Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1913-10-07
Presids nf Wilson.

PFeSfdsuf Wilson.
Surrounded by representatives, sem
ators and members of his cabinet.
President Wilson, after signing the
tariff bill Saturday evening expressed
his pleasure at its provisions. Ina
speech he said:
Il feel very peculiar pleasure in
what | have just done by way of TAX
ing part in the completion of great
piece of business. 1t is a pleasure
which is very harm to express in words
adequate to the feeling, because the
feeling that | have is that we have
done the rank and file of the people
of this country great service
1t is hard to speak of these things
without seeming to go of into cam
paign eloquence. My feeling is of pro-
found gratitude that, working with
the men who have carried this thing
through with studious attention and
doing justice all around. l should
have had part in serving the people
of this country as we have been striv-
ing to serve them ever since l can
remember.
/ have had the accomplishment of
something like this at heart ever
since | was boy, and l know men
standing around me who can say the
same thing who have been waiting
to see the things done which it was
necessary to do in order that there
might be justice in the United States.
And so 1t is a solemn moment that
brings such a business to conclusion,
and | hope | will not be thought to
be demanding too much of myself or
OF my colleagues when | say that this,
| great as 1t is, is the accomplishment
of only half the journey.
We have set the business of this
country free from those conditions
which have made monopoly not only
| possible, but in sense easy and nat
ural. But there is no use taking
away the conditions of monopoly if
we do not take away also the power
to create monopoly, and that is
financial rather than merely
circumstantial and economic power.
The power to control and guide and
direct the credits of the country is
the power to say who shall and who
shall not build up the industries of
the country, and in what direction
they shall not be built.
We are now about to take the
second step, which will be the final
step in setting the busin IS of this
country free. That is what we shall
do in the currency bill, which the
house has already passed and which |
have the utmost confidence the senate
will pass much sooner than some
pessimistic individuals believe. The
question, now that this piece of work
is done, will arise all over the country
for what do we wait? Why should
we wait to crown ourselves with con-
summate honor? Are we so self-deny-
ing that we do not wish to complete
our success?
/ was quoting the other day to
some of my colleagues in the senate
those lines from Shakespeare Henry
Vs. which have always appealed to
me: If it be sin to covet honor,
then am the most offending soul
alive. am happy to say that | do
not covet it for myself alone. / covet
1t with equal .ardor for the men who
are associated with me, and the
honor is going to come from them.
| am their associate. | can only
complete the work which they do.
| can only counsel when they ask for
my counsel. l can come in only when
the last stages of the business are
reached. And | coyet this honor for
them quite as much as | coyet it for
myself; and / covet it for the great
party of which am a member, because
that party is is not honorable unless
it redeem its name and serve the
people of the United States.
So / feel tonight like man who is
lodging happily in the inn which lies
half way along the journey, and that
ia the morning with fresh impulse
we shall go the rest of the journey
and sleep at at the journeys end like
men with a quiet conscience knowing
that we have served our fellowmen
and have thereby tried to serve God"