New-York tribune., 1920-09-12
Full Test of Hardings Address ON
Business and League Article XXI

The full text of Senator Harding's
speech follows:
ness men, and through you would like
to send a message to all those Ameri-
cans whose interest is American busi-
ness. We are the great business nation
Of the world. We shall be able to save
that business and prosper it by fair
measure Of common sense, and we ought
and must do it. We will consult the
able and honest men whose counsel
may be summoned by the Republican
party. We will restore representative
government and replace the dstended
executive powers and extreme centrali-
! zation which nearly eight years of mis-
named Democracy has brought US. We
will preserve a willingness to listen to
the will of the people, and will construc
the desire for common good fortune
to mean the necessary good fortune of
business, which is the life blood of ma
terial existence.
american business is not big bust
ness. Wilful folly has been IN those
persons in distended power over our
national affairs who have spoken 'of
American business as if it were large
and selfish interest seeking special
privileges, and who, on that basis, have
put their bungling hands upon its
! menting with it, and abusing it and
treating it with suspicion. Let US put
an end to holding success to be crime.
awe have seen the result Of this
reckless, wlful course during the
calamitous regime which, though few
men who are in perfect accord seek to
perpetuatc it, the American people
mean to put to an end with sigh Of
relief, and the exclamation, That's over
at last!'
at will be the American people who
will do this, because American busi-
ness is everybody's business. Nearly
nine-tcnths of those who depend for
their living on the legitimate fruits
OF their labors in American manufact-
urlng are the wage-earners. The blow
| directed at American business, the pull
ing and hauling of American business
by weird economic and social theories,
applied by an administration which
could not even run its own business,
, is less menacing, for instance, to the
one-tcnth who In manuf2 curing are
, nine tcnths who are our American la
borers, and who begin TO realize that
another year or two of the group who
are in perfect accord will mean for
American labor the NO Hour Day
Defines Big Business
"The big business Of America is the
available census figures show that more
than 60 per cent of our manufacturers,
which | use as an example, were little
plants, none of which turned out more
! than 100000 of products. Only 25 per
cent of our plants were even doing
business as corporations. The average
number of workers employed was
twenty five. When we come to analyze
what we mean by American business
we find out that we mean the daily
work of the nation, most of it under
taken in the factory and on the farm
in small units. We find out that we
even mean the business of the home
and of the housewife, and that Ameri-
can business is everybody's business.
1t is more than that. 1t is the work Of
every worker, clothes for his or her
back, food for his or her mouth. And
when this bungling Administration now
seeks to perpetuate itself in perfect
accord let us remember that it's sus-
plclon Of business, and the use of it's
extraordinary war powers and it's
socialistie tendencies have been bully
ing and tinkerin@ with the pocketbooks
of all the American people When
hear the voices of the present spokes-
men of that regime talking about being
! progressive, | recall the activity made
in everv direction. excent forward, and
especially that which has drawn US
close to an economic business preci-
pice.
Must Face New Tasks
THE day of that kind of progress is
about at an end. We must face the
new tasks. We have had fever of
nigh prices and excessive production
| out OF the sacrificed billions of treas
ure and millions of lives, but the re-
construction must be sober business,
founded on unchanging principle. We
must summon the best abilities Of
America to put America back on the
main road and to remove the debris Of
| the last eight years, and to keep our in
dustrles running, and to restore the
proper ratio Of prosperity to our Amer
ican agriculture so that it can again
! bid for good American standard labor
The day of the oneman war-power
form of Government must yield to the
sound practice of the Republic.
IF our memory is directed again TO
1SlA, when the now freedom brought
US t. the verge of paralysis, we will
recall that world war alone saved US
from disaster in peace. We were
sharpening our wits in competition
with the world as the President then
; expressed it, but we dulled our capacity
t" buy. then war saved us psychoiogi-
caliy and commercially, but to-day we
are at peace, actual though not pro-
claimed. and our problems are the
problems of peace,
ave must always exact. from our
selves and our business, high, honora-
Bile am. fair dealing by law. and by
laws rigid enforcement when neccs-
! sary. bur We must repeal and wipe sat
r,ess Of executive orders and laws
which, failing to serve effectively shat
, Inrposc. serve only to leave American
| business in anxiety, uncertainty and
! ddrl ness.
I've must readjust our tariff, anI
this tine with especial regard for the
rev economic menaces to our ArHe:i-
can agriculture as we'll as factory
Wants Taxes Readiusted
| I've must readjust our internal tax
alton, especially the excess profits tax,
to remove the burdens it imposes upon