The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1915-02-10
guarantee that if enough liars talked

guarantee that if enough liars talket
to you, you would get the truth.
Il had somewhat that experience
about Mexico, and that was about th'
only way in which learned anything
that was so, for there have beer
vivid imaginations and many specia
interests which have depicted things
as they wished me to believe then
to be.
NOW, seriously, the task Of thi:
body is to match all the facts Of busi
ness throughout the country, and ses
the best and consistent part Of them
That is the reason-and think yol
are to be congratulated upon the fac
that you can not do this thing with
out common counsel. I have asked
myself, before I cam, here tonight
what relation tn government coulc
bear to you. You are two aspect:
and activities of the government with
which you will naturally come into
most direct contact.
1.-The first the governments pow
er of inQuiry-systematic and disin'
terested inquiry-and it's tower o1
scientific assistance. You get an IL
lustration of the latter, for example
in the department Of agriculture. Has
it occurred to you, wonder, that we
are just upon the eve of time when
our department of agriculture will be
of infinite Importance to the whole
world?
There is shortage of food in the
world now. That shortage will be
more serious few months from now
than it is now. It is necessary that
we should plant a great deal more.
It is necessary that our land should
yield more per acre than it does now.
It is necessary that there should not
be a plow or q spade idle in this coun-
try if the world is to be fed; and the
methods of our farmers must feed
upon the scientific information to be
derived from the state department of
agriculture and from that tap room
to fall, the United States department
of agriculture.
''The origin and use Of that depart
men is to inform men OF the last de-
velopments and disclosurts Of science,
with regard to all the Processes by
which soils can be put to their proper
use and their fertility made the great
est possible.
"siimlarly with the bureau of
standards. 1t is ready to supply those
things by which you can set forms,
you can state bases for all the scien-
tific processes of business.
"The government of the United
States is very properly a great in
strumentality of inquiry and informa-
ton. One thing we are just begin
ming to do that we ought to have done
long ago. We ought long ago to have
had our bureau of foreign and do
nestle commerce. We ought long ago
to have sent the best eyes Of the gov
ernment out in the world where the
opportunities and openings Of Ameri-
can commerce and American genius
were to be found. Men who were
not sent out as the particular agents
of any set Of comnercitl industries
in the United States but who were
eyes for the whole community.
t'But there are other ways Of using
the government Of the United States,
ways that have long been tried,
though not always with conspicuous
success or fortunate'results. You can
use the government of the United
States by influencing it's legislation.
That has been a very active industry,
but it has not always been managed
as the interest of the whole people.
It is very instructive and useful for
the government of the Unittd States
to have such means as you are ready
to supply forgetting sort Of consen-
sus of opinion, which proceeds from
no particular quarter, and original
and with no particular interest be-
cause information is the very founda-
tion of all right action in legislation.
Men on the inside OF business
know how business is conducted and
they can not complain If men on the
outside make mistakes about busi-
ness, if they do not come from the in
side and give the kind Of advice which
is necessary. The trouble in the past
for T think the thing is changing very
rapidly-has generally been that
they came with all their bristles out.
They came on the defensive. They
came to see. not what they could. ac-
complish, but what they could pre-
vent. They did not come to guide,
but they came to block, and that is of
no use whatever to the general body
polite.
What has got to pervade US like a
great motive power is that we can not
and must not separate our interests
from one another. but must pool our
interests. A man who is trying to
fight for his single handed is lighting
against the community and not fight
ing with it.
There are a great many dreadful
things about war. as nobody needs to
be told in this city Of distress and of
terror. But there is one thing about
war which has very splendid side.
and that is the consciousness that a
whole nation gets, that they must all
act as a unit, for the nation; and
when peace is as handsome as war
there will be no war. When men,
mean, engage in the pursuits of peace
in the same spirit of self-sacrifice,
and Of conscious service Of the COM
munity with which, at any rate. the
common soldier engages in war, then
shall there be wars no more. You
have moved the vanguard for the
United States in the purposes Of this
association just a little nearer that
ideal. That is the reason I am here,
because I believe that.
There is specific matter about
what I, for one, want your advice.
Let me say, if I may say it without
disrespect, that I do not think you
are prepared to give it right away.
You will have to make some rather
extended inquiries before you are
ready to give it. What I am think
ing of is competition in foreign mar
kets as between the merchants Of diff
ferent nations.
II speak Of the subject With GER
tain uegree Of hesitation, because the
thing farthest from my thought is
taking advantage Of nations now dis
abled, from Dlaring the full part in