The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-09-24
President Makes an Important
Speech at LOganspoTt
RADICAL ACTION WOULD HURT
Personally Mr.. Roosevelt Favors a
Commission to Study the Question
and Make Necessary Changes
After Due DeIiberation.

Logansport. Ind, September 2s.-(spe-
cial.)-President Roosevelt and party ar
rived here at 7:15 O'clock this morning
and to large crowd the President made
the most important speech of his present
trip.
Touching on tariff revision. tho Presi-
dent said that no nation could stand
radical readjustment OF tariff schedules
at short intervals. Continual sweeping
changes cannot but be disastrous, but
where the industrial needs shift as rapid
ly as they do here where we often live
in one year what Europe does in ten, we
need the reapplcation of established
principles to changing conditions. We
must readjust without resorting to a vio-
lent surgical operation. the decade Of
which alone would paralyze the business
of the country. We must solve this
problem with partisanship as a secondary
consideration.
Presidents Address.
After thanking the people for turning
out to greet him in such weather, the
President said:
TT is the merest truism to say that
In the modern world industrialism is the
great factor In the growth of nations.
Material prosperity is the foundation up
on which every mighty national struc-
ture must be built. OF course there must
be more than this. There must be high
moral purpose, life Of the spirit which
finds its expression In many different
fal
lists also there is scant room in which
to develop the higher life. The productive
activity of our vast army of workers,
of those who labor with head or hands,
is the prime cause of the giant growth or
this nation. We have great natural rs
sources, but such resources count for
nothing if the men in possession have
not the power to take advantage OF
them. You have built up in the west
those cities of the Mississippi valley and
the great lakes as all the regian about
them has been built up. II you did not
have the qualities of heart and brain, the
moral and physical fibre which enabled
you to use to the u,aAost possible ad-
vantage whatever you found ready to
your hands, it would not nave been ac-
complished.
Financial Stability.
Probably the most important aid which
can be contributed by the national gov
ernment to the material well-being OF
the country is to insure Its financial sta
bility. An honest currency is the strong
est symbol and expression of honest
business life. The business world must
exist largely on credit, and to credit con-
fidence is essential. Any tampering with
the currency, no matter with what pur-
pose, is fraught with the suspicion of
dishonesty In result, is fatal In its effects
on business prosperity. Very Ignorant
and primitive communities are continual
ly obliged to learn the elementary truth
that the reputation of debts is in the
end ruinous to the debtors as a class;
and when communities have moved some
what higher in The scrle of civilization
they also learf 'fatff nerything In the
nature of a dehased currency works
similar damage. A financial system OF
assured honesty is the first essential An
other essential for any community Is
perseverance in the economic policy
which for a course of years is found best
fitted to its peculiar needs. The ques-
tion of combining such fixedness or eco
nomic policy as regards the tarif wnlie
at the same time allowing Tor a neces-
sary and prosperous adjustment OF duties
in particular schedules. as such read
iustment becomes a matter of pressing
Importance, Is not an easy one. 1t Is per-
haps too much to expect that from the
discussion of such a question 1t would be
possible wholly to eliminate poiltical
craftsmanship Yet those who believe as
we all must when we think seriously OF
the subject, that the proper aim Oh the
party system Is. after all, simply to sub
serve the public good, cannot but nope
that where such partisanship on mat
ter of this kind conflicts with the public
good II shall at least be minimized.
What we really need In this country Is
to treat the tariff as business PROPOSE
ton, and not from the standpoint OF the
temporary needs of any political party.
It surely ought not to be necessary to
dwell upon the extreme unwlsdom. from
a business standpoint, from the stand
point of national prosperity, of violent
and radical views, amounting TO the o1-
rect upsetting of tariff policies at inter-
walls of every few years. nation ike
ours can adjust it's business after
fashion to any kind of a tariff.
A Ruinous Policy.
Neither our nation nor any other can
stand the ruinous policy OF ready Justing
it's business to radical changes IN tne
tariff at short intervals. This is more
true now than ever it was BEFORE TOT
owing TO the immense extent and variety
~ o,r nroducts the tariff schedules of
today carry rates of duty on more than
four thousand articles. Contipual sweep
ing changes in such a tariff, touching SO
intimately the commercial interests OF
the nation which stands as one OF the
two or three greatest in the whole INDUS
trial world cannot but be disastrous. Yet,
on the other hand, where the industrial
needs of the nation shift as rapidly as
they do with us, it is matter OF prime
Importance that we should be able to
readiust our economic policy as rapidly
as possible, and with us little friction as
possible to these needs. We need
scheme which will enable us to provide
a re-application of the principle to the
changed conditions The problem, there
fore, is to devise some plan by which
these shifting needs can be recognized
and the necessary readiustment of duties
provided without forcing the entire busI-
ness community and therefore the en-
tire nation, to submit to violent sur
gical operation, the mere threat or which,
and still more the accomplished fact of
which probably would paraiize for con-
siderable time all the industries OF tn.
country. Such radical action might very
readily reproduce the conditions from
which we suffered nine years ago, III
1893.
To Correct Irregularities.
We need to devise some machinery by