Putnam patriot., 1913-04-11
Pre1ident Wilson's Messa se

PreJid lent wilson meSSoSe
 Washington. April 5. President Wilson's message, read today to the senate and house al the beginning Of the extra session. was a 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:
 l have called the congress together in extraordinary session because a duty was laid upon the party now in power at the recent elections which 1t that the burden carried by the people under existing law may be frightened as soon as possible and in order, also, that the business interests of the country may not be kept too long in suspense AS 10 what the fiscal changes are to be to which they will be re quired to adjust themselves. It is clear to the whole country that the tarif duties must be altered. They must be changed to meet the radical altera- tion in the conditions of our ecnomic life which the country bas 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 mained 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 tthe na- ture Of free basinessl instead of by the law of legislation and artificial ar rangement.
 Business Not Normal.
 We have seen tariff legislation wander very far afeld 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 tarin legislation has been based We long ago passed beyond the modest notion Of protecting" the tr sk. +aA boldly forward to the Idea that they were entitled 10 the direct patronage of the government For long time a 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 to maintain practically exclusive market as against the rest Of the world Consciously or unconsciously, We have built up set of privileges and exemptions from competition be hind which II was easy by any. even the erudest, forms of combination to organize monopoly until al last noth- ing IS normal. nothing is obliged to stand the tests of efficiency and econ omy, in our world of big business, but everything thrives by concerted ar rsngement Only new principles of action will save us from final hard specialization of monopoly and complete loss of the influences that quicken enterprise and keep inde- pendent energy alive.
 It Is plain what those principles must be. We must abolish everything that hears even the semblanee of priv Qege or of any kind of artificial ad- vantage. and put our business men and producers under the stimulation Of a constant necessity to be efficient economical. and enterprising. masters Of competitive supremacy. better workers and merchants than any in