The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-12-09
Trade Interrupted


War has interrupted the means of trade
not only, but also the process of produce
tion. In Europe it is destroying men and
resources wholesale and upon a scale I'M
precedented and appalling. There is rea-
son to fear that the time is near If 1t be
not already at hand, when several of the
countries of Europe will find 1t difficult
to do for their people what they have
hitherto been always easily able to do
many essential and fundamental things
At any rate, they will need our help and
our manifold services as they have never
needed them before; and we should be
ready, more fit and ready than we have
ever been.
1t Is of equal consequence that the ma
lions from whom Europe has usually sup
pied with innumerable articles of manu-
facture and commerce of which they are
in constant need and without which their
economic development halts and stands
still can now get only a small part of
what they formerly imported and eagerly
look to us to supply their all but empty
markets. This is particularly true of our
own neighbors, the states great and
small, of Central and South America
Their lines of trade have hitherto run
chiefly athwart the seas. not to our ports
but to the ports of Great Britain and Of
the older continent of Europe I do not
--Of
ment on probable causes. What interests
us just now is not the explanation. but
that fact. and our duty and opportunity
in the presence of it. Here are markets.
which we must supply. and we must find
the means of action. The United States
this great people for whom we speak and
act, should be ready, as never before. to
serve itself and to serve mankind: ready
with its resources, its energies, it's forces
of production &c
ton.
IL Is a very practical matter, a matter
or ways and means. We have the re
sources. but are we fully ready IN use
them? And, II we can make ready vzbar
we have, have we the means at hand to
distribute it? We are not fully ready.
neither have we the means of Distributor
we are willing, but We are not fully able.
We have the wish to serve and tn serve
greatly, generously; but We are not pre-
pared as we should be. We are not ready
to mobilize our resources at once. We
are not prepared to use them immedia tely
and at their best, without delay md with
out haste.
10 speak plainly, we have grossly
erred In the way in which we have
stunted and hindered the development
OF our merchant marine And now
wnen we need ships, we have not got
them. We have year after year de-
dated, without end or conclusion. the
best policy to pursue with regard TO
the use of the ores and forests and
water powers of our national domain in
the rich states of the west. when we
should have acted; and they are still
locked up. The key is still turned upon
them, the door shut fast at which thou.
sands of vigorous men, full of init
alive, knock clamorously for admit
lance. The water power of our nav
| igable streams outside the national do
main also, even in the eastern states
where we have worked and planned
| for generations, is still not used as If
might be, because we will and We
| won't; because the laws we have made
do not intelligently balance encourage
ment against restraint. We withhold by
regulation.
I have come to ask you to remedy
and correct these mistakes and omis-
sions. even at this short session of Con-
gress which would certainly seem to
have done all the work that could rea-
sonably be expected of it. The time and
the circumstances are extraordinary,
and so must our efforts be also.
Two Great Measures
Fortunately, two great measures,
timely conceived. the one to unlock,
with proper safeguards, the resources
OF the national domain. the other to en-
courage the use of the navfgable wa
ters outside that domain for the gem