Stuyvesant Fish
Stuyvesant Fish
Stuyvesant Fish
I say all this to show that the railways will have all the freight traffic they want, and the enforcement of existing laws relating to them will be more likely to increase than diminish their net earnings, for they will gain largely by the stoppage of rebating and other abuses. Some of our State and possibly some of our Federal laws may be too drastic, and, so far as their requirements are unreasonable, oppressive or unnecessary, they should, and doubtless will be, amended by Congress and the States, or set aside as unconstitutionalby the courts, as in the case of Pennsylvania’s two cents a mile rate, for an unjust or vexatious law is abhorrent to justice—justice so well typified by that blind goddess who holds the scales on such an even balance in the world of art. Corporations, as much as individuals, are entitled to a square deal, and a square deal for all is what President Roosevelt is working for.
As it is, most of the Western railways have, like the Southern lines, a double track traffic for a single track road, and there is abiding prosperity in this plethora of business. It is a sort of embarrassment of riches, for, notwithstanding the vast additions that all the railways have made to their rolling stock and motive power in recent years, and the enormous amounts spent in building branches and double tracking portions of their main lines, and increasing their terminal facilities, they are still unable expeditiously to cope with the present superabundance of traffic; and this will naturally increase with the growth of population. So the outlook for their stockholders is better than ever.
For his courageous course in unearthing and prosecuting the rebating evil and other wrongdoing, President Roosevelt is entitled to the highest praise; and I reiterate that the heads of railway and other large corporations will best serve their own and the country’s interests by co-operating with him and his administration to secure strict compliance with the law in future, with the hope of clemency for their past violations of law.
That the railway companies always, as a matter of policy, are disposed to be conciliatory and not willing to be openly antagonistic to the enforcement of law, is beyond question. Like the American people, they are law-abiding. We saw an instance of this in the course of the Southern Railway and other Southern lines, in withdrawing their appeal from the State Court to the United States District Court in the rate case, and agreeing to charge only the State rates, namely, two and one-quarter cents a mile, in North Carolina, two and one-half cents in Alabama, and three cents in Virginia, tilla decision on the constitutionality of the State rate laws is rendered by the United States Supreme Court. This concession was avowedly made to avoid further conflict with those States, although the companies were within their legal rights in the appeal they had taken. They were wise.
After the good work the Government has already done in exposing and punishing the rebate evil and other abuses, it would seem that the end in view—namely, their stoppage—has been substantially achieved. I therefore think you will agree with me that the Government can well afford to rest on its secured results and its laurels, and discontinue prosecutions for old offences, while holding all to the strictest accountability for violations of law in the future. The law-breaking corporations have been taught a lesson that they will never forget, and have suffered penalties that they will not be willing to incur again.
By the Government thus showing clemency towards the offenders they would all the more be put on their good behavior, and the clamor against Mr. Roosevelt, in which they have been the leaders, would gradually subside. Those who have been punished by the law are always very likely to have a bad opinion of it, and to retaliate by charging injustice. Hence the old English saying, “No rogue e’er felt the halter draw with good opinion of the law.”
This reminds me that the two international congresses of socialists held in England and Germany in August, one at Cambridge and the other at Stuttgart, showed what large masses of the people there are laboring to overthrow the existing law and order of society by putting restrictions and fetters upon individual achievement, genius, and capacity for good work, and by giving the inferior masses all that they would allow the superior and educated to enjoy, a levelling process entirely inconsistent with Americanism, for it would destroy all incentive to great efforts, and reduce all to a uniformity inimical to progress. Some of the decline in British Consols is attributed to this socialist agitation in England, and notably in the House of Commons, several of its membersbeing radical socialists; and the same is true of Germany and its Parliament.
In Berlin, which has been for some time the storm-center of Europe, socialism and its revolutionary doctrines, and especially the meetings and preachings of the rampant of the socialists, have added to the disturbance, distrust, and depression caused by the monetary situation. There, as here, over-expansion in all directions had over-taxed the money market and glutted the Bourse, the banks, and the speculative capitalists with new issues of securities that were either unsalable, or salable only at a ruinous sacrifice, owing to the heavy shrinkage in prices, and the absence of demand at the low prices. This presents an almost parallel case to our own, except as to the effect of socialistic agitation.
We have too many blatant socialists here, but they are not planted in congenial soil, and their demagoguery and schemes for the destruction of society as it exists will yield no harvest, for in this great country, where all are free and blessed with equal opportunities, there is no reason, no just cause, or excuse for socialism. The agitation in favor of socialism and its doctrines is not American. It is antagonistic to American institutions, and comes almost entirely from those who have fled from oppression and despotism in Russia and elsewhere in the Old World to our shores, and who fail to see, as they should, that the conditions which have given rise to socialism in Europe are entirely different here. So socialism will never take root in the United States, however much it may be agitated by those of foreign birth who reciprocate our hospitality in giving them all the rights of citizenship that we possess ourselves, by advocating the downfall and destruction of our institutions and system of society, which has made this great nation of free and independent citizens what it is to-day, the wonder of the world.
The Bank of France has continuously felt, but resolutely fought against, depressing foreign influences by tenaciously holding on to its gold, and it attracted more of it recently from this country by paying interest in transit. Both London.and Berlin have long been trying hard to get gold from France, but without success. This determined policy, and refusal to finance anything that would take money out of the country, is intended to fortify the Bank of France and French investors against a possible crisis due to their colossal holdings of Russian bonds. France is the guardian and watch dog of monetary Europe.
While the situation in Germany is strained, that country is taking the lead in European manufacturing enterprises, and it is forcing its trade in all parts of the world. To its great expansion in industrial work, the locking up of capital there, in industrial enterprises of all sorts, is chiefly due. Tempted by great expectations capitalists have invested in them very heavily, and induced by high rates of interest the banks, and other large money lenders, have loaned enormously on industrial securities for which there is at present little or no demand from investors, and this conversion of their resources from a cash or liquid form to a form much more fixed than they expected, has very largely curtailed the supply of loanable funds to others, and caused or aggravated the long existing monetary stringency in Berlin. Yet, strange to say, Germany uses very few bank checks. The German Government, however, is about to consider a plan for regulating their issue and use. Even the Government salaries, aggregating $211,344,000, or 888 million marks, a year, are paid wholly in specie. Here we see 18 million dollars a month withdrawn from circulation, to return slowly. This is almost as bad as our Sub-treasury system. No wonder Germany is pinched for money.
One indirect cause, hitherto overlooked, of the prolonged monetary stringency in Europe has been the absorption of gold by Egypt, India and China, and it has been sufficient to largely neutralize the effect of the increased gold product of South Africa, Australia, America and other countries. India has desired gold of late years, instead of silver exclusively, as before, owing to the depreciation in value of the white metal, and China has been secretly absorbing it for thesame reason, and with an ultimate view to placing that nation on a gold basis.
Egypt, however, for several years has been largely buying gold with the proceeds of its large exports, which include a particularly fine quality of long staple cotton that commands a much higher price than ordinary cotton. This gold is extensively hoarded by the Egyptian capitalists instead of being placed in the banks there, and entering into the monetary circulation. The consequence is that it is lost sight of, and lost to the world outside, for Egypt is not only distrustful of banks, but imports very little in comparison with what it exports. So it is enabled to keep what it gets in gold. This seems to me an answer to the question, “What becomes of the new gold?”
The world’s peace in the future is more likely to be disturbed on the Pacific Ocean side than on the Mediterranean. I predict that within the next few years all the great European nations will combine, in friendly relations, offensive and defensive, against the balance of the world, which means against China, Japan and India, that represent two-thirds of the world’s population. If the United States wants to stand aloof and avoid being drawn in on one side or the other, the Philippines must be parted with. The contest of the European nations will be for commerce in the East, and the European powers, especially Russia and Germany, will do all they can to breed trouble between the United States and Japan and would be glad to have both nations crippled through a war. So long as we hang on to the Philippines we will have a war cloud hanging over us. England, owing to her alliance with Japan, is in a better position to take care of the Philippines than we are, and if we could make an honorable deal with England to exchange them for her South American possessions, it would be a good thing for us, as, when the Panama Canal is built, those islands will be of much more advantage to us than the Philippines, and by thus removing the bone of contention we would secure permanent peace. The Philippines will be a great source of expense tous without any possibility of obtaining corresponding advantages; therefore, why retain what will keep a sore spot open as long as we hold on? We are not a colonizing nation—we have territory enough of our own within our own border, while England, on account of her meagre dimensions, requires colonizing for self-existence.
I am inclined to think that it may turn out to have been a mistake for Commodore Perry to have opened the ports of Japan to the world—a caged lion being safer than one let loose. It resulted in Japan building herself up as a power; then followed the war with China, which was instrumental in breaking down China’s exclusive walled-in method of existence. So that now China is also opened to the world like Japan; her 350,000,000 of people will get themselves on a war protecting basis, which will naturally make an alliance with Japan a necessity, and such an alliance will after a while require the European combination as an offset; otherwise, sooner or later some of the European nations will be apt to meet the same fate as old Rome at the hands of the barbarians—simply wiped out of existence. China and Japan will fight for their self-preservation and commercial interests. The 300,000,000 in India will fight for release from Great Britain’s rule, and backed by fanatical inspiration, under skilled leadership, will make a dangerous foe sometime. Hence India’s natural desires will make her akin to China and Japan, arrayed against any foreign foe. So India, China and Japan and the rest of the Orient, when well disciplined and well equipped and led by Japanese generals, will require the combined European nations to hold them in check. The European nations have now had all the wars they want and they have gained through them their present forceful positions of independence, hence all future great wars will be to keep the 900,000,000 of people in Asia in subjection, and it will need all their combined power to do so.
I will now come nearer home and glance at the rising star of the South.
The continued material prosperity of the South is one ofthe best signs of the times, and it has given a legitimate forward impulse to the whole country. This section of the United States is in its natural resources more favored than any other, and presumably will ultimately become the richest. That indeed is its natural destiny under the industrial and agricultural development which will come from the growth of population, the consequent increase in the supply of labor and the progress of education. Here, indeed, you have a splendid prospect where distance lends enchantment to the view, and in aiding, encouraging and stimulating this development, on good business principles, none will be able to render better service than you Southern bankers. Already the South is progressing in actual agricultural and industrial wealth from year to year, and day to day, at a rate that would have seemed fabulous not very long ago; and the banker shares with the farmer this rapidly increasing prosperity, especially if cotton is selling at more than thirteen cents a pound, or even at ten cents. It is, therefore, to the banker’s interest to co-operate with the farmer, for by so doing the benefit becomes mutual. You gentlemen, as Southern bankers, are favored by Providence in being where you have such a wide and splendid field for doing good to others on a safe and conservative basis, at the same time that you are building up the South, and doing good for yourselves in the time-honored business of banking.
While the South is increasing rapidly in actual and substantial wealth, it is a good sign that this wealth is not going into a few hands, but being widely distributed among all grades of the population. The city, the town, the village, the factory and the farm give equal and abundant evidence that all are sharing this boon of material prosperity, resulting from their own industry and the Southern country’s legitimate development. You have, figuratively speaking, only to tickle the soil with a hoe, and it smiles with a harvest.
The South produced last year crops and other raw products valued at two thousand millions of dollars, or four hundred and fifty millions more than all the United States, outside ofthe South produced in 1880; and last year also its manufactured products were valued at two thousand five hundred millions, or five times more than it manufactured in 1880. This is the right kind of expansion.
Last year, too, the increase in the assessed value of property in the South was eleven hundred millions, or three hundred and fifty millions more than the increase between 1890 and 1900. Contrast the increase of seven hundred and sixty millions in that ten-year period with the increase of over sixteen hundred millions in the last two years—1905 and 1906.
Such growth is as phenomenal as it is gratifying, not only to the people of the South but to the people of the whole United States, and it is not a forced but a natural growth. We see it most conspicuously in the development of its industries, for it has now two hundred and fifty millions invested in cotton mills, an amount exceeding the capital invested in cotton mills in all the United States in 1880. This alone is a grand exhibit.
The South also is making pig iron at the rate of three million five hundred thousand tons a year, more than all the rest of the country made in the year 1880, and the capacity of the South for iron and steel making is practically unlimited. Turning to bituminous coal, the South mined eighty-five million tons of it last year, and in the last fiscal year the foreign exports of all kinds from southern ports were valued at seven hundred and thirty-four millions against only about two hundred and fifty millions in 1881. The South may well be proud of all this productiveness.
So great is this material development and so great the consequent demand for transportation facilities, that every railway in the South may well need double tracking, while to keep pace with the South’s present rate of progress, thousands of miles of new railways will have to be constructed every year for many years to come. The South should therefore continue to encourage capital no less than immigration, on a scale extensive enough to meet all its legitimate requirements.This is the work, Gentlemen and Bankers of the South, that lies before you.
Now I come to Kentucky; good old Kentucky—with which is linked the fame of Daniel Boone, and a Civil War record of which it may well be proud.
We in the North, of course, all know that Kentucky is famous for its beautiful women, its handsome men, its splendid race horses of the great blue grass region, and the whiskey of which Colonel Watterson has told us so much and claims to be so fine a judge. His story of “Old Kentucky Bourbon” is a dream of eloquence.
But first of all to engage our attention are the women, whose beauty is only eclipsed by their charm of manner, their refinement and bright intelligence. They represent an aristocracy of the best blood of the American people, and I can testify to their fascinations, for I won, or rather surrendered to, one of the finest of Kentucky’s daughters, after for a long time supposing that my surrender was impossible even to the fairest of the fair; and therefore I am glad to come to Kentucky and to enjoy the privilege of addressing so many of its stalwart sons as are gathered in this distinguished assembly of Kentucky bankers, on the general situation, after the financial storm we have passed through. I indeed almost feel, in the tender words of the popular song, that I have at length reached “My Old Kentucky Home.”
As a border State, you are claimed by both the South and the North, and your hospitality makes visitors from every quarter believe that, no matter where they hail from, Kentucky knows no North, no South, no East, no West, in the welcome she extends to strangers, or friends, from every sister State. When, in after life, these visitors sing the old song, “There’s no place like home,” they will mentally add, “except Kentucky.”
I thank God that to-day we all know the United States as a United Country now and forever, which during the present generation has grown, and is growing, more united, more liberal, in a broader sense, and each section more just andgenerous in seeking to solve the problem of granting equal rights to rich and poor alike.
In closing I desire to impress upon you that I shall always have in my heart a grateful appreciation of your kindness and courtesy in permitting me to meet and address you on this occasion.
At the close of this Address a motion was made that “Mr. Clews be tendered a vote of thanks by the members of the Convention for his very able, very interesting, and most instructive address.”
The President of the Association—who presided—said, “Those in favor of the motion will please rise.” He then declared the vote to be unanimous.