The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1911-08-25
VETO OF WOOL BILL
SENT THE HOUSE BY
PRESIDENT Taft
AN INJURY TO THOSE ENGAGED
IN SHEEP RAISING Is
ALLEGED.
Waiting for the Tariff Board Report
President Promises to Recommend
Such Reductions AS information
Will Justify.

Will Justify.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 1S.-Presi
dent Taft today carried out his threat
to veto the wool tariff bill. In a
special message to the house of rep.
resentatives he said the bill was not
in harmony with the platform on
which he was elected, and that the
American people are deeply impress.
ed with the conviction that the inter.
est of the consuming public can be
properly guarded only by revising the
tariff one schedule at a time, and
then upon accurate and scientifical-
ly acquired information"
After promising that the tariff
board will be ready to report in De-
cember, the President argues that
failure of the present bill should not
be regarded, therefore, as taking
away the only chance for reduction,
| by this congress.
The message will be accepted as an
indication that no tariff bill prepared
in advance of report of the tariff
board upon schedules affected will
be signed by the President.
In his message President Taft
said:
Il return without my approval
house bill No. 11,019 with a state
ment of my reasons for so doing.
THE bill Is an amendment Of the
existing tariff law, and readjusts the
customs duties in what is known as
schedule X, embracing wool and man
ufacturers of wool.
II was elected to the Presidency
as the candidate of a party which. in
its platform, declared it's ann and
purpose to maintain a protective tar
if by the imposition of such duties
as will equal the difference between
the cost of production at home and
abroad, together with a reasonable
profit to American industries. | have
always regarded this language as fix
ing the proper measure of protec-
ton at the ascertained difference be-
tween the cost of production at home
and that abroad, and have construed
the reference to the profit of Ameri-
can industries as intended, not to add
a new element to the measure stated
or to exclude from the cost of pro-
duction abroad the element of a man
ufacturers or producers profit. but
only to emphasize the Importance Of
including in the American cost man.
ufacturers or a producers profit,
reasonable according to the American
standard.
In accordace with a promise made
in the same platform, l called an ex-
ira session of the sixty-first congress
at which a general revision of the
tariff was made and adopted in the
Payne bill. It was contended by
those who opposed the Payne bill
that the existing rates of the Ding
ley bill were excessive and that the
rates adopted in the revising statute
were not sufficiently reduced to con-
form to the promised measure.
"The great difficulty, however. in
discussing the new rates adopted was
that there were no means available
by which impartial persons could de-
termine what in fact was the differ
ence in cost of production between
the products of this country and the
products abroad.
ct help these reforms for the fu
ture, l tookadvantage of clause in
the Payne tariff bill enabling me to
create at traiff board of three mem
bers to secure information as to the
comparative cost of protection Of du-
table articles under the tariff at home
and abroad.
IF there ever was a schedule that
needed consideration and investiga-
ton and elaborate legislation by ex-
perts before its amendment, it is
schedule K. There is widespread be-
lief that many rates in the present
schedule are too high and are N ex-
cess of any needed protection for the
wool grower or manufacturer L
share this belief and have so stat
ed in several public addresses. But
I have not sufficient data upon which
I can Judge how schedule K ought to
be amended, nor have | sources OF IN
formation which satisfy me that the
bill presented to me for my sigma
ture will accomplish this result The
parliamentary history of the bill Is