East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1907-12-04
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE |MPORTVNT To.
THE WEST

securing its retirement as the demand
fell off. 1t Is worth Investigating to
determine whether officers and direc-
tors of national banks should ever be
allowed to loan to themselves. Trust
companies should be subject to the
same supervision as banks legislation
to this effect should be enacted for
the District of Columbia and the ter
ritorles.
Yet We must also remember that
even the wisest legislation on the
subject can only accomplish a certain
amount. No legislation can by any
possibility guarantee the business
community against the results of
speculative folly any more than 1t can
guarantee an individual against the
result of his extravaganza. When an
individual mortgages his house to buy
an automobile he invites disaster; and
when wealthy men, or men who pose
as such, or are unscrupulously or
foolshly eager to become such, in
dulge in reckless speculation-espec-
tally If 1t is accompanied by dishon-
esty-they jeopardize not only their
own future, but the future Of all their
innocent fellow citizens, for they ex-
pose the whole business community
to panic and distress.
Revenue.
The income account Of the nation
is in a most satisfactory condition.
For the six fiscal years ending with
the first of July last. the total ex-
penditures and revenues Of the ma
tional government, exclusive of the
postal revenues and expenditures,
were. in round numbers, revenues,
SO, ,465, ,000, 900, and expenditures,
$3,275, 100000. The net excess of in
come over expenditures, including in
the latter the S50,000,000 expended
for the Panama canal, was 100000,
900 for the six years, an average Of
about $31.O0O,000 year.
This represents an approximation
between income and outgo which il
would be hard ot improve. The sat
isfactory working of the present tar
III law has been chiefly responsible
for this excellent showing. Never
theless, there is an evident and con-
stantly growing feeling among our
people that the time is rapidly ap-
preaching when our system Of reve-
nue. legislation must be revised.
The Tariff.
This country is definitely commit
ted to the protective system and any
effort to uproot II could not but cause
widespread industrial disaster. In
other words, the principle of the
present tariff law could not with wis
dom be changed. But in a country
of such phenomenal growth as ours
1t is probably well that every dozen
years or so the tariff laws should be
carefully scrutinized so as to see that
no excessive or improper benefits are
conferred thereby, that proper reve-
nue. is provided, and that our foreign
trade is encouraged.
There must always be as a mini
mum q tariff which will not only al
low for the collection of an ample
revenue, but which will at least make
good the difference in cost OF Produc-
tion here and abroad; that Is, the dif-
ference In the labor cost here and
abroad. for the well-belng of the
wage-worker must ever be cardinal
point of American policy. The ques-
ton should be approached purely
from a business standpoint; both the
time and the manner of the change
such as to arouse the minimum of
agitation and disturbance in the bus
mess world, and to give the least play
for selfish and factional motives.
The sole consideration should be
to see that the sum total Of changes
represents the public good. This
means that the subject can not with
wisdom be dealt with in the year pre-
cedlng presidential election
Inland Waterways.
The conservation OF our natural re-
sources and their proper use consu- |
tute the fundamental problem which |
underlies almost every other problem
of our national life, We must main
tain for our civilization the adequate |
civilization can not exist We must |
show foresight, we must look ahead. |
As a nation we not only enjoy a |
wonderful measure of present pros
perity, but If THIS prosperity is used
Alright 1t is an earnest of future sue
cess such as no other nation will have.
The reward of foresight for this ma
ton is great and easily foretold. But
there must be the look ahead. there
must be a realization of the fact that
to waste, to destroy, our natural re-
sources, to skin and exhaust the land
instead of using II so as to increase
its usefulness, will result in undermin-
ing in the days of our children and
the very prosperity which we ought
by right to hand down to them am
plified and developed.
For the last few years, through sew
eral agencies, the government has
been endeavoring to get our people
to look ahead and to substitute
planned and orderly development of
our resources in place of a haphaz-
ard striving for immediate profit.
Our great river systems should be
developed as national water high
ways the Mississippi, with its tribu-
taries standing first in Importance,
and the Columbia second, although
there are many others of Importance
on the Pacific, the Atlantic and the
Gulf slopes. The national govern
ment should undertake this work, and
l hope a beginning will be made in
the present congress; and the great
est of all our rivers, the Mississippi
should receive especial attention.
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