Tariff Act of 1913

The Revenue Act of 1913, also known as the Tariff Act, the Underwood Tariff, the Underwood Act, the Underwood Tariff Act, or the Underwood-Simmons Act (ch. 16, 38 Stat. 114, October 3, 1913), re-imposed the federal income tax after the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment and lowered basic tariff rates from 40% to 25%, well below the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909. It was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on October 3, 1913 and was sponsored by Alabama Representative Oscar Underwood.

Wilson summoned a special session of the Congress in April 1913. His immediate objective was to confront the perennial tariff question, and he brought special attention to the matter by deciding to appear in person before Congress to make his appeal. He was the first president since John Adams to do so.

The joint session was a spectacular event. A huge crowd gathered, and every seat in the House chamber was taken. Newspaper coverage was intense. Wilson spoke only briefly but made it clear that tariff reform was needed and that he would not be a party to a repeat of the embarrassment of the thwarted reform of 1894. The burden was clearly on the shoulders of the Democrats, as they controlled both houses of Congress for the first time in 18 years.

Underwood guided a reform measure through the House of Representatives, but his counterpart in the Senate, Furnifold McLendel Simmons of North Carolina, reverted to form and allowed numerous increases in the tariffs to be added. Wilson, unlike many of his predecessors, took the offensive. He went to the Capitol and twisted the arms of backsliding Democrats. He also warned the public of the invasion of Washington, DC, then underway by scores of lobbyists.

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