The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1911-08-31
Has TAFT COMMITTED sUIoIpEI

with his veto Of the Cotton bill
MI. Taft completed the slaughter Of
all the tariff-reform measures passed
by Congress. No stand. patter could
nave done stancher service in defend
Ding the abuses of the Payne-Aldrich
tariff. BY denying to the people re-
lief from unjust taxation he has turn
ed the gratitude Of the special inter
.ests that Had lost control of Congress
Is what the New York World thinks
about it.
No President could have been COM
mited more unqualified lifiedIy to the
reduction of wool and wollen duties
than Mr.. Taft was by his verbal and
written pledges. His veto OF the Wool
bill is inexcusable. He had denoune-
ed the wooden schedule of the Payne
Aldrich tariff as "tndefensible.1 In
his famous Winona speech he said:
With respect to the wool schedule. I
agree that tits too high and that it
ought to have been reduced. and that
it probably represents considerably
more than the difference between the
cost Of production abroad and the
cost of production here. When it came
to the question of reducing the duty.
at this hearing in this tariff bill on
wool, Mr.. Payne in the House and Mr..
Aldrich in the Senate. although both
favored reduction in the schedule,
found that in the Republican party
the interests of the wooIgrowers of
the Ear West and the interests the
WOODEN manufacturers IN the East and
other States, reflected through their
Representatives in Congress. were
sufficiently strong to defeat ANY at
tempt to change the wooden tariff, and
that had it been attempted it would
have beaten the bill reported from
either committee. I am sorry that
this is so and 1 could wish that it
were otherwise. 1t is the one impor-
tant defect in the present Payne Tar
If bill But, as I have already said,
| am quite ready to admit that allow
ing the wooden schedule { remain
where it is not a compliance with the
terms of the 1Chfcago) platform as / |
interpret it and as 1t is generally I'M
d~erstood."
The Farmers Free-Lfst, bill was the
logical complement of Canadian Re-
~ciprocity. 1t was designed to affect
directly the cost of living and of sup
plies at a time when prices to CON
sumers r again rising. Mr., Taft
wrote his veto of the bill before Con-
gress had passed it.
1t was on the cotton schedule in the
Payne-Aldrfch tarfn that the Repub-
lican Senator Dolliver made his great;
fight and showed how the country
was being imposed upon in the name
of protection. The cotton duties were
raised in the Tariff act of 1909, and
by his veto of the Cotton bill Mr.. Taft
iustffies the increase and prevents
ar reduction.
Mr.. Taft has ranked himself again
with the high protectionists. All leIsei
pledges of honest, downward revisio7i
nave proved deceptive. By his acts
ne has repudiated his Chicago pledge |
of Dec. 8. 1910: "We are bound to
promese the prompt elimination of in-1
stances of injustice in the Tariff law"
With how much faith does Mr.. Taft
imagine the people, whose Just hopes
he has Knocked, will listen to him next |
he offers himself as their leader, in q
campaign for real tariff revision? He
will not be able to deceive them next
time.
-A)e-