Presidential Policies—the Old and the New

     The most remarkable of all state papers have come to the public as a part of the unspeakable tragedy at Buffalo. It happens that President Roosevelt, on September 2d, at Minneapolis, declared himself for governmental policies, without conference or agreement, which were later put into undying phrase at Buffalo by the late President. The addresses are parallel in paramount degree, and when Roosevelt, at his sad inauguration, indorsed [sic] the McKinley policies, he in reality only reannounced his own.
     That the financiers of the country, the most concerned of all men in a sound, unwavering governmental policy, may compare the two remarkable utterances, the essential declarations by each are appended:
     The points in Theodore Roosevelt’s speech, delivered at Minneapolis, September 2, 1901, are:

     “Yet, more and more, it is evident that the State, and, if necessary, the nation, has got to possess the right of supervision and control as regards the great corporations, which are its creatures, particularly as regards the great business combinations, which derive a portion of their importance from the existence of some monopolistic tendency.
     “We must continue the policy that has been so brilliantly successful in the past, and so shape our economic system as to give every advantage to the skill, energy, and intelligence of our farmers, merchants, manufacturers, and wage-workers; and yet we must also remember, in dealing with other nations, that benefits must be given when benefits are sought. . . . Through treaty or by direct legislation it may, at least in certain cases, become advantageous to supplement our present policy by a system of reciprocal benefit and obligation.
     “Throughout a large part of our national career our history has been one of expansion, the expansion being of different kinds at different times. This expansion is not a matter of regret, but of pride. It is vain to tell a people as masterful as ours that the spirit of enterprise is not safe. The true American has never feared to run risks when the prize to be won was of sufficient value.
     “In the Philippines we have brought peace, and we are at this moment giving them such freedom and self-government as they could never under any conceivable conditions have obtained had we turned them loose to sink into a welter of blood and confusion, or to become the prey of some strong [108][110] tyranny, without or within. The bare recital of the facts is sufficient to show that we did our duty; and what prouder title to honor can a nation have than to have done its duty? We have done our duty to ourselves, and we have done the higher duty of promoting the civilization of mankind.”

     The points in William McKinley’s speech, delivered at Buffalo September 5, 1901, are:

     “Reciprocity is the natural outgrowth of our wonderful industrial development under the domestic policy now firmly established. What we produce beyond our domestic consumption must have a vent abroad. The excess must be relieved through a foreign outlet, and we should sell everywhere we can, and buy wherever the buying will enlarge our sales and productions, and thereby make a greater demand for home labor[.]
     “If, perchance, some of our tariffs are no longer needed for revenue or to encourage and protect our industries at home, why should they not be employed to extend and promote our markets abroad?
     “We must encourage our merchant marine. We must have more ships. They must be under the American flag, built and manned and owned by Americans. These will not only be profitable in a commercial sense; they will be messengers of peace and amity wherever they go.
     “We must build the isthmian canal, which will unite the two oceans and give a straight line of water communication with the western coast of Central and South America and Mexico. The construction of a Pacific cable cannot be longer postponed.
     “Expositions are the timekeepers of progress. They record the world’s advancement. They stimulate the energy, enterprise, and intellect of the people and quicken human genius. They go into the home. They broaden and brighten the daily life of the people. They open mighty storehouses of information to the student.
     “Our earnest prayer is that God will graciously vouchsafe prosperity, happiness, and peace to all our neighbors and like blessings to all the peoples and powers of earth.”

     The BANKER could do its readers no greater service than to emphasize the strong points in these two remarkable addresses. In everything vital they agree. They were made only three days apart without knowledge that they would become historical. The one a legacy, the other a policy of government[.]