CHAPTER LXXXI.
THE CRISIS OF 1907 AND ITS CAUSES. WAS PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT TO BLAME?[[9]]
[9]. An address to the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, Cleveland, Ohio, Tuesday evening, January 28th, 1908, by Henry Clews.
It gives me great pleasure to meet the members of the Chamber of Commerce of the city of Cleveland.
Next to New York—being from New York I have to make this distinction—next to New York, I consider Cleveland the home of the most worthy set of business men in the United States. Your forefathers chose well when they elected to settle in this beautiful spot. The wisdom which they displayed is proven by the twenty miles of docks on your water front and by the fact that your people own the largest tonnage on the lakes.
The natural resources of your surroundings have made you masters of trade in coal, iron, and petroleum. Your harbors are commodious, and what they lacked in natural formation you have supplied by the famous breakwaters which have been built. Your city is not only a natural business center, but also a railroad center.
Your Euclid Avenue is spoken of in the East as a model to be copied by the lovers of beauty.
Fifty years ago Cleveland was a village. If you continue to thrive as you have, where will you be fifty years hence?
It was in the soil of Cleveland that the seed was planted that has grown and developed into the greatest business plant in the world. To-day the Standard Oil Company commands trade in every country on the face of the globe, and as a body are the greatest merchants that the world has ever known.
Ohio has robbed Virginia of the right to be known as “the mother of Presidents,” and I predict that the Republican Convention to be held this summer will present as its candidate your most famous and honored citizen, Hon. William H. Taft, who will be elected by an overwhelming majority. I suggest that he and Mr. Roosevelt change places—Taft as President and Roosevelt as Secretary of War, or still better, Secretary of the Navy. Then we will be ever alertful and prepared for eventualities both on our Atlantic and Pacific coasts. In this way we will retain the services of both.