The Alaska citizen., 1912-04-15
cs Woodrow Wilson Talks 5 About Business Conditions :


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 A recent and remarkable speech delivered by Governor Woodrow Will son before he Newark. \. J. board of trade, recommends no particular plan of rtyisi n. but he does state emphaucally up that the issue is of the utmost importance. t2) that it should be considered upon a non partisan basis. l&1 that the people themselves should study the prob lem and make their suggestions known He said in part,
 No man can be sure with regard To so great a matter as the currency. and in nation with s. many com plex conditions as ours exhibits that he has il absolutely by the wool No body can. be sure that he entirely grasps in his vision just what the consequences will he of changes pro posed; but there are some things that Vt can be sure of beforehand if We please.
 Tn the first place. I suppose that every business man is aware cf feel ing a certain uneasiness. as if he were in the presence of prospective changes, as if he were upon the eve of alterations in the economic life of the nation which might af- feet him and might affect all of us very seriously indeed. And 1 am sorry to say that as | have talked with my fellow citizens who were engaged ill large enterprises I have found that their state of mind was d negative state of mind. that il was a state of apprehension. and not of suggestion; that il was as if they were fearing and preparing 10 resist There was no confidence in the out look, there Was no hope in the for ward look of the eye; and want 10 say that il seems To me that it is the duty of business men in the first place 10 see things as they are; and when you ask yourself what is the actual condition of business in this country you will realize that it is uneasiness that arises out of the cir constance that everybody feels that fl is not upon it's final and satisfac- tory basis
 Suspicion is Universal
 No matter how exaggerated the criticisms of business may be con sidered to be, you know that there is universal criticism; that if you take the general condition of the public mind il is not an eXaggera- ton to say that there is universal suspicion.
 Now every business man knows that business cannot thrive upon criticism, that it cannot rest upon suspicion. Whatever you may say with regard to the justification for the criticism and the suspicion. you cannot deny their existence; and. therefore. it is your first business, if you would safeguard the business interests of the country. to see things as they are.
 Now are they satisfactory? Is the organization of the business in this country such as you think it ought to be?
 T am not now asking you what you want il to be. for that is very different matter. Some of you may be very well satisfied with your bus mess as it stands, but suppose you think of the other man. Suppose you think of the periods when you were struggling toward the top. Sup pose you think of the conditions un- der which your sons are beginning. Do you think it is satisfactory?
 Are Not Satisfactory.
 T do not find many candid men who say to me that they think the conditions of the business in this country are satisfactory.
 The very fact that you are gath cred together tonight to hear this great question of the currency is in itself partial admission that you know that the currency system of this country is mosC unsatisfactory l remember once being called upon some years ago to discuss before banks association the question of the elasticity of the currency. I told them that l supposed that I had been called as an impartial witness, because since l had always lived on a sal ary l had no experience of the elasticity of the currency, and, there fore, I could not be regarded as a party in interest But you know that this country suffers from crises of character which no other en- liahtened commercial nation suffers from. and that one of the reasons it suffers is because of the most un- scientific system of currency which it has.
 Must Open the Mind.
 Now there are other unscientific things in our business; there are other ill-considered relationships he