The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1911-09-21
TAFT DEFENDS
TARIFF vETOEs
Gives His Reason for Not Ap-
+! proving Wool agd Cot
ton Bills.
FOR POLITICAL EFFECT
The President Says The Three Tariff
Bills Were Passed by the Dem
ocrats For Campaign
Purposes Only.
FOR POLITICAL EFFECT
Associated Press Special.

Grand Rapids, Mich, Sept 21-
President Taft arose early this morn
ing to enter upon his fourth busy
day in Michigan. The program as
arranged here will occupy every mo-
ment of the presidents time until
he departs for the south His princi-
pal speech here was in defense of his
vetoes of the woolen cotton and free
list bills as passed by the extraordiu-
airy session of the sixty-second con
gress. He said in part:
My Fellow Citizens: | am going to
tell you in as simple way as | can
why | vetoed the three tariff bills
which congress submitted to me for
signature at the close of this extra
session. l called the session to Sc
cure the enactment in law of the
Canadian reciprocity treaty This
was done on July % Thereafter,
the wool bill, the free-list bill, and
the cotton bill were presented to me
for signature, and ! returned them
1 without my approval, and explained
/ my reasons for so doing in special
/; message on each bill.
At the extra session of 1903. con.
gress had given me $4,000 which
could spend for the support of
tariff Board; at the regular SEES
sion of the same con
gress, the Sixty-first. the appropria
1 ton was enlarged to $3.50, 200. Il
/ 40. 10 T,,I q
| Meantime, the movement for per
/ manent Tariff Commission or Board
to effect these general purposes ac-
quired momentum. Business asso-
Citations the country over united to
form a special society for the promo
tion of such legislation. and the cam
iaign for it was carried on with both
houses of congress | gave the pro-
iect as strong support as possible and
made number of public addresses
in support of it, and sent specific
recommendation of the plan in
congressional message The repubii-
can conventions of 2S states adopt
ed resolutions strongly advocating a
statutory Tariff Commission, and de-
precating any future revision until
needed evidence had been gathered
and impartial conclusions drawn as
to facts upon which revision could
be properly made.
OF course with republicans, in or
der to secure proper revision on the
basis to which they were committed
it was essential to know from I'M
biased source the difference be-
tween the costs of foreign and home
production, for this was the limit
of protection which the moderate
protectionists among them and the
last party platform had set. They
did not wish to injure the import
ant industries of the country by TAX
ing away from them the measure OF
y election needed to enable them to
live against the foreign competition,
but they did intend in the next revis-
ion not to give them more than this.
OF course the democrats recog
nized no such measure of protection
as just, but many of them contended
that such a commission was neces-
sary to secure the facts upon which
proper tarllI lot revenue oHl&
could be framed The result was
that by republican and democratic
Votes. and among the republicans
the so-called progressive or insurgent
republicans were the most earnest IN
its support. bill creating a perma-
nent Tariff Board of five to be APP
pointed by the president, with powe"
to summon witnesses and secure
their evidence under oath was pass
ed by the House. No more than
three members OF the same political
party could he appointed as members
of the board The Investigations to
be undertaken and the reports to be
made were set out in the act ana
included as proper subject matter
the comparative costs of home and
foreign production The board was
to report to the President and 10
congress as either directed The
bill went 10 the senate and was there
amended in a few unimportant par