The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1912-03-01
TAFT EXPLAINS
HIS METHODS OF
TARIFF MAKING
In Authorized Interview President
Tell. How Tariff Board
Works
EXPLAINS HIS VET0ES
Say. Bill. We're Hastily Drawn and
That Democrats are
Dilly Dallying


dent Taft has given an authorized
interview on tarIff-making. 1t is
entitled Common Sense VS.. Hap
habard Methods and appears in
the current issue OF The Outlook. 1t
was secured by special representa-
tive of The Outlook, and is, In part,
as follows:
mot that l wish to see the tariff
question made the mere football of
politics. President Taft explained;
we have had too much Of that al
ready. But / should like to have
the people of the United States pass
their deliberate judgment on the IS
sue as has been made. up within the
last year--the difference between
the common-sense way and the hap
hazard way of making a tariff law.
AS you know. am believer in the
Republican policy of protection.
want to see 1t continued; but also
want to see our party strengthen 1t
by giving it an underpinning which
cannot be swept away by the first
passing food of popular sentiment"
"And this purpose could be ae-
complished-how?" | asked.
Leave Politics Out.
First. by fixing the rates at fig
Hres not dictated by group OF
domestic producers for their own en-
richment, and granted in exchange
for party support, but based on the
difference between the cost of pro-
duction here and the cost of pro-
ducton abroad.
Second, by establishing on per-
manent foundation the machinery
for collecting the data of cost, so that
1T can be In continuous operation
and its work ever more and more
easily done This machinery should
be in charge of a Tariff Commission
or Board.
Explains Tariff Board.
"A good many persons evidently
think that the whole purpose of a
Tariff Board is to collect material
for single tariff bill or series of
Ills. The collection OF data to
guide this years legislation is only a
first step. From now on, II Con-
gress consents to prolong its exis-
tence. the Board will continue col
lecting data through the channels It
has already opened, and with the aid
of men trained in their duties
After reviewing the work of the
Board at considerable length the
interview continues;
ITO return to the broad question
of tariff revision, you are not dis
heartened by what some critics say
about the danger of keeping the
country in perpetual ferment of
nervous apprehension regarding
coming changes?"
Explains Present System.
Nothing could do more to pre-
vent such ferment than the very
plan we are now considering. Hith-
erto, we have seen the whole tariff
structure torn to pieces and rebuilt
whenever there has been a change
of parties in control at Washington
Such overhaulings are always ac-
companied by more or less violent
CONFUSION OF business, followed BY
a state of stagnation. The new bill
is talked about for long. time before
1t is framed; there are extended
hearings in committee, and after.
ward series of secret sessions be
hind barred doors and debates al
some length on the floors Of Con.
gress, and after all these there is &
possible interval of ten days durint
which, II the bill is suspected of be
ing distasteful to the President, its
fate at his hands remains uncertain
Everybody with an ak to grind eithe
brings 1t to Congress himself or tries
to influence that body through al
agent on the ground.
Such unsystematic ways O
patching a tariff together open,
wide the avenues for perjury ant
other fraud, for special pleading, fo
appeals to the most sordid politica
motives, for the exercise Of gros
aAAlM fCQnc1uded on Hecnnd Para1