The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1913-04-11
CONGRESS GETS
WILSON MESSAGE
Brief Document Tells Purpose Of
Extra Session.
MUST ALTER TARIFF DUTIES
Lawmakers Asked to Square the
Schedules With the Actual
Facts Of industrial and
Commercial Life.

Washington, April 8. President
| Wilson's message, read today to the
senate and house at the beginning OF
the extra session. was brief. point
ed document setting forth in general
| terms what congress Is expected to do
| In the matter of tariff revision. The
message was as follows:
To the Senate and House OF Repre-
sentatives:
| have called the congress together
In extraordinary session because
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
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
to the whole country that the 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-
fering 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 the
face or knows anything that lies be-
meath the surface of action can fail to
perceive 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 forward to the idea that they
were entitled to the direct patronage
OF the government For long time
time so long that the men now active
in public policy hardly remember the
conditions 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
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 1t was easy by any, even
the crudest, forms of combination to
i organize monopoly; until at last moth
, Ing is normal, nothing Is Obliged to
, stand the tests of efficiency and econ.
pmy, in our world of big business, but
everything thrives by concerted ar
, rangement. Only new principles OF
action will save US from final hard
capitalization of monopoly and a
complete loss of the influences that
quicken enterprise and keep indie
pendent energy alive,
: Ii is plain what those principles
J must be. We must abolish everything
that bears even the semblance OF priv
/ nege or OF any kind Of artificial ad
d vantage, and put our business mer
5 and producers under the stimulation
i Or a constant necessity to be efficient
/ economical. and enterprising, masters
Q Of competitive supremacy. better
workers and merchants than any II
Il the world Aside from the duties laiC
n upon articles which we do not anS
4 probably cannot. produce, therefore
: and the duties laid upon Injuries anS
! merely for the sake of the revenue!
4 they yield, the object of the tariff du
I ties hehceforth laid must be effective
! competition. the whetting of Ameri
can wits by contest with the wits 0
: the rest, of the world.
Development, Not Revolution.
1t would be unwise to move towar'
I this end headlong. with reckless
haste. or with strokes that cut at tn
I very roots OF what has grown Vi
amongst us by long process and a
n our own invitation 1t does not alte
e a thing to upset it and break it an
deprive it OF chance TO change
r destroys it. We must make change
ID In our fiscal laws. in our fiscal system
1t whose object is development, NOR
"a free and wholesome development, no
he revolution or upset or confusion. W
IN must build up trade. especially fol
I'd eign trade We need the outlet an
10 the enlarged field of energy NOR
than we ever did before. We mus
:, build up industry as we'll and mus
adopt freedom In the place of art
- icial stimulation only so far as It wi