El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-09-21

Bill Loosely DEah4s
Finally, the free list has two clauses
Z affecting meat and flour As they went
through the house they put meat on
the free list and flour on the IreS lst
In the senate, however, an alnenuuleLt
was put on limiting the operation OF
these two clauses to imports from
those countries with which We nave 8
reciprocal relation and which admit
3 certain agricultural proQucIs OF ours
free This limitation made CanaQa IA5
only country which would be aTtected
by the rOvisiOns Of the clause Now,
IN our negotiations with Canada TOT
reciprocity we attempted to secure free
meat and free flour. Canada would not
3 consent TO this. because she reared the
effect of our competition win ner
meat and flour. This showed that IN
pOrtatiOns of meat and flour from can
ada without duty would not nave any
effect to lower the price in this cOun-
try of either in normal times. But this
free list bill was giving TO CANADA
something for nothing. This congress at
the close of the act approving the
Canadian reciprocity agreement d.
rected me TO continue negotiations and
expand It's terms and Yet IN LneSe pro-
visions it proposed to deprive me OF
using the concessions of free meat and
free flour TO secure concessions from
Canada. Thus the bill was so loosely
drawn, it was drawn on such a wrong
principle, and with so little intorma-
ton, and it purported TO do so many
things which it did not do, that had
no hesitation in vetOinE it.
FinaIiy, the cotton bill came to me.
This bill differed from the others In
being a bill for which the Democrats
alone, and not the iusurgent Repub-
Hcans. were responsible 1t had passed
the house on the report of the ways
and means committee made without
the taking of any evidence Of persons
interested IN the MANUFACTURE or any
one else, it had completely changed
the method Of classifying cOttOns, claE-
styling them according TO the threads
I'm the yarn instead of by the threads
Of the piece and the specific duty upon
the square yard, as in the present bill
This was a most important change, and
If had been adopted after an informal
communication I'm writing with the bu
reau of standards and after an adverse
report by the treasury experts. The
bill was adopted aVOWedly as free
trade bill by the house. 1t came to the
senate and was passed in the form in
which &c passed the house, except that
certain amendments were added.
Then it passed the house under a rule
that permitted no amendments what
ever. I had the bill examined by ex-
perts, especially with respect to the
chemical schedule, and even in the very
short time i had, I found the greatest
confusion produced by the amendment.
Upon @ number of the articles the re-
duction was greatly more than the
proposed p percent, reaching in some
cases IS and 100 percent, and on other
articles, instead of being a decrease,
there was an increase.
THE bill was impossible and of
course vetoed it, There was in the
passage of the bill, in the amendments,
and in the general treatment an indi-
cation that the support of the bill was
based rather on desire to make a
political record in favor of lower du-
ties than upon a serious proposal to
change the law. At least this is the
only explanation that can be offered of
the careless artificial, and altOgeth-
er unsatisfactory character Of the three
bills.
Il have gone into this matter at con-
siderable detail in order that my pO-
sitiOn with respect to these bills and
the general treatment Of the tariff may
be understood. / am in favor of the
reduction Of the tariff wherever it can
be done and still give a living measure
Of protection to those industries Of the
country that need it. But I insist that
we have reached now a point in the
history of tariff making when every
one ought TO realize that the tariff
should not be changed and business
disturbed, except upon information
which shall enable US to pass bills that
viii disturb it least. Our whole bust
ness system rests upon the protective
tariff basis The real hope of men who
are in favor Of lowering duties is to
pursue the policy of securing accurate
Information to keep the tariff rates
down as low as possible consistent
with the life Of the business protected"
Leaves For Kalamazoo.
President Taft and party left here
at 1908 %. m. for Battle Creek and KaIa-
mazOo. He is scheduled TO spend the
evening in Kalamazoo.