Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/261

WOODROW WILSON 219 and makes the Government a facile instrument in the hands of private interests; a banking and cur rency system based upon the necessity of the Gov ernment to sell its bonds fifty years ago and per fectly adapted to concentrating cash and restrict ing credits; an industrial system which, take it on all sides, financial as well as administrative, holds capital in leading strings, restricts the liberties and limits the opportunities of labor, and exploits with out renewing or conserving the natural resources of the country; a body of agricultural activities never yet given the efficiency of great business undertakings or served as it should be through the instrumentality of science taken directly to the farm, or afforded the facilities of credit best suited to its practical needs; water-courses undeveloped, waste places unreclaimed, forests untended, fast disappearing without plan or prospect of renewal, unregarded waste heaps at every mine. We have studied as perhaps no other nation has the most effective means of production, but we have not studied cost or economy as we should either as organizers of industry, as statesmen, or as indi viduals." The inaugural address concluded with this ap peal for co-operation in the great task upon which he was entering: "This is not a day of triumph; it is a day of dedication. Here muster, not the forces of party,