Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1915-12-17
Urges America To Inspire Peace.

war. In comprehensive and forceful ad-
dress before the Columbus, Ohio. Chamber
Of Commerce he urged American business
men to mobolize their resources in order
that the United States might be prepared
to play a more important part in the
worlds affairs and bring about justice after
the present war.
In part, the Presidents speech follows:
Mr. President gentlemen of the Columbus
Chamber of Commerce:
want first to express my very deep
gratitude to you for the cordial manner in
which you have greeted me- and my sense
of privilege in standing here before you to
speak about some Of the things in which
we are mutually interested. You, GENTLE
men. are perhaps more interested in those
matters Of policy which affect the business
Of the country than in others, and yet. it
has never seemed to me possible to separ-
ate the business Of country from its
essential spirit and the life of its people.
The mistake that some men have made
one thing and life another whereas. they
are inseparable in their principles and in
their expression.
must say that in looking back upon
the past there is something about the
history Of business in this country which
Is not wholly satisfactory. 1t is inter-
estinR to remember that in the early years
of the republic we felt ourselves more a
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 ex-
pressed in American commerce when we
were little nation; and yet now that we
are great nation the seas are almost bare
of our ships, and we trade with other coun-
tries at the convenience of the carriers of
other nations. The truth is that, after the
war Of 1872. we seem deliberately to have
chosen to be provincial to set ourselves 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 for
eign commerce until our domestic devel-
opment had so nearly burst its jacket that
there was no straight jacket in which il
could be confined
Now. American industry in recent years
has been crying for an outlet into the
currents Of the world. There were some
American minds, some American bust
ness men-not a few-who were not
built upon the provincial type, who did
find their way into foreign markets and
made the usual American peaceful con-
quest in those foreign markets; but others
seemed deliberately to refrain or not to
know that there were opportunities to
be awaited of.
Until the recent banking act you could
not find. so far as am informed. branch
Of an American bank anywhere outside OF
the United States where other nations OF
the world were doing their banking bust
ness on foreign shores through the instru-
mentality Of their own bankers. l was
told at a meeting of the American Bank
ers Association that much of the foreign
banking business-the business in foreign
exchanee-had to be done in our ports by
branches Of Canadian banks established
among ourselves. Being literalists, we in
terpreted the National Banking act t,
mean. since it did not say that the nationa
banks could engage in this business. tina
they could not engage in it. and some of tn,
natural. some Of the necessary. function
of banking were not performed by Ameri
can bankers.
refer to this merely as an evidence o
what take leave to call our provincialism
Moreover, during this period this very in
teresting thing happened. American bust
ness men were so interested to be pro
tected against the competition Of othe
business men in other countries that the,
proceeded by organization to protect them
selves against each other, and engaged il
the politics Of organization rather than il
the craftsmanship of enterprise. For you
organization, for the purpose of preventing
successful competition. Is not in moral leve
any higher than running politics upon tn
basis of organization rather than upol
the basis Of craftsmanship and achieve
ment Organization is necessary to poll
tics. and it is necessary to business, but tn,
object of organization ought not to
exclusion: II ought to be efficiency. Tn
only legitimate object Of organization
efficiency. Itcan never be legitimate whe
1t is intended for hostile competitive pun
poses.
have never entertained the slightes
jealousy of those processes Of organization
which led to greater and greater compe
tency. but have always been jealous O
those processes of organization which wer
intended in the spirit Of exclusion an
monopoly because the spirit Of exclusion O
monopoly is not the American spirit. Tn
American spirit is spirit Of opportunit
and Of equal opportunity, and of admit
ting every man to the race who can stan,
the pace. So say that we have reaso
to look back upon the past of America
business with some dissatisfaction but.
for my part. look forward to the future O
American business with the greatest con
fidence.
American business has altered its poin
Of view and, in proportion as il has alteret
its point Of view. il has gained in powe
and momentum. have sometimes hear
exhortations to the effect that polite
ought not to be injected into business.
is just as important that you should no
inject business into politics, because so fa
as the business of this country is concerned
there ought not to be any politics.
l. gentlemen. am a Democrat, as you
probably have heard, and am a militant
Democrat. but it is because believe that
the principles Of Democracy will be oil