The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-04-12
Text Of President Hrd;ne's First Message

IH01s0 " INC VfVeECIt00 OF the rev.
senues. ID IN ny judgment . reuui-
ste to TIE revival OF business &C.
tfvity in this country. IL, II earn
estly hoped. THEREFORE, that the con-
gfess will be able to enact without
delay . revision Of the revenue laws
and such emergency tariff meas
ures as are necessary to protect
American trade and industry.
Must Do Both.
1t 10 of Tess concern whether in
ternal taxation or tariff revision
shall come>flrst than has been popu .
larly imagined, because We must
do both, but the practical course
for earliest accomplishment will
readily suggest itself to the con-
gress. We are committed to the re-
peal Of the excess profits tan and
the abolition Of inequities and un-
1ustinable Corporations in the
present system.
The country does not expect and
will not approve a shifting of bur-
dens. 1t IL more interested in wip-
ing out the necessity for imposing
them and eliminating confusion and
cost in the collection.
The urgency for an instant tariff
enactment, emergency in character
and understood by our people that
1t ID for the emergency only, cannot
be too much emphasized.
believe in the protection Of
American industry and it Is our
purpose to prosper America first.
The privileges Of the American
market to the foreign producer are
offered too cheaply today and the
effect on much of our own produc-
tivity is the destruction of our self
reliance, which is the foundation
of the independence and good for
tune Of our people. Moreover, i'm
ports should pay their fair share
of our cost Of government.
Against Easy Entry.
One who values American pros
perity and maintains American
standards Of wages and living can
have no sympathy with the pro-
posal that easy entry and food of
imports will cheaper our costs of
living. 1t is more likely to destroy
our capacity to buy Today Ameri-
can agriculture is menaced and its
products are down to prewar nor
mails, yet we are endangering our
fundamental Industry through the
high cost Of transportation from
farm to market and through the in
flux of foreign farm products. be-
cause we offer essentially unpro-
tected, the best market in the
world. 1t would be better to err in
protecting our basic food industry
than paralyze our farm activities
in the world struggle for restored
exchanges. The maturer revision
of our tariff laws should be based
on the policy Of protection, resist
ing that selfishness which turns
to greed, but ever concerned with
that productivity at home which Is
the source of all abiding good for
tune. II is agreed that we cannot
sell unless we buy, but ability to
sell is based on home development
and the fostering of home markets.
There is little sentiment in the
trade of the world. Trade can and
ought to be honorable but it knows
no sympathy. While the delegates
of the nations at war were debat-
ing peace terms at Paris and while
We later debated our part in COM
pleting the peace. commercial
agents of other nations were OPEN
ing their line and establishing their
outposts with forward look to the
morrow's trade. 1t was wholly
proper and has been advantageous
to them. Tardy as We are it will
be safer to hold our own markets
secure and build thereon for our
trade with the world.
Business Basis.
A very important matter is the
establishment of the governments
business on business basis. There
was liberation of the easy-going,
unsysematic method Of handling
our fiscal affairs, when indirect
taxation held the public unmindful
Of the federal burden. But there
is knowledge of the high cost of
government today and the high cost
of living is inseparably linked with
high cost of government. There
can be no complete correction of
the high living cost until govern
ment's cost is notably reduced.
National Budget
Let me most heartily commend
the enactment of Legislation pro-
viding for the national budget sys-
TEN. Congress has already record
ed its belief in the budget. 1t will
be very great satisfaction to know
OF its early enactment, so that it
may be employed in establishing
the economies and business meth
DDS so essential to the minimum
of expenditures. l have said to
the people we meant to have less
of government in business as well
as more business in government. 1t
is we'll, to have it understood that
business has a right TO pursue its
normal, legitimate and righteous
way unimpeded and it ought have
no call to meet government cpm-
petition where all risk is borne by
the public treasury. There is no
challenge to honest and lawful
business success. But government
approval Of fortunate, untrammel-
ed business does not mean tolera-
ton of~restraint of trade or of
maintained prices by unnatural
methods. It is well to have legiti-
mate business understand that a
just government, mindful of the in
terests Of all the people, has a
right to expect the cooperation of
that legitimate business in stamp
ing out the practices which add to
unrest and inspire restrictive legis-
lation. Anxious as we are to re-
store the onward flow of business.
it 10 fair to combine assurance and