European countries has been backed up by the respective governments in the past and will be backed up, more than ever, in the post-bellum period.

Everywhere else through the civilized world in matters of national policies as they affect business, the representatives of business are consulted and listened to with the respect which is due to expert knowledge.

It is only in America that the views of business men in general (as distinct from the agitation of particular business men or organizations having a special object to serve, such as on the occasion of tariff making in former days) are ignored, their advice brushed aside or even resented, their representatives treated as interlopers.

It is only in America that the exigencies of politics not infrequently, I might almost say habitually, are given precedence over the exigencies of business.

Objectionable methods and practices sometimes resorted to in the past by corporate interests in endeavoring to influence legislation and public opinion have been abandoned beyond resurrection.

It is only fair that with them should be abandoned the habit of politicians, sometimes politicians in very high places, to denounce as "lobbying" every organized effort of large business to oppose tendencies and propositions of legislation deemed by it inimical to the best interests of business and of the country.

It is only fair that there should be abandoned the habit of sneering at and suspecting organized efforts by business men to educate public opinion on questions affecting business and finance as improper attempts to "manufacture" or "accelerate" public opinion.

V

The people are fair-minded and when fully informed, almost invariably wise and right in their judgment, which cannot always be said of their representatives.

When scolded, browbeaten, maligned and harassed, finance may well turn upon its professional fault-finders and challenge comparison.

Finance and financiers have had no mean share in creating organizations and institutions in this country which are models of efficiency and which men from all quarters of the globe come here to study and to admire.

It is the critics of finance and business who—to mention but a few instances—have given to the army aeroplanes that are grossly defective, to the navy submarines that are in constant trouble, who have passed laws which have driven our ships off the seas in the world's trade, and other laws which have mainly brought it about that in the year 1915 less railroad mileage has been constructed in the United States than within any one year since the Civil War.

Just as Congress, by a series of laws, has imposed burdens and costs upon ships operating under the American flag which made it impossible for capital to invest in American ships for use in the world's trade and earn a fair return in normal times, so the Federal and State Legislatures, during the past ten years, have imposed upon the railroads all kinds of exactions, restrictions and increasing costs which have had the result of arresting progress, and which threaten, after the cessation of the present period of abnormal earnings, to seriously lame that vastly important industry.

Congress has done little to indicate that it recognizes the urgency and bigness and significance of the momentous situation which confronts the country.

Nor does it seem inclined to pay serious heed to the views of business—and by that I do not mean the views of business "magnates," but the consensus of opinion of business men in general.

Nor does past experience encourage us to believe that it will pay such heed unless impelled by the instinct of self-preservation.

Amongst the powers for which our friends of both political parties have a wholesome respect, one of the most potent is organization.

Let business then become militant, not to secure special privileges—it does not want any and does not need any—but to secure due regard for its views and its rights and its