And State Papers 297 



rooted and stands on a firm basis because it is due 

 to the fact that the average American has in him the 

 stuff out of which victors are made in the great in 

 dustrial contests of the present day, just as in the 

 great military contests of the past; and because he 

 is now able to use and develop his qualities to best 

 advantage under our well-established economic sys 

 tem. We are winning headship among the nations 

 of the world because our people are able to keep their 

 high average of individual citizenship and to show 

 their mastery in the hard, complex, pushing life of 

 the age. There will be fluctuations from time to 

 time in our prosperity, but it will continue to grow 

 just so long as we keep up this high average of in 

 dividual citizenship and permit it to work out its 

 own salvation under proper economic legislation. 



The present phenomenal prosperity has been won 

 lunder a tariff which was made in accordance with 

 certain fixed and definite principles, the most impor 

 tant of which is an avowed determination to pro 

 tect the interests of the American producer, business 

 man, wage- worker, and farmer alike. The gen 

 eral tariff policy, to which, without regard to changes 

 in detail, I believe this country is irrevocably com 

 mitted, is fundamentally based upon ample recogni 

 tion of the difference between the cost of production 

 that is, the cost of labor here and abroad, and 

 of the need to see to it that our laws shall in no 

 event afford advantage in our own market to foreign 

 industries over American industries, to foreign cap 

 ital over American capital, to foreign labor over 



