Gentlemen:

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

D. M. THOMPSON, Providence, R. I.

I congratulate you upon this pleasant occasion and trust that the 69th meeting of your Association may prove an auspicious event. The action of your Board of Government in the selection of this beautiful city, seems fully confirmed in the pleasing expressions of your approval and the happy faces of the many guests and friends who honor us by their presence upon this

occasion.

We shall ever cherish with grateful recollection the cheerful and hearty welcome which we have received at the hands of the honorable gentlemen, the distinguished members of the President's cabinet. Their salutations and cheering words of encouragement are typical, and suggestive of that broad, liberal spirit which has distinguished their labors and counsels during a period of grave and momentous events such as find few parallels in history. A confirmation of this judgment, I believe, is near at hand in the re-election of their chief, our beloved and honored President, WILLIAM MCKINLEY, whose skillful leadership, nobility of character and sterling integrity have won the hearts and confidence of the American people.

The primary object of this convention is the promotion and advancement of the cotton textile interests of America. We have assembled for the purpose of conference upon any and all questions which may be deemed of value to the interests represented by this Association. The record of the transactions of the past attest the merit of your purpose. The papers which are

here presented upon the almost innumerable topics pertaining to the principles and technics of your art are of great value in the determination of methods and systems, and give promise for that future progress which we earnestly desire. It is important that members shall participate as freely as possible in the discussion of these papers and the topical questions, to the end that there shall result the most liberal diffusion of knowledge, attainable only through the interchange of individual experience. The papers and other specific and general business requiring your consideration will be presented by the Secretary in accordance with the directions of the Board of Government.

In the interest of brevity I will pass to other more general questions, which, though unusual, I trust may not prove wholly irrelevant.

When I contemplate the vast amount of capital invested in the cotton textile industries of the United States and am conscious that the time is now at hand when its products demand a larger market, I am impressed that there are duties which devolve upon the members of this Association at this particular time which are not as yet prescribed in your by-laws. Definite as the purpose of the meetings of our Association may appear, we recognize the general unwritten law of self-protection as alike. applicable to the promotion and conduct of our private or collective business interests.

DUTY OF THE HOUR.

During the period since the location for this meeting has been determined, I have been impressed with the feeling, which has steadily strengthened, that the selection of the City of Washington at this particular time and on the eve of a national election, when questions are at issue which involve not alone the vital interests represented by the members of this Association, but the interests of all the labor and the capital representing the incomparable resources, the trade, manufactures, commerce and the marvelous enterprise of the people of the United States of America, indicates conditions wherein Providential inspiration is

entitled to the honors, rather than the human wisdom of the Board of Government.

I regard this selection, therefore, as peculiarly fitting. We are assembled within the walls of this beautiful city, beneath the shadows of the great dome of the nation's capital, representative of the greatest resources and national power of any nation upon the earth-a veritable modern Athens; within its archives are the records of the world's marvelous progress in discoveries, inventions, science, the domestic and fine arts. The central figure is American liberty,-its free institutions and historical events, typical of the wonderful genius and versatility of the American people and their unparalleled achievement in the world's present civilization.

The New England Cotton Manufacturers' Association is not a political organization, nor is this meeting intended as a political assemblage; but, in view of the conditions, occasion and the great interest we have at stake, I respectfully declare my conviction that this presentation is in accord with my judgment as to duty, and I believe is distinctly representative of the views and experiences of all Americans who have given careful intelligent study to economic questions as related to pure American interests. Of what value to the mariner and passengers is that once noble ship, whose loss or wreckage compelled the unfortunates to seek shelter and temporary safety in the life boats. To be wise after the fact is of no material effect; wise forethought and that proper apprehension of danger which insures the necessary safeguards, are the indispensible elements of insurance against misfortune.

THE NATIONAL HONOR.

Questions of vital import to the national honor, to the integrity of our free institutions, to the security of capital and vested interests, to the safety of the millions upon millions of dollars in our savings institutions, the product of the toil and savings of labor, to the safeguards of our present conditions of unparalleled prosperity, to the continued employment of all the labor of the

country, to the safeguards and promotion of family relations, to the welfare of children within homes where education, the necessities, pleasures and comforts of life are now available, are within a few days to be submitted to the suffrages of the American people—a tribunal from which there is no appeal. Upon that verdict hangs all our hopes for the future. A mistake, however much it may be deplored, cannot be recalled. Recent experience during a former administration of different public policy was attended by the horrors of financial ruin, the wreck of fortunes, the unemployed labor, the reduction of wages, the tax upon charity, the untold sufferings of the wives and children of the unemployed, the exhaustion of capital and the losses of more than $10,000,000,000 through suspended production are memories of a past which should suffice for more than one generation.

THE RIGHT OF INDIVIDUAL OPINION.

I have every reasonable and proper respect for the opinions of those who may be in opposition upon questions political or otherwise, provided that such opposition is restricted within the limits which safeguard national honor and the integrity of our free institutions. I am well aware that men of honorable life and unsullied reputations are to be found within the ranks of nearly all political parties. I will concede the right of individuals or partisan organizations to the fullest freedom of independent thought or action in the promotion and advancement of their personal or collective interests, subject to the restriction of a true patriotism and a respect for the rights of every citizen to determine his own selection of duty, under the laws which have been enacted for the benefit of the common weal.

I have respect for the silver mine owner in his desire to advance the value of his product, or for the importer of the products of foreign labor in his desire for a reduction of tariffs, which enable him the acquisition of larger profits, but I withdraw that respect when in the accomplishment of their desire, resort is had to gross misrepresentations. This accusation can apply

to those only who are conscious of their course of deception. The victims are not wholly confined to the laboring classes or to those who are presumably uninformed, for there are many among those accredited with education and even exceptional intelligence who from the nature of their vocations and circumstances have given but little study to the questions involved in this paramount issue-propositions which affect not only the business interest, but the very life blood of every American citizen.

VITAL CONDITIONS.

I can conceive the full measure of advantage to the silver mine owner in his proposition of a parity of silver to gold in the ratio of 16 to 1, but I cannot comprehend the action of the millions of those who in the support of this policy yield their consent to the acceptance of a depreciated currency in payment of their services at the rate of forty cents upon the dollar. Success, if it were possible upon this line, must inevitably result in the degradation of labor, a paralysis of business, a financial disaster unparalleled in the history of our country, the full recovery from which would not obtain during the activities of the present generation. The financial question involves the national honor and, independent of other vital interests, is a sufficient justification for the continuance in power of the present administrators, whose experience and knowledge of the important questions will prove of incomparable value to the country.

I believe that a very large majority of the American people are in full accord with these principles. They have the highest respect and confidence in the present administration of our government and desire its continuance, but there is ever present an element of danger, due to over-confidence, the natural sequence of which is a failure to perform the full duties of citizenship. It should be the bounden duty of every individual and all business organizations to act promptly in the rendering of every service within the power of their influence, to the end that such inevitable disaster and misfortunes may not only be averted in