President Ilardirtg, in his first speech to the new Congress
on Tuesday, hinted that the Washington Conference was giving " growing assurances " of a durable peace. " A most gratifying world accomplishment is not improbable." He reminded Congress that America could not hold aloof from the affairs of the world. The nations ruined by the War must apply " heroic remedies," and "there we can help and we mean to help," because American trade would not revive until her customers recovered. Ho asked for authority to fund and settle the vast foreign loans. He declined to put in force the clause of the Merchant Marine Act requiring the denunciation of all commercial treaties so that goods carried in American ships might pay lower duties, but hinted at a new method of subsidizing American merchantmen. He invited Congress to make the tariff more flexible by allowing the Tariff Commission to vary the duties from time to time, lowering as well as raising them. It was a cautious but significant speech.
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