The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-09-18
WARM DEFENSE OF PAYNE BILL Taft Addresses Mime
 sota Audience. EXCUSES HIS APPROVAL Says His Party Regularity De-
 handed It. Goes After Insurgents in Congress for Their Position Against Measure.
 Will Visit Minneapolis
 Today.

hAS ONNdPAhtJ VI thc WI IAOusCs President Taft here tonight in State which Is the hot-bed of the "insur- gents" movement within the Republi- can Party. defended the Payne tariff bill as the best tariff bill the people have ever known.
 The President boldly asserted that the insurgents who voted against the bill had abandoned the Republican Party.
 "Was 1t the duty of the members of Congress who believed that the bill ought to accomplish to vote against it?" asked the President.
 T am here to justify those who an- swer this question in the negative. I am not here to defend those who voted for the Payne bill. but to support them."
 To this statement the crowd In the opera house responded with a cheer which could be heard far down the street. It was shouted by the adher- ents of Representative James A. Taw- ney, of this district. Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations. who has been on the defensive ever since the adjournment of Congress, be- cause he did not vote with the other members of the delegation from Minne- sota, both in the House and Senate. against the bill.
 Home Town of Tawney.
 Mir. Tawney met the President at Lacrosse, Wis, this afternoon and &C., companied him to this city. his home town. It had been reported for some time that the President intended de- lending MT. Tawney for his party reg ularity. but there were none to predict that the President would go as far as he did tonight in .characterizing the k,lr N&HK fv.ot tors and Representatives. The Pres- ident had met Senator LaFollette of Wisconsin. one of the leaders of the insurgents at Milwaukee during the forenoon. and had greeted him quite cordially.
 ITO make party government effect i've" said the President tonight, ."the members of that party should surren- der their personal ss predtiections oi comparative less importance. am not here to criticise those who felt sc strongly and believed so intensely that 1t was their duty to vote against the tariff bill, because 1t did not contain all they thought 1t should.
 Tt was a question for each man to settle for himself. In matters of this kind 1t is a question with the party maintain the party solidarity for acc complaining its chief purposes, or whether the departure from principle in the bill as he regards it, is so ex- treme that he must in conscience abandon the party"
 Further along the President gave a final word to the insurgents.
 'I am glad to see that those who voted against the bill still insist that they are Republicans and that they in- tend to keep up the fight for still lower tariff rates within the party.
 That is their right and Tn their views of things is their duty.
 Party is Paramount.
 "All I have to say In respect to MT. Tawney's action in voting for the bill and my action in signing it, is that believed that the interests of the coun- try, the interests of the party, required me to sacrifice to accomplishment of certain things in the revision of the tariff which l had hoped for. In order to maintain party solidarity, which believe to be much more important than the reduction of rates in one or two schedules of the tariff"
 The president by means of table prepared at his request by Mir. Payne showed that the tariff had been in creased on articles whose consump- ton in this country amounts yearly to $S51, ,000. .000 and that of this amount $759. .000, 900 is represented by such lux uries as silks. wines, liquors. per fumeries and pomades, leaving a bal ance of $272,000,oO0 representing in- creases on articles not luxuries. Against this the president set. with great emphasis in his delivery. the fact that the tariff had been reduced on articles, mostly necessities, whose consumption in this country amounts annually to e5,000.000.
 As to the wooden schedule MT. Taft declared without equivocation that the rates of the Payne bill were too high. It was found early in the fight how ever, he asserted that the wool and woolen manufacturing interests in the Republican party were so strong that any attempt to change the Dingley rates would result in a defeat of the bill.
 q also say that this is true" said the president, land wish 1t could have been otherwise
 Ut is the one important defect in the bill and in the performance of the promises of the Republican plat form. That 1t will increase the price of wooden cloths or clothes, however very much doubt"
 As to cotton goods the president asserted that 1t was found by the talk ing of evidence that on the lower grades of goods the manufacturers were making a decent profit. As to the higher grades 1t was found that through court decisions the rates had been reduced to a point below those charged on the lower grades.
 "Ss the whether Nle raes on cotton goods are higher than they ought to be-" said the president, "it was a question of evidence"
 DepOres Discussion.
 President Taft declared 1t would be useless and distressing to business to bring about furthar discussion of the tariff during the present or next ses- sion of congress. and added that 1t would require the three years of his administration for the new tariff com unissioners to collect facts which just fly the taking up of the tariff on more scientific basis than ever be- fore
 By that time. he asserted. the party would be ready to go before the peo- pie again with a definite proposition
 President Taft answered with much wsrmth the assertion that the tarin is responsible for the high cost of living. He declared the tAriff remain ed unchanged for ten years while the cost of living. not In America alone. but in free trade and protection coun- kr4Oa kanf altuThfnR