they are wrong.  We can not finance the country, we can not improve social conditions, through any system of injustice, even if we attempt to inflict it upon the rich.  Those who suffer the most harm will be the poor.  This country believes in prosperity.  It is absurd to suppose that it is envious of those who are already prosperous.  The wise and correct course to follow in taxation and all other economic legislation is not to destroy those who have already secured success but to create conditions under which every one will have a better chance to be successful.  The verdict of the country has been given on this question.  That verdict stands.  We shall do well to heed it.

These questions involve moral issues.  We need not concern ourselves much about the rights of property if we will faithfully observe the rights of persons.  Under our institutions their rights are supreme.  It is not property but the right to hold property, both great and small, which our Constitution guarantees.  All owners of property are charged with a service.  These rights and duties have been revealed, through the conscience of society, to have a divine sanction.  The very stability of our society rests upon production and conservation.  For individuals or for governments to waste and squander their resources is to deny these rights and disregard these obligations.  The result of economic dissipation to a nation is always moral decay.

These policies of better international understandings, greater economy, and lower taxes have contributed largely to peaceful and prosperous industrial relations.  Under the helpful influences of restrictive immigration and a protective tariff, employment is plentiful, the rate of pay is high, and wage earners are in a state of contentment seldom before seen.  Our transportation systems have been gradually recovering and have been able to meet all the requirements of the service.  Agriculture has been very slow in reviving, but the price of cereals at last indicates that the day of its deliverance is at hand.

We are not without our problems, but our most important problem is not to secure new advantages but to maintain those which we already possess.  Our system of government made up of three separate and independent departments, our divided sovereignty composed of Nation and State, the matchless wisdom that is enshrined in our Constitution, all these need constant effort and tireless vigilance for their protection and support.

In a republic the first rule for the guidance of the citizen is obedience to law.  Under a despotism the law may be imposed upon the subject.  He has no voice in its making, no influence in its administration, it does not represent him.  Under a free government the citizen makes his own laws, chooses his own administrators, which do represent him.  Those who want their rights respected under the Constitution and the law ought to set the example themselves of observing the