The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-24
CONSTRUCTIVE LEGISLATION
 ACC0MPL L|SHED; VERSUS THE "BIC STICK" INEFF|C|ENCY
As Compared With Wilson's Brand of Prosperity, Says
 Carl Vrooman, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Boasted Prosperity of Preceding Presidents Like a Poor Relation :,

Poor Relation.
 What is the attitude of the Wilson administration toward business? Is it
 unfriendly captious, tyrannical and vindictive,. as is being asserted by the
 walking delegates of high finance? Or is it sympathetic, friendly and helpful? In other words has the Administra- tion's attitude been destructive or con- structive? Has it utilized the mighty , machinery of government for the pur-
 pose of throttling or of promoting
 American business? v Witness the well-remembered vogue of. the Roosevelt ''big stick" and the futile and farcical grand-stand plays
 at trust busting" which marked the
 Taft regime. Compare this noisy but barren beating of the bush with the quiet achievements of the Wilson ad- Administration in the same field. MT. Wilson neither began any war of words on the corporate giants of the time, nor started any costly and futile cam paign of corporation batting or de- struction. He quietly. set all his forces in motion to inaugurate an era of bus mess reconstruction along legitimate linesA The result has been that
 large portion of the business world has been quietly adapting its methods and purposes to the higher standards of the New Freedom.
 z It is not easy to measure the impor-
 tance of the fact that while fewer spe- cial favors have been granted to spe-
 cial interests during the presept ad-
 ministration than during any other re- l cent administration, more actually has
 been accomplished to promote and I boost legitimate business, big and lit-
 tie, urban and rural, than was accom-
 plished by any half dozen preceding
 administrations. It is difficult to con- ceive how the discriminating American
 business man can regard as other than friendly an administration which has given him:
 The Federal Reserve Act, which rem ders future money panics impossible,
 and insures to every American busi- | ness man, in lean years as well as fat years, ip war times as well as in pip ing times of peace" all the credit to
 which he is justly entitled; The Federal Trade Commission,
 which furnishes gratuitous expert as-
 sistance to corporations endeavoring to organize and operate on a basis of efficiency and fair dealing; The Underwood Tariff Act, which put the necessaries of life on the free list, reduced or abolished the tariff on raw. materials, and opened wide our ports to foreign commerce, both inn port and export; 
 The Tariff Commission, which so far
 as is humanly possible, will take the tariff out of politics and make full
 provision for every real need of Ann erican business and industry;
 The War Risk Insurance law, with out which our foreign commerce du-
 ring the past two years would have been crippled and cut off;
 The Bureau of Foreign Trade Ad- visors in the State Department, which secured from the Allies the right of entry into Germany for nearly two million bales of cotton during the present war, with the result that the
 price of cotton in this country was practically doubled;
 A staff of commercial attaches in the Department of Commerce who are boosting American business in the
 markets of the world;
 The Rural Credit Act-the farmers financial magma charta;
 The Alaska Railroad Act, opening to development important agricultural and mining districts of Alaska;
 The Ship Purchase Act, laying the foundation for the rehabilitation of the American merchant marine;
 The Alaska Coal Leasing Act, en- couraging the development of Alaskan
 coal fields;
 The Agricultural Extension Act,
 demonstrating the most effective sci entif1c farm methods in every rural
 community in the United States in
 practical way that is adding hundreds of millions of dollars every year to the farmers profit and to the nations prosperity;
 The amendment to the Federal Re- serve Act, permitting the establish ment of branch banks in foreign coun- tries and American dependencies.
 For three years President Wilson has been endeavoring to undo the mis- takes of the past and to put the busi-
 ness, commerce and industry of this
 country upon a sound, permanent ba-
 sis, by increasing the productivity of
 labor and giving justice to the worker and the consumer as well as to capital and managerial skill. If he succeeds
 in this effort. America at a stride will
 become the dominant industrial, finan
 ciaI and moral force on our planet. The world war now being waged on three continents, leaves us the only great power devoted to the arts of peace and able to do business in a neutral and friendly way with all the warning nations. Once we have set tied our industrial and social nrob- lems at home, broad and peaceful paths to power stretch out before us in alluring and bewildering profusion. In fact the results already obtained from our brief experience with the New Freedom stagger the imagination. Following are some significant figures comparing American business condi- tions in 1912, the last year of the Taft administration, with those at the close of years 1915 and 1916:
 The total output of the manufac- tories of the United States for 1912 was $2O,600, 900 900, while for 1916 it was 30,900, ,0O0, 900, of which less than two per cent. consisted of, munitions of | war.