Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1913-04-11
WILSON SUBMITS
FIRST MESSAGE
Congress In Extra Session Is
Told What President Ex-
poets Done
DOCUMENT UNUSUALLY BRIEF
Tariff Schedules, Says Chief Execu-
tive, Must BE Altered 60 Conform
With Modern Conditions Ac-
cordIng to Psrty's Pledge.

Washington, April SIN his first
message to congress, document OF
unusual bregity, President Wilson to
day told the senate and house what
he and the country expect In the way
OF revision of the tariff, the task for
which mainly the extraordinary SEES
sion was called. Following is the
text of the message:
To the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives:
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
ought to perform promptly, in order
that the burden carried by the people
ander existing law may be lfghtened
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-
Guired to adjust themselves. It is clear
To the whole country that tho tariff
duties must be altered. They must
be changed to meet the radical altera-
tion 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-
manned 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 1t is today.
Our task is to square them with the
actual facts. The sooner that is done
the sooner we shall escape from suf-
tering 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 th'
face or knows anything that lies be
meath the surface of action can fail t
perceive the principles upon which
recent tariff legislation has beer
based. We long ago passed beyond
the modest notion OF protecting" the
s.Inefriau of ha onts,,frv apd .,NNyar
Boldly forward to the idea that they
were entitled to tho 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 havC
sought in our tariff schedules to give
each group Of manufacturers or pro
ducers what they themselves though
chat they needed in order t
maintain practically exclusive
market as against the rest of the
world. Consciously or unconsciously
we have built up a set OF privileges
and exemptions from competition be
hind which it was easy by any. even
the crudest, forms of combination tC
organize monopoly; until at last moth
ing Is normal, nothing Is obliged tC
stand the tests of efficiency and econ
omy. in our world OF big business, but
everything thrives by concerted ar
Tangement. Only new principles o
action will save us from a final hare
capitalization OF monopoly and
complete loss OF the influences tina
quicken enterprise and keep indie
pendent energy alive
II is plain what those principles
must be. We must abolish everything
Chat bears even the semblance priv
flege or of any kind of artificial ad
vantage, and put our business me-
and producers under the stimulation
OF a constant necessity to be efficient
economical, and enterprising, master
Of competitive supremacy, bette
workers and merchants than any 4
The world, Aside from the duties lai
upon articles which we do not. an
probably cannot, produce, therefore
and the duties laid upon Injuries an
merely for the sake OF the revenue
they yield. the object OF the tariff d,
ties henceforth laid must be effectiy
competition. the whetting of Amer
can wits by contest with the wits {
the rest of the world
Development, Not Revolution.
1t would be unwise to move towar
this end headlong. with rockies
haste, or with strokes that cut at tn
very roots of what has grown u
amongst us by long process and 1
cur own invitation. 1t does not altG