Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1913-04-08

penSe as to what the fiscal changes
are to be to which they will be re
uuired to adjust themselves. 1t Il
clear that the whole country expected
the tariff duties be altered. They
must be changed to meet the radical
alterations 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 recog'
milton the tariff schedules have re-
NAMED what they were before the
change began. or. have moved in the
direction they We're given when no
large circumstances of our industrial
development was what il 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
tnre of free busness) instead of by
the law of legislation ard artificial
arrangement.
We have seen tariff legislation wan
der very far afield in our day-very
far indeed from the field in which our
prosperity might have had a normal
growth and stimulation. No one who
looks the facts squarely in the face
or knows anything that lies beneath
the surface of action can fail to per
ceive the principles upon which re-
cent tariff legislation has been based
We long ago passed beyond the
modest nation of "protecting' the in.
dustres of the country and moved
boldly forward to the idea that they
were entitled to the direct patronage
of the government. For long time
q time so long that the men now ac'
tive in public policy hardly remember
the conditions that preceded tive
have sought in our tariff schedules TO
give each group of manufacturers or
producers what they themselves
thought that they needed in order to
maintain a practically exclusive mar
ket as against the rest of the world
Consciously or unconsciously, we have
built up set of privileges and eX
cmptions from competition behind
which it was easy by any even the
orudest forms Of combination to or.
ganize monopoly: until at last no
thing is normal, nothing is obliged tC
stands the tests of efficiency and econ
cmy, in our world of big business, but
everything thrives by concerted ar
rangement. Only new principles of
action will save us from a final hard
crystallization of monopoly and com
plete loss of the influences that quick
en- enterprise and keep independent
energy alive.
1t is plain what those principles
must be. We must abolish everything
that bears the semblance of privilege
OF O. any kind of artificial advantage,
and Yjflt our business men and produc.
ers under the stimulation cf constant
necessity to be efficient, economical
and enterprisng, masters of competi
tive supremacy. better workers and
than any in the world
Aside from the duties laid upon arti
cles which we do not and probably
can not produce. therefore, and the
duties laid upon Injuries and merely |
nf tl,n
Weld, the object Of the tariff duties
henceforth laid must be effective com.
petition, the whetting of American I
wits by contest with the wits of the /
'est of the world
1t would be unwise to move toward .
his end headlong with reckless haste
n with strokes that cut at the very
'oots of what has grown up amongst
is by long process and at our own
rvitation. 1t does not alter thing
o upset it and break it and deprive
!. of chance to change. 1t destroys
/ We must make changes in our fiscal
avs. in our fiscal system, whose OBJ
ect is development, more free and
wholesome development, not revolu
ion or upset or confusion. We need
he outlet and the enlarged field Of
mercy more than we ever did before
We must build up industry as well,
md must adopt freedom in the place
# artificial stimulation only so far as
will build. not pull down IN deal
ng with the tariff the methods by
yhich this may be done will be a mat.
er Of Judgment. exercised item by
fem. To some not accustomed to the
and responsibilities of
i eater freedom our methods may in
ONE respects and at some points
eem heroic, but remedies may be he !
ole and yet be remedies. It is our
usiness to make sure that they are
enuine remedies. Our object is clear.
our motive is above Just challange
nd only an occasional error of judg Z
sent is chargeable against us, we
hall be fortunate
We are called upon to render the $
ountry a great service in more mat r
ers than one. Our responsibility r
hould be met and our methods should =
e thorough, as thorough as moderate +
nd well considered. based npon the Z
acts. 1t is best. indeed it is neces- G
ut as If We were beginners. We are f
, deal with the facts of our own day. n
18th the facts of no other. and to q
lake laws which square with those \
'cts. tis best. indeed it is neces-
sry, to begin with the tariff. will
rye nothing upon You now at the
pening of your session which can oh 4