The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-22

t.ies with which we have reciprocal relation and which admit certain agricul- turai products of ours free This limita- ton mace Canada the only country which would be affected by the provisions of the clause. Now, in our negotiations with Canada for reciprocity we attempted to secure free meat and free flour. Canada would not consent to this, because she feared the effect of our competition with her meat and flour. The bill was so loosly drawn, it was drawn on such wrong principal, and with so little information, and it purported to do so many things which IL did not do, that I had no hesi- tation in vetoing it.
 Finally, the cotton bill came to me This bill differed from the others in being a bill for which the democrats alone and rot the lnsurgent republicans, were re- sponsible. It had passed the House on the report of the ways and means com mittee made without the taking of any evidence of persons interested in the man. ufacture or anyone else; it had complete ly changed the method of classifying cottons, classifying them according to the threads in 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. ard it had been adopted after an infor- rlal communication in writing with the bureau of standards, and after an ad- verse report by the treasury experts. The bill was adopted avowediy as a free trade bill by the House. It came to the Sen ate and was passed in the form in which 1t passed the House. except that certain amendments were added
 It passed the House under a rule that permitted no amendments whatever had the bill examined by experts, espe- cially with respect to the chemical sched- ule, and even in the very short time I had l found. the greatest confusion pro- duced by the amendment. Upon num- Der of the articles the reduction was greatly more than the proposed 25 per cent. reaching In some cases 75 and 100 per cent, and on other articles, instead of being decrease, there was an increase all the way from to 100 per cent The Dill was supposed to be a aFconcession to the North Carolina cotton interests. and to be intended to cheapen the bleaching. dyeing and coloring materials needed in that business. The very con1ical effect of the bill amended was that instead of reducing the duty on bleaching powder 20 per cent, it increased it 40 per cent
 The bill was impossible. and of course | vetoed it. There was in the passage of the bill, in the amendments, and in .he general treatment an indication that the support of the bill was based rather on a desire to make political record in favor of lower duties than upon a serious proposal to change the law At least this is the only explanation that can be offered of the careless, inartfcial. and alto gether unsatisfactory character of the three bills.
 l have gone into thls matter at consid erabe detail In order that my position with respect to these bills and the gen. eral treatrnent of the tariff may be under stood, I 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 insist that we have reached now a point in the history Of tariff mak- irg when everyone ought to realize that the tariff should not be changed and busi- ness disturbed, except upon information which shall enable us to pass bills that win disturb it least. Our whole business 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 in- formation to keep the tariff rates down as low as possible consistent with the life of the business protected. The natural operation of the tariff under ! those conditions and American inga-
 
 | Of production, and that in itself will | secure if we adhere to the policy, a | reduction of the tarff rates from time | to time: but to cut them now awIth | blacksmiths tools" Is to invite in the | next two or four years a. revulsion of | feeling, and then recurrence of high CT rates and the old system Of high | tariffs This l would deprecate and so Tar as l can with the powers given
 me by the constitution I propose to | stop such movement and to secure q reduction in accordance with the principles of the republican platform and on information accurate and i'm !! partial. If that policy is not approved by the electorate, then, of course. those of us who are now in uirice must give l way to men who will carry out a dir, | ferent policy; but while we are in of | ice our position ought clearly to h. | understood. We follow this policy moi only because we are pledged to It. but because we believe 1t right. because we believe that a full discussion ant 1 a clear perception on the part of the l people will convince them ultimately {, apprOye and adOpt it.