THE NUMBER OF RAILWAY SERVANTS EMPLOYED HAS INCREASED FROM 398,000 IN 1897 TO NEARLY 500,000 IN 1909

THE PROFITS OF RAILWAYS HAVE INCREASED FROM £38,000,000 IN 1895, TO £45,136,000 IN 1909

I. THE IMPRACTICABLE NATURE OF PROTECTION 164. A Humble Request of Congress29

Resolved, That the mutuality of the interests of the wool producers and wool manufacturers of the United States is established by the closest of commercial bonds, that of demand and supply; it having been demonstrated that the American grower supplies more than 70 per cent of all the wool consumed by American mills, and, with equal encouragement, would soon supply all which is properly adapted to production here; and further, it is confirmed by the experience of half a century that the periods of prosperity and depression in the two branches of the woolen industry have been identical in time and induced by the same general causes.

Resolved, That as the two branches of agricultural and manufacturing industry represented by the woolen interest involve largely the labor of the country, whose productiveness is the basis of national prosperity, sound policy requires such legislative action as shall place them on an equal footing, and give them equal encouragement and protection in competing with the accumulated capital and low wages of other countries.

Resolved, That the benefits of a truly national system, as applied to American industry, will be found in developing manufacturing and agricultural enterprise in all the States, thus furnishing markets at home for the products of both interests; and

Resolved, further, That it is the sense of this meeting that in the coming revision of the tariff the present duties both on wool and woolen goods be maintained without reduction.

Resolutions of the National Wool Growers' Association and National Association of Wool Manufacturers, Hearings of the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives, 60th Cong., 2d sess., House Document 143, 5331 (1909).

165. Woolens and Welfare30

BY N. T. FOLWELL

Unlike the iron and steel industry, where machinery manufacture cheapens the cost of production, the manufacturer of worsted and woolen textiles has no advantage over his European competitor in quantity produced; man for man, loom for loom, the production is the same. The climate of England, France and Germany is better adapted for spinning than ours, and they can spin finer yarn from the same grade of wool than we can here, and consequently can run their spinning frames at a higher rate of speed, thus getting greater production. The oft-repeated story that an American workman can produce more than his brother abroad is false as far as the worsted and woolen trade is concerned.

Our mills have been at a high cost of labor and materials and are partially filled with machinery that has paid a duty of from 30 to 60 per cent. All the numerous articles which go to equip a mill have cost from 30 to 50 per cent more than the amount required abroad.

Our wages are double what are paid in England and three times the amount paid in France and Germany.

There is no reason why the rates of duty should be lowered on worsted and woolen textiles, as conditions which prevail today are no different from those which prevailed at the time the Dingley bill became a law, with one exception, namely our wages have increased.

We are importing from two to three million dollars per week, foreign cost, of dry goods, and this fact is conclusive proof that the tariff should be raised rather than lowered.

166. A Recipe for Securing Duties31

Elsmere, April 4, 1897.

Dear Mr. Whitman: Now about the tariff. I cannot, after what has been said to me in reference to my confidential relations with the committee, keep you posted as I would like to do. . . Let me ask you a question. Should tops at a 24-cent line have the same

30

3o Adapted from Hearings of the Ways and Means Committee, ibid. 5341 (1909).

31Adapted from Hearings of the Ways and Means Committee, ibid. 5492-5493.

compensatory duty as yarns at a 30-cent line? Should tops at a 24cent line have a compensation duty of 271⁄2 cents? . . I do not want you to intimate to any Senator that I have written you on this subject. I am kept at work from 10 A. M. until midnight and I have not sufficient clerical assistance as yet. I am the only person whom the committee allows at its meetings.

Truly yours,

S. N. D. NORTH.

Boston, June 2, 1897.

My dear Mr. North: We all depend upon you to watch closely our interests, to see that nothing is overlooked or neglected by our friends on the committee. I have no doubt they will do all they can do, but with so many interests to look after, our special representative must see to it that our interests receive proper attention. Yours very truly,

WILLIAM WHITMAN.

167. The Tariff a Local Issue32

Local interests, rather than fundamental considerations of principle, are the motives determining the attitude of the average congressman on the tariff. He is supremely concerned with securing for the favored interests of his own district all the protection possible. His concern for interests in other districts is a mere means to this more important end. Alone he can accomplish nothing. He is perforce compelled to favor duties on articles produced elsewhere in order that he may secure what he desires. As a result a struggle over a tariff is by no means an attempt properly to apply fundamental and well-recognized principles to particular situations. It is rather an attempt to reconcile a conflict of a multitude of local and industrial interests.

The following typical proposals will give a fair idea of the raw material out of which the tariff bill of 1909 was constructed. They will also throw some light upon the logic of the process by means of which the bill finally assumed form. A Massachusetts Republican demanded that hides be put on the free list. A Texas Democrat insisted that the duty on hides be raised. A South Carolina Democrat demanded a protective duty on rice. Free coal was pronounced by a Pennsylvania Republican to be a repudiation of the policy of protection. Several representatives, from different parts of the

32The evidence upon which this reading is based is all taken from The Congressional Record, 1909.

country, pleaded for higher duties on glass. Senators from the Rocky Mountain states dwelt upon the importance of protection of wool. The representatives from California demanded protection on lemons. A Democratic senator from Texas demanded a high duty on lumber. A Michigan Republican argued as ardently for a duty on sugar. A congressman from New York insisted that a duty on postcards would even things with Germany. Only one man was patriotic enough to want to apply the principle of protection without the slightest reservation. An Iowa congressman rose to the occasion. by pleading that selfishness should be laid aside, that all should forget local and personal interests, that America should be the matter of first concern, and that the new tariff should be framed in such a way as adequately and equally to protect all industries.

Senator Knute Nelson, of Minnesota, a protectionist and a Republican, summed up the situation in these words: "I am tired. of being lectured to about these schedules, and about the orthodoxy of the Republican party. Let us recognize the fact that with a tariff bill it is just as it is with the River and Harbor bills. There is no use disguising it. You tickle me and I tickle you. You give us what we, on the Pacific coast, want for our lead ore and our citrus fruit, and we will tickle you people of New England and give you what you want on your cotton goods. When you boil down the patriotism of the speeches just made you come to the same basis as that of the River and Harbor bill. You vote for my creeks, you vote for my harbors, you vote for my rivers, and I will vote for yours, and it will be all right."

168. Tariff for Politics Only33

BY PETER FINLEY DUNNE

"Well, sir, 'tis a gr-r-and worruk thim Sinitors and Congressmen are doin' in Wash'n'ton. Me heart bleeds for the poor fellows, steamin' away undher th' majestic tin dome iv th' capitol thryin' to rejooce th' tariff. The likes iv ye want to see th' tariff rejooced with a jack plane. But th' tariff has been a good frind to some iv thim boys an' it's a frind iv frinds iv some iv th' others an' they don't intend to be rough with it. A little gentle massage to rejooce th' most prom'nent prochooberances is all that is nicessry. Whiniver they rub too hard, Sinitor Aldhrich says, 'Go a little asier there, boys. He's very tender in some iv thim schedules. P'raps we'd better give Adapted from "The Tariff," in Mr. Dooley Says, 144-157. Copyright by Charles Scribner's Sons (1909).

83

him a little nourishment to build him up,' he says. An' th' last I heerd about it, ye won't notice anny reduction in its weight. No, sir, I shudden't be surprised if it was heartier than iver.

"Me congressman sint me a copy iv th' tariff bill th' other day. I've been studyin' it f'r a week. 'Tis a good piece of summer lithrachoor. 'Tis full iv action an' romance. It beats th' Deadwood Dick series. It gives ye some idee iv th' gloryous govermint we're livin' undher, to see our fair Columbia puttin' her brave young arms out defindin' th' products iv our soil fr'm steel rails to porous plasthers, hooks an' eyes, artyficial horse hair and bone casings, which comes under th' head of clothin' an' I suppose is a polite name f'r pantaloons.

"Iv coorse, low people like ye, Hinnissy, will kick because it's goin' to cost ye more to indulge ye'er taste in ennervating luxuries. D'ye know Sinitor Aldhrich? Ye don't? He knows ye. 'Tis as if he said: "This here vulgar plutocrat, Hinnissy, is turnin' th' heads iv our young men with his garish display. Befure this, counthries have perished because iv th' ostintation iv th' arrystocracy. We must presarve th' ideels iv American simplicity. We'll put a tax iv sixty per cent on ready made clothin' costin' less thin ten dollars a suit. That'll keep Hinnissy from squanderin' money wrung fr'm Jawn D. in th' roo dilly Pay. We'll make a specyal assault on woolen socks an' cowhide shoes. We'll make an example iv this here pampered. babe iv fortune,' says he.

"An' there it is. Ye haven't got a thing on ye'r back excipt ye'er skin-an' that may be there; I haven't got as far as th' hide schedule yet. It's ye'er own fault. If ye will persist in wearin' those geegaws ye'll have to pay f'r thim. If ye will go on decoratin' ye'er house with shingles an' paint an' puttin paper on th' walls, ye've got to settle. That's all.

"Ye'd think th' way such as ye talk that ivrything is taxed. It ain't so. 'Tis an insult to th' pathritism iv Congress to say so. Th' Republican party, with a good deal iv assistance fr'm th' pathriotic Dimmycrats, has been thrue to its promises. Look at th' free list, if ye don't believe it. Practically ivrything nicissry to existence comes in free. What, for example, says ye. I'll look. Here it is. Curling stones. Ye'll be able to buy al! ye'll need this summer for practically nawthin. What else? Well, teeth. Here it is in th' bill: "Teeth free iv jooty. Undher th' Dingley Bill they were heavily taxed. Onless ye cud prove that they had cost ye less thin a hundred dollars, or that ye had worn thim f'r two years in Europe, or that ye were bringin' thim in f'r scientific purposes or to give a museem, there was an enormous jooty on teeth. Now ye don't have to hand a five