The Washington herald., 1911-08-18
TAFT ANNOUNCES ATTITUDE
IN WOOL MESSAGE VETO
Says Schedule X Is Too Important and Intricate to Be
Revised Without Tariff Board Statistics.

President Taft sent to the House of
Representatives yesterday a special mes
sage vetoing the wool bill passed by Con-
gress through a combination Of Demo-
Gratis and Republican insurgents. The
President bases his unfavorable action on
the fact that there is no accurate or sci
entifically acquired information which en-
ables him to determine whether the bill
supplies the measure Of protection prom
ised In the platform on which he was
elected.
He takes a firm stand for revision
based solely on scientific data gathered
by the tariff board and makes 1t ap-
parent that all other tariff bills which
come to him at this session of Congress
under similar circumstances will suffer
a like fate. The President contends that
1t Is better to do justice by delaying
tariff revision for ninety days, when the
tarfff boards report will be available
than 1t Is blindly to enact a law which
may seriously injure the business of the
country.
Close Attention Given.
The message was listened to in the
House with the closest attention. and
every one seemed to find relief in Presi-
dent Tafts formal declaration of his
tariff policy. Chairman Underwood. of
the House Ways and Means Committee.
announced shortly before the House ad-
journed that Immediately after the read
ing of the journal to-day In the House
he will move to pass the wool bill over
the Presidents veto. This motion is
likely to prevail In the House, but the
bill cannot be passed over the President s
veto In the Senate.
Here Is the veto message in part:
Schedule K is the most complicated
schedule in the tariff. The usages which
prevail in securing the wool, in making
the yarn, and in the manufacture OF
cloth present a complication of technical
detail that prevents any one not especially
informed concerning wool growing and
manufacture from understanding the
schedule and the effect Of changes in the
various rates and percentages.
Needs Expert Investigation.
IF there ever was a schedule that need
ed consideration and Investigation and
elaborate explanation by exparts before
its amendment. 1t is Schedule X. There
Is widespread belief that many rates
in the present schedule are too high and
are In excess Of any needed protection for
the wool grower or manufacturer. I
share this belief and have so stated In
several public addresses. But I have not
sufficient data upon which I can Judge
how Schedule X ought to be amended or
how its rates ought to be reduced In or
der that the new bill shall furnish the
proper measure of protection an6 no
more. Nor have I sources of information
which satisfy me that the bill presented
to me for signature will accomplish the
result. --
"The parliamentary history of the bill
Is not reassuring upon this point. 1t was
and passed In the House as
providing tariff for revenue only and
with the avowed purpose of departing
from a protective tariff policy. The bill
was defeated in the Senate, and so was
a substitute introduced as a protection
measure
I'm conference between the two Houses
the rate on all classes of raw wool was
fixed at % per cent, this being an in
crease on carpet woods of per cent, as
fixed in the House bill. and of 10 per
cent as fixed in the Senate bill. The
conference rate on cloths and wearing
apparel was fixed at 10 per cent No
evidence as to the cost of production
here or abroad was published, and the
amendment in the Senate
was adopted without reference to or
by a committee.
Without any investigation of which
the details are available. an avowed
tariff -for-revenue and anti-protection
bill is by compromise blended with a
professed protection bill. Rates be-