Newspapers / The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, … / Sept. 21, 1911, edition 1 / Page 11
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THE OHABLOTTE NBW8. SEPTEMBER 21. I9II II ■'Tl . t!' . rt. ■I ; ; -5 •: t .i J i - ii:'- r. J ^ ^ i ■ o , - : - : 1-, *V lied. n,:in ■ r .I'r'''--: ■;«i..!y f-p ' 'r i fajt Tells Vetoed Why He The Thee Tariff Revision Bills jltjends Eis Vetoing Record in ;h at Grand Rapids Up 7he Jhree Bills 0ed in Detail. jjes Ifci V'aiting on 1 he Report of Jhe lari^ Beard And there- jore Refused to f^anction Revision oj Tariff Measures earnest in ite support, a bill creating a pm'Etianent tariff board of five, to be appointed by the president, with pow* er to summnn witnesses and secure their evldenci^ under oath, was passed by the house. No more than three mem bers of the san.'e political party could be appointed as members of the board. The Investigations to be undertaken and the reports to be made were set out in the »ct and included as proper subject matter the comparative costs of home and foreign production. The board was to report to the president and to congress as either directed. The bill went to the senate and was there amended in a few unimportant particu lars, one requiring confirmation of the appointment of the members by the senate and another modifying in some respect the inquisitorial powers of the board. These changes necessi tated a return of the bill to the house for its concurrence in the amendments. A large majoriay favored concurrence, but a small minority was able to beat the bill by filibustering In the last;, hours of the se&sion. In the uncertainty as to the pasage of the bill, both hous es had provided $225,000 for me to con tinue the tariff board then existing if the bill for the other board failed of passage. In this appropriation bill the statutory tariff board, if establish ed, was directed to investigate and report upon schedule K on wool and woolens by December 1, 1911. This direction was the result of an amend- Insurgent republican »enator proposed a substitute in which the duty on wool of the first class waa fixed at 40 per cent, and of a second class, or carpet wools, at 10 per cent, and the average percentage on the woolen manufactures was made ^ per cent ad valorem. It was claimed oy its author to be a protection bill. It was never submitted to a committee, nd evidence was ever taken in regard to it, and it was evolved from the independent investigation of a single senator. A majority of the Insurgents and the democrats in the senate compromised on a bill which made the tax on raw wool, first class, 35 per cent; second class, 10 per cent; and the average duty on woolens, 65. per cent. The bill, against the vote of nearly all of the regular republicans and some insurg ent republicans, passed the senate and was sent to conference, where a bill was - (1 Press. h !’. ;d?. Mich., Sept. 21.—Prea was aroused early this - n? r upon his fourth busy V ; ; the Grand Rapids for every minute of f his arrival at 6:40 a. m., .irrure to the southern j 'te at 1 o’clock. uvH 'vas greeted at his ! . .’tlon committee headed • William Alden Smith. Au- , - re waiting to take him to ^ ir-ry Club where break- . a large party of lead- 1 in- present. luncheon rhs I'.rogram . •’ O'^lli’ run into the - i'’lit re'Home at 9:40, 1(.» o’clock, an auto-jment offered by a democratic senator. Personnel of Tariff Bo#*d. I •country of American agricultural im- 'tle« on cotton manufactures.” An[ plemehts that practically very few amendmwit wat Introdttced in Order have come in from England. This , to make certain that in the cotton and first clause, therefore, of the free list! chemical sch6dules there must be a bill offers no boon to the farmers at ■ reduction of all rates to nofe more than all, although apparently drawn for the!30 per cent &d valorem, but It was so purpose of inducixi* them to think so. placed in the act that by its language It does contain some very general {it could only apply to goods already In words at the close of the specially men 'the customhouse, upon which duty had tioned articles which by interpreta-‘ not been paid. The calculations by tion might be made to include 150 dif-1 which the specific duties in the chem- ferent articles used on the farm, but! leal schedule were transmitted Into ad used in other vocations also. And!valorem ratets and then reduced 25 these articles—the hammers, the tools, per cent were exceedingly faulty. The the cutlery, and the machinery of va- senator who proposed the reductions rious kinds—are now dutiable under * said that he had secured the services the metal schedule. To admit them' of a statistician at the treasury de- under this clause would be to destroy i partment, who had done the work as Entirely the symmetry of the metal i he told him to do it, And that that was schedule and produce such a confusion * all he knew about it. as seriously to interfere with the ad ministration of th«> tariff act. Another clause provides for the ad- BOuL LO COI1I©x€©C©> & U&ii . agreed upon In which the duty Mission of barbed wire fencing free. -’Iv to the city, a speech r i ; -’s meeting in Cam- .1 n'ciork, the principal ., -n i.T minute talk Hisrh School at 12:20, / : i!k at the Ladies’ Llter- 1L':40 and departure for . iti A at 1 o’clock. et;es of the Woolen, Free List ' Id Cotton Bills, r r rizeiis: I am going to simple a way as I can, .-d the three tariff bills ■ submitted to me for r ■ , liie close of this extra I Li.lled the se?3lon to secure :-n.t li In law of the Canadian cc’ t; = iity. This was done on './■ 2:. hereafter, the wool bill, the r and the cotton bill were V ■ to ;ne for sisnature, and I "r , without my approval, ■1 my reasons for so doing ’ r. Si.age on each bill. ?• ' c; here will be in large . of those messages, v*'llh , T . .1 suggestions that the : ' :.aracter of this address : ' ;i Hut golng to discuss the ' "’Pt to say that the con- >^r its merits and demerits ery strong sentiment ■ubllcans, and. indeed, ' >• democrats, that a bureau •l!'n or board of competent , ; ■. ;ild be constituted to make , into the facts concerning ::'t vrtlcles in the tariff, and ’ em in such a way that the public might be re- ■V '.y . vd of the probable effect 5’v prc! nsed revision of the tariff ^ 1 It was properly felt ■ ;r. -A ,-ii full opportunity for -ti ^Iven as they had been b" *■« ^.iinittGes of the house and the CH9? of the Payne bill, : ;t-,- ata«; Qf the protccted inter- ? : ’ i .ive the advantage over - imifie public, who would not r:. • sec’ir® and present the evi- ; V hei’* behalf for lower duties ^ ure a Just judgment. The • ; b ll offered an opportunity to " ■ ’ -Int a board of cornpetent " ? : aFsIt me In the administra- • the revenue laws and especlal- '•7 ''.e maximum and minimum cliuse *ha* act; and the reveijue !r: were of s-.ifllclent latitude to en- »b:« me to direct this board to make ■ : o* he tariff terms and a ■ encyclopedia which would a ci'iiif' to the understanding ' ^ and also to proceed to de- fho comparative difference be- “• 'he co6^ of production of dutia- aftlclos under the various tariff V:-Huler in this country and abroad. ~t the extra session of 1909, con- r had gl en me i?75,f>00 which I 'or this purpose; at the ■^;ul^ ses;lon of the same congress, •* S‘Xfy.fir=t, the appropriation '^as to S2".0,000, to cover expenses to July 1. 1911. Meantime, the - ''■-.-rt for a permanent tariff com- ' T. ir board to effect these gener- pur.“o acquired great momen- Builness associations the coun over united to form a special so- for the promotion of such legls- the campaign for It w'as ,in T»ith both houses of con- I aave the project as strong P.2 possible, and made a num- ib’io ai^dress in support of it, ", ^ ;; ^‘ciflc recommendation of In a congressional message. ;V... ‘Wican conventions of 28 I ? " adc pipd resolutions strongly a statutory tariff commls- ", deprecating any future revi- ‘ ^ needed evidence had been j^-ered and Impartial conclusions ‘‘,7^? to 'he facts upon which such ' be properly made. ^ Tariff Commission. republicans. In or- ‘ > icr'.xTd a proper revision on the ' ■ '' hlch they'Were committed, r.*!al to know from an un- Tcr the difference between ■' f' foreign and hopie produc- lis was the limit of protec- ' t’np moderate protectlon- . ^ them and the last party had set. They did not wish tho Important Industries of Upon the failure of the bill for a statutory board, and in an earnest effort to enable congress to act with accurate knowledge on schedule K, and Indeed, on schedule I—on cotton manufactures—I Issued an order to the tariff board already apoplnted to con tinue the necessary investigations of these schedules and to report upon the E-ame on December 1 next. In order to make as good a substitute for the statutory tariff board as I could, I add ed two competent democrats to the board. The board consists of two pro fessors of economics of the highest standing, one at Yale and one at the University of Virginia, a former as sistant &8cretary of the treasury In charge of customs, the proprietor and editor of an agricultural and stock rais ing newspaper—an authority on these subjects—and a former democratic congressman of great ability and ex perience from Georgia. Except the former assistant secretary, who is a republican, and the former congress men, It is nard to say that the mem bers have ^ny politics at all, certainly none which 'W'lU prevent Impartial In vestigation and Judgment. They are to report on the “glossary” and the facts as to the comparative cost of foreign and domestic production after Investigations made by experts in their employ. They have 80 persons un der them w'orklng hard to complete the work marked out for them. I have gone over with care this history of the movement for a tariff board in order to show how fully com mitted I am to the proposition that we ought not to have any revl&lon of a schedule of the tariff without accurate Information ss to the operation and effect of the proposed changes, and further to show that In this view I have-had In the past the hearty sup port not only of the regular republi cans, but also, and even with more emphasis, those who call themselves progressive republicans. Second, I also wleh to point out that all republicans of whatever shade are committed to the maintenance of our protected industries to the point of retaining duties on Imported arti cles which shall equal the differences in the cost of production at home and abroad. Third. Except for the extra session called only to pass upon the reciproci ty bill, the first time that the sixty- second congress could consider and pass upon tariff schedules would be In December, and at that time its pre decessor, by consent of both parties, had fixed as the proper time at which a full report as to the most objection able schedule ought to be reported. With the money granted me by con gress I had provided a board, nonpar tisan and with the same personnel a» the statutory board would have had, to make a report not only upon wool but alao upon cotton Although many of the democrats had assisted in the support of the statutory tariff board bill and had advocated such a means of se^curlng accurate in formation in respect of the probable operation of the proposed revision, the ■~'-A •] .ro f'nt rv r.f j « taking away from them • y'SFtire of protection needed to thp'Ti to live against foreign '"Or, b>jT they did intend in V. ‘ to give them more fhe democrats recognized >‘100 -ire qj protection as just, them c'^ntended that such '’cs v;‘^ccEsary to secure V. hifh a proper tariff ‘ onlv could be framed. The i?. that by republican and dem- >'fs, and among the republi- so-called progressive or republicans were the most 'O' house at once began to make » r«cord for political purposes by passing three tariff bills, the wool bill, the free ll&t bill, and the cotton bill. They Kave no public hearings of any kind on either of these bills and they presented no satisfactory information upon which the effect of any of tbem up^ the in- dustrles involved could be* Their investigations may have been sufficient to satisfy the tarift-for-revenue man v^rho believes in any reduction, however ^e^ of existing duties, but for one pledged as I am to maintain a tariff high to enable existing industries to live the case is different. The Wool Bin. The wool bill proposed a revenue du ty of 20 per cent upon raw wooj in stead of 11 cents a pound, f of considerably more than 50 P«r ^ of the present duty, and an duty of 50 per cent on woolen cloth and manufactures. This was avowedly a tariff for revenue and drawn for the purpose the industries. It passed the Jioum and went to the senate, where an OlnldrexL Ory FOR FLETCHER'S C A S T O R I A Children Ory rO» FLETCHER’S CASTO R I A Children Ory FOR FLETCHER’S CASTOR! A was 29 per cent on raw wool, and an average of 49 per cent on woolens, 'ihls bill had the effect of raising the duty on carpet wools, as fixed in the senate, 19 per cent, and as fixed In the house, 9 per cent. Here was the first case presented to me. There was nothing In the record in either the hous^ or senate from which I could obtain any Information as to the effect of this bill upon the woolen in dustry of this country. I submit that the history of Its making shows no principle whatever in the bill except a ^compromise between two opposing principles for the purpose of passing the bill, without any Indication as to its effect on the industry to which it applies. This bill reduced the duty on wool ens to an average of 49 per cent with a duty on the raw material wool of 29 per cent. The Wilson bill, passed in 1894, had reduced the duty to 50 per cent, with no duty on the raw wool at all, Si much more favorable arrange ment to the manufacturers than in the present bill, and yet the years of the Wilson biil were years of disaster to the woolen manufacturers. It may be that other causes than the tariff con tributed to the failure of woolen mills in the time of the Wilson bill, and it may well be that conditions in the woolen business have changed so that it does not need as much protection as then; but I had no adequate infor mation, and had been furnished none, upon which I could say that the bill presented to me was in accord with the republican platform of protection upon which I was elected, and to which I am In honor bound to square my offllcal act and policy. In the ab sence of such adequate ' Information, and with the prospect of Securing it in three months it becamp my bounden duty to withhold my approval of the bill. What was the necessity for such great haste in passing the bill at an extra session called for another pu» pose? The bill as it passed the house provided it should go Into effect Jan uary 1, 1912. The bill as it passed the senate contained another similar pro vision. When the bill went Into confer ence, 1 am informed that the s*agges- tion was made that the date of Jan uary 1,1912, for its taking effect would furnish a strong argument for delaying its passage until after December 1, when the tariff board could report. The date of taking effect was there upon changed to October 15, 1911. Such care was not taken with the free list bill or the cotton bill, both of which were made to take effect Jan uary 1, 1912. Schedule K. Schedule K had been in force so long and its percentage was so high in many respects that I had not hesitated in times past to &ay that it ought to be reduced, and to explain how It came not to be reduced In the Payne bill as it ought to have beeji. But it is one thing to know that a schedule of this sort is too high, and it is a very different thing in such a complicated schedule to know upon what Items the reductions should be made and how great the reductions ought to be. If the principle to which I am committed, and to which the par ty Is committed in the strong terms of the resolutions, which I have quot ed above was to be observed as a policy at’all, here was the occasion for following it. If I had allowed the wool bill to become a law, the progress made in public opinion toward a better method of revising the tariff would have been entirely lost and the pol icy cast to the winds. Some defense is made of the bill on the ground that the committee on ways and means had considered It careful ly in committee for a month or more, but the point is that the bill they pre pared 18 not this bill. It is changed in all of its rates and materially changed to meet by compromise a bill that never in committee at all, and the blending was done, as was said, with “blacksmith’s tools.” The house bill was a free trade or at least an antl-protectlon bill; what the hybrid was who could tell? enormous value of the wool and wool en industry which might be disastrous ly affected the bill,was It asking too much to delay the bill, under the cir cumstances, for 90 days merely to se cure accurate information? I thought not. Indeed, I could find no argument which would satisfy my conscience in signing the bill. Free List Bill. The free list bill was called the 'farmers’ free list,” for the purpose of giving an Impression that It was passed to compensate the farmers for some sort of Injury supposed to be done by the Canadian reciprocity This reason was finaly repudiated by the leader of the democracy on the floor of the house of representatives and is certainly not true. There was nothing in the Canadian reciprocity bill that required any compensation to the farmers, for In a very short period after actual operation it will appear that they, as well « have been Improved In conditlon^oy our larger trade with Canada. the bill was framed and came to me in a form calculated , to mislead as to Its effect. In the first clause all agri cultural Implements were declared to be free, and a great many were nam ed These same Implements were named In the Payne bill, and were made free in that\bill from any coun trv which permitted our agricultural implements to enter it without duty. This opened to England the market of the United states for agricultural Im plements. As a matter of fact, the price of agricultural implements in America is cheaper, as shown by a re port of the Bureau of Trade Relations of the State Department, to the Ameri can farmers than to any farmers in the world. England is the one country that exports agricultural implements to any great extent, and so successful the competition against her in this and then all wire and other material which could be used for fencing, and includes wire rods and wire rope. To let in barbed wire fencing alone would be unimportant to producers, but the framing of the amending clause Is such that If It were to go Into law it would have a serious effect upon the metal schedule and would utterly de stroy the principle which was follow ed in its framing and would make free of duty flome of the most highly wrought articles under the metal schedule not used by farmers at all. Then there Is a clause admitting jute and cotton bagging free, and materials from which made, /which would allow common cotton cloth to come in free common coiioa to wiuc lu ‘ for any puyjse. although under the cotton schedule, even as proposed to be amended by this congress, cotton is to pay a certain amount of duty. The bill also puts boots, of all kinds on the free list. It did not put on the free list, except some kinds of leather, the materials which went into shoes. In other words, it put on the free list the finished product and continued the tax on raw materials. This would be such a burden on our manufacturers that its injustice must appeal to every one. The fact is that under the Ding- ley bill imported shoes were taxed 25 per cent ad valorem,- while in the Payne bill the duty was reduced from 25 per cent to 10 per cent, the duty on hid"S was reduced from 15 per cent to nothing, and the duty on leather was reduced to 5 per cent. No evi dence was taken as to what effect this putting of shoes oh the free list would have on the very highly Important shoe Industry of the country, and as it vio lated the first principles of justice in a tariff, namely, of putting the finish ed product on the free list and taxing the materials. It did not and could not commend itself to one*who was pledg ed to the support of a moderate pro tective tariff. Meat and Flour. Finally, the free list has two clauaps affecting meat and flour. As they went through the house they put meat on the free list and flour on the free list. In the senate, however , an amendment was put on limiting the operation: of these two clauses to im ports from those countries with which we have a reciprocal relation and which admit certain agricultural-pro ducts of ours free. This limitation made Canada the only country which would be affected by the provisions of the clause. Now, in our negotiations with Canada for reciprocity we at tempted to secure free meat and free flour. Caaiada would not consent to this, because she feared the effect of our competition with her meat and flour. This showed that Importations of meat and flour from Canada with out duty would not have any effect to lower the price, in this couiitry of either in normal times. But this free list bill was giving to Canada some thing for nothing. This congress at the close of the act approving the Ca nadian reciprocity agreement directed me to continue negotiations and ex pand Its terms, and yet m these pro visions It proposed to deprive me of using the concessions of free meat ana free flour to secure concessions from Canada. Thus the bill was so loosely drawn. It was drawn on such a wrong principle, and with so little informa tion, and it purported to do so many things which it did not do, that I had no hesitation in vetoing it. The Cotton Bill. Finally, the cotton bill came to me. This bill differed from the others in being a bill for which the democrats alone, and not the insurgent republi cans, were responsible. It had passed the house on the report of the ways and means committee made without the taking of any evidence of persons interested in the manufacture or a^- one else; it had completely chang^ the method of classifying cottons, classifying them according to the threads in the yarn instead of by the threads of the piece and the specific duty upon the square yard, as in ^e present bill. This was a most im^r- tant change, and it had been adopted after an informal communication in writing with the Bureau of Standards and after an adverse re^rt by the treasury experts. The bill ted avowedly as a free trade bill by the house. It came to the senate and was passed in the form in whi^ it passed the house, except that certain amendments were added. One was an amendment cutting down the metal schedule by a sweeping reduction of 30 per cent, and the other was an aiMnd- ment of the chemical schedule with a purported reductioii ad valoreni of m per cent. So hastily was tiie bill thrown together, so little attention was oald to the consideration of It In the ^nate, especially in the chemical schedule, that the most ludicrous re sults were reached. In the first place, although the amendments radically changed the metal and chemical sched ules no change was made in the title, which sUil read “An act to reduce du- to lis Senator Williams, a democratic mem ber of the committee on finance of the senate, objected to this method of adopting a most important schedule. The chemical schedule. The chemi»l schedule is the first schedule in the list. It has 85 items, and of these 66 have specifio duties. It affec^ many millions of imports. the bill went through, and it went back to the house and was submitted'to two days’ examination by the ways and means committee of that *body. Then it passed the hOnse under a rule that permitted no amendments whatever. I had the bill examined by experts, especially with respect to the chemical schedule, and even in the very short time I had. I- found the greatest confusion produced by the amendment. Upon a number of the was greatly more than the proposed 25 per cent, reaching in some cases 75 and 100 per cent, and on other articles, instead of being a decrease,, there was an in crease all the way from 5 to loO per cent. The bill was supposed to be a concession to the North Carolina cot ton Interests, and to be intended to cheapen the bleaching, dyeing, and coloring materials needed in that bu siness. The very comical effect of the bill as amended was that instead of reducing the duty on bleaching pow der 25 per cent, it increased it 40 per cent. But even a more serious defect In the bill was in those Changes affect ing the alcoholic compounds contained in four or five items, in respect to which in the Payne bill aid in all pre vious tariff bills. In order to prevent the use of these items to import alco hol at a small duty, compensatory du ties had been imposed of about 40 cents a pound, or $4.60 a gallon. Un der the provisions of the new bill, these alcoholic compounds and articles containing alcohol would come in at a duty, making the tax on the alcohol from 8 to 10 cents a gallon, while the Internal revenue tax on alcOhol In this country is $1.10 per proof galloh, and the duty Imposed on it as an import is $2.60 a gallon. The opportunities for the introduction of cheap alcohol and the danger of evasion, or the breaking down of the internal reve nue law by such a change in the chem ical schedule, I need hardly elaborate. The bill was impossible and of course I vetoed it. There was in the passage of the bill, in the amendments, and in the general treatment an Indication that the support of the bill'was baSed rather on a desire to make a political record in favor of lower duties than upon a serious proposal to change the law. At least this is the only explana tion that can be offered of the careless, artificial, and altogether unsatisfac tory character of the three -bills. I have gone into this matter at con siderable detail in order that my posi tion with respect to these bills and t^e general treatment of the tariff fi^y be understood. I am in favor of the re duction of the tariff wherever It can be done and still give a living measure of protection to those industries of the country that need it. But 1 that we have reached now a point in the history of tariff making when e^ eryone ought to realize that the terin should not be changed and business disturbed, except upon information which shall enable us to ^ass bills that will disturb it least. Our whole busi ness system rests upon the protective tariff basis. The real hope of men who are In favor of lowering duties is to pursue the policy of securi^ rate information to keep the tana rates down as low as possible consist ent with the life of the busindss p^ tected. The natural operation of the tariff under those conditions and American ingenuity is to continue to reduce the cost of production, and that in itself will secure, if we adhere to the policy, a reduction of the tariff rates from time to time; but to cut them now “with blacksmith s tools, 16 to invite in the next, two or four years a revision bf feeling, and therr a re currence of higher rates and the old system of high tariffs. This I deprecate, and so tar as I can wUh the powers given me by the consti^ti^, I nropose to stop such a movement and to secure a reduction in with the principles of the republican olatform, and on information accurate 2fd impartial. It approved by the «l«ctorate. the^ of course, those of us who, are now in office must give way J?! carry out a different policy; but we are In oAce our clearly to be understood. We follow this policy not only because w are (Ti J nledgid to tt, but because we beU«ve It right, because we that a full discussion and « clear the part of the people will cwftvlnCe them ultimately to approve and adopt it. __ Some people don’t nrind a m^uito bite any* more tliaij the . prickings Of conscience. Some people are always looking for troublo. and are never satisfied with it when they find it. £mw Itottofi These have ^ort vamps with flexiW^ welt soles, all sizes at $2.98 Wool SATURDAY AND REGULAR $5.00 VALUE 500 Pairs Wool Blankets in seconds, some with holes, some soiled, other wise equal in value to the regular $5.00 goods. This is unquestionably one of the series of the Greatest Blanket Offerings we have ever made, so dp not delay as we are receiving orders from different sections of the county for this Wonderful Bargain. They wiU not last long.. On Sale in Basement /v-^ « Little "long Co.
The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 21, 1911, edition 1
11
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