Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-12-01
Discussed inCurrentNum-
Der Of The Outlook
By The President, in a Long
Interview Entitled.
president Taft's Own View, an Au.
thori1ed Interview"

view in which the President discuss
es current topics with an interviewer,
as Follows in part:
speaking of the tariff issue, Mr..
President, If you could begin your adj
ministration again. would you repeat
your winona speech tomorrow" the
interviewer asked.
In phraseology. no; in effect. yes.
Had | known as much as l do now.
should have realized that there are
some things one cannot leave to be
taken for granted. l dictated that
speech to a stenographer on the cars
between two stations, and glanced
through it only enough to straighten
its grammar; it was sent out by the
press with eorrespondingly little eere-
mcny so that papers received it in all
sort Of shapes. If I had prepared it
two or three weeks before and revised
1t deliberately. as / ought to have done.
! should have clarified several pass
ages. And, particularly, | should have
changed the sentence where l pro-
claim the Payne Tariff Act the best
ever passed. The comparative would
have been a better description than
the saperlative; for, whatever its
shortcomings, the Act still contains
less to be criticized than its pre-
decessors. and it did, as a whole. re-
wise the existing schedules downward.
81 have no fault to find with either
Democrats or Insurgents for trying to
reduce any duties they chose; what /
object to is disturbing the business of
the country today, when there is moth
ing better than guesswork to proceed
upon. and then disturbing 1t afresh six
months later when the best available
information is before u.s. l do not
join in the charge of Inconsistency
against the Democrats for compromis-
ing with La Toilette on the wool
schedule instead of standing by their
own figures. If they could not get all
the reduction they asked for, they were
quite justified in taking what they
could get. My chief criticism on their
tariff activities last session was that
they were willing to send to me legis-
lation so crude and i'll digested that
they must have known if they had
paused to think, that l could not pos
sibly approve it,
rs your tariff reduction program
based on the theory that it will bring
about a corresponding reduction in the
cost of iiving9''
Il think that that effect is greatly
over estimated My chief objection to
needlessly high tariff is that it nour-
ishes monopoly. 1t holds forth con-
slant temptation to the formation of
Ia et q
rectly oppressive to the consumer than
big ones"
The Tariff Board. -
'Mr. President, there is your Tariff
Board. You have been sharply criti-
cized for making it up of men who are
not tariff experts -
And that is true; they are not. If
1 had been appointing board of tariff
experts l could not have got along
with less than twenty-five, in order to
do justice to all branches of the SUBJ
ject. What undertook to do was TO
make up board of trained investi-
gators. capable of managing a thor
ough inquiry into costs of production
and of analyZing it's elements. First,
Mr.. McVeagh wrote to friends in lead
ing universities, asking each to give
me a list of the economists considered
By them best equipped for the task in
hand. Professor Emery's name was
on all the lists and at the top of half
of them, so / made him chairman of
the Board. Page comes from the
University of Virginia; Sanders is an
authority on agriculture; Reynolds, in
interpreting and enforcing the tariff
laws for four years, had presumably
learned the ms and outs of that bust
ness; and Howard l regarded as the
ablest Southern representative in
Congress in my day These men made
no pretense of being tariff experts
they employ all the expert help they
need.
Il fully realize, and / wish our peo-
pie would, that the present prosperity
of the Treasury is due in no small
measure 10 the existing tariff, which.
Notwithstanding all its faults, is a
revenue producer. There is good
deal more that can be said for that
act. il gave us maximum and mini
mum tariff proviso which l deem OF
the highest Importance, and which
tended to increase our foreign trade
substantially. 1t gave free trade with
the Philippines. which has made the
islands more prosperous than ever in
their history. without injury TO any
American industry. 1t gave author
ity that | used to create and appoint
a Tariff Board, which, though not the
commission / sought, is doing most
useful work; and ii imposed a cor
poration tax, on which / had set my
heart. bur which at times | despalred
of getting through"
''Now that you have launched your
project for Constitutional amend
ment, you probably have in mind some
particular form Of general income tax
to recommend TO Congress when it is
free to act ?t
In a way, yes. ! believe, on princi-
pie. in general income tax. The only
arguments against 1t are that it is in
quisitorial, and that il offers a tempta
fion to perjury. But ] would not re-
sort TO the ordinary income tax except
in an emergency like war. when
would have ii graduated. so that those
citizens who had most at stake should
bear corresponding large share of tbs
burden of the common defense. IL