Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1892 — At Whose Expense? [ARTICLE]

At Whose Expense?

Mr. William Whitman, President of the so-called “National Association of Wool Manufacturers,” has taken offense at the expose of his trick to make the country believe that the woolen manufacturers of the United States are opposed to free wool. He declares that the “Wool Consumers’ Association” and the people who demand free wool and lower duties on woolens are “engaged in a crusade at the expense of other people.” Commenting on this statement on the part of Mr. Whitman, the American 'Wool Reporter asks Mr. Whitman who paid the profit Of 50 per cent, made by his mill in 1891. Says the Reporter: President Whitman of .the “National Association of Wool Manufacturers” did wrong in penning the following sen-, fences in the letter which he gave to the press Jan. 29 in reply to recent criticisms of his “Memorial:” “To attempt radical tariff legislation now is the maneuvering of politicians for partisan purposes, who are thinking least of all es the welfare and prosperity of the wool manufacturer. “The persons most eager for free wool are those who have nothing at stake, and who are always ready to engage in

crusades for tariff reform at the expense of other people.” Under Mr. Whitman’s administration the large manufacturers have been dropping out of the “National Association" one by one, until there are but few remaining to dispute Mr. Whitman's supremacy. The “Memorial” upon whose defense he is now engaged, was not prepared even by the little meeting of the “National Association” at which it was first presented. It was brought In,' cut and dried, by President Whitman and the Secretary of the association at the opening of the meeting. And it can not be true that legislation proposed by a committee, of which Hon. Moses T. Stevens is a member, and indorsed by such leading manufacturers as Arthur T. Lyman, Jesse Metcalf, Galen C. Moses, Chas. M. Beach, Wm. B. Weedea and T. Quincy Browne, nearly every one of whom has a larger actual ownership in woolen manufacturing than Mr. Whitman—it can not be true, we repeat, that the attempt to secure such legislation as is proposed by these men is “the maneuvering of politicians for partisan purposes. ” Hon. Moses T. Stevens, of the Ways and Means Committee, is the largest individual woolen manufacturer in the United States. T. Quincy Browne is treasurer of the largest corporation in the United States making carded wool goods. Jesse Metcalf is the principal owner of very large mills making combed wool goods or worsteds. Galen C. Moses is treasurer and principal owner of the largest woolen mills in the State of Maine. Arthur T. Lyman is treasurer of one of the largest carpet mills in the United States and a director, and heavily interested in other manufacturing establishments. Mr. Wm. B, Weeden is one of the foremost woolen and worsted manufacturers in Rhode Island, and Mr. Chas. M. Beach is equally concerned in manufacturing in Connecticut. All these men have a large portion of their fortunes invested in woolen manufacturing. On the other hand, Mr. Wm. Whitman is a comparatively small owner in the mills of which he is treasurer. That was a singularly ill-cohsidered expression, also, in which Mr. Whitman refers to the vast army of consumers of wool goods as “engaging in crusades for tariff reform at the expense of other people.” At the expense of whom, pray! Evidently at the expense of the Arlington mills, in whose especial and particular interest the McKinley bill! was framed to enable that corporation to earn 50 per cent, upon its capital stock in 1891, “at the expense of other people."