The Alaska citizen., 1916-10-30
|PREP PAREDNESS FOR PEACE| An Authorized Statement of President Wilson Plans
 By L. AMES BROWN
By L, AMES BROWN


Ni''+l tiA fiHls7 ''" t'' IVY ailSil'4 AAN4't on dyestuns a. means oi securing necessary industries in the United States The President considers his position. d. here outlined. to be III the strictest accord with the ayowed principles ol his party.
 The tarin commi sion is the lnsuu- mentality through which the PresI. dent expects the government to gath cI tuc facts needed for suIdance ill adjusting the tariff schedules That would be perhaps the chief purpose 1 of the tariff commissions suggested ' journey to Europe. though that would 1 be only one phase of its inquiries. ! President Wilson is now as thorough ly convinced as anyone that America ! Is not at the period of her destiny ] when free-trade ideas can be applied in our tariff making consistently with the necessity of revenue. It Is an ob- ] yious fact, to which a section of the l Democratic leaders, not including the i President, consistently has closed it's | eyes, that all tarir duties in some 1 degree protect the industries con i cerned. Tariffs protect, whether 1 drawn with an eye to protection or ] l,, I ", 1 tariff law-the competitive tariff law is that which balances revenue fea ] lures with the incest sensing of the needs Of developing commerce and industry It can be said that the 1 President will study the reports of 1 the tarin commission with the view 1 of formulating an adjustment of ne cessary tariff leyies which will effect | the fullest measure Of development. There are many paths which lead 1 up the mountainside, but when we 1 shall sec" says proyerb of old 1 Japan How applicable it is to the 1 present tariff discussion' Some one l has called President Wilson's atten- ton to the fact that fully 50 per cent of arguments among individuals about i the tariff grow out of misunderstood ! ing of isolated facts and not out of differences on fundamental principles. : He does believe that clear presen
 tation of the facts relating to the conditions of competition between
 the United States and foreign coun- tries will go far toward weeding out differences of opinion attributable to
 lack of information; so far that it
 will be possible to formulate d tariff
 policy for the United States which
 will command the support of an over whelming majority of the people of
 he country regardless Of partisan
 affiliations The possibility of such
 an approximate agreement on d sub
 feet that hitherto has divided the
 electorate into two antagonistic sec
 tions is attributable in large measure
 (the President cOnsiders) to the de
 velopment of independent thinking among the voters.
 The great body of the people (Mr
 Wilson believes) have made up their minds that the industries of the coun-
 try ought not to be hampered by a
 too strict adherence to abstract tariff i theories, but that the fullest measure i of opportunity should be opened to l them so long as the conferring of ] special privileges is avoided. On the i other hand Gas the President under stands the public mnd) there is the conviction that our industries ought 1 not to be fattened to the point where | apoplexy is threatened; but again. | the conviction is just as clear that
 
 l ly to lower the entire range of tariff | duties to such an extent that coinci- 1 dentally, the government would be de i prived of an important part of its ac-
 customed revenues and the in | dustres of all of their ac- customed re-enforcement. So much ! for the Presidents views on the tariff,
 which relate solely 10 the defensive
 preparation of American business for the tests to come at the end of the
 war. The President believes that the aggressive and buoyant spirit of American business is such that it will
 be more concerned with offensive measures, with preparation to wade 1 into the markets of the world, and to establish American supremacy there.
 The Presidents policy includes nu- merous legislative and executive steps
 through which this preparation is to
 be accomplished. Most important of
 these is his plan to procure definite
 authorization for American firms to cooperate for foreign-selling opera | tions without regard to the provisions
 of the Sherman Antitrust Law The