Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-04-11
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
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Continued from page onel
I'VE 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 re-
cent tariff legislation has been based.
We long ago passed beyond the mod
est notion of protecting the indus
tries of the country and moved boldly
forward to the idea that they were en-
titled to the direct patronage OF the
government For a 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
a practically exclusive market as
against the rest of the world. Con-
sciously or unconsciously, we have
built up set of privileges and ex.
emptions from competition behind
which it was easy by any, even the
erudest, forms of combination to or.
sanize monopoly; until at last nithing
is normal, nothing is obliged to stand
the tests of efficiency and economy,
in our world of big business, but
everything thrives by concerted ar
Tangement Only new principles OF
action will save us from a final hard
crystallization of monopoly and COM
rlete loss of the Influences that quick
en- enterprise and keep independent
energy alive
1T is plain what those principles
must be. We must abolish everything
that bears even the semblance of
privilege or of any kind of artificial
advantage. and put our business men
and producers under the stimulation
of a constant necessity to be efficient,
economical, and enterprising, masters
of competitive supremacyf. better
workers and merchants than any in
the world. Aside from the duties laid
upon articles which we do not, and
probably can not, produce, therefore,
and the duties laid upon luxuries and
merely for the sake of the revenues
they yield, the object of the tariff
duties henceforth laid must be effect
i've competition, the swhetting of Amer.
lean wits by contest with the wits OF
the rest of the world.
at would be unwlse to move to-
ward this end headlong, with reck-
less haste, or with strokes that cut at
the very roots of what has grown up
amongst us by long process and at
our own invitation. It does not alter
thing to upset it and break it and
deprive it of a chance to change. 1t
destroys it. We must make changes
in our fiscal laws, in our fiscal sys-
tenn, whose object is development, a
more free and wholesome develops
ment, not revolution or upset OF con-
fusion. We must build up trade, es-
pecially foreign trade. We need the
outlet and the enlarged field of en-
ergy more than we ever did before.
We mast build up industry as well,
and must adopt freedom in the place
of artificial stimulation only so far as
it will build, not pull down. In deal
ing with the tariff the method by
which this may be done will be a
matter of judgment, exercised item
by itenl To some not accustomed to
the excitements and responsibilities
of greater freedom our methods may
in some respects and at some points
h,,f hn
heroic and yet DC remedies. 1t is our
business to make sure that they are
genuine remedies. Our object is
clear If our motive is above just
challenge and only an occasional
error of judgment is. chargeable
against us, we shall be fortunate.
I'VE are called upon to render the
country a great service in more mat
tiers than one. Our responsibility
should be met and our methods should
be thorough, as thorough as moderate
and well considered, based upon the
facts as they are, and not worked cut
as if We were beginners. We are 10
deal with the facts of our own day,
with the facts of no other, and to
make laws which square with those
facts. 1t is best, indeed 1T is neces.
sary, to begin with the tariff ] will
urge nothing upon you now at the
opening of your session which can
obscure that. first object or divert cur
energies from that clearly x defined
duty At later time ! maE1AGkc the
liberty of calling your attention. to re-
forms which should press close upon
the heels of the tariff changes. if not
accompany them, of which the chief
is the reform of our banking and cur
Tency laws: but just now refrain.
For the present. | put these matters
on one side and think only of this che
thiag-3f the changes in our fiscal
system which may best serve to. open
cnce more the free channels of pros
pority to great people whorG we
would serve to the utmost aG1
throughout both rank and file.
WOODROW WILSON.