The St. Johns herald., 1921-12-22

duties or authority. During the anx- ieties of war, when necessity seemed compelling, there were excessive grants of authority and an extraOrdi- nary concentration of powers in the chief executive. The repeal of war time legislation and the automatic ex- pirations which attend the peace proc | lamations have put an end to these emergency eXcesses, but l have the wish to go farther than that. I want to join you in restoring, in the most cordial way; the spirit of coordination and cooperation and that mutuality of confidence and respect which is neces- sary in representative popular govern ment.~
 Encroachment upon the functions of Congress or attempted dictation of it's policy are not to be thought of, much less attempted, but there is an insis- tent call for harmony of purpose and concord of action to speed the solution of the difficult problems confronting both the legislative and executive branches of the government.
 It is worth while to make allusiOn here to the character of our govern ment, mindful as one must be that an address to you is no less a message to all our people for whom you speak most intimately. Ours is a popular government through political parties. We divide along political lines and l would ever have it so.
 Summary of the main points as fol- lows:
 First-The imperative need of "elas- tic and flexible" tariff legislation which would enable the President, through the federal tariff commission, to meet effectively the changing trade and industrial conditions, not only in this country, but abroad.
 Second-The urgent necessity of general policy of transportation of distributed industry, and of highway construction to encourage the. spread of our population and to restore the proper balance between city and cOun- try"
 Third-The strong desire of the ad- ministratiOn for further revenue re- vision and renewed consideration of our tax program" despite the inevi- table divergence of opinion in seeking the reduction, ameliOration and read juStment of the burdens of taxation.
 Fourth-The expressed opposition of the administration to the abrOga- tion of certain commercial treaties 1rr rine act on the ground that to de- nounce them would involve us in chaos of trade relationships and add indescribably to the confusion of the already disOrdered commercial world"
 Fifth-The expansion of the Ameri- can merchant marine under an admin istration plan to be later submitted to Congress which, while contemplating no greater draft on the public treas ury than is provided by the Jones act, twill appeal to the pride and encour- age the hope of all the American peO- ple," in American shipping flying the American flag.
 Sixth-Early enactment of the for eign debt funding that the admins tratiOn may be cloaked with ample authority to deal with the $11, ,O00000,- 900 foreign indebtedness to the United States which is now denied it and which is hindering readjustments among our debtors and accomplishing nothing for ourselves.
 Seventh-SyStemat encouragement of agriculture by the development of adequate distribution and marketing facilities for agricultural products and the adoption of cooperative market ing programs for that purpose.
 Eighth-The early termination of great volume of uneconomic and wasteful transportation" and a reVi- sion of "the existing scheme of ad- justing freight rates," with adequate legislation to meet the serious railroad problems so vitally affecting the well fare of the American people
 Ninth-Recommended a congressiOn- al appropriation to purchase food for the starving Russians.
 Tenth-Suggested the advisability of a constitutional amendment to pro- hibit the issuance of tax free securi- ties.
 Eleventh-Declared both corpora tions and labor unions should be reg ulated and supervised in the interests of public welfare and suggested quasi judicial tribunals to settle labor dis putes.
 Touches on Conference.
 Agreeable to your expressed desire and in complete accord with the pur- poses of legislative branch of the gov ernment, there is in Washington, as you happily know, an International