The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1909-09-23
PRESIDENT TAFTS
SPEECH N TARIFF.
0OOON~NC-NON

@O~~~-N~~~~N~-%"~~~~O
In his speech at Winona. Mimi. uphold
ing the Payne tariff bill as 4 whole, Pres
ident Taft said in part:
MY Fellow Citizens: As long ago as
August. 1906, in the Congressional cam
paign in Maine. | ventured 10 announce
that L was a tariff revisionist. and thought
that the time had come for a readjust-
ment of the schedules. | pointed out that
II had been ten years prior TO that time
that the Dingley bill had been passed ::
that great changes had taken place in the
conditions surrounding the productions of
the farm, the factory and the mine. and
that the rates imposed in the Dingley bill
in many instances might have become eX
cessive: that is, might have been greater
than the difference between the cost of
production abroad and the cost of pro-
duction at home with a sufficient allow
ance for a reasonable rate OF profit TO the
American producer.
in the summer of 1907 / pointed out in
a speech what seems to me as true to-day
as it then. that the danger of Excess
sive rates was in the temptation they Gre
ated in the form of mOnOpOlies in the pro-
tected articles and thus TO take adVan-
tage of the excessive rates by increasing
the prices, and. therefore, and in order To
avoid such a danger, ii was wise at regu
lar intervals to examine the question of
what the effect of the rates had been upon
the industries of the country. and whether
the conditions with respect to the cost of
production here had so changed to
rant Il reduction in the tariff. and TO make
lower rate truly protective of the in
dustry
1T will lie observed that the object of
the revision under such a statement was
not, TO destroy protected industries in this
country, but il was to continue to protect
them where lower rates offered sufficient
protection to prevent injury by foreign
competition. That was the object of the
revision as advocated by me-
Il want to make as clear as l can this
n N . -
whether the bill is in compliance with
the terms of that platform. it must be
understood what the platform means.
free-trader is opposed to any protective
rate because he thinks that our manufac-
turers, our farmers and our miners ought
to withstand the competition of foreign
manufacturers and miners and farmers. or
else 80 out or business and ma something
else more profitable TO do. Now. certainly
the promises of the platform did not con-
template the downward revision of the
tariff rates TO such point that any in
duStry heretofore protected should be in
jured- Hence. those who contend that the
promise of the platform was TO reduce
prices by letting in foreign competition
are contending for free trade. and not
for anything that they had the right TO
infer from the Republican platform.
THE Ways and Means Committee of
the House, with Mr.. Payne at its head.
spent a full year in assembling evidence
in reference to the rates under the tariff
and devoted an immense amount of work
in the study of the question where the
tariff rates could be reduced and where
they ought to be raised with a view To
maintaining a reasonable protective rate
under the principles of the platform for
every industry that deserved protection.
Mr.. Payne reported a bill-the Payne
tariff bill-which was amended in the Sen
ate by increasing the duty on some things
and decreasing it on others. The differ
ence between the House bill and the
Senate bill was very much less than the
newspapers represented
"One way of stating what was done is
to say what the facts show-that unoer
the Dingley law there were 2.O24 items.
This included dutiable items only. The
Payne law leaves 1.150 of these items I'M
changed. There are decreases in 654 of
the items and increases in 220 OF the
items.
There was a substantial downward re-
vision on articles entering into the general
consumption of the country which can be
termed necessities, for the proportion is
S5,OOO,OO0, 200, representing the consump-
ton of articles TO which decreases applied
TO less than SO, 600. 0O0 600 OF articles of
necessity to which the increases applied.
Now the promise of the Republican
platform was not to revise everything
downward, and in the speeches which
have been taken as Interpreting that plat
form which made in the campaign. | did
not promise that everything should go
downward. What / promised was that
there should be many decreases and that
found to be necessary but that the
whole, the change of the conditions would
make the revision necessarily downward.
and that, ] contend. under the showing
which have made, has been the result of
the Payne bill
Explains Cotton Schedules.
"Now it is said that there was not a re-
duction in a number of the schedules
where they ought to be. 1t is said that
there was no reduction in the cotton
schedule There was not. The House and
the Senate took evidence and found from
cotton manufacturers and from other
sources that rates upon the lower classes
of cotton were such as to make them a
decent profit. Not only a decent profit.
and they were contented with it, but il
was found that the rates on the higher
grades of cotton cloth. by reason of court
DECISIONS had been reduced that they
were considerably below these of the
cheaper grades OF cotton cloth and that
by undervaluatons and otherwise the
whole cotton schedule had been made IN
| just and the various items were dispro-
| portioned in respect to the varying cloths
Hence, in the Senate new system was
| introduced attempting to make the duties
more specific rather than ad valorem in
order to prevent by judicial decision or
| otherwise a disproportiOnate and unequal
operation of the schedule.
Under this schedule it was contendSd
| that there had been general rise of all
the duties cotton. This was vigorously
denied by the experts OF the treasury De
partment. At least the Senate in confer
ence consented To a reduction amounting
| to about 10 per cent on all the lower
grades of cotton. and this reduced the
| lower grades of cotton substantially TO the
same rates as before and increased the
. higher grades TO what they ought to be
| under the Dingley law and what they
were intended TO be.
Cities Balance I'm Leather.
There are other subjects which might
take up. The tariff hides was taken