|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Inaugural Address of William Howard Taft |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| |
| |
Inaugural Address of President William Howard Taft
Thursday, March 4, 1909
My Fellow-Citizens:
ANYONE who has taken the oath I have just taken must feel a heavy weight
of responsibility. If not, he has no conception of the powers and duties of
the office upon which he is about to enter, or he is lacking in a proper
sense of the obligation which the oath imposes.
The office of an inaugural address is to give a summary outline of the
main policies of the new administration, so far as they can be anticipated.
I have had the honor to be one of the advisers of my distinguished
predecessor, and, as such, to hold up his hands in the reforms he has
initiated. I should be untrue to myself, to my promises, and to the
declarations of the party platform upon which I was elected to office, if I
did not make the maintenance and enforcement of those reforms a most
important feature of my administration. They were directed to the
suppression of the lawlessness and abuses of power of the great combinations
of capital invested in railroads and in industrial enterprises carrying on
interstate commerce. The steps which my predecessor took and the legislation
passed on his recommendation have accomplished much, have caused a general
halt in the vicious policies which created popular alarm, and have brought
about in the business affected a much higher regard for existing law.
To render the reforms lasting, however, and to secure at the same time
freedom from alarm on the part of those pursuing proper and progressive
business methods, further legislative and executive action are needed.
Relief of the railroads from certain restrictions of the antitrust law have
been urged by my predecessor and will be urged by me. On the other hand, the
administration is pledged to legislation looking to a proper federal
supervision and restriction to prevent excessive issues of bonds and stock
by companies owning and operating interstate commerce railroads.
Then, too, a reorganization of the Department of Justice, of the Bureau of
Corporations in the Department of Commerce and Labor, and of the Interstate
Commerce Commission, looking to effective cooperation of these agencies, is
needed to secure a more rapid and certain enforcement of the laws affecting
interstate railroads and industrial combinations.
I hope to be able to submit at the first regular session of the incoming
Congress, in December next, definite suggestions in respect to the needed
amendments to the antitrust and the interstate commerce law and the changes
required in the executive departments concerned in their enforcement.
It is believed that with the changes to be recommended American business
can be assured of that measure of stability and certainty in respect to
those things that may be done and those that are prohibited which is
essential to the life and growth of all business. Such a plan must include
the right of the people to avail themselves of those methods of combining
capital and effort deemed necessary to reach the highest degree of economic
efficiency, at the same time differentiating between combinations based upon
legitimate economic reasons and those formed with the intent of creating
monopolies and artificially controlling prices.
The work of formulating into practical shape such changes is creative word
of the highest order, and requires all the deliberation possible in the
interval. I believe that the amendments to be proposed are just as necessary
in the protection of legitimate business as in the clinching of the reforms
which properly bear the name of my predecessor.
A matter of most pressing importance is the revision of the tariff. In
accordance with the promises of the platform upon which I was elected, I
shall call Congress into extra session to meet on the 15th day of March, in
order that consideration may be at once given to a bill revising the Dingley
Act. This should secure an adequate revenue and adjust the duties in such a
manner as to afford to labor and to all industries in this country, whether
of the farm, mine or factory, protection by tariff equal to the difference
between the cost of production abroad and the cost of production here, and
have a provision which shall put into force, upon executive determination of
certain facts, a higher or maximum tariff against those countries whose
trade policy toward us equitably requires such discrimination. It is thought
that there has been such a change in conditions since the enactment of the
Dingley Act, drafted on a similarly protective principle, that the measure
of the tariff above stated will permit the reduction of rates in certain
schedules and will require the advancement of few, if any.
The proposal to revise the tariff made in such an authoritative way as to
lead the business community to count upon it necessarily halts all those
branches of business directly affected; and as these are most important, it
disturbs the whole business of the country. It is imperatively necessary,
therefore, that a tariff bill be drawn in good faith in accordance with
promises made before the election by the party in power, and as promptly
passed as due consideration will permit. It is not that the tariff is more
important in the long run than the perfecting of the reforms in respect to
antitrust legislation and interstate commerce regulation, but the need for
action when the revision of the tariff has been determined upon is more
immediate to avoid embarrassment of business. To secure the needed speed in
the passage of the tariff bill, it would seem wise to attempt no other
legislation at the extra session. I venture this as a suggestion only, for
the course to be taken by Congress, upon the call of the Executive, is
wholly within its discretion.
In the mailing of a tariff bill the prime motive is taxation and the
securing thereby of a revenue. Due largely to the business depression which
followed the financial panic of 1907, the revenue from customs and other
sources has decreased to such an extent that the expenditures for the
current fiscal year will exceed the receipts by $100,000,000. It is
imperative that such a deficit shall not continue, and the framers of the
tariff bill must, of course, have in mind the total revenues likely to be
produced by it and so arrange the duties as to secure an adequate income.
Should it be impossible to do so by import duties, new kinds of taxation
must be adopted, and among these I recommend a graduated inheritance tax as
correct in principle and as certain and easy of collection.
The obligation on the part of those responsible for the expenditures made
to carry on the Government, to be as economical as possible, and to make the
burden of taxation as light as possible, is plain, and should be affirmed in
every declaration of government policy. This is especially true when we are
face to face with a heavy deficit. But when the desire to win the popular
approval leads to the cutting off of expenditures really needed to make the
Government effective and to enable it to accomplish its proper objects, the
result is as much to be condemned as the waste of government funds in
unnecessary expenditure. The scope of a modern government in what it can and
ought to accomplish for its people has been widened far beyond the
principles laid down by the old "laissez faire" school of political writers,
and this widening has met popular approval.
In the Department of Agriculture the use of scientific experiments on a
large scale and the spread of information derived from them for the
improvement of general agriculture must go on.
The importance of supervising business of great railways and industrial
combinations and the necessary investigation and prosecution of unlawful
business methods are another necessary tax upon Government which did not
exist half a century ago.
The putting into force of laws which shall secure the conservation of our
resources, so far as they may be within the jurisdiction of the Federal
Government, including the most important work of saving and restoring our
forests and the great improvement of waterways, are all proper government
functions which must involve large expenditure if properly performed. While
some of them, like the reclamation of arid lands, are made to pay for
themselves, others are of such an indirect benefit that this cannot be
expected of them. A permanent improvement, like the Panama Canal, should be
treated as a distinct enterprise, and should be paid for by the proceeds of
bonds, the issue of which will distribute its cost between the present and
future generations in accordance with the benefits derived. It may well be
submitted to the serious consideration of Congress whether the deepening and
control of the channel of a great river system, like that of the Ohio or of
the Mississippi, when definite and practical plans for the enterprise have
been approved and determined upon, should not be provided for in the same way.
Then, too, there are expenditures of Government absolutely necessary if
our country is to maintain its proper place among the nations of the world,
and is to exercise its proper influence in defense of its own trade
interests in the maintenance of traditional American policy against the
colonization of European monarchies in this hemisphere, and in the promotion
of peace and international morality. I refer to the cost of maintaining a
proper army, a proper navy, and suitable fortifications upon the mainland of
the United States and in its dependencies.
We should have an army so organized and so officered as to be capable in
time of emergency, in cooperation with the national militia and under the
provisions of a proper national volunteer law, rapidly to expand into a
force sufficient to resist all probable invasion from abroad and to furnish
a respectable expeditionary force if necessary in the maintenance of our
traditional American policy which bears the name of President Monroe.
Our fortifications are yet in a state of only partial completeness, and
the number of men to man them is insufficient. In a few years however, the
usual annual appropriations for our coast defenses, both on the mainland and
in the dependencies, will make them sufficient to resist all direct attack,
and by that time we may hope that the men to man them will be provided as a
necessary adjunct. The distance of our shores from Europe and Asia of course
reduces the necessity for maintaining under arms a great army, but it does
not take away the requirement of mere prudencethat we should have an army
sufficiently large and so constituted as to form a nucleus out of which a
suitable force can quickly grow.
What has been said of the army may be affirmed in even a more emphatic way
of the navy. A modern navy can not be improvised. It must be built and in
existence when the emergency arises which calls for its use and operation.
My distinguished predecessor has in many speeches and messages set out with
great force and striking language the necessity for maintaining a strong
navy commensurate with the coast line, the governmental resources, and the
foreign trade of our Nation; and I wish to reiterate all the reasons which
he has presented in favor of the policy of maintaining a strong navy as the
best conservator of our peace with other nations, and the best means of
securing respect for the assertion of our rights, the defense of our
interests, and the exercise of our influence in international matters.
Our international policy is always to promote peace. We shall enter into
any war with a full consciousness of the awful consequences that it always
entails, whether successful or not, and we, of course, shall make every
effort consistent with national honor and the highest national interest to
avoid a resort to arms. We favor every instrumentality, like that of the
Hague Tribunal and arbitration treaties made with a view to its use in all
international controversies, in order to maintain peace and to avoid war.
But we should be blind to existing conditions and should allow ourselves to
become foolish idealists if we did not realize that, with all the nations of
the world armed and prepared for war, we must be ourselves in a similar
condition, in order to prevent other nations from taking advantage of us and
of our inability to defend our interests and assert our rights with a strong hand.
In the international controversies that are likely to arise in the Orient
growing out of the question of the open door and other issues the United
States can maintain her interests intact and can secure respect for her just
demands. She will not be able to do so, however, if it is understood that
she never intends to back up her assertion of right and her defense of her
interest by anything but mere verbal protest and diplomatic note. For these
reasons the expenses of the army and navy and of coast defenses should
always be considered as something which the Government must pay for, and
they should not be cut off through mere consideration of economy. Our
Government is able to afford a suitable army and a suitable navy. It may
maintain them without the slightest danger to the Republic or the cause of
free institutions, and fear of additional taxation ought not to change a
proper policy in this regard.
The policy of the United States in the Spanish war and since has given it
a position of influence among the nations that it never had before, and
should be constantly exerted to securing to its bona fide citizens, whether
native or naturalized, respect for them as such in foreign countries. We
should make every effort to prevent humiliating and degrading prohibition
against any of our citizens wishing temporarily to sojourn in foreign
countries because of race or religion.
The admission of Asiatic immigrants who cannot be amalgamated with our
population has been made the subject either of prohibitory clauses in our
treaties and statutes or of strict administrative regulation secured by
diplomatic negotiation. I sincerely hope that we may continue to minimize
the evils likely to arise from such immigration without unnecessary friction
and by mutual concessions between self-respecting governments. Meantime we
must take every precaution to prevent, or failing that, to punish outbursts
of race feeling among our people against foreigners of whatever nationality
who have by our grant a treaty right to pursue lawful business here and to
be protected against lawless assault or injury.
This leads me to point out a serious defect in the present federal
jurisdiction, which ought to be remedied at once. Having assured to other
countries by treaty the protection of our laws for such of their subjects or
citizens as we permit to come within our jurisdiction, we now leave to a
state or a city, not under the control of the Federal Government, the duty
of performing our international obligations in this respect. By proper
legislation we may, and ought to, place in the hands of the Federal
Executive the means of enforcing the treaty rights of such aliens in the
courts of the Federal Government. It puts our Government in a pusillanimous
position to make definite engagements to protect aliens and then to excuse
the failure to perform those engagements by an explanation that the duty to
keep them is in States or cities, not within our control. If we would
promise we must put ourselves in a position to perform our promise. We
cannot permit the possible failure of justice, due to local prejudice in any
State or municipal government, to expose us to the risk of a war which might
be avoided if federal jurisdiction was asserted by suitable legislation by
Congress and carried out by proper proceedings instituted by the Executive
in the courts of the National Government.
One of the reforms to be carried out during the incoming administration is
a change of our monetary and banking laws, so as to secure greater
elasticity in the forms of currency available for trade and to prevent the
limitations of law from operating to increase the embarrassment of a
financial panic. The monetary commission, lately appointed, is giving full
consideration to existing conditions and to all proposed remedies, and will
doubtless suggest one that will meet the requirements of business and of
public interest.
We may hope that the report will embody neither the narrow dew of those
who believe that the sole purpose of the new system should be to secure a
large return on banking capital or of those who would have greater expansion
of currency with little regard to provisions for its immediate redemption or
ultimate security. There is no subject of economic discussion so intricate
and so likely to evoke differing views and dogmatic statements as this one.
The commission, in studying the general influence of currency on business
and of business on currency, have wisely extended their investigations in
European banking and monetary methods. The information that they have
derived from such experts as they have found abroad will undoubtedly be
found helpful in the solution of the difficult problem they have in hand.
The incoming Congress should promptly fulfill the promise of the
Republican platform and pass a proper postal savings bank bill. It will not
be unwise or excessive paternalism. The promise to repay by the Government
will furnish an inducement to savings deposits which private enterprise can
not supply and at such a low rate of interest as not to withdraw custom from
existing banks. It will substantially increase the funds available for
investment as capital in useful enterprises. It will furnish absolute
security which makes the proposed scheme of government guaranty of deposits
so alluring, without its pernicious results.
I sincerely hope that the incoming Congress will be alive, as it should
be, to the importance of our foreign trade and of encouraging it in every
way feasible. The possibility of increasing this trade in the Orient, in the
Philippines, and in South America are known to everyone who has given the
matter attention. The direct effect of free trade between this country and
the Philippines will be marked upon our sales of cottons, agricultural
machinery, and other manufactures. The necessity of the establishment of
direct lines of steamers between North and South America has been brought to
the attention of Congress by my predecessor and by Mr. Root before and after
his noteworthy visit to that continent, and I sincerely hope that Congress
may be induced to see the wisdom of a tentative effort to establish such
lines by the use of mail subsidies.
The importance of the part which the Departments of Agriculture and of
Commerce and Labor may play in ridding the markets of Europe of prohibitions
and discriminations against the importation of our products is fully
understood, and it is hoped that the use of the maximum and minimum feature
of our tariff law to be soon passed will be effective to remove many of
those restrictions.
The Panama Canal will have a most important bearing upon the trade between
the eastern and far western sections of our country, and will greatly
increase the facilities for transportation between the eastern and the
western seaboard, and may possibly revolutionize the transcontinental rates
with respect to bulky merchandise. It will also have a most beneficial
effect to increase the trade between the eastern seaboard of the United
States and the western coast of South America, and, indeed, with some of the
important ports on the east coast of South America reached by rail from the
west coast.
The work on the canal is making most satisfactory progress. The type of
the canal as a lock canal was fixed by Congress after a full consideration
of the conflicting reports of the majority and minority of the consulting
board, and after the recommendation of the War Department and the Executive
upon those reports. Recent suggestion that something had occurred on the
Isthmus to make the lock type of the canal less feasible than it was
supposed to be when the reports were made and the policy determined on led
to a visit to the Isthmus of a board of competent engineers to examine the
Gatun dam and locks, which are the key of the lock type. The report of that
board shows nothing has occurred in the nature of newly revealed evidence
which should change the views once formed in the original discussion. The
construction will go on under a most effective organization controlled by
Colonel Goethals and his fellow army engineers associated with him, and will
certainly be completed early in the next administration, if not before.
Some type of canal must be constructed. The lock type has been selected.
We are all in favor of having it built as promptly as possible. We must not
now, therefore, keep up a fire in the rear of the agents whom we have
authorized to do our work on the Isthmus. We must hold up their hands, and
speaking for the incoming administration I wish to say that I propose to
devote all the energy possible and under my control to pushing of this work
on the plans which have been adopted, and to stand behind the men who are
doing faithful, hard work to bring about the early completion of this, the
greatest constructive enterprise of modern times.
The governments of our dependencies in Porto Rico and the Philippines are
progressing as favorably as could be desired. The prosperity of Porto Rico
continues unabated. The business conditions in the Philippines are not all
that we could wish them to be, but with the passage of the new tariff bill
permitting free trade between the United States and the archipelago, with
such limitations on sugar and tobacco as shall prevent injury to domestic
interests in those products, we can count on an improvement in business
conditions in the Philippines and the development of a mutually profitable
trade between this country and the islands. Meantime our Government in each
dependency is upholding the traditions of civil liberty and increasing
popular control which might be expected under American auspices. The work
which we are doing there redounds to our credit as a nation.
I look forward with hope to increasing the already good feeling between
the South and the other sections of the country. My chief purpose is not to
effect a change in the electoral vote of the Southern States. That is a
secondary consideration. What I look forward to is an increase in the
tolerance of political views of all kinds and their advocacy throughout the
South, and the existence of a respectable political opposition in every
State; even more than this, to an increased feeling on the part of all the
people in the South that this Government is their Government, and that its
officers in their states are their officers.
The consideration of this question can not, however, be complete and full
without reference to the negro race, its progress and its present condition.
The thirteenth amendment secured them freedom; the fourteenth amendment due
process of law, protection of property, and the pursuit of happiness; and
the fifteenth amendment attempted to secure the negro against any
deprivation of the privilege to vote because he was a negro. The thirteenth
and fourteenth amendments have been generally enforced and have secured the
objects for which they are intended. While the fifteenth amendment has not
been generally observed in the past, it ought to be observed, and the
tendency of Southern legislation today is toward the enactment of electoral
qualifications which shall square with that amendment. Of course, the mere
adoption of a constitutional law is only one step in the right direction. It
must be fairly and justly enforced as well. In time both will come. Hence it
is clear to all that the domination of an ignorant, irresponsible element
can be prevented by constitutional laws which shall exclude from voting both
negroes and whites not having education or other qualifications thought to
be necessary for a proper electorate. The danger of the control of an
ignorant electorate has therefore passed. With this change, the interest
which many of the Southern white citizens take in the welfare of the negroes
has increased. The colored men must base their hope on the results of their
own industry, self-restraint, thrift, and business success, as well as upon
the aid and comfort and sympathy which they may receive from their white
neighbors of the South.
There was a time when Northerners who sympathized with the negro in his
necessary struggle for better conditions sought to give him the suffrage as
a protection to enforce its exercise against the prevailing sentiment of the
South. The movement proved to be a failure. What remains is the fifteenth
amendment to the Constitution and the right to have statutes of States
specifying qualifications for electors subjected to the test of compliance
with that amendment. This is a great protection to the negro. It never will
be repealed, and it never ought to be repealed. If it had not passed, it
might be difficult now to adopt it; but with it in our fundamental law, the
policy of Southern legislation must and will tend to obey it, and so long as
the statutes of the States meet the test of this amendment and are not
otherwise in conflict with the Constitution and laws of the United States,
it is not the disposition or within the province of the Federal Government
to interfere with the regulation by Southern States of their domestic
affairs. There is in the South a stronger feeling than ever among the
intelligent well-to-do, and influential element in favor of the industrial
education of the negro and the encouragement of the race to make themselves
useful members of the community. The progress which the negro has made in
the last fifty years, from slavery, when its statistics are reviewed, is
marvelous, and it furnishes every reason to hope that in the next
twenty-five years a still greater improvement in his condition as a
productive member of society, on the farm, and in the shop, and in other
occupations may come.
The negroes are now Americans. Their ancestors came here years ago against
their will, and this is their only country and their only flag. They have
shown themselves anxious to live for it and to die for it. Encountering the
race feeling against them, subjected at times to cruel injustice growing out
of it, they may well have our profound sympathy and aid in the struggle they
are making. We are charged with the sacred duty of making their path as
smooth and easy as we can. Any recognition of their distinguished men, any
appointment to office from among their number, is properly taken as an
encouragement and an appreciation of their progress, and this just policy
should be pursued when suitable occasion offers.
But it may well admit of doubt whether, in the case of any race, an
appointment of one of their number to a local office in a community in which
the race feeling is so widespread and acute as to interfere with the ease
and facility with which the local government business can be done by the
appointee is of sufficient benefit by way of encouragement to the race to
outweigh the recurrence and increase of race feeling which such an
appointment is likely to engender. Therefore the Executive, in recognizing
the negro race by appointments, must exercise a careful discretion not
thereby to do it more harm than good. On the other hand, we must be careful
not to encourage the mere pretense of race feeling manufactured in the
interest of individual political ambition.
Personally, I have not the slightest race prejudice or feeling, and
recognition of its existence only awakens in my heart a deeper sympathy for
those who have to bear it or suffer from it, and I question the wisdom of a
policy which is likely to increase it. Meantime, if nothing is done to
prevent it, a better feeling between the negroes and the whites in the South
will continue to grow, and more and more of the white people will come to
realize that the future of the South is to be much benefited by the
industrial and intellectual progress of the negro. The exercise of political
franchises by those of this race who are intelligent and well to do will be
acquiesced in, and the right to vote will be withheld only from the ignorant
and irresponsible of both races.
There is one other matter to which I shall refer. It was made the subject
of great controversy during the election and calls for at least a passing
reference now. My distinguished predecessor has given much attention to the
cause of labor, with whose struggle for better things he has shown the
sincerest sympathy. At his instance Congress has passed the bill fixing the
liability of interstate carriers to their employees for injury sustained in
the course of employment, abolishing the rule of fellow-servant and the
common-law rule as to contributory negligence, and substituting therefor the
so-called rule of "comparative negligence." It has also passed a law fixing
the compensation of government employees for injuries sustained in the
employ of the Government through the negligence of the superior. It has also
passed a model child-labor law for the District of Columbia. In previous
administrations an arbitration law for interstate commerce railroads and
their employees, and laws for the application of safety devices to save the
lives and limbs of employees of interstate railroads had been passed.
Additional legislation of this kind was passed by the outgoing Congress.
I wish to say that insofar as I can I hope to promote the enactment of
further legislation of this character. I am strongly convinced that the
Government should make itself as responsible to employees injured in its
employ as an interstate-railway corporation is made responsible by federal
law to its employees; and I shall be glad, whenever any additional
reasonable safety device can be invented to reduce the loss of life and limb
among railway employees, to urge Congress to require its adoption by
interstate railways.
Another labor question has arisen which has awakened the most excited
discussion. That is in respect to the power of the federal courts to issue
injunctions in industrial disputes. As to that, my convictions are fixed.
Take away from the courts, if it could be taken away, the power to issue
injunctions in labor disputes, and it would create a privileged class among
the laborers and save the lawless among their number from a most needful
remedy available to all men for the protection of their business against
lawless invasion. The proposition that business is not a property or
pecuniary right which can be protected by equitable injunction is utterly
without foundation in precedent or reason. The proposition is usually linked
with one to make the secondary boycott lawful. Such a proposition is at
variance with the American instinct, and will find no support, in my
judgment, when submitted to the American people. The secondary boycott is an
instrument of tyranny, and ought not to be made legitimate.
The issue of a temporary restraining order without notice has in several
instances been abused by its inconsiderate exercise, and to remedy this the
platform upon which I was elected recommends the formulation in a statute of
the conditions under which such a temporary restraining order ought to
issue. A statute can and ought to be framed to embody the best modern
practice, and can bring the subject so closely to the attention of the court
as to make abuses of the process unlikely in the future. The American
people, if I understand them, insist that the authority of the courts shall
be sustained, and are opposed to any change in the procedure by which the
powers of a court may be weakened and the fearless and effective
administration of justice be interfered with.
Having thus reviewed the questions likely to recur during my
administration, and having expressed in a summary way the position which I
expect to take in recommendations to Congress and in my conduct as an
Executive, I invoke the considerate sympathy and support of my
fellow-citizens and the aid of the Almighty God in the discharge of my
responsible duties.
Visit Mr. Taft's Website
|
|
|
|
|
|
The U. S. Constitution
