Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-06-19
CHAIRMAN ROOTS SPEECH.
CONTINUED from Page one.)


standards may be maintained by which
the Iawbreakers may be promptly re-
strained and punished. but which VIII
operate with sufficient accuracy ana
dispatch to interfere with legitimate
business SIS little as possible
There spoke the voice Of two repre-
sentative Americans and the promise
If that declaration has been faithfully
observed with painstakipg and assid-
unus care The Republican administra-
ton which is now drawing TO a close
has engaged in completing and perfect
ing the machinery. in applying the
standards and working cut the Pfae-
tical results of established Repu5ll-
can policies including also the McAlh-
lev policies of a protective tariff ana
sound fr.anee. Service OF this kind IS
not spectacular but it is of the highes'
imnarfance Under Republican admin
istrations there has been one nnerek-
on continuous course of consistent po'-
icy and effective performance ii aeal-
ing with the evils when have pee1
naturally incident 10 the amazing m
dustrial changes Of our generation, IN
vast creation Of new wealth, the in
crease Of our population and the eX-
mansion Of our commerce L rests WITH
the American electorate to say whethei
they will permit the minor disaffeetions
which are inseperahle frem all human
performance and the desire for ch2nst
by which all men are sometimes Affect
ed to obscure in their judgments ms
wisdom of continuing the execution OF
these nolicies and the evil of charter
ing another and untried party tot q
new departure in governmental exper-
iment.
"The Republican party stands now
as Mckinley stood, for a protective
tariff, while the Democratic party
stands against the principle of pro
lection and for a tariff for revenue
only. We stand not for the abuses
of the tariff but for the beneficien'
uses. No tariff can be devised so
moderate, so reasonable, that 1t VIII
not be rejected by the Democratic par
ty. provided its duties be adjusted
with reference to labor cost so as to
protect American products against be-
ing driven out of the market by for
eign under selling made possible
through the lower rate of wages in
other countries The American for
eign merchant service has been driven
off the face of the waters because with
American sailors wages and the
American standard of living II could
not compete with foreign shipping.
The Democratic party proposes to put
American mills and factories and
mines in the same position, and the
American people have now to say
whether they wished that TO be done.
have said that we do not stand for
the abuses of the tariff. The chief
cause of abuse has been that we have
outgrown our old method of tariff
making. Our productive industries
have become to vast and complicated;
our commercial relations too extensive
for any committee of congress of it
self to get at the facts TO which the
principle of protection may be proper
1y applied. The Republican party
roposes TO remedy this defective meth
cd through having the facts ascertain
ed by an impartial commission through
thorough scientific investigation, sc
that the President and Congress shall
have the basis for the just applica-
ton of the principle of protection. The
Republican Congress included in the
Payne Aldrich bill clause under
which the President had authority to
appoint such a board.
They have reported upon the wool
cn schedule; they nave reported or
the cotton schedule. The President
has transmitted their findings to Con-
II. a n
resentatives ignores and repudiatee
them. In January. 1911, the last Re-
publican House of Representative
passed a bill to create a tariff com
mission with much broader and more
effective powers for compelling the
attendance of witnesses and securing
information, charged to report its
findings To the Congress. The bill
passed the Senate with some amend
ment. but 1t was delayed there by an
avowed Democratic filibuster until il
reached the House so late in the ses-
sion that a vote upon it was pre-
vented by another Democratic filibus-
ter In the House. Now the House is
Democratic and the tariff commits
sion bill is dead The Democratic
purity MT " ant wv ieNNS tPblif
which just protective measure can
be framed, because they mean that
there shall be no protection for Amer
lean industries. In the last session
and in the present session of Con-
gress the Democratic House has franz
ed and passed a series of tariff bills
for revenue only with complete in
difference TO the absolute destruction
that their enactment would bring up
on great American industries.
The American people have now to
pass not upon the abuses of the tar
iff, but ON the fundamental question
between the two systems of tariff
making.
The national currency. which the elec-
ton of Mckinley rescued from disaster
at the hands Of free silver Democracy,
still rests upon the Civil W ar basis of
government bonds and is no longer adapt
ed 10 our changed conditions. Any pos
sible remedy Involves the study of world
wide finance. No congress could by Its
ordinary methods get beyond the surface
of the vast and complicated problem. For
the solution OF this question the policy
of the Republican party established a
monetary commission which has made q
most thorough and most exhaustive study