The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-11-26

has dawnetl for the beloved country
whose lasting prosperity and happi
ness we SO earnestly DESIRE"
This is the closing sentence of {
letter which President Wilson SEN
tonight to Secretary of the Treasury
McAdoo, in reply to cOmmunica
ton announcing that the twelve Fed
eral Reserve Banks have been opened
and that Wall streets control of the
nations business has been smashed
after fight of half century.
President Wilson reviews the
downfall of capitalistic government
and predicts that the long heralded
era of prosperity will dawn as soon
as all classes of men forget the ami
mostly of the past and join hands to
revivify the nations dormant COM
merce.
Trade Coming to U. S.
The presidents letter was issued
coincident with the announcement
from government departments that
the balance of trade is swinging
rapidly toward this country, and that
there are increasing evidences OF a
general business revival.
The president holds out to bust
ness and labor hopes of better times,
and bases his predictions on the fact
that the democratic party has COM
pleted it's program of business legis-
lation, placing all capable men on a
basis of even opportunity, while as
surfing business men in particular
that there shall be no need OF further
fear of interference with trade.
To the railroads especially the
president sends a word of cheer, and
his statements concerning the neces-
stiles of the transportation compan-
les was accepted in some quarters
as meaning that the Interstate Com
merce Commission soon would grant
some of the demands for increased
rates.
The Presidents Letter.
The presidents letter follows:
'My Dear Secretary warmly
appreciate your letter of yesterday,
for l share your feeling entirely
about the significance of the opening
of the Federal Reserve Banks for
business.
81 do not know that any special
credit belongs to me for the part !
was privileged to play in the estab-
lishment of this new system, of which
we confidently hope SO much. In it
the labor and knowledge and fore
thought and practical experience and
men who have co-operated with UNI
usual wisdom and admirable public
spirit.
None of them, am sure, will be
jealous of the distribution of the
praise for the great piece of legisla-
tion upon which the new system
rests; they will only rejoice unself-
ishly to see the thing accomplished
upon which they have set their
hearts.
1T has been accomplished, and it's
is of the deepest sig
nificance, both because of the things
1t has done away with and because of
the things it has supplied that the
country lacked and had long needed.
1T has done away with agitation
and suspicion, because it has done
away with certain fundamental
wrongs. 1t has supplied means of
in the business world
and an instrumentality by which the
interests of all, without regard to
class, may readily be served.
''We have only to look back ten
years or SO to realize the deep per-
plexities and dangerous i'll humOrs,
out of which we have now at last is
sued, as if from a bewildering fog,
a noxious miasma.
Ten or twelve years ago the cOun-
try was torn and excited by an agita-
ton which shook the very founda-
tons of her political life, brought her
business ideals into question, con-
demned her social standards, denied
the honesty of her men of affairs.
the integrity of her economic process
es, the morality and good faith of
many of the things which her law
Sustains.
Those who had power, whether in
business or in politics, were almost
looked upon with suspic-
ion, and little attempt was made to
the just from the unjust.
They, in their turn, seem to dis
trust the people and to wish to limit
their control. There was an ominous
antagOnism between classes. Capital
and labor were in sharp conflict,
without prospect of accommodation i
between them. Interests harshly
clashed, which should have cooper
ated.
This was not merely the world Of
agitators. There were
real wrongs which cried out to be
righted, and fearless men had called
attention to them, demanding that
they be dealt with by law. We were
living under tariff which had been
contrived to confer private
fayors upon those who were cooper
ating to keep the party that original
I'd it in power, and in that all too
fertile soil all the bad, interlaced
growth and jungle of monopoly had
sprung up. Credit, the very life OF
trade, the very air men must breathe
4 they would meet their opportun-
ties, was too largely in the control of
he same small groups who had plant
I'd and cultivated monopoly. The
control of all big business, and by
of all little business too,
vas for the most part potentially, if
lot actually in their hands.
Democrats Wrought Changes.
~ ~ 3 49, = - 4