should be accepted without fair comparison with the others. It is impossible to direct you in any formal way to sources of information on most public questions, outside of current publications. There are in many cases elaborate reports published by different bodies, articles and books by trained investigators, carefully prepared speeches of leading public men, hearings of committees, and the like. But these vary so much in value that it is almost impossible for the average citizen to know how much confidence to place in any one. One of the things most needed is a kind of clearing house of information on matters of public policy. An organization which could justly secure the confidence of the public in the way of collecting, digesting, and presenting impartially for public use the results of the best inquiries into such matters in different states and countries would be of the greatest value to the general public. Some such attempts have already been made in one or two states under an appropriation from the legislature. Probably the best illustration of this is the so-called Legisla tive Reference Library of the State of Wisconsin, but as yet such attempts have had only a limited and local value. In many cases the difficulty of determining what would seem to be a simple question of fact is such as to be practically beyond the determination of the most conscientious voter. Take, for instance, the attitude of the general public toward such a measure as the Payne-Aldrich tariff act of 1909. I am not here either to defend or to criticise that measure. What I wish to suggest to you is that practically all of the statements which you have read either in defense or in criticism of it have been based on very partial information. You will hear perfectly honest men tell you, on the one hand, that this act was a revision of the tariff downward and, on the other hand, equally honest men tell you that it was a revision of the tariff upward. It would seem as if this were a simple question of fact which could be easily determined and settled to everybody's satisfaction. I have heard professors of economics speak with complete confidence regarding this measure, as if there were no question about it whatsoever. None the less it is a question which has not been definitely settled and which can never be settled in the sense that the truth can be told about it in a single sentence. There were some striking reductions in the rates; there were some striking increases. There were many minor changes in one direction or the other. Anyone who knows anything about the subject at all knows that any attempt at expressing the change in terms of averages is meaningless. The fact is, furthermore, that, due to complicated changes in classification, it is often very difficult to determine whether a rate was increased or decreased. Frankly, the most conscientious tariff expert, if asked the blunt question whether this act increased or decreased duties, would decline to answer. If you ask him whether the duty on steel rails was increased or decreased he can tell you. If you ask him whether it was increased or decreased on cotton goods having a certain number of threads to the square inch, weighing so much per square yard, and having a certain value, he can tell you. But he would not venture any sweeping assertion. And yet the newspapers and periodicals have been filled with most categorical assertions regarding this act, and even you young men may perhaps think that you have a perfectly definite knowledge on this subject and are prepared to speak confidently in either accusatory or laudatory terms. You may ask, in view of what I have just said, what use it can possibly be for the voter to attempt any study of these problems if it is so difficult to secure positive information. The answer is that your first duty is to recognize how difficult the problem is. I consider the attitude of the man who makes sweeping assertions regarding matters which he does not fully understand to be distinctly immoral, as it is also distinctly human. If, then, you recognize the difficulties of many of these questions, the necessity of acting conscientiously regarding them, and yet the difficulty of equipping yourselves for an adequate judgment, you are prepared to face the next problem, which is that of the choice of the leaders whom you will follow when unable to decide each technical detail |