Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-12-01
Has Done Fairly Well,
but Wants People to
Judge.
WlN0NA SPEECH BREAK
Objects to Disturbing Business
Conditions-Not Dependent
on Public Office.

New York, Dec. I'm the current
issue Of the Outlook there appears an
article entitled President Taft's Own
View. an Authorized Interview" in
which the president discusses current
topics with an interviewer, as follows,
in part:
Speaking of the tariff issue, Mr.. Presi-
dent, II you corld begin your admins
tration again, would you repeat your
Winona speech tomorrow" the inter-
viewer asked
I'm phraseology, no; IN effect, yes.
Had I known as much as l do now,
should have realized that there are
some things cne cannot leave to be
taken for granted. / dictated that
speech to a stenographer on the cars
between two stations. and glanced
through 1t only enough to straighten
It's grammar; 1t was sent out by the
press with corr espondingly little cere-
mony, so that papers received it in
all sorts of shapes. If had prepared
vised it deliberately, as ought to
have done, I snould have clarified sew
eral passages.
WOULD HAVE MADE CHANGE,
"And, particularly, l should have
| changed the pentence where l pro-
claim the Payne tariff act the best
ever passed. The comparative would
have been better description than
the essuperlatiye; for. whatever its
SHORTCOMINGS, me act still contains
less to be criticised than its predeces-
sors, and it did, as whole. revise the
existing schedules downward.
II 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
nothing better than guesswork to pro-
ceed upon, and then disturbing 1t
afresh six months later when the best
available information Is before u.s. |
do not join in the charge of inconsist-
ency against the democrats for COM
promising with La Toilette on the
|
their own figlHes. If they could not
get all the reduction they asked for,
they were quite justified in taking
what they could get. My chief criti-
cism on their tariff activities last ses-
sion was that they were willing to
send to me legislation SO crude and
Ill digested that they must have
known, if they had paused to think,
that could not possibly approve It,"
HIGH TARIFF MONOPOLY AID.
'Is your tariff reduction program
based on the theory that it will bring
about corresponding reduction in the
cost of living''
81 think that that effect is greatly
overestimated. My chief objection to
a needlessly high tariff Is that it nour-
ishes monopoly. 1t holds forth a con-
slant temptation to the formation of
little trusts, which often are more di-
rectly oppressive to the consumer
than big ones"
"Mr. President, there Is your tariff
board. You have been sharply criti-
cised for making it up of men who are
uOI IdrlH eApeilS.
"And that is true; they are not. II
l had been APPOINTING a board of tariff
experts | could not have got along
with less than %, in order to do JUS
tice to all branches of the subject.
What l undertook to do was to make
up a board OF trained Investigators,
capable of managing thorough in
mir nf nd ~
analyzing its elements. First, Mr..
MacVeagh wrote to friends in leading
universities, ASKING each to give me
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 I made him chairman of
the board. pase comes from the Uni
versity of Virginia; Sanders Is an au-
thority on agriculture; Reynolds, in
interpreting and enforcing the tariff
laws for four years, had presumably
learned the iEs and outs of that bust
ness, and Howard / regarded as the
oblest southern representative In con-
gress in my Cay. These men made no
pretense Of being tariff experts; they
: employ ali the expert help they need.
is REVENUE PRODUCER.
Il fully realize. and I wish our peo-
pie would understand that the present
prosperity of the treasury is due in
no small meazure to the existing
tariff, which, Notwithstanding all its
faults, is revenue producer. There
I fa dc Il hot he GafA