The interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1912-1984, 1916-09-08


to father and promote, carried their
labor as mere commodity to market,
were subject to restraint by novel and
drastic process in the courts, were
without assurance of compensation Sor
Industrial accidents, without federal
assistance In accommodating labor dis
putes and without national aid or ad-
vice In finding the places and the in
dustries In which their labor was most
needed. The country had no national
system Of road construction and de-
velopment. Little intelligent attention
was paid to the army and not enough
to the navy. The other republics Of
America distrusted us, because they
found that we thought first Of the
profits of American investors and only
as an afterthought of impartial justice
and helpful friendship. Its policy was
provincial in all things; its purposes
were out Of harmony with the temper
and purposes of the people and the
timely development of the nations in
terests.
Party Has Redeemed Promises.
So things stood when the Democratic
party came into power. How do they
stand now? Alike in the domestic field
and In the wide field of the commerce
of the world, American business and
life and industry have been set free
to move as they never moved before
The tariff has been revised, not on
the principle Of repelling foreign trade,
but upon the principle Of encouraging
it, upon something like footing of
equality with our own in respect of
the terms Of competition, and a tariff
board has been created whose function
it will be to keep the relations of
American with foreign business and
industry under constant observation,
for the guidance alike Of our business
men and of our congress- American
energies are now directed toward the
markets Of the world.
The laws against trusts have been
clarified by definition, with a view to
making it plain that they were not
directed against big business, but only
against unfair business and the pre-
tense of competition where there was
none, and trade commission has been
created with powers Of guidance and
accommodation which have relieved
business men Of unfounded fears and
set them upon the road Of hopeful and
confident enterprise.
By the federal reserve act the sup
n1U of n Of hn dfcnoco1 of
tive business has been rendered elias
tic, taking its volume not from a fix
ed body Of investment securities, but
from the liquid assets of daily trade,
and these assets are assessed and ac-
cepted not by distant groups Of bank
ers in control of unavailable reserves,
but by bankers at the many centers
Of local exchange who are in touch
with local conditions everywhere.
Effective measures have been taken
for the recreation Of an American mer-
chant marine and the revival of the
American carrying trade indispensable
to our emancipation from the control
which foreigners have so long exer-
cised over the opportunities, the routes
and the methods Of our commerce with
other countries.
The interstate commerce commission
has been reorganized to enable it to
perform its great and important func-
tons more promptly and more efficient
ly. We have created, extended and i'm
proved the service of the parcels post.
So much we have done for business.
What other party has understood the
task so well or executed it so intelli-
gently and energetically? What other
party has attempted it at all? The Re-
publican leaders, apparently, know of
no means of assisting business but
protection" How to stimulate it and
put it upon a new footing of energy
and enterprise they have not suggested.
Farmers Have Been Benefited.
For the farmers of the country we
have virtually created commercial
credit by means of the federal reserve
act and the rural credits act. They
now have the standing Of other bust
ness men in the money market We
have successfully regulated speculation
in futures" and established standards
in the marketing Of grains. By an in
| telligent warehouse act we have assist
ed to make the standard crops availa-
| BILE as never before both for systematic
marketing and as a security for loans
t from the banks. We have greatly
added to the work of neighborhOOd
demonstration on the farm itself of
improved methods of cultivation and,
through the intelligent extension Of the
functions Of the department of agricul-
ture, have made it possible for the
farmer to learn Systematically where
his best markets are and how to get at
them.
The workingmen of America have
been given veritable emancipation
by the legal recognition of a mans la
Dor as part of his life and not a mere
marketable commodity, by exempting
labor organizations from processes of
the courts which treated their mem
bers like fractional parts of mobs and
not like accessible and responsible in
dividuals, by releasing our seamen
| Inv