The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1913-07-02
WILSON'S SPEECH
WHAT THE PRESIDENT said TO
THE CONGRESS

URGES ACTION At Once
He Ask "What VIII it Profit Us to be
Free if We Are Not to Have the
Best and Most Accessible Instru-
mentaEties of Commerce and En-
tesprise?'
The following is the full text of
President Wilson's speech to Con-
gress:
Mr. Speaker, Mr.. President, Gentle
men of the Congress:
It is under the compulsion of what
seems to me clear and imperative
duty that I have a second time this
session sought the privilege Of ad-
dressing you in person. I know Of
course, that the heated season of the
years is upon US, that work in these
chambers and in the committee
rooms is likely to become burden
as the season lengthens, and that
every consideration of personal con-
venience and personal comfort, per-
haps, in the cases of some of US, con-
siderations of personal health even,
dictate an early conclusion Of the de-
hberations Of the session; but there
are occasions of public duty when
these things which touch US private
ly seem very small; when the work
to be done is so pressing and so
fraught with high consequence that
we know that we are not at liberty to
weigh againsE it any point of person
al sacrifice. We are now in the pres
ence Of such an occasion. 1t is abso-
lutely imperative that we should give
the business men of this country a
banking and currency system by
means of which they can make use
OF the freedom Of enterprise and Of
Individual initiative which we are
about to bestow upon them.
We are about to set them free; we
must not leave them without the
tools Of action when they are free.
We are about to set them free by re-
moving the trammels Of the protec-
tive tariff. Ever since the Civil War
they have waited for this emancipa-
ton and for the free opportunities it
will bring with it. It has been re-
served for US to give it to them.
Some fell in love, indeed, with the
slothful security of their dependence
upon the government; some took ad-
vantage Of the shelter of the nursery
to set up mimic mastery Of their
own within its walls. Now both the
tonic and the discipline Of liberty
and maturity are to ensue. There
will be some readjustments of pur-
pose and point Of view. There will
follow a period Of expansion and new
enterprise, freshly conceived. It is
for US 20 determine now whether It
shall be rapid and facile and of easy
accomplishment. This it can not be
unless the resourceful business men
who are to deal with the new circum-
stances are to have at hand and
ready for use the instrumentalities
and conveniences Of free enterprise
which independent men need when
. acting on their own initiative.
II is not enough to strike the
shackles from business. The duty of
craftsmanship is not negative mere
sly. It is constructive also. We
must show that we understand what
business needs and that we know
how to supply it. No man, however
casual and supercial his observation
of the conditions now prevailing in
the country. can fail to see that one
of the chief things business needs
now. and will need increasingly as it
gains in scope and vigor in the years
Immediately ahead of US. is the prop
er means by which readily to vitalize
its credit, corporate and individual,
and its originatiye brains. What will
It profit US to be free if we are not
to have the best and most accessible
instrumentalities of commerce and
enterprise? What will it profit US
to be quit Of one kind Of monopoly
if we are to remain in the grip of an
other and more effective kind? How
are we to gain and keep the conf
dence Of the business community un-
less we show how both to aid and to
protect It? What shall we say if we
make fresh enterprise necessary and
also make it very difficult 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 opportuni-
ty 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 possessions? It
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
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