190 Presidential Addresses 



most important aid which can be contributed by the 

 National Government to the material well-being of 

 the country is to ensure its financial stability. An 

 honest currency is the strongest symbol and expres 

 sion of honest business life. The business world 

 must exist largely on credit, and to credit confidence 

 is essential. Any tampering with the currency, no 

 matter with what purpose, if fraught with the sus 

 picion of dishonesty, in result is fatal in its effects 

 on business prosperity. Very ignorant and primitive 

 communities are continually obliged to learn the ele 

 mentary truth that the repudiation of debts is in the 

 end ruinous to the debtors as a class ; and when com 

 munities have moved somewhat higher in the scale 

 of civilization they also learn that anything in the 

 nature of a debased currency works similar damage. 

 A financial system of assured honesty is the first 

 essential. 



Another essential for any community is perse 

 verance in the economic policy which for a course 

 of years is found best fitted to its peculiar needs. 

 The question of combining such fixedness of eco 

 nomic policy as regards the tariff, while at the same 

 time allowing for a necessary and proper readjust 

 ment of duties in particular schedules, as such re 

 adjustment becomes a matter of pressing impor 

 tance, is not an easy one. It is perhaps too much to 

 expect that from the discussion of such a question 

 it would be possible wholly to eliminate political 

 partisanship. Yet those who believe, as we all must 

 when we think seriously of the subject, that the 



