The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1907-08-20
TAFT DELIVERS
HIS PLATFORM
Strong Advocate Of Roose-
welt Policies
WOULD JAIL VI0LATERS
Of the Antitrust Laws-The Tariff
Does Need Revision, But 1t
Should Not Occur Before
the Election.
WOULD JAIL VIOLATERS

Columbus, Ohio, Aug. 20.--William II.
Taft, secretary Of the war department,
made what he was eased to term his
political confession Of faith, at Memo
rial hall last night. The auditorium,
which has seating capacity OF over
5000, was packed to the doors and sew
eral thousand people who came to hear
the secretary speak We're unable to gain
admittance. The secretary spoke under
the auspices Of the Buckeye Republican
club, and the address was notable from
the fact that it is regarded as the plat
form upon which he win make his cam
paign for the Republican nomination for
president.
Mr. Taft made no formal announce
ment Of his candidacy. but he was in
troduced by Governor Harris as the
next president of the United States"
which was the signal for a prolonged
outburst of applause.
Special interest was manifested in
Secretary Taft's utterances on the tariff.
He reiterated his previous declarations
in favor of revision, and declared that
| it would be both unwise and unsafe for
| the Republican party to fail to pledge
itself to revise the DingIey law soon
after the next presidential election as
| possible.
Mr. Taft also declared in favor OF i'm
prisonment of individuals responsible for
| violations Of the antitrust law and for
3hc giving or accepting of rebates as
more effective than fines His defense
Of President Roosevelt's policies evoked
enthusiastic applause.
| Secretary Taft's remarks on the tariff
were as follows;
The present business system Of the
country rests on the protective tariff
and any attempt to change il TO free
trade basis win certainly lead only to
disaster.
II is the duty Of the Republican party,
however, to see to il that the tariff on
| imported articles does not exceed sub.
stantially the reasonably permanent diff
ferential between the cost Of produc-
| tion III the foreign countries and that in
the United States, and therefore when
changes take place in one condition Of
production likely 20 produce very large
| reduction in the cost of production ia
/ the United States, it is time that sehed-
ules be re-e1amined and If excessive
| that they be reduced so as to bring them
/ within the justification for the rule, by
which the amount of tariff TO be inn
posed under the protective system is
properly determined.
/ Whenever the tariff imposed is largely
in excess of the diiferential between
the cost Of production in the two eoun-
tries, then there is formed at once a
great temptation to monopolize the bust
ness OF producing the particular product,
and To take advantage of profit in the
excessive tariff. This denies to the poo-
pie altogether the economies Of pr0duc-
tion that competition under a protec-
tive tariff should develop.
Objection ia made to revision on the
ground that we are enjoying business
prosperity. that this will be disturbed
| BY a proposal to change the tariff, and
that we should wait until hard times
before we revise. cannot follow the
argument The revision proposed is TO
be By the Republican party and >is not
to be a departure from the protective
principle, but in conformity with It. II
viii affect only those persons injuriously
who are making an unreasonable profit
out OF an excessive rate. The present
prosperity is not dependent on such a
profit. If it were, then it would not
be the prosperity of the whole business
community. In the present temper Of
the people, general prosperity has not
prevented the remedying Of other abuses
and injustice / don't know why II
should prevent this.
had occasion in d speech which ] de-
livered at Bath Me-, now about a year
ago, to express my individual opinion
as in favor OF an immediate revision Of
the tariff, but / there pointed out, and
only refer to il to repeat it and em-
phasize II. that the revision Of a tariff
involves so many different interests the
country over as that Il could not be
undertaken successfully by the Repub.
lican party, and therefore ought not to
be undertaken at all, until the party as a
whole is in favor Of IL. ! ventured TO
express the opinion that the sentiment
YIN favor of revision in the Republican
party was crystallizing to such point
that In short time we might expect
TO have action upon the subject What
has happened in the last year has not
served TO confirm the view / then ex-
pressed. and IL now seems to me that
even most Of the extremists IN the mat
ter Of the tariff are Of the opinion that
it would not only be unwise, but unsafe
for the party to fail in its next ma
tional platform to pledge itself TO a
revision Of the tariff as soon after the
presidential election as possible
Those OF us who favor immediate re-
vision can we'll afford to wait until the
next presidential election IN order to Sc.
cure substantial aequiescence by all Re-
publcans Certainly a delay OF action
Of is months ought to furnish reason
for no protectionist to invite the cer-
tain business disaster that Democratic
revision on free trade lines would in,
yolye. More than this. full time should
be given for the operation Of new
tariff upon the business Of the country
before the people express their opinion
Of ii. The paAsagc Of bill By the next
Congress would mean the consideration
by Congress Of the tariff IN the midst Of
presidential campaign with al the op-