THE ROLL CALL
THE Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES A History of Schedule K AROUND SCHEDULE K—the dishonest tariff of the Woolen Trust—has waged, and is now waging, a political warfare that will determine to a...
...on wool and 49 per cent...
...This history of Schedule K, which we have now brought down to date, suggests the question: How long are the people to be burdened by legislation for the special interests of wool growers and worsted manufacturers...
...I want to do what I can to show my appreciation of President Taft...
...MARCH, 1897.—S...
...Then, as now, the people were clamoring for relief from a burdensome tariff...
...Roosevelt...
...On this occasion Chairman Emery said: "There are certain things that are very difficult to get, and one thing, that according to the platform of the republican party—and incidentally that does not mean anything to me, except that I have been given the job according to that platform—is to try to get the cost of production...
...What happens to Schedule K is pretty certain to happen to all those other special-privilege, tariff-for-monopoly schedules of the Payne-Aldrich law...
...Then, as now, the proposition was advanced by the standpatters to revise the tariff on a basis of the difference between the foreign and domestic cost of production...
...AUGUST 15, 1911.—Passage of the Underwood-La Follette bill to revise Schedule K, and providing for duties of 29 per cent...
...Laughter and applause...
...It was prepared by one of the foremost tariff experts in the country and revised and reprinted from the Worcester Post...
...Payne, in the House, and Mr...
...Is the woolen tariff of 1867, made more indefensible by each republican revision, now to have a new lease of life...
...Of this case we shall report further details at a later time...
...THE Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES A History of Schedule K AROUND SCHEDULE K—the dishonest tariff of the Woolen Trust—has waged, and is now waging, a political warfare that will determine to a large extent the future relation between Big Business and Government...
...We have learned, however, that the boy was not hanged...
...The case is now pending before the Supreme Court of Arkansas...
...Note the political chicanery...
...I believe he means well and is doing well, and I am ready to meet him half-way...
...OCTOBER 1, 1890.—The McKinley bill is passed by a Republican Congress increasing duties on wool goods...
...N. D. North, secretary of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers, is admitted to the secret sessions of the Senate Finance Committee during the framing of the Dingley bill...
...SEPTEMBER 26, 1908,—William H. Taft, Republican candidate for president, makes the following pledge in a speech at St...
...It is worthy of your most careful study...
...MAY 4, 1909.—Senator Dolliver in the Senate begins the insurgent attack on Schedule K. AUGUST 5, 1909.—A Republican Congress passes, and President Taft signs the Payne-Aldrich bill, which leaves Schedule K practically unchanged...
...The law says that for certain purposes the President may employ such persons as he sees fit...
...Chairman Emery of the Tariff Board present...
...MARCH, 1880.—The National Association of Wool Manufacturers recommends the passage of the tariff commission bill without amendment...
...An appeal was taken...
...APRIL, 1866.—The wool growers and wool manufacturers meet at Washington, D. C., and recommend to Congress a tariff on wool and wool goods...
...FEBRUARY 1, 1911.—Banquet of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers at Washington, attended by thirty-five standpat Senators and Representatives, and two members of the Tariff Board, Chairman Emery and J. B. Reynolds...
...Note the interests involved...
...AUGUST 27, 1894.—The Wilson bill, passed by a Democratic Congress, becomes a law, revising Schedule K, with free wool and ad valorem duties on goods...
...The history of Schedule K during the forty-five years between 1866 and 1911 is the history of the trust magnate's authorship of tariff legislation...
...MAY, 1882.—John L. Hayes, secretary of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers, appointed president of the Tariff Commission...
...Wiley is a living testimonial of how a man can keep his political health without benzoate of soda.—New York Evening Post...
...AUGUST 16, 1911.—President Taft vetoes the Underwood-La Follette bill to revise Schedule K on the ground that the Tariff Board has not yet reported...
...Read the following concise, year-by-year history of this measure...
...Then, as now, a tariff commission or board was formed...
...DECEMBER, 1882.—Report of the Tariff Commission sent to Congress...
...that the present tariff (Schedule K) should continue until special and minute information from experts shall indicate the changes that can safely be made...
...FEBRUARY, 1880.—The president and secretary of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers interview the President of the United States and obtain assurances as to the personnel of the new Tariff Commission...
...MARCH 2, 1867.—A Republican Congress passes a woolen tariff law substantially the same as that recommended the year before by the wool growers and manufacturers...
...Aldrich, in the Senate, found that in the Republican party the interests of the wool growers of the far West and the interests of the woolen manufacturers in the East and in other States, reflected through their representatives in Congress was sufficiently strong to defeat any attempt to change the woolen tariff, and that had it been attempted it would have beaten the bill reported from either committee...
...OCTOBER 17, 1910.—William Whitman, president of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers spends four hours with the Tariff Board at Washington and then issues the following statement: "I opposed the Tariff Commission very strongly, but the Tariff Board is a very different thing...
...A CORRESPONDENT writes for information about the case of Earl Gilchrist, the boy who was convicted of murder in Little Rock and sentenced to be hanged on September 8. The newspaper reports have been amazingly meager...
...Aldrich of Rhode Island, when pleading for the retention of the infamous duties and classifications in Schedule K two years ago, exclaimed, "This Schedule is the very citadel of protection...
...This is practically the same as the proposition laid down by the National Association of Wool Manufacturers in JULY, 1880, for the revision of the tariff...
...I thank you all gentlemen, that you did not laugh...
...APRIL 8, 1910.—William Whitman, president of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers before the Massachusetts Cost of Living Commission says: "I do not know any reason why President Taft should know any more about the wool tariff than does the gentleman who recently refused to receive Mr...
...JULY, 1880.—The National Association of Wool Manufacturers circulates among manufacturers a petition which says: "That the manufacturer should have a protective duty sufficient to offset the high cost of labor, interest and taxes...
...JULY 10, 1897.—William Whitman writes to Secretary North, who is attending the tariff sessions of the Finance Committee: "I depend on you, dress goods, yarns and tops...
...Later he is made chairman of the subcommittee to prepare the woolen and worsted schedules...
...Is that what is in store for us now...
...AUGUST 20, 1910.—President Taft in a letter to Congressman William B. McKinley, states that: "The precise difference in the cost of production sought for is not capable of definite ascertainment" and "all that even the most scientific person can do is to exercise his best judgment in reaching a conclusion...
...Then, as now, the standpatters urged that the only right way was to refer the question to a commission...
...MARCH 3, 1883.—Tariff bill passed increasing some rates in Schedule K, and making reductions that did not help the consumer...
...On April 4, 1897, Secretary North writes to William Whitman: "I am the only person whom the committee allows in its meeting's...
...1882.—John L. Hayes, secretary of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers and president of the United States Tariff Commission addresses as secretary the Tariff Commission of which he is president, recommends a schedule of duties on woolens...
...The duty on worsted tops, manufactured by William Whitman, president of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers, is made equal to the duty of finished cloths...
...JUNE, 1908.—Agitation for a revision of the tariff...
...DR...
...Then the result was a revision of the tariff which gave the consumer no relief...
...Note the methods employed...
...that the best method of obtaining the required information is through the Eaton Tariff Commission...
...DECEMBER 8, 1910.—Banquet of the American Association of Woolen and Worsted Manufacturers at New York...
...There is really no such thing as a Tariff Board...
...I am one of such persons...
...OCTOBER 15, 1908.—Seven men from the National Wool Growers Association, and five men headed by William Whitman from the National Association of Wool Manufacturers, meet at the Palmer House in Chicago and adopt a resolution that: "In the coming revision of the tariff the present duties, both on wool and woolen goods be maintained without reduction...
...Laughter...
...You have only to look at the Payne-Aldrich law and at the President's recent veto of the wool bill to see the result...
...Has that occured now...
...JULY 25, 1897.—The Dingley bill with Schedule K practically unchanged becomes a law...
...Note the forces at work...
...I frankly say right here that this idea of settling things on cost alone by any mathematical or algebraical or geometric ratio or problem or theory, is all nonsense...
...The people must decide...
...Allowing the woolen schedule to remain where it is, is not a compliance with the terms of the platform as I interpret it...
...on wool goods...
...Paul: "I am here to plight the faith of the republican party in accordance with its platform, that the revision will be honest and exact, according to the measures stated in the platform...
...MAY 15, 1882.—A Tariff Commission authorized by act of Congress...
...You must not think I am joking about this thing, but there is a joke about it, and the joke is this: I have no powers whatsoever...
...The Republican national convention at Chicago pledges the party to revise the tariff to equal the difference between the foreign and domestic cost of production plus a profit...
...Particular attention is invited to the similarity of the conditions now and in 1882, nearly 30 years ago...
...The Tariff Board has no powers...
...JANUARY, 1880.—Agitation for a revision of the tariff...
...W. M. Wood, president of the American Woolen Company, said on this occasion: "If all the schedules of the tariff were as well balanced as Schedule K, it would be the most remarkable document, next to the Constitution of the United States, that the human mind has ever produced...
...Then the Tariff Commission fell under the influence of the special interests...
...SEPTEMBER 17, 1909.—President Taft at Winona, Minn., makes the following confession that it was impossible to revise Schedule K, because of the combine of wool growers and wool manufacturers: "Mr...
...That is all...
...1898.—The National Association of Wool Manufacturers presents $5,000 to S. N. D. North, its secretary, for services in connection with the revision of the tariff...
...The National Wool Growers Association opposes any change in Schedule K, but favors a Tariff Commission...
...JUNE 2, 1897.—William Whitman writes to Secretary North, who is attending the tariff sessions of the Finance Committee: "We all depend upon you to watch closely our interests...
Vol. 3 • September 1911 • No. 39
