Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-12-01
PRESIDENT ||||[ HAS
Interview |: | With
OUTLOOK WRITER
NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DISCUSSES
CURRENT TOPICS FROM OWN
STANDPOINT.
BELIEVES He IS Right
POLITICAL COLOR PUT UPON
MANY OF HIS ACTIONS BY
BELIEVES HE IS Right
POLITICAL COLOR PUT UPON
MANY OF HIS ACTIONS BY
SOME PAPERS.
President States He Would Repeat
Winona SpeecMI With Few Changes,
az in Effect He Believes It Was
Rioht-Wants Development Of Alas.
ka-WiII Do Duty Whenever He
Thinks He Is in the Right.
(BJ Associated Press.)

(By AsaocIated Press.)
NEW YORK, Dec. lin the cur
rent issue of The Outlook there ap-
pears an article entitled "President
Taft's Own View, An Authorized In
terview," in waich the President dis
cusses current topics with an inter-
viewer, as follows in part:
speaking of the tariff issue, Mr..
President, if you could begin your
Administration again, would you re-
peat your Winona speech tomorrow"
the interviewer asked.
I'm phraseology, no; In effect, yes.
Had known as much as do now, I
should have realized that there are
some things one cannot leave to be
taken for granted. I 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 correspondingly little
ceremony, SO that. papers received It
in all sorts Of shapes. If had pre-
and revised it deliberately, as I
ought to have done, SHOULD have
clarified several passages. And, par
ticuDarly, should have changed the
sentence where proclaim the Payne
Tariff Act the best ever passed. The
comparative would have been a BETTER
description than the superlative; for,
whatever it's shortcomings, the Act
still contains less to be critized than
it's predecessors, and it did, as a
whole, revise the existing schedule
downward.
Il had 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
nothing better than guesswork to pro-
ceed upon, and then disturbing It
afresh six months later when the best
available information is before us.
do not join in the charge Of incon-
sistency against the Democrats for
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 crit
cism on their tariff activities last ses--
sion was that they we're willing to
send to me legislation SO crude and
Il digested that they must have
Known, if they had paused to think.
!aat could not possibly approve it. ,"
"Is your tariff reduction programme.
,ased on the theory that it will bring.
bout corresponding reduction in
he cost of Nving?"
Il think that that effect is greatly
yer estimated. My chief objection
0 a needlessly high tariff is that it
ourishes monopoly. It holds forth
onstant temptation to the formation
little trusts, which often are more
irectly oppressive to the consumer
ian big ones"
"Mr. President, there is your Tariff
oard. You have be il sharply criti-
sed for making it up of men who are
ot tariff experts"
And that is true; they are not. If
had been appointing a board Of
riff experts l could not have got
ong with less than twenty-five. in
der to do justice to all branches Of
e subject. What l undertook to do
as to make up board of trained in
capable of managing a
orough inquiry into costs Of produc-
IN and of aaalyzing it's elements.
rst, Mr. MacVeagh wrote to friends
leading universities, asking each
give me a list of the economists.
nsidered by them best equipped for
e task in hand. Professor Emery's
me was on all the lists and at the
p Of naf of them, so made him
|airman of the Board. Page comes
om the University of Virginia; San
rs is an authority on agriculture;
,ynolds, in interpreting and enforc-
3 the tariff laws for four years, had
learned the ms and outs t
that business; and Howard I re- ~
rded as the ablest Southern Repre-
ntative in Congress- in my day.
lese men made no pretense of being
iff experts; they employ all the
pert help they need. ~ =. ;. tssf
Il fully realize, and wish our peo-
, would that the present prospestty:-.:,
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