The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1913-04-25
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.

ApiH q. fTeSlQen
wilson's message, read today to tn
senate and house at the beginning O
the extra session. was a brief. point
cd document setting forth in genera
terms what congress is expected to d,
In nj matter Of tariff revision. TIL,
message was as follows:
To the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives:
nave called the congress together
In extraordinary session because =
duty was laid upon the party now il
power at the recent elections which /,
ought to perform promptly, in order
tnat 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
as to what the fiscal changes
are to be to which they will be re-
CURED to adjust themselves. 1t is clear
10 the whole country that the tariff
duties must be altered. They must
De changed to meet the radical altera-
ton 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-
NAMED 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 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
Inc law OF legislation and artificial ar
rangement.
Business Not Normal.
We have seen tariff legislation
very far afield in our day
very far indeed from the field in which
our prosperity might have had a nor
NAL growth n stimulation. No one
who looks the facts ~squarely in the
or knows anything that lies be-
meath the surface of action can fail to
the principles upon which
recent tariff legislation has been
BASED. We long ago passed beyond
he modest notion of protecting" the
of the country and moved
'oIdly orwar to the Idea that they
we're entitled to the direct patronage
# the government. For a long time
time SO long that the men now active
n public policy hardly remember the
ondit1ons that preceded tive have
ought In our tariff schedules to give
ach group OF manufacturers or pro-
ucers what they themselves thought
hat they needed In order to
laintain a practically exclusive
as against the rest of the
.orld. Consciously or unconsciously
e nave built up a set of privileges
nd exemptions from competition be
which 1t was easy by any. even
lie crudest, forms of combination to
monopoly; until at last moth
g is normal, nothing is obliged to
and the tests of efficiency and econ
in u world of big business. but [
'erything thrives by concerted ar [
-ngement. Only new principles of {
III Will save us from a final hard s
ystallization OF monopoly and a s
'mplete loss Of the influences that
Iicken enterprise and keep indie ,
ndent energy alive.
1t is plain what those principles
be. We must abolish everything
at bears even the semblance of priv 4
,ge or of any kind OF artificial adj T
and put our business men i
d producers under the stimulation L
a constant necessity to De efficient. [,
Onomical, n enterprising. masters f,
competitive supremacy, better G
'rkers and merchants than any in Il
? world. Aside from the duties laid G
on articles which We do not, and D
'bably cannot, produce, therefore, Of
! the duties laid upon Injuries and s.
rely for the sake of the revenues II
y yield. the object of the tariff du- II
3 ~henceforth laid must be effective 81
npetition, the whetting of Anieri- b,
wits by contest with the wits of "
rest of the world. n,
Development, Not Revolution. al
t would be unwise TO move toward bs
) end headlong, with reckless We
re. or with strokes that cut at the de
y roots OF what has grown I'D
ongst us by long process and at
W invitation. Ii does not alter
hing TO upset it and break il and tn
1t of a chance to change. Ii m,
troys IL. We must make changes ga
'ur fiscal laws, in our fiscal system, tn
'se object is development. a more "a
and wholesome development, not W.
olution or upset or confusion. We ct;
II build up trade. especially for DIR,
trade. We need the outlet and Pr
enlarged field of energy more or;
! we ever did before. We must sh,
d up industry as we'll and must esi
pit freedom In the place OF arti- an
i stimulation only so far as il will no