New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-02-12
SILK MEN CHEER
ATTACK ON WILSON
Applaud Ex-Gov. Griggs
as He DenOunces Hos
tility to Business.
FLAYS THE INCOME
TAX INQUISITION
Industry Lost in Maze of Spear,
Not Interrogation Points,
He Declares.

The SILK men are ABOUT as Wen
pleased with President Wilson's bust
ness policies as they would be with
an attack Of the hives. IL the way they
spplaudcd former Governor John ".
Griggs OF New Jersey in his attacks
on the administration at the Silk Asso-
citation dinner last night st the Bit
more is 20 be taken as a criterion. MI
GriGgs was Attorney General under
President Mckinley, and has main
tanned his faith 10 the Republicanism
OF those days.
Recently the President said that for
twenty years business men have been
wandering in a maze of interrogation
points" he said. 81 would suggest that
he was somewhat in error as to the
period" That dig at the President got
Mr. Griggs his first applause.
Cheers for Mckinley.
Il was a member Of the administra-
ton of President Mckinley" he went
on, with renewed applause for Mckin-
ley's name. 81 think the whole BUSH
ness community will admit that in his
time business was not stumbling over
the period to about ten years past, and
il has not been so much interrogation
points as spear points that business has
been wandering about amidst
During this period, he said, business
has been a suspect and there has been
about il an atmosphere Of hostility.
What do we tind?" he said. The
railroads are put under the tyrannic
r q
Commission. No railroad manager
now knows whether he will be allowed
TO do this, that or the other thing.
Every day you see the statement Of
earnings coming in lower. People
have said if it is not due to the tariff
or the trusts it must be psychological.
"The attitude of the governing class
OF this country as it now exists is hos
tile to industry and to enterprise that
is profitable. When they were about
10 frame a tariff that was TO reduce the
high cost of living they did not want
facts from the gentlemen who pos
sessed any knowledge on the subject.
What more have they done to raise
interrogation or spear points TO make
business timid? Shall ! speak OF the
income tax? II is not the payment OF
the tax that is Objectionable, but it is
the internal ingenuity with which they
have contrived to make everybody tell
what il is no business Of the govern
ment to know. They passed the law on
the theory that every one was likely to
be a liar and a perjurer.'
Trade Bill Menace.
He spoke of the menace in the Will
son trade commission bill, now law,
saying that there were none Of the
men engaged in the manufacture or
sale of silk who were not liable to have
the agent, land he will be the willing
political agent, too" he said, of the
Trade Commission walk into their
places of business and demand that
they lay bare every secret they have.
"For what" he said. "To ascertain
whether he cannot make some order
that will embarrass you in your bust
ness. Business privacy, which is at
the very basis Of the right 70 do bust
ness. is violated both by the income
tax law and by the trade commission
act.
"You may expect that business will
improve and become prosperous in
time, and it will, but not until the
power and influence of those who are
hostile to business shall have been de-
stroyed II it could be announced with
authority that henceforth the course
Of the government would be for the
promotion Of the industrial prosperity
of America the psychology would be
all the other way.
81 will go further. If it were 70 be
announced that, instead of special
session of Congress on March 5, there
was to be a special election on that
day, business would Immediately i'm
prove"
Charles Cheney, president of the Silk
Association, was POSTMASTER. He
spoke of the strain caused 10 business
by the war and of the appeals to our
sympathy.
First we must help our own peo-
pie" was sentiment of his that won
applause, "and we must not say our
own people in too broad a sense. Ii
means first of all our own fellow work
ers. Give them job lots, If you must,
but lots of jobs to the poor fellows,
too"
Other speakers were the Rev. W.
Warren Giles, of East Orange, n. j.,
and Charles Hitchcock Sheriff..
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