The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-04-08
WILSON DWELLS EXCLUSIVELY ON
 TARIFF ISSUE
President Reads Brief Vigorous Message
 to Congress
Wants Pension ''tO Square with The FaCtS As They
 Are"

WaSh1ngCou, Apr1l S-PreSidene Woodrow Wilson today communicated his first message to the Sixty-third Congress, convened in extraordinary session. It was an unusually brief document, dealing exclusively with the need for a thorough moderate and well-considered revision of the tariff The President drew attention to the necessity for an early reform in the banking and currency laws but re- trained, he said, from urging, for the present, any other legislation that might divert the energies of Congress- from it's clearly defined duty toward the tariff question.
 The message referred to no parti- cular schedule, mentioned no rates, and included no statistics. It was an enunciation of the Presidents prfnci- pies on tariff revision. His specific views and ideas as to rates and dut- les, it has been generally accepted wi llbe contained in the tariff bill it. self which he is now considering in detail. The President's decision to put the weight of the adninistration's influence behind the bill with it's various schedules as drawn by the House Ways and Means Committee caused him to omit specific reference to tariff rates 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 aid 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.
 President Wilson reverted, to the custom of century ago in reviving the precedent by which Congress .l-. cutive of the country his message to the national legislature.
 President Wilson took the Speakers rostrum in the hall of the House, to- day, and personally read his first mes sage to Congress, the first President since John Adams to exercise that privilege. Galleries were packed with national figures, Mrs. Wilson with her three daughters and two men of the cabinet were prominent among them. A moving picture was installed to preserve a, record of the historic event for the governments archives.
 President Wilson slipped away from the White House quietly after the cab inet meeting, accompanied only by his secretary and. one secret service man and upon arriving at the capitol was escorted to the rostrum in the House where Speaker Clark sat at one side and Vice President Marshall at the other. The President, speaking with
  diction, read his message while the company, actually packed in the build ing, listened intently
 Two motives influenced MT. Wilson to decide to read In person his first to HCongress-the per functory way in which Presidential m messages usually were received, ac- companied as they have been by the drone of a clerks voice and empty seats, and MT. Wilson's desire that every member should hear his appeal for a thorough revision of the tarift, the sole purpose for which Congress was called into extraordinary session.
 The Senators and Representatives acknowledged the constitutional right of the President to read his own mes sage in the halls of Congress and by resolution arranged to gather in the House chamber at o'clock The Presidents message, It. self was about 1,200 words long When he first prepared it but in view of the circumstances he has added a preface but his entire speech was 1f less than Is minutes reading.
 The President had several engage nents and a cabinet meeting to oc- ,upy him before his departure for the capitol. He planned to be away from he White House for only half hour.
 President Wilson began his message IS follows:
 'I am very glad indeed to have this opportunity to address the two houses lirectIy and to verify for myself the impression that the President of the United States is a person, not a. mere department of the government hail. ng Congress from some isolated is- and of jealous power, sending mes ages, not speaking naturally and with ais own voice; that he is a human be- ng trying to cooperate with other human beings in a common service. After this pleasant experience, I shall eel quite normal in all our dealings with one another" Then he took up lis set speech.
 President Wilson's speech appears n full on page 10 of The Farmer.