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William Howard Taft's Inaugural Address:
| 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 prudence—that 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. |
Back
to William H. Taft
Executive Oath of Office
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of
President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and
defend the Constitution of the United States."
United States Constitution, Article II,
Section 1, Clause 8
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