Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1913-04-09
CONGRESS CONvENES
IN SPECIAL SESSION
Sixty-Third Congress to Take Up Re-
vision of Tariff at Once.
PRESIDENT WILSON
READS HIS MESSAGE
President Breaks Long Precedent
and Appears in Person Before
Congress to Deliver His
Message.

The Sixty-third congress of the
United States convened in special
session on Monday, upon the call of
President Wilson, for the purpose of
revising the tariff. Champ Clark was
reelected speaker of the house and
the congress is now organized and
ready for business.
Yesterday afternoon President
Wilson broke the precedent which
has been in vogue since the time of
President Adams and personally ap-
pared before the house and senate in
joint session to read his message.
The striking passages in the message
were as follows:
"While the whole face and method
of our industrial and commercial life
were being changed beyond recogni-
tion the tariff schedules have remain
ed where they were before the chang
es began, or have moved in the direc-
tion they were given when no large
circumstances of our industrial de-
velopment was what it is today. Our
task is to square them with the act
ual facts.
We have seen new tariff legisla-
tion wander very far afield in our
day-very far indeed from the field
in which our prosperity might have a
normal growth and stimulation.
We long ago passed beyond the
modest notion of protecting the
industries of the country and moved
boldly forward to the idea they were
entitled to the direct patronage of the
governments
Only new principles of action will
save us from a final hard crystalliz-
alton of monopoly and complete
loss of the influences that quicken
enterprise and keep independent en-
ergy alive.
We must abolish everything that
has even the resemblance of privilege
or of any kind of artificial advantage
and put our business men and pro-
ducers under the stimulation of a
constant necessity to be efficient, eco
nomical and enterprising, masters of
competitive supremacy, better work
ers and merchants than any in the
world.
To some not accustomed to the ex-
|citements and responsibilities of
greater freedom our methods IDEAL
ing with the tariff may in some re-
spects and at some points, seem he
roic, but remedies may be heroic and
yet be remedies. 1t is our business
to see they are genuine remedies.
We are to deal with the facts of
our own day, with the facts of no
other, and to make laws which will
square with these facts"
Revision of all tariff from many
articles OF food and clothing, broad
reductions in the rates of duty on
all necessaries of life, an increase Of
tariff on many luxuries and a new
income tax that would touch the poe
ket of every American citizen whose
net income exceeds $4,000, are the
striking features of the new demo-
cratic tariff revision bill presented
yesterday to the house.
Sugar would be free of duty in
1916, the bill proposing an immedi-
ate 25 per cent reduction and the re-
moval of the remaining duty in 1915.
Raw wool would be made free at
once, with a corresponding heavy re-
duction in the tariff on all 'woolen
goods.
While wheat and -four are put on
the free list, duty of 10 per cent is
imposed against countries which levy
a duty on American -four. This will
exclude -four from Canada and many
other countries.