HARDWOOD RECORD 



- 34a 



taken either of the cost of financing or the cost of transportation. in Germany, at the present the most advanced nation on the globe 



There is no account talsen of the enormous sums of money that go in that respect, and this is what he said: 



out to foreign countries as the result of investments in our securities, .<care should be taken in the passing'of social legislation lest by 



and I give you this as a fact: If you will add the cost of transporting the creation of a paternalism on the part of a government the 



commodities mo this country and out again, paid to foreign shipping. workman, who is the backbone of a nation, becomes a spineless 



If you will add the cost of exchange and of interest paid to foreign tbing, without initiative, without aggressiveness, and rests back upon 



bankers to finance your foreign shipments, and if you will add to hjs government for protection in all things that relate to his 



that the interest charges against the funds invested in this country ^gn ijeino-. 



and add to that the monev spent by our tourists in the countries ,,™. -.,.,. ,, , , . 



,,f v^-rr.n^ o„^ „,-„, +>,„"(.• II u 1 f i 1 ■ Ihere is the thing that we, as business men, should guard. That 



01 Europe and over the entire world, your balance of trade m vour ■ , ■, ■ ^ ^- , , -, , , « u guaiu. 



f„ , , „^ „„, „ 1 , , , u I. v i , i. 1- A- social legislation should not be opposed, because it will impose a 



favor has not only shrunk to zero, but bv actual computation, there . . . , ^ ,, , . , , . >-«'"'>= miijuse a 



is a deficit of hundreds of millions which must be paid in gold out *"^ T'' °\' '""''' 1 legislation should be encouraged, 



of our own coffers as the result of that program. T. 7 ^7'°'''^ T" . f *'"' ''"''^' '""'''■" '°°''°" *° " 



^ ^ ttat no legislation be passed calculated to take awav the manhood 



We have nothing to be proud of in that connection. Those are of the man who makes the back bone, the fiber and the sinew of 



cold business facts that we, as business men, have to face, and we our country, and our task is the protection of his interest The 



have to find the solution, and the solution is going to be the greater workman will go as far as the radical legislature will permit It 



development of foreign markets, with the ability to lay down our ig for us, as sane, common sense business men to try to find a 



products, not under the courtesy of a foreign shipping trust, but fair ground, and when we have found that ground of equality and 



under the rules and regulations imposed upon an American merchant fairness and justice to ourselves and to our workmen, to endeavor to 



marine that will be operated in the interests of the American impress upon his mind that viewpoint, in order that harmony and 



industry and that will fly our flag in every harbor the world around good will may be restored. 



and carry our products likewise. ,,t , • t ^ ^ ,, , , . 



■' •^ "In conclusion I want to thank this organization for the support 



The third group that I call your attention to is the social group. lyhich it has given the Chamber of Commerce of the United 



I think you will agree with me that the wave of social legislation States. I want to tell you that that organization is not our 



that is sweeping our country is one of the most threatening that organization, Mr. Caldwell's or mine; that it is not some intangible 



confronts the business interests today— minimum wage, maximum thing that has a name but not an existence. It is made up of you; 



honrs, employers ' liability, workingmen 's insurance. Go down through it is doing your work, it is studying your problems ; it is trying 



all the realm of subjects upon which legislation is being thrust upon to find a solution of those difficult questions which today are con- 



the business community, into state legislatures and into the national founding many lines of business. Give it further support, and as 



Congress, and we are face to face with the real problem. Now, you are requested from time to time to record yourselves with 



because of our state sovereignty it is a physical impossibility that a respect to referendums that are presented by that organization, 



uniform federal law shall govern those things that must be governed believe this: Every referendum will be a pro and a con. The argument 



only by the operation of a state law. We may apply hours and that is made against a question will be just as jealously couched, 



wages and insurance and liability, insofar as tlie government's just as carefully drawn as the argument for it. Educationally you 



■employers are concerned regarding federal legislation, but we cannot will be able to find both sides of every question in any referendum 



legislate as to what shall be done in the state of Ohio or the state that may be submitted, but the value of it all is this: When the 



of Illinois, because that is state sovereignty and state sovereignty business men of this country, now affiliated with the CHiamber, 



must rule; but if we are to have a solution of this serious problem, representing more than 350 of the greatest organizations which this 



it lies with the business men, such as we have in our organization. country has produced, representing an individual membership of 



representative of every state in this Union, to see to it that, by some more than 200,000 business firms or business men, when we present 



form of co-operation, through your national organization and ours, to the President or to the Congress at Washington a decision that 



an effort shall be made to unify the state laws upon these subjects, has been made upon any question as the deliberate vote of the 



that there shall be protection given to the workers to the highest business interests of this country, after a referendum, it is bound to 



possible degree that business will stand, but not that the laws of have weight; it is bound to have influence and it will bring about 

 Illinois should be so different from the laws of Ohio or Indiana ^^ that which we have all failed heretofore to get, a hearing, on the 



or New York as to put Illinois manufacturers at a serious dis- ground that we are now, for the first time in the history of our 



advantage, from a competitive point of view, since they have not country, representing the union of business America. 

 to contend with the charges that would go against us in this par- 

 ticular state. 



There is where uniformity is an absolute essential, and I appeal Remarkable Growth in Cement Manufacture 



to you as business men to take it into consideration and, insofar A warning to lumber manufacturers is seen in the remark- 

 as you may, co-operate with us in an endeavor to unify the laws able growth in the Portland cement industry in the United 

 of the several states with respect to these social problems, so that States which has been so rapid recently that its relative standing 

 from the viewpoint of competition, justice and fairness may be among our great industries is realized by few even of those 

 done to all of our commercial interests. directl.v interested. 



These are your problems, three problems that are economic, three Its importance, both commercially and financially, is perhaps 



that are trade problems, three that are social. How are they to be best brought out by comparison with the American iron industry, 



Bolved? They are to be solved only by the advice and counsel of whose standing is everywhere fully understood. The following 



the business men of this country, in conjunction with the legislative table, compiled by E. C. Eckel of the United States Geological 



skill of those whom we send to our legislatures and Congress to Survey, gives the output of pig iron and Portland cement in long 



make our laws; and if we withhold that counsel and advice we will tons during every fifth year from 1880 to 1910, inclusive: 

 suffer the result of legislation that is inimical to our states and 



that will be distinctly of a character to undermine our national Pig iron, 



prosperity. "^"f""'- '^s to°s. 



1880 7.749,233 



We stand in this country as holding advanced views. We believe 188.5 7,415,469 



that we are going to set the pace in social legislation for the thing 1890 9.202,703 



that will guide other nations. A few davs ago there came into mv ^^^^ 9.446,308 



. *,,..,_ '. ® . , -^ \ 1900 13.789.242 



possession a publication by a very prominent social economist and ic,q^, 2'> 99'' 380 



scientist of Germany relative to the operation of social legislation 1910 20,674,123 



