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Show TAFT'S VETO MESSAGES. I The reactionaries are justifying the Taft vetoes of the "wool and I 'steel bills by declaring that those who passed the measures did so I without facts before them upon which to base intelligent action. G Strange that this discovery of a dearth of information on the j tariff schedules has been made at this late date. Taft signed the Payne-Aldrich high tariff bill.-affirming that it j was the best tariff bill ever enacted into law, after he had pledged j himself to favor a lowering of the tariff schedules. On what su- j porior knowledge of the tariff schedules did he act and from what source did he get his inside information; if he had sufficient facts at hand to warrant his signature to a high tariff, why have not the makers of the measures be vetoed equally as reliable data on which to base their reductions in the schedules? This country has been accepting tariff legislation for forty years without waiting for a commission to report and Taft today is not in possession of any data that is not known to the coalition which , passed the wool and steel bills. ' The truth is that Taft is dissembling. His reasons for vetoing i the two tariff measures were politicals His backers are tho bene-j ficiarics of high tariff and he was obligated to do their bidding. Take the steel bill, for instance. It is claimed his veto was for the purpose of protecting the laborers in that industry from the competition com-petition of Europe. This country exported to Europe and elsewhere, within the last ten months: Rails and steel to the value of $10,000,000. ! Pig iron, bars and rods of steel, $3,900,000. Structural iron and steel to the value of $8,530,318. Barbed wire and all other forms of wire. $9,683,000. ! Builders hardware and tools, including hinges and tools, $14,-449,000. $14,-449,000. Car wheels and castings for foreign railroads. $2,404,4 01. Cutlery and firearms, $3,300,000. Electrical machinery, $7,000,000. -7 ; Laundrj' machinery, $1,000,000. i ',, VS i- ; ' Metal-working machinery; $10,000,000; ' r '' ' Mining, printing and pump machinery, $12,000,000. Sewing machines, $S,000.000. Shoe machinery, $1,036,000. Steam and other power machines. $9,000,000. , ."' '" . . ' All other engines and parts of engines,, $0,000,000. Sugar-mill machinery, $1,617,000. , - . Typewriting machines, $9,492,750. ; :v&p jt A Sawmill machinery, $1,160,000. " ' 'i Nails and spikes, $3,405,000. - '' Pipes and fittings, $l0,o0S,000. i - Stoves, ranges, safes, scales and balances and manufactures, -f23,-: 000,000. I Total of iron and steel exports, including manufactures of iron ! and steel, $215,307,213. The foregoing are figures for ten months, and not a year, yet they , total a sum beyond the ability of any one to full' grasp. The hun-: hun-: dreds of thousands a.nd millions of dollars' worth of iron and steel represent shipments made across the great oceans and sold in competition com-petition with the whole world, in the very markets where this dreid-cd dreid-cd cheap labor is supposed to be constantly struggling to break Its bounds in order to crush the American workmen. There is not an article ar-ticle in all the long list of iron aud steel products enumerated that is not protected to the skies. When a measure is sent to Taft reducing this mighty wall of protection pro-tection so as to cut the unreasonable margin of profit made on thn goods sold at home to the American people, Taft answers with the deceitful statement that he cannot attach his signature to the bill because, forsooth, the authors of the measure are without the intel- ligence necessary to legislate on that subject without endangering I the American workmen. Is it not- a sorry spectacle, this exhibition of political trickery and jugglery by a President of the United States! |