Arizona republican., 1916-09-26

without a sufficient knowledge of the facts upon which we were acting
 He added that he hoped that he could find men for the commission who will see the facts ana state them. no matter whose opinion those facts contradict"
 The presidents speech in part, fol- lows
 Tt is a matter of sincere gratifica- tion to me that I can come and ad- dress an association of this sort and yet I feel that there is a certain draw back to the present occasion. That drawback consists of the fact that it occurs in the midst of a political cam paign, and nothing so seriously inter rupts or interferes with the serious and sincere consideration of public ques- tions as a political campaign.
 T want to say to you at the outset that 1 believe in party action, but that 1 have supreme contempt for par tisan action: that 1 believe that it is necessary for men to concert measures together in organized cooperation by party, but that whenever party feeling 1 touches any one of the passions that work against the general interest, it is altogether to be condemned. And, | therefore, I feel that on occasions like 1 this we should divest ourselves of the 1 consciousness that we are in the midst of political campaign, because asso- citations like this are not gathered to- 1 gether to take part in partisan discus- sion but to consider those permanent ! interests of the nation which concern us all the time, which do not alter their aspects because parties are contesting for power, and that we ought as much as possible on all occasions to think
 of ourselves as first of all men devoted
 to the welfare of the country and as compared with that devoted to noth- ing else whatever
 ] What I have come to say to you today, therefore, I would wish to say
 in an atmosphere from which all the Vapors of passions have been cleared ! away, for I want to speak to you
 about the business situation of the
 world so far as America is concerned
 ] am not going to take the liberty o1 discussing that business situation iron
 the special point of view of your as-
 sociatiOn, because 1 know that I would
 be bringing coals to Newcastle. I | T have come to discuss the genera
 relation of the United States to tho
 business of the world in the times i'm mediately ahead of us I suppose there
 is no man connected with your asso-
 citation who does not remember tht
 time when the whole emphasis O.
 American business discussion was laiC upon the domestic market. I need no . remind you how recently it has hap pened that our attention has been ex
 tended to the markets of the world : much less recently, 1 need not say il [ the matters with which you are con
 cerned than in the other export inter ests of the country. But it happenet that American production, not only il the agricultural field and in minin and in all the natural products of tn earth, but also in manufacture, has in
 creased in recent years to such a vol ume that American business burst it jacket It could not any longer b
 taken care of within the field of tn domestic markets; and when that be U gan to disclose itself as the situation we also became aware that America
 business men had not studied foreig
 markets, that they did not know tn . commerce of the world, and that the : did not have the ships in which to talk I their prOportiOnate part in the carry f ing trade of the world; that our mer ., chant marine had sunk to a negligibl I amount and that it had sunk to il
 lowest at the very time when the tid \, of our exports began to grow most for a midable in volume.
 "One of the most interesting circum . stances of our business history is this f The banking laws of the United State
 T mean the federal bank laws-di f not put the national banks in a pc a sition to do foreign exchange undt a favorable conditions and it was actual