The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1915-02-10
PROSPERITY COMING.
WILSON SAYS this COUNTRY is
ON dawn OF new ERA
SPEAKS To BUSINESS MEN

SPEAkS III BUSINESS MIN
President Places Publicity at the
Head of Better Rusiness Rules
Says Nobody is Going to be Sus-
picious of Big Business In These
Days just Because It's Big.
Another confident prediction that
the country soon will enter upon q
new era of enterprise and prosperity
was voiced Friday by President Viii
son in speech before the convention
of the American Electric Railway as
sociation at Washington.
Speaking to business men and
through them to the world of busi-.
ness generally, the president outlined.
what the Democratic congress has
tried to accomplish through its trust
legislation, and declared that while a
test period would be required to de-
| termine whether the correct remedy
had been applied, he believed the
mass of Interrogation points" which
had checked enterprise for 20 years
had been cleared away. With COM
mon understanding regarding busi-
ness reached, he said, h.nceforth NO
body is going to be suspicious Of any
business just because it is big. He,
gave some Of the @..ruIes of the game"
which he thought ought to be fol-
lowed, adding to tho list wise pub
Jicity-"not doing anything under
cover"
"I have always maintained that the
only way in which men could under
stand one another was by meeting
one another" said the president. III
believed all that read in the news
papers l would not understand any
body. I have known men whose
hands dropped away the moment I
was permitted to examine their char
acter.
Eve of New Era.
1T seems to me. that we are
upon the eve Of new era Of enter
prise and of prosperity. Enterprise
has been checked in. this country for
almost 20 years, becanse men were
cation points. They did no ktnow
what was going to happen to them.
All sorts of regulations were prepos-
ed and it was a matter Of uncertain
ty what sort. of regulation was going
to be adopted. Ali sorts Of charges
were made against business as Il bus
mess were at fault, when most men
knew that the greet majority of busi-
ness men were honest, were public
spirited, were intending the right
thing, and the many were made
afraid because the few did not DO
what was right. Z
"The most necessary thing, there.
fore, was for US to agree, as we did
by slow stages agree, upon the main
particulars Of what ought not to b,
done and then to put our laws IN
such shape as to correspond with that
general judgment. I have
never doubted that all America be-
lieved in doing what was fair and
honorable and of good report. Bet
the method, the method of control by
law against the small minority that
was recalcitrant against these princi-
pies, was thing that it Vas difficult
to determine upon, and it was very
great burden, let me say, to fall upon
a particular administration OF this
government to haEe to undertake
practically the whole business Of final
definition. That is what has been at
tempted by the congress now about
to come to close It has attempted
to define the reforms for which the
country has been getting ready.
Must Test Value.
'tIt will require period Of test to
determine whether they have sue
cessfully defined them or not, but no
one needs to have it proved to him
that it was Necessary to define them
and remove the uncertainties and
that the uncertainties being removed,
common understandings are possible
and universal cooperation.
I'm the first place, I feel that the
mists ana miasmic suspicious that
have filed the business world. have;
now been blown away. No
body is henceforth going to be afraid
Of or suspicious of any business be-
cause it is big. But they have been
suspicious whenever they. thought
that the bigness as feing used to take
an unfair advantage. But
pond having been given for the big
fellow, we can sleep conscious at
night.
''The era of private business in the
sense of business conducted with the
money Of the partners-I mean OF
the managing partners-is practical
ly past. Therefore, almost all
business has this direct responsibility
to the public in general. We owe q
constant report to the public whose
mercy we are constantly asking for
in order to conduct the business it
self. Therefore, we have got to trade
not only on our efficiency, not only on
the service that we render, but on the
confidence that we cultivate. There
is new atmosphere for business. .
The oxygen that the lungs Of modern
business takes in is the oxygen Of the
public confidence and if you have not
got that your business is essentially
paralyzed and asphyxiated.
Liberty for Business. .':.Ssz
II take it that we are in a position
now to come to common under
standing, knowing that only a. COM
mon understanding will be the stable
basis Of business and that what we
want for business hereafter is the
same kind of liberty that we want for
the individual. The liberty of the in.
dividual is limited with the greatest
sharpness where his actions come
into collision with the interests of the
community he lives in.
There have been times-I will
not specify them, but there have been
times-when the field looked free,
but when there were fayors received
from the managers of the course,
when there were advantages given,
inside tracks accorded, practices
which would block the other runner,
J. -.