I take decided issue with a certain distinguished gentleman from Maryland, that the existing unrest has been brought about by the national administration at Washington, and by the Chief Executive of our country, and challenge the truth of this assertion. It is both a surprising and ridiculous accusation. The leading men of thought—not only in the United States, but all over the world—agree that if, after the startling exposures of the life insurance and railroad abuses, President Roosevelt had not taken the sturdy and bold stand that he did, the confidence of the public would not only have been severely shaken, but would have been well-nigh uprooted; and such a general spirit of unrest would have followed as to be truly alarming in its nature.
As it was, his level-headed and courageous course was timely and almost providential, and instead of being the subject of adverse criticism, he is entitled to the highest praise from all. Apart from some politicians and a few others, we are indeed all paying him this deserved tribute. He has often shown us that he possesses the courage of his convictions. In conclusion, while we doubtless all agree that the existing social unrest, anxiety and prejudice are to be deplored, may we not also unite in the hope that, under the educating influence of a full discussion of the economic questions of the hour, and with the enforcement of the laws in the hands of an honest and courageous executive, the way to betterment will be thoroughly paved? It is a patriotic duty to endeavor to lessen popular discontent and promote social and political peace and harmony, and substitute public confidence for unrest and the violent agitation of Socialism, and so enhance the manifold blessings we enjoy as American citizens, yes, as citizens of the foremost nation of the world, with a future even grander than its past, a country where Nature is everywhere lavish of her abundance, and freedom and independence are our birthright. Beholding then, my friends, this grand spectacle of national progress and achievement even as it appears to us at this day, it certainly needs no prophetic tongue to foretell with confidence and absolute verity that to the true and ardent patriot and ambitious American, in fact, to every man inspired with lofty ideals and imbued with a spirit and desire for improvement and the perfection of democratic government, the social and political vista of our country’s future will disclose a picture of prosperity and contentment that will prove a glorious inheritance to the coming generations of the American people.
From stereograph. Copyright, 1906, by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
AUGUST BELMONT.
CHAPTER LXXVIII.
THE FINANCIAL SITUATION.[[6]]
[6]. An address delivered by Henry Clews at the Fifteenth Annual Convention of the Kentucky Bankers’ Association in the Auditorium, Seelbach Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky, September 18, 1907.
Mr. President, Members of the Kentucky Bankers’ Association:
As all know, we have recently passed through a crisis of distrust in Wall Street—distrust of corporate credit, and railway and other corporate stocks. This was reflected in what I may call a slow panic, a heavy and prolonged decline on the Stock Exchange under a continuous flood of liquidation by both investors and speculators.
This crisis had been brewing for a long time, and we had a violent intimation of the dangerous and disturbing elements in the financial situation last spring, culminating in the collapse of the stock market in March. But it was not until a United States Court at Chicago inflicted a fine of $29,240,000 on the Standard Oil Company, of Indiana, that investors, and the large capitalists of Wall Street, including Standard Oilers, took alarm. Then the trouble became acute.