The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1913-04-17
A DEMOCRATIC MESSAGE.

President Wilson 8 nrSt message
to congress is thoroughly democrat
! ic. Like most of Mr.. Wilson's writ
ings it will bear re-reading. Under
| the circumstances it must be regarded
as a great public paper. This is so
because it displays wisdom in it's de-
votion to one subject-the tariff;
and for the further reason that 1t
deals with that subject in the frank
and thorough fashion that has al
ready come to be accepted as the
Wilson characteristic.
There is, first. the recognition of
the duty laid upon the party in power
at the recent elections-The duty of
doing something that shall actually
give the people relief. The program
suggested is not an abnormal one.
On the contrary is is an effort to re-
store harmony in our fiscal affairs.
There have been radical changes in
the conditions OF our economic life
during the last generation, but, in
The language of the president-and
this paragraph should be held firmly
before the eyes of those who object
to tariff changes-in the language
of the president: while the whole
face and method of our industrial
and commercial life We're being
changed beyond recognition the tar
if schedules have remained what
they were before the change began,
or have moved in the direction they
were given when no large circums
stance of our industrial development
square them with the actual facts.
The sooner that is done the sooner
we shall escape from suffering from
the facts and the sooner our men of
business viii 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.'
There is here no apology to the
system that stands today frankly for
plumber where" a generation ago its
advocates honestly regarded it as pa
triOtic. According to the president it
is now 'direct patronage OF the gov
eminent for the private industries
Of the country which were once mere
ly to be protected In the build
ing of our tariff schedules the
thought uppermost in the builders
minds has been Ito give each group
of manufacturers or producers what
they themselves thought that they
needed in order to maintain a prac-
tically exclusive market against the
rest of the world AS a result of this
bad practice we have built up a set
of privileges behind which monopoly
has been organized and the result
is that nothing is normal, nothing
is obliged to stand the tests of eff
cheney and economy. but everything
thrives by concentrated arrange
ment.'
| In the presidents view. the OBJ
ject of the tariff duties henceforth
laid must be effective competition,
contests with the wits of the rest of
the world He does not advise that
this course be adopted with RECKLESS
haste but it is our business to dis
cover genuine remedies and then APP
ply them. The anxiety to avoid
RECKLESS haste is not to be taken
as an excuse for do-nothing policy.
On the contrary. the president makes
it clear that when the tariff program
has been completed it will commend
itself to the intelligent American
citizen who we'll understands the
difference between political bombast
and patriotic effort.
President Wilson has, in nut
shell, outlined the democratic pro-
gram on the tariff question and his
first message to congress will be CIV
en- place by democrats alongside of
his splendid inaugural address,
CommOner.