(1901)
Born in 1843, died in 1901; served in the Civil War, reaching the rank of
Major; Member of Congress from Ohio in 1877-91; defeated for Congress in 1890; elected
Governor of Ohio in 1891, and again in 1893;elected President in 1896, and
again in 1900.
I AM 1 glad again to be
in the city of Buffalo and exchange greetings with her people, to whose
generous hospitality I am not a stranger, and with whose good will I have been
repeatedly and signally honored. To-day I have additional satisfaction in
meeting and giving welcome to the foreign representatives assembled here, whose
presence and participation in this Exposition have contributed in so marked a degree
to its interest and success. To the commissioners of the Dominion of Canada and
the British Colonies, the French Colonies, the Republics of Mexico and of
Central and South America, and the commissioners of Cuba and Porto Rico, who
share with us in this undertaking, we give the hand of fellowship and
felicitate with them upon the triumphs of art, science, education and
manufacture which the old has bequeathed to the new century.
Expositions are the timekeepers of progress. They record the world’s advancement.
They stimulate the energy, enterprise and intellect of the people, and quicken
human genius. They go into the home. They broaden and brighten the daily life
of the people. They open mighty storehouses of information to the student.
Every exposition, great or small, has helped to some onward step.
Comparison of ideas is always educational and, as such, instructs the brain and
hand of man. Friendly rivalry follows, which is the spur to industrial
improvement, the inspiration to useful invention and to high endeavor in all
departments of human activity. It exacts a study of the wants, comforts, and
even the whims of the people, and recognizes the efficacy of high quality and
low prices to win their favor. The quest for trade is an incentive to men of
business to devise, invent, improve and economize in the cost of production.
Business life, whether among ourselves, or with other peoples, is ever a sharp
struggle for success. It will be none the less in the future.
Without competition we would be clinging to the clumsy and antiquated process
of farming and manufacture and the methods of business of long ago, and the
twentieth would be no further advanced than the eighteenth century. But tho
commercial competitors we are, commercial enemies we must not be. The
Pan-American Exposition has done its work thoroughly, presenting in its
exhibits evidences of the highest skill and illustrating the progress of the
human family in the
After all, how near one to the other is every part of the world. Modern
inventions have brought into close relation widely separated peoples and make
them better acquainted. Geographic and political divisions will continue to
exist, but distances have been effaced. Swift ships and fast trains are
becoming cosmopolitan. They invade fields which a few years ago were
impenetrable. The world’s products are exchanged as never before and with
increasing transportation facilities come increasing knowledge and larger
trade. Prices are fixed with mathematical precision by supply and demand. The
world’s selling prices are regulated by market and crop reports. We
travel greater distances in a shorter space of time and with more ease than was
ever dreamed of by the fathers. Isolation is no longer possible or desirable.
The same important news is read, tho in different languages, the same day in
all Christendom.
The telegraph keeps us advised of what is occurring everywhere, and the Press
foreshadows, with more or less accuracy, the plans and purposes of the nations.
Market prices of products and of securities are hourly known in every
commercial mart, and the investments of the people extend beyond their own
national boundaries into the remotest parts of the earth. Vast transactions are
conducted and international exchanges are made by the tick of the cable. Every
event of interest is immediately bulletined. The quick gathering and
transmission of news, like rapid transit, are of recent origin, and are only
made possible by the genius of the inventor and the courage of the investor. It
took a special messenger of the government, with every facility known at the
time for rapid travel, nineteen days to go from the City of
So accustomed are we to safe and easy communication with distant lands that its
temporary interruption, even in ordinary times, results in loss and
inconvenience. We shall never forget the days of anxious waiting and suspense
when no information was permitted to be sent from Pekin, and the diplomatic
representatives of the nations in China, cutoff from all communication, inside
and outside of the walled capital, were surrounded by an angry and misguided
mob that threatened their lives; nor the joy that thrilled the world when a
single message from the government of the United States brought through our
minister the first news of the safety of the besieged diplomats.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was not a mile of steam
railroad on the globe; now there are enough miles to make its circuit many
times. Then there was not a line of electric telegraph; now we have a vast
mileage traversing all lands and seas. God and man have linked the nations
together. No nation can longer be indifferent to any other. And as we are
brought more and more in touch with each other, the less occasion is there for
misunderstandings, and the stronger the disposition, when we have differences,
to adjust them in the court of arbitration, which is the noblest forum for the
settlement of international disputes.
My fellow citizens, trade statistics indicate that this country is in a state
of unexampled prosperity. The figures are almost appalling. They show that we
are utilizing our fields and forests and mines, and that we are furnishing
profitable employment to the millions of working men throughout the
We have a vast and intricate business, built up through years of toil and
struggle in which every part of the country has its stake, which will not
permit of either neglect or of undue selfishness. No narrow, sordid policy will
subserve it. The greatest skill and wisdom on the part of manufacturers and
producers will be required to hold and increase it. Our industrial enterprises,
which have grown to such great proportions, affect the homes and occupations of
the people and the welfare of the country. Our capacity to produce has
developed so enormously and our products have so multiplied that the problem of
more markets requires our urgent and immediate attention. Only a broad and
enlightened policy will keep what we have. No other policy will get more. In
these times of marvelous business energy and gain we ought to be looking to the
future, strengthening the weak places in our industrial and commercial systems,
that we may be ready for any storm or strain.
By sensible trade arrangements which will not interrupt our home production we
shall extend the outlets for our increasing surplus. A system which provides a
mutual exchange of commodities is manifestly essential to the continued and
healthful growth of our export trade. We must not repose in the fancied
security that we can for ever sell everything and buy little or nothing. If
such a thing were possible it would not be best for us or for those with whom
we deal. We should take from our customers such of their products as we can use
without harm to our industries and labour. Reciprocity is the natural outgrowth
of our wonderful industrial development under the domestic policy now firmly
established.
What we produce beyond our domestic consumption must have a vent abroad. The
excess must be relieved through a foreign outlet, and we should sell everywhere
we can and buy wherever the buying will enlarge our sales and productions, and
thereby make a greater demand for home labor.
The period of exclusiveness is past. The expansion of our trade and commerce is
the pressing problem. Commercial wars are unprofitable. A policy of good will
and friendly trade relations will prevent reprisals. Reciprocity treaties are
in harmony with the spirit of the times; measures of retaliation are not. If,
perchance, some of our tariffs are no longer needed for revenue or to encourage
and protect our industries at home, why should they not be employed to extend
and promote our markets abroad? Then, too, we have inadequate steamship
service. New lines of steamships have already been put in commission between
the Pacific coast ports of the
We must build the Isthmian canal, which will unite the two oceans and give a
straight line of water communication with the western coasts of Central and
South America and
Gentlemen, let us ever remember that our interest is in concord, not conflict;
and that our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of war.
We hope that all who are represented here maybe moved to higher and nobler efforts
for their own and the world’s good, and that out of this city may come
not only greater commerce and trade for us all, but, more essential than these,
relations of mutual respect, confidence and friendship which will deepen and
endure. Our earnest prayer is that God will graciously vouchsafe prosperity,
happiness and peace to all our neighbors, and like blessings to all the peoples
and powers of earth.
Note 1. Delivered in
from "The World's Great
Orations" ed. by William Jennings Bryan, 1906, published in full by
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