well-matured, just, disinterested, constructive policy, that appealed to intelligent men regardless of party.

On March 6 President Taft issued a call for a special session of Congress to convene on March 15, on which day it assembled and reëlected Speaker Cannon, somewhat dampening the choice, however, with slight modifications of the House rules as a precursor of greater changes to follow in succeeding sessions. The next day Sereno E. Payne, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, introduced a tariff bill embodying the results of several months of anticipatory investigation, in which hearings and documentary evidence covering over 4,000 articles had been under advisement; and the battle-royal over the tariff measure of 1909 was on.

After a long debate the House passed the Payne bill on April 9, and sent it to the Senate which, on April 12, reported a substitute measure known as the Aldrich bill. The Payne bill placed iron ore, and petroleum and its products, on the free list; made reductions on iron and steel and their manufactures, and on chemicals, coal, hides and lumber; and increased the duties on many textiles, and on gloves and hosiery the two latter items to a startling extent. The Aldrich bill made even fewer concessions the rate on lumber, for instance, being 50 per cent. higher than in the House bill. So extreme was the character of this bill that the powerful

"Insur

group of Western Senators* (who dissented and made vigorous but unavailing protests against the provisions, finally voting negatively on the conference report) became known as Insurgents" or "Progressives." These, with the twenty gents" of the House whose activities. had thus far taken the direction of opposition to "rules," formed the nucleus of what afterwards came to be known as the Progressive movement, leading finally to the formation of a new party bearing that name.

In spite of strenuous opposition more, in fact, from the new element just referred to, in the Republican party itself, than from the Democrats - the measure passed the Senate on July 8, and, four days later, went to the conference committee. Indeed the whole tariff campaign of 1909 was not so much an occasion for partisan strife as a contest among diversified interests or between the "interests and public opinion. The ancient freetrade arguments were extinct; on the other hand, "the old idea of universal, all-around protection, every sin

*The seven Senators who, though Republicans, finally voted against the bill in its completed form were: Beveridge of Indiana; Bristow, of Kansas; Clapp and Nelson, of Minnesota, Cummins and Dolliver, of Iowa; and La Folette, of Wisconsin. While all thus protested against the "upward revision" which they believed characterized the bill, Senator Beveridge recorded, by his vote, a special protest against the emasculation of the tariff commission feature, by which it was intended that the rulings of the commission should be restricted to the "maximum and minimum clause.

gle product getting its just recompense of reward' in a perfectly equitable tariff, was admitted to have broken down. At last the forgotten consumer had been given a thought." This tendency toward greater consideration for public opinion was not as marked as could be desired and showed itself, among other ways, in the somewhat belated efforts of President Taft to secure concessions from members of the conference committee looking toward the lowering of some of the schedules. Such efforts on the President's part were made, and, to some extent, effectively, for he obtained lower rates on iron ore, hides, coal, oil and lumber. With this the struggle ended; the conference report was adopted on August 5, and the PayneAldrich bill became the law of the land.*

The tariff schedules in which the greatest changes occurred were: metals and their manufactures; cotton manufactures; silk and silk manufactures; chemicals, oils and paint; lumber; paper pulp and paper; hides and leather. In the metal schedules generally lower duties prevailed, as was true of lumber and leather, with petroleum, hides, iron ore and ground wood pulp on the free list; while on silks and many of the chemicals and all of the better grades of cotton

This act is officially designated as "An Act to Provide Revenue, Equalize Duties and Encourage the Industries of the United States, and for Other Purposes."

279

higher duties were imposed or the old Dingley rates were retained. The "maximum and minimum" clause is a novel device for attempting to secure commercial concessions from other countries. The minimum rates are those of the current bill; the maximum rates add 25 per cent. to every duty in the dutiable list, and are applicable to the products of all foreign countries with which there are no commercial agreements. A tariff board was created to assist the President in administering the "maximum and minimum" provisions, but with no authority to constitute itself a commission for collating general data, as the President had requested and Senator Beveridge had battled for.* And lastly, in order to meet present and expected deficits (on June 30 the deficit was $89,000,000) and to provide additional revenues, a corporation tax clause was enacted, providing that all corporations should pay a tax of one per cent. on all incomes in excess of $5,000.

When the President signed the bill he accompanied it with an apologetic statement to the effect that the bill was "not a complete compliance with the promises the promises made, strictly interpreted," but he claimed it to be the result of a sincere effort on the part of the Republican party to make a

In September the President appointed as the members constituting the tariff board Prof. Henry C. Emery, of Yale University, James B. Reynolds, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and Alvin H. Sanders, of Chicago.