The sun., 1916-09-26

ment Of Commerce and Labor (now the
Department Of Commerce.. q Bureau OF
Foreign and Domestic Commerce. and
one Of the advantages which the Amer
loan Government has had u been that
II has been able to hire brains for much
less than the brains were worth.
1T Is In q way Q national discredit TO
us. my fellow citissns. that 90 are pay
ing studious men capable Of understand
Ing anything and Of conducting n
business Just about one-third Of what
they could command In the feld OF
business and It 10 n Of the admirable
circumstances Of American life that they
are proud to serve the Government on .
p~ittance.
PPestaeat Amazed.
There are such men In the bureau Of
foreign and domestic commerce. They
have been studying the foreign CON.
merce Of his country " Il VA never
| studied before and have bssn making
reports % comprehensive and 20 thor
oush that they compare to their grsat
advantage with the reports OF any simi.
lar bureau Of any other Government In
The world: and I have found. to my
amasemsnt that some Of the best Of
thoss reports seem never To have 6<en
Rad. All you have to do In order TO
hnd out the details Of some Of the
greatest fields OF activity In tho world
In the matter OF business Is to resort to
the bureau Of foreign and domestic
commerce.
But there again the phenomena that
I have been speaking OF Nave displayed
themselves In a very remarkable way.
II needed the catastrophe and the
tragedy Of this war to awaken Ameri-
1 %aA ktssiu~aa mar 20 tkA fat chat thA~A
were the things which they must know
and know At once.
And then. In addition to that, there
was recently created the Federal Trade
llCommission. II IL hard t. describe the
functions Of that commission. but all I
a say II that II has transformed the
Government Of the United States front
being IN antagonist Of business into be-
Ing . friend Of business.
"a few years aso American business
msn-I think you will c%orroborate this
statement-took up their morning paper
with some degree Of nervousness to see
what h Government was doing to them.
ask you II you take up the morning
paper nov with any degree OF nervous
ness? And I ask you II you have not
found. those OF . who have dealt with
Il all. the FEDERAL Trade Commission to
b put there to show you the way in
which the Government can help you and
not the way in which the Government
can hinder you?
Law aaa Daa Dssi.ess.
There has always been a contest In
every Government between the law and
bad business. and I do not want TO sec
that contest softened In any o. But
there has never been any contest between
1888 .l-A IL .-J
the men who administered the law.
Then. In the third place. you know
that We have just now lone what Il was
common sense to do about the tariff. We
have not put this into words. but I do not
hesitate to put II into words. We have
admitted that on the one side and on the
other we were talking theories n man
airing policies without q suficient knowl.
edge Of the facts upon which we were
acting. and. therefore. We have sstab-
iiahed what IL intended to be a nor
partisan tariff commission to study the
conditions with which Hesitation has q
deal in the matter Of the relations OF
American With foreign business transac-
lions. Another eye created TO ses the
facts.
And I am ropefu, that can ind
the men who will see the facts and stats
them. no matter whose opinion those
facts contradict, for an opinion ought
always to have n profound respect for
a fact. and when you once get the facts
opinions hat are ~antagonlstic to those
facts are necessarily defeated. I rave
never found a really courageous map
who was afraid to put his opinion tG
the test Of facts. or a morally sincere
man who was not ready TO surrender
to the facts when they were contrary
to his opinion. and the Tariff Commits.
sion Ia going to look for the facts nc
matter who II hurt.
I'VE are creating one after another
the instrumentalities of knowledge. ~
that the business men Of the country
shall know what the field Of the worlds
business is and deal with that feld upon
that knowledge.
CsSVePation the Next Step.
Then. when the knowledge Is OBJ.