Speech #540003779

Last year Congress legislated in the interest of alien lands and alien peoples. and in direct antagonism. in the main. to the interests of American industry and American labor. Let us in these closing hours of the present year call a halt and in our legislative capacity endeavor to rise to the level of the occasion and the demand of the times and legislate in the interest of and for the promotion of the industries and interests of our own people. Let our legislation be in the interest of the labor and capital of our own country. and not for the benefit of alien labor and foreign capital. Let us not be content with dealing in governmental abstractions. While we would guard with unerring vigilance and with a firm voice and a steady. determined purpose defend at every hazard every vital principle of our Government involved in international and domestic policy affecting territorial rights and interests. it is well if at the same time we would wipe from our statute books every vestige of legislation by whomsoever placed there which stands as a menace to the promotion and healthy growth of the great industries of this country. aid which tends to degrade the husbandman. the tiller of the soil. the daylaborer of America. to the level of the menial hordes of Asiatic and other foreign countrie. The history of legislation in Great Britain bearing upon the wool and woolen industry. running through a period of more than three centuries. sometimes ill advised and oftener otherwise. shows in a most remarkable manner the disposition upon the part of the British Parliament and sovereigns of that Kingdom to protect and encourage the growth of these industries by legislative and imperial decrees. and at the same time indicates in the strongest possible sense the importance placed by the people of that country and their rulers upon the wool industry as a vital element in the promotion of civilization. In all of these various acts which in any manner had any relation to the subject of wool or woolen manufactures the intention was always clearly manifest of promoting home production and home industry at the expense. not only of alien foreign countries. but also very often of her own colonial dependencies.