Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-04-06
ROOSEVELT ON tariff
President Stands For the Prin-
ciple of Protection of Ameri-
can Industries
CHANGES MAY BE NECESSARY

While Preserving the Policy OF Pro-
lection the Tariff Should Be Chang
| ed to Meet Conditions When De.
manded BY the Interests of the
People.
biggest, most tremendous and most
enthusiastic reception ever rendered to
any man in the twin cities was that to
President Roosevelt From the time he
arrived until his departure from Min
neapolis at IL o'clock Saturday night
for the west he was the recipient of one
continual ovation.
The presidential party reached Min
neapolis about 5: 40 in the evening and
ed by an immense crowd who cheered
the president until he had reached his
apartments. The be-r.,e. which be-
gan at 1880 lasted about an hour The
party then was driven to the univer-
sity. Before going to the armory, the
president was prevailed upon to ad
dress the students of the university in
the chapel. The hall was crowded to
its limit and Roosevelt spoke to the
students for four minutes. He was
then driven to the armory where he
was introduced by President North
rup of Minnesota university. His adj
dress was devoted to the tariff and he
spoke, in part, as follows:
1.-The present phenomenal prosperity
has been won under tariff which was
made in accordance with certain fixed
and definite principles. the most inn
portant of which is an avowed deter
mination to protect the interest of the
American producer, business man.
wage worker and farmer alike. The
general tariff policy, to which, without
regard to changes in detail, l believe
this country is irrevocably committed,
is fundamentally based upon ample rec
ognition to 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 mar
ket to foreign industries over American
industries. to foreign capital oveA. AM
erican capital, to foreign labor over
our own labor. This country has and
this country needs, better paid, better
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 a higher, more Wig
orous, and more prosperous type of
tillers Of the soil than is possessed by
any other country. The business men,
the merchants, the manufacturers, and
the managers of transportation inter-
ests show the same superiority when
with men of their type
abroad. The events of the last few years
have shown how skillfully the leaders
of American industry use in interna-
tional business competition the mighty
Industrial weapons forged for them by
the resources of our country. the wis
dom of our laws, and the skill. the in
ventive genius, and the administrative
capacity of our people.
TT is. OF course, a mere truism to
say that we want to usa everything in
our power to foster the welfare of our
entire body polite. In other words, we
need to treat the tariff as a business
from the standpoints Of the
interests of the country as a whole, and
not with reference to the temporary
needs Of any political party. II is al
most as necessary that our policy
should be stable as that it should be
wise. A nation like ours could not long
stand the ruinous policy of reaijusting
rs I,,,ci IN ~i,a NO in ~ ha
tariff at short intervals, especially
when, as now, owing to the immense
extent and variety of our products, the
tariff schedules carry rates of duty on
thousands of different articles. Sweep
ing and violent changes in such tar
iff. touching so vitality the interests of
all of US, embracing agriculture, labor,
and commerce, would be
disastrous in any event, and they would
be fatal to our present well-being IL
approached on the theory that the
principle of the protective tariff was to
be abandoned. The business world,
that is, the entire American world, can
not afford, if 1T has any regard to its
own welfare, even to consider the adj
of abandoning the present
system.
yet, on the other hand, where the
Industrial conditions so frequently
change, as with us must of necessity
be the case, it is a matter of prime i'm
portance that we should be able from
time to time to adapt our economic poll
icy to the changed conditions. Our aim
should be to preserve the policy of a
protective tariff, in which the nation as
a whole has acquiesced and yet wher-
ever and whenever necessary to change
the duties in particular paragraphs or
schedules as matters of legislative de-
tail, IL such change is demanded by thu.
interests of the nation as a whole.
In making any readjustmsnt there
are certain important considerations
which can not be disregarded. If n
tariff law has on the whole worked
well, and If business has prospered I'M
der it and is prospering 1T may be Bat
ter to endure some inconvenience and
for time than by making
changes to risk causing disturbance and
perhaps paralysis in the industries AMI
business of the country. The fact that
the change in a given rate of duty may
be thought desirable does no. settle the |
question whether it is advisable 10
make the change Immediately. Every |
tariff deals with duties on thousands OIL
articles arranged in hundreds of para
graphs and in many schedules.
These duties affect a vast number