The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1913-04-08

direct patronage Of the government.
For long time-a time 50 long that tho
men now active in public hardly re-
member the conditions that preceded
tive have sought in our tariff sche-
dulles to give each group OF manufac-
turers or producers what they them
selves thought that they needed in or
der to maintain a practically exclusive
market as against the rest of the world.
Consciously or unconsciously. we have
built up a set of privileges and cxemp-
tons from competition behind which
, 1t was easy by any, even the crudest,
/ forms of combination TO organize mo
/ nopoly; until at last nothing is normal.
nothing is obliged to stand the tests of
efficiency and economy, in our world of
big business, but everything thrives by
concerted arrangement. Only new prin-
ciples of action win save Us from
a final hard crystallization of monopo-
" and a complete loss of the influences
that quicken enterprise and keep indie
pendent energy alive.
1t is plain what those sprinciples
must be. We must abolish evervthinu
that bears even the semblance of priv.
iic9e or of any kind of artificial advan-
tage, and put our business men aud pro
ducers under the stimulation OF con
stant necessity to he efficient. cconomi.
cal, and enterprising, masters OF com
perlt1Te 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. pro
duce, therefore, ana the duties laid nm
ON mNurles and merely for the sake of
the revenues they yield the object of
the tariff duties henceforth laid must be
effective competition, the whcttina of
American wits hy contest with the wits
of the rest of the world.
1t would be unwisr to move toward
tins end headlon@, with reckless haste
or with strokes that cut at the very
roots of what has grown up amongst MS
by long process and mt our own invita-
tIon. 1t docs not alter thing to unset
IT and break it and deprive it of n
chance to change. 1t DESTROYS it. We
must make changes in our fiscal laws
IN our fiscal system, whose oh ipct is de-
Neiopment, a more free and wholesome
development, not revolution or unset or
confusion. We must build up trade.
especially foreign trade. We need the
outlet ana the enlarged field of energy
more than we ever did before. We must
build up industry rs well. ana must
adopt freedom in the place Of artificial
stimulation only SO far as it will build
not pull down. In dealing with the
tariff the method by which this NAV be
done viii be a matter of Judgment cx-
erelsed item by item. To some not ac-
customed to the cNcitcments and re-.
sponsIblltieS of greater freedom our
methods may in some respects and al
some points seem heroic but remedies
may be heroic and vet he remedies lit
Is our business TO make surc that thev
are genuine remedies. Our object lis
clear. II our motive y above lust chal-
ieHgc and only an occasional error of
Judgment is chargeablc against us. We
shall be fortunate.
We are called upon to render the
country a great service in more matters
than one. Our responsibility should be
met and our methods should be tho
rough, as thorough as moderate and
well considered, based upon the facts
as they are, and not worked out as If
We were beginners. We are to deal
with the facts of our own day, with the
facts of no other, and to make laws
which square with those facts. 1t is
best, indeed it is necessary. to begin
with the tariff. / will urge nothing up
on You now at the opening of your ses-
sion which can obscure that first ob icct
or divert our energies from that clearly
defined duty. At q later time I NAV
take the liberty of calling your attcn-
tlon to reforms which should press close
upon the heels Of the tariff changes. if
not accompany them, of which the chief
Is the reform of our banking and eur.
rency laws; but just now I refrain. For
the present, / put these matters on one
side and think only of this one thing
OF the changes in our fiscal system
which may best serve to open once more
the free channels of prosperity to a
great people whom we would serve to
the utmost and thoroughout both rank
and file.
Woodrow Wilson.
The White House, April s. 1913.