US Presidency
1913

Our task is to square them with the actual facts. The sooner that is done the sooner we shall escape from suffering from the facts and the sooner our men of business will be free to thrive by the law of nature ( the nature of free business ) instead of by the law of legislation and artificial arrangement. We have seen tariff legislation wander very far afield in our day, very far indeed from the field in which our prosperity might have had a normal growth and stimulation. No one who looks the facts squarely in the face or knows anything that lies beneath the surface of action can fail to perceive the principles upon which recent tariff legislation has been based. We long ago passed beyond the modest notion of protecting the industries of the country and moved boldly forward to the idea that they were entitled to the direct patronage of the Government.