River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1912-08-08

store the dignity OF manhood-tnese
are the tasks we must do.
What, then, is the progressive an
swer to these questions? We are able
to give it specifically and concretely.
The first work before us Is the revival
Of honest business. For business Is
nothing but the industrial and trade
activities of all the people. Men grow
the products OF the field, cut ripe TIM
Der from the forest. dig metal from
the mine, fashion all for human use,
carry them to the market place ana
exchange them according to their mu-
tual needs and this is business.
With our vast advantages, contrast
ed with the vast disadvantages Oh otn-
er nations, American business all the
time should be the best and steadlest
in the world But it is not. Germany
with shallow soil, no mines, only
window on the seas and a population
more than ten times as dense as ours
yet has a sounder business, a steamer
prosperity, more contented because
better cared for people.
What, then, must we do to make
American business better? We must
do what poorer nations have done.
We must end the abuses Of business
by striking down those abuses instead
of striking down business itself.
Trust Question Vital.
The people are tired of mock bat
tie with criminal capital. They do not
want to hurt business; but they do
want to get something done about the
trust question that amounts to some
thing What good does 1t do any man
to read in his morning paper that the
courts have dissolved" the oil trust,
and then read in his evening paper
that he must thereafter pay higher
price for his oil than ever before?
What good does it do the laborer who
smokes his pipe to be told that the
courts have dissolved" the tobacco
trust and yet find that he must pay
the same or a higher price for the
same short-weight package Of tobac-
co? Yet all this is the practical result
of the suits against these two great
est trusts in the world.
Rival nations tell their business
men that if they do any evil that our
business men do, prison bars await
them. These rival nations tell their
business men that if they issue wa
tered stock, or cheat the people in
any way, prison cells will be their
homes.
Just this is what all honest Ameri-
can business wants; just this is what
dishonest American business does not
want: Just this is what the American
people propose to have; just this the
national Republican platform of 1908
pledged the people that we would give
them; and just this important pledge
the administration. elected on that
the more immediate tariff pledge.
Both these reforms, SO vital to hon.
est American business, the Progress
sive party will accomplish.
We mean to put new business laws
on our statute books which will tell
American business men what they can
do and what they can not do. We
mean to make our business laws clear
instead of foggy-to make them plain
" state just what things are criminal
and what are lawful. And we mean
that the penalty for things criminal
shall be prison sentences that actually
punish the real offender. instead OF
money fines that hurt nobody but the
people, who must pay them in the end
No Cause for Alarm to Business.
And then we mean to send the mes
sage forth to hundreds of thousands
of brilliant minds and brave hearts
engaged in honest business, that they
are not criminals but honorable men
in their work to make good business
in this Republic. Sure of victory, we
even now say, go forward, Ameri-
can business men, and know that be-
hind you, supporting you. encouraging
you. is the power and approval Of the
greatest people under the sun. Go
forward. American business men, and
feed full the fires beneath American
furnaces; and give employment to
every American laborer who asks for
work. Go forward, American business
men. and capture the markets OF the
world for American trade; and know
that on the wings of your commerce
you carry liberty throughout the
world and to every inhabitant thereof.
Go forward, American business men,
and realize that in the time to come
it shall be- said of you, as it is said
of the hand that rounded Peters
Dome, he builded better than he
knew"
The next great business reform we
must have to steadily increase Ameri-
can prosperity is to change the meth
cd of building our tariffs. The tariff
must be taken out Of politics and
treated as a business question instead
of as political question. Hereto
fore, we have just done the other
thing. That is why American bust
ness is upset every few years by I'M
necessary tariff upheavals and is
weakened by uncertainty in the perl
DDS between. The greatest need OF
business is certainty; but the only
thing certain about our tariff is url-
certainty.
What, them shall we do to make
our tariff changes strengthen business
instead of weakening business? Rival
protective tariff nations have an
swered that question. Common sense