The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-07
Reason for Prosperity


 The principal reason for the existing prosperity is the assurance that under the republican policy nf home protection and trade expansion American industry. while reaching for the foreign market, IS not in danger of losing the home market. Our population IS increasing, the demand for the necesSaries of life Is increasing proportions and. thanks to active business and good wages the people arc able to pay for what they want, and to keep our industries busy supplying their wants.
 There Is no serious danger, l believe. to our institutions from industrial agita- tons. So long as such agitation keeps within legal bounds it K not without wholesome significance and may tend to improve conditions. When 1t passes be- yond the legal limit, whether those self outawed are connected with capital or with labor, It is menace to be dealt with by lawful authority.
 Notwithstanding occasional outbreaks of violence in labor disputes. there is & growing tendency to settle differences by peaceful means, and there Is undoubt- edly manifest a much more friendly and humane attitude on the part of employers toward employees than was apparent not many years ago. The golden rule is get ting to be more and more guide in business as well as in religion. Social and economic conditions are growing better not worse, and republican poi- cies fostering and stimulating national prosperity, undoubtedly tend toward this betterment.
 Quack Remedies Do Not Attract
 For the man or the community enjoy ing robust health, quack remedies have little attraction, no matter how yocifer- ously recommended.
 The law of supply and demand. along with labor organizations and ar bitratlon and such Legislation us may properly be enacted governing hours of labor and rates of compensation in the public service. are adequate to deal with the wage question. A general minimum wage would have a tendency to bring down the ma aximum to the minimum. Labor organizations are well aware of this result where an arrangement to that effect has been entered into with employers. However, as l have said the American people are in no need ot qnack nostrums and too busy to lis- ten to their vendors.
 Tine higher cost of living,' as I have said before Is world wide. The aim of the republican party Is to see that American workers are enabled to meet the cost of living by keeping employed pose and as direct and practical as 1t is simple and does not need a volume of rhetoric to explain 1t or get around It. While the cost of living, so far as most of the necessaries of life are con cerned, is not as high here as in Eu- rope, the wage earner here Is getting from more than double to six and seven times the wages paid in Europe.
 The Trust Question
 q propose. In dealing with the trust question to keep the great combina- tions of capital within exactly the same control as the city or cross roads gro- cery that pays a federal license for selling cigars. ! mean that both shali obey the law. That's all Simple: is will continue to be enforced against tional incorporation. without infringing porate property. but such incorpora- tion would not suspend or nullify in any degree the Sherman law or any other law against monopoly In re- straint of trade. I am utterly opposed to the proposal to have an interstate trade commission, fixing prices and otherwise exercising control over busi- ness affairs
 s'Such d control. because not guided bv law but by personal discretion, would he both despotic and socialistic and no reader of history needs to be told that the two terlits have a very close rela- tion.
 International Questions
 ..Referring to international questions. 1 think that everyone will agree that the ! lContlnued on Page SayenA