It is a very gratifying privilege to come to the Congress with the Republic at peace with all the nations of the world. More, it is equally gratifying to report that our country is not only free from every impending, menace of war, but there are growing assurances of the permanency of the peace which we so deeply cherish. For approximately ten years we have dwelt amid menaces of war or as participants in war's actualities, and the inevitable aftermath, with its disordered conditions, bits added to the difficulties of government which adequately can not be appraised except by, those who are in immediate contact and know the responsibilities. Our tasks would be less difficult if we had only ourselves to consider, but so much of the world was involved, the disordered conditions are so well-nigh universal, even among nations not engaged in actual warfare, that no permanent readjustments can be effected without consideration of our inescapable relationship to world affairs in finance and trade. Indeed, we should be unworthy of our best traditions if we were unmindful of social, moral, and political conditions which are not of direct concern to us, but which do appeal to the human sympathies and the very becoming interest of a people blest with our national good fortune. It is not my purpose to bring to you a program of world restoration. In the main such a program must be worked out by the nations more directly concerned. They must themselves turn to the heroic remedies for the menacing conditions under which they are struggling, then we can help, and we mean to help. We shall do so unselfishly because there is compensation in the consciousness of assisting, selfishly because the commerce and international exchanges in trade, which marked our high tide of fortunate advancement, are possible only when the nations of all continents are restored to stable order and normal relationship. In the main the contribution of this Republic to restored normalcy in the world must come through the initiative of the executive branch of the Government, but the best of intentions and most carefully considered purposes would fail utterly if the sanction and the cooperation of Congress were not cheerfully accorded. I am very sure we shall have no conflict of opinion about constitutional duties or authority. During the anxieties of war, when necessity seemed compelling there were excessive grants of authority and all extraordinary concentration of powers in the Chief Executive. The repeal of war-time legislation and the automatic expirations which attended the peace proclamations have put an end to these emergency excesses but I have the wish to go further 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 necessary ill representative popular government. Encroachment upon the functions of Congress or attempted dictation of its policy are not to be thought of, much less attempted, but there is all insistent 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 Clove Government, mindful as one must be that an address to you is no less it message to all our people, for whom you speak most intimately. Ours is it popular Government through political parties. We divide along political lines, and I would ever have it so. I do not mean that partisan preferences should hinder any public servant in the performance of a conscientious and patriotic official duty. We saw partisan lines utterly obliterated when war imperiled, and our faith in the Republic was riveted anew. We ought not to find these partisan lines obstructing the expeditious solution of the urgent problems of peace. Granting that we are fundamentally a representative popular Government, with political parties the governing agencies, I believe the political party in power should assume responsibility, determine upon policies ill the conference which supplements conventions and election campaigns, and then strive for achievement through adherence to the accepted policy. There is vastly greater security, immensely more of the national viewpoint, much larger and prompter accomplishment where our divisions are along party lines, in the broader and loftier sense, than to divide geographically, or according to pursuits, or personal following. For a century and a third, parties have been charged with responsibility and held to strict accounting. When they fail, they are relieved of authority; and the system has brought its to a national eminence no less than a world example. Necessarily legislation is a matter of compromise. The full ideal is seldom attained. In that meeting of minds necessary to insure results, there must and will be accommodations and compromises, but in the estimate of convictions and sincere purposes the supreme responsibility to national interest must not be ignored. The shield to the high-minded public servant who adheres to party policy is manifest, but the higher purpose is the good of the Republic as a whole. It would be ungracious to withhold acknowledgment of the really large volume and excellent quality of work accomplished by the extraordinary session of Congress which so recently adjourned. I am not unmindful of the very difficult tasks with which you were called to deal, and no one can ignore the insistent conditions which, during recent years, have called for the continued and almost exclusive attention of your membership to public work. It would suggest insincerity if I expressed complete accord with every expression recorded in your roll calls, but we are all agreed about the difficulties and the inevitable divergence of opinion in seeking the reduction, amelioration and readjustment of the burdens of taxation. Later on, when other problems are solved, I shall make some recommendations about renewed consideration of our tax program, but for the immediate time before us we must be content with the billion dollar reduction in the tax draft upon the people, and diminished irritations, banished uncertainty and improved methods of collection. By your sustainment of the rigid economies already inaugurated, with hoped-for extension of these economies and added efficiencies in administration, I believe further reductions may be enacted and hindering burdens abolished. In these urgent economies we shall be immensely assisted by the budget system for which you made provision in the extraordinary session. The first budget is before you. Its preparation is a signal achievement, and the perfection of the system, a thing impossible in the few months available for its initial trial, will mark its enactment as the beginning of the greatest reformation in governmental practices since the beginning of the Republic. There is pending a grant of authority to the administrative branch of the Government for the funding and settlement of our vast foreign loans growing out of our grant of war credits. With the hands of the executive branch held impotent to deal with these debts we are hindering urgent readjustments among our debtors and accomplishing nothing for ourselves. I think it is fair for the Congress to assume that the executive branch of the Government would adopt no major policy in dealing with these matters which would conflict with the purpose of Congress in authorizing the loans, certainly not without asking congressional approval, but there are minor problems incident to prudent loan transactions and the safeguarding of our interests which can not even be attempted without this authorization. It will be helpful to ourselves and it will improve conditions among our debtors if funding and the settlement of defaulted interest may be negotiated. The previous Congress, deeply concerned in behalf of our merchant marine, in 1920 enacted the existing shipping law, designed for the upbuilding of the American merchant marine. Among other things provided to encourage our shipping on the world's seas, the Executive was directed to give notice of the termination of all existing commercial treaties in order to admit of reduced duties on imports carried in American bottoms. During the life of the act no Executive has complied with this order of the Congress. When the present administration came into responsibility it began an early inquiry into the failure to execute the expressed purpose of the Jones Act. Only one conclusion has been possible. Frankly, Members of House and Senate, eager its I am to join you in the making of an American merchant marine commensurate with our commerce, the denouncement of out- commercial treaties would involve us in a chaos of trade relationships and add indescribably to the confusion of the already disordered commercial world. Our power to do so is not disputed, but power and ships, without comity of relationship, will not give us the expanded trade which is inseparably linked with a great merchant marine. Moreover, the applied reduction of duty, for which the treaty denouncements were necessary, encouraged only the carrying of dutiable imports to our shores, while the tonnage which unfurls the flag on the seas is both free and dutiable, and the cargoes which make it nation eminent in trade are outgoing, rather than incoming. It is not my thought to lay the problem before you in detail today. It is desired only to say to you that the executive branch of the Government, uninfluenced by the protest of any nation, for none has been made, is well convinced that your proposal, highly intended and heartily supported here, is so fraught with difficulties and so marked by tendencies to discourage trade expansion, that I invite your tolerance of noncompliance for only a few weeks until a plan may be presented which contemplates no greater draft upon the Public Treasury, and which, though yet too crude to offer it to-day, gives such promise of expanding our merchant marine, that it will argue its own approval. It is enough to say to-day that we are so possessed of ships, and the American intention to establish it merchant marine is so unalterable, that a plain of reimbursement, at no other cost than is contemplated in the existing act, will appeal to the pride and encourage the hope of all the American people. There is before you the completion of the enactment of what has been termed a "permanent " tariff law, the word " permanent " being used to distinguish it from the emergency act which the Congress expedited early in the extraordinary session, and which is the law today. I can not too strongly urge in early completion of this necessary legislation It is needed to stabilize our industry at home; it is essential to make more definite our trade relations abroad. More, it is vital to the preservation of many of our own industries which contribute so notably to the very lifeblood of our Nation. There is now, and there always will be, a storm of conflicting opinion about any tariff revision. We can not go far wrong when we base our tariffs on the policy of preserving the productive activities which enhance employment and add to our national prosperity. Again comes the reminder that we must not be unmindful of world conditions, that peoples are struggling for industrial rehabilitation and that we can not dwell in industrial and commercial exclusion and at the same time do the just thing in aiding world reconstruction and readjustment. We do not seek a selfish aloofness, and we could not profit by it, were it possible. We recognize the necessity of buying wherever we sell, and the permanency of trade lies in its acceptable exchanges. In our pursuit of markets we must give as well as receive. We can not sell to others who do not produce, nor can we buy unless we produce at home. Sensible of every obligation of humanity, commerce and finance, linked as they are in the present world condition, it is not to be argued that we need destroy ourselves to be helpful to others. With all my heart I wish restoration to the peoples blighted by the awful World War, but the process of restoration does not lie in our acceptance of like conditions. It were better to, remain on firm ground, strive for ample employment and high standards of wage at home, and point the way to balanced budgets, rigid economies, and resolute, efficient work as the necessary remedies to cure disaster. Everything relating to trade, among ourselves and among nations, has been expanded, excessive, inflated, abnormal, and there is a madness in finance which no American policy alone will cure. We are a creditor Nation, not by normal processes, but made so by war. It is not an unworthy selfishness to seek to save ourselves, when the processes of that salvation are not only not denied to others, but commended to them. We seek to undermine for others no industry by which they subsist; we are obligated to permit the undermining of none of our own which make for employment and maintained activities. Every contemplation, it little matters in which direction one turns, magnifies the difficulty of tariff legislation, but the necessity of the revision is magnified with it. Doubtless we are justified in seeking a more flexible policy than we have provided heretofore. I hope a way will be found to make for flexibility and elasticity, so that rates may be adjusted to meet unusual and changing conditions which can not be accurately anticipated. There are problems incident to unfair practices, and to exchanges which madness in money have made almost unsolvable. I know of no manner in which to effect this flexibility other than the extension of the powers of the Tariff Commission so that it can adapt itself to it scientific and wholly just administration of the law. I am not unmindful of the constitutional difficulties. These can be met by giving authority to the Chief Executive, who could proclaim additional duties to meet conditions which the Congress may designate. At this point I must disavow any desire to enlarge the Executive's powers or add to the responsibilities of the office. They are already too large. If there were any other plan I would prefer it. The grant of authority to proclaim would necessarily bring the Tariff Commission into new and enlarged activities, because no Executive could discharge such a duty except upon the information acquired and recommendations made by this commission. But the plan is feasible, and the proper functioning of the board would give us a better administration of a defined policy than ever can be made possible by tariff duties prescribed without flexibility. There is a manifest difference of opinion about the merits of American valuation. Many nations have adopted delivery valuation as the basis for collecting duties; that is, they take the cost of the imports delivered at the port of entry as the basis for levying duty. It is no radical departure, in view of varying conditions and the disordered state of money values, to provide for American valuation, but there can not be ignored the danger of such a valuation, brought to the level of our own production costs, making our tariffs prohibitive. It might do so in many instances where imports ought to be encouraged. I believe Congress ought well consider the desirability of the only promising alternative, namely, a provision authorizing proclaimed American valuation, under prescribed conditions, on any given list of articles imported. In this proposed flexibility, authorizing increases to meet conditions so likely to change, there should also be provision for decreases. A rate may be just to-day, and entirely out of proportion six months from to-day. If our tariffs are to be made equitable, and not necessarily burden our imports and hinder our trade abroad, frequent adjustment will be necessary for years to come. Knowing the impossibility of modification by act of Congress for any one or a score of lines without involving a long array of schedules, I think we shall go a long ways toward stabilization, if there is recognition of the Tariff Commission's fitness to recommend urgent changes by proclamation. I am sure about public opinion favoring the early determination of our tariff policy. There have been reassuring signs of a business revival from the deep slump which all the world has been experiencing. Our unemployment, which gave its deep concern only a few weeks ago, has grown encouragingly less, and new assurances and renewed confidence will attend the congressional declaration that American industry will be held secure. Much has been said about the protective policy for ourselves making it impossible for our debtors to discharge their obligations to us. This is a contention not now pressing for decision. If we must choose between a people in idleness pressing for the payment of indebtedness, or a people resuming the normal ways of employment and carrying the credit, let us choose the latter. Sometimes we appraise largest the human ill most vivid in our minds. We have been giving, and are giving now, of our influence and appeals to minimize the likelihood of war and throw off the crushing burdens of armament. It is all very earnest, with a national soul impelling. But a people unemployed, and gaunt with hunger, face a situation quite as disheartening as war, and our greater obligation to-day is to do the Government's part toward resuming productivity and promoting fortunate and remunerative employment. Something more than tariff protection is required by American agriculture. To the farmer has come the earlier and the heavier burdens of readjustment. There is actual depression in our agricultural industry, while agricultural prosperity is absolutely essential to the general prosperity of the country. Congress has sought very earnestly to provide relief. It has promptly given such temporary relief as has been possible, but the call is insistent for the permanent solution. It is inevitable that large crops lower the prices and short crops advance them. No legislation can cure that fundamental law. But there must be some economic solution for the excessive variation in returns for agricultural production. It is rather shocking to be told, and to have the statement strongly supported, that 9,000,000 bales of cotton, raised on American plantations in a given year, will actually be worth more to the producers than 13,000,000 bales would have been. Equally shocking is the statement that 700,000,000 bushels of wheat, raised by American farmers, would bring them more money than a billion bushels. Yet these are not exaggerated statements. In a world where there are tens of millions who need food and clothing which they can not get, such a condition is sure to indict the social system which makes it possible. In the main the remedy lies in distribution and marketing. Every proper encouragement should be given to the cooperative marketing programs. These have proven very helpful to the cooperating communities in Europe. In Russia the cooperative community has become the recognized bulwark of law and order, and saved individualism from engulfment in social paralysis. Ultimately they will be accredited with the salvation of the Russian State. There is the appeal for this experiment. Why not try it? No one challenges the right of the farmer to a larger share of the consumer's pay for his product, no one disputes that we can not live without the farmer. He is justified in rebelling against the transportation cost. (liven a fair return for his labor, he will have less occasion to appeal for financial aid; and given assurance that his labors shall not be in vain, we reassure all the people of a production sufficient to meet our National requirement and guard against disaster. The base of the pyramid of civilization which rests upon the soil is shrinking through the drift of population from farm to city. For a generation we have been expressing more or less concern about this tendency. Economists have warned and statesmen have deplored. We thought for at time that modern conveniences and the more intimate contact would halt the movement, but it has gone steadily on. Perhaps only grim necessity will correct it, but we ought to find a less drastic remedy. The existing scheme of adjusting freight rates hits been favoring the basing points, until industries are attracted to some centers and repelled from others. A great volume of uneconomic and wasteful transportation has attended, and the cost increased accordingly. The grain-milling and meat-packing industries afford ample illustration, and the attending concentration is readily apparent. The menaces in concentration are not limited to the retardingly influences on agriculture. Manifestly the. conditions and terms of railway transportation ought not be permitted to increase this undesirable tendency. We have a just pride in our great cities, but we shall find a greater pride in the Nation, which has it larger distribution of its population into the country, where comparatively self-sufficient smaller communities may blend agricultural and manufacturing interests in harmonious helpfulness and enhanced good fortune. Such a movement contemplates no destruction of things wrought, of investments made, or wealth involved. It only looks to a general policy of transportation of distributed industry, and of highway construction, to encourage the spread of our population and restore the proper balance between city and country. The problem may well have your earnest attention. It has been perhaps the proudest claim of our American civilization that in dealing with human relationships it has constantly moved toward such justice in distributing the product of human energy that it has improved continuously the economic status of the mass of people. Ours has been a highly productive social organization. On the way up from the elemental stages of society we have eliminated slavery and serfdom and are now far on the way to the elimination of poverty. Through the eradication of illiteracy and the diffusion of education mankind has reached a stage where we may fairly say that in the United States equality of opportunity has been attained, though all are not prepared to embrace it. There is, indeed, a too great divergence between the economic conditions of the most and the least favored classes in the community. But even that divergence has now come to the point where we bracket the very poor and the very rich together as the least fortunate classes. Our efforts may well be directed to improving the status of both. While this set of problems is commonly comprehended under the general phrase "Capital and labor," it is really vastly broader. It is a question of social and economic organization. Labor has become a large contributor, through its savings, to the stock of capital; while the people who own the largest individual aggregates of capital are themselves often hard and earnest laborers. Very often it is extremely difficult to draw the line of demarcation between the two groups; to determine whether a particular individual is entitled to be set down as laborer or as capitalist. In a very large proportion of cases lie is both, and when lie is both lie is the most useful citizen. The right of labor to organize is just as fundamental and necessary as is the right of capital to organize. The right of labor to negotiate, to deal with and solve its particular problems in an organized way, through its chosen agents, is just as essential as is the right of capital to organize, to maintain corporations, to limit the liabilities of stockholders. Indeed, we have come to recognize that the limited liability of the citizen as a member of a labor organization closely parallels the limitation of liability of the citizen as a stockholder in a corporation for profit. Along this line of reasoning we shall make the greatest progress toward solution of our problem of capital and labor. In the case of the corporation which enjoys the privilege of limited liability of stockholders, particularly when engaged in in the public service, it I's recognized that the outside public has a large concern which must be protected; and so we provide regulations, restrictions, and in some cases detailed supervision. Likewise in the case of labor organizations, we might well apply similar and equally well-defined principles.of regulation and supervision in order to conserve the public's interests as affected by their operations. Just as it is not desirable that a corporation shall be allowed to impose undue exactions upon the public, so it is not desirable that a labor organization shall be permitted to exact unfair terms of employment or subject the public to actual distresses in order to enforce its terms. Finally, just as we are earnestly seeking for procedures whereby to adjust and settle political differences between nations without resort to war, so we may well look about for means to settle the differences between organized capital and organized labor without resort to those forms of warfare which we recognize under the name of strikes, lockouts, boycotts, and the like. As we have great bodies of law carefully regulating the organization and operations of industrial and financial corporations, as we have treaties and compacts among nations which look to the settlement of differences without the necessity of conflict in arms, so we might well have plans of conference, of common counsel, of mediation, arbitration, and judicial determination in controversies between labor and capital. To accomplish this would involve the necessity to develop a thoroughgoing code of practice in dealing with such affairs It might be well to frankly set forth the superior interest of the community as a whole to either the labor group or the capital group. With rights, privileges, immunities, and modes of organization thus carefully defined, it should be possible to set up judicial or quasi judicial tribunals for the consideration and determination of all disputes which menace the public welfare. In an industrial society such as ours the strike, the lockout, and the boycott are as much out of place and as disastrous in their results as is war or armed revolution in the domain of politics. The same disposition to reasonableness, to conciliation, to recognition of the other side's point of view, the same provision of fair and recognized tribunals and processes, ought to make it possible to solve the one set of questions its easily as the other. I believe the solution is possible. The consideration of such a policy would necessitate the exercise of care and deliberation in the construction of a code and a charter of elemental rights, dealing with the relations of employer and employee. This foundation in the law, dealing with the modern conditions of social and economic life, would hasten the building of the temple of peace in industry which a rejoicing nation would acclaim. After each war, until the last, the Government has been enabled to give homes to its returned soldiers, and a large part of our settlement and development has attended this generous provision of land for the Nation's defenders. There is yet unreserved approximately 200,000,000 acres in the public domain, 20,000,000 acres of which are known to be susceptible of reclamation and made fit for homes by provision for irrigation. The Government has been assisting in the development of its remaining lands, until the estimated increase in land values in the irrigated sections is full $500,000,000 and the crops of 1920 alone on these lands are estimated to exceed $100,000,000. Under the law authorization these expenditures for development the advances are to be returned and it would be good business for the Government to provide for the reclamation of the remaining 20,000,000 acres, in addition to expediting the completion of projects long under way. Under what is known as the coal and gas lease law, applicable also to deposits of phosphates and other minerals on the public domain, leases are now being made on the royalty basis, and are producing large revenues to the Government. Under this legislation, 10 per centum of all royalties is to be paid directly to the Federal Treasury, and of the remainder 50 per centum is to be used for reclamation of arid lands by irrigation, and 40 per centum. is to be paid to the States, in which the operations are located, to be used by them for school and road purposes. These resources are so vast, and the development is affording so reliable a basis of estimate, that the Interior Department expresses the belief that ultimately the present law will add in royalties and payments to the treasuries of the Federal Government and the States containing these public lands a total of $12,000,000,000. This means, of course, an added wealth of many times that sum. These prospects seem to afford every justification of Government advances in reclamation and irrigation. Contemplating the inevitable and desirable increase of population, there is another phase of reclamation full worthy of consideration. There are 79,000,000 acres of swamp and cut-over lands which may be reclaimed and made as valuable as any farm lands we possess. These acres are largely located in Southern States, and the greater proportion is owned by the States or by private citizens. Congress has a report of the survey of this field for reclamation, and the feasibility is established. I gladly commend Federal aid, by way of advances, where State and private participation is assured. Home making is one of the greater benefits which government can bestow. Measures are pending embodying this sound policy to which we may well adhere. It is easily possible to make available permanent homes which will provide, in turn, for prosperous American families, without injurious competition with established activities, or imposition on wealth already acquired. While we are thinking of promoting the fortunes of our own people I am sure there is room in the sympathetic thought of America for fellow human beings who are suffering and dying of starvation in Russia. A severe drought in the Valley of the Volga has plunged 15,000,000 people into grievous famine. Our voluntary agencies are exerting themselves to the utmost to save the lives of children in this area, but it is now evident that unless relief is afforded the loss of life will extend into many millions. America can not be deaf to such a call as that. We do not recognize the government of Russia, nor tolerate the propaganda which emanates therefrom, but we do not forget the traditions of Russian friendship. We may put aside our consideration of all international politics and fundamental differences in government. The big thing is the call of the suffering and the dying. Unreservedly I recommend the appropriation necessary to supply the American Relief Administration with 10,000,000 bushels of corn and 1,000,000 bushels of seed grains, not alone to halt the wave of death through starvation, but to enable spring planting in areas where the seed grains have been exhausted temporarily to stem starvation. The American Relief Administration is directed in Russia by former officers of our own armies, and has fully demonstrated its ability to transport and distribute relief through American hands without hindrance or loss. The time has come to add the Government's support to the wonderful relief already wrought out of the generosity of the American private purse. I am not unaware that we have suffering and privation at home. When it exceeds the capacity for the relief within the States concerned, it will have Federal consideration. It seems to me we should be indifferent to our own heart promptings, and out of accord with the spirit which acclaims the Christmastide, if we do not give out of our national abundance to lighten this burden of woe upon a people blameless and helpless in famine's peril. There are it full score of topics concerning which it would be becoming to address you, and on which I hope to make report at a later time. I have alluded to the things requiring your earlier attention. However, I can not end this limited address without a suggested amendment to the organic law. Many of us belong to that school of thought which is hesitant about altering the fundamental law. I think our tax problems, the tendency of wealth to seek nontaxable investment, and the menacing increase of public debt, Federal, State and municipal-all justify a proposal to change the Constitution so as to end the issue of nontaxable bonds. No action can change the status of the many billions outstanding, but we can guard against future encouragement of capital's paralysis, while a halt in the growth of public indebtedness would be beneficial throughout our whole land. Such a change in the Constitution must be very thoroughly considered before submission. There ought to be known what influence it will have on the inevitable refunding of our vast national debt, how it will operate on the necessary refunding of State and municipal debt, how the advantages of Nation over State and municipality, or the contrary, may be avoided. Clearly the States would not ratify to their own apparent disadvantage. I suggest the consideration because the drift of wealth into nontaxable securities is hindering the flow of large capital to our industries, manufacturing, agricultural, and carrying, until we are discouraging the very activities which make our wealth. Agreeable to your expressed desire and in complete accord with the purposes of the executive branch of the Government, there is in Washington, as you happily know, an International Conference now most earnestly at work on plans for the limitation of armament, a naval holiday, and the just settlement of problems which might develop into causes of international disagreement. It is easy to believe a world-hope is centered on this Capital City. A most gratifying world-accomplishment is not improbable.
It is a very gratifying privilege to come to the Congress with the Republic at peace with all the nations of the world. More, it is equally gratifying to report that our country is not only free from every impending, menace of war, but there are growing assurances of the permanency of the peace which we so deeply cherish. For approximately ten years we have dwelt amid menaces of war or as participants in war's actualities, and the inevitable aftermath, with its disordered conditions, bits added to the difficulties of government which adequately can not be appraised except by, those who are in immediate contact and know the responsibilities. Our tasks would be less difficult if we had only ourselves to consider, but so much of the world was involved, the disordered conditions are so well-nigh universal, even among nations not engaged in actual warfare, that no permanent readjustments can be effected without consideration of our inescapable relationship to world affairs in finance and trade. Indeed, we should be unworthy of our best traditions if we were unmindful of social, moral, and political conditions which are not of direct concern to us, but which do appeal to the human sympathies and the very becoming interest of a people blest with our national good fortune. It is not my purpose to bring to you a program of world restoration. In the main such a program must be worked out by the nations more directly concerned. They must themselves turn to the heroic remedies for the menacing conditions under which they are struggling, then we can help, and we mean to help. We shall do so unselfishly because there is compensation in the consciousness of assisting, selfishly because the commerce and international exchanges in trade, which marked our high tide of fortunate advancement, are possible only when the nations of all continents are restored to stable order and normal relationship. In the main the contribution of this Republic to restored normalcy in the world must come through the initiative of the executive branch of the Government, but the best of intentions and most carefully considered purposes would fail utterly if the sanction and the cooperation of Congress were not cheerfully accorded. I am very sure we shall have no conflict of opinion about constitutional duties or authority. During the anxieties of war, when necessity seemed compelling there were excessive grants of authority and all extraordinary concentration of powers in the Chief Executive. The repeal of war-time legislation and the automatic expirations which attended the peace proclamations have put an end to these emergency excesses but I have the wish to go further 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 necessary ill representative popular government. Encroachment upon the functions of Congress or attempted dictation of its policy are not to be thought of, much less attempted, but there is all insistent 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 Clove Government, mindful as one must be that an address to you is no less it message to all our people, for whom you speak most intimately. Ours is it popular Government through political parties. We divide along political lines, and I would ever have it so. I do not mean that partisan preferences should hinder any public servant in the performance of a conscientious and patriotic official duty. We saw partisan lines utterly obliterated when war imperiled, and our faith in the Republic was riveted anew. We ought not to find these partisan lines obstructing the expeditious solution of the urgent problems of peace. Granting that we are fundamentally a representative popular Government, with political parties the governing agencies, I believe the political party in power should assume responsibility, determine upon policies ill the conference which supplements conventions and election campaigns, and then strive for achievement through adherence to the accepted policy. There is vastly greater security, immensely more of the national viewpoint, much larger and prompter accomplishment where our divisions are along party lines, in the broader and loftier sense, than to divide geographically, or according to pursuits, or personal following. For a century and a third, parties have been charged with responsibility and held to strict accounting. When they fail, they are relieved of authority; and the system has brought its to a national eminence no less than a world example. Necessarily legislation is a matter of compromise. The full ideal is seldom attained. In that meeting of minds necessary to insure results, there must and will be accommodations and compromises, but in the estimate of convictions and sincere purposes the supreme responsibility to national interest must not be ignored. The shield to the high-minded public servant who adheres to party policy is manifest, but the higher purpose is the good of the Republic as a whole. It would be ungracious to withhold acknowledgment of the really large volume and excellent quality of work accomplished by the extraordinary session of Congress which so recently adjourned. I am not unmindful of the very difficult tasks with which you were called to deal, and no one can ignore the insistent conditions which, during recent years, have called for the continued and almost exclusive attention of your membership to public work. It would suggest insincerity if I expressed complete accord with every expression recorded in your roll calls, but we are all agreed about the difficulties and the inevitable divergence of opinion in seeking the reduction, amelioration and readjustment of the burdens of taxation. Later on, when other problems are solved, I shall make some recommendations about renewed consideration of our tax program, but for the immediate time before us we must be content with the billion dollar reduction in the tax draft upon the people, and diminished irritations, banished uncertainty and improved methods of collection. By your sustainment of the rigid economies already inaugurated, with hoped-for extension of these economies and added efficiencies in administration, I believe further reductions may be enacted and hindering burdens abolished. In these urgent economies we shall be immensely assisted by the budget system for which you made provision in the extraordinary session. The first budget is before you. Its preparation is a signal achievement, and the perfection of the system, a thing impossible in the few months available for its initial trial, will mark its enactment as the beginning of the greatest reformation in governmental practices since the beginning of the Republic. There is pending a grant of authority to the administrative branch of the Government for the funding and settlement of our vast foreign loans growing out of our grant of war credits. With the hands of the executive branch held impotent to deal with these debts we are hindering urgent readjustments among our debtors and accomplishing nothing for ourselves. I think it is fair for the Congress to assume that the executive branch of the Government would adopt no major policy in dealing with these matters which would conflict with the purpose of Congress in authorizing the loans, certainly not without asking congressional approval, but there are minor problems incident to prudent loan transactions and the safeguarding of our interests which can not even be attempted without this authorization. It will be helpful to ourselves and it will improve conditions among our debtors if funding and the settlement of defaulted interest may be negotiated. The previous Congress, deeply concerned in behalf of our merchant marine, in 1920 enacted the existing shipping law, designed for the upbuilding of the American merchant marine. Among other things provided to encourage our shipping on the world's seas, the Executive was directed to give notice of the termination of all existing commercial treaties in order to admit of reduced duties on imports carried in American bottoms. During the life of the act no Executive has complied with this order of the Congress. When the present administration came into responsibility it began an early inquiry into the failure to execute the expressed purpose of the Jones Act. Only one conclusion has been possible. Frankly, Members of House and Senate, eager its I am to join you in the making of an American merchant marine commensurate with our commerce, the denouncement of out- commercial treaties would involve us in a chaos of trade relationships and add indescribably to the confusion of the already disordered commercial world. Our power to do so is not disputed, but power and ships, without comity of relationship, will not give us the expanded trade which is inseparably linked with a great merchant marine. Moreover, the applied reduction of duty, for which the treaty denouncements were necessary, encouraged only the carrying of dutiable imports to our shores, while the tonnage which unfurls the flag on the seas is both free and dutiable, and the cargoes which make it nation eminent in trade are outgoing, rather than incoming. It is not my thought to lay the problem before you in detail today. It is desired only to say to you that the executive branch of the Government, uninfluenced by the protest of any nation, for none has been made, is well convinced that your proposal, highly intended and heartily supported here, is so fraught with difficulties and so marked by tendencies to discourage trade expansion, that I invite your tolerance of noncompliance for only a few weeks until a plan may be presented which contemplates no greater draft upon the Public Treasury, and which, though yet too crude to offer it to-day, gives such promise of expanding our merchant marine, that it will argue its own approval. It is enough to say to-day that we are so possessed of ships, and the American intention to establish it merchant marine is so unalterable, that a plain of reimbursement, at no other cost than is contemplated in the existing act, will appeal to the pride and encourage the hope of all the American people. There is before you the completion of the enactment of what has been termed a "permanent " tariff law, the word " permanent " being used to distinguish it from the emergency act which the Congress expedited early in the extraordinary session, and which is the law today. I can not too strongly urge in early completion of this necessary legislation It is needed to stabilize our industry at home; it is essential to make more definite our trade relations abroad. More, it is vital to the preservation of many of our own industries which contribute so notably to the very lifeblood of our Nation. There is now, and there always will be, a storm of conflicting opinion about any tariff revision. We can not go far wrong when we base our tariffs on the policy of preserving the productive activities which enhance employment and add to our national prosperity. Again comes the reminder that we must not be unmindful of world conditions, that peoples are struggling for industrial rehabilitation and that we can not dwell in industrial and commercial exclusion and at the same time do the just thing in aiding world reconstruction and readjustment. We do not seek a selfish aloofness, and we could not profit by it, were it possible. We recognize the necessity of buying wherever we sell, and the permanency of trade lies in its acceptable exchanges. In our pursuit of markets we must give as well as receive. We can not sell to others who do not produce, nor can we buy unless we produce at home. Sensible of every obligation of humanity, commerce and finance, linked as they are in the present world condition, it is not to be argued that we need destroy ourselves to be helpful to others. With all my heart I wish restoration to the peoples blighted by the awful World War, but the process of restoration does not lie in our acceptance of like conditions. It were better to, remain on firm ground, strive for ample employment and high standards of wage at home, and point the way to balanced budgets, rigid economies, and resolute, efficient work as the necessary remedies to cure disaster. Everything relating to trade, among ourselves and among nations, has been expanded, excessive, inflated, abnormal, and there is a madness in finance which no American policy alone will cure. We are a creditor Nation, not by normal processes, but made so by war. It is not an unworthy selfishness to seek to save ourselves, when the processes of that salvation are not only not denied to others, but commended to them. We seek to undermine for others no industry by which they subsist; we are obligated to permit the undermining of none of our own which make for employment and maintained activities. Every contemplation, it little matters in which direction one turns, magnifies the difficulty of tariff legislation, but the necessity of the revision is magnified with it. Doubtless we are justified in seeking a more flexible policy than we have provided heretofore. I hope a way will be found to make for flexibility and elasticity, so that rates may be adjusted to meet unusual and changing conditions which can not be accurately anticipated. There are problems incident to unfair practices, and to exchanges which madness in money have made almost unsolvable. I know of no manner in which to effect this flexibility other than the extension of the powers of the Tariff Commission so that it can adapt itself to it scientific and wholly just administration of the law. I am not unmindful of the constitutional difficulties. These can be met by giving authority to the Chief Executive, who could proclaim additional duties to meet conditions which the Congress may designate. At this point I must disavow any desire to enlarge the Executive's powers or add to the responsibilities of the office. They are already too large. If there were any other plan I would prefer it. The grant of authority to proclaim would necessarily bring the Tariff Commission into new and enlarged activities, because no Executive could discharge such a duty except upon the information acquired and recommendations made by this commission. But the plan is feasible, and the proper functioning of the board would give us a better administration of a defined policy than ever can be made possible by tariff duties prescribed without flexibility. There is a manifest difference of opinion about the merits of American valuation. Many nations have adopted delivery valuation as the basis for collecting duties; that is, they take the cost of the imports delivered at the port of entry as the basis for levying duty. It is no radical departure, in view of varying conditions and the disordered state of money values, to provide for American valuation, but there can not be ignored the danger of such a valuation, brought to the level of our own production costs, making our tariffs prohibitive. It might do so in many instances where imports ought to be encouraged. I believe Congress ought well consider the desirability of the only promising alternative, namely, a provision authorizing proclaimed American valuation, under prescribed conditions, on any given list of articles imported. In this proposed flexibility, authorizing increases to meet conditions so likely to change, there should also be provision for decreases. A rate may be just to-day, and entirely out of proportion six months from to-day. If our tariffs are to be made equitable, and not necessarily burden our imports and hinder our trade abroad, frequent adjustment will be necessary for years to come. Knowing the impossibility of modification by act of Congress for any one or a score of lines without involving a long array of schedules, I think we shall go a long ways toward stabilization, if there is recognition of the Tariff Commission's fitness to recommend urgent changes by proclamation. I am sure about public opinion favoring the early determination of our tariff policy. There have been reassuring signs of a business revival from the deep slump which all the world has been experiencing. Our unemployment, which gave its deep concern only a few weeks ago, has grown encouragingly less, and new assurances and renewed confidence will attend the congressional declaration that American industry will be held secure. Much has been said about the protective policy for ourselves making it impossible for our debtors to discharge their obligations to us. This is a contention not now pressing for decision. If we must choose between a people in idleness pressing for the payment of indebtedness, or a people resuming the normal ways of employment and carrying the credit, let us choose the latter. Sometimes we appraise largest the human ill most vivid in our minds. We have been giving, and are giving now, of our influence and appeals to minimize the likelihood of war and throw off the crushing burdens of armament. It is all very earnest, with a national soul impelling. But a people unemployed, and gaunt with hunger, face a situation quite as disheartening as war, and our greater obligation to-day is to do the Government's part toward resuming productivity and promoting fortunate and remunerative employment. Something more than tariff protection is required by American agriculture. To the farmer has come the earlier and the heavier burdens of readjustment. There is actual depression in our agricultural industry, while agricultural prosperity is absolutely essential to the general prosperity of the country. Congress has sought very earnestly to provide relief. It has promptly given such temporary relief as has been possible, but the call is insistent for the permanent solution. It is inevitable that large crops lower the prices and short crops advance them. No legislation can cure that fundamental law. But there must be some economic solution for the excessive variation in returns for agricultural production. It is rather shocking to be told, and to have the statement strongly supported, that 9,000,000 bales of cotton, raised on American plantations in a given year, will actually be worth more to the producers than 13,000,000 bales would have been. Equally shocking is the statement that 700,000,000 bushels of wheat, raised by American farmers, would bring them more money than a billion bushels. Yet these are not exaggerated statements. In a world where there are tens of millions who need food and clothing which they can not get, such a condition is sure to indict the social system which makes it possible. In the main the remedy lies in distribution and marketing. Every proper encouragement should be given to the cooperative marketing programs. These have proven very helpful to the cooperating communities in Europe. In Russia the cooperative community has become the recognized bulwark of law and order, and saved individualism from engulfment in social paralysis. Ultimately they will be accredited with the salvation of the Russian State. There is the appeal for this experiment. Why not try it? No one challenges the right of the farmer to a larger share of the consumer's pay for his product, no one disputes that we can not live without the farmer. He is justified in rebelling against the transportation cost. (liven a fair return for his labor, he will have less occasion to appeal for financial aid; and given assurance that his labors shall not be in vain, we reassure all the people of a production sufficient to meet our National requirement and guard against disaster. The base of the pyramid of civilization which rests upon the soil is shrinking through the drift of population from farm to city. For a generation we have been expressing more or less concern about this tendency. Economists have warned and statesmen have deplored. We thought for at time that modern conveniences and the more intimate contact would halt the movement, but it has gone steadily on. Perhaps only grim necessity will correct it, but we ought to find a less drastic remedy. The existing scheme of adjusting freight rates hits been favoring the basing points, until industries are attracted to some centers and repelled from others. A great volume of uneconomic and wasteful transportation has attended, and the cost increased accordingly. The grain-milling and meat-packing industries afford ample illustration, and the attending concentration is readily apparent. The menaces in concentration are not limited to the retardingly influences on agriculture. Manifestly the. conditions and terms of railway transportation ought not be permitted to increase this undesirable tendency. We have a just pride in our great cities, but we shall find a greater pride in the Nation, which has it larger distribution of its population into the country, where comparatively self-sufficient smaller communities may blend agricultural and manufacturing interests in harmonious helpfulness and enhanced good fortune. Such a movement contemplates no destruction of things wrought, of investments made, or wealth involved. It only looks to a general policy of transportation of distributed industry, and of highway construction, to encourage the spread of our population and restore the proper balance between city and country. The problem may well have your earnest attention. It has been perhaps the proudest claim of our American civilization that in dealing with human relationships it has constantly moved toward such justice in distributing the product of human energy that it has improved continuously the economic status of the mass of people. Ours has been a highly productive social organization. On the way up from the elemental stages of society we have eliminated slavery and serfdom and are now far on the way to the elimination of poverty. Through the eradication of illiteracy and the diffusion of education mankind has reached a stage where we may fairly say that in the United States equality of opportunity has been attained, though all are not prepared to embrace it. There is, indeed, a too great divergence between the economic conditions of the most and the least favored classes in the community. But even that divergence has now come to the point where we bracket the very poor and the very rich together as the least fortunate classes. Our efforts may well be directed to improving the status of both. While this set of problems is commonly comprehended under the general phrase "Capital and labor," it is really vastly broader. It is a question of social and economic organization. Labor has become a large contributor, through its savings, to the stock of capital; while the people who own the largest individual aggregates of capital are themselves often hard and earnest laborers. Very often it is extremely difficult to draw the line of demarcation between the two groups; to determine whether a particular individual is entitled to be set down as laborer or as capitalist. In a very large proportion of cases lie is both, and when lie is both lie is the most useful citizen. The right of labor to organize is just as fundamental and necessary as is the right of capital to organize. The right of labor to negotiate, to deal with and solve its particular problems in an organized way, through its chosen agents, is just as essential as is the right of capital to organize, to maintain corporations, to limit the liabilities of stockholders. Indeed, we have come to recognize that the limited liability of the citizen as a member of a labor organization closely parallels the limitation of liability of the citizen as a stockholder in a corporation for profit. Along this line of reasoning we shall make the greatest progress toward solution of our problem of capital and labor. In the case of the corporation which enjoys the privilege of limited liability of stockholders, particularly when engaged in in the public service, it I's recognized that the outside public has a large concern which must be protected; and so we provide regulations, restrictions, and in some cases detailed supervision. Likewise in the case of labor organizations, we might well apply similar and equally well-defined principles.of regulation and supervision in order to conserve the public's interests as affected by their operations. Just as it is not desirable that a corporation shall be allowed to impose undue exactions upon the public, so it is not desirable that a labor organization shall be permitted to exact unfair terms of employment or subject the public to actual distresses in order to enforce its terms. Finally, just as we are earnestly seeking for procedures whereby to adjust and settle political differences between nations without resort to war, so we may well look about for means to settle the differences between organized capital and organized labor without resort to those forms of warfare which we recognize under the name of strikes, lockouts, boycotts, and the like. As we have great bodies of law carefully regulating the organization and operations of industrial and financial corporations, as we have treaties and compacts among nations which look to the settlement of differences without the necessity of conflict in arms, so we might well have plans of conference, of common counsel, of mediation, arbitration, and judicial determination in controversies between labor and capital. To accomplish this would involve the necessity to develop a thoroughgoing code of practice in dealing with such affairs It might be well to frankly set forth the superior interest of the community as a whole to either the labor group or the capital group. With rights, privileges, immunities, and modes of organization thus carefully defined, it should be possible to set up judicial or quasi judicial tribunals for the consideration and determination of all disputes which menace the public welfare. In an industrial society such as ours the strike, the lockout, and the boycott are as much out of place and as disastrous in their results as is war or armed revolution in the domain of politics. The same disposition to reasonableness, to conciliation, to recognition of the other side's point of view, the same provision of fair and recognized tribunals and processes, ought to make it possible to solve the one set of questions its easily as the other. I believe the solution is possible. The consideration of such a policy would necessitate the exercise of care and deliberation in the construction of a code and a charter of elemental rights, dealing with the relations of employer and employee. This foundation in the law, dealing with the modern conditions of social and economic life, would hasten the building of the temple of peace in industry which a rejoicing nation would acclaim. After each war, until the last, the Government has been enabled to give homes to its returned soldiers, and a large part of our settlement and development has attended this generous provision of land for the Nation's defenders. There is yet unreserved approximately 200,000,000 acres in the public domain, 20,000,000 acres of which are known to be susceptible of reclamation and made fit for homes by provision for irrigation. The Government has been assisting in the development of its remaining lands, until the estimated increase in land values in the irrigated sections is full $500,000,000 and the crops of 1920 alone on these lands are estimated to exceed $100,000,000. Under the law authorization these expenditures for development the advances are to be returned and it would be good business for the Government to provide for the reclamation of the remaining 20,000,000 acres, in addition to expediting the completion of projects long under way. Under what is known as the coal and gas lease law, applicable also to deposits of phosphates and other minerals on the public domain, leases are now being made on the royalty basis, and are producing large revenues to the Government. Under this legislation, 10 per centum of all royalties is to be paid directly to the Federal Treasury, and of the remainder 50 per centum is to be used for reclamation of arid lands by irrigation, and 40 per centum. is to be paid to the States, in which the operations are located, to be used by them for school and road purposes. These resources are so vast, and the development is affording so reliable a basis of estimate, that the Interior Department expresses the belief that ultimately the present law will add in royalties and payments to the treasuries of the Federal Government and the States containing these public lands a total of $12,000,000,000. This means, of course, an added wealth of many times that sum. These prospects seem to afford every justification of Government advances in reclamation and irrigation. Contemplating the inevitable and desirable increase of population, there is another phase of reclamation full worthy of consideration. There are 79,000,000 acres of swamp and cut-over lands which may be reclaimed and made as valuable as any farm lands we possess. These acres are largely located in Southern States, and the greater proportion is owned by the States or by private citizens. Congress has a report of the survey of this field for reclamation, and the feasibility is established. I gladly commend Federal aid, by way of advances, where State and private participation is assured. Home making is one of the greater benefits which government can bestow. Measures are pending embodying this sound policy to which we may well adhere. It is easily possible to make available permanent homes which will provide, in turn, for prosperous American families, without injurious competition with established activities, or imposition on wealth already acquired. While we are thinking of promoting the fortunes of our own people I am sure there is room in the sympathetic thought of America for fellow human beings who are suffering and dying of starvation in Russia. A severe drought in the Valley of the Volga has plunged 15,000,000 people into grievous famine. Our voluntary agencies are exerting themselves to the utmost to save the lives of children in this area, but it is now evident that unless relief is afforded the loss of life will extend into many millions. America can not be deaf to such a call as that. We do not recognize the government of Russia, nor tolerate the propaganda which emanates therefrom, but we do not forget the traditions of Russian friendship. We may put aside our consideration of all international politics and fundamental differences in government. The big thing is the call of the suffering and the dying. Unreservedly I recommend the appropriation necessary to supply the American Relief Administration with 10,000,000 bushels of corn and 1,000,000 bushels of seed grains, not alone to halt the wave of death through starvation, but to enable spring planting in areas where the seed grains have been exhausted temporarily to stem starvation. The American Relief Administration is directed in Russia by former officers of our own armies, and has fully demonstrated its ability to transport and distribute relief through American hands without hindrance or loss. The time has come to add the Government's support to the wonderful relief already wrought out of the generosity of the American private purse. I am not unaware that we have suffering and privation at home. When it exceeds the capacity for the relief within the States concerned, it will have Federal consideration. It seems to me we should be indifferent to our own heart promptings, and out of accord with the spirit which acclaims the Christmastide, if we do not give out of our national abundance to lighten this burden of woe upon a people blameless and helpless in famine's peril. There are it full score of topics concerning which it would be becoming to address you, and on which I hope to make report at a later time. I have alluded to the things requiring your earlier attention. However, I can not end this limited address without a suggested amendment to the organic law. Many of us belong to that school of thought which is hesitant about altering the fundamental law. I think our tax problems, the tendency of wealth to seek nontaxable investment, and the menacing increase of public debt, Federal, State and municipal-all justify a proposal to change the Constitution so as to end the issue of nontaxable bonds. No action can change the status of the many billions outstanding, but we can guard against future encouragement of capital's paralysis, while a halt in the growth of public indebtedness would be beneficial throughout our whole land. Such a change in the Constitution must be very thoroughly considered before submission. There ought to be known what influence it will have on the inevitable refunding of our vast national debt, how it will operate on the necessary refunding of State and municipal debt, how the advantages of Nation over State and municipality, or the contrary, may be avoided. Clearly the States would not ratify to their own apparent disadvantage. I suggest the consideration because the drift of wealth into nontaxable securities is hindering the flow of large capital to our industries, manufacturing, agricultural, and carrying, until we are discouraging the very activities which make our wealth. Agreeable to your expressed desire and in complete accord with the purposes of the executive branch of the Government, there is in Washington, as you happily know, an International Conference now most earnestly at work on plans for the limitation of armament, a naval holiday, and the just settlement of problems which might develop into causes of international disagreement. It is easy to believe a world-hope is centered on this Capital City. A most gratifying world-accomplishment is not improbable.
it is a very gratifying privilege to come to the congress with the republic at peace with all the nations of the world more it is equally gratifying to report that our country is not only free from every impending menace of war but there are growing assurances of the permanency of the peace which we so deeply cherish for approximately ten years we have dwelt amid menaces of war or as participants in war actualities and the inevitable aftermath with its disordered conditions bits added to the difficulties of government which adequately can not be appraised except by those who are in immediate contact and know the responsibilities our tasks would be less difficult if we had only ourselves to consider but so much of the world was involved the disordered conditions are so universal even among nations not engaged in actual warfare that no permanent readjustments can be effected without consideration of our inescapable relationship to world affairs in finance and trade indeed we should be unworthy of our best traditions if we were unmindful of social moral and political conditions which are not of direct concern to us but which do appeal to the human sympathies and the very becoming interest of a people blest with our national good fortune it is not my purpose to bring to you a program of world restoration in the main such a program must be worked out by the nations more directly concerned they must themselves turn to the heroic remedies for the menacing conditions under which they are struggling then we can help and we mean to help we shall do so unselfishly because there is compensation in the consciousness of assisting selfishly because the commerce and international exchanges in trade which marked our high tide of fortunate advancement are possible only when the nations of all continents are restored to stable order and normal relationship in the main the contribution of this republic to restored normalcy in the world must come through the initiative of the executive branch of the government but the best of intentions and most carefully considered purposes would fail utterly if the sanction and the cooperation of congress were not cheerfully accorded i am very sure we shall have no conflict of opinion about constitutional duties or authority during the anxieties of war when necessity seemed compelling there were excessive grants of authority and all extraordinary concentration of powers in the chief executive the repeal of legislation and the automatic expirations which attended the peace proclamations have put an end to these emergency excesses but i have the wish to go further 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 necessary ill representative popular government encroachment upon the functions of congress or attempted dictation of its policy are not to be thought of much less attempted but there is all insistent 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 clove government mindful as one must be that an address to you is no less it message to all our people for whom you speak most intimately ours is it popular government through political parties we divide along political lines and i would ever have it so i do not mean that partisan preferences should hinder any public servant in the performance of a conscientious and patriotic official duty we saw partisan lines utterly obliterated when war imperiled and our faith in the republic was riveted anew we ought not to find these partisan lines obstructing the expeditious solution of the urgent problems of peace granting that we are fundamentally a representative popular government with political parties the governing agencies i believe the political party in power should assume responsibility determine upon policies ill the conference which supplements conventions and election campaigns and then strive for achievement through adherence to the accepted policy there is vastly greater security immensely more of the national viewpoint much larger and prompter accomplishment where our divisions are along party lines in the broader and loftier sense than to divide geographically or according to pursuits or personal following for a century and a third parties have been charged with responsibility and held to strict accounting when they fail they are relieved of authority and the system has brought its to a national eminence no less than a world example necessarily legislation is a matter of compromise the full ideal is seldom attained in that meeting of minds necessary to insure results there must and will be accommodations and compromises but in the estimate of convictions and sincere purposes the supreme responsibility to national interest must not be ignored the shield to the public servant who adheres to party policy is manifest but the higher purpose is the good of the republic as a whole it would be ungracious to withhold acknowledgment of the really large volume and excellent quality of work accomplished by the extraordinary session of congress which so recently adjourned i am not unmindful of the very difficult tasks with which you were called to deal and no one can ignore the insistent conditions which during recent years have called for the continued and almost exclusive attention of your membership to public work it would suggest insincerity if i expressed complete accord with every expression recorded in your roll calls but we are all agreed about the difficulties and the inevitable divergence of opinion in seeking the reduction amelioration and readjustment of the burdens of taxation later on when other problems are solved i shall make some recommendations about renewed consideration of our tax program but for the immediate time before us we must be content with the billion dollar reduction in the tax draft upon the people and diminished irritations banished uncertainty and improved methods of collection by your sustainment of the rigid economies already inaugurated with extension of these economies and added efficiencies in administration i believe further reductions may be enacted and hindering burdens abolished in these urgent economies we shall be immensely assisted by the budget system for which you made provision in the extraordinary session the first budget is before you its preparation is a signal achievement and the perfection of the system a thing impossible in the few months available for its initial trial will mark its enactment as the beginning of the greatest reformation in governmental practices since the beginning of the republic there is pending a grant of authority to the administrative branch of the government for the funding and settlement of our vast foreign loans growing out of our grant of war credits with the hands of the executive branch held impotent to deal with these debts we are hindering urgent readjustments among our debtors and accomplishing nothing for ourselves i think it is fair for the congress to assume that the executive branch of the government would adopt no major policy in dealing with these matters which would conflict with the purpose of congress in authorizing the loans certainly not without asking congressional approval but there are minor problems incident to prudent loan transactions and the safeguarding of our interests which can not even be attempted without this authorization it will be helpful to ourselves and it will improve conditions among our debtors if funding and the settlement of defaulted interest may be negotiated the previous congress deeply concerned in behalf of our merchant marine in 1920 enacted the existing shipping law designed for the upbuilding of the american merchant marine among other things provided to encourage our shipping on the world seas the executive was directed to give notice of the termination of all existing commercial treaties in order to admit of reduced duties on imports carried in american bottoms during the life of the act no executive has complied with this order of the congress when the present administration came into responsibility it began an early inquiry into the failure to execute the expressed purpose of the jones act only one conclusion has been possible frankly members of house and senate eager its i am to join you in the making of an american merchant marine commensurate with our commerce the denouncement of commercial treaties would involve us in a chaos of trade relationships and add indescribably to the confusion of the already disordered commercial world our power to do so is not disputed but power and ships without comity of relationship will not give us the expanded trade which is inseparably linked with a great merchant marine moreover the applied reduction of duty for which the treaty denouncements were necessary encouraged only the carrying of dutiable imports to our shores while the tonnage which unfurls the flag on the seas is both free and dutiable and the cargoes which make it nation eminent in trade are outgoing rather than incoming it is not my thought to lay the problem before you in detail today it is desired only to say to you that the executive branch of the government uninfluenced by the protest of any nation for none has been made is well convinced that your proposal highly intended and heartily supported here is so fraught with difficulties and so marked by tendencies to discourage trade expansion that i invite your tolerance of noncompliance for only a few weeks until a plan may be presented which contemplates no greater draft upon the public treasury and which though yet too crude to offer it gives such promise of expanding our merchant marine that it will argue its own approval it is enough to say that we are so possessed of ships and the american intention to establish it merchant marine is so unalterable that a plain of reimbursement at no other cost than is contemplated in the existing act will appeal to the pride and encourage the hope of all the american people there is before you the completion of the enactment of what has been termed a permanent tariff law the word permanent being used to distinguish it from the emergency act which the congress expedited early in the extraordinary session and which is the law today i can not too strongly urge in early completion of this necessary legislation it is needed to stabilize our industry at home it is essential to make more definite our trade relations abroad more it is vital to the preservation of many of our own industries which contribute so notably to the very lifeblood of our nation there is now and there always will be a storm of conflicting opinion about any tariff revision we can not go far wrong when we base our tariffs on the policy of preserving the productive activities which enhance employment and add to our national prosperity again comes the reminder that we must not be unmindful of world conditions that peoples are struggling for industrial rehabilitation and that we can not dwell in industrial and commercial exclusion and at the same time do the just thing in aiding world reconstruction and readjustment we do not seek a selfish aloofness and we could not profit by it were it possible we recognize the necessity of buying wherever we sell and the permanency of trade lies in its acceptable exchanges in our pursuit of markets we must give as well as receive we can not sell to others who do not produce nor can we buy unless we produce at home sensible of every obligation of humanity commerce and finance linked as they are in the present world condition it is not to be argued that we need destroy ourselves to be helpful to others with all my heart i wish restoration to the peoples blighted by the awful world war but the process of restoration does not lie in our acceptance of like conditions it were better to remain on firm ground strive for ample employment and high standards of wage at home and point the way to balanced budgets rigid economies and resolute efficient work as the necessary remedies to cure disaster everything relating to trade among ourselves and among nations has been expanded excessive inflated abnormal and there is a madness in finance which no american policy alone will cure we are a creditor nation not by normal processes but made so by war it is not an unworthy selfishness to seek to save ourselves when the processes of that salvation are not only not denied to others but commended to them we seek to undermine for others no industry by which they subsist we are obligated to permit the undermining of none of our own which make for employment and maintained activities every contemplation it little matters in which direction one turns magnifies the difficulty of tariff legislation but the necessity of the revision is magnified with it doubtless we are justified in seeking a more flexible policy than we have provided heretofore i hope a way will be found to make for flexibility and elasticity so that rates may be adjusted to meet unusual and changing conditions which can not be accurately anticipated there are problems incident to unfair practices and to exchanges which madness in money have made almost unsolvable i know of no manner in which to effect this flexibility other than the extension of the powers of the tariff commission so that it can adapt itself to it scientific and wholly just administration of the law i am not unmindful of the constitutional difficulties these can be met by giving authority to the chief executive who could proclaim additional duties to meet conditions which the congress may designate at this point i must disavow any desire to enlarge the executive powers or add to the responsibilities of the office they are already too large if there were any other plan i would prefer it the grant of authority to proclaim would necessarily bring the tariff commission into new and enlarged activities because no executive could discharge such a duty except upon the information acquired and recommendations made by this commission but the plan is feasible and the proper functioning of the board would give us a better administration of a defined policy than ever can be made possible by tariff duties prescribed without flexibility there is a manifest difference of opinion about the merits of american valuation many nations have adopted delivery valuation as the basis for collecting duties that is they take the cost of the imports delivered at the port of entry as the basis for levying duty it is no radical departure in view of varying conditions and the disordered state of money values to provide for american valuation but there can not be ignored the danger of such a valuation brought to the level of our own production costs making our tariffs prohibitive it might do so in many instances where imports ought to be encouraged i believe congress ought well consider the desirability of the only promising alternative namely a provision authorizing proclaimed american valuation under prescribed conditions on any given list of articles imported in this proposed flexibility authorizing increases to meet conditions so likely to change there should also be provision for decreases a rate may be just and entirely out of proportion six months from if our tariffs are to be made equitable and not necessarily burden our imports and hinder our trade abroad frequent adjustment will be necessary for years to come knowing the impossibility of modification by act of congress for any one or a score of lines without involving a long array of schedules i think we shall go a long ways toward stabilization if there is recognition of the tariff commission fitness to recommend urgent changes by proclamation i am sure about public opinion favoring the early determination of our tariff policy there have been reassuring signs of a business revival from the deep slump which all the world has been experiencing our unemployment which gave its deep concern only a few weeks ago has grown encouragingly less and new assurances and renewed confidence will attend the congressional declaration that american industry will be held secure much has been said about the protective policy for ourselves making it impossible for our debtors to discharge their obligations to us this is a contention not now pressing for decision if we must choose between a people in idleness pressing for the payment of indebtedness or a people resuming the normal ways of employment and carrying the credit let us choose the latter sometimes we appraise largest the human ill most vivid in our minds we have been giving and are giving now of our influence and appeals to minimize the likelihood of war and throw off the crushing burdens of armament it is all very earnest with a national soul impelling but a people unemployed and gaunt with hunger face a situation quite as disheartening as war and our greater obligation is to do the government part toward resuming productivity and promoting fortunate and remunerative employment something more than tariff protection is required by american agriculture to the farmer has come the earlier and the heavier burdens of readjustment there is actual depression in our agricultural industry while agricultural prosperity is absolutely essential to the general prosperity of the country congress has sought very earnestly to provide relief it has promptly given such temporary relief as has been possible but the call is insistent for the permanent solution it is inevitable that large crops lower the prices and short crops advance them no legislation can cure that fundamental law but there must be some economic solution for the excessive variation in returns for agricultural production it is rather shocking to be told and to have the statement strongly supported that bales of cotton raised on american plantations in a given year will actually be worth more to the producers than bales would have been equally shocking is the statement that bushels of wheat raised by american farmers would bring them more money than a billion bushels yet these are not exaggerated statements in a world where there are tens of millions who need food and clothing which they can not get such a condition is sure to indict the social system which makes it possible in the main the remedy lies in distribution and marketing every proper encouragement should be given to the cooperative marketing programs these have proven very helpful to the cooperating communities in europe in russia the cooperative community has become the recognized bulwark of law and order and saved individualism from engulfment in social paralysis ultimately they will be accredited with the salvation of the russian state there is the appeal for this experiment why not try it no one challenges the right of the farmer to a larger share of the consumer pay for his product no one disputes that we can not live without the farmer he is justified in rebelling against the transportation cost liven a fair return for his labor he will have less occasion to appeal for financial aid and given assurance that his labors shall not be in vain we reassure all the people of a production sufficient to meet our national requirement and guard against disaster the base of the pyramid of civilization which rests upon the soil is shrinking through the drift of population from farm to city for a generation we have been expressing more or less concern about this tendency economists have warned and statesmen have deplored we thought for at time that modern conveniences and the more intimate contact would halt the movement but it has gone steadily on perhaps only grim necessity will correct it but we ought to find a less drastic remedy the existing scheme of adjusting freight rates hits been favoring the basing points until industries are attracted to some centers and repelled from others a great volume of uneconomic and wasteful transportation has attended and the cost increased accordingly the and industries afford ample illustration and the attending concentration is readily apparent the menaces in concentration are not limited to the retardingly influences on agriculture manifestly the conditions and terms of railway transportation ought not be permitted to increase this undesirable tendency we have a just pride in our great cities but we shall find a greater pride in the nation which has it larger distribution of its population into the country where comparatively smaller communities may blend agricultural and manufacturing interests in harmonious helpfulness and enhanced good fortune such a movement contemplates no destruction of things wrought of investments made or wealth involved it only looks to a general policy of transportation of distributed industry and of highway construction to encourage the spread of our population and restore the proper balance between city and country the problem may well have your earnest attention it has been perhaps the proudest claim of our american civilization that in dealing with human relationships it has constantly moved toward such justice in distributing the product of human energy that it has improved continuously the economic status of the mass of people ours has been a highly productive social organization on the way up from the elemental stages of society we have eliminated slavery and serfdom and are now far on the way to the elimination of poverty through the eradication of illiteracy and the diffusion of education mankind has reached a stage where we may fairly say that in the united states equality of opportunity has been attained though all are not prepared to embrace it there is indeed a too great divergence between the economic conditions of the most and the least favored classes in the community but even that divergence has now come to the point where we bracket the very poor and the very rich together as the least fortunate classes our efforts may well be directed to improving the status of both while this set of problems is commonly comprehended under the general phrase capital and labor it is really vastly broader it is a question of social and economic organization labor has become a large contributor through its savings to the stock of capital while the people who own the largest individual aggregates of capital are themselves often hard and earnest laborers very often it is extremely difficult to draw the line of demarcation between the two groups to determine whether a particular individual is entitled to be set down as laborer or as capitalist in a very large proportion of cases lie is both and when lie is both lie is the most useful citizen the right of labor to organize is just as fundamental and necessary as is the right of capital to organize the right of labor to negotiate to deal with and solve its particular problems in an organized way through its chosen agents is just as essential as is the right of capital to organize to maintain corporations to limit the liabilities of stockholders indeed we have come to recognize that the limited liability of the citizen as a member of a labor organization closely parallels the limitation of liability of the citizen as a stockholder in a corporation for profit along this line of reasoning we shall make the greatest progress toward solution of our problem of capital and labor in the case of the corporation which enjoys the privilege of limited liability of stockholders particularly when engaged in in the public service it i recognized that the outside public has a large concern which must be protected and so we provide regulations restrictions and in some cases detailed supervision likewise in the case of labor organizations we might well apply similar and equally regulation and supervision in order to conserve the public interests as affected by their operations just as it is not desirable that a corporation shall be allowed to impose undue exactions upon the public so it is not desirable that a labor organization shall be permitted to exact unfair terms of employment or subject the public to actual distresses in order to enforce its terms finally just as we are earnestly seeking for procedures whereby to adjust and settle political differences between nations without resort to war so we may well look about for means to settle the differences between organized capital and organized labor without resort to those forms of warfare which we recognize under the name of strikes lockouts boycotts and the like as we have great bodies of law carefully regulating the organization and operations of industrial and financial corporations as we have treaties and compacts among nations which look to the settlement of differences without the necessity of conflict in arms so we might well have plans of conference of common counsel of mediation arbitration and judicial determination in controversies between labor and capital to accomplish this would involve the necessity to develop a thoroughgoing code of practice in dealing with such affairs it might be well to frankly set forth the superior interest of the community as a whole to either the labor group or the capital group with rights privileges immunities and modes of organization thus carefully defined it should be possible to set up judicial or quasi judicial tribunals for the consideration and determination of all disputes which menace the public welfare in an industrial society such as ours the strike the lockout and the boycott are as much out of place and as disastrous in their results as is war or armed revolution in the domain of politics the same disposition to reasonableness to conciliation to recognition of the other side point of view the same provision of fair and recognized tribunals and processes ought to make it possible to solve the one set of questions its easily as the other i believe the solution is possible the consideration of such a policy would necessitate the exercise of care and deliberation in the construction of a code and a charter of elemental rights dealing with the relations of employer and employee this foundation in the law dealing with the modern conditions of social and economic life would hasten the building of the temple of peace in industry which a rejoicing nation would acclaim after each war until the last the government has been enabled to give homes to its returned soldiers and a large part of our settlement and development has attended this generous provision of land for the nation defenders there is yet unreserved approximately acres in the public domain acres of which are known to be susceptible of reclamation and made fit for homes by provision for irrigation the government has been assisting in the development of its remaining lands until the estimated increase in land values in the irrigated sections is full and the crops of 1920 alone on these lands are estimated to exceed under the law authorization these expenditures for development the advances are to be returned and it would be good business for the government to provide for the reclamation of the remaining acres in addition to expediting the completion of projects long under way under what is known as the coal and gas lease law applicable also to deposits of phosphates and other minerals on the public domain leases are now being made on the royalty basis and are producing large revenues to the government under this legislation 10 per centum of all royalties is to be paid directly to the federal treasury and of the remainder 50 per centum is to be used for reclamation of arid lands by irrigation and 40 per centum is to be paid to the states in which the operations are located to be used by them for school and road purposes these resources are so vast and the development is affording so reliable a basis of estimate that the interior department expresses the belief that ultimately the present law will add in royalties and payments to the treasuries of the federal government and the states containing these public lands a total of this means of course an added wealth of many times that sum these prospects seem to afford every justification of government advances in reclamation and irrigation contemplating the inevitable and desirable increase of population there is another phase of reclamation full worthy of consideration there are acres of swamp and lands which may be reclaimed and made as valuable as any farm lands we possess these acres are largely located in southern states and the greater proportion is owned by the states or by private citizens congress has a report of the survey of this field for reclamation and the feasibility is established i gladly commend federal aid by way of advances where state and private participation is assured home making is one of the greater benefits which government can bestow measures are pending embodying this sound policy to which we may well adhere it is easily possible to make available permanent homes which will provide in turn for prosperous american families without injurious competition with established activities or imposition on wealth already acquired while we are thinking of promoting the fortunes of our own people i am sure there is room in the sympathetic thought of america for fellow human beings who are suffering and dying of starvation in russia a severe drought in the valley of the volga has plunged people into grievous famine our voluntary agencies are exerting themselves to the utmost to save the lives of children in this area but it is now evident that unless relief is afforded the loss of life will extend into many millions america can not be deaf to such a call as that we do not recognize the government of russia nor tolerate the propaganda which emanates therefrom but we do not forget the traditions of russian friendship we may put aside our consideration of all international politics and fundamental differences in government the big thing is the call of the suffering and the dying unreservedly i recommend the appropriation necessary to supply the american relief administration with bushels of corn and bushels of seed grains not alone to halt the wave of death through starvation but to enable spring planting in areas where the seed grains have been exhausted temporarily to stem starvation the american relief administration is directed in russia by former officers of our own armies and has fully demonstrated its ability to transport and distribute relief through american hands without hindrance or loss the time has come to add the government support to the wonderful relief already wrought out of the generosity of the american private purse i am not unaware that we have suffering and privation at home when it exceeds the capacity for the relief within the states concerned it will have federal consideration it seems to me we should be indifferent to our own heart promptings and out of accord with the spirit which acclaims the christmastide if we do not give out of our national abundance to lighten this burden of woe upon a people blameless and helpless in famine peril there are it full score of topics concerning which it would be becoming to address you and on which i hope to make report at a later time i have alluded to the things requiring your earlier attention however i can not end this limited address without a suggested amendment to the organic law many of us belong to that school of thought which is hesitant about altering the fundamental law i think our tax problems the tendency of wealth to seek nontaxable investment and the menacing increase of public debt federal state and justify a proposal to change the constitution so as to end the issue of nontaxable bonds no action can change the status of the many billions outstanding but we can guard against future encouragement of capital paralysis while a halt in the growth of public indebtedness would be beneficial throughout our whole land such a change in the constitution must be very thoroughly considered before submission there ought to be known what influence it will have on the inevitable refunding of our vast national debt how it will operate on the necessary refunding of state and municipal debt how the advantages of nation over state and municipality or the contrary may be avoided clearly the states would not ratify to their own apparent disadvantage i suggest the consideration because the drift of wealth into nontaxable securities is hindering the flow of large capital to our industries manufacturing agricultural and carrying until we are discouraging the very activities which make our wealth agreeable to your expressed desire and in complete accord with the purposes of the executive branch of the government there is in washington as you happily know an international conference now most earnestly at work on plans for the limitation of armament a naval holiday and the just settlement of problems which might develop into causes of international disagreement it is easy to believe a is centered on this capital city a most gratifying is not improbable
gratifying privilege come congress republic peace nations world equally gratifying report country free every impending menace war growing assurances permanency peace deeply cherish approximately ten years dwelt amid menaces war participants war actualities inevitable aftermath disordered conditions bits added difficulties government adequately appraised except immediate contact know responsibilities tasks would less difficult consider much world involved disordered conditions universal even among nations engaged actual warfare permanent readjustments effected without consideration inescapable relationship world affairs finance trade indeed unworthy best traditions unmindful social moral political conditions direct concern us appeal human sympathies becoming interest people blest national good fortune purpose bring program world restoration main program must worked nations directly concerned must turn heroic remedies menacing conditions struggling help mean help shall unselfishly compensation consciousness assisting selfishly commerce international exchanges trade marked high tide fortunate advancement possible nations continents restored stable order normal relationship main contribution republic restored normalcy world must come initiative executive branch government best intentions carefully considered purposes would fail utterly sanction cooperation congress cheerfully accorded sure shall conflict opinion constitutional duties authority anxieties war necessity seemed compelling excessive grants authority extraordinary concentration powers chief executive repeal legislation automatic expirations attended peace proclamations put end emergency excesses wish go want join restoring cordial way spirit coordination cooperation mutuality confidence respect necessary ill representative popular government encroachment upon functions congress attempted dictation policy thought much less attempted insistent call harmony purpose concord action speed solution difficult problems confronting legislative executive branches government worth make allusion character clove government mindful one must address less message people speak intimately popular government political parties divide along political lines would ever mean partisan preferences hinder public servant performance conscientious patriotic official duty saw partisan lines utterly obliterated war imperiled faith republic riveted anew ought find partisan lines obstructing expeditious solution urgent problems peace granting fundamentally representative popular government political parties governing agencies believe political party power assume responsibility determine upon policies ill conference supplements conventions election campaigns strive achievement adherence accepted policy vastly greater security immensely national viewpoint much larger prompter accomplishment divisions along party lines broader loftier sense divide geographically according pursuits personal following century third parties charged responsibility held strict accounting fail relieved authority system brought national eminence less world example necessarily legislation matter compromise full ideal seldom attained meeting minds necessary insure results must accommodations compromises estimate convictions sincere purposes supreme responsibility national interest must ignored shield public servant adheres party policy manifest higher purpose good republic whole would ungracious withhold acknowledgment really large volume excellent quality work accomplished extraordinary session congress recently adjourned unmindful difficult tasks called deal one ignore insistent conditions recent years called continued almost exclusive attention membership public work would suggest insincerity expressed complete accord every expression recorded roll calls agreed difficulties inevitable divergence opinion seeking reduction amelioration readjustment burdens taxation later problems solved shall make recommendations renewed consideration tax program immediate time us must content billion dollar reduction tax draft upon people diminished irritations banished uncertainty improved methods collection sustainment rigid economies already inaugurated extension economies added efficiencies administration believe reductions may enacted hindering burdens abolished urgent economies shall immensely assisted budget system made provision extraordinary session first budget preparation signal achievement perfection system thing impossible months available initial trial mark enactment beginning greatest reformation governmental practices since beginning republic pending grant authority administrative branch government funding settlement vast foreign loans growing grant war credits hands executive branch held impotent deal debts hindering urgent readjustments among debtors accomplishing nothing think fair congress assume executive branch government would adopt major policy dealing matters would conflict purpose congress authorizing loans certainly without asking congressional approval minor problems incident prudent loan transactions safeguarding interests even attempted without authorization helpful improve conditions among debtors funding settlement defaulted interest may negotiated previous congress deeply concerned behalf merchant marine 1920 enacted existing shipping law designed upbuilding american merchant marine among things provided encourage shipping world seas executive directed give notice termination existing commercial treaties order admit reduced duties imports carried american bottoms life act executive complied order congress present administration came responsibility began early inquiry failure execute expressed purpose jones act one conclusion possible frankly members house senate eager join making american merchant marine commensurate commerce denouncement commercial treaties would involve us chaos trade relationships add indescribably confusion already disordered commercial world power disputed power ships without comity relationship give us expanded trade inseparably linked great merchant marine moreover applied reduction duty treaty denouncements necessary encouraged carrying dutiable imports shores tonnage unfurls flag seas free dutiable cargoes make nation eminent trade outgoing rather incoming thought lay problem detail today desired say executive branch government uninfluenced protest nation none made well convinced proposal highly intended heartily supported fraught difficulties marked tendencies discourage trade expansion invite tolerance noncompliance weeks plan may presented contemplates greater draft upon public treasury though yet crude offer gives promise expanding merchant marine argue approval enough say possessed ships american intention establish merchant marine unalterable plain reimbursement cost contemplated existing act appeal pride encourage hope american people completion enactment termed permanent tariff law word permanent used distinguish emergency act congress expedited early extraordinary session law today strongly urge early completion necessary legislation needed stabilize industry home essential make definite trade relations abroad vital preservation many industries contribute notably lifeblood nation always storm conflicting opinion tariff revision go far wrong base tariffs policy preserving productive activities enhance employment add national prosperity comes reminder must unmindful world conditions peoples struggling industrial rehabilitation dwell industrial commercial exclusion time thing aiding world reconstruction readjustment seek selfish aloofness could profit possible recognize necessity buying wherever sell permanency trade lies acceptable exchanges pursuit markets must give well receive sell others produce buy unless produce home sensible every obligation humanity commerce finance linked present world condition argued need destroy helpful others heart wish restoration peoples blighted awful world war process restoration lie acceptance like conditions better remain firm ground strive ample employment high standards wage home point way balanced budgets rigid economies resolute efficient work necessary remedies cure disaster everything relating trade among among nations expanded excessive inflated abnormal madness finance american policy alone cure creditor nation normal processes made war unworthy selfishness seek save processes salvation denied others commended seek undermine others industry subsist obligated permit undermining none make employment maintained activities every contemplation little matters direction one turns magnifies difficulty tariff legislation necessity revision magnified doubtless justified seeking flexible policy provided heretofore hope way found make flexibility elasticity rates may adjusted meet unusual changing conditions accurately anticipated problems incident unfair practices exchanges madness money made almost unsolvable know manner effect flexibility extension powers tariff commission adapt scientific wholly administration law unmindful constitutional difficulties met giving authority chief executive could proclaim additional duties meet conditions congress may designate point must disavow desire enlarge executive powers add responsibilities office already large plan would prefer grant authority proclaim would necessarily bring tariff commission new enlarged activities executive could discharge duty except upon information acquired recommendations made commission plan feasible proper functioning board would give us better administration defined policy ever made possible tariff duties prescribed without flexibility manifest difference opinion merits american valuation many nations adopted delivery valuation basis collecting duties take cost imports delivered port entry basis levying duty radical departure view varying conditions disordered state money values provide american valuation ignored danger valuation brought level production costs making tariffs prohibitive might many instances imports ought encouraged believe congress ought well consider desirability promising alternative namely provision authorizing proclaimed american valuation prescribed conditions given list articles imported proposed flexibility authorizing increases meet conditions likely change also provision decreases rate may entirely proportion six months tariffs made equitable necessarily burden imports hinder trade abroad frequent adjustment necessary years come knowing impossibility modification act congress one score lines without involving long array schedules think shall go long ways toward stabilization recognition tariff commission fitness recommend urgent changes proclamation sure public opinion favoring early determination tariff policy reassuring signs business revival deep slump world experiencing unemployment gave deep concern weeks ago grown encouragingly less new assurances renewed confidence attend congressional declaration american industry held secure much said protective policy making impossible debtors discharge obligations us contention pressing decision must choose people idleness pressing payment indebtedness people resuming normal ways employment carrying credit let us choose latter sometimes appraise largest human ill vivid minds giving giving influence appeals minimize likelihood war throw crushing burdens armament earnest national soul impelling people unemployed gaunt hunger face situation quite disheartening war greater obligation government part toward resuming productivity promoting fortunate remunerative employment something tariff protection required american agriculture farmer come earlier heavier burdens readjustment actual depression agricultural industry agricultural prosperity absolutely essential general prosperity country congress sought earnestly provide relief promptly given temporary relief possible call insistent permanent solution inevitable large crops lower prices short crops advance legislation cure fundamental law must economic solution excessive variation returns agricultural production rather shocking told statement strongly supported bales cotton raised american plantations given year actually worth producers bales would equally shocking statement bushels wheat raised american farmers would bring money billion bushels yet exaggerated statements world tens millions need food clothing get condition sure indict social system makes possible main remedy lies distribution marketing every proper encouragement given cooperative marketing programs proven helpful cooperating communities europe russia cooperative community become recognized bulwark law order saved individualism engulfment social paralysis ultimately accredited salvation russian state appeal experiment try one challenges right farmer larger share consumer pay product one disputes live without farmer justified rebelling transportation cost liven fair return labor less occasion appeal financial aid given assurance labors shall vain reassure people production sufficient meet national requirement guard disaster base pyramid civilization rests upon soil shrinking drift population farm city generation expressing less concern tendency economists warned statesmen deplored thought time modern conveniences intimate contact would halt movement gone steadily perhaps grim necessity correct ought find less drastic remedy existing scheme adjusting freight rates hits favoring basing points industries attracted centers repelled others great volume uneconomic wasteful transportation attended cost increased accordingly industries afford ample illustration attending concentration readily apparent menaces concentration limited retardingly influences agriculture manifestly conditions terms railway transportation ought permitted increase undesirable tendency pride great cities shall find greater pride nation larger distribution population country comparatively smaller communities may blend agricultural manufacturing interests harmonious helpfulness enhanced good fortune movement contemplates destruction things wrought investments made wealth involved looks general policy transportation distributed industry highway construction encourage spread population restore proper balance city country problem may well earnest attention perhaps proudest claim american civilization dealing human relationships constantly moved toward justice distributing product human energy improved continuously economic status mass people highly productive social organization way elemental stages society eliminated slavery serfdom far way elimination poverty eradication illiteracy diffusion education mankind reached stage may fairly say united states equality opportunity attained though prepared embrace indeed great divergence economic conditions least favored classes community even divergence come point bracket poor rich together least fortunate classes efforts may well directed improving status set problems commonly comprehended general phrase capital labor really vastly broader question social economic organization labor become large contributor savings stock capital people largest individual aggregates capital often hard earnest laborers often extremely difficult draw line demarcation two groups determine whether particular individual entitled set laborer capitalist large proportion cases lie lie lie useful citizen right labor organize fundamental necessary right capital organize right labor negotiate deal solve particular problems organized way chosen agents essential right capital organize maintain corporations limit liabilities stockholders indeed come recognize limited liability citizen member labor organization closely parallels limitation liability citizen stockholder corporation profit along line reasoning shall make greatest progress toward solution problem capital labor case corporation enjoys privilege limited liability stockholders particularly engaged public service recognized outside public large concern must protected provide regulations restrictions cases detailed supervision likewise case labor organizations might well apply similar equally regulation supervision order conserve public interests affected operations desirable corporation shall allowed impose undue exactions upon public desirable labor organization shall permitted exact unfair terms employment subject public actual distresses order enforce terms finally earnestly seeking procedures whereby adjust settle political differences nations without resort war may well look means settle differences organized capital organized labor without resort forms warfare recognize name strikes lockouts boycotts like great bodies law carefully regulating organization operations industrial financial corporations treaties compacts among nations look settlement differences without necessity conflict arms might well plans conference common counsel mediation arbitration judicial determination controversies labor capital accomplish would involve necessity develop thoroughgoing code practice dealing affairs might well frankly set forth superior interest community whole either labor group capital group rights privileges immunities modes organization thus carefully defined possible set judicial quasi judicial tribunals consideration determination disputes menace public welfare industrial society strike lockout boycott much place disastrous results war armed revolution domain politics disposition reasonableness conciliation recognition side point view provision fair recognized tribunals processes ought make possible solve one set questions easily believe solution possible consideration policy would necessitate exercise care deliberation construction code charter elemental rights dealing relations employer employee foundation law dealing modern conditions social economic life would hasten building temple peace industry rejoicing nation would acclaim war last government enabled give homes returned soldiers large part settlement development attended generous provision land nation defenders yet unreserved approximately acres public domain acres known susceptible reclamation made fit homes provision irrigation government assisting development remaining lands estimated increase land values irrigated sections full crops 1920 alone lands estimated exceed law authorization expenditures development advances returned would good business government provide reclamation remaining acres addition expediting completion projects long way known coal gas lease law applicable also deposits phosphates minerals public domain leases made royalty basis producing large revenues government legislation 10 per centum royalties paid directly federal treasury remainder 50 per centum used reclamation arid lands irrigation 40 per centum paid states operations located used school road purposes resources vast development affording reliable basis estimate interior department expresses belief ultimately present law add royalties payments treasuries federal government states containing public lands total means course added wealth many times sum prospects seem afford every justification government advances reclamation irrigation contemplating inevitable desirable increase population another phase reclamation full worthy consideration acres swamp lands may reclaimed made valuable farm lands possess acres largely located southern states greater proportion owned states private citizens congress report survey field reclamation feasibility established gladly commend federal aid way advances state private participation assured home making one greater benefits government bestow measures pending embodying sound policy may well adhere easily possible make available permanent homes provide turn prosperous american families without injurious competition established activities imposition wealth already acquired thinking promoting fortunes people sure room sympathetic thought america fellow human beings suffering dying starvation russia severe drought valley volga plunged people grievous famine voluntary agencies exerting utmost save lives children area evident unless relief afforded loss life extend many millions america deaf call recognize government russia tolerate propaganda emanates therefrom forget traditions russian friendship may put aside consideration international politics fundamental differences government big thing call suffering dying unreservedly recommend appropriation necessary supply american relief administration bushels corn bushels seed grains alone halt wave death starvation enable spring planting areas seed grains exhausted temporarily stem starvation american relief administration directed russia former officers armies fully demonstrated ability transport distribute relief american hands without hindrance loss time come add government support wonderful relief already wrought generosity american private purse unaware suffering privation home exceeds capacity relief within states concerned federal consideration seems indifferent heart promptings accord spirit acclaims christmastide give national abundance lighten burden woe upon people blameless helpless famine peril full score topics concerning would becoming address hope make report later time alluded things requiring earlier attention however end limited address without suggested amendment organic law many us belong school thought hesitant altering fundamental law think tax problems tendency wealth seek nontaxable investment menacing increase public debt federal state justify proposal change constitution end issue nontaxable bonds action change status many billions outstanding guard future encouragement capital paralysis halt growth public indebtedness would beneficial throughout whole land change constitution must thoroughly considered submission ought known influence inevitable refunding vast national debt operate necessary refunding state municipal debt advantages nation state municipality contrary may avoided clearly states would ratify apparent disadvantage suggest consideration drift wealth nontaxable securities hindering flow large capital industries manufacturing agricultural carrying discouraging activities make wealth agreeable expressed desire complete accord purposes executive branch government washington happily know international conference earnestly work plans limitation armament naval holiday settlement problems might develop causes international disagreement easy believe centered capital city gratifying improbable
gratify privilege come congress republic peace nation world equally gratify report country free every impending menace war grow assurance permanency peace deeply cherish approximately ten year dwell amid menace war participant war actuality inevitable aftermath disorder condition bit add difficulty government adequately appraise except immediate contact know responsibility task would less difficult consider much world involve disordered condition universal even among nation engage actual warfare permanent readjustment effect without consideration inescapable relationship world affair finance trade indeed unworthy best tradition unmindful social moral political condition direct concern u appeal human sympathy become interest people bless national good fortune purpose bring program world restoration main program must work nation directly concern must turn heroic remedy menace condition struggle help mean help shall unselfishly compensation consciousness assist selfishly commerce international exchange trade mark high tide fortunate advancement possible nation continent restore stable order normal relationship main contribution republic restore normalcy world must come initiative executive branch government best intention carefully consider purpose would fail utterly sanction cooperation congress cheerfully accord sure shall conflict opinion constitutional duty authority anxiety war necessity seem compelling excessive grant authority extraordinary concentration power chief executive repeal legislation automatic expiration attend peace proclamation put end emergency excess wish go want join restore cordial way spirit coordination cooperation mutuality confidence respect necessary ill representative popular government encroachment upon function congress attempt dictation policy think much less attempted insistent call harmony purpose concord action speed solution difficult problem confront legislative executive branch government worth make allusion character cleave government mindful one must address less message people speak intimately popular government political party divide along political line would ever mean partisan preference hinder public servant performance conscientious patriotic official duty saw partisan line utterly obliterate war imperil faith republic rivet anew ought find partisan line obstruct expeditious solution urgent problem peace grant fundamentally representative popular government political party govern agency believe political party power assume responsibility determine upon policy ill conference supplement convention election campaign strive achievement adherence accept policy vastly great security immensely national viewpoint much large prompter accomplishment division along party line broad lofty sense divide geographically accord pursuit personal following century third party charge responsibility hold strict accounting fail relieve authority system bring national eminence less world example necessarily legislation matter compromise full ideal seldom attain meet mind necessary insure result must accommodations compromise estimate conviction sincere purpose supreme responsibility national interest must ignore shield public servant adhere party policy manifest high purpose good republic whole would ungracious withhold acknowledgment really large volume excellent quality work accomplish extraordinary session congress recently adjourn unmindful difficult task call deal one ignore insistent condition recent year call continue almost exclusive attention membership public work would suggest insincerity express complete accord every expression record roll call agree difficulty inevitable divergence opinion seek reduction amelioration readjustment burden taxation later problem solve shall make recommendation renew consideration tax program immediate time u must content billion dollar reduction tax draft upon people diminished irritation banish uncertainty improve method collection sustainment rigid economy already inaugurate extension economy add efficiency administration believe reduction may enact hinder burden abolish urgent economy shall immensely assist budget system make provision extraordinary session first budget preparation signal achievement perfection system thing impossible month available initial trial mark enactment begin great reformation governmental practice since begin republic pending grant authority administrative branch government fund settlement vast foreign loan grow grant war credit hand executive branch hold impotent deal debt hinder urgent readjustment among debtor accomplish nothing think fair congress assume executive branch government would adopt major policy deal matter would conflict purpose congress authorize loan certainly without ask congressional approval minor problem incident prudent loan transaction safeguard interest even attempt without authorization helpful improve condition among debtor fund settlement default interest may negotiated previous congress deeply concern behalf merchant marine 1920 enact exist shipping law design upbuilding american merchant marine among thing provide encourage shipping world sea executive direct give notice termination exist commercial treaty order admit reduce duty import carry american bottom life act executive comply order congress present administration come responsibility begin early inquiry failure execute express purpose jones act one conclusion possible frankly member house senate eager join make american merchant marine commensurate commerce denouncement commercial treaty would involve u chaos trade relationship add indescribably confusion already disorder commercial world power dispute power ship without comity relationship give u expand trade inseparably link great merchant marine moreover apply reduction duty treaty denouncement necessary encourage carry dutiable import shore tonnage unfurls flag sea free dutiable cargo make nation eminent trade outgo rather incoming think lay problem detail today desire say executive branch government uninfluenced protest nation none make well convinced proposal highly intend heartily support fraught difficulty mark tendency discourage trade expansion invite tolerance noncompliance week plan may present contemplates great draft upon public treasury though yet crude offer give promise expand merchant marine argue approval enough say possess ship american intention establish merchant marine unalterable plain reimbursement cost contemplate exist act appeal pride encourage hope american people completion enactment term permanent tariff law word permanent use distinguish emergency act congress expedite early extraordinary session law today strongly urge early completion necessary legislation need stabilize industry home essential make definite trade relation abroad vital preservation many industry contribute notably lifeblood nation always storm conflict opinion tariff revision go far wrong base tariff policy preserve productive activity enhance employment add national prosperity come reminder must unmindful world condition people struggle industrial rehabilitation dwell industrial commercial exclusion time thing aid world reconstruction readjustment seek selfish aloofness could profit possible recognize necessity buy wherever sell permanency trade lie acceptable exchange pursuit market must give well receive sell others produce buy unless produce home sensible every obligation humanity commerce finance link present world condition argue need destroy helpful others heart wish restoration people blight awful world war process restoration lie acceptance like condition better remain firm ground strive ample employment high standard wage home point way balance budget rigid economy resolute efficient work necessary remedy cure disaster everything relate trade among among nation expand excessive inflated abnormal madness finance american policy alone cure creditor nation normal process make war unworthy selfishness seek save process salvation deny others commend seek undermine others industry subsist obligate permit undermine none make employment maintain activity every contemplation little matter direction one turn magnifies difficulty tariff legislation necessity revision magnify doubtless justify seek flexible policy provide heretofore hope way find make flexibility elasticity rate may adjust meet unusual change condition accurately anticipate problem incident unfair practice exchange madness money make almost unsolvable know manner effect flexibility extension power tariff commission adapt scientific wholly administration law unmindful constitutional difficulty meet give authority chief executive could proclaim additional duty meet condition congress may designate point must disavow desire enlarge executive power add responsibility office already large plan would prefer grant authority proclaim would necessarily bring tariff commission new enlarged activity executive could discharge duty except upon information acquire recommendation make commission plan feasible proper function board would give u good administration define policy ever make possible tariff duty prescribe without flexibility manifest difference opinion merit american valuation many nation adopt delivery valuation basis collect duty take cost import deliver port entry basis levy duty radical departure view vary condition disorder state money value provide american valuation ignore danger valuation bring level production cost make tariff prohibitive might many instance import ought encourage believe congress ought well consider desirability promise alternative namely provision authorize proclaimed american valuation prescribe condition give list article import proposed flexibility authorize increase meet condition likely change also provision decrease rate may entirely proportion six month tariff make equitable necessarily burden import hinder trade abroad frequent adjustment necessary year come know impossibility modification act congress one score line without involve long array schedule think shall go long way toward stabilization recognition tariff commission fitness recommend urgent change proclamation sure public opinion favor early determination tariff policy reassure sign business revival deep slump world experience unemployment give deep concern week ago grow encouragingly less new assurance renew confidence attend congressional declaration american industry hold secure much say protective policy make impossible debtor discharge obligation u contention press decision must choose people idleness press payment indebtedness people resume normal way employment carry credit let u choose latter sometimes appraise large human ill vivid mind give give influence appeal minimize likelihood war throw crush burden armament earnest national soul impel people unemployed gaunt hunger face situation quite dishearten war great obligation government part toward resume productivity promote fortunate remunerative employment something tariff protection require american agriculture farmer come earlier heavy burden readjustment actual depression agricultural industry agricultural prosperity absolutely essential general prosperity country congress seek earnestly provide relief promptly give temporary relief possible call insistent permanent solution inevitable large crop low price short crop advance legislation cure fundamental law must economic solution excessive variation return agricultural production rather shock tell statement strongly support bale cotton raise american plantation give year actually worth producer bale would equally shock statement bushel wheat raise american farmer would bring money billion bushel yet exaggerated statement world ten million need food clothing get condition sure indict social system make possible main remedy lie distribution marketing every proper encouragement give cooperative marketing program proven helpful cooperate community europe russia cooperative community become recognize bulwark law order save individualism engulfment social paralysis ultimately accredited salvation russian state appeal experiment try one challenge right farmer large share consumer pay product one dispute live without farmer justify rebel transportation cost liven fair return labor less occasion appeal financial aid give assurance labor shall vain reassure people production sufficient meet national requirement guard disaster base pyramid civilization rest upon soil shrink drift population farm city generation express less concern tendency economist warn statesman deplore thought time modern convenience intimate contact would halt movement go steadily perhaps grim necessity correct ought find less drastic remedy exist scheme adjust freight rate hit favor base point industry attract center repel others great volume uneconomic wasteful transportation attend cost increase accordingly industry afford ample illustration attend concentration readily apparent menace concentration limit retardingly influences agriculture manifestly condition term railway transportation ought permit increase undesirable tendency pride great city shall find great pride nation large distribution population country comparatively small community may blend agricultural manufacturing interest harmonious helpfulness enhance good fortune movement contemplate destruction thing work investment make wealth involve look general policy transportation distribute industry highway construction encourage spread population restore proper balance city country problem may well earnest attention perhaps proud claim american civilization deal human relationship constantly move toward justice distribute product human energy improve continuously economic status mass people highly productive social organization way elemental stage society eliminate slavery serfdom far way elimination poverty eradication illiteracy diffusion education mankind reach stage may fairly say united state equality opportunity attain though prepared embrace indeed great divergence economic condition least favored class community even divergence come point bracket poor rich together least fortunate class effort may well direct improve status set problem commonly comprehend general phrase capital labor really vastly broad question social economic organization labor become large contributor saving stock capital people large individual aggregate capital often hard earnest laborer often extremely difficult draw line demarcation two group determine whether particular individual entitle set laborer capitalist large proportion case lie lie lie useful citizen right labor organize fundamental necessary right capital organize right labor negotiate deal solve particular problem organize way choose agent essential right capital organize maintain corporation limit liability stockholder indeed come recognize limited liability citizen member labor organization closely parallels limitation liability citizen stockholder corporation profit along line reason shall make great progress toward solution problem capital labor case corporation enjoy privilege limit liability stockholder particularly engage public service recognize outside public large concern must protect provide regulation restriction case detailed supervision likewise case labor organization might well apply similar equally regulation supervision order conserve public interest affect operation desirable corporation shall allow impose undue exaction upon public desirable labor organization shall permit exact unfair term employment subject public actual distress order enforce term finally earnestly seek procedure whereby adjust settle political difference nation without resort war may well look mean settle difference organize capital organize labor without resort form warfare recognize name strike lockouts boycott like great body law carefully regulate organization operation industrial financial corporation treaty compact among nation look settlement difference without necessity conflict arm might well plan conference common counsel mediation arbitration judicial determination controversy labor capital accomplish would involve necessity develop thoroughgoing code practice deal affair might well frankly set forth superior interest community whole either labor group capital group right privilege immunity mode organization thus carefully define possible set judicial quasi judicial tribunal consideration determination dispute menace public welfare industrial society strike lockout boycott much place disastrous result war arm revolution domain politics disposition reasonableness conciliation recognition side point view provision fair recognize tribunal process ought make possible solve one set question easily believe solution possible consideration policy would necessitate exercise care deliberation construction code charter elemental right deal relation employer employee foundation law deal modern condition social economic life would hasten build temple peace industry rejoice nation would acclaim war last government enable give home return soldier large part settlement development attend generous provision land nation defender yet unreserved approximately acres public domain acre know susceptible reclamation make fit home provision irrigation government assist development remain land estimate increase land value irrigate section full crop 1920 alone land estimate exceed law authorization expenditures development advance return would good business government provide reclamation remain acre addition expedite completion project long way know coal gas lease law applicable also deposit phosphate mineral public domain lease make royalty basis produce large revenue government legislation 10 per centum royalty pay directly federal treasury remainder 50 per centum use reclamation arid land irrigation 40 per centum pay state operation locate used school road purpose resource vast development afford reliable basis estimate interior department express belief ultimately present law add royalties payment treasuries federal government state contain public land total mean course add wealth many time sum prospect seem afford every justification government advance reclamation irrigation contemplate inevitable desirable increase population another phase reclamation full worthy consideration acre swamp land may reclaim make valuable farm land possess acre largely locate southern state great proportion own state private citizen congress report survey field reclamation feasibility establish gladly commend federal aid way advance state private participation assure home make one great benefit government bestow measure pending embody sound policy may well adhere easily possible make available permanent home provide turn prosperous american family without injurious competition establish activity imposition wealth already acquire think promote fortune people sure room sympathetic thought america fellow human being suffer die starvation russia severe drought valley volga plunge people grievous famine voluntary agency exert utmost save live child area evident unless relief afford loss life extend many million america deaf call recognize government russia tolerate propaganda emanate therefrom forget tradition russian friendship may put aside consideration international politics fundamental difference government big thing call suffer die unreservedly recommend appropriation necessary supply american relief administration bushel corn bushel seed grain alone halt wave death starvation enable spring plant area seed grain exhaust temporarily stem starvation american relief administration direct russia former officer army fully demonstrate ability transport distribute relief american hand without hindrance loss time come add government support wonderful relief already wrought generosity american private purse unaware suffer privation home exceed capacity relief within state concerned federal consideration seem indifferent heart prompting accord spirit acclaim christmastide give national abundance lighten burden woe upon people blameless helpless famine peril full score topic concern would become address hope make report late time allude thing require early attention however end limited address without suggested amendment organic law many u belong school think hesitant alter fundamental law think tax problem tendency wealth seek nontaxable investment menace increase public debt federal state justify proposal change constitution end issue nontaxable bond action change status many billion outstanding guard future encouragement capital paralysis halt growth public indebtedness would beneficial throughout whole land change constitution must thoroughly consider submission ought know influence inevitable refund vast national debt operate necessary refund state municipal debt advantage nation state municipality contrary may avoid clearly state would ratify apparent disadvantage suggest consideration drift wealth nontaxable security hinder flow large capital industry manufacture agricultural carry discourage activity make wealth agreeable express desire complete accord purpose executive branch government washington happily know international conference earnestly work plan limitation armament naval holiday settlement problem might develop cause international disagreement easy believe center capital city gratifying improbable