The magnificent ovation Which this Chamber of Com merce, representing all the business interests of. This splendid city, has given President Taft, is eminently fitting, and most abundantly deserved.

I doubt if any administration in the history of the na tion has accomplished as much in the same length Of time for the commercial interests Of the country, SO much for the manufacturing interests, SO much for the agricultural interests, or, above all in importance, so much for the millions who compose the great army of workingmen ofthe nation, as has been accomplished since the election Of President Taft in November, 1908.

The change has been so gradual, the improvement so healthy and normal, that it is necessary to recall condi tions then, and compare them with the present, in order to appreciate their significance and value.

More than four hundred thousand idle cars were side-tracked, and ten thousand locomotives, with fires extinguished and crews forced into unwelcome idleness, filled the roundhouses of the railroads.

Mines were shut down; the sound of the axe was hushed in the lumber camps; the great factories of the country were closed or worked spasmodically with a small fraction Of their normal forces; thousands of laborers left the country, taking their savings with them, and tens of thousands walked the streets looking in vain for work.

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