President Wilson's message, which only occupied eight minutes in delivery,
began with an expression of his satis- faction at being enabled to show that the President was not a department of the Government "hailing Congress from some isolated island of jealous power," but that he was "a human being trying to co-operate with other human beings in common service." He then explained his reason for summoning this extraordinary session of Congress—the obligation laid on the party now in power of dealing promptly with the tariff ques- tion. A system of privileges and exemptions from competition, behind which it was easy to organize monopoly, had grown up, which must now be ended. "We must abolish everything that has even the semblance of privilege or of any kind of artificial advantage, and put our business men and producers under the stimulation of a constant necessity to be efficient, economical, and enterprising, masters of competitive supre- macy, better workers and merchants than any in the world." The main object of tariff duties must be "effective competi- tion, the whetting of American wits by contest with the wits of the rest of the world." The necessary changes aimed at a more free and wholesome development of their fiscal system, not revolution, upset, or confusion. Other reforms would shortly demand their attention, notably the reform of the banking and currency laws, but it was necessary to begin with the tariff.
