Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1903-07-30
NO TARIFF REVISION
PRESIDENT ROOSEvELT'S ATTITUDE
CLEARLY DEFINED.
lie Deprecates Any Reckless Dis
turbance of Existing Prosperous
Conditions and Would Approach
Tariff Changes with Caution.

turbance of Existing Prosperous
Conditions and Would Approach
Tariff Changes with Caution.
We are now in a condition of pros
perity unparalleled not merely in our
own history, but in the history of any
other nation. This prosperity is deep
rooted and stands on a firm basis be.
cause it is due to the fact that the aver
age American has in him the stuff out
of which victors are made In the great
industrial contests of the present day,
just as in the great military contests OF
the past, and because he is now able
to use and develop his qualities to best
advantage under our well established
economic system. We are winning
headship among the nations of the
world because our people are able to
keep their high average of individual
citizenship and show their mastery in
the hard, complex, pushing life of the
age. There will be fluctuations from
time to time in our prosperity, but 1t
will continue to grow just so long as
we keep up this high average of indi-
vidual citizenship and permit it to work
out it's own salvation under proper
economic legislation.
The present phenomenal prosperity
has been won under a tariff which was
made in accordance with certain fixed
and definite principles, the most impor-
tant of which is an avowed determine
ton to protect the interests of the
American producer, business man,
wage worker and farmer alike. The
general tariff policy to which, without
regard to changes in detail, | believe
this country is irrevocably committed
is fundamentally based upon ample
recognition of the difference between
the cost of production-that is, the
cost of labor-here and abroad and of
the need to see to it that our laws shall
in no event afford advantage in our
own market to foreign industries over
American industries, to foreign capital
over American capital to foreign labor
over our own labor. This country has
and this country needs better paid, bet
ter educated, better fed and better
clothed workingmen, of a higher type
than are to be found in any foreign
country 1t has and it needs higher,
more vigorous and more prosperous
type of tillers of the soil thap is pos
sessed by any other country. The busi-
ness men, the merchants and manu-
facturers and the managers of the
transportation interests show the same
superiority when compared with men
of their type abroad. The events of
the last few years have shown how
skillfully the leaders of American in
dustry use in international business
competition the. mighty industrial
weapons forged for them by the re-
sources of our country, the wisdom OF
our laws and the skill, the inventive
genius and the administrative capacity
of our people.
1t is of course q mere truism to say
that we want to use everything In our
power to foster the welfare of our en-
tire body polite. In other words, we
need to treat the tariff as business
proposition from the standpoint Of the
interests of the country as whole and
not with reference to the temporary
needs of any political party. 1t is al
DlOSI us HeCSSSSuIS tudt Jul poiiSy
should be stable as that it should be
wise. A nation like ours could not
long stand the ruinous policy of read
justing its business to radical changes
in the tariff at short intervals, espe-
cially when, as now, owing to the I'm
mense extent and variety of our prod
ucts, the tariff schedules carry rates Of
duty on thousands of different articles.
Sweeping and violent changes in such
tariff, touching so vitality the inter-
ests of all of us, embracing agricul-
ture, labor manufactures and COM
merce, would be- disastrous in any
event, and they would be fatal to our
present well being if approached on
the theory that the principle of the
protective tariff was to be abandoned.
The business world-that is, the entire
American world-cannot afford, if 1t
has any regard for its own welfare,
even to consider the ACCESSIBILITY of
abandoning the present system.
Yet, on the other hand, where the
industrial conditions so frequently
'hange, as with us must of necessity
re the case, 1t is matter of prime i'm
lortance that we should be able from
ime to time to adapt our economic pol
to the changed conditions. Our
IN should be to preserve the policy