The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-10-28
PRAISES congress
PRESIDENT SENDS CORMENDA'
TIONS to UNDERWOOD.
reviews WORK OF PARTY

In Lengthy Letter Democratic Leader
| Writes to Congressional Head and
| Expresses His Endorsement of
Members Work-Nation Should
Entrust Party With Other Reforms
President Wilson made public Sun
day a letter to Majority Leader I'm
] derwood of the House, in which he
reviewed the achievements of his ad-
ministration, outlined the. program
| for the next session of congress and
declared 1.-The Democratic party is
now in fact the only instrument ready
to the country's hand by which any
| thing can be accomplished"
''The White House,
Washington, Oct. II, 1914.
"My Dear Mr.. Underwood:
II can not let this session of con-
gress close without expressing my
warm admiration for the fidelity and
intelligence with which the program
! outlined in April and December OF
last year has been carried out, and my
| feeling that the people of the country
have been served by the members Of
this congress as they have seldom, if
ever, been served before. The pro-
gram was a great one, and it is a
matter of deep satisfaction to think
of the way in which it has been han
died.
'It had several distinct parts and
many items, but, after all, a single
| purpose, namely, to destroy private
control and set business free. That
purpose was manifest enough in the
case of the tariff and in the legisla-
tion affecting trusts; but, though per-
haps less evident upon the surface
there, it lay at the very heart of the
currency bill, too. May not add,
/ even though it lies outside the field
i of legislation, that that, and that
chiefly, has been the object of he
j foreign policy CT the government
i during the last Is months.
/ Private control had shown its sin
lister face on every hand in America,
|, had shown it for long time, and
sometimes very brazenly, in the trusts
, and in a virtual domination Of credit
by small groups of men. The safest
hiding place and covert of such con-
, troll was in the tariff. There it for a
long time hid very shrewdly. The
, tariff was very complicated matter;
, none but experts thoroughly under
, stood it's schedules. Many Of the
schedules were framed to afford par
ticular advantages to special groups
of manufacturers and investors. That
was the soil in which trade combi-
nations and combinations of manu-
facturers most readily grew, and
| most rankly. High prices did not
: spring directly out of the tariff. They
sprang out of the suppression of do
, mestic, no less than of foreign, com
, petition by means of combinations
, and trade agreements which could be
: much more easily contrived and
, maintained under the protection of q
| high tariff than without it. The Euro.
! pean war came before the withdrawal
: OF this much-coveted opportunity fol
J monopoly to show its full effect" and
r active competition bring prices to
their normal level again; but it is
clear enough already that the reduc-
; ton of the tariff, the simplihcation o1
, it's schedules so as to cut away the
, jungle in which secret agencies had
so long lurked, the correction of its
, inequalities, and its thorough recast.
ing with the single honest object o1
+ revenue, were an indispensable first
step to re-estabhshing competition.
1.-The present congress has taken
that step with courage, sincerity and
, effectiveness. The lobby by which
: some of the worst features of the ole
, tariff had been maintained was driver
, away by the mere pitiless turning on
of the light. The principle was adopt
! ed that each duty levied was to be
tested by the inquiry whether it was
, put at such figure and levied il
> such a manner as to provoke competi.
y ton. The soil in which com binations
had grown was removed lest some o1
: the seeds of monopoly might be found
to remain in it. The thing had need,
ed to be done for long time, but
nobody had ventured before to under.
take it in systematic fashion.
No Panic Came.
, ''The panic that the friends of priv
ilege had predicted did not follow
Business has already adjusted itself
| to the new conditions with singular
ease and elasticity, because the new
!, conditions are in fact more norma
t than the old. The revenue lost by
the import duties was replaced by an
! income tax which in part shifted the
j. burden Of taxation to the should
ers more certainly able to bear it.
I'VE had time to learn from the
/ actual administration of the law that
/ the revenue resulting from the dou.
s BILE change would have been abund.
ant had it not been for the breaking
out of the present war in Europe
D which affects almost every route oi
trade and every market in the world
l outside of the United States. Until
the war ends and until its affects
I upon manufacture and commerce
L. have been corrected we shall have to
: impose additional taxes to make ul
e for the loss of such part Of our i'm.
:, port duties as the war cuts off by cut
ting on the imports themSelVeS-a
veritable war tax, though We are not
l at war; for war, and only war, is the
t cause of it.
1T is fortunate that the reduction
of the duties came first. The import
3 duties collected under the old tariff
constituted much larger proportion
: of the whole revenue of the govern.
| mani tbon do tho dJtioc Ondor fh q
new. A still larger proportion of the
revenue would have been cut off by
: the war had the old taxes stood, and
a larger war tax would have been
necessary as a consequence. No mis-
calculation, no lack of foresight, has
created the necessity for the taxes,
but only a great catastrophe world
wide in it's operation and effects.
"With similar purpose and in like
temner the congress has sought in