The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-10-28
PRESIDENT SEES


Continued from Page one.)
glutted and we were bound, unless we
were to burst our jackets, to find a
free outlet into the markets of the
world. The time had come when our
commerce needed freedom and would
De throttled by further restraints. We
had acquired foreign possessions, had
been drawn into the politics of the
world, had begun to play a part which
could not be played by provincials but
must be played by citizens of the grea1
world of nations. And yet we had not
altered our policy or our point of view
The great European war has served
at least to show us this one thing, that
the world itself had changed; that 1t
had become at once too big a world
and too little world to submit it's
destlnies to the hostile rivalries and
ambitions now of this and again of
that member of the great family of
men; too compact, too intimate in its
contacts, too universal in it's ways of
intercourse, to make it any longer pos
sible to limit the effects of anv ma
sphere where the rest would be I'M
touched. An inevitable partnership of
interest has been thrust upon the ma
tons. They are neighbors and must
accommodate their interests to one
another, or else disturb the lives and
embarrass the fortunes of men every
where. No wonder that in such an
age men in America should be cried
then in the days when their great re-
public was set UP, the compulsions of
humanity and of justice
Two Parties Four Years Ago.
These are the freshening winds
| blowing out of the life of mankind
everywhere, that have brought on
new day in American politics. We
have looked once more very critically
| at our own laws and our own practices
and have set about to square them
with the actual conditions of our life
and the life of the world.
Four years ago there were two par
ties in the field whose program was
| conceived under the influence of these
! great forces of progress and adjust
ment, the Democratic party and the
| Progressive party. This year there is
| but one, the Democratic party In the
presidential election of four years ago
some fifteen million votes were cast
| OF these, nearly ten and a half mil
| lions were cast for the candidates of
the two progressive parties only three
and half millions for the candidate
| of the Republican party, the party
which fingered in the old ways and felt
none of the new impulse of a new
day. More than two-thirds of the vot-
ers of the United States favored then
and favor now, program whose OBJ
Ject is to serve the changing needs of
humanity and progress.
The Democratic party was entrust-
ed with the task These powerful
forces of the new age were put under
its direction. And under that direc-
ton what have they accomplished 4?
They have put both the business and
the life of the country upon new
footing. They have released the finan-
cial credit, upon which commerce and
production alike depend, from the
control of small groups of financiers
and bankers at the speculative cen
| ters. They have released the commerce
and industry of the country from the
domination of those who were build
ing up their power by selfish and I'M
fair methods of competition They
have supplied those who wished to
conduct their business in conformity
with the spirit of the laws with friend
ly guidance and delivered them from
a nervous fear of the courts
Removed Tariff "ShackIes.o
They have released our foreign
trade from the shackles of a tariff
contrived in the Interest of special
groups of favored producers, and have
created a tariff commission intended
to substitute public for private inf1u-
ences. facts for theories and preten-
sions, in all future legislation with re-
gard to duties and restrictions on i'm
ports. They have made provision for
the immediate and systematic develop
ment of our carrying trade on the
seas. They have at last supplied the
means by which the nation may be
| bound together. materially and spirit
| ually, by a network of good roads
upon which both commodities and
community to community. They have
put the farmer upon a footing of per-
| feet equality with business men and
men of all other callings in respect of
| his access to commercial credit: have
placed a great bureau of the govern