Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1912 — STORY OF COTTON IS A THRILLER [ARTICLE]

STORY OF COTTON IS A THRILLER

A Narrative That Concerns the Welfare of Millions. SHOWS EVILS OF PROTECTION Whole People Robbed by a Tariff That Rich Manufacturer May Benefit— Robert Kenneth Mac Lea, Consulting Expert of the Tariff Board, Shows That the American People Are Mulcted of $88,000,000 a Year. New York. August. —Did you ever hear the story of cdtton? It is as thrilling as a narrative of adventure. It is as interesting as a , novel interesting particularly because it concerns the welfare of millions of people who wear cotton goods. It is interesting, because it is the dress of the poor, the universal substitute for wool and silk. It is interesting, furthermore, because it is true. The story of cotton is the story of a protective tariff for the benefit of rich manufacturers at the expense of the whole people who wear cotton goods. It has been reasonably calculated that because the cotton tariff is fixed by the Payne-Aldrich law the American people are paying $88,000,000 more every year, than they should pay for their cotton goods and that a saving of this amount could be accomplished by a reasonable reduction in the present duties. The story of cotton is told by an expert, Robert Kenneth Mac Lea, consulting expert of the tariff board, in a series of articles published in the New York World. Mr. Mac Lea’s views are the views of a lifelong Republican, a friend of the protective policy of the Republican party, but at the same time an opponent of tariff graft and favoritism. To this work Mr. Mac Lea has brought a varied experience, covering more than 20 years, in the manufacture and marketing of textiles. He first distinguished himself as an advocate of honest tariff legislation by finding the "jokers” of the Payne-Al-drich act, when the agents of a few New England mills were permitted to write their own rates to suit themselves. He was chairman of the tariff committee of the New York Dry Goods Merchants’ association and in this capacity conducted a campaign which attracted the attention of the newly created tariff board. To accept the position of consulting expert to the board he gave up the management of the domestic business of the New York firms of R. B. Mac Lea & Co. and Converse & Co. The story of cotton is a companion piece to the story of Schedule K—the woolen schedule—declared by President Taft to be infamous and indefensible.

The findings of the tariff board with regard to the woolen schedule were analyzed by Chairman Underwood of the ways and means committee and condemned as inaccurate, incomplete and worthless as an aid to legislation, hen the tariff board's findings on the cotton schedule were made public the XV orld decided to make its own investigation concerning it, and Mr. Mac Lea was selected for that purpose. The World had the findings of the board on manufactures of cotton dissected from the practical point of view of business, analyzed in their relation to the interest of the consumer and the facts translated into the language of the everyday man and woman.

One hundred cloth samples purchased in representative domestic markets were made the basis of the tariff board's findings on the cost of cotton cloth produced in this country. Mr. Mac Lea used the same cloth samples as concrete illustrations of the workings of the tariff and from these exposed the very generally perpetrated fraud of selling American made goods as imported, and showed why the excessive tariff permits and fosters this imposition. Recognizing that the tariff would be a vital issue of the campaign and that controversy would center about President Taffs "nonpartisan” tariff board and its work, the World undertook the investigation of cotton and sought answers to the following questions: Has the work of the tariff board justified the delay in reducing the tariff and giving relief from the high cost of living? What have the people gained in the three years under the Payne-Aldrich tariff IN RETURN FOR MORE THAN $5,000,000,000 TAKEN OUT OF THEIR POCKETS AND INTO THE POCKETS OF PROTECTED PRIVILEGE? How honestly, impartially and thoroughly did the “nonpartisan” tariff body undertake its task? Several months before the cotton report was completed Mr. Mac Lea declares that he discovered sinister influences in the tariff board's working to the favored few in the cotton mill industry. Such suppressed information as Mr. McLea considers to be of vital importance to the cotton industry and the public has been presented In the World. He has also explained what the mass of figures of the cotton report signifies and presented some of the most important of the conclusions to be drawn from the report, a work which the board saw fit not to attempt. The story of cotton, as written by Mr. Mac Lea and published in the World from time to time, form one of the most interesting and Important features of the present campaign