Political Quotes

I can not make myself a party to dealing with the industries of the country in this way.

There is no doubt but that a commission could be appointed of such unprejudiced and impartial persons, experts in investigation of economic facts, that a great deal of very valuable light could be shed upon the reasons for the high prices that have so distressed the people of the world.

I withhold my approval from this bill, therefore, for the reasons, first, because it should not be considered until the Tariff Board shall make report upon the schedules it affects; second, because the bill is so loosely drawn as to involve the Government in endless litigation and to leave the commercial community in disastrous doubt; third, because it places the finished product on the free list, but retains on the dutiable list the raw material and the machinery with which such finished product is made, and thus puts at a needless disadvantage our American manufacturers; and fourth, that while purporting, by putting agricultural implements, meat, and flour on the free list, to reduce their price to the consumers, it does not do so, but only gives to Canada valuable concessions which might be used by the Executive to expand reciprocity with that country in accordance with the direction of Congress.

The important thing is to get our tariff legislation out of the slough of guesswork and logrolling and ex parte statements of interested persons, and to establish that legislation on the basis of tested and determined facts.