The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1916-04-27
that we are weak, wavering, timid
and will not assert our rights.

that we are weak, wavering, timid
and will not assert our rights.
Our statesmen should be alive to the
solution of these great questions. We
cannot escape them, and what wish
to impress upon my hearers is that not
only must our statesmen intelligently
and periodically consider these prob
lens, but the people must under
stand them and back up their states
men. The subject of our foreign rela-
lions is an especially important one
for the members Of the United States
senate, with whose concurrence trea-
ties are made and foreign rela-
lions are carried on. These rela-
tons with foreign countries are the
most vital issues now pending. They
are of the greatest interest to us, not
only as affecting our honor and stand
ing among nations, but as affecting
our financial interests, our industries,
our markets and our domestic institu-
lions. These relations affect our for
eign commerce and reciprocal trade
relations, our insular possessions, the
maintenance and operation of the Pan
anna canal, the tariff, immigration and
the Monroe Doctrine, which latter in
it's essence, simply means that it is
against the interest of this country to-
permit foreign countries to acquire
possessions in this hemisphere.
1t should be our purpose to aid AM
erican citizens in establishing foreign
trade and to protect it upon the high
seas, to aid in the construction of a
merchant marine and to protect it with
a navy; to pursue in this great con-
f1ict, and in others, policy, not timid
neutrality, but bold, conscious and
just neutrality, which will be respect
ed by foreign countries; to maintain
the high standard of national honor,
to sustain the principles of interna-
tional law established in the interests
Of humanity, to ameliorate the hor-
rors Of war and to facilitate world
commerce;to improve our foreign serv-
ice, both consular and diplomatic; to
pursue policy Of friendship towards
our sister republics of the western
hemisphere and not try to exercise
domineering influence over them.
While we are demanding, as we should,
strict accountability Of foreign coun-
tries, we should be scrupulous in main.
tanning our own treaties, careful in
making them but steadfast in their
maintenance, and it should be our pur.
pose to set the example of national
morality and tolerance, which go far
to prevent conflicts between nations.
cannot help believing that out of this
great world conflict, it's misery, it's
horror and it's crimes, will come
civilization better adapted to the needs
of the whole world; will come, bet
ter understanding Of the true relation
of the individual to tho late and
~cle Tolerant and christian spirit.
These results we can but dimly see,
as they are only accomplished through
the slow progress Of time.
The tariff will undoubtedly be one
Of the issues in the next campaign.
Time does not permit me to discuss the
subject at length, but only to state
some general principles, for it is al
most inexhaustible in it's ramiica-
tons. We should have an efficient
non-partisan tariff commission. The
tariff, of necessity, affects all of the
business interests of the country, and
it's enactment with reference to those
in.erests and stability of the law is
necessary to real prosperity. So
many questions are involved in franz
ing tariff law, that it is impossible
to have an accurate, just and efficient
law which shall meet the demand of
the public revenue, protect labor, in
| dustry and agriculture in a proper
way, and treat such law as the foot
ball of partisan politics, to be changed
whenever political parties change. It
is subject which should receive the
| highest and most efficient investiga-
ton Of experts, so that labor and all
industries may receive severally their
proper protection, and, on the other
hand, that no great corporations or
industries shall be built up under the
guise of protection.
l am not an advocate of extreme
protection. AS member of the SUBJ
committee on resolutions which drew
the tariff plank in the republican plat
form of 1908, I vigorously advocated
an honest and reasonable reduction
of the tariff on the necessities of life.
l stated then, in letters and speeches,
that unless the republican party should
keep its pledges, the agitation would
not cease and it would be disastrous to
the country. Such proved to be the