Evening star., 1915-12-11
PRESIDENT PREDICTS A MARVELLOUS
FUTURE FOR AMERICA IN WORLD
TRADE COMPETITION

: The Presidents address to the Co
lumous (Ohio) Chamber of Commerce
yesterday afternoon follows:
The Presidents Address.
Mr.. President, Gentlemen of the Co
lumbus Chamber of Commerce: l want
hrst to express my very deep graft
tude to YOU for the cordial manner in
: which You have greeted me. and my
sense of privilege in standing here be-
fore You to speak about some of the
) things in which We are mutually inter
ested You. gentlemen. are perhaps
more interested in the matters of policy
which affect the business of the coun-
ttrE than in any others: and yet 1t has
never seemed to me possible to Sepa-
: rate the business of country from its
: essential spirit and the life of its peo-
pie. The mistake that some men have
made has been in supposing that busl-
ness was one thing and life another
whereas they are inseparable in their
principles and in their expression.
Business History Unsatisfactory.
l must say that in looking back upon
the past there is something about the
history of business in this country
which 1s not wholly satisfactory. 1t is
interesting to remember that in the
early years of the republic we felt our
selves more part of the general world
than We have felt since then. Down to
the war of 1872 the seas were full of
American ships. American enterprise
was everywhere expressed in American
commerce when We were a little nation.
and yet, now that We are great ma
ton. the seas are almost bare of our
ships. and We trade with other coun-
a he ami of -inYc
of other nations.
The truth is that after the war of
1S1" we seem deliberately to have
chosen to be provincial, to shut our
selves in upon ourselves, exploit our
own resources for our own benefit
rather than for the benefit of the rest
of the world, and we did not return
to address ourselves to foreign COM
:, had SO nearly burst its jacket that
there was no strait jacket in which
it could be confined. Now American
industry in recent years has been cry
ing for an outlet into the currents of
the world. There were some Ameri-
can minds, some American business
men-not a few-who were not built
upon the provincial type who did find
made the usual American peaceful
conquest in those foreign markets;
but others seemed deliberately to re
frain or not to know that there were
| opportunities TO be aFdlleQ OF.
| Until the recent banking act you
could not find, so far as ] am inform
ed, branch of an American bank
anywhere outside of the United States.
whereas other nations of the world
were doing their banking business on
foreign shores through the instrument
tality of their own bankers. l was
told at meeting of the American
Bankers Association that much of the
foreign banking business, the busi-
iy1 fnr nc had n
done in our ports by branches of Cana
dian banks established among our
selves. Being literalists, we interpret
ed the national banking act to mean.
since it did not say that the national
| banks could engage in this business,
that they could not engage in it, and
some of the natural, some of the neces-
sary, functions of banking were not
performed by American bankers.
I Organization VS.. Monopoly.
I refer to this merely as an evil
dence of what I take leave to- call
our provincialism. Moreover, during
this period this very interesting thing
happened. that American business
men were SO interested to be protect
ed against the competition of other
business men in other countries that
they proceeded by organization to pro-
tect themselves against each other. and
engaged in the politics of organization
rather than in the craftsmanship Of
enterprise. For your organization for
the purpose of preventing successful
| competition is not in moral level any
higher than running politics upon the
| basis of organization rather than upon
the basis of craftsmanship and achieve
ment. Organization is necessary to
politics and it is necessary to bust
ness, but the object of organization
ought not to be exclusion; it ought
to be efficiency. The only legitimate
object of organization is efficiency
1t can never be legitimate when it is
intended for hostile competitive pur-
poses.
1 have never entertained the slightest
jealousy of those processes of organi-
zation which led to greater and greater
competency, but / have always been
jealous of those processes of organi-
zation which were intended in the spirit
of exclusion and monopoly, because the
spirit of exclusion and monopoly is
not the American spirit. The Amer
lean spirit is a spirit of opportunity
and of equal opportunity and of ad-
mitting every man to the race who
can stand the pace. So | say that
we have reason to look back upon the
past of American business with some
dissa tisfa ction: but I. for my part. look
forward to the future of American
business with the greatest confidence
I American business has altered its
|
has altered it's point of view it has
gained in power and in momentum. L
have sometimes heard exhortations to
the effect that politics ought not to be
injected into business. 1t is just as
important that you should not inject
business into politics, because SO far
as the business of this country is con-
cerned there ought not be any politics.
Touches on Mexico.
Il I, gentlemen, am a democrat. as you
probably have heard, and / am mill
tant democrat, but 1t is because ] be-
} lieve that the principles of democracy
will be Of more service to the country
than any other kind of principles. Not
because 1 believe democrats are better
. than republicans it Is because l think
|, republicans are mistaken and demo
Gratis right, and ! hope and oeiieve
1 hold that conviction in no mar
row partisan spirit. 1 find that l am
one of the few men of my acquaintance
who absolutely believe every word, Tor
example, of the Virginia Bill or Rlghts
Most men use them for Fourth or July
purposes and use them very hand-
somely, but ! stand before you and tell
you that l believe them. For example.
the Virginia Bill of Rights cite that
lbecause 1t was one of the first bills OF
rights; the others were largely mod
eled upon it, or run along the same
lines-the Virginia Bill OF Rights says
that when government proves un-
suitable to the life of the people under
It II am not quoting the language. but
the meaning), they have right to alter
- ,hn1;oh n anV way that thew