The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-12-05
A, FLORIDA, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1913

! III peace ana HDeFCy. Next
co has no government. The ATTEMPT
10 maintain one at the City of Mexico
has broken down, and a mere mill
tary depotlom has been set I'D which
mas hardly more than the semblance
lof national authority. 1t originated in
the usurpation of Victoriano Huerta,
who, after brief attempt TO play the
part OF constitutional President has
at last cast aside even the pretense
iot legal right and declared himself
dictator. AS consequence, a condi-
ton OF affairs now exists in Mexico
which has made it doubtful whether
teven the most elementary and funda-
mental rights either of her own people
or of the citizens of other countries
PRESIDENT within her territory can long
be successfully safeguarded, and
which threatens, if long continued, to
imperil the interest of peace, order,
and tolerabe life in the lands i'm
mediatly south of us. Even if the
usurper had succeeded in his purpose,
lin despite of the constitution of the
Republic and the rights of its people,
he would have set UP nothing but
precarious and hateful power, which
could have lasted but a little while,
and whose eventual downfall would
have left the country in a more de-
plorable condition than ever. But he
has not succeeded. He has fortified
even of those who were at one time
willing to see him succeed Little by
little he has been completely isolated.
BY little every day his power and
prestige are crumbling and the col
lapse is not far away. We shall not,
believe, be obliged to alter our police
of watchful waiting. And then, when
the end comes, we shall hope to see
constitutional order restored in dis
tressed Mexico by the concert and
energy of such of her leaders as pre-
fer the liberty of their people to
their own ambitions.
Domestic Concerns
/ turn to matters of domestic con-
Germ. You already have under con-
sideration a bill for the reform OF our
system of banking and currency, for
which the country waits impatiently,
as for something fundamental to its
whole business life and necessary, to
set credit free from arbitrary and
artificial restraints. | need not say
how earnestly | hope for its early en-
lactment into law. take leave to beg
that the whole energy and attention
!of the senate be concentrated upon it
ed of. And yet l feel that the request
is not needed that the members OF
that great house need no urging in
this service to the country.
present to you in. in addition, the
urgent necessity that special provis-
ion be made for facilitating the cred
its needed by the farmers of the coun-
try. The pending currency bin does
the farmers a great service. 1t puts
them upon an equal footing with
other business men and masters of
enterprise, as it should and upon its
passage they will find themselves
quit of many of the difficulties
which now hamper them in the field
of credit. The farmers, of course, ask
and should be given no special privi-
lege, such as extending to them the
credit of the government itself What
they need and should obtain is legis-
letion which will make their own
abundant and substantial credit re- !
sources available as a foundation for
joint, concerted local action in their
own behalf in getting the capital they
must use. 1t is to this We should now
address ourselves.
! Tribute to the Farms
! 1t has, singulary enough, come TO
pass that we have allowed the in
dustry OF our farms to lag behind
the other activities of the country in
its development. need not stop to
tell you how fundamental to the life
of the nation is the production OF its
food. Our thoughts may ordinarily be
concentrated upon the cities and the
hives Of industry. upon the cries of
the crowded market place and the
clangor of the factory, but il is from
the quiet interspaces OF the open val
/ levs and the free hillsides that We
draw the sources OF life and Of pros
perty. from the farm and the ranch.
from the forest and the mine. With
out these every street would be silent,
every Office deserted. every factory