OSCAR WILDER UNDERWOOD

When the new states of Europe were created by the Treaty of Versailles their new governments, lacking revenue and not daring to impose direct taxes on their people, resorted to the dangerous expedient of imposing high taxes at the border on merchandise seeking to enter their markets from abroad. An immediate slowing down of commerce resulted.

This generation and the one to come will not see the end in fact of the Great War, so far as our economic and social problems are concerned…. the Great War broke all business conditions away from their past moorings and left the world's affairs adrift in a stormy sea without compass or rudder.

The leading factor in the building of business America has been the ready means of communication between the states of the Union, unhampered, for one hundred and fifty years, by artificial barriers to trade. This has enabled us to build up the greatest home market the world has ever known.

We have at last awakened to the realization that foreign and domestic trade are not in separate water-tight compartments--that they flow through the same pipes and seek a common level. We cannot live by ourselves, shut off from the balance of the world, without working harm to our economic system that would require many years for repair.

The Congress of the United States, taken collectively, is a very timid body of men, composed individually of many highly intelligent, honest and industrious members who rarely have the courage to march in a body in advance of public sentiment or of the declared sentiment of their immediate constituencies.

The leading factor in the building of business America has been the ready means of communication between the states of the Union, unhampered, for one hundred and fifty years, by artificial barriers to trade. This has enabled us to build up the greatest home market the world has ever known.

When the new states of Europe were created by the Treaty of Versailles their new governments, lacking revenue and not daring to impose direct taxes on their people, resorted to the dangerous expedient of imposing high taxes at the border on merchandise seeking to enter their markets from abroad. An immediate slowing down of commerce resulted.

We have at last awakened to the realization that foreign and domestic trade are not in separate water-tight compartments--that they flow through the same pipes and seek a common level. We cannot live by ourselves, shut off from the balance of the world, without working harm to our economic system that would require many years for repair.

The Congress of the United States, taken collectively, is a very timid body of men, composed individually of many highly intelligent, honest and industrious members who rarely have the courage to march in a body in advance of public sentiment or of the declared sentiment of their immediate constituencies.

This generation and the one to come will not see the end in fact of the Great War, so far as our economic and social problems are concerned…. the Great War broke all business conditions away from their past moorings and left the world's affairs adrift in a stormy sea without compass or rudder.