The Oklahoma miner. [volume] (Krebs, Okla.) 1912-192?, 1913-04-10
FIRST MESSAGE IN
WILSON WASTES FEW WORDS ~
TELLING CONGRESS WHAT
SHOULD DO.
TARIFF REVISION HIS TOPIC
President Says the Schedules Must &c
Radically Changed 70 Square Win
Present Conditions. but Work Re
oulres Careful Consideration.

i
Washington, April S.-President
Wilson's first message 70 the Sixty
third congress. assembled n e1trzor-
dinary session, was read Ia the senate
and house today. Il was surprising
| ~ short, being IN full as follows:
To the Senate and House Of Repre-
Eentstiyes:
have called the congress together
IA extraordinary session because q
duty was laid upon the party now IN
power at the recent elections which Il
ought 70 perform promptly. In order
that the burden carried b. the people
under existing law may be ightsned
as soon az possible and IN order, also.
that the business interests Of the
country may not be kept too long in
suspense as 70 what the fiscal changes
are 20 be 70 which they will be re-
quired 10 adjust themselves II is clear
20 the whole country that the tariff
duties must be altered. They must
be changed 10 meet TIE 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 aud commercial life
we're being changed beyond recogni-
tion the tariff schedules have re-
mained 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 II Is today.
Our task is 10 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 al icial ar
ranEement.
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 tarin legislation has been
based. We loIg 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
a 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
organize monopoly; until at last moth
ing 10 normal, nothing is obliged TO
stand the tests OF efficiency and econ.
omy, In our world OF big business, but
everything thrives by concerted ar
rangement. Only new principles of
action will save us from a final hard
capitalization OF monopoly and a
complete loss OF the influences that
quicken enterprise and keep inde-
pendent energy alive.
II IL plain what those principles
must be. We must abolish everything
that bears 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 cannot produce, therefore,
and the duties laid upon luxuries and
merely for the sake OF the revenues
they yield the object Of the tariff du-
ties henceforth laid must be effective
competition, the whetting OF Ameri-
can wits by contest with the wits Of
the rest OF the world.
Development Not Revolution.
II would be unwise TO move toward
this end headlong, with reckless
haste, or with strokes that cut at tho
very roots OF what has grown up