Evening star., 1915-12-11

! prosperity for this country: neither are
r.; you: neither is any group of men fit TO
| be the trustees for the economical
| guidance of this country. l believe in
| the common man. | believe the genius
of America to be that the common man
| should be consulted as to how he is
| governed and should be given the
(, same opportunity with every other man
| under his government | believe that
| that spirit is the spirit of the average
| business man in America. l am sure
| that it is the spirit of the average busi-
| ness man in America. because. although
| it is a current theory that the PreSi-
dent of the United States is very
| much secluded person. a good many
! people talk to him, ] assure you. and
| he takes particular pains to know what
| the people are talking about who do
| not talk directly to him. Nobody who
| has been bred in the atmosphere of
| American societies from one end of this
continent to the other can mistake the
| spirit of the average man. and l am for
/ the average man. The country con-
| sists of him. He is the backbone of
| the country. The man who is above
F, the average uses him, and ought to re-
! spect his tool ought to respect his in
strument. ought to respect the veins
| through which the very life blood of
the country flows.
Future of Business Bright.
| Now with regard to the future of
business in this country, no man can
speak with confidence, because it hap
pens that the distressing events of the
months since the great European war
began have put America in peculiar
relation to the rest of the world. 1t
looks as If we would have to be the
reserve force of the world in respect
to financial and economic power. 1t
~, -y,.,,s,
ton and recuperation which are ahead
of Europe we would have to do many
OF the things, many of the most .impor-
tant things, which hitherto have been
done through European instrumental
ties. No man can say just how these
matters are going to shape themselves,
but every man can see that the oppor-
tunity of America is going to be
unparalleled and that the resources
of America must be put at the service
of the world as they never were put at
it's service before Therefore, it is i'm
perative that no impediments should
be put in the way of commerce with
the rest of the world. You cannot sell
exalted kind of barter. The bartering
may not be direct. but directly or indi-
rectly it is an exchange Of commodities
and the payment of the balances. and,
therefore, there must be no impedlents
to the free flow of the currents of COM
merce back and forth between the
United States. upon which the world
will in part depend, and the other
countries which she must supply and
serve. And for the first time. gentle
| men, it happens believe proViden-
| ltially-that the bus ness men of Amer1-
ca have an instrumentality in the new
banking law such as they never mad
! before for the ebb and flow and free
course of the natural processes OF
credit For the first time we are not
bound up in an inelastic currency. our
credit is current and that current VIII
run through all the channels of COM
merce in every part of the world.
Urges self-Dependence.
| l want you to share with me this vision
of the future of American business-of
cosmopolitan spirit, of a spirit of enter
prise out of which the old rtimidity has
gone. For you will have to admit, gentle
men, that American business men have
been timid They have constantly run to
Washington and said at looks like rain !;
for Gods sake give US shelter You do
not need Washington. There IS genius
enough in this country to master the
enterprise Of the world, and it ought not
to ask odds Of anybody. | would like TO
have the thrilling pride Of realizing that
there was nobody in America who was
afraid to match wits with the world.
When / move about this country l feel
as you do the vitality of the thing that
is going on in it. the quick origination
of minds when they meet new circum-
stances, the readiness with which Amer1-
cans adapt themselves to new circum-
stances-that is the spirit Of conquest. l
originally. for example. belonged to a
stock which has never failed to feel at
home anywhere as soon as it got there
I mean the Scotch-Irish. The Scotch-Irish
have taken leave to belong the minute
they landed, and presently a good deal
else has belonged to them besides them
selves, and l like to picture that as also
typical of America. Whom would you
pick out among the early Americans as
the typical American? You know that for
more than 100 years after the settlement
of this country-for nearly 100 years after
the establishment of the Union-there was
always frontier on this continent, and
the typical American was the man who
did not need any assistance from any
where or anybody, but who went out into
a new country. made his own home for
himself. established his own government.
arranging everything to suit himself and
then occasionally went back to his old
home rich and powerful and contented.
That was the typical American.
M DofobadT pooca