Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1913-06-26
PRESIDENT READS BANKING AND
CURRENCY MESSAGE TO CONGRESS
Urges Immediate Action on Measure for Elastic Money System
as a Companion Act to Administration Tariff Plan.

Washington, D. C.-For Il second
time since his Inauguration President
Wilson appeared before a joint ses-
sion of the two houses of congress.
His message on a banking and cur
rency reform system was delivered in
a clear, deliberate and distinct voice.
He said:
Mr.. Speaker, Mr.. President, Gentle
men of the Congress:
1t is under the compulsion of what
seems to me a clear and imperative
duty that | have a second time this
session sought the privilege of ad-
dressing you in person. l know, of
course, that the heated season of the
year is upon us, that work in these
chambers and in the committee rooms
is likely to become a burden as the
season lengthens, and that every con-
sideration of personal convenience
and personal comfort, perhaps, in the
cases of some of us, considerations of
personal health even, dictate an early
conclusion of the deliberations of the
session; but there are occasions of
public duty when these things which
touch us privately seem very small;
when the work to be done is so press
ing and so fraught with big conse-
quence that we know that we are not
at liberty to weigh against it n
point Of personal sacrifice. We are
now in the presence of such an occa-
sion. 1t is absolutely 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. W. are
about to set them free by removing
the trammels of the protective tariff.
Ever since the civil war they have
waited for this emancipation and for
the free opportunities it will bring
with it. 1t has been reserved for us
to give it to them. Some fell in love,
indeed, with the slothful security of
their dependence upon the govern
ment; some took advantage of the
shelter of the nursery to set up a
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 purpose and point of
view. There will follow a period of
expansion and new enterprise, fresh
,ly conceived. 1t is for us to- deter
mine now whether it shall be rapid
and facile and of easy accomplish
ment. This it can not be unless the
resOurceful business men who are to
deal with the new circumstances 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.
1t Is not enough to strike the
shackles from business. The duty of
craftsmanship is not negative merely.
1t is constructive also. We must show
that we understand what business
needs and that we know how to sup
ply it. No man, however casual and
superficial his observation Of the con-
ditions 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 proper means by
which readily to v~italize its credit,
corporate and individual, and it's orig
NATIVE brains. What will it profit
us to be free if we are not to have
the best and most accessible instru-
m%entalities of commerce and enter