The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-04-08

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means committee, caused him to omit
specific reference to tariff rates I'M
til the measure was finally agreed
upon in the opening days of the pres
ent session.
The message urged that special
privilege and exemptions from COM
petition be cut out Of the nations tar
if system and that the revision be
made ito square with the facts as
they are" AT the outset, the preSi-
dent called attention to the party's
pledge for tariff reduction.
Message in Full.
To the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatiVes:
L have called the congress together
in extraordinary session because a
duty was laid upon the party now in
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
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-
quired to adjust themselves. 1t is
clear that the whole country expected
the tariff duties be altered. They
must be changed to meet the radical
alteration in the conditions of our
economic life which the country has
While the whole face and method OF
our industrial and commercial life
were being changed beyond recogn1-
ton 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.
Tariff Legislation Has Wandered.
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 perceive
the principles upon which recent tar
iff legislation has been based. We long
ago passed beyond the modest notion
of protecting the industries of the
country and moved boldly forward to
the idea that they We're entitled to the
direct patronage of the government.
For a long time-a time so long that
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 ex-
elusive market as against the rest OF
the world. Consciously or uneon-
sciously. we have built up set of
privileges and exemptions from COM
petition behind which it was easy by
arV even the crudeSt forms of com BIZ
nation to organize monopoly; until at
last nothing is normal, nothing is
obliged to stand the tests of efficiency
and economy. in our world of big bus
mess, but everything thrives by con-
certed arrangement. Only new prin-
ciples of action Will save us from a
final hard Capitalization of monopoly
and a complete loss of the influences
that quicken enterprise and keep in
dependent energy alive.
Must Abolish Privilege.
1t is plain what those principles