The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1912-10-25
TAFT MAKES PLEA
FOR PROTECTION
SAYS Business Must Not Be
Football Of Politics.
DEFENDS HIS STEEL VETO
In a Letter to Hardware Men at Shore
the President Reasserts His Belief
In Tariff Board.


In Tariff Board.
Atlantic City, N. j., Oct. 25.-Setting
,orth his belief in a tariff board or
commission and defending his veto OF
the steel tariff revision bill passed by
congress, President Taft set forth his
views on the tariff in letter read at
the session here of the American
Hardware Manufacturers association
and the National Hardware assocla-
ton.
The letter was addressed to G.. H.
Jantz, president of the American asso-
citation, and in it the president sound
ed the slogan that 1--WE must not make
legitimate business the football OF pol
itics." In his letter the president says:
Il am a firm believer in a tariff
board of tariff commission. do not
contend that the tariff can be taken
out of politics in the sense hat it will
never be made the subject of political
controversy Men differ radically as to
the economical wisdom of protective
tariff or a tariff for revenue only, and
that must always be the subject of po-
utical discussion. But there is a means
Of taking the ascertainment of fac,s
away from tribunal uike the wayc
and means committee, which is neces-
sarily hurried in it's conclusions and
necessarily lacking in the thorough
ness and temper which are essential
to reach impartial conclusions.
Probably no industries affected by
the tariff need scientific and impartial
conclusions more than those which are
Innneaanted in Nnnr -cnnXantinn-In
my message Of Aug. IA last, returning
10 the congress without my approval
the bill to revise the metals schedule,
! pointed out that in this schedule,
iron and steel, as primary products,
are less than one-third in value of the
subject matter covered by the schedule.
Il presented table showing that
included in the metals schedule are
flfty-nine allied industries of sufficient
importance to justify separate classif-
cation, study and report by the census
bureau. l pointed out further that
foundry and machine shop products,
which are secondary products of the
iron and steel industry, are made by
more than 10000 competing establish
ments, with an invested capital of
more than $1,500,OO0,OO0, with more
than 100000 wage earners employed
and producing nearly $3.50, 100000 in
value of products annually.
"Every dollar of this capital and
every workingman employed in the in
dustry was directly affected Dy the
bill, and could not find in the discus
sion of the schedule that serious con-
sideration had been given to the effect
of this revision on this particular
branch of the industry, and the same
thing is true of more than two-thirds CT
the industries covered by the schedule
There was little logical relation
between the reductions made by this
bill in the schedule. For example,
steam engines and machine tools in
the present law are dutiable at 80
per cent. In this revision steam en-
gines were reduced to Is per cent, and
the whole machine-tool industry was
put on the free list, without any rea
port OF the ways and means commit
tee in either case for such action. The
term machine tools has already been
the subject of much litigation, and is
scope should be clearly defined before
the great variety of articles which it
now seems to cover are pIaed on the
free list.
1.-THE expansion of our foreign trade
would seem to demand that a transfer
to the free list of such an enormous
range of undetermined sproducts ami
the opening of the best market in the
world to free and unrestricted compe
tition should not be made without a;
the same time at least securing, as
the case now of specified agricultural
implements, the privilege of a like
free entry into the markets of our com
petitors.
II refer to these facts to bring home
to-the members of your association
some Of the dangers of ill-advised po
litical tinkering with business l We
toed the bill which would have spelled
ruin to many of your, because l was
unwilling to approve Legislation which
vitality affected not only millions of
Norkingmen and the families depend
mt on them, but hundreds of millions
of dollars worth of stocks of goods in
the hands of storekeepers and dis.
tribuotrs geenrally, without first pro
viding for careful and disinterested