THE ROLL CALL
THE Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES A Side-light on Schedule K HERE IS a sidelight on the wool schedule—Schedule K— of the Payne-Aldrich tariff law. It is interesting, important, and very...
...The statement by Senator La Follette has reference to an investigation which I made in February and March, 1909...
...Some idea of the labor this involved is obtained from the fact that my investigation covered about 80,000,000 pounds of wool, and that the 60,000,000 pounds sold at London included over 15,000 separate lots...
...Between these two extremes we find every possible gradation...
...It illuminates two facts you should know: first, the kind of "protection" afforded by Schedule K; and second, the kind of "argument" put forth in all solemnity by the interested defenders of this notorious and "indefensible" schedule...
...8, 1911...
...His plan is that of Mr...
...Dale or any other living man makes such a statement, it is not true...
...On the same day Senator Smoot made this statement to the Senate: "I want to call the attention of the Senator (Mr...
...The Senator who wrote those lines voted for Schedule K as it is now found on the statute book...
...12, 1911...
...President, top waste is carded wool with all the substance other than wool in it taken out...
...Dear Sir:— IN GOING OVER the Senate debate on the Underwood-La-X Follette woolen bill I find the following passage in the speech by Senator Smoot of Utah on August 15, just before the vote on the conference report: "Mr...
...The administration, through the new Secretary of the Interior, Mr...
...It was Senator Smoot's duty to inform himself regarding the wool tariff before he undertook to discuss it, but unfortunately he habitually relies on wild assertions and reckless denials to establish his position...
...These conditions in 1909 caused the ruinous agitation of which the end is not yet in sight...
...Dale is a tariff expert...
...What is No...
...230% Lowest price unwashed 2c...
...Dale's reply, in the following letter, should be studied with care...
...The Senator from Wisconsin (Mr...
...ll 1/2d 11c...
...Dear Sir:— YOURS of the 8th inst...
...Now that the accuracy of your figures has been so directly disputed, it seems to me you should make a statement that will place the matter beyond question...
...SENATOR LA FOLLETTE would have the government build a railroad to the coal fields and adopt a leasing system that would prevent monopolization of lands...
...It is interesting, important, and very significant...
...These high ad valorem equivalents of the duties on wool and byproducts have been frequently cited during the past two years as showing the inequalities of the present tariff...
...On the next day, June 10, Senator Smoot undertook to give the Senate some instruction in yarn numbering: "I know what No...
...23% 304a grs 1ks MRRP 2 1d 11c...
...I am writing to ask if you will kindly give me the particulars regarding the estimate to which Senator La Follette referred, and give your authority for the statement that the Dingley (Payne) duty on wool rises as high as 550 per cent...
...We may laugh at Senator Smoot's discussion of wool and wool manufacturing in the Senate, but really it is no laughing matter, for he has been taken seriously there and placed in charge of measures vitally affecting the wool manufacturing industry, as is shown by the following extract from a letter written April 23, 1909, by a Republican Senator to a constituent who had appealed for a fair revision of Schedule K: "I have been doing and am doing everything in my power to secure changes in the woolen schedule, so far without success...
...Here they are for the 60,-000,000 pounds sold at London, as reported in the wool circular of Stables, Starker & Co,: Lot Description Bales Price Dingley Duty 360 grs lam EO 3 1s...
...4 yarn...
...You, in common with everyone having a practical knowledge of wool manufacturing, know that top waste is combed stock...
...52% Lowest price scpured 8c...
...125% When this investigation was made I anticipated that sooner or later some one who knew nothing about the facts would dispute the accuracy of my work, and so I took the precaution to keep a record of the lots of wool showing the highest and lowest ad valorem equivalents...
...Smoot...
...that noils are commonly sold in the un-carbonized state...
...I call attention to those misstatements to illustrate the ignorance of wool manufacturing displayed by a man who now disputes the accuracy of my calculation of the real Dingley duty on wool from the report of the London sales, and who on April 22, 1909, made this statement to the Senate: "I have been a woolen manufacturer now for nearly a quarter of a century...
...52% 239 scd D 1 4d 33c...
...7 1/2d 33c...
...733% Average of washed 17c...
...at hand...
...Dolliver) to the fact that no importer would ever import a noil unless it had been carbonized...
...It is one pound of wool drawn 4 times 360 yards...
...Louisville Courier Journal...
...It is one pound of wool drawn 360 yards 60 times...
...550% Average of unwashed 18.6c...
...Being desirous of giving to the Ways and Means Committee the results of my inquiry before the Payne bill was reported to the House, I worked every night for weeks, often into the small hours of the morning...
...To correct this error I conceived the idea of calculating the ad valorem equivalents of the Dingley duties on wool actually sold at the last sales at London, Liverpool, and in Australia...
...22% 459 wsh xbd 1 1 1/2 22c...
...The rate on raw wool is 11 cents per pound, and in order to carry a rate of duty of 550 per cent, the cost could not exceed 2 cents per pound...
...They simply use them as three-set carded, first breaker, second breaker and finisher...
...La Follette) said in his speech: " 'An estimate made by Samuel S. Dale, editor of the Textile World Record, based upon actual prices at which wool is sold in the London auction, which fixes the world prices of wool, shows that the duty on raw wool is as high as 550 per cent.' "I ask the Senator from Wisconsin where on earth can he buy raw wool at 2 cents a pound...
...Eliza Ann...
...I have labored with him in season and out of season...
...The report of my findings was mailed to the Ways and Means Committee on March 15, 1909, and here are the figures for the 60,000,000 pounds of wool sold at London: Price per lb...
...These are about the lowest prices at which wool is sold, but such prices prevail at nearly every London wool auction...
...W. L. Hixon, President, Manketa Mills Company, Mankota, Minn...
...Boston, Mass., Sept...
...Two years later, August 15, 1911, the Senator gave another instalment of his instruction in yarn numbering: "What is No...
...1 1/8d 22c...
...Roosevelt and the real conservationists...
...On June 9, 1909, the Senate received this misinformation from the Senator from Utah: "I merely want to state to the Senator from Iowa (Mr...
...I will give you a few examples: On June 8,1909, the Senator gave the Senate this definition of top waste: "Mr...
...The imports of wool into the United States are confined to the lightest shirking lots, on which the ad valorem equivalent of the specific duty is low, all the other lots being excluded by the high ad valorem equivalents...
...412% Average of scoured 26.4c...
...59% Highest price of washed 99c...
...He apparently thought he had done his full duty by appealing to Senator Smoot who represented party solidarity, but who was himself densely ignorant of the very schedule on which he posed as an expert...
...Read this letter: Mankota Mills Company, Mankota, Minn., Sept...
...Kansas City Star...
...Here we find the source of all our tariff troubles: the neglect of our law makers to investigate for themselves and vote according to conviction based on knowledge...
...Dolliver) that the carpet makers do not use combs for making their yarns...
...He is editor of the Textile World Record, and an authority on matters relating to the textile industry...
...I undertook this work after attending a tariff hearing before the Committee on Ways and Means on February 10, 1909, when Congressman Nicholas Longwoeth, of Ohio, in his cross-examination of a witness, made the amazing mistake of assuming that the duty on the wool imported represented the real Dingley duty on wool, thus ignoring the bulk of the foreign wool clip, which is excluded from the United States by prohibitory duties...
...I'se de manager ob a laundry...
...412% The rate of 550 per cent, is obtained under the Payne (Dingley) Schedule K when unwashed wool sells for 2 cents, washed wool for 4 cents, or scoured wool for 6 cents a pound...
...Thanking you in anticipation for a reply, I am Yours very truly, Mankota Mills Company, W. L. Hixon, President...
...Other ideas will be advanced...
...Dingley Duty Highest price unwashed 47c...
...the defiance of public sentiment by the Sixty-first Congress...
...Senator Smoot, of Utah, is a woolen manufacturer himself, and for that reason the committee have put this matter (the revision of Schedule K) on him as a sub-committee...
...Yours very truly, Samuel S. Dale * * * MOSE—MANAGER "What do you do for a living, Mose...
...What's the name of this laundry...
...733% 437 scd clo Shaw 18 2s...
...Those who have followed his discussion of the tariff are familiar with this failing...
...1 yarn means that a pound of wool is drawn out 640 yards...
...that large quantities of worsted yarn are used in the manufacture of carpets...
...Fisher, will have suggestions to make...
...He is as obstinate as a mountain...
...1 yarn means...
...Is it true...
...22% Lowest price of washed 3c...
...and that yarn is not numbered on a basis of 640 yards, nor of 360 yards per pound...
...He resigned from the Tariff Board last summer, for reasons which he set forth in a lengthy letter to the Board, which letter the Board has to date refused to make public...
...This is the burden that is inseparable from a specific duty on a commodity varying in condition and value as widely as wool does...
...550% 803 wsh very sup lam 9 4s...
...I do not care whether Mr...
...Samuel S. Dale, Boston, Mass...
...the blind, unreasoning obedience to party discipline...
...The Payne rates not only run up as high as 550 per cent on the low priced wools, but they run as low as 22 per cent, on the high-priced wools...
...129% Highest price scoured 63c...
Vol. 3 • October 1911 • No. 41
