The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1909-05-28
FOR UNITED
COUNTRY
PRESIDENT URGES CLOSER
UNION OF NORTH AND
SOUTH.
Occasion Was dwelling of Shaft
in Honor of Gen. Hartranft at
:. Fort Mahone-Takes Occasion
to Criticize the High Lumber
Tariff.

IotoTSDuTS, Nd.sNady AA-IT0SlQo0C
Taft opposes a high tariff on lumber.
personally, I am not in favor of a
81 tariff. on lumber for any purpose"
the president said in an address on the
lawn at Center Hill mansion here.
'I'm not going to say that tariff for
revenue only and tariff for the pur-
poses of protection r one and the
same thing when they both reach the
same amount, he continued, "but when
a congressman from Alabama favors
a 81 tariff on lumber for revenue and
a congressman from Washington on
Oregon favors a 81 tariff on lumber
for protection, they have not any great
amount of dispute between them. It
all means, my friends, that we are
working closer together along different
lines.
"The Southern congressman. who
have been sharply criticised by their
home papers for DESERVING the sacred
principles of free trade, come about
as close to knowing what their constit-
uents at home want as do the leading
papers of the same community. This
again is but a further illustration of the
fact that we are getting together
Urges Closer Union =.
MI. Taft's speech was made at the
close of an active day and was a plea
for a closer unon betW cen the North
and the South. His first speech Of the
day was delivered at the unveilng of a
shaft of granite and a heroic figure in
bronze, placed on the battlefield at
Fort Malone to commemorate the
,alor of Gen. John F. Hartranft and
the Pennsylvania soldiers of the third
division Of the ninth corps of the army.
President Taft addressed there a no.
table gathering of veterans in the blue
of the North and the gray of the South.
The presidents second address was
delivered after luncheon at Center
Hill mansion. Thousands, including
many negroes, gathered to hear him.
In discussing a united country, he said:
"Now, there is not the slightest
doubt that the danger to the country
that rose in the Spanish war united
the South and the North in a way that
nothing else could. But, my friends,
a national war is just a bit expensive
in point of money and blood, and I
think we have got to the point where
we can go on getting closer together
without that supreme test that a ma
tional war brings about.
Common Country for All
II believe it is possible to make this
one common country for all of us. I
know that a very sensible and patriotic
Northerner can sit and listen to the
tales of heroism of the Southern in
the wal between the states and feel
proud of the deeds of the men of the
South, and I know sensible men of
the South can do the same with respect
to the counting of the glorious deeds
Of the Northern army.
"You will always find some fool at
one end Of the crowd saying what a
fool a t the other end takes as a chal-
lenge, and then they try to stir up the
middle by some altogether thoughtless
statement that sensible men would not
pay any attention to, and therefore
what we have got to do among us is
to restrain the fools. We must elimi-
nate as far as possible those people
on both sides with whom none of us
crro~o<hs0oc @