E 761 .T13 Copy 1 JNGUKSS) SENATE :.'d Sei>si<>n ) ADDR]':SS OF DOC'IIMKNT N'o. L'!<2 PRESIDENT WILLIAM H. TAFT AT THE BANQUET OF THE TIPPECANOE CLUB CLEVELAND, OHIO, JANUARY 29, 1912 IN CELEBRATION OF THE BIRTHDAY OF EX-PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY PRESENTED BY MR. SMOOT February 5, 1912. — Ordered to be printed. WASHINGTON ",775 §■ -% ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT TAFT AT THE BANQUET OF THE TIPPECANOE CLUB, CLEVELAND, OHIO, JANUARY 29, 19 1 2. I consider it ^roat (j^ood fortune to be present as a f];iiest at your celebration of McKinley's birthday. Every menioiial day is most p:rateful wliich brinp^s back into our lives most vividly that sweet nature, that tender heart, that clear-headed exponent of common sense, that embocUment of love of country and love of human kind whom we knew as WilUam McKinley, and cherished as a j)roduct of Ohio. His was a nature which ,ii:iew with the exigencies he had to meet,, and developed its fjreatne.ss in the trials of war and its conse- quences. His foresight, his patience, his firmness, and his grasp of the ne\y questions ))resented in deahng A\-ith the Spanish dej)enden- cies which passed into our hands have given him a fixed, permanent, and most honorable place in history. Such a celebration as this of McKinley's memory is full of personal interest to me because it was he who induced me to leave the calm and peaceful atmosphere of the court house and the consultation room to enter upon a political career, first in the Orient, and then in Washington, which has brouglit me to the responsibility of the office whose duties I am now trWng to discharge. I sincerely hope that reverence for McKinley's memory and the fond affection that it aw^ikens may furnish the motive for a long life of patriotic usefulness to this club and for the preservation of tho.se Repubhcan principles of which William McKinlej'- was a great exponent. The last national election was in November, 1908. The next one will be in November, 1912. The conventions for the selection of the candidates to represent the two parties are to be held in June, and the time is ripe for the beginning of the discussion which will be continuous between now and November as to the proper party to whom to entrust the administrationJof the Government for the next four years. Tlie victory at the polls in Novend^er, 19()S, was decisive, and it left the Republican Party in control, not only of the Executive but of both Houses of Congress, and in such a situation that there was no hindrance to its jiutting into efTect and performinsr the promises contained in its platform adopted in its convention of 190S u]>()ii the faith of which the mandate of power was extended to it. The four months' campaign which is usually conducted between the holding of the conventions and the election, early in tlie following November, is an educational and clarifying j)rocess for the benefit of the American people. The )>()ssible candidates are reduced to two in number, and the doctrines, purposes, and promises of each 3 4 BIRTHDAY OF EX-PEESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY. party are set out in specific detail in its platform. The issues are thus clearly defined, and throup-h the press and through the party sneakers, the people are generally brought to a clear understanding of what constitutes the difl'erence between the two parties, and are given a full opportunity to iudge which, on the whole, would be the better trustee of tlie public interest in the administration of the Government for the next four years, I do not think ^hat we generally attribute suflScient importance to the educational (ff 'ct of this campaign. It has often happened that the confusion and ignorance of the public mind as to the real issues were such in June of the presidential year, that, had an election then taken place, the result would have been diff.>rent froni what it was in November after four months' discussion of the campaign. Usually the question whether the party whose administration is just ceasing shall be continued in power rests ultimately upon the question whether its accomplishments during its lease of power have been commensurate with its promises, and whether the results have been of such value to the country at large as to assure continued satisfac- tion and progress in the four years to come. In other wordg, the question is generally determined by close examination and considera- tion of the legislative and executive acts of the party incumbent in the current four years. It must rest upon its record thus made. If that record be a satisfactory one, the country in its sober second thought and after a careful consideration of it in detail, will give its approval by a reelection of the same party; but if it has been found wanting, if its promises have not been kept, if its administration has not been satisfactory, and the promises of the opposing party are fair and reasonably adapted to meet the defects shown in the incum- bent administration, the change is made, and then the smooth opera- tion of our plan of popular government is demonstrated by the ease with which the change takes place by the acquiescence of the retiring administration in the victory of its opponent, and by the continuance of the Government as a unified whole, with new leaders, but under the same constitution, the same laws and the same political limitations. What I wnsli to discuss to-night is whether after the convention in June we of the Republican Party have anytliing to fear in that close examination of our political record of the current four jea,Ts which is the chief function of the presidential campaign. The adminis- tration is usually made responsible under three heads. First, under the head of le^slative enactment. It matters not how little influence the Executive may actually exercise over the deliberations of the two legislative branches of the Government, the people seem to treat the three branches of the administration, if of uniform political color, as a whole and do not discriminate be- tween the Executive and Congress in weighing the value of its legis- lative achievements. The second head is the conduct of foreign affairs. This is left largely to the Executive so far as the initiative is concerned, and only when treaties are to be made is the confii*ming power of two- thirds of the Senate invoked. The third head is that of purely executive action, in which the Executive exercises the authority given by the Constitution or laws without restraint of the legislature. BIRTHDAY OK KX-PUlvSIDKNT WILLIAM M. KINLEY. 5 LKCISLATION. Coiniuij; now first \o the Ic^^isluiivo ('naclmonts of tlio j)i«-st'ul aclniiiiistratioii, I oii^lit lo |)()iiit out that wo a^rocd iu the platroiiii of 19()S that tho taiilf shouhl ho r( |)r(>tot'livo priiiciplo tluit only oii(>iieals w^hose jurisdiction is final, and to which a])peals lie directly from the Gen- eral Ap])raisers In the second place, it offered to the Executive in dealing with other countries the alternative of two tariffs — the one 25 per cent higher than the other — in order to conijiel the other countiy by a threat of the higher tarilT to stop its discriminations against American trade. This required making a treaty with eveiy one of our international associates, and under these treaties conces- sions were secured which have been among the chief contributing causes to the growth of our foreign trade beyond the figures of the ])ast. A third provision of the law enabled me to appoint what grew to be known as a Tariff Board, and wdiat, under the additional ap])ro- priations of Congress, begau a series of investigations into tho cost of production of articles abroad and of articles at, home. The devel- opment of this board was a growth, but it met the public need. With the ])rinciple osta])lished of enacting tarifT legislation only u])()n exact information derived from investigations of an im])artial board, one of the corollaries which followed and was a])))roved by conven- tions of the Ivepublican l^arty was that requiring revision and amend- ment of tho scnedules of the traiff by separate schedules. These two changes in the method of dealing with the tariff have met the hearty sup]K)rt of tho busmess communities of the country. They, more than any other ])ersons, appreciate the disadvantage of the halt and tlisturbance in all business circles and in the prosperity of the country that attends a generjd revision of the tarifV, and they know, better than anyone else, how much that ahum and distuib- ance can be reduced by a system which proceeds upon the princi])le 6 BIRTHDAY OF EX-PEESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY. of exact information as to its effect before amendment, and which deals with one subject at a time. Nothing has come into the politics of this country of more jirac- tical importance than the present united attitude of the Republican Party in favor of an impartial, nonpartisan tariff board, with full opportunity and means to investigate the facts and find the truth with reference to imported merchandise, the cost of manufacture abroad and the cost of manufacture here, and all the other circum- stances that ought to affect the rate and imposition of the duties. Our Democratic friends at first accepted the principle, and many of them voted for such a board as I have described; but a section of their party was able, by filibustering, to prevent the fhial passage of a bill which had passed both Houses by a good majority. Conse- quently, I had to have recourse to the provisions of the Payne bill and to an appropriation which was voted by Congress in order to provide a substitute for the statutory tariff board wliich failed. The reason for the importance of this instrumentality is found in the fact that it touches the nerve of the people, which was irritated after the passage of the Payne bill, and which resulted in a Republican defeat and a Democratic victory. Our Democratic friends are in the habit of claiming that the elec- tions of 1910 were a repudiation of the doctrine of protection and a return on the part of the people to the principle of a tariff for revenue only. They are mistaken. It was not a declaration in favor of a tarilf for revenue or free trade. This is shown by the fact that the Democratic vote was less rather than greater than it had been in the presidential election. The defeat of the Republican Party came not from an increase in Democratic votes, but from a defection of Republican votes, i. e., of its own members who stayed at home and refused to stand by the party in what they regarded as a failure to redeem its pledges. In order, therefore, that in future revisions there should be some honest, accurate, and reliable standard by which the degree of the revision might be known, I appointed the Tariff Board which has served, and tlie business men of the country formed an association to press for legislation creating a permaiient tariff board or bureau, by which there should always be at hand an accurate yardstick to tell what in fact the tariff is, what the etTect of the proposed amendment is hkely to be, and how near in effect it measures the difference between the cost of the production of the merchandise in question at home and abroad. CHANGE OF DEMOCRATIC FAITH. Our Democratic brethren have departed from the faith on a tariff board which a majority of them once embraced and, in the extraordinary _ session of last year, they passed three tariff bills without the aid of information from a tariff board, drawn in such an unscientific, unsystematic, and reckless way that I did not hesi- tate to veto them, in (nxler that they might await the coming in of the report by the Tariff Board upon schedule K, wool and woolens which one tariff bill affected, and upon cotton and cotton manu- factures, which another tariff bill afl'ected. We should be entirely willing, upon the issue whether those bills ought to have passed in the form in which they were drawn, mth the little uiformation as BIRTHDAY OF F.X-PRKSIDKNT WILLIAM M. lu.NLLY. 7 to their oH'oct which Conj^ress hiul. oi- wjis able to furniah tho Kxocu- tive, to go before tlie coiiiitry and invito a verdict <»f tlie people. Til e reports of the Tiuiil' lioard as to tho cost of ])roduction of ])rint pa])er in Canada and in the I'nited States was a luminous exj)osition ol the elements of cost and the circumstances surrounding the trade in each country, but a gieater and much more compichensivo rei)ort has lecently been filed on tlie subject of the cost of raising raw wool in all parts of the world, including the United States, and on the cost of manufacturing woolens in Europe and in this country. This report is so fair, so comprehensive, so full of the most valuable infor- niation, and so lacking in ])artisan quality that it has commended itself to the country at lai-ge, and has elicited little if any criticism from those who might be exjiected to attack it. With tliis full infor- mation upon which a tarill" bill might be framed and from which it would be entirely ])ossible to infer its eifect upon the wool and woolen industry of this country, the Democratic majority in the House has as yet taken no action. Init has proposed to consider other schedules with respect to which the report of the Tariff Board must be long delayed, or, in the absence ol a suitable appropriation by Congress, may never .reach completion. 1 wish, as far as possible, to emphasize the issue which is thus presented between the two parties as to the importance of knowledge before action in respect to the tariff, for I think, my Republican friends, that this is the issue upon which we may safeh^ go before the country and prove our good faith in regard to a desire to lower duties as far as possible consistent with the protective principle already- stated. It brings us to the (question whether, in reducing duties, we are to reduce them with a view to the preservation of our industries and giving them a chance to live, or whether we are to act recklessly without information and without regard to a probably disastrous efi'ect upon an important part of our business. For one, I am very confident that on this issue the people will be with us, and that our friends, the enemy, are entirely mistaken in their interpretation of recent popular expression. We do not ask for any industry a rate which shall give it an opportunity to enjoy undue profit in competition with the foreign manufacturer, or which shall tempt our manu- facturers to form a monopoly in order to secure the artificial benefit of a rate that is Jiigher than the difl'erence in productive conditions. As an evidence of our good faith, we are ready and anxious to abide the judgment as to the facts of a board of scientific investigators who kncnv no party and no party interest in their researches, and only act as Judges of the fact to find the truth. r— —J^ It is said that our Democratic brethren intend to withhold the a])propriati(jn for the continuing of the Tarilf Board. I do not know wiiether this is true or not. If it is, it will only accentuate the issue between the two parties and only make more clear the difference in their attitude, and in my judgment will only em])hasi/e the ad vantage which we have in our ])ositioii on this general matter. To recur again to tlie advantages that ])roceeded from the Pavne ])ill. By a section in that bill with certain limitations upon the amount of importations of sugar and tobacco, we gave for the first time to the Philippines free trade and full access to our market. The effect of this generous but just treatment was almost instantaneous, and the growtJi of tlie business between the two countries has been 8 BIKTHDAY OF EX-PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY. such as to vindicate those of us who for 10 years last past have been working for this end, and such as to show the lack of foundation for the feai-s of those who opposed the policy. The trade of the Philip- pines has grown apace, and prosperitj^ which had b( n a stranger to the islands since we went there seems to have established itself per- manently in those gems of the Pacific. Another feature of the Payne bill was the passage as an amendment to that act of the corporation tax. I claim and assume full respon- sibility for the adoption of that tax. It taxes success and not failure. It imposes a small percentage upon the net earnings of a coi^poration before they are distributed in dividends. It affects every business corporation in the country, and the collection is made by our present internal-revenue machinery at a cost that is inconceivably small. It has the advantage that it can be doubled by maldng it 2 per cent and trebled by maldng it 3 per cent, and all with no substantial increase in the cost of collection. Its incidence is at a point where those who pay the tax feel it least and under conditions that render an evasion of it almost impossible. Its passage was accompanied by the adopt- tion of a concurrent resolution amending the Constitution to permit the levying of a Federal income tax, wliich is still under considera- tion by the States. Whether that power be given or not, for the present at least the corporation tax is a sufficient income tax to meet the public requirements. I have thus reviewed the benefits conferred upon the country by the Payne tariff bill. I think Republicans generally concede that there are certain schedules, certainly tlie woolen schedule, possibly the cot- ton schedule, that need amendment; but they insist, and properly insist, that the amendments should be intelligent and not destructive. There may be other schedules of the tariif bill that need revision and further consideration, but they ought not to be made except in the light of full and accurate information. We are not wedded to any particular rates, and we are quite v.illing as a party to reexamine any rates in the light of proper information should the mandate of power be agam given to the Republicans, so that the party shall control the Executive and both Houses. I do not doubt that almost the first bill to be introduced would be one establishing a permanent tariff com- mission or bureau of information, whose duty it would be to continue the work of the present tariff board, preparing a glossary of the terms of the tariff and making as fujl as possible a statement oi" the elements of cost at home and abroad of the merchandise covered by the sched- ules of the tariff, with directions to keep this information up to date and to make such communications to Congress and the Executive as a change in the conditions from time to time would make appropriate. RAILROADS. The platform of 1908 declared in favor of additional restrictions and regulations of the interstate railroads, v/ith a view to the better and more uniform enforcement of the interstate commerce law. The Republican Party has carried out that promise to the letter. I invited a board, consisting of the chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission, Commissioner Lane, Senator Townsend, then a member of the Interstate Commerce Committee of the House, the Attorney General, the Sohcitor General, and possibly some others, to investi- BIRTHDAY OP EX-PRESIDENT WILLIAM MoKINLEY. 9 gate the reports of the Interstate Cominercc Commission and make a report to me of the improvements that mij^jht be efl'cctcMl in existing law on this subject. Tliis was clone, and they made recommendations wliich were substantially embodied in a bill tlrafted by the Altorney General, with such amendments from time to time j)roi)os('il by jjur- ties in interest as seemed just. Congiess took tliat bill, amended it in certain particulars, but left the general elfect of the bill the same as when I outlined it in a speech at Des Moines, and leconnnendetl it to Congress in my message. The chief inii)rovement in the law was giving life and effect to the orders of the Interstate Commerce Com- mission, so that they could not be ignored or minimized by the rail- road companies, and in giving the commission an opportunity to pre- vent a raising of rates until after investigation into the fairness of such action. That was the feature of my recommendations to Congress and of the bill as it was adopted. Another new and important feature was the creation of a Commerce Court, to which was transferred all the jursidiction which hadthei-e- tofore been exercised by the circuit courts in some (JO or 70 different districts of the United' States. It was thought that by cond)ining all this jurisdiction in one court of five men with experience it would greatl}^ expedite the final judgment and brhig to the Supreme Court quickly tli' se cases which were subject to review there. I observe now that some of the decisions of the Commerce Court have been contrary to the Interstate Commerce Commission and that this has been made t'le basis of complaints against the Commerce Court, and a ground for suggesting its abohtion. It seems to me this would be the most foolish step possible. If the Commerce Court has decided improperly as to its jurisdiction in issuing ordei-s enjoining action by the Interetate Commerce Commission that can easily be remedied bv the cases now pending in the Sui)reme Court, decisions in which will show exactly what the jurisdiction of the Commerce Court is; but the abohtion of the Commerce Court would not in any degree avoid the intervention of a court after the orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission, for the right of the railroads to invoke the action of the court for a judicial investigation into the legal or con- fiscatory matter of the order of the commission could not be taken away. "^The Commerce Court is only a concentration of 70 jurisdic- tions into one making for greater expedition, and a more summary disposition of the causes, and this is tlie great desideratum in the machinery for the regulation of interstate commerce. I need not stop to invite attention to the othei^ increasingly regu- lative provisions of the interstate commerce amendment of 1910. It is sufficient to say that at present the regulation seems to be effective and calls for little if any amendment. Growing out of the passage of this bill, a commission was appointed to report" upon the wisdom of regulating the issue of stocks and bonds by interstate c )mmerce railroads. The report made recom- mends certain conservative legislation, but sets forth the principles that ought to govern in such a satisfactory way as to have attracted the commendation of all. The sessions of 1910 and 1911 of the Sixty-iirst Congress were productive of additional provisions for safety api)liances on radroads to prevent injurv to emplovees, for the reenactment of an employers' hability law "which has now stood the test of examination by the 10 BIRTHDAY OF EX-PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY. Supreme Court, of the appointment of a commission to make report upon a workmen's compensation bill to secure something Hke insur- ance for all workmen in interstate commerce, and for a mining- bureau, adopted chiefly to promote the cause of humanity in mining by the expenditure of money in research to determine the best method of preventing those distressing losses of life among the miners whicn from month to month shock the community. Again, the same Congress carried out the platform of the Kepublican Party and created machinery for the establishment of postal savings banks. These institutions are serving already a most useful purpose and are gathering in the savings of the poor at a rate of $1,000,000 a month. They are being extended into those parts of the country where banking facilities are denied to the people, and are furnishing at a less rate of interest than savings banks pay inducements to deposit for people who will only trust the Government. The exten- tion of the system is going on, and its success is assured. Another position taken by the Republican Party and carried out by it, but not completed, is that of conservation. The Sixty-first Congress gave the President the express power to withhold from fiu'ther absorption vast tracts of the public domain covering coal, phosphate, water-power sites, and oil, and we look to this Congress to take the steps which shall open to reasonable development under control of the Government the mineral and agricultural resources of Alaska, as well as those which still remain within the governmental control in the United States. There is forming a plan for the betterment of our currency, a plan which has been given exact formulation by the Alonetary Commis- sion, but which is of course subject to discussion and amendment by Congress. The necessity for the adoption of this general principle, I think all Republicans will concede. The question is whether the details provided secure the objects admitted to be of capital impor- tance, to wit, the increasing and decreasing of currency according to the needs of business under the control of a bureau or executive tribunal so constituted as not to feel the influence of Wall Street and not to be completely within the governmental control at Wash- ington. The discussion is going on, and the Republican Party, if given power, can be trusted to reach a conservative conclusion in this regard. The Postmaster General and I have recommended the taking of initial steps toward a general parcel post and the improvement of the opportunity presented in the rural deliveries for the instant beginning of the carriage of parcels at a moderate rate from the points wiiere the rural routes begin to the country patrons of those routes. A report is just now about to be made by a tribunal of the highest character, Mr. Justice Hughes, President Lowell, of Harvard, and President Wheeler, of the Chicago Association of Commerce. They have made an exhaustive study as to the proper rate for sec- ond-class mail matter, which the Postmaster General has been of opinion is too low as compared with the rates paid for other classes. .1 think it will be found in studying the platform of tlie Republican Party that we are in a position to say to the people of the country that we have performed to the letter most of our promises, and with respect to those where fulfillment does not seem complete we are in position now, if given power, more fully to redeem them than ever. BIRTHDAY OF EX-PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY. 11 In matters of foreip:n policy we have every reason to con{]:rntMlHt«' ourselves. The problem which was before \is in f()reip:n matters was the endmg by its terms of the Japan(>se treaty and the necessity for a new one. The happy solution was l)rou«;ht about throufjli a policy adopted by the Japanese Government of its own motion and carry- ing out, and by a treaty which lias no offensive wortl in it. There never was a time in the history of the two countries wlien we were on more friendl}" terms, and this has been largely due to tlie success- ful settling of the treaty by Secret a ly Knox. We have treaties pending with Hon(hnas and Nicaragua to carry out the policy of the treaty with Santo Domingo and they ought to be ratified. The responsibility for bad govermnent in those Central American States and for revolution and disturbances must fall u])on the shoulders of tliose who defeat the treaties. The treaties of gen- eral arbitration with France and P^ngland I shall not stop now to discuss, except to say that they are a very decided step forward beyond anything else in the history of the w-orld toward universal ar])itration and peace. They are pending in the Senate, and it is the hope of all of us that -within a reasonable time after full discus- sion they may receive the approval of the necessary two-thirds of that body. In respect of the Executive we have a right to say, I think, that last year the new Democratic Congress used every possible machine of investigation into the manner of the conduct of the departments of the Government, and that up to this time at least nothing of detri- ment or dishonor has been discovered. It is not too much to say that the departments have been run with the sole purpose of making them efiective to discharge the functions imposed upon them by law. In the first place, as rigid economy as practical was enforced in the mak- ing of the estimates of the departments. In the first year of this ad- ministration they were cut upwards of $50,000,000. Taking tliis cut with the increased revenue or the Payne tariff bill we have been al^le to turn a deficit on the first of July, 1909, of $58,000,000 to a surplus for this year of more than $40,000,000. In the'Post Office Department the saving has been such that for the first time in tw^enty-five years there has been no deficit, but a surplus of the earnings over the expenditures of $1,000,000. The mobihzation of the troops on the Mexican border for the pur- pose of protecting American rights and steadying the maintenance of law and order in our neighboring Repubhc showed a capacity for quick mobihzation, which w'as very satisfactory. A review of our great Navy in New^ York Harbor produced a fleet second to but one in the world. The laws have been enforced. The interstate commerce -law and the antitrust law. Indictments have been found, and bills in equity have been filed in cases that seemed to call for governmental action, and they have proceeded to judgment in due course, and the judg- monts have been enforced. For a time at the culmination of this policy an outer}-- w^as made against the wisdom of the antitrust law. That, however, has sub- sided, and I think that the business community are reaching the con- clusion that by following the judgments of the court, by studying the distinctions made in the decisions of tlie vaiying cases, a rule perfectly plain to be followed may be known of all men, and that business. 12 BIRTHDAY OF EX-PRESIDENT WILLIAM McKINLEY. having squared itself with the rules laid down as to what is just and what is unjust business in interstate commerce, may go to further triumphs of legitimate combination and industrial success. Looking back over the record of what has been done in these four years, it seems to me that we are armed with the facts and with things accomplished sufficient to meet our enemy in the open field, and to overcome him in the judgment of an impartial umpire. It seems to me that there is no occasion for the Republicans of this country to fear the issue, with their knowledge of the progress that has been made in the last four years, with their adoption of progres- sive principles indicated in their platform of 1908, and in the proposals of the administration since that time. They must, if they would serve the country well, discriminate between what is really progres- sive and useful and what is utterly at variance with sound, constitu- tional, governmental, and economic policy. Should the Republican Party take up the judicial recall as one of its tenets, it would and ought to lose caste as a defender of our civili- zation, a maintainer of the Constitution, and an upholder of justice. When we depart from the principle of the independence of the judi- ciary, and by independence I mean not only independence of individ- ual interests but independence of majorities, we shall lose the valuable essence of the administration of justice, and we shall retro- grade to the point where the history of the decadence of republics begins. On this, the natal day of William McKinley, let us take new vows in behalf of the Grand Old Party, standing by the Constitution, standing by the rights of liberty and property of the individual, and willing to face defeat many times in behalf of the cause of sound constitutional government. o LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 013 982 407 6 i