r
The panic of 1873 Is familiar to. the
older of our citizens. . The Republican
party was in control. The panic of lh93
came while the laws written by the Repub
lican purty were unrepealed upon the sta
tute books, and the plates for the Issuance
of bonds had been prepared by the out
going Harrison administration. And so we
are quite familiar with the panic of 1907;
but as the master achievement of Wood row
Wilson, to my mind, next to keeping 100,
000,000 people at peace with the world, the
historian will record the federal reserve
law that created a democracy of credit In
a republic of freemen and established a
currency system controlled by the govern- j
merit that is quickly responsive to the !
buHiness needs of the country. Would our !
Republican friends suggest a repeal of this
law? I Imagine not, though we enacted it
over their intense and bitter opposition.
They stood upon the floor of the Senate
and with all the eloquence and logic at
their command declared in solemn tones
that If we did enact it Into law that In 30
days the mightiest panic that ever broke
upon a nation would be with us. They
Mild it was but a recrudescence of green
backism and the old free-silver craze. They
declared that the national banks, 8,000
strong, would not go Into it. We discarded
this advice. We weathered these evil fore
bodings, and in the interest of mankind
we wrote the law. No Republican conven- i
tion from that day to this, no Republican J
orator upon the hustings with any degree i
of responsibility, has suggested a word of
criticism or uttered a line of condemnation
of this law.
AMERICANISM,
We are all Americans no matter whence
We come. We love our country because It
makes us free. The beauty of the oceans
thut wash our shores, our fertile plains,
our lofty mountains, our winding rivers,
our unequaled landscapes, can only be en
Joyed In their real and matchless beauty
through the eyes of a freeman. More beau
tiful than the beauty and splendor of the
land is the glory of the government. The
humblest may become tne greatest, the
weakest may become the strongest, the
poorest may become the richest; here no
taint of blood, no law of royally. This
freedom Is hs much the right of the one
who comes here as the one who is born
here. We are glad of it and happy to offer
this opportunity and this happiness to all.
Wo only ask in return loyalty, valor and
love; loyalty to the flag, valor In its de
fense, and love of our free institutions.
Wo do not care what songs of the old
home land you may sing or what mem
ories of the country from which you came
you may cherish. AM we ask is that the
song you should hold dearest to your heart
is the "Star-Spangled Runner." And the
memories you shull cherish most and best
are those of America that makes you free.
There are some who seek to destroy this
nation whose freedom and blessings they
enjoy. They cnll themselves anarchists.
Jf I had my way I would not allow a single
man or association of men to bear aloft
upon the streets and highways of this na
tion a flag or emblem that either ques
tioned the integrity or authority of the
Stars and Stripes of the Republic.
I-KKI'AIIKDNKSS FOR SKfjF-DKFICNKIO.
In 1906 I attended the great Tence Con
ference held in London and saw there as
sembled 26 nations of the earth speaking
In different languages, but H spoke the
language of peace. I thought that the
millenium of peace had come, such a thing
as the world's war was impossible: but the
day when the Christian heart shall rule
the world and when peaee shall reign over
the land is not here, and unhappily is not
In sight. Self-defense and preparation for
It is as necessary now as ever before. We
must not mistake dishonor for peace, as
we can not mistake oppression for peaee.
All governments love peace peace with
freedom, peace with honor. Without these
all Is slavery beside. Wood row Wilson and
the Democratic party advocate an army
big enough to make aggressors think the
second time before they strike a blow.
Democracy wants an army snd a navy in
keeping with the dignity, preservation and
worth of this great republic. Such prepar
edness and ability to defend ourselves, our
cities from bombardment, and our soil
from invasion, and to protect the rights of
our citizens is the purpose of Wood row
Wilson. I want a navy large enough that
It will be impossible for a foreign shell
to fall in a single American city. 1 want nn
army strong enough to make it Impossi
ble for an aggressor's foot to press Amer
ican soil. We do not want a foot of Any
body else's soil, and, by the eternal (iod,
they shall not take a foot of ours. I do not
fear militarism. ft has never menaced a
free people.
In this tend of freedom the right to de
clare war rests with the people themselves.
Those who must fight its battles, speaking
through their duly accredited Representa
tives in Congress the House and the Sen
ate can alone declare war. and as the
people can declare war so they can pro
claim peace. Democracy believes in pre
paredness without militarism. During this
administration we have done more to build
up an army and navy In three years than
the Republican party did in 40 years of its
existence. More has been done to give
the American people a navy and army in
three months than Col. Roosevelt and Mr.
Taft did in eleven years. The President
challenged the seeming overwhelming op
position of Congress and of its own party,
snd in the name of self-defense "and Amer
ica first" he took his cause to the country,
and In the great and unshackled court of
'public opinion summoned the American
people tn the rescue. Their response was
immediate and overwhelming In his support.
President Wilson acts, he does not rant; he
builds, he does not bluster.
INTERNATIONAL. PRORI.KMS.
No President during the life of this re
public has ever had to deal with so many
Atthcate and dangerous problems as those
which have confronted President Wilson
during the last two years of his Incum
bency In oflice. With more than half of
the world in arms in Europe, with Mexico
in revolution at our border, these dithcult
and complicated international problems
nave conirontea mm almost daily, and he
has handled them as becomes a iatriot and
a statesman. When the Dusitnnia was sunk
the militant voice of Theotlore Roosevelt
cried out for war, and If he had been
President of the United States at that time.
today 600,000 brave American sons would
be contending around the fort of Verdun In
this mighty maelstrom of blood thousands
woutu nave oeen Dunen in tne ditches, our
President, patient, patriotic, fur-sighted, the
real statesman, handled this question with
the greatest ability, and won for America
Its greatest diplomatic victory.
Some gentlemen in Congress undertook
to take out of the President's hands the
right of handling our foreign situation.
Congress met that quickly, decisively, and
said that they stood, as every American
should stand, back of the President of the
United States. When the President sent
his ultimatum to Germat.y he was criti
cised by two elements one that he was
seeking to force the country Into war and
the other was that he was too cowardly
to engage in the conflict. There are hap
pily two kinds of courage: the courage of
the man who is willing to undertake tne
danger himself and tho courage of the man
wh'o wishes himself to enter the conflict
may be rash, for he alone is to suffer, but
the courage to take a nation into war,
where millions of lives may be sacrificed, is
another kind of courage. It is a courage
that must be able to stand bitter abuse; a
courage that moves slowly, acts coolly, and
strikes no blow as long as diplomacy may
be employed, honor of the country upheld,
the flag respected, and lives of Americans
protected. Woodrow Wilson has both
kinds of courage the courage of conflict
and the courage tn act coolly and sensibly
when he is dealing with the lives of others
the fate of a nation. R was no time for
divided counsel. The Interference of Con
gress would have created chuos in this
country, contempt for our honor and our
country abroad, and would have destroyed
the power of America to either maintain
its honor or protect the rights of the neu
trals ol the world.
LINCOLN AND WILSON.
The Mexican situation was inherited by
the Democratic party from the administra
tion of President Taft. It had refused rec
ognition of Huerta, and the same policy
was followed along these lines by President
Wilson, because he believed with President
Taft that assassination should not be re
warded with the presidency of the Repub
lic of Mexico. The President has dealt with
the Mexican situation and his policy has
been the same as that of Abraham i,incoln,
under like conditions more than a century
ago. Speaking through his great See.re.taiy
of Stale, Mr. Lincoln said:
"For a few years past the condition of
Mexico has been so unsettled as to raise the
question on both sides of the Atlantic
whether the time has not come when some
foreign power ought. In the interest of so
ciety generally, to intervene K establish
a protectorate or some other form of gov
ernment in that country and guarantee its
continuance there. Vou will not fail to as
sure the Government of Mexico that the
President neither has, nor can ever have,
nny sympathy with such designs, in wikW
ever quarter they may arise or whatever
character they may take on. The Presi
dent never for a moment doubts that the
republican system is to I wish safely through
all ordeals and prove a permanent success
in our own country, and so be recom
mended to adoption by all other nations.
Rut he thinks also that the system every
where has to make its way painfully
through diflieulties and embarrassments
which result from the acting of antagon
istic elements which are a legacy of former
times and very different institutions. The
President is hopeful f the ultimate tri
umph of this system over (he obstacles as
well in regard to Mexico as In regard to
every other American State; but he feels
that those States are nevertheless justly en
titled to a greater forbearance and more
generous sympathies from the government
and people of the United States than they
are likeiy to receive in any other quarter.
The President trusts that your mission,
manifesting these sentiments, will reassure
the government of Mexico of his best dispo
sition to favor their commerce and their
internal improvements. 1 find the archives
here full of complaints against the Mex
ican government for violation of contracts,
and spoliation and cruelties practiced
against American citizer. It is not ihe
President's intention to send forward such
claims at the present moment. He will
ingly defers the performance of a duty,
which at any time would seem ungracious,
until the incoming administration In Mex?
ico shall have had time, if possible, to ce
ment its authority."
When American soil was invaded the
President quickly ordered the United Stales
troops into Mexico upon their punitive ex
pedition. They are there now, and I have
no doubt will remain as long as there is a
possibility of the capture and punishment
of the murderers who invaded American
soil or are needed for the protection of
American lives along the border. Whim the
Republican platform at Chicago denounced
the Mexican policy of Woodrow Wilson, It
denounced nt the same time the similar
Mexican policy of Abraham Lincoln the
one they have heretofore called the "patron
saint" of the Republican party. When the
Lincoln administration came Into power.
Mexico had been in turmoil for years. The
government of Juarez was in power, but
was unable to enforce order. Not only had
American property been destroyed, but
American lives had been lost, and a mem
ber of the American legation had been
murdered. It Is a perfectly easy thing
for the President of the United States to
plunge his country Into war If he is a poli
tician before he is a patriot. He would seek
hln own re-election as he came upon horse- I
back up the bloody highway or contending
armies. The American people have never I
yet repudiated a wur President and mer I
will. We are naturally a reu-uiooaeti,
fighting race. Of course our army could !
invade Mexico and march in triumph to its
capital, but after (he war was over armies j
would march an army of widows and or- ,
phans, an army of cripples and men
broken in health, an army of pensioners
and an army of tax collectors eatherinff up
he earnings of the people to pay the great
war debt. All America wants peace
peace with honor.
SHIPPING BILL,
The Republican party defeated by fill-
busier the shipping bill proposed by the
Democratic party, which, if it had been
enacted, would have made impossible the
more than 200 miles of railroad sidetracks
crowded by the products of the American
factory and the American farm by enabling
us to get shipments abroad and we would
by this lime have been enabled to hnve a
merchant marine to take the products of
the held and the factory and the mine to
the hungry markets of Europe. They offer
to the United Stntes the often proposed and
always defeated subsidy to ihe shipowners
to be paid out of the treasury or the people
of the United States. This time they call
it by the name of subvei'on, but it means,
of course, the taking of the people's
money to enrich a few men. They seem to
be perfectly willing to take the public
money and give it to other people to oper
ate shipping abroad, but they are utterly
unwilling that the government of the
United States shall with the people's money
purchase these Bhips and operate them if
private capital is not willing to do so with
out subsidy, or, as they call it, subvention
from the treasury, and whatever profit was
made by the Government's operation would
go into the public treasury. The Republi
can platform proposes a subsidy to the
shipowner, the pre lit going into other pock
ets. In other words, it is willing for the
United States to pay the loss, if there is
any, but unwilling for the government to
render the service if private capital will not
undertake it.
KIOPVBLICAN PLATFORM.
. The Republican party. Keeking some Is
sue, just any issue upon which to hang the
slightest hope of returning to power, is
driven to the necessity of denouncing in
its own platform, adopted at Chicago, the
vote of a majority of its own members in
the House and Senate upon practically all
of the reform measures that have been
written into law by the Democratic party.
They declare we "favor an effective system
of rural credits as opposed to the ineffective
law proposed by the present Democratic
administration." By this declaration they
charge practically every Republican in the
Senate and almost every Republican in the
House with having voted for an ineffective
rural credit law. which has passed both the
Semite and House. In the Senate the vote
was &7 to r, in the House iii'fi to 10. I sup
pose this denunciation of their fellow
Republicans was caused by the fact that
of the live Republicans In the Senate who
voted against the rural credits bill which
passed that body Senators Iodge. Oliver
and Wadsworth were members of the sub-
coin mil tee that prepared the Republican
platform, and they were anxious to vindi
cate their own vote at the cost of denounc
ing their Republican colleagues.
The Republican platform says "they
favor an effective rural credits system, yet
they proposed no substitute to the bills that
oasscd the (louse and Senate, which are in
a striking degree similar to the rural cred
its law of Germany which has reduced the
tenants upon the farms from 60 per cent.
to 10 per cent. The Democratic party be
lieves in a home minding and land owning
population. It was our effort and desire
to make it possible for every mnn who
tilled the soil In America to own the land
and have a home. The Republican party
in power 40 years since the Civil War has
never passed any law for their relief, has
never sought to cheapen credit, to enable
them to become owners Instead of tenants,
but today they present the remarkuble
spectacle of adopting a platform which
promises nothing, but in their anxiety to
denounce Democratic legislation have to In
clude in their wholesale condemnation
nine-tenths of their own members of the
Senate and House of Representatives.
The trade commission bill which was
named for the benefit of the business of
the country, to make plain the law, to pre
vent monopolization of the industries of the
country, received a majority of the Re
publican and Hull Moose members of the
Senate and House when It was placed upon
its final passage. The Clayton anti-trust
bill, which had for Its purpose free com
petition in trade and the prevention of
monopoly, which are basic in the business
prosperity of the country, received upon its
final passage almost half of the Republican
vote in the two Houses of Congress.
The one great achievement of the Demo
cratic administration which was bitterly op
posed by a majority of the Republican In
both the Semite and the House is not de
nounced or even honored with respectful
mention In the Republican platform. This
is indeed in strange contrast to the gloomy
prophecies of financial depression, indus
trial ruin, and wholesale unempinvment nf
labor, which the Itepublicans told Congress
and the country would follow t tie passage
of this law.
Anxious as is the RepubVcan party for
nn issue, they most respectfully declined
this one, and the Democratic party re
joices in the thought that the greatest con
structive piece of legislation eniicted in the
history of the government dealing with the
currency, the very life blood of commerce,
has proved so successful that thy dare
not condemn It In the slightest degree.
UKPUBIJCAN RKCORD ON NAVY.
The Republican platform declares for
"a continuous policy of national defense,"
hut there have only leen two proposition
made in our hwtory tor a "continuous poi
policy." One was ide by the General
Board of the Navy in i903, urging upon the
Republican administration then in power
the construction of tvo battleships a year.
The "continuous" program was hidden In
the archives and nevt;r saw light until the
present Secretary of the Navy published it.
instead of adopting a 'continuous policy
the very year that the General Board pro
posed a "continuous policy," advocating
two battleships a year, the Republican ad
ministration authorized only one, and never
under their administration did they at
tempt a "continuous policy," which they
now want to adopt. If they had, it would
not be necessary now for the Democratic
administration to have to appropriate st.cn
large sums to make up the deficiencies In
the Navy, due to the Republican refusal to
adopt the continuous policy recommended
by the experts of the .Navy.
The only other "continuous policy pro
posed is the one advocated by the President
of the United States in his address to Con
gress last December, in which he urged the
adoption by this Congress of a five-year
building program which, ir adopted, wo in a
meet the demand of the "continuous policy"
wiiiih the belated Republican promise now
offers. Rut what happened when this mat
ter wnB under consideration In the Naval
Affairs Committee of the House ? K ery
Republican member of the committee de
cided to oppose the President's "continuous
program and would vote for no program
longer than for one year. "Promises but
ter no parsnips." After 16 years of failme
even to let the public know of the "con
tinuous policy proposed by the naval ex
perts, much less to carry out such a policy,
and after the Republicans on the House
Naval AtTairs Committee, jn .tune, l y 1 o,
unanimously opposed the President's policy,
they now say they favor the "continuous
policy.'
I'NDKR DEMOCRACY THK VNITF.D
STATES LEADS THK WORLD,
Kor the first time In the history of our
country the United States leads the world
in exports. We are more prosperous than
ever, and mills which have not turned a
spindle for years are now busy. All the
laborers of the United States are employed
as never before. With the world war rag
ing, our country is the only neutral one
that is not in distress and the only one
that has not declared a mortatoriuiit. Who
would substitute for the clean, open and
perfectly Just policy of the Democratic
party of equal opportunity and fair dealing
tor all, the partnership of corrupt politics
and corrupt business that existed under the
Republican administration? ICvery de
mand of the stress of war the Democi.itlc
party has met quickly. Private capital,
unwilling to undertake the hazard of in
surance of cargoes at sea during the war.
Democracy passed a hill which provided
that the Government should issue the In
surance. Our Republican opponents pro
phesied mat there would he great loss to
the government hy this undertaking. If
the Treasury itself was not bankrupt. How
ever, Ihe American product - of the factoiy,
the field and the mine had to have a mar
ket, and that market was across the sen.
We were not frightened by this gloomy
prophecy; there was no other remedy, pri
vate capital would not undertake il, and
we have not lost anything by it, but upon
the other hand we have a balance of more
than 12.000, 0U0. Democracy is the friend
of the business and industries of the coun
try, both big and little. It recognises that
in a great nation business should he along
in a great scale. All we ask is that busi
ness, however large or small, shall not be
greater than the law. We have emancipated
it from the clutch of monopoly. The law
has heen plainly written Tor their guidance.
Kvery business and industry in tho'Repub
11c understands perfectly well what the
law Is and that the Democratic party does
not uesire to hinder. ( ur purpose Is to
help, not to harass, business;to build up and
assist, not to destroy, but instead to en
courage in every way possible the legitim
ate husiness nf the country. Democracy
has given to this country government with
out graft, administration without favorit
ism, taxation without speci! privilege, ex
penditures of the people's money without
dishonesty or scandal.
RIPIiOMATIC TRIUMPH,
Four years ago I hey sneering !y called
Woodrow Wilson the school teacher; I hen
his class whs assembled within the narrow
walls of Princeton t'ollege. They were the
young men of A merica. Today he is I ho
world tench'T, tils class is made up of
kings, kaisers, czars, princes and poten
tates. The confines of the schoolroom cir
cle of the world. His object is the protec
tion or American lire and American rights
under international law. The raving of
neutral life, the freedom of the seas, and
without orphaning a single American
mother, without firing a single gun, without
the shedding of a single drop of blood, he
wrung from the most militant spirit tlmt
ever brooded above a battlefield an ac
knowledgment of American rights and an
agreement to American demands. He truly '
demons! rated that principle is nugiitier
than force, thnt diplomat has its victories
no less renowned than war. Shall we by
his depht tangle again the untangled inter
natiot.H' problems shall we say to the
warring countries, "Open again these set
tled InUT national questions; his was not
the voice of his country?" In the bloodi
est crucible of all history he has kept the
stainless banner of the Republic (lying
above 1 00. 000, ( 00 of people In peace and
in honor. During these years of great trial,
of difficulties and complications crowding
upon ch other like waves of an angi y
sea, with enemies powerful from without
and crRics and traducers from within, with
abuse i)e as it was cowardly, he emerge
as majietic and powerful as a mountain
after a storm, loved by all who believo In
Justice fwd feared by those who temporize
with r U:. He elevates himself to ihmA
1 1 miner, il ra It 1