso function It will be to
keop tho relations of American with foreign
business and industry under constant observa
tion for tho guidance alike of our business men
and of our congress. American energies are
now directed towards tho markets of tho world.
ItKCOKD OF PKOMI8K8 KEDEEMED IN CON
HTKUCTI VE JjEGISIjATION
The laws against trustB have been clarified
by definition, with a view to making it plain that
thdy were not directed againBt big business but
only against unfair business and tho pretense of
competition Where there was none; and a trade
commission lias been created with powers of
gu'idanco and accommodation which have re
lieved business men of unfounded fearB and set
thonl upon the road of hopeful and confident en
terprise. liy the Federal Reserve Act tho supply of cur
rency at tho disposal of active business has been
rendered elastic, taking its volume, not from a
fixed body of investment securities, but from
tho liquid assets of dally trade; and these assets
are assessed and accoptod, not by distant groups
of' bankers' in control of' unavailable reserves,
but by bankers at tho many centres of local ex
chango who aro in touch with local conditions
everywhere. ' '
Effective iheasures have been taken for the
re-creation of an American merchant marine and
thorovival of the American carrying trade iri
dispensablo to our emancipation from tho con
trol1 which foreigners have so long exercised
over tho opportunities, the routes, 'and tho meth
ods iof our commerce with other countries.
Tho iatcrstato commcrco commission has been
reorganized to onablo it to perform its great and
Important functions more promptly and more,
efficiently. We. have .croated, extended and .im-. ,
proved tho aorvlaot of tho -parcels. post, v.., ., ,
1S0 .much wo, hay e done for, business AVhM
other, party has .understood the task so well, or
executed it so intelligently, and energetically 1,
What other party has attempted it at all? The
republican leaders, apparently, know , of ,no
moan of nssisUnjg bVusiness but "protection."
How, to stimulate it and ,pnt it upon a new foot-i
ing of enorgy and enterprise thoy have not sug
gested. For the farmers of tho country we havp vir
tually created" commercial credit, by means of
the federal reserve act and tho rural credits act.
They now have tho standing of other business
ihon'in tho money market. We have successfully''
regulated speculation in 'futures" and. estab
lished standards in the marketing of grains. By
an 'Intelligent warehouse act we have assisted to
make tho standard crops available as never .be
fore both for systematic marketing and as a se
curity for loans from tho banks. We have
greatly added 'to tho work of neighborhood-demonstration
on the farm itself of improved meth-1
ods of cultivation, and, through the intelligent
extension of tho functions of the department of
agriculture, have made it possible for the farmer
to learn systematically where his best markets:
are and how to get at them.
yjio workingmen of America have been given
a "veritable emancipation, by tho legal recogrii-
tibrt 'off man's labor as part of his life, and not
a ,m6j:p "marketable commbdity; by exempting
labbr''6rganizatlons from processes of thecburts
which 'treated their members like - fractional
parts 'hf mobs and not like accessible and rV
sp'dtf.slb'le individuals; by releasing our seamen
fr$m 'Vuvdluntary sorvitude; by making ade-
qriataprovision for compensation for industrial
accidents; by providing suitable machinery" for
mediation and conciliation' in industrial dis
putes and by putting tho federal department
of 'IrtboV at the disposal of the worklngman when .
in seaVch of work. .
V'oave effected tho emancipation of the
children of the Country by releasing -them from
hu'rtfirt labor. Wo hnvo instituted a system of
national aid in the building of highroads such
as thocoUntry has been feeling after for a cen
tury. :6Wg imVQ bought to equalize taxation by
nieansof'an equitable inoomo tax. We have
taken the ateps'that ought to have beentaken
at) the'outset to open up tho resources bf Alaskan
W lia6- provided for 'national . defense upon'u
scald- Hover bdforo seriously 'proposed- upon the
responsibility of an entiropolitioal party.-' We-ha-ve
tfirlVcn I ho tariff lobby from cover -and
obliged it to substitute solid argument for pri
vate influence.
This extraordinary recital must sound like a "
platform, a list of sanguine promises; but it is
not. It is a record of promises made four years
ago and now actually redeemed in constructive
legislation.
These things must profoundly disturb the
thoughts and confound tho plans of those who
have made themselves believe that the demo
cratic party neither understood nor was ready
to assist the business of the country in the great
enterprises which it is its evident and inevitable
destiny to undertake and carry through. The
broaking up of the lobby must especially dis
concert them: for it was through the lobby that
they sought and were sure they had found tho
heart of things. Tho game of privilege can be
played successfully by no other means.
This record must equally astonish those who
feared that tho democratic party had not opened
its heart to comprehend the demands of social
justice. We have in four years come very near
to carrying out tho platform of the progressive
party as well as our own; for we also aro pro
gressives. There is one circumstance connected with this",
programme which ought to be -very plainly
stated. It was resisted at every step by the in
terests which the republican party had catered .
to and fogtered at the expense of the country
and these same interests are now earnestly prayr
ing for a reaction which will save their privil
eges, for the restoration of their sworn friends
to power before it is too late to recover what
the have lost. They fought with particular
desperation and infinite resourcefulness the re
form of the banking and currency system, know--ing
that to be the citadel of their control'; and
mqst anxiously are they hoping and planning- for
the amendment of the federal reserve act by the
concentration of control in a single bank which
the old familiar group of bankers can keepun
dertheir eye.and direction. But while the "big
men" who used to. write the tariffs and com-
mand the assistance of the treasury have been
hostile, rail hut -a few with vision, the .aver
age business man knows that he has been deliv
ered, and that the fear that was once every day
In his heart, that the men who controlled credit
and directed enterprise from the committee
rooms of congress would crush him, is there no
more, and will not return, unless the party
that consulted only the kbig inert" should return
to power, the party of masterly inactivity and
cunning resourcefulness in standing pat to resist
change. ' .
REPUBLICAN PARTY CAN NOT 3IEET THE
CONDITIONS OF THE NEW AGE
Txi?vpul,lican party is ust the Party that
CAN NOT meet the new conditions of a new age .
It. does not know tho way and it does not wish
now conditions. It tried to break away from the
old leaders and could not. They still select its
candidates and dictate its policy, still resist
change, still hanker after the old conditions,
still know no methods of encouraging business
but the old methods. When it changes its lead-"
ers and its purposes and brings its ideas up to .
date it will have the right to ask the American
people to give it power again; but not until .
then. A new age, an age of revolutionary i
change, needs new purposes and new ideas. i
In foreign affairs we have been guided bv't
principles clearly conceived and consistently
lived up to. Perhaps they have not been fully
comprehended because they have hitherto gov
erned international affairs only in theory iiot
m practice. They are simple, obvious, easily
stated, and fundamental to American ideals.
We have b'eon neutral not only because ft '
was the fixed and traditional policy of the United"'
States to stand aloof from the politics of BurSS
and because we had had no part either of action
or of policy in the influences which brought on
the present war, .but also because it was man"
festly our duty to prevent, if it were noslibla
tho indefinite extension of the fires of hat J JS
desolation kindled by that terriMe conflict and,'
seek to serve mankind by reserving our strengt
and our resources for tho anxious and difficult
22" 2 l!" n halinS which mwtfoM
". wmJiave to uuild its house-
rights can be vindicated by claims for damn
when the war is oyer, and no modem nation p
decline to arbitrate such claims; but the fun
mental rights of humanity can not be. ThG cZ
of life is irreparable. Neither can direct viok
tions of a nation's sovereignty await vindica
tion in suits for damages. The nation that vio
lates these essential rights must expect to be
checked and called to account by direct chal
lenge and. resistance. It at once makes the
quarrel in part our own. These are plain prln
ciples and we have never lost sight of them or
departed from them, whatever the stress or the
perplexity of circumstance or the provocation
to hasty resentment. The record is clear and
consistent throughout and stands distinct and
definite for anyone to judge who wishes to know
tho truth about it.
Tho seas were not broad enough to keep the
infection of tho conflict out of our own politics
The passions and intrigues . of certain active
groups and combinations of men amongst us
who were born under foreign flags injected the
poison of disloyalty into our own most critical
affairs, laid violent hands upon many of our in
dustries, and subjected us to- the shame of di
visions of sentiment and purpose in which
America was contemned and forgotten. It is
part of the business of. this year of reckoning
and settlement to speak plainly and act with un
mistakable purpose in rebuke of these things,
in order that they may be forever hereafter im
possible. I am the candidate of a party, but I
am above all things else an American citizen. I
neither seek the favor, nor fear the displeasure
of that small .alien element amongst us which
puts loyalty to any foreign power before loyalty
to the United States.
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The rights:' 6f "'our oWn citirpno f .
did-this was-our guiding principle: that property
GUIDING PRINCIPLES,., QF ' AlftHXjgTRA.
TION'S POLICY IN JRDGXICAN AFFAIRS
While Europe was' at war our own continent,
one of bur own neighbors, was shaken by revo
lution. '' In that matter, too, principle was plain
and it was imperative that we should live up to
it if we were.'to deserve1 the-ttfust of any real
pa'rtisan of the "right as fr'eo men" see it. We
haVe iirttfessed to' 1elieve, &ndj we "do 'believe,
that the people of1 small 'and -i weak' states 'have"
th'b right to expect to W& 'dealt (with exactly as
the people of big and' powerfuKstates would be.
We have acted upbn that principle in dealing
with the people of Mexico.
Our recent pursuit of bandits into Mexican
territory -was no violation of that principle. We
ventured to enter Mexican territory only because
there were no military , forces in Mexico that
could protect our border from hostile attack
and v our own people from, .violence, and we have
committed there no single act of hostility or in
terference even with, the sovereign authority of
the republic of Mexico herself. It was a plain
case .of the violation of our own sovereignty
which could not wait to ,be vindicated by dam
ages and for which there, was no other remedy.
The authorities of Mexico, were powerless to
prevent it.
Many serious wrongs against the property,
many irreparable wrongs against the persons,
of i Americans have been committed within the
territory of Mexico i herself during- this confused
revolution, wrongs which ,could not be effectu
ally checked so long as there was no constituted
power in Mexico which was in a position to check
them. We could not act 'directly in that matter
ourselves without denying . the Mexicans the
right to any revolution at all' which -disturbed
us and making the emancipation, of her own
people await our own interest and' convenience.
For it Is their emancipation that they are
seeking, blindly, it may be, and as yet inef
fectually, but with profound and passionate
purpose and within their unquestionable right,
apply what true American' principle" you will.-
apy principle that an" American 'Would publicly
avow. The people of Mexico have not been suf
fered to own their bwn country br direct their
own institutions. Outsiders,' men 'out of other
nations ahd with interests too often alien to
their own, have dictated -what their privileges
and opportunities should be and who should
control their land. 'their lives, and their re
sources, some 'ofthem' Americans, pressing tor
things they coWtfever have got in their own
country. The 'ivfeJclan people are entitled to at
tempt their lfljertyI'from such influences; ami
so long as I b&ve1 a'ny thing to do with the ac
tion of our gregovernment I shall do every
thing in my jldWGP'tti prevent anyone standing
in their way. tf Hffow'ihat this is hard for some
persons to understand1; but it is not hard for in
plain people of the United States to understand
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