ADDRESS

OF

PRESIDENT WILLIAM H. TAFT
AT THE BANQUET OF THE TIPPECANOE CLUB,
CLEVELAND, OHIO, JANUARY 29, 1913

IN CELEBRATION OF THE
BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY
OF THE LATE PRESIDENT
WILLIAM McKINLEY

14

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WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1912

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ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT TAFT AT THE BANQUET OF THE TIPPECANOE
CLUB, CLEVELAND, OHIO, JANUARY 29, 1912.

I consider it great good fortune to be present as a guest at your celebration
of McKinley's birthday. Every memorial day is most grateful which brings
back into our lives most vividly that sweet nature, that tender heart, that
clear-headed exponent of common sense, that embodiment of love of country
and love of human kind whom we knew as William McKinley, and cherished
as a product of Ohio. His was a nature which grew with the exigencies he
had to meet, and developed its greatness in the trials of war and its conse
quences. His foresight, his patience, his firmness, and his grasp of the new
questions presented in dealing with the Spanish dependencies 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 at
mosphere of the court house and the consultation room to enter upon a political
career, first in the Orient, and then in Washington, which has brought me to
the responsibility of the office whose duties I am now trying to discharge.
I sincerely hope that reverence for McKinley's memory and the fond affec
tion that it awakens may furnish the motive for a long life of patriotic useful
ness to this club and for the preservation of those Republican principles of
which William McKinley 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 repre
sent the two parties are to be held in June, and the time is ripe for the be
ginning of the discussion which will be continuous between now and November
as to the proper party to whom to entrust the administration of the Government
for the next four years.
The victory at the polls in November, 1908, was decisive, and it left the Re
publican 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 putting
into effect and performing the promises contained in its platform adopted in
its convention of 1908 upon the faith of which the mandate of power was ex
tended to it.
The four months' campaign which is usually conducted between the holding
rt the conventions and the election, early in the following November, is an
educational, and clarifying process for the benefit of the American people. The
possible candidates are reduced to two in number, and the doctrines purposes
and promises of each party are set out in specific detail in its platform The
issues are thus clearly defined, and through the press and through the' party
speakers, the people are generally brought to a clear understanding of what
constitutes the difference between the two parties, and are given a full oppor
tunity to judge which, on the whole, would be the better trustee of the public
interest in the administration of the Government for the next four years
I do not think that we generally attribute sufficient importance to the educa
tional effect 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 Uip
presidential year that, had an election then taken place, the result would hive
been different from 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 im.*™
whether its accomplishments during its lease of power have been commensurate
with its promises, and whether the. results have b,een of such valueto the
2SS19°— 12 (2)

country at large as to assure continued satisfaction and progress in the four
years to come. In other words, the question is generally determined by close
examination and consideration 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 re
election 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 incumbent administration, the change is made, and then
the smooth operation 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 consti
tution, the same laws and the same political limitations.
What I wish to discuss to-night is whether after the convention in June we
of the Republican Party have anything to fear in that close examination of our
political record of the current four years which is the chief function of the
presidential campaign. The administration is usually made responsible under
three heads.
First, under the head of legislative 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 between the Executive and Congress in weighing the value
of its legislative 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 confirming 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. LEGISLATION.
Coming now first to the legislative enactments of the present administration,
I ought to point out that we agreed in the platform of 1908 that the tariff
should be revised on the protective principle that only enough tariff should b(
retained to equal the difference between the cost of production of the merchan
dise when made here and when made abroad, and the platform promised thai
an extra session would be called for immediate revision. The extra sessiori
was called, and after four months of hard work the so-called Payne tariff bill
was enacted into law. That bill was subjected to bitter attack not only by our
Democratic opponents but also by certain Representatives and Senators from
our own ranks, who contended that the rates fixed were not in accord with the
standard of revision promised in the platform. I need hardly say that this
result was greatly aided by misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the facts
in respect to the Payne bill, for while the Payne bill was not a full compli
ance with the promise there were substantial revisions in the bill, and the
resulting act did not deserve the anathema and abuse to which it was subjected.
The bill as a whole contained many most useful provisions, and it is quite
remarkable how many notable and useful legislative changes in the policy of the
Government are to be traced to it.
In the first place, it simplified and greatly shortened the procedure necessary
to secure the authoritative construction of the tariff act by the creation of
a Court of Customs Appeals whose jurisdiction is final, and to which appeals
lie directly from the General Appraisers. 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 compel the other country by
a threat of the higher tariff to stop its discriminations against American trade.
This required making a treaty with every one of our international associates,
and under these treaties concessions were secured which have been among the
chief contributing causes to the growth of our foreign trade beyond the figures
of the past.
A third provision of the law enabled me to appoint what grew to be known
as a Tariff Board, and which, under the additional appropriations of Congress,
began a series of investigations into tlie cost of production of articles abroad

and of articles at home. The development of this board was a growth, but it
met the public need. With the principle established of enacting tariff legisla
tion only upon exact information derived from investigations of an impartial
board one of the corrollaries which foUowed and was approved by conventions
of the Republican Party was that requiring revision and amendment of the
schedules of the tariff by separate schedules.
These two changes in the method of dealing with the tariff have met the
hearty support of the business communities of the country. They, more than
any other persons, appreciate the disadvantage of the halt and disturbance in
all business circles and in the prosperity of the country that attends a general
revision of the tariff, and they know, better than anyone else, how much that
alarm and disturbance can be reduced by a system which proceeds upon the
principle 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 practical im
portance 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 circumstances 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 final passage of a bill which had passed
both Houses by a good majority. Consequently, I had to have recourse to the
provisions of the Payne bill and to an appropriation which was voted by Con
gress in order to provide a substitute for the statutory tariff board which 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 elections 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 tariff 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 the business men
of the country formed an association to press for legislation creating a per
manent 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 effect of the pro
posed amendment is likely to be, and how near in effect it measures the differ
ence 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 wav
that I did not hesitate to veto them, in order that they might await the coming
^ °t,th^Tu^TtJ'7}h/ Ta/iff Board upon schedule K, wool and woolens, which
one tariff bill affected, and upon cotton and cotton manufactures, which another
tariff biU affected. We should be entirely willing, upon the issue whether those
bills ought to have passed in the form in which they were drawn with Hip
little information as to their effect which Congress had, or was able 'to furnish
the Executive, to go before the country and invite a verdict of the neoDle
The reports of the Tariff Board as to the cost of production of print naner
m Canada and in the United States was a luminous exposition of the elements
of cost and the circumstances surrounding the trade in each countrv hut.
greater and much more comprehensive report has recently been filed on tho
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 information, and so lacking in partisan quality that it has commended
Itself to the country at large, and has elicited little if any criticism from
those who might be expected to attack it. With this full information upon
Which a tariff bill might be framed and from which it would be entirely pos
sible to infer its effect upon the wool and woolen industry of this country, the
Democratic majority in the House has as yet taken no action, but has pro
posed to consider other schedules with respect to which the report of the Tariff
Board must be long delayed, or, in the absence of a suitable appropriation
by Congress, may never reach completion.
I 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 safely 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 reck
lessly without information and without regard to a probably disastrous effect
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 manufacturers to form a monopoly in order to secure the artificial
benefit of a rate that is higher than the difference in productive conditions.
As an evidence of our good faith, we are ready and anxious to abide the judg
ment as to the facts of a board of scientific investigators who know no party
and no party interest in their researches, and only act as judges of the fact
to find the truth.
It is said that our Democratic brethren intend to withhold the appropriation
for the continuing of the Tariff Board. I do not know whether 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
emphasize the advantage which we have in our position on this general matter.
To recur again to the advantages that proceeded from the Payne bill. 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 growth of the business between the two
countries has been 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 fears of those who opposed the policy. The trade of the Philippines has
grown apace, and prosperity which had been a stranger to the islands since
we went there seems to have established itself permanently 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 responsibility for the adop
tion of that tax. It taxes success and not failure. It imposes a small percent
age upon the net earnings of a corporation before they are distributed in divi
dends. It affects every business corporation in the country, and the collection
is made by our present internal-revenue machinery at a cost that is inconceiv
ably small. It has the advantage that it can be doubled by making it 2 per
cent and trebled by making 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 impos
sible Its passage was accompanied by the adoption of a concurrent resolution
amending the Constitution to permit the levying of a Federal income tax, which
is still under consideration 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 the woolen schedule, possibly the cotton 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 tariff 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 willing as a party to reex
amine any rates in the light of proper information should the mandate of power
be again 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 commission or bureau of in
formation, 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 full as
possible a statement of the elements of cost at home and abroad of the mer
chandise covered by the schedules 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 appro
priate. RAILROADS.
The platform of 1908 declared in favor of additional restrictions and regula
tions of the interstate railroads, with a view to the better and more uniform
enforcement of the interstate commerce law. The Republican Party has car
ried out that promise to the letter. I invited a board, consisting of the chair
man of the Interstate Commerce Commission, Commissioner Lane, Senator
Townsend, then a member of the Interstate Commerce Committee of the House,
the Attorney General, the Solicitor General, and possibly some others, to in
vestigate the reports of the Interstate Commerce Commission and make a report
to me of the improvements that might be effected in existing law on this sub
ject. This was done, and they made recommendations which were substantially
embodied in a bill drafted by the Attorney General, with such amendments from
time to time proposed by parties in interest as seemed just. Congress took that
bill, amended it in certain particulars, but left the general effect of the bill the
same as when I outlined it in a speech at Des Moines, and recommended it to
Congress in my message. The chief improvement in the law was giving life
and effect to the orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission, so that they
could not be ignored or minimized by the railroad companies, and in giving
the commission an opportunity to prevent a raising of rates until after investi
gation into the fairness of such action. That was the feature of my recom
mendations 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 jurisdiction which had theretofore been ex
ercised by the circuit courts in some 60 or 70 different districts of the United
States. It was thought that by combining all this jurisdiction in one court of
five men with experience it would greatly expedite the final judgment and bring
to the Supreme Court quickly those 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
the basis of complaints against the Commerce Court, and a ground for suggest
ing its abolition. 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
orders enjoining action by the Interstate Commerce Commission that can easily
be remedied by the cases now pending in the Supreme Court, decisions in which
will show exactly what the jurisdiction of the Commerce Court is- but the
abolition of the Commerce Court would not in any degree avoid the'interven
tion of a court after the orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission fm-
the right of the railroads to invoke the action of the court for a judicial ir,
vestigation into the legal or confiscatory matter of the order of the pommis'
sion could not be taken away. The Commerce Court is only a concentntimT «#
70 jurisdictions into one making for greater expedition, and a more snZ,™
disposition of the causes, and this is the great desideratum in the machir^
for the regulation of interstate commerce. ™uer'
I need not stop to invite attention to the other increasingly regulative nrn
visions of the interstate commerce amendment of 1910. It is sufficient tn ««£
that at present the regulation seems to be effective and calls for little if „„Z
amendment. ue 1L any
Growing out of the passage of this bill, a commission was appointed to rennrr
upon the wisdom of regulating the issue of stocks and bonds brintoK
commerce railroads. The report made recommends certain conservative wl
lation, but sets forth the principles that ought to govern it! ^such a sat7sfactor-v
way as to have attracted the commendation of all. ^usiactory

The sessions of 1910 and 1911 of the Sixty-first Congress were productive of
additional provisions for safety appliances on railroads to prevent injury to
employees, for the reenactment of an employers' liability law which has now
stood the test of examination by the Supreme Court, of the appointment of a
commission to make report upon a workmen's compensation bill to secure some
thing like insurance 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 which from month to month
shock the community.
Again, the same Congress carried out the platform of the Republican 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
extension 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 further 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 de
velopment 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 Monetary Commission, 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 importance, to wit, the increasing and decreasing of currency accord
ing 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 com
pletely within the governmental control at Washington. 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 where 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 second-class mail matter,
which the Postmaster General has been of opinion is too low as compared with
the rates paid for other classes.
I think it will be found in studying the platform of the 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. (J
In matters or foreign policy we have every reason to congratulate ourselves.
The problem which was before us in foreign matters was the ending by its
terms of the Japanese treaty and the necessity for a new one. The happy
solution was brought about through a policy adopted by the Japanese Govern
ment of its own motion and carrying out, and by a treaty which has no offensive
word in it There never was a time in the history of the two countries when
we were on more friendly terms, and this has been largely due to the successful
settling of the treaty by Secretary Knox.
We have treaties pending with Honduras and Nicaragua to carry out the
policy of the treaty with Santo Domingo and they ought to be ratified. The
responsibility for bad government in those Central American States and for
revolution and disturbances must fall upon the shoulders of those who defeat
the treaties. The treaties of general arbitration with France and England 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 world toward universal

arbitration and peace. They are pending in the Senate, and it is the hope of
all of us that within a reasonable time after full discussion 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 detriment or dishonor has been discovered. It
is not too much to say that the departments have been run with the sole pur
pose of making them effective to discharge the functions imposed upon them
by law. In the first place, as rigid economy as practical was enforced in the
making of the estimates of the departments. In the first year of this adminis
tration they were cut upwards of $50,000,000. Taking this cut with the
increased revenue of the Payne tariff bill we have been able 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 twenty-five years there has been no deficit, but a surplus of the earn
ings over the expenditures of $1,000,000.
The mobilization of the troops on the Mexican ' border for the purpose of
protecting American rights and steadying the maintenance of law and order
in our neighboring Republic showed a capacity for quick mobilization, which
was 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 judg
ment in due course, and the judgments have been enforced.
For a time at the culmination of this policy an outcry was made against
the wisdom of the antitrust law. That, however, has subsided, and I think
that the business community are reaching the conclusion that by following the
judgments of the court, by studying the distinctions made in the decisions of
the varying cases, a rule perfectly plain to be followed may be known of all
men, and that business, 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
progressive principles indicated in their platform of 190S, and in the proposals
of the administration since that time. They must, if they would serve the
country well, discriminate between what is really progressive and useful and
what is utterly at variance with sound, constitutional, 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 civilization, a maintainer
of the Constitution, and an upholder of justice. When we depart from the
principle of the independence of the judiciary, and by independence I mean
not only independence of individual interests but independence of majorities,
we shall lose the valuable essence of the administration of justice, and we
shall retrograde 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

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