The Cairo bulletin., 1911-12-01
Probably First President Who
Allowed Himself 10 Quoted
In First Person
THEoDOREs PAPER DICKENS IS AN oNLooKER
Roosevelt Aid Gets A Scoop Il
When He Makes Chief
Executive Talk

rent issue Of The Outlook there APP
pera an article entitled President
Taft's Own View; An Authorized
Interview" In which the President
discusses current topics with an In
tcrviewcr. as follows inspart:
Speaking of the tariff, Mr.. Presi-
dent. If you could begin your admin
istration again, would you repeat
your Winona speech tomorrow?
the interviewer asked.
I'm phraseology, no, in effect, yes.
Had known as much as l do now,
] should have realized that there are
some things one cannot lease to
be taken for granted ! dictated
that speech to stenographer on the
cars between two stations, and
glanced through 1t only ontes to
straighten Its grammar, It was sent
out by the press with corresponding
ly little ceremony, so that papers re-
ceived IL In all sorts of shapes. If
] had prepared It two or three weeks
before and revised 1t deliberately,
as ! ought to have done, ] should
have clarified several passages. And
particularaly, 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 criticized than It's prede-
cessors, and it did, as a whole, re-
wise the existing schedules down
ward.
Refers to LaFollette.
II have no fault to find with
either Democrats or Insurgents for
tyying to reduce any duties hey
chose; what object to is disturb
ing the business of the country to-
day, when there is nothing better
than guesswork to proceed upon, and
then disturbing it afresh six months
later when the best available infor-
nation is before us. I do not join In
the charge Of inconsistency against
the eDmocr&s for compromising
with La Toilette on the wool sched-
ule 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
iclsm on their tariff activities last
session was that they were willing
to send to me legislation SO crude
and Gl digested that they must have
known, If they has paused to think,
that could not possibly approve it"
''Is yonr tariff reduction program
based on the theory that it will
bring about corresponding reduc-
tion in the cost of living?" A
II think that effect is greatly over
estimated. NV chief objection to a.
needlessly high tariff is that 1t
nourishes monopoly. 1t holds forth a
constant temptation to the forma-
tion of little trusts. which often are
more directly oppressive to the con-
sumer than, big ones M
"Mr. President, there is your tariff
Board. You have been sharply. criti-
cised for making 1t up of men who
are not tariff ,experts."A
THAT Is not true. If l. had
been appointing board OF
tariff experts I could not have got
along with less than twenty-five, in
order to justice to all branches of
the subject. What ! undertook to
do was to make up board of trained
investigators, capable OF managing
thorough inquiry into costs OF
production and Of analyzing it's ele-
ments. 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. Pro-
fcssor Emery's name was on all the
lists and at the top of half of them,
80 made him chairman of the
board. Page comes from It's Uni
varsitv OF Virginia; Sanders is an
authority on agriculture: Reynolds
in interpreting and enforcing the