and our judgments should be unmoved by alluring phrases and unvexed
by selfish interests.

I am confident that such an approach to the subject will result in
prudent and effective remedial legislation. In the meantime, so far as
the executive branch of the Government can intervene, none of the powers
with which it is invested will be withheld when their exercise is deemed
necessary to maintain our national credit or avert financial disaster.

Closely related to the exaggerated confidence in our country's greatness
which tends to a disregard of the rules of national safety, another
danger confronts us not less serious. I refer to the prevalence of a
popular disposition to expect from the operation of the Government
especial and direct individual advantages.

The verdict of our voters which condemned the injustice of maintaining
protection for protection's sake enjoins upon the people's servants the
duty of exposing and destroying the brood of kindred evils which are
the unwholesome progeny of paternalism. This is the bane of republican
institutions and the constant peril of our government by the people.
It degrades to the purposes of wily craft the plan of rule our fathers
established and bequeathed to us as an object of our love and
veneration. It perverts the patriotic sentiments of our countrymen and
tempts them to pitiful calculation of the sordid gain to be derived
from their Government's maintenance. It undermines the self-reliance of
our people and substitutes in its place dependence upon governmental
favoritism. It stifles the spirit of true Americanism and stupefies
every ennobling trait of American citizenship.

The lessons of paternalism ought to be unlearned and the better lesson