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Show TREAT IS GIN TO BONNEVILLE i-" GLUB JHEMDERS : Harry A. Wheeler of Chicago Chi-cago Is Heard in Masterly Mas-terly Address on Vital Issues. LASTING PRODUCTS OF WAR IS THEME Speaker Is Introduced in Happy Vein by the Right Rev. Joseph S. Glass. Realization of our own national short-coinings short-coinings and overcoming them, rather than a scarcity of labor and the readjustment read-justment of the world's finances, were set forth as the lasting products of the European war to the United States by Harry A. Wheeler of Chicago in a masterly master-ly address at the Bonneville ulub dinner last night at the Hotel Utah. Mr. Wheeler In no way minimized the seriousness of the financial and labor conditions con-ditions at the close of the war in Europe, Eu-rope, but declared that they would not be of a lasting nature. In his opinion, the price of money and the stale of trade or of the labor market are subject to daily change and readjustment, while the realization re-alization and correction of our national shortcomings are of lasting importance. No address to the Bonneville club since its organization has been more thorough or more far reaching or has received a heartier approval than that of Mr. Wheeler Wheel-er last night. As head and director of Chicago financial institutions, president of the United States Chamber of Commerce Com-merce and member of federal commissions, commis-sions, he lias been given an opportunity accorded few men to study the things vital to our national life. Giver an Ovation. That he made the most of bis opportunities oppor-tunities was reflected in the lucid manner man-ner In which he discussed perplexing problems prob-lems and analyzed our national shortcomings short-comings and their remedies. Such an Impression did the talk make that the 250 persons in attendance at the dinner arose as one man as the speaker sat down and applauded until he had responded re-sponded twice with Courtly bows. President A. N. McKay of the Bonne-villo Bonne-villo club spoke briefly on the club programme pro-gramme for the winter in his Introduction of the Right Rev. Joseph S. Glass, bishop of Salt I,ako, as toastniaster. Bishop Glass proved himself an after-dinner after-dinner speaker of no mean ability and kept the house in an uproar during the five minutes or such that he occupied the floor. After a few preliminary remarks, In which he complimented the Bonneville club, the guest of honor and the slate In general, he confided to his hearers that he still retained a little of the "boost" spirit accumulated in California. Laughter Is Evoked. "In southern California." Bishop Glass said, "no. talk is complete without considerable con-siderable reference to California weather. In Utah we are just getting started, but are making good headway. Our principal subject for boast Is that 75 per cent of the state now is included in the federal reserve and 'just watch us when we get under way.' "Our honored guest is to speak on the 'Uasting Prod nets of tho War.' Now, we have some experience with the present products of the war I assume he refers to the European war, as peace Is still raging in Mexico. Among our products of the war are advances in the prices of metals and practically everything else. We know that copper has gone up; that sliver has gone up; that the cost of living liv-ing has gone up; and the Republican party " At this point the prelate paused and a storm of applause served to fill the Inter-, val. When the demonstration had sub- . sided sufficiently, Bishop Glass added that I "the Republican party hag gone somewhere." some-where." Mr. Wheeler Is Heard. After felicitating the Bonneville club, the toastniaster and the penple of Utah In general, Mr. Wheeler said in tart: In considering the economic effects of the warand the products of which I shall speak are almost wholly economic eco-nomic our minds turn involuntarily to things which Immediately affect our daily lives, and our first concern is with resper-t to the y orld of finance. From one economist we receive a warninir hased upon the fact that the great destruction which Is accompanying accompany-ing the war will operate to destroy some of the real capital of the world and seriously complicate the commercial commer-cial situation when the war Is over and commcn'e Mows again t trough natural channels. From another comes the warning that a continuance of the war over any considerable period may force Europe Eu-rope to demonetize gold, and thus dls-arninge dls-arninge all financial calculations. From ailother. warnings arc received as to 'he Dl-erfets which will follow In the United States when the flood of gold whh-h has been coming In our direction for the laaL two yeaxa begins be-gins to recede. Mostly Speculative. Nearly everything ifl speculative when we try to deal with conditions likely to exist affcr the war is over. We know wealth !s changing ownership, owner-ship, and to some extent changing form; tho gold basis underlying world credit I doereasinc. but the danger point rannol he paid to be In sWIii; neutral nations urn growing richer, as In our own case, nnd the Increased wealth Is bringing to us serious problems prob-lems thrniiMh the mount Ing cost of all com modules; belllgeient nut ions (Ooutinucd on Pago Pour.l HARRY A. WHEELER of Chicago, who delivered a masterly address at the Bonneville club dinner last night. 1 r 1 1 PRODUCTS OF If IS THEME OFJpR Perplexing Problems Are Lucidly Discussed at Dinner Din-ner of the Bonneville Club. (Continued from Page One.) nre growing poorer as the burden of national debt increases and the gold supply diminishes and Is made to support sup-port an over-increasing volume of paper. But It sems to me with the close of the war there will be capital HVfiUahlft for all reconstruction and for nil legitimate enterprise, though Die rateH which that capital will command lire likely to be higher than we have been accustomed to pay during t io last year arid a. half. I do not btlieve tliat fjold will he demonetized. Rig Problem Here. Our problem in t his country is to anticipate the effect of recession in the gold movement. We have an abundance of gold for all purposes if properly impounded, but under our financial fi-nancial plan the federal reserve system sys-tem is powerless to protect itself ude-nuately, ude-nuately, and the distribution of gold in the vaults of stale banks, nal tonal banks and In the coffers of private Indi vidua Is brings dearly home how serious would be our problem if, with the close of the war, we wero compelled com-pelled to stand drafts upon our gold supply to the extent of four or five hundred millions of dollars. Drastic action would then be necessary neces-sary 10 brin g the gold into the federal fed-eral reserve banks, else their supply would be exhausted and the Issuance of federal reserve notes would be impossible, im-possible, owing to the Inability of the bank to support these notes by the 40 per cent of gold required by law, This warning should give bankers and business men serious thought to encourage, congress to so far amend the federal reserve law as to make the federal reset ve note count as reserve re-serve to the national bank, and to permit the exchange of federal notes for gold us an outright purchase in order that there may be accumulated under the reserve system gold enough to meet withdrawals to the extent of half a billion dollars, and, at the same time, leave sufficient to constitute the. basis of such note issue as will be necessary under the federal reserve system when the capital remaining after the war is over flows out over unobst meted commercial highways and Is compelled, in its rather restricted re-stricted form, to do all the work the world will have to do In reconstruction and Ip'Commercial development. Still Another Effect. Another effect upon our financial 'condition will arise from the length- ening of commercial credits. Owing to the unsettled conditions in Europe we have passed to practically a cash basis. With the termination of the war, if we expect to do business abroad, we will not only have to go upon a credit basis, but our credit terms are likely to be of a longer duration thrin we were accustomed to wh-'-n t lie w;i r began. The-iv will no !"HL'pr be large deposits de-posits in this eountiy to anticipate puick;i.s. lc.it. 'Tf-dits of from thiee to six months will W- common rMher than tii; exception if wo hold our portion por-tion of the world trad'-, and there will be a definite gulf which must be bridged by credit facilities in th.s country ca y.t hie of ta king" u p he Pa per and carrying It until maturity. Another consideration has to do with trie labor supply. Immigration fnvored us greatly in this repaid throughout all th" period of our national na-tional development. We have needed an immense number of rough woik-ers, woik-ers, nirri of strength, rather than of brain, to develop our natural resource-.-. The figures of immigra lion are ntrher startling, for whereas in HH.'i our r.et i i nmigi a t ion, largely from southern Kurope, netted us nearly near-ly tiiiU.Oni) Individuals, in the yoy r 191.") we not only tailed to receive immigration im-migration from thes-j countries, but lost of those wii.i wero here between r.0j'JO and r.t,ui o. As to Labor Shortage. Again, we find ourselves concerned with rrsncct to the element of competition com-petition with the resumption of tn-dur-,trhil conditions in Kurope when the prod in- ts of European factories find their w:i v inlo our ports as offering the nc-i.rc.-it neutral market, and the one from which the quickest cash returns can he secured. With our In hot- shortage and hi-:h wage conditions con-ditions whuh have resulted from the abnormal period through which we are now passing, wo are likely to find our in lut-i rial situation much disturbed dis-turbed as industrial conditions of the world become normal and we are compelled com-pelled to adjust ourselves to the new basis of production, effective not only in Kurope, but in the Orient as well. These, of course, are vital problems prob-lems and bear directly upon our prosperity: pros-perity: but are they of paramount i im portunce? Is it not true that they are at best but temporary In effect? The nrice of money and the state of trade or of the labor market are subject to daily changes and readjustment. readjust-ment. They may create temporary Inconvenience and may impose upon us temporary loss or gain, but let us see if there are not certain other products of the war of a character more far reaching, developing conditions condi-tions iin-l.r which we and future generations gen-erations must live and which are to prove the real measuring rod of our prosperity as a nation. Refers to Products. The products of which I shall speak are ten in number. First Our national vision has been turned from our own shortcomings. Now. introspection is not a wholly bad exer.?ise if wisely indulged. It is often desirable that the individual examine himself critically lest he lose the proper sense of his own fallibility and his true relationship to the sphere in which he moves, but Indulged as a practice it tends to uncover the unlovely characteristics of which we are all possessed and to Induce a sort of morbid dissatisfaction with things as they are. Introspection seems to have been our principal national occupation prior to July, 1914. It found the rewards of labor unequally divided, as it always al-ways must, and bred discontent. It discovered certain predatory interests and wrongly Imagined that all success suc-cess was piedatory. It brooded over internal problems until international vision was all but blinded and discord dis-cord and distrust obstructed the path of progress. Awake to Realization. Then one morning we awoke to the fact that our own troubles were insignificant in-significant in comparison to the problems prob-lems confronting the world at large. We rubbed our eyes, took a new look at the very agencies we had spent years in condemning, and lo! we found In them a new source of security and an assurance of independence. To- day we Lave a new perspective, a nd as berweeii business and the public and the federal government there is more of consideiat ion, confidence and good will than has exited since Mr. Koos- -veil's ad mints' ra t ion. This, then, is the first by-product of the war, and is of immense importance, impor-tance, iince !t pnnides the right point of view with which to enter upon a new national era. Second We have attained financial independence, and are beginning lo recognize the opportunities which result re-sult from being able to assume I lie role of iiuernat iona 1 ha nkr. Since the close of U'l-t we have bought back from Kurope about one-half one-half of : he American securities that were owned there; have loaned another an-other bil'ion and a 'naif in Kurope and large --u:ns in Latin America and Canada; have imported more than thi ee-quarters of a billion of sold, and hav; accumulated a vast loaning power without counting the facilities of the federal reserve hanks. Would this have been possible but for the wa r? Our consideration of the field of international finance has always been provincial and not overgenerous. True, we have been pleased to regard re-gard ourselves a debtor nation, and so we have been, but to a rapidly decreasing degree. The war has overturned over-turned our complacent disregard of our responsibility to help finance less favored countries, as we ourselves have been financed in tiie past, and if we are wise e.nough to enter upon a careful study of international hanking, hank-ing, and to use the surplus which has been literally thrust inlo our hands through the great trade balance which has been running in our favor in the past two years, we shall lay the foundations for the permanent" occupation occu-pation of foreign markets in a, manner man-ner that will add greatly to our influence in-fluence in the years lo come. Gaining Development. Third We are gaining a broader industrial development through being compelled to supply ourselves with many commodities heretofore taken from Europe. In the early years of this republic the burden of every presidential message mes-sage to congress was industrial preparednessthe pre-parednessthe need to avoid dependence depen-dence upon foreign powers for any commodity which entered largely in the lives of the people or became necessary nec-essary to national defense. From the experience of the past two years we should learn a new lesson, or an old lesson over again, and determine to be increasingly self-sufficient. Today we are better able to supply "our needs than ever before. It remains re-mains to be seen whether we shall be wise enough, when the war is over, to protect these new industries against destructive competition, but as we stand today we have an industrial development de-velopment calculated to make us self-reliant self-reliant and self-sufficient largely as a by-product of the war. Bigger Version Given. Fourth The war has given us a bigger commercial vision of the part which we must now and hereafter play in the field of export. Our export trade has been a favorable favor-able topic for discussion for a number num-ber of yeas. We have talked of the desirability of creating trade relations with the Orient and with South America Amer-ica through which our products could find a ready foreign market, especialy in time when we were overproducing at home, but no intelligent exploitation exploita-tion has ever been undertaken except ex-cept with respect to those individual industries which, because of the magnitude mag-nitude of their operations and their far-sighted commercial policy, have been led to firmly establish themselves in foreign markets. It is not surprising that the rank and file of business in the United States has been satisfied with the market at home, for that market lias had an unusual development and been capable of absorbing for the most part the ordinary production of our mills. Today, however, we have not only awakened to a new sense of opportunity, op-portunity, but to an absolute responsibility, respon-sibility, and our Industrial life has come to look out beyond the confines of our domestic market, to recognize the advantages of export trade, and to reach out for it with no intention of ever voluntarily relinquishing our hold upon the markets now acquired. Panics at an End. The fifth by-product of the war has been the ability to test the public confidence in the federal reserve act in the light of emergency conditions not that it has been necessary to call any of the extreme provisions of that act into play, but ample opportunity has been offered to measure its efficiency ef-ficiency as a means of supporting both credit and currency and of especially espe-cially noting its imperfections, and the public at large has come to accept it with such confidence that money has not been and is not being withdrawn for hoarding; and, unless public confidence con-fidence is in some other way shaken, we probably have seen the last of our bank panics, arising as they have in the past from lack of confidence and inflexibility of note issue. Sixth There is today a new relationship rela-tionship of confidence and co-operation between the federal government and the business interests. In the years preceding the war our tendency to national introspection impelled im-pelled the government to operate in definite opposition to our industrial life, and the tendency of legislation was to restrain and restrict' our ln-dustidal ln-dustidal development rather than to expand and develop it by co-operative methods. In comparison with the cooperation co-operation which the Industries of Kurope Ku-rope received from the governments of Europe, our conditions were lamentable. lamenta-ble. Today, however, in both the executive execu-tive and the legislative branches of the government tho business man is accepted as a counselor and business is coming to be one of the prime things to be safeguarded. For the first time in many years the government govern-ment is giving definite, serious and sensible co-operation to business for the development of our industrial life ani for the development of our trade. Big Step Forward. Seventh One of the most astounding astound-ing products of the European war is the enactment of legislation creating creat-ing a tariff commission. It would seem that this question has never been open to an absolutely impartial im-partial judgment by either political party. In the last year of Mr. Taft's administration congress refused to continue the appropriation for the tariff board, advisory to the president, presi-dent, and because the retention of t hat board was yd voca ted by t he Republican party I'resident Wilson was not open to conviction and undertook under-took to find means for gathering tariff facts through existing bureaus In the department of commerce. You will recall in tho last three years how many expedients have been sucgsied. all of which, in view of the emergency conditions sure to exist after the wa r closes, the president has been willing to cast aside, and, wit bout regard to previous a d voeney of methods of tariff revision, the party in nnwer. led by the president, supported sup-ported and parsed the Rainey bill, which. In its general provisions. Is as sound a measure as has at any time been sugefsted for congressional action ac-tion on this subject. Also Is Remarkable. The eighth by-product is almost as remarkable, and If has to do with the creation nf an American merchant marine. It has brought about the determination de-termination to find a way in which to solve this much -discussed problem. prob-lem. The merchant marine has all hut been talked to di'.ith and is still very i si' k from poisonous legislation to which it has been suhje-.. f-d. i It quite true that the business men, expressing I heir opi r.ion through the ( - ki ruber of (jiiniiif rep nf t e United States, are tint in agreement v. ith the administration in some of t hi- relit f in t u;; '. res proposed in tho shipping bill, for n.ither the business men nor t lie people at large are favorable fa-vorable to government ownership, nor are they cunvi nc-d that the experiment experi-ment which the government pro;, oe s to try will he calculated to invite nt ivate capital to participate in the enterprise. What we are ready getting get-ting out of all the discussion is the obliteration of geographical lines and sectional lines with respect to the desirability uf a merchant marine, and the Interior, like the const, has made its voice heard in Washington for a solution of this problem. Quotation Is Given. Let me read to you a paragraph from Washington's second message to congress in 17!"i: "ll requires also that we should not overlook the tendency of a war. and even of preparations for a war, among the ,ia t ii,ns most concerned in active commerce with this country to abridge the means, and thereby at least enhance the price, of transporting transport-ing its valuable productions to their proper markets. I recommend i l to your serious reflections how far and in what mode it may be expedeint to guard against embarrassments f t om t liese contingencies by such en-cou en-cou rage men ts to our own navigation as will render our commerce aud agriculture agri-culture less dependent on foreign bottoms, bot-toms, which may fail us in the very monienis most interesting to both of these great objects." Is not our present, situation here tersely and forcefully stated, and is It not time that we demand action giving us once and for all adequate facilities for transporting ouY products prod-ucts to the markets we are now working work-ing so hard to acquire? The ninth by-product of the war is a sane consideration of national defense, de-fense, hoth economic and military, not as contributing to aggressive action ac-tion or conquest, but in order that we shall be the stronger to enter the conference of nations when the world shall again take up problems of readjustment, and there to exercise an influence which will make a rc-pi-tition of the present European conflict con-flict difficult, if not impossible. In our present practically defenseless defense-less condition, how can we go into conference and request the consideration considera-tion of measures looking towa rd arbitration ar-bitration and conciliation while we ourselves are unprepared either for self-defense or for action in bcbr.lf of a weaker power unjustly attacked? Idea Has Been Abhorrent. The idea of a large standing army and strong navy has always been abhorrent ab-horrent to the people of the United States, yet from the very earliest days our executives have urged the necessity of a strength in some wise comparable to the military and naval strength of Europe in order that we might be prepared for defense and for aggressive action in behalf of humanity. hu-manity. Nothing but such a war as is now being carried on, and such an object lesson as that furnished by Cireat Britain in her unpreparedness for the conflict in which she is now engaged, would arouse the people of the United States to the point of adequate action. We have exhibited an unwarranted confidence in our fancied isolation, a condition which, no matter how worthy of consideration in the early days of the nation, has no weight at the present time, when the very barriers heretofore contributing to our safety have become the highways over which the most disastrous attacks might now be made upon us. People Are a Unit. Tenth The last by-product of the war has to do with national unity. There has been no time in the history his-tory of the United States, not even in revolutionary times, when the people of the country were so much a unit in a patriotic sense as they are today. Independent of where born, they have come, as a result of the revelation of what may transpire under monarchical governments, to realize that there is no better place in which to live and no better people with which to live tlian under the flag of the United States, and, without with-out respect to how they may be hyphenated as a result of place of birth, they are today more completely a unit with respect to support of our own institutions and the integrity of our nation than at any other time in the history of the country. These ten by-products of the war are to me infinitely more important than the state of trade, or the condition con-dition ijf the money market, because they are conditions with which as a people we must live through all the years to come, and which we may improve im-prove to make the United States stand out pre-eminently in leadership and to properly assume its responsibilities among the nations of the world as the foremost power of them all. Country Is Fortunate. The foundations of this nation were not laid in greed nor In selfishness, but that here should be an asylum for all who were wronged and oppressed, where the opportunity for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was freely offered and generously protected, pro-tected, and where the highest principles prin-ciples of civilization and humanity should be upheld. It has been given to us. as a people, to stand' at the crossroads or the world, a beacon lighting the nations to a new civilizalion in which might shall not be right, but in which the duty of the strong shall be to protect the weak, and the rich to succor the poor. Those who gave their lives at Lexington and Concord that a new nation might be born, and at Bull Run and Gettysburg that the Union might not be dissolved, shall be our judges if in this way we fail to uphold up-hold the ideals for which they strove and to proclaim to the world the principles prin-ciples for which such precious sacrifices sacri-fices have been made. |