330 BANQUET. 



League to maintain the peace of the world. 1 would like to say, gentlemen, that if the peace 

 of the world is to be maintained, it is necessary that the great partners in this enterprise of 

 maintaining peace be partners in, reality, and it is necessary, for people to be partners in 

 reality or nations to be partners in reality, that each of them should be just as free and just 

 as independent in the exercise of their rights in that partnership as it is possible for them 

 to be; and with all kindness to our friends across the sea, it must be patent to them, as it is 

 patent to us, who think about these things, that this great country of the United States of 

 America must never again be left so that she must get behind the shield of the battleships 

 of Great Britain or any other country — and she must never again be in such a position that 

 she cannot transport her soldiers where she would send them, and any conditions which bind 

 us so that we cannot exercise our free right of sovereignly and independence is an intolerable 

 condition and will not make for peace, but will make for disruption and discontent on our 

 part. 



Sometimes you tell an American audience : — "Yes, the George Washington is a fine ship. 

 That is named George Washington after the father of our country, but it is a German ship 

 from stem to stern." I want to say, gentlemen, not only as a shipbuilder, but as an Ameri- 

 can citizen, that in the case of the next big war we get into, we at least should have a con- 

 veyance of our own making for our own Chief Magistrate. (Applause.) ' 



When you tell the people the real reason, as near as you can, of why we must maintain 

 this thing that has been fostered and fashioned, of why we must keep on the seas, and why 

 it is necessary to ward off any attempt to hamper our own commerce, you will find that 

 the people are willing to go to any proper length in order to secure that result. For instance, 

 take the railroads of the country, now a most burning question. What brought them under 

 the control of the government? Twenty-five years ago the railroads in many states prac- 

 tically dominated the politics of those states when it came to any legislation in which it 

 might be interested, and anyone who is only half-way acquainted with the United States 

 knows that, if there is one thing in this country we will not stand, it is the domination of 

 any particular interest, whether it be the interest of capital or the interest of labor. (Ap- 

 plause. ) 



The Interstate Commerce Commission was formed as a political measure in order to 

 curb the railroads. It was realized that whoever controlled the commerce of the country, 

 with proper restrictions, was very apt to control its politics. Yet when you ship your 

 goods through Chicago to the port of Baltimore and on to South America, you control, for 

 example, until the goods g'et to Baltimore, and then you turn them loose, as it were, until they 

 get to South America, and if your ships under your own guidance do not handle them to a 

 reasonable extent, it follows that whoever does handle them has a power over your politics 

 and over your foreign trade, which, no matter how beneficently used, cannot be maintained 

 indefinitely. It seems to me that although we are willing, and more than willing, that all 

 countries should be joined together in advancing the welfare of the world — and we know, 

 for instance, in this great business of cleansing the world, and the carrying trade and com- 



