The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1913-06-27

other and more effective kind? How
are we to gain and keep the conf
dence of the business community un-
less we show that we know how both
to aid and to protect it? What shall
we say if we make fresh enterprise
necessary and also make it very DIFF
fcult by leaving all else except the
tariff just as we found it? The
tyrannies of business, big and little,
lie within the field of credit. We
know that. Shall we not act upon
the knowledge? Do we not know
how to act upon it? If man can
not make his assets available at
pleasure, his assets Of capacity and
character and resource, what salts
faction is it to him to see opportunity
beckoning to him On every hand,
when others have the keys of credit
in their pockets and treat them as
all but their own private possession?
1t is perfectly clear that it is our duty
to supply the new banking and cur
rency system the country needs, and
that it will Immediately need it more
than ever
Question of Time.
"The only question is, When shall
we supply it-now, or later, after
the demands shall have become re-
proaches that we were so dull and so
slow? Shall we hasten to change the
tariff laws and then be laggards about
making it possible and easy for the
country to take advantage of the
change? There can be only one an
swer to that question. We must act
now, at whatever sacrifice to our
selves. 1t is a duty which the cir
cumstances forbid us to postpone.
should be recreant to my deepest con-
victions of public obligation did I not
press it upon you with solemn and
urgent insistence.
"The principles upon which we
should act are also clear. The coun-
try has sought and seen its path IN
this matter within the last few years
sees it more clearly now than it
ever saw it before-much more
clearly than when the last legislative
proposals on the subject were made.
We must have currency, not rigid
as now, but readily, elastically re-
sponsive to sound credit, the expand
ing and contracting credits of every !
day transactions, the normal ebb and
flow of personal and corporate deal
ings. Our banking laws must mob
ilize reserves; must not permit the
concentration anywhere in a few
hands of the monetary resources OF
the country OF their use for specula-
tive purposes in such volume as to
hinder or impede or stand in the way
of other more legitimate, more fruit
full uses. And the control of the sys-
tenn of banking and of issue which
our new laws are to set up must be
public, not private, must be vested IN
the government itself, so that the
banks may be the instruments, not
the masters, of business and OF in
dividual enterprise and initiative.
"The committees of the congress to
which legislation of this character is
referred have devoted careful and
dispassionate study to the means OF
accomplishing these objects. They
have honored me by consulting me.
They are ready to suggest action. l
have come to you, as the head CT the
government and the responsible
leader of the party in power, to urge
action now, while there is time to
serve the country deliberately and as
we should, in clear air of common
counsel. I appeal to you with a deep
conviction of duty. 1 believe that you
share this conviction. 1 therefore ap-
peal to you with confidence. I am at
YOUR service without reserve to play
my part in any way you may call
upon me: to play it in this great en-
terprise of exigent reform which it
will dignity and distinguish US to per-
form and discredit US to neglect"