The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04
ROOSEVELT APPROVES PLAN
 FOR TARIFF COMMISSION
fcoNrrNuEp FROM PAGE D

(CONTIN UED FkOM PAGE lD
 
 ment to provide for such commission In the original bill, when the tariff bill was under consideration in the Senate, was introduced by your own senator here present--Senator Deliver.
 'It was a choice act of service to the people on the senator's part, and I wish 70 take this opportunity of saying that throughout my term as President on every important question 1t was my privilege to stand shoulder and shoulder with Sem ator Deliver. Let me add, my friends, what I have said of Senator Deliver, l also can say of your congressman, Mir Hubbard.
 "A word here for my friend Congress- man Martin, although he is not from Iowa, but from South Dakota, he also was a man who absolutely stood by me on every point throughout my term, and with whom I was able to work in hearty sympathy for every progressive policy All three of these men I find, after trying them out stood without hitching- perhaps that simile suits South Dakota better than Iowa, where I should say they never kicked over the pail. A Bitter Fight "It was only by a bitter fight that the friends of the commission idea in Congress got through the provision. It is not yet in satisfactory shape The commission itself should be enlarged and its powers greatly enlarged and defined, and any necessary changes made that will make it's work more effective from the standpoint both of the executive and Congress. But the establishment of a commission makes an excellent beginning in the right direc- ton. Moreover, the value of a commis- sion as provided has been made reA by the action of the administration in con- struing in broad fashion the law that pro- vided for 1t.
 There is another feature of the tariff law which Is admirable and points our course in the right direction-the maxi mum and minimum provision. And here again I wish to point out that the value of that provision has depended largely upon the excellent work by the adminis- tration in negotiations with foreign pow CTS for its application, especially the ne- gotiatons with the Dominion of Canada which were the most difficult of all, and yet in my eyes the most important be- cause I esteem 1t of vital consequence that we should always be on relations of the highest friendship and good will with our great and growing neighbor in the north.
 Tn addition, it was of very real im- portance to provide for, as the present tariff does provide for proper treatment of the Philippines.
 Tnrin Needs Revision 1T think that the present tariff Is better than the last and considerably better than the one before the last. but 1t has cer- tainly failed to give general satisfac- tion."
 This is former President Roosevelt's s opinion of the Payne-Aldrich tariff bill, as expressed in the speech delivered here. The colonel spoke on the difficulties of tariff-making and expressed the belief that the only way to properly regulate the tariff rates would be to have a we'll equipped commission who would inves- tigate the various paragraphs in the bill and recommend changes from time to time.
 MT. Roosevelt's speech follows: "Whenever men just like ourselves probably not much better and certainly no worse-continually fail to give us the re- suits we have right to expect from their efforts, we may just as we'll make up our minds that the fault lies, not in their personality but in the conditions under which they work, and profit comes, not from denouncing them, but in seeing that the conditions are changed. This Is es- pecially true of tariff-making. It has been conclusvely shown by experiments | repeated again and again that the meth ods of tarifr-making by Congress, which have now obtained for so many years, | cannot from the very nature of the case | bring really satisfactory results. I think | that the present tariff is better than the last, and considerably better than the one before the last but 1t has certainly | failed to give general satisfaction. I be- | lieve this country is fully committed to the principle of protection; but 1t is tc protection as principle; to protection pri- marily In the interest of the standard oi living of the American workingman. believe that when protection becomes no a principle, but privilege and a prefer ence, or rather tumble of privileges and preferences. then the American people dis approved of it.
 Correction of the Trouble Now, to correct the trouble 1t is neces l sary, in the first place, to get in minl clearly what we want, and. in the nex place, to get in mind clearly the method