Speech #670232149

For instance. some 12 or 15 years ago. when the Government needed less than $1.000.000.000 annually to carry on the affairs of the Government. the theory of a tariff for revenue only necessarily would have reqhired much less0 than would be justified even under. that theory to be applied as a tariff when we now need annually $5.000.000.000 of revenue. But if the object of any definite policy in this country is only to impose such tariff as is considered necessary for the revenue. and if we then take that subject which has been referred to several times. the rice industry. we find that a tariff based upon the Democratic theory may be just a little bit less than what is absolutely essential to maintain that industry in this country when competing with cheap. Asiatic labor. Therefore the Democratic theory would be to destroy that industry by considering only the amount of mlfoncy which the Government needed under prewar conditions. This proved to be the case under the Underwood law. because during the 10 months of its operation previous to the World War in 1914 the statistics inform us that the importations of clean rice increased fourfold over time previous year.