Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-07-11
Believes Average Man. Knows
Business Needs Better Than
g.. Industrial Leaders.
H0kDSMERCHANT. MARINE
IS ESSENTIAL TO COUNTRY
Tariff Commission Another Red
uisite, He Declares, in Address at
Detroit Athletic Club Luncheon

DETROIT, July 1.-THE text Of the
second speech delivered by President
Wilson yesterday, which he made at
the luncheon at the Detroit Athletic
Club. follows:
Mr.. Chairman, Judge Murphy, ladies
and gentlemen:
Il am glad to find myself as popular
as Judge Murphy, and I must say in
his behalf that you know him better
than you know me. am glad to find
myself in Detroit and face to face with
the men who have played the principal
part in giving it distinction throughout
the country and throughout the world
Looking about among you, see that
II is true in this matter. as in others
that the only men fit for such a job
are young men and men who never
grow old. There is the liveliness of
youth in the eyes even of those of you
who have shared with me the painful
parting with the hirsute appendage
Il have been interested in some
things that Mr.. DENLY has said to me
To-Day He has shamefacedly admitted
that he has found himself enjoying the
companionship of democrats Now l
nav lOiik enjoyed the 1rlendShtD and
compa nionship of republicans because
l am by instinct teacher and 1 would
IKE to teach them something. We have
been trying, some of us, for a good
many years to teach in politics. as well
as elsewhere, this lesson. that we are
al IN the same boat: we have common
interests. and it is our business to nm
oerstand and serve these common in
terests.
Self-Interest an Obstacle
The great difficulty that has con-
fronted US. gentlemen, has often been
that we have deliberately looked at
these common interests from self
CHOSEN angles, which made them look
as II some of US were separated from
others. and as if some of us wanted
~ aspress business: for example. and
others of US wanted to exalt business
dare say that you have noticed that
the same necessity to make living is
imposed upon democrats as republicans.
ana daresay You are ready to believe
that democrats are just as willing to
make a good living as republicans
therefore 1t seems to me, logically to
ioiloW-though l have been quoted as
having no regard for logic-that demo-
Gratis are naturally as much interested
IN the business prosperity of the
United states s anybody else. So that
II you believe thai they are not as
utted TO guide 1t as other persons YOU
cannot be doubling their interest: YOU
are only impugning their intelligence
And some democrats had noticed that
the inclination to suppose that only
some persons understood the business
OF America had a tendency to run into
the assumption that the number of per
sons who understood that business was
very small. and that there were only
certain groups and associations of
gentlemen who were entitled to be
trustees of that business for the rest
Of US.
Il have never subscribed in any walk
OF life to the trustee theory l have
always been inclined to believe that
the business of the world was best I'M
derstood by those men who were in the
struggle for maintenance, not only, but
for success. The man who knows the
strength of the tide is the man who is
swimming against 1t, not the man who
is floating with il.
The man who is immersed in the be-
ginnings of business. who is trying to
get his foothold. who is trying to
get other men to believe in him and
lend him money and trust him TO make
profitable use of that money, is the man
who knows what the business condi-
lions of the United States are. and !
would rather take his counsel as to
what ought to be done for business
than the counsel of any established
captain of industry. Because the cap
tain of industry is looking backward
and the other man is looking forward
Conditions Constantly Changing.
The conditions of business change
with every generation; change with
every decade: are now changing at an
almost breathless pace, and the men
who have made good are not feeling
the tides as the other men are feeling
them. The men who have got into the
position of captaincE- unless they are
OF unusual fiber, unless they are of I'M
usual catholic sympathy, unless they
have continued 10 touch shoulder with
the ranks, unless they have continued
10 keep close communion with the men
they are employing and the young men
they are bringing up their assist
ants. do not belong to the struggle in
which we should see that every unrea-
soma BILE obstacle is removed and every
reasona bic help afforded that public
policy can afford.
q so / invite your thoughts in what
! sincerely believe TO be an entirely
nonpa rtisan spirit to the democracy of
business. An act was recently passed
in Congress that some of the most in
teliiRent business men of this country
earnestly opposed-men whom / knew,
men whose character | trusted. men
whose integrity l absolutely believed
in. ] refer to the federal reserve act,
by which we intended and succeeded in
taking credit out Of the control of a
small number of men and ma king it
aSalla BILE TO everybody who had real
commercial assets, and the very men
who opposed that act and opposed it
corscientiously now admit that il
saved the country from a ruinous panic
when the stress of war came on, and
that il is the salvation Of every aver
age business man who is in the midst
OF the tides that ] have been trying 10
describe. What does that mean gen
tiemen? II means that you can get a
settled point of view and can con-
scientiously oppose progress il you do
not need progress yourself That is
what IL means ! am not impugning
the intelligence even of the men who
opposed these things, because the sam.
thing happens TO every man II he Is
not of extraordinary makeup, that he
cannot see the necessity for thing
that he does not himself need When
YOU have abundant credit and control
Of credit. you, of course, do not need
that the area Of credit should be broad
ened.
Believes in the Ordinary Man.
so l say that the suspicion Is be-
ginning TO dawn in many quarters that
the average man knows the business