The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1909-09-23
| TAFT DEFENDS TARIFF
AS BEST IN HISTORY
President Declares Aldrich-Payne
Bill Best Which Ever Was
Passed by Congress.
ADMITS 1T HAS A FEW FAULTS
Claims Revision Was Downward and
Says Act Fulfilled Party Pledge
-Favors Postal Banks.

In his speech at Winona, Mimi,
President Taft stamped the Payne bill
1.-The best tariff law the Republican
party ever passed" In a 7,000-word
speech he made a detailed defense of
the entire measure, vigorously uphold
ing the action of Representative Taw-
ney Of Winona, who supported the bill,
and declaring that had the bill been
defeated or had he, Taft, vetoed it, the
Republican party would have been de-
moralized, the tariff agitation would
have continued, business would have
been stalled and prosperity halted and
the other pledges of the Republican
party, to carry out the policies of
Roosevelt, would have been impossible
of redemption.
"All | have to say" declared the
President, lis in respect to Mr.. Taw-
ney's action and my own in signing
the bill l believed that the interests
of the country, the interests of the
party, required me to sacrifice the ac-
complishment of certain things in the
revision of the tariff which / had
hoped in order to maintain party soli-
darity which | believe to be much
more important than the reduction OF
rates in one or more schedules of the
tariff"
The one thing in the Payne law with
which the President is not wholly
pleased is the wool schedule, but he
declares that further revision of the
tariff by the present Congress cannot
be thought of. He suggests that the
bill be given a thorough trial for a
couple of years to the end that Repub-
leans may agree upon what is desira-
BILE. He extols the creation of the
tariff commission, of which he an
nounces an intention to make the
broadcast use He congratulates the
country on the passage of the corpora
ton tax.
1t was the most important speech of
his present trip and came directly in
the wake of speech delivered at Mil
waukee during the afternoon in sup
port of postal savings banks and
after several references had been
made by the President during the day
to the limitations of the powers of
the chief executive, and his great de-
tendency upon the House and Senate.
Speaking in Milwaukee on postal
savings banks, he said: II uphold
the doctrine of postal savings banks,
because l believe they will fill in this
country a long-felt want"
From carefully compiled statistics
which the President had culled from
the financial records of other nations,
he showed that the United States Is
the sole civilized nation on earth that
has neglected TO provide the people
with this means of laying aside their
humble savings. He showed that in
thirty two States of the Union the say.
ings bank institutions are inadequate
TO meet the needs of the people; he
declared that, far from being a disad-
vantage to our financial system, the
postal savings banks would serve a
useful purpose, namely, to enable the
government to buy up, with the funds
that will thus come to hand, the $780,.
100000 of 2 per cent bonds that are
just now distressing the treasury de-
partment. The President pleaded for
postal savings banks as an induce
ment to poor people to save.