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( Document
I No. 361

m ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT TAFT
AT THE
LINCOLN BIRTHDAY BANQUET '
OF THE REPUBLICAN CLUB OF
THE CITY OF NEW YORK
AT THE WALDORF-ASTORIA
FEBRUARY 12, 1910

PRESENTED BY MR. HALE
February 14, 1910. — Ordered to be printed

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1910

CcilG, bT

ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT TAFT AT THE LINCOLN BIRTHDAY
BANQUET OF THE REPUBLICAN CLUB OF THE CITY OF NEW
YORK, FEBRUARY 12, I9I0.

Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Republican Club, and Fellow-Guests:
The birthday of the man whose memory we celebrate to-night is an
appropriate occasion for renewing our expressions of respect and
affection for the Republican party, and our pledges to keep the part
which it plays in the history of this country as high and as useful as
it was during the administration of Abraham Lincoln. The trials
which he had to undergo as President, the political storms which the
party had to weather during the civil war, the divisions in the party
itself between the radical antislavery element and those who were most
conservative in observing the constitutional limitations, are most inter
esting reading, and serve to dwarf and minimize 'the trials through
which the Republican party is now passing, and restore a sense of
proportion to those who allow themselves to be daunted and discouraged,
in the face of a loss of popular confidence thought to be indicated by
the tone of the press.
In what respect has the Republican party failed in its conduct of the
Government and the enactment of laws to perform its duty? It was
returned to power a year ago last November by a very large majority,
after a campaign in which it made certain promises in its platforih, and
those promises it has either substantially complied with, or it is about to
perform within the present session of Congress.
Let us take up these promises in order :
In the Republican platform of last year, upon which the campaign was
made, appears the following plank in regard to the tariff :
The Republican party declares unequivocally for the revision of the tariff by a
special session of Congress immediately following the inauguration of the next Presi
dent, and commends the steps already taken to this end in the work assigned to the
appropriate committees of Congress which are now investigating the operation and
effect of existing schedules. In all tariff legislation the true principle of protection
is best maintained by the imposition of such duties as will equal the difference
between the cost of production at home and abroad, together with a reasonable
profit to American industries. We favor the establishment of maximtmi and mini-
3

4 ADDRESS OP PRESIDENT TAFT.
mum rates to be administered by the President under limitations fixed in the law,
the maxinium to be available to meet discriminations by foreign countries against
American goods entering their markets, and the minimum to represent the normal
measure of protection at home, the aim and purpose of the Republican policy being
not only to preserve, without excessive duties, that security against foreign com
petition to which American manufacturers, farmers, and producers are entitled, but
also to maintain the high standard of living of the wage-earners of this country,
who are the most direct beneficiaries of the protective system. Between the United
States and the Philippines, we believe in a free interchange of products with such
limitations as to sugar and tobacco as will afford adequate protection to domestic
interests. We did re-vdse the tariff. It is impossible to re-vise the tariff without
awakening the active participation in the formation of the schedules of
those producers whose business will be affected by a change. This is
the inherent difficulty in the adoption or re-vision of a tariff by our
representative system.
Nothing was expressly said in the platform that this revision was to
be a downward re-vision. The implication that it was to be generally
downward, however, was fairly given by the fact that those who uphold
a protective tariff system defend it by the claim that after an industry
has been established by shutting out foreign competition, the domestic
competition will lead to the reduction in price so as to make the original
high tariff unnecessary.
In the new tariff there were 654 decreases, 220 increases, and 1,150
- items of the dutiable list unchanged, but this did not represent the fair
proportion in most of the reductions and the increases, because the
duties were decreased on those articles which had a consumption value of
nearly $5,000,000,000, while they were increased on those articles which
had a consumption value of less than $1,000,000,000. Of the increases
the consumption value of those affected which are of luxuries, to wit,
silks, wines, liquors, perfumeries, pomades, and like articles, amounted
to nearly $600,000,000; while the increases not on articles of luxury
affected but about $300,000,000, as against decreases on about
$5,000,000,000 of consumption. I repeat, therefore, that this was a
downward revision. It was not downward with reference to silks or liq
uors or high-priced cottons in the nature of luxuries. It was downward in
respect to nearly all other articles except woolens, which were not affected
at all. Certainly it was not promised that the rates on luxuries should
be reduced. The revenues were falling off, there was a deficit prom
ised, and It was essential that the revenues should be increased It was
no violation of the promise to increase the revenues by increasing the tax

ADDRE9S OF PRESIDENT TAFT. 5
on luxuries, pro-vided there was downward re-vision on all other articles.
The one substantial defect in compliance with the promise of the plat
form was the failure to reduce woolens. Does that defect so color the
action of the Republican party as to make it a breach of faith leading to
its condemnation? I do not think so. Parties are like men. Revisions
are like the work of men — they are not perfect. The change which this
tariff effected was a marked change downward in the rate of the duties,
and it was a recognition by the party that the time had come when
instead of increasing duties they must be decreased, when the party
recognized in its platform, and in much of what it did, that the proper
measure of protection was the difference in cost in the production of
articles here and abroad, including a fair profit to the manufacturer.
There was a dispute as to what that difference is, and whether it was
recognized in the change of all the duties downward. Particularly was
this the case on the materials that enter into the manufacture of paper
and paper itself. The reduction on print paper was from $6 to $3.75, or
about 37 per cent
There was a real difference of opinion on the question of fact whether
the new duty correctly measured the difference in the cost of production
of print paper abroad and print paper here. It affected the counting-
rooms of the newspapers of the country and invited the attention of the
newspaper proprietors who had associated themselves together like other
interests for the purpose of securing a reduction of the tariff. The failure
to make a larger reduction showed itself clearly in the editorial columns
of a great number of the newspapers, whatever their party predilection.
The amount of misrepresentation to which the tariff bill in its effect as a
downward revision bill was subjected has never been exceeded in this
country, and it will doubtless take the actual operation of the tariff bill
for several years to show to the country exactly what the legislation and
its effect are. It is perhaps too early to institute the fairest comparisons
between the Payne-Aldrich bill and the bill which preceded it, but the
Payne-Aldrich bill has been in operation now for six months and figures
are at hand from which we may make a reasonable inference, first, as to
whether it is a revision downward, and, second, as to its capacity for pro
ducing revenue; for it must be borne in mind that the passage of the law
was demanded not only for the purpose of changing rates in their effect
upon the industries of the country, but also for the purpose of increasing
the revenues; and the success of the measure is to be judged by its results
in both these respects.

6 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT TAFT.
The Bureau of Statistics is authority for the statement that during
the first s'.x months of the operation of the Payne law, which has just
ended, the average rate of duty paid on all imports was 21.09 P^r cent
ad valorem. The average rate of duty paid on all imports for the same
six months for the four preceding years under the Dingley law was
24.03. This would show that the reduction in the Payne law is 2.94
per cent of the value of the goods, or that the reduction below the pre-
-vious tariff rates is 12 per cent, showing a downward revision to this
extent. But this is not all. Under the Payne law 51.6 per cent of the
gross imports for the last six months have been entered free, while under
the four years preceding for the same six months the free list amounted
to 45.46 per cent of the total importations; so there was not only a
reduction of duty on gross imports of about 12 per cent, but also an
enlargement of about the same percentage of the free List.
For the production of revenue, the Payne law is even more an improve
ment on the Dingley bill. During the six months that the Payne tariff
was in force, from August 5 to the night of February 5, the customs
receipts amounted to $166,002,856.54. Under the Wilson-Gorman tariff
the semiannual average was $83,147,625.90. Under the Dingley tariff
the semiannual average was $130,265,841.84. Under the Wilson tariff
the monthly average was $13,857,937.65. Under the Dingley tariff the
monthly average was $21,710,973.64; while under the Pa5Tie tariff the
monthly average has been $27,667,142.75, or 100 per cent greater than
the monthly average under the Wilson tariff, and 26 per cent greater
than the monthly average under the Dingley tariff.
Of course as the country increases in population, the customs receipts
increase, but even considering the population, the increase in the tariff
receipts has been marked. Under the Wilson tariff the average annual
customs receipts per capita were $2.38; under the Dingley tariff $3.23;
while under the Payne tariff they are $3.71.
For the six months that the Payne tariff has been in force the total re
ceipts both from customs and internal revenue have been $323,899,231.91,
while the disbursements have been $332,783,283.08, sho-mng an excess
of disbursements over receipts of about $8,884,051.17, -with no collection
as yet from the corporation tax. For the corresponding period last year
the expenditures exceeded the receipts by over $40,000,000. This show
ing indicates that under the present customs law the deficit will be
promptly wiped out, and that to meet our normal expenditures we shall
have ample revenue.

ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT TAFT. 7
I therefore venture to repeat the remark I have had occasion to make
before, that the present customs law is the best customs law that has ever
been passed, and it is most significant in this that it indicates on the part
of the Republican party the adoption of a policy to change from an in
crease in duties to a reduction of them, and to effect an increase of reve
nues at the same time.
The act has furnished to the Executive the power to apply the maxi
mum and minimum clauses in order to prevent undue discrimination on
the part of foreign countries, and this is securing additional conces
sions in respect to impositions on our foreign trade.
The act has done justice to the Philippine Islands by giving them
free trade with the United States.
More than all this, the new tariff act has provided for the appoint
ment of a tariff board to secure impartial evidence upon which, when
a revision of the tariff seems wise, we shall have at hand the data
from which can be determined with some degree of accuracy the dif
ference between the cost of producing articles abroad and the cost
of producing them in this country.
The great difficulty in the hearing and discussion of the present
tariff bill was the absence of satisfactory and credible evidence on
either side of the issues as to low or high tariffs. The importer on
the one hand and the manufacturer on the other were present to give
their fallible judgments affected by their own pecuniary interests
as to the facts under investigation. Men who were struggling to find
the truth were greatly perplexed by the conflicting testimony.
The tariff bill authorizes the President to expend $75,000 in employing
persons to assist him in the administration of the maximum and minimum
clause and to assist him and other officers of the Government in the
administration of the tariff law. I have construed this to mean that I
may use the board appointed under this power not only to look into the
foreign tariffs, but also to examine the question -(vith respect to each item
in our tariff bill, what the cost of production of the merchandise taxed is,
and what its cost is abroad. This is not an easy task for impartial experts,
and it requires a large force. I expect to apply to Congress this year for
the sum of $250,000 to organize a force through which this investigation
may go on, the results to be recorded for the use of the Executive and
Congress when they desire to avail themselves of the record. In this way
any subsequent re-vision may be carried on with the aid of data secured
officially and without regard to its argumentative effect upon the question

8 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT TAFT.
of raising or lowering duties. Taken as a whole, therefore, I do not
hesitate to repeat that the Republican party has substantially complied
with its promise in respect to the tariff, and that it has set itself strongly
in the right direction toward lower tariffs and furnished the means by
which such lower tariffs can be properiy and safely fixed.
An investigation by the tariff board of the sort proposed will certainly
take a full two years or longer. Meantime the operation of the present
tariff promises to be consistent with the prosperity of the country and
with the furnishing of sufficient funds with which to meet the very heavy
but necessary expenditures of carrying on our great Government.
The Republican national platform contained the following:
-We favor the establishment of a postal savings bank system for the convenience of
the people and the encouragement of thrift.
A bill has been introduced to establish a postal savings bank. The
great difficulty in the bill seems to have been to secure a proper provision
for the management and investment of the money deposited. The great
advantage of a postal savings bank is the encouragement to thrift of
those whose fears of the solvency of any depository except a government
depository tempts them away from saving. A government promise to
repay seems to be specially effective in leading people to save and de
posit their savings. The machinery of the Post-Office, with its 60,000
post-offices and 40,000 money-order offices, offers an economical and far-
reaching machine for the reception in places remote from banks, and
among people who fear banks, of that which but for the opportunity
they would not save but spend. The low interest offered to it, that of 2
per cent, prevents such postal savings banks from interfering with regular
savings banks whose rate of interest always is in excess of 2 per cent.
In the present stage of the Senate bill there have been inserted amend
ments drawn apparently for the purpose of having money deposited as
savings in government post-offices distributed through the locality
where deposited in the banks. State and national, and so deposited as to
make it impossible for the trustees of the fund appointed under the law
to withdraw the money for investment in any other form. I regard
such an amendment as likely to defeat the law. First, because it takes
away a feature which ought to be present in the law to assure its consti
tutionality. If the law provided that the trustees to be appointed
under the law with the funds thus deposited could meet the financial
exigencies of the Government by purchase or redemption of the govern
ment 2 per cent and other bonds the measure would certainly be within

ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT TAFT. 9
the federal power, because the postal banks would then cleariy be an
instrument of the National Government in borrowing money. We have
now about $700,000,000 of 2 per cent bonds with respect to which we
owe a duty to the owners to see that those bonds may be taken care of
without reduction below the par value thereof, because they were forced
upon national banks at this low rate in order that the banks might have
a basis of circulation.
This implied obligation of the Government, the postal savings bank
funds would easily enable it to meet. Secondly, if the funds are to be
arbitrarily deposited in all banks, state and national, without national
supervision over the state banks, and a panic were to come, it is difficult
to see how the Government could meet its obligations to its postal savings
bank depositors, because with every bank suspending payment, the funds
of the postal savings banks would be beyond the control of the Government,
and we should have a financial disaster greater than any panic we have
heretofore met. A provision that when the money is not needed to in
vest in government bonds or to redeem the same it may be deposited in
national banks, in the neighborhood of the place of deposit, will avoid the
great danger of a panic and will strengthen a banking system which is an
arm of the Federal Government. I sincerely hope that before the meas
ure is hammered into its final shape it may take on these characteristics
which shall give it a constitutional validity and sound financial strength
and usefulness. Those who insist upon the elimination of these two
necessary characteristic features of the bill will put the party in the posi
tion where it can not hope to escape the charge that it is not in good faith
seeking the passage of a postal savings bank act, and is not seeking, there
fore, to comply with the promise of the Republican platform in that
regard. On the subject of railroads the Republican platform said :
¦We approve the enactment of the railroad rate law and the vigorous enforcement
by the present administration of the statutes against rebates and discriminations as a
result of which the advantages formerly possessed by the large shipper over the small
shipper have substantially disappeared; and in this connection we commend the
appropriation by the present Congress to enable the Interstate Commerce Commis
sion to thoroughly investigate and give publicity to the accounts of interstate rail
roads. We believe, however, that the interstate commerce law should be further
amended so as to give railroads the right to make and publish traffic agreements sub
ject to the approval of the commission, but maintaining always the principle of com
petition between naturally competing lines and av6iding the common control of such
lines by any means whatsoever. We favor such national legislation and supervision
as will prevent the future overissue of stocks and bonds by interstate carriers.

IO ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT TAFT.
A bill to carry out these declarations has been introduced in both the
House and the Senate, and is now being considered before the appro
priate committees of those two bodies, and there is every hope that the
bills thus introduced in substantially the same shape as introduced will
pass and be enacted into law. Indeed this railroad measure goes further
than the promise of the platform, for while it subjects the issue of stock
and bonds to the restrictive supervision of the commission and prevents
future watering of securities and forbids the acquisition by a railroad
company of stock in a competing line, it also puts very much more power
into the hands of the commission for the regulation of rates, and it
facilitates in every way the ease of supervision by the commission of the
railroads to secure a compliance by the railroad with the rights of the
public and of the shipper. The bill was prepared by the Attorney-
General, after a full conference with the Interstate Commerce Commis
sion, with the representatives of the shippers and with the representa
tives of the railroads, and while it was not the result of an agreement
between all the parties in interest, it was drafted with a view to meeting
all the fair objections and suggestions made by every one of them.
The platform further provided:
The RepubUcan party will uphold at all times the authority and integrity of the
courts, state and federal, and will ever insist that their powers to enforce their process
and to protect life, liberty, and property shall be preserved inviolate. We believe,
however, that the rules of procedure in the federal courts with respect to the issuance
of the writ of injunction should be more accurately defined by statute, and that no
injunction or temporary restraining order should be issued without notice, except
where irreparable injury would result from delay, in which case a speedy hearing
thereafter should be granted.
A bill to carry out exactly this promise has been introduced into both
the Senate and Plouse and will doubtless come up for consideration and
passage. The bill does not go as far as Mr. Gompers and the Federation
of Labor demand, but it goes as far as the Republican convention was
willing to let it go, and it is so drawn as to make an abuse of the issuance
of injunction without notice very improbable. It requires that no injunc
tion shall be issued without full notice and hearing, unless to prevent
irreparable injury, and that in such case the court shall make a finding
from the evidence adduced, pointing out what the injury anticipated is
and why irreparable, and why there is not time to give notice; and after
the injunction shall be issued without notice, it is provided that such
injunction shall lose its force at the expiration of five days, unless a
hearing is had.

ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT TAFT. II
The platform also promised statehood to Arizona and New Mexico,
and the bill providing such statehood has passed the House and has been
favorably considered by the committee of the Senate, so that there seems
to be no reasonable doubt that this promise will be fully kept.
The Republicans in their platform spoke further, as follows :
We indorse the movement inaugurated by the administration for the conservation
of natural resources; we approve all measures to prevent the waste of timber; we
commend the work now going on for the reclamation of arid lands, and reaffirm the
Republican policy of the free distribution of the available areas of the public domain
to the landless settler. No obligation of the future is more insistent and none will
result in greater blessings to posterity. In line with this splendid undertaking is the
further duty, equally inoperative, to enter upon a systematic improvement upon a
large and comprehensive plan, just to all portions of the country, of the waterways,
harbors, and Great Lakes, whose natural adaptability to the increasing traffic of the
land is one of the greatest gifts of a benign Providence.
In accordance with this plank, measures for the conservation of the
public domain, for the reclassification of lands according to their greatest
utility, and the vesting of power in the Executive to dispose of coal,
phosphate, oil, and mineral lands, and of water-power sites in such a
way as to prevent their monopoly, and union of ownership in one syn
dicate, or combination, have been already introduced, and will doubt
less in a form approved by Congress be made into law. The subject
has attracted the widest interest, and its importance is becoming more
and more impressed upon the American people.
The river and harbor bill, which has just been reported by the River
and Harbor Committee of the House, has been framed with a view to
complying with the plank of the platform I have just above quoted.
It has taken the plan for the improvement of the Ohio from Pittsburg
to Cairo as a project to be carried out in a certain number of years;
and it has treated similar projects for the improvement of the Missouri
from Kansas City to St. Louis, for the improvement of the Mississippi
from St. Paul to St. Louis, and of the same river from St. Louis to
Cairo; and by continuing contracts and regular appropriations, these
projects will go on until they are completed. This is a change from the
previous plans, and is the result of an extended popular agitation in
favor of such a system.
Following the panic of 1907, the governmental revenues fell off and the
expenditures continued as before, leaving a deficit for the years 1907,
1908, and 1909. There was, however, no deficit in the whole adminis
tration of Mr. Roosevelt when the expenses are compared with the

12 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT TAFT.
revenues. Indeed it will be found that under the operation of the
Dingley bill, which covers most of his administration, and the first six
months of the present administration, the surplus on the whole was about
$250,000,000. At the beginning of this administration, however, it was
perfectly evident that with expenses increasing and revenues decreasing,
there would be a continuous deficit, and this the Republican party, with
its majority in Congress and the responsibility placed upon it, has pro
posed to meet by reducing expenditures and increasing revenues.
I have already shown what the increase in revenues has been. The
present administration in its estimates for the year ending June 30, 191 1,
cut them some forty-odd million dollars below the actual appropriations
of the year before, and now it is proposed to appoint a joint commission,
consisting of Senators, Representatives, and members appointed by the
Executive, who shall examine the organization of the various depart
ments and bureaus, and by the elimination of duplication, the consolida
tion of bureaus, and the increase in efficiency of the individual civil
servant .shall decrease the regular permanent cost of governmental
operation. With respect to trusts the Republican party spoke as follows in its
platform :
The Republican party passed the Sherman antitrust law over Democratic opposi
tion and enforced it after Democratic dereliction. It has been a wholesome instru
ment for good in the hands of a wise and fearless administration. But experience
has shown that its effectiveness can be strengthened and its real objects better
attained by such amendments as will give to the Federal Government greater
supervision and control over and secure greater publicity in the management of
that class of corporations engaged in interstate commerce having power and
opportunity to effect monopolies.
Since this plank was adopted prosecutions of the tobacco trust and the
standard oil trust, begun in the last administration, have gone on and
have resulted in decrees in the court of appeals of the second and eighth
circuits, which are now pending on appeal in the Supreme Court. The
decrees in each case tear apart the congeries of subordinate corporations
which, united by holding companies, make up the trust in each case and
enjoin individuals from a further maintenance of the illegal combination
of such corporations to carry on the business for which it was organized.
It has been said that the Republican party made a promise so to amend
the law as to ameliorate and soften the application of the trust law in
its interdiction upon business as conducted by the greatest corporations,
but I find nothing in the platform to justify such a construction. The

ADDRESS OP PRESIDENT TAFT. 1 3
principle of the antitrust law is that those engaged in modern business,
especially of manufacture and transportation, shall pursue the poUcy
with respect to their competitors of "Live and let live," and that they
shall not use the bigness of their concerns to frighten exclusive patron
age from customers and eliminate smaller concerns from competition
and thus control output and fix prices.
The Attorney-General has prepared a bill which, he thinks and I think,
will offer to those who wish to pursue a lawful method of business, the
means of easily doing so. A lawful interstate business under the protec
tion of a federal charter which, while it will subject the business of
the concern to the closest scrutiny of government officers, will save the
business from harassment by state authorities and will give it that pro
tection which a peaceful pursuit of its business as a federal corporation
will necessarily secure it. This measure has not met the approval of
those who fear too great concentration of power in the Federal Govern
ment, of those who deny the right of the Federal Government in such
cases to grant incorporation. I believe the act to be constitutional, and
I believe that if enforced it would furnish a solution of our present
difficulties; but as it was not specifically declared for in the Repub
lican platform, I do not feel justified in asking the adoption of such an
act as a party matter. I have brought it forward, however, as a sugges
tion for meeting the difficulties which are likely to be presented in the
prosecution of suspected illegal trusts as a means by which they can
put their houses in order and take their places among those engaged in
legitimate business.
If the other measures to which I have referred are enacted into law, and
the pledges of the Republican party performed, there would seem to be
no good reason why the party should not receive renewed approval by
the electors of the country in the coming congressional campaign. But
there are signs which many construe as an indication that the Republican
majority in the present Congress -will change to a Democratic majority in
the next. This is based chiefly on the dissensions in the Republican party,
and upon the very severe attacks made by a great many of the news
papers having Republican tendencies upon the party and its leaders in
Congress and in the nation. I am glad to say that so far as the legislation
which I have indicated above is concerned, there seems to be a clear party
majority in both Houses in favor of its passage and the consequent
redemption of the party pledges. There is, however, a very decided
difference as to the proper rules to prevail in the House and as to the
personnel of the leadership.

14 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT TAFT.
It would seem as if these questions were questions that might well be
solved within the party lines, but they have been so acute as to produce
what has been called an insurrection and to awaken the country over a
controversy between the insurgents and the regulars, so called. I am
hopeful that as we approach the lines of battle for the next year, the
settlement of these internal questions can be effected without such a
breach of the party as to prevent our presenting an unbroken front to the
enemy. We among the Republicans may be discouraged when we consider
our own dissensions, but when we look to the possibility of any united
action on the part of the Democrats for any policy or any line of policies
we must take courage. It was General Grant who said that when he
first went into battle he had a great deal of fear, but he overcame that
feeling by maintaining in his mind the constant thought how much
more afraid his opponent was. And so we who find ourselves at times
given over to the thought that Republican control is at an end should
not forget to consider not only our own factional strife but also that of
our ancient enemy. If the Democratic party were a solid, cohesive
opposition, guided by one principle and foUo-wing the same economic
views as a whole, the situation would be far more discouraging than it is.
The Republican party has been the party responsible for the Govern
ment for the last seventeen years. It has discharged those responsibilities
-with wonderful success. The problems growing out of the Spanish
war and those which have come from the rapid accumulation of wealth,
and the greed for power of its accumulators, it has fallen to the party to
meet, and while they have not yet all had a perfect solution, the record
is one of which we have no reason to be ashamed.
Mr. Roosevelt aroused the country and the people to the danger we
were in of ha-ving all our politics and all our places of governmental
authority controlled in corporate interests and to serve the greed of selfish
but powerful men. During his two terms of office, by what almost may
be compared to a religious crusade, he aroused the people to the point of
protecting themselves and the public interest against the aggressions of
corporate greed, and left public opinion in an apt condition to bring
about the reforms needed to clinch his policies and to make them perma
nent in the form of enacted law.
But as an inevitable aftermath of such agitation, we find a condition
of hysteria on the part of certain individuals, and on the part of others a
condition of hypocrisy manifesting itself in the blind denunciation of all

ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT TAFT. 1 5
wealth and in the impeachment of the motives of men of the highest
charactei;-, and by demagogic appeals to the imagination of a people
greatly aroused upon the subject of purity and honesty in the adminis
tration of go-«ernment. The tendency is to resent attachment to party
or party organization, and to an assertion of individual opinion and pur
pose at the expense of party discipline. The movement is toward fac
tionalism and small groups, rather than toward large party organization,
and the leaders of the party organization are subjected to the severest
attacks and to the questioning of their motives without any adequate
evidence to justify it.
I am far from saying that the Republican party is perfect. No party
which has exercised such power as it has exercised for the last seventeen
years could be expected to maintain either in its rank and file or in its
management men of the purest and highest motives only. And I am the
last one to advocate any halt in the prosecution and condemnation of
Republicans, however prominent and powerful, whose conduct requires
criminal or other prosecution and condemnation. It should be well
understood that -with the Republican party in its present condition, with
its various di-visions subjected to the cross fire of its own newspapers and
its own factions, any halt or failure on the part of those in authority to
punish and condemn corruption or corrupt methods will be properly
visited upon the party itself, however many good men it contains.
We shall be called upon to respond to the charge in the next campaign
that the tariff, for which we are responsible, has raised prices. If the
people listen to reasonable argument, it will be easy to demonstrate that
high prices proceed from an entirely different cause, and that the present
tariff, being largely a revision downward, except with respect to silks
and liquors, which are luxuries, can not be charged with having increased
any prices. But this will not prevent our Democratic friends from
arguing on the principle of post hoc propter hoc, that because high prices
followed the tariff, therefore they are the result of it. And we must not
be blind to the weight of such an argument in an electoral campaign.
The reason for the rise in the cost of necessities can easily be traced to
the increase in our measure of values, the precious metal, gold, and pos
sibly in some cases to the combinations in restraint of trade. The
question of the tariff must be argued out. The prejudice created by the
early attacks upon the bill and the gross misrepresentations of its char
acter must be met by a careful presentation of the facts as to the con
tents of the bill and also as to its actual operation and statistics shown

1 6 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT TAFT.
thereby. I believe we have a strong case if we can only get it into the
minds of the people. Should disaster follow us and the Republican
majority in the House become a minority in the next House, it may
be possible that in the Democratic exercise of its power, the people of
this country will see which is the party of accomplishment, which is the
party of arduous deeds done, and which is the party of words and irre
sponsible opposition.
I only want one more word. From time to time attacks are made upop
the administration, on the ground that its policy tends to create a panic
in Wall street and to disturb business. All I have to say upon that sub
ject is this : That certainly no one responsible for a Government like purs
would foolishly run amuck in business and destroy values and confidence
just for the pleasure of doing so. No one has a motive as strong as the
administration in power to cultivate and strengthen business confidence
and business prosperity. But it does rest with the National Govern
ment to enforce the law, and if the enforcement of the law is not consistent
with the present method of carrying on business, then it does not speak
well for the present methods of conducting business, and they must be
changed to conform to the law. There was no promise on the part of the
Republican party to change the antitrust law except to strengthen it, or
to authorize monopoly and a suppression of competition and the control
of prices, and those who look forward to such a change can not now visit
the responsibility for their mistake on innocent persons. Of course the
Government at Washington can be counted on to enforce the law in the
way best calculated to prevent a destruction of public confidence in busi
ness, but that it must enforce the law goes vsdthout saying.
I am glad to be present at this meeting of the Republican Club of New
York and here meet your distinguished governor, whose name is such a
power before the people of this State and of the country, that to lose him
as a candidate for governor by his voluntary withdrawal is to lose the
strongest asset that the Republican party has in the State to enable it to
-win at the next election.
I am glad to be here at the meeting of the Republican Club on Lin
coln's birthday, because my knowledge and information with respect to
the club is that it stands for stalwart Republicanism, believes in party
organization and party discipline, but insists on the highest ideals aiid
methods in formulating the pohcies of the party and carrying them out.

O

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 08305 0329

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