The same reasons which impelled me to decline to sign the wool bill control me in this case.

This language is so sweeping that it might be made to cover almost 150 articles used in agriculture, which would affect many sections of the present tariff, and lead to the most injurious uncertainty.

This would impose a heavy burden on the administrative branch of the Government, create disastrous uncertainty in commercial circles, and lead to a burdensome amount of litigation.

But there is another, and a very important, reason why the bill ought not to become a law, and that is that in many instances it adopts the principle, rarely permitted in any revenue system, on whatever theory constructed, by which the…

The truth is that the language of the act is so ambiguous and possibly all-embracing that it is impracticable for the Treasury Department to give an exact estimate as to the diminution in revenue which will follow its passage.

If I fail to recommend the reduction of excessive duties to this extent, I shall fail in my duty to the consuming public.

I have always regarded this language as fixing the proper measure of protection at the ascertained difference between the cost of production at home and that abroad.

Certainly we should proceed prudently in dealing with them upon the basis of ascertained facts rather than hastily and without knowledge to make a reduction of the tariff to satisfy a popular desire.

If I fail to guard as far as I can the industries of the country to the extent of giving them the benefit of a living measure of protection, and business disaster ensues, I shall not be discharging my duty.

I shall not hesitate to invite the attention of Congress to this fact and to the necessity for action predicated thereon.

Nothing, however, halts business and interferes with the course of prosperity so much as the threatened revision of the tariff.

If I sign this joint resolution, I do not see how I can escape responsibility for the judicial recall of the Arizona constitution.