Presidential Addresses 



matter of prime importance that we should be able 

 to readjust our economic policy as rapidly as pos 

 sible and with as little friction as possible to these 

 needs. 



We need a scheme which will enable us to provide 

 a reapplication of the principle to the changed con 

 ditions. The problem therefore is to devise some 

 method by which these shifting needs can be recog 

 nized and the necessary readjustments of duties pro 

 vided without forcing the entire business commu 

 nity, and therefore the entire nation, to submit to a 

 violent surgical operation, the mere threat of which, 

 and still more the accomplished fact of which, would 

 probably paralyze for a considerable time all the in 

 dustries of the country. Such radical action might 

 very readily reproduce the conditions from which 

 we suffered nine years ago, in 1893. It is on every 

 account most earnestly to be hoped that this prob 

 lem can be solved in some manner into which par 

 tisanship shall enter as a purely secondary consid 

 eration, if at all ; that is, in some manner which shall 

 provide for an earnest effort by non-partisan in 

 quiry and action to secure any changes the need of 

 which is indicated by the effect found to proceed 

 from a given rate of duty on a given article; its ef 

 fect, if any, as regards the creation of a substantial 

 monopoly; its effect upon domestic prices, upon the 

 revenue of the government, upon importations from 

 abroad, upon home productions, and upon consump 

 tion. In other words, we need to devise some ma 

 chinery by which, while persevering in the policy 



