Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-04-12
SENATOR PENROSE
SOUNDS KEYNOTE
[Continucd from First Pagc.l

terprise and individual initiative
must be liberated in order that busi-
ness and labor might enjoy the full
est fruits of their continued applica-
ton.
LAS to the future" said Senator
Penrose, Il am an optimist 1t has
been argued in the defense of war,
in a way that cannot be made an eX-
cuse for it, but in which there is a
germ of truth, that war arouses the
activities of the human mind to a
new degree and frequently is fol-
lowed by eras of extraordinary en-
terprise and prosperity. New inven-
tions improved mechanical appli-
ances, and discoveries in the sciences.
Medicine for example, have follow
ed many wars. The scourge of yell
low fever, and of other typhoid dis
eases. largely was eliminated as the
result of the Spanish War. Many
important medical discoveries were
made in the late war, not to men
ton the extraordinary development
of the airplane, and wireless teleg-
raphy and telephone.
Our national debt per capita, vast
as it is, is not as great as that which
hung over us after the Civil War
with the South temporarily pros
trated. Great Britain with a war
debt of $4,000, 100000 is in situa-
tion comparing favorably with her
debt and per capita wealth at the
conclusion of the Napoleonic wars.
France, who has suffered most, will,
as she did after the terrible catas-
trophe of the Franco-PruSsian war,
gradually emerge strong and pros
porous. Civilization has been saved
and its progress cannot be halted
nor turned back. Thoughts connect
ed with our present national and
world crises crowd so thickly that it
is impossible, within the limits of
my short address to cover all phases
of the situation.
NO peace among nations and no
League of Nations" said Senator
Penrose, can or should suppress
the commercial and industrial COM
petition and rivalry which soon are
to follow. Do not let us forget that
with peace comes an international
warfare, commercial and industrial,
to be waged among the nations-a
warfare as uncompromising and
arduous in its way as the war of
arms. Upon the successful con-
duct of this warfare on the part of
any nation largely will depend its
prosperity and supremacy.
Already nearly all the nations,
even the defeated nations, are MAX
ing elaborate preparations to meet
these new conditions. Embargoes,
many kinds of government orders
and proclamations, subsidies and
tariffs, are freely discussed and
about to be adopted by the different
nations.
"A protective tariff will very
largely insure the American market
to the American producer, thus en-
abling us to maintain the high scale
of wages required by our living
standards, and start the country once
more upon a triumphant march of
development and progress.
I'VE have, under present condi-
tions in Washington, utterly failed
to even investigate the situation. We
must now make practical prepara-
ton for it. We must prepare for it,
not as heretofore, against foreign
competition from nations which
were neither free trade or
largely had merely a protective
ia riff, but as against industries of ma
tions aided in every conceivable way
by government subvention, subsidies,
contracts. regulations and tariffs. In
other words, protective tariff sys-
tenn is more vitality necessary to the
United States in the immediate flu
ture than ever before in its history.
Without it's prompt enactment dis
tress, and perhaps ruin, will stare
our people in the face. We must
proceed in a heroic way.
"Such is the emergency of the
hour that any phase of sectionalism
or partnership is now forgotten.
East, West, North and South recog-
nize the necessity of the hour and
are happy in the thought that Re-
publican Congress soon is to assume
the responsibility and burden of the
task.
II. IL