The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1913-04-11
Brief Document Tells Purpose Of
Extra Session.
MUST ALTER TARIFF DUTIES
Lawmakers Asked to Square the
Schedules With the Actual
Facts of Industrial and
Commercial Life.

senate and house at the beginning OF
the extra session, was brief, point
ed document setting forth in general
terms what congress is expected to do
in the matter of tariff revision. The
message was as follows:
To the Senate and House Of Repre-
sentatiyes:
| have called the congress together
in extraordinary session because
duty was laid upon the party now in
power at the recent elections which it
ought to perform promptly, in order
that the burden carried by the people
under existing law may be lightened
as soon as possible and in order, also,
that the business interests of the
country may not be kept too long in
suspense as to what the fiscal changes
are to be to which they will be re-
Quired to adjust themselves. 1t is clear
to the whole country that the tariff
duties must be altered. They must
| be changed to meet the radical altera.
ton In the conditions Of our economic
life which the country has witnessed
within the last generation.
While the whole face and method of
our industrial and commercial life
were being changed beyond recogni-
ton the tariff schedules have re-
NAMED what they were before the
change began, or have moved in the
direction they were given when no
large circumstance of our industrial
development was what it is today.
Our task is to square them with the
actual facts. The sooner that is done
the sooner we shall escape from suf-
fering from the facts and the sooner
our men of business will be free to
thrive by the law OF nature (the ma
ture Of free business) instead of by
the law of legislation and artificial ar
rangement.
Business Not Normal.
We have seen tariff legislation
wander very far afield in our day
very far indeed from the field in which
our prosperity might have had nor
NAL growth and stimulation No one
who looks the facts squarely in the
face or knows anything that lies be
meath the surface of action can fail to
perceive the principles upon which
recent tariff legislation has been
based. We long ago passed beyond
the modest notion of protecting the
industries of the country and moved
boldly forward to the Idea that they
were entitled to the direct patronage
of the government. For long time
time SO long that the men now active
in public policy hardly remember the
, conditions that preceded tive have
, sought in our tariff schedules to give
each group of manufacturers or pro
> ducers what they themselves thought
! that they needed in order t.
. maintain practically exclusive
= market as against the rest Of tbs
world. Consciously or unconsciously
!, we have built up set of privileges
!, and exemptions from competition be
!, hind which it was easy by any, ever
! the crudest, forms of combination tt
, organize monopoly; until at last moth
Ing Is normal, nothing is obliged t
stand the tests of efficiency and econ
cmy, In our world of big business. bu
everything thrives by concerted ar
rangement. Only new principles o
action will save us from final hare
capitalization of monopoly and
complete loss of the influences tina
quicken enterprise and keep indie
pendent energy alive.
1t is plain what those principle
must be. We must abolish everythin
that bears even the semblance of pri,
ilege or of any kind of artificial &C
vantage, and put our business me
and producers under the stimulatio
Of constant necessity to be efflcien
economical, and enterprising, master
Of competitive supremacy, bette
J workers and merchants than any
the world. Aside from the duties lai
upon articles which we do not, an
probably cannot, produce, therefore
and the duties laid upon luxuries an
merely for the sake OF the revenue
they yield, the object of the tariff dl
~ ties henceforth laid must be effectiq
competition, the whetting of Amer
can wits by contest with the wits {
he rest of the world.
Development, Not Revolution.
1t would be unwise to move towar
NJ this end headlong, with rockies
vi haste, or with strokes that cut at ii
very roots Of what has grown U
~ amongst US by long process and ,
h our own invitation. 1t does not alt
" thing to upset 1t and break it ar
ne deprive it of chance to change,
oy destroys 1t. We must make chang
ey In our fiscal laws, In our fiscal systei
40 whose object Is development, mo
!" free and wholesome development, n
- revolution or upset or confusion v
: must build up trade, especially fc
!. eign trade. We need the outlet al
the enlarged field OF energy mo
"A than we ever did before. We mu