The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-26

Strikngly devoid or paruSan poiiIfcdi discussion, President Wilson conveyed a message to the business men Of the country before the National Asso- citation of Grain Dealers here yes- terday. More than 15,000 persons had applied for tickets of admission. put the hall would accommodate only B. S0O At the station and as the President and Mrs. Wilson motored through the streets crowds cheered. His speech was enthusiastically re- ceived, the demonstration as he arose lasting for four minutes.
 The President declared that through the new Tariff Commission, the Trade Commission, the Federal Reserve Act, the Shipping Bill and similar meas ures, he expected business men in this country to open up a new era for the Nation. A
 To Make Trade Path Clear.
 ''The purpose of legislation in the immediate future in this country" he said, ."is going to be to remove all ingenious constructions and make it perfectly clear what the liberties as well as what the restrictions of trade are in this country
 Regretting that politics might inter- fere with the discussion of problems facing American business, he declared he had "a supreme contempt for par tisan action although believing in party action" he urged that his au- dience divest itself of the conscious ness that we are in the midst of "a political campaign" N
 We have swung out into new business era in America" said the President American production has increased to such volume that American business burst its jacket. It could not any longer be taken care of within the field of the domestic mar kets and when that began to dis close itself as the situation, we also became aware that American business men had not studied foreign markets; that they did not know the commerce of the. world, and that they did not have the ships in which to take teir proportionate part in the carrying trade of the world; that dur merchant marine had sunk to its lowest at the very time when the tide of our ex- ports began to grow in most formida- ble volume. Benefits of Reserve Act
 "One' of tilei most Interesting cir cumstances of ot1r business history is this: The banking laws of the United States-I mean the Federal Banking laws-did not put the national banks in position to do foreign exchange under favorable conditions. Not until the recent I egislation of Congress. known as the Federal Reserve Act, were the Federal Banks of this coun- ltry given the proper equipment through which they could assist American commerce, not only in our own country, but in any part of the world where they choose to set up branch institutions
 British banks had been serving British merchants all over the world. German banks had been serving Ger man merchants all over the world, and no national bank of the United States had been serving American merchants anywhere in the world ex- cept in the United States.
 "All that is past, and the scene has been changed by the events of the last two years. almost suddenly, and with a completeness that almost daunts the planning mind. Not only when the war is over but now, Ameri- ca has her place in the world, and takes her place in the world of finance and commerce upon a scale that she never dreamed of before.
 My dream is that she wfn take her place in that great field in a new spir- it, which the world has never seen before; not the spirit of those who would exclude others, but the spirit of those who would excelI others. I want to see America pitted against the world, not in selfishness but in brains."
 Referring to the work of the Bu- reau of Foreign and Domestic Com merce, President Wilson paid high tribute to the men who sacrifice large salaries in the business world ''to serve the Government on pittance.," !"
 There was recently created the Federal Trade Commission" he con- tinued. Tt is hard to describe the functions of that commission, but it has transformed the Government of the United States from being an an- tagonist of business into being a friend of business.
 "A few years ago American business men-I think you will corroborate this statement-took up their morning paper with some degree of nervous ness to see what the Government was doing to them. ask you if you take up the morning paper now with any degree of nervousness? And ask you if you have not found those of you who have dealt with 1t at all, the Fed eral Trade. Commission to be 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?
 But that is not the matter that am most interested in. It has al- ways been a fiction that there was a contest between the law and business There has always been a contest in every government between the law and bad business, and I do not want to see that contest softened In any way; but there has never been any contest between men who intended the right thing and the men who adminis- tered the law.
 To Seek Fats on Tariff.
 done what it was common sense to do about the Tariff. We have not put this into words, but I do not hesitate to put 1t into words.~ We have ad- mitted that on the one side and on the other we were talking theories and managing policies without a sufficient knowledge of the facts upon which we were acting, and, therefore, we have established what is intended to be a partisan tariff commission to study the conditions with which leg fsIatiOn has to deal in the matter of