Weekly journal-miner. [volume] (Prescott, Ariz.) 1908-1929, 1913-04-16
By Associated Press


dent Woodrow Wilson today COM
municated his first message TO the
-sixty-third congress, convened in eK-
traordinary session. 1t was an I'M
usually brief document, dealing ex-
clusively with the need for a thor
4ough, moderate and well-considered
revision of the tariff. The Presi-
dent drew attention to the necessity
for an early reform in the banking
and currency laws but refrained, he
said, from urging, for the present,
any other legislation that might d.
vert the energies of Congress from
its clearly defined duty" toward the
tariff question.
The message referred to no par
licular schedule, mentioned no rates,
and included no statistics. 1t was
an enunciation of the Presidents
principles on tariff revision. His
specific views and ideas as to rates
and duties, it has been generally ac-
-cepted. will be contained in the
tariff bill itself which he is now con-
sidering in detail The Presidents
decision to put the weight of the
administration influence behind the
bill with its various schedules as
drawn by the House ways and
means committee. caused him to
omit specific references to tariff rat
-es until the measure was finally
agreed upon in the opening days of
the present session.
The message urged that special
privilege and exemptions from COM
petition be cut out of the nations
tariff system and that the revision
be made ito square with the facts
as they are. At the outset, the
President called attention to the
party's pledge for tariff reduction.
II an. very glad indeed" said
President Wilson, ITO have this op-
yportunity to address the two houses
directly and to verify for myself the
impression that the President of the
United States is a person and not
mere department of government
hailing Congress from some isolated
island of jealous power sending mes
sages and not speaking naturally
and with his own voice; that he is
human being trying to cooperate
with human beings in a common
service. After this pleasant expert
ence we should feel quite normal in
all our dealings with one another"
"To the Senate and House of
Representatives:
Il have called the Congress to-
gether in extraordinary session be-
cause duty was laid upon the party
now III 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 required to adjust them
selves. 1t is clear to the whole
country that the tariff duties must
be altered. They must be changed
10 meet the radical alteration 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 recognition the tar
If schedules have remained JThat
they were before the change began,
or have moved in the direction they
were given when no large circum-
stance of our industrial develop
sment 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
suffering 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 arti-
Ticial arrangement.
I'VE have seen tariff legislation
very far afeld 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 be-
meath the surface of action can fail
20 perceive the principles upon which
recent tariff legislation has been bas-
I'd. We long ago passed beyond the
modest notion of protecting" the
industries of the country and NOV
ed boldly forward to the idea that
they were entitled to the direct pat
ronage of the Government For a
long tlme-a time so long that the
men now active in public policy hard
iy remember conditions that preced-
-
ed 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 prac-
Iically exclusive market as against
the rest of the world. Consciously
or unconsciously, we have built up
a set Of privileges and exemptions
from competition behind which was
easy by any. even the crudest, forms
Of combination to organize monop-
oily; 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 principles of action will
save us from final hard crystalliza-
ton of monopoly and a complete
loss of the influences that ouicken