The Washington herald., 1912-10-01
WILSON OPENS
ROAD CONGRESS
Talks to 1000 Delegates Gathered
at Atlantic City and pans"
Government.
SLACK SYSTEM IS TOLERATED

Atlantic City, N. j.. Sept. 3o.-Gov.
Woodrow Wilson, in opening the Ameri-
can Road Congress this afternoon. with
600 delegates in attendance, took a fling
at the Federal government for its failure
to curb combinations before they had
progressed beyond restraint and for Its
liberation of a slack system of help in
the improvement OF facilities for the gen.
eral good of the people.
The United States has, up to this time,
simply let the energies of the people drift.
II mas thrown the ropes around our necks
and said. now. here is a continent OF
unexampled richness; do what you
please with ii. We Will try to see that
you don't break each others heads.
We will endeavor to see that you are
restrained until you get so powerful
we can't restrain you. We will try TO
see that you do justice until you SO
combine with one another that justice
is impossible. but We are not going to
lend the aid Of the government to the
actual task of development
That has been the general attitude OF
the government up to this time. II can
not be the attitude any longer. There
are things of this sort for example, you
take not merely the matter Of good roads
and the carrying Of goods to the market.
hut Of what goods there are to be car
red to market. The production. agricul-
tural production per acre Of the United
States does not favorably compare with
the production per acre of older coun-
tries OF the world, and the margins are
approaching one another.
Grain Exports Decreasing.
I'VE used to lead the world and our
grain exports were our chief export. but
the exports of grain are going down
and down and down because the other
margin is coming up. the margin of do
nestle demand. and the population is in
creasing faster than the product so that
q great deal Of our commercial history Is
about to be altered by the circumstances
CT agricultural production, and be-
lieve that 1t is a proper function of the
government to see to il that by the ex-
tension OF all the varied modern knowl-
edge about agricultural processes and
about the characteristics of different soils
ought to be So extended, SO carried
everywhere to the farmer as to build
up by the aid Of the government this
thing that feeds US and ought to con-
tinue to feed the world: and whenever
you speak of that, whenever you increase
what the United States is doing. You
must Immediately increase the facili-
ties of the United States for handling
what 1t has made after it has made it.
You cannot nationally increase the pros
perity Of this country without increasing
the road facilities Of this country.
I'VE are merely threading the energies
CT a nation, threading them in a single
pattern, rather We are merely setting
the people free when We facilitate and
promote the interests of a congress like
this. / need not tell you therefore that
am in deep sympathy with the pur-
poses of this congress, because in my
judgment that would simply be like
claiming that I was a rational being, and
1 hope that doesn't require argument.
Judgment Cannot Differ.
Good roads is a question in which
there is no difference which can discrimi-
nate between parties and in my judgment
it is a question in which men of good
"A nation is bound together by its
means of communications; its means of
communication create its thought Its
many means Of intercommunication are
the means of its sympathy, they are the
means by which the various parts of it
keep in touch with one another.
The question of highways is a ques-
ton which has interested me greatly,
though particularly in recent years, be-
cause It is one of the great few instru-
mentalities of our public life and of our
communal life, with which the govern
ment is OF necessity connected. The gov
ernment is not as yet expected to build
railroads in the United States. The gov
ernment is not as yet expected to own
railroads. Railroads differ from other
highways, though we often speak of
them as the highways of our commerce
in this important particular-that only
those who own them can use them in the
matter OF putting vehicles on them that
a particular set of individuals. by reason
of their control of the road. have the
exclusive right of way over 1t.
Il look forward to the future of the
history Of the United States. l see that
we must do what We have been very
backward in doing as compared with
other nations. We must more and more
engage the government in providing the