Semi-weekly herald., 1913-04-10
PRESIDENT WILSON
DELIVERS MESSAGE IN
PERSON TO CONGRESS

| message to congress at joint session
in the house chamber
The president left the White house
at 12:45, and went to the capital in
his auto. He was attended only by
Jimmy Sloan, chief of the White house
guards. The president insisted that
Sloan sit beside him, instead of with
the chauffeur. The president arrived
at the capitol at 1885, Speaker Clark
and Vice President Marshall welcom-
ing him in Clark's office. A commit
tee representing both houses escorted
him to the rostrum from which he
read his message. 1t took but eight
minutes to finish it, and at 1908 he
returned to the White house.
President Wilson prefaced his mes
sage with the following:
81 am glad to have this opportunity
to address two houses directly and to
verify for myself the impression that
the president of the United States is
person, not mere government de-
partment, hailing congress from some
isolated stand of jealous power, send
ing messages, not speaking naturally
and with his own voice; that he is q
human being trying to cooperate with
| other humans in common SERVICE"
Wilson then continued with his mes
sage which follows yer batim:
Washington, d. c., April 8, 1913.
To the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives:
| have called the congress together
in extraordinary session because 4
duty was laid upon the party now ii:
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
us soon as possible and in order, also,
that the business interests of the coun-
try may not be kept too long in sus-
pense as to what the fiscal changes
are to be to which they will be re-
quired to adjust themselves. It il
clear to the whole country that the
tariff duties must be altered. They
must be changed to meet the radical
alteration 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 rscogni-
tion the tariff schedules have remain
| ed what they were before the change
| began, or have moved in the direction
they were given when no large cir
cumstance of our industrial develop
ment 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 suffer-
ing from the facts and the sooner our
men of business will be free to thrive
by the law of nature (the nature Of
free business) instead of by the law
of legislation and artificial arrange
ment.
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 recent
tariff legislation has been based. We
long ago passed beyond the modest
notion of protecting" the industries
of the country and moved boldly for
ward to the idea that they were en-
titled to the direct patronage Of the
government. For long time-a time
so long that the men now active in
public policy hardly remember the con-
ditions 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 main
tain practically exclusive market as
against the rest of the world. Con-
sciously or unconsciously, we have
built up set Of privileges and exemp-
tions from competition behind which
it was easy by any, even the crudest,
forms of combination to organize mo-
nopoly; until at last nothing h normal,
nothing is obliged to stand the tests
Of efficiency and economy, in our
world of big business, but everything
t.rivcs by concerted arrangement.
Only new principles Of action will save
US from final hard capitalization Of
: monopoly and complete loss Of the
influences that quicken enterprise and
keep independent energy alive.
Ii is plain what those principles
must be. We must abolish everything
that lears even the semblance Of priv
ilege or of any kind of artificial ad-
vantage, and put our business men and
producers under the stimulation Of .
constant necessity to be efficient,
economical, and enterprising, masters
of competitive supremacy, better
workers and merchants than any in
the world. Aside from the duties laid
Upon articles which we do not, and
/ probably can not. produea thsr>for.