US Presidency
1909

It will not be unwiseor excessive paternalism. The promise to repay by the Government will furnishan inducement to savings deposits which private enterprise can not supplyand at such a low rate of interest as not to withdraw custom from existingbanks. It will substantially increase the funds available for investmentas capital in useful enterprises. It will furnish absolute security whichmakes the proposed scheme of government guaranty of deposits so alluring, without its pernicious results. I sincerely hope that the incoming Congress will be alive, as it shouldbe, to the importance of our foreign trade and of encouraging it in everyway feasible. The possibility of increasing this trade in the Orient, inthe Philippines, and in South America are known to everyone who has giventhe matter attention. The direct effect of free trade between this countryand the Philippines will be marked upon our sales of cottons, agriculturalmachinery, and other manufactures. The necessity of the establishment ofdirect lines of steamers between North and South America has been broughtto the attention of Congress by my predecessor and by Mr.