CvIIh possible, this Democratic administra
tion passed the Federal Reserve Act.
The safety, the simplicity, the effective
ness of the Federal Reserve plan consti
tute a terrible indictment of the Republican
admibinft ulions which had permitted paulcs
to continue without adopting it.
In the panic of 1907, under the old sys
tem New York could not lend a country
bank $50,000 with which to meet factory
pay-rolls; In 1915 under the new system,
inaugurated by this Democratic administra
tion. New York loaned Kurope five hundred
million; even though the financial centers
of the world were disrupted by the world
wnr. nnd there were still left in New York
the largest bank deposits In its hitttory.
If thtH Democratic administration had
performed no other public service than the
enact mant of the Federal Reserve Act, it
would deserve the unstinted approval of a
grateful nation. Thanks to Democracy and
to Democracy's great leader, the business
in an who in struggling to establish himself
may now work out his destiny without liv
ing in terror of panics and hard limes. The
toiler iir the factory may ply his taskd In
socurily, knowing that his employer's busi
ness in sufe from assault. The farmer who
must borrow to move his crops may do so
without spending his days in anxiety, his
nights in nightmares of foreclosure and dis
aster. Truly the scholar-statesman, whose
rod has Hi ruck the golden rock of Amer
ica's resources, to set free the wealth Im
prisoned for half a century, is a Moses who
has led America's industries from the wil
derness of doubt and despf1. to the Prom
ised Lund of prosperity and hope.
IIKNKFK'HNT LEGISLATION.
In the same spirit and with the same mo
tive that inspired the Federal Reserve Act
(his administration has devoted itself to the
slim illation of American Industry, tigricut-tui-o
and trade through all the agencies of
government.
It nan given a new meaning and a new
force to Ihe laws restraining big business
from Milling competition.
II hits created a trade commission to
afford to business generally a more direct
nnd prompt administration of the laws re
lating to business.
It has established government represen
tatives throughout the world, who.se sole
duly is to foster the expansion of American
tr:ido.
It has created a closer union of economic,
commercial and financial interests between
the United States and the nations of South
America
It ban lured in language that no court
and no employer can misunderstand that
"Hie labor of a humin being Is not u com
modity or article of commerce" and that
no employer can compel his men to 'work
for him against their will.
It has freed the farmer from the chains
of a financial system which was devised for
business and not for farming and has en
abled him to sell his produce at prices
Ih.w compensate him for the sweat of the
harvest, the tilling of the soil.
Tune does not allow me to enumerate all
(be laws, all the activities which will estab
lish Omh administration In our economic
history as the most humane since Lincoln's
and I hi? most progressive since Jefferson's.
Till-: TARIFF.
1 tu I I cannot close this brief and Inailc
Ci't'ile review of what the present adminis
tration has accomplished without adverting
to lis courageous and statesmanlike solu
tion' of the nation's tariff problem.
The Umlcvwood tariff enacted by this ad
ministration has banished creed from the
g.ites of our ports and written justice into
our tariff schedules.
Of all the tariffs we ever enacted Ihis ts
the fairest nnd the best.
I In til the foreign war reduced importa
tions no new tariff was ever more satisfac
tory. The highest protective tariff ever
written would probably have given us no
m uro revenue during this Kuropean war
ami a higher tariff on raw material would
hivo hampered our manufacturers, a higher
tit ri If on the necessities of life would have
placed a woeful burden on the poor man in
the conditions which the war abroad has
brought about.
My the Underwood law this administration
lia taken the tarilT out of politics: hv the
new Tariff Commission it proposes to take
politic out of the tariff.
The consumers of the nation, ond this
me-tiis every man. woman and child within
its borders, have been freed from an uni
que and oppressive system which enriched
the few at the expense of the many.
It is not my purpose to discuss the as
sail IU that special privileges have made
upon the provisions of the Underwood Act.
These selfish and unfounded criticisms have
been completely answered by one who is
.imply competent to judge and public-spirited
enough to speak. Democracy's reply
to those who would overthrow the tariff"
law Ili4t a Democratic Congress has enacted
is the replv of that eminent banker, that
financial genius, Mr. Jacob H. He h iff.
Hpeakitig at a ban.juet of the Kepubhcin
Club in New York last January, by virtue
of bis life-long allegiance to the Republi
can party. Mr. Hcbiff declared:
"I want to explain that nothing can stop
the great prosperity we now have except a
renew il of tariff agitation in the next cam
paign. .Standing here on holy Republican
ground I say without fear or favor If you
renew In the next Presidential campaign
the tariff agitation of the past, if you threat
en the cpu nt ry and show it you want a re
newal of special privilege and high protec
tion, the people will have none of U. The
people have learned; the workmen and the
farmers have learned and they cannot be
misled any longer. I do not say that be
cause I love the Republican party leHs, but
because I love it more. My heart is for the
Republican party, but my common sense
makes me a Democrat."
And in these words Mr. Schlft voices the
opinions of men with whom special Interest
ts secondary to the welfare of all.
PUOSPKItlTY.
Under the present administration the
United States has enjoyed a wonderful era
of good business and good limes.
Today the throb of industry, the pulse
of prosperity is felt throughout the land.
Our shops, our docks; our factories and our
marts; our railways and our cars tell the
magic of its story and the wonders of lis
work.
Farm house and counting room feel its
mystic spell. The man who risks his money,
the man who spends his strength, the man
who brings the product to the market and
links the market with the product draws
a reward for his energy and a profit for
his risk. Hunger menaces no home today,
depression palsies no business. Larders are
full, pockctbooks are plump, plenty's cornu
copia is full to oversowing.
Our skies are red, not from fires of war,
but from fires of furnace and of forge.
The song which this prosperity, this in
dustry sings is better than all the war b ngs
of the world. It croons in whirring wheels
of mills and rumbles along the railway
rails. It rattles In streets from shops
to ships, from ships to cars. Jt hums on
busy docks and in thronged emporiums of
trade, its words are in every man's mind,
its music on every man's lips. Its chorus
is swelled by the man with the hoe und
the man in the city's streets, it is omni
present and universal. It tells of gold In
purses where only coppers dwelt before.
For little children it means trifles
and trinkets that throw open wide
the gates of a paradise on earth.
For women it means the delicacies
and refinements which nature de
crees for their endowments of gentility
and their niceties of taste. For men it
means the ineffable satisfaction of giving
pleasure and bringing happiness to blood
of their blood, bone of their bone, and
heart of their heart. For the ambitious
it means opportunity, for the placid It
means ease, for the studious it means books,
for the weary it means leisure, for the
sick it means medicine and the healing aid
of science. For the poor man ln-vhe coun
try It means a visit in the city to see the
kaleidoscope of life and view the marvels
that men work. For the poor of the Uy
it meant: a chance this summer to go out
into the fields of God and see the lamps
of heaven burn at night uudintmed by
clouds of smoke, unobscured by walls of
brick or towering piles of stone; it means
a chance to know the perfume of a new
mown field and breathe the healthful odor
of the pines; a chance to see the shimmer
of the heaving, pulsing sea nnd hear the
soothing murmur of the waves. It means
that poor men's sons and widows' daugh
ters will get a chance in college this fail
to master the key of life and open unto
themselves doors that would otherwise be
barred. Its message of joy finds echo In
the chanting of the spindle and the rumbling
of the loom, freeing the toller's home from
its mortgage and promising his children
future that seemed Impossible before.
It tWls of contentment in the cottage and
philanthropy in the palace. It banishes the
fear of need, the timidity of poverty and in
t heir place instills the independence and
the bravery that come when necessity's
shnckles fall away and dread no longer
stays the arm or fetters the mind. For
those whom the grind of life has not yet
robbed of the ecstacy of achievement, not
yet deprived of the lure of the chase. It
brings visions of the goals of hope, a re
frain of the music of advancement, a con
summation of the effort to walk with the
feet upon the earth and head among the
stars.
During the past four years this country
lias experienced a steady and continuous
improvement in btsiness. Wealth has in
creased 21 per cent., the value of manu
factured products 3 a per cent., capital 43
per cent., wages r I per cent., and exports
77 per cent. Thp flood-tide of our prosper
ity has risen to such an unprecedented
height that the only limit, to trade is our.
ability to ma lie and transport the com
modities demanded at home nnd abroad.
Our fields and our factor!"" cry aloud for
men. and unemployment has ceased to be a
problem. Wages have advanced, building
operations have resumed, real estate has
recovered its worth.
There is not an id:e car - i our railroads
or an idle ship at our docks. For the lirst
time in history America's greatest port has
become the world's greatest port.
Kconomists say that railroad earnings
are an index to prosperity. This year the
earnings of our railroads are sixty million
dollars more than under the last year of
Republican rule.
The purchasing power of our people Is
greater than that of any other people on
the globe. Never was there as much money
in our vaults as today, ffhe aggregate re
sources of our national banks are three thou
sand millions more than the aggregate re
sources of the Rank of Fngland, the Rank
of France, the Rank of Russia, the Reich
bank of Germany, the -Rank of the Nether
lands, the Swiss National Bank and the
Bank of Japan. We have four hundred and
one millions of money more than we had a
year and a half ago and our gold supply
exceeds by many hundreds of millions the
gold supply of any other nation on earth.
Our prosperity is not local. The cotton
fields of the South, the factories of the
North, the marts of the Kast, and the mines
of the West feel It with a national response
and a national thrill.
Nowhere else on earth is there a more
equitable distribution of what the energy
of labor hammers into existence out of the
material which capital places in Its hand.
The calamity howler complains that our
productive capacity is keyed to such a high
pitch that our industrial machine Is threat
ened with heated bearings, but he Ignores
the self-oiling attachments which this
Democratic administration has attached to
our economic and industrial mechanism.
Whilst calamity wallers talk of the struggle
and the battle which is to come after the
wnr, earnest men of business, with Ametica
in their minds and America in their henrts,
act on the principle that the better we serve
our country and ourselves in the present
the better we prepare for the future.
The prosperity of today Is a- true pros
perity, for it is founded on a true balance
between agriculture, manufacturing and
commerce. Ask the first man you meet
how many of his friends are employed in
munition factories! Ask the linkers you
know how many of their accounts aro muni
tion makers' accounts! Their answer will
show what a trivial figure war orders play
in our business today.
Under the Democratic administration a
record-breaking balance of trade stands in
our favor. In the last nine months our ex
ports exceeded our imports by one billion
dollars. In all the history of all the na
tions in all the ages no country has ever
enjoyed such a gigantic balance of trade.
Its figures almost defy comprehension. Dur
ing all the years of Republican rule our
export trade never reached $300,000,000
In any one month. Last March It reached
$410,000,000. If this rate should continue
for a year we will have approximately a
yearly export business of five billion dollars.
This is unparalleled in the annuls of
commerce. Hitherto Kngland has been the
greatest of exporting countries. Rut her
best year is two billions less than our pres
ent year.
This avalanche of money poured into our
pockets by the rest of f Le world as n trib
ute to our national resources and our fidel
ity to peaceful industry Is not the measure
of our prosperity. It ts only the symbol.
Compared with our trade at home this for
eign trade Is a mere pittance. Our domes
tic commerce today is larger than the for
eign commerce of all the nations of the
world combined.
Against this actual tndit'nn our oppon
ents raitie an urgu merit of "ifs." With
greater truth we can also enter the realm
of conjecture and declare that if another
candidate had been elected four years ago,
the United States would be at war today.
A ton of "ifs" do not weigh as much as a
single fact. Our opponents forget that "if"
the Might of the seagulls off the coast of
the West Indies had not directed his course.
Columbus would not have discovered Amer
ica when he did. Rut the seagulls were
there "ifs" cannot banish them and Co
lumbus found our land.
So, today, the figures are here, the work
is here, the business is he the money is
here, ftp prove our prosperity under Demo
cratic rule, and all the "ifs" in ail the lan
guages cannot alter the situation.
Measured by every possible st an 'lard
by the voiurne of exports and import, by
the expansion of domes; ic trade, by t he
condition of labor, by the rate of wages,
by the size of bank depo''- and clearing
house returns, by the balance of trade or
by the amount of gold in the country, by
any and all f these stan'-'tds. tin's coun
try today is enjoying prosp-rity such as no
other country has ev-r enjoyed before.
LINCOLN'S l,i;ssu OF AN LOUAL
niAMi:.
And so. niy friends, upon the things that
we have done, the policies we have adopted
and the principles we have followed, we rest
our ca se with the American people, con
fident that their verdict in November next
will set the seal of approval upon the
most progressive administration since lite
days of Jefferson, th" most hunrine since
the days of Lincoln, and the most re
sponsive to the will of the people since
Andrew Jackson smashed the rule of ring
sters and restored to the people their
sovereignty of power, their creatorship of
destiny.
In all that we have done. In our foreign
policy und in our domestic policy, we ttit'e
lived up to th'it impose towards human. ty
which has made the official career of Aora
hain Lincoln revered by men worthy of
the nam", beloved by women whose in
stincts are unwarped.
One day, while President of the United
States, Abraham Lincoln, in his long biack
coat and his tall silk hat, walked down
Pennsylvania Avenue. On the curb in front
of the old Willard Hotel stood a group
of men watching a beetle on his back
vainly clawing the air with his legs in
an attempt to get upon his feot. To tho
amazement of the bystanders the man who
had paved his way to the Presidency through
the goodness of his heart, the honesty of
his mind and the generosity of his hand;
tho man who exalted himself through
mural courage and intrinsic merit from
the position of rail splitter to the pos
sessor of a nation's affection; the man who
above all other men believed that "He
playeth best who loveth best, both man,
and bird and beast" wont down upon a
knee, righted the beetle about, and placed
him upon his legs. And as he stood up
tho great Commoner said: "I could not
sleep tonight if I did not put that bug
upon his feet ami rive him an eq.ua! chance
with every other bug."
This humane spirit of Lincoln, this love
of fair play, this passion for equal or
port unity stamps every act, seals every
policy of the present Democratic admin
istration of our national affairs.
As far as national legislation, party ad
vocacy or executive action cm open the
gates of opportunity and hold the scales
of justice true, this administration makes
every man stand upon his own feet and
gives him an equal chanco with every
other man.
THK MAN.
Americanism and pence, preparedness
and prosperitythese are the issues upon
which the Democratic pnrty stands, and
the heart of Democracy swells with pride
that is muro than the pride of party,
as it hails the man, who has asserted this
AmerleaniHni, assured this peace, advo
cated this preparedness and produced this
prosperity.
The man who Is President of the United
States today has measured up to the best
traditions of a great office.
lie has been wise with a wisdom that Is
steeped in the traditions of his country,
with a wisdom that has been disciplined by
training and broadened by instruction.
He has been prudent with tho prudenca
of one who has w'thln his hands the des
tiny of a hundred million people.
Ho has been firm with the firmness tlu
proceeds from deep conviction, with ,t .
firmness that Is grounded In a. duty wen
defined.
He has been courageous with the courage
that places country above self, with the
courage that follows duly wherever it may
lead.
He has been dignified with the dignity
that Is self-forgetting and self-respecting,
with the dignity that conserves the ma
jesty of the greatest office In the world.
He has been patient with the patience
which believes and trusts that truth crushed
to earth will rise again, with the patience
that can endure and wait, watch and pray,
for the cerUifn vindication of Justice, hu
manity and right.
He has been patriotic with a patriotism
that has never wavered, n patriotism tliat
is as pure and strong as the faith that
moved the fathers when they made our
country free.
No I 'resilient since the Civil War has
had as crucial problems to solve; and no
'resident has displayed a grasp more sure,
a statesmanship more profound.
Assailed by the wolves of privilege he has
imlled their claws and drawn their teeth.
Assaulted bp partisan envy he has shamed
his traducers into silence and made friend
and foe go forward togother in the pat ha of
national progress.
He has fired our patriotism with a new
; ardor; he has breathed into our ancient
traditions a new vigor and a new life.
He has added strength to America's
courage nnd mingled mercy with Americas
strength.
He has fastened the brakes of justice up
on the wheels of power; he has lifted the
mists from the temple where our liberties
are enshrined.
And when the history of ther.o d tyi
comes to be written, and the children of
tomorrow read their nation's story, when
time shall have dispelled all misconception
ami the years shall have rendered their
impartial verdict, one name will shine in
gold en splendor upon the page th it Is
blackened with the tale of Kurope's war.
one name will represent the triumph of
American principles over the hosis of dark
ness and of death.
That name will be the name of the great
President who has made Democracy proud
that ho is a Democrat, and made Americana
proud that he is an American.
It will be tin name of the student aid
the scholar who has kept iiis country truti
to its faith In a time that tried men's souls;
the name of he state mnn who has cham
pioned the cause of Am rlcan freedom
wherever he found It oppressed; the n.iin
of the patriot who has implanted his coun
try's flag on the highest peak to which hu
manity has yet iispired; the name (hat car
ried the torch of progress to victory one
and will carry it to victory again; tho name
of Wood row Wilson, President and Presi
dent to be.
NO GLORY IN A WAR OF CONQUEST
President Wilson Tells of Thousands of Appeals to Keep Out of Mexico.
In his speech at the New York Press Club
dinner Preidnt Wilson said In part:
"It goes wit hout saying that it is the
duty of tlto Administration to have con
stantly in mind with the utmost sensitive
ness ov'ry point of national honor. But.
tfcml'Mjctti ftftor you have said and accepted
these obvious things, your program of action
is still to be formed.
Problems He Ha. to Face.
"When will you act, and how will you
act? Th easiest thing is to strike. The
brutal thing U the impulsive thing. No
man has to think before he takes aggres
sive action, but before man really conserves
the honor by realizing the ideals of the na
tion, he h is to think xacMy what lie will do
and how he will do It.
"Do you think the glory of America
would be enhanced by a war of cori'pje.i!
in Mexico? Do you think that any act of
violence by a powerful nation like this
against a weak and distracted neighbor
would reilect distinction upon the annalu
of the United States? Do you think that it
is our duty to carry self-defence to th) point
of dictation tit ih affairs of another pei-