that the resources of this organization are greater, its membership more representative, and its unity more complete than ever before.

In the ranks of this Association we have been and are comrades and friends, recognizing always our mutual interdependence and that the interests of one are the interests of all, and we may well be gratified with the success which has crowned our united labors. In 1860, before our Association was formed, the total capital invested in the wool manufacture in the United States was only $38,814,000 and the total product of the industry was only $73,454,000. In 1905 the total capital had risen to $370,861,000, and is now unquestionably more than $400,000,000-an increase of more than ten-fold-while the total product of American woolen mills is also upwards of $400,000,000 a year. We have seen the United States rise from a position of humiliating dependence on foreign nations for the greater part of the good woolen clothing of its people, to a position where nine-tenths of all the woolen fabrics bought and used in this country are made in American mills. We live in a wonderful age, in a land of stupendous achievement, but when all conditions, all difficulties are considered, I doubt whether any field of industrial endeavor has witnessed a triumph more significant, more decisive than our own.

Within the past forty years the wool manufacture in America has

undergone a radical evolution. Many of the smaller, older mills have disappeared, and a marked tendency has developed toward large establishments under corporate management and toward concentration of modern establishments in a relatively few advantageous localities. This

evolution is characteristic of our times. This readjustment of conditions has involved much difficulty, but out of it the industry as a whole has come stronger, more self-reliant, better fit to cope with modern conditions.

All through my service the result which has been sought has invariably been the welfare of the whole industry. Every measure of legislation I have advocated has been in the common interest. You have recognized this in a very gratifying way by the unity with which you have sustained me. The best good of all alike has been our object, and with no other purpose could such an organization as ours have existed unbroken for so many years.

Even now, with the great strength of our industry vindicating the principles of our conduct, we are not to be free from ignorant or malicious. attack. We never shall be free so long as alien rivals cherish hope of breaking our defences and seizing with their cheap labor the richest market in the world. But I can see no immediate danger of serious attack upon our industry. A long life has taught me an abiding faith in the honesty of purpose and final wisdom of judgment of my fellowmen. They may occasionally heed blind leaders, but in the long run they hold to the right road. Never was there a sounder truth than that famous saying of the great American to whom protectionism and patriotism were synonymous, that while some of the people may be fooled all of the time and all of the people some of the time, you can never fool all of the people all of the time. Before any grave harm can be done I believe that the American people will rebuke the demagogues

who in the late election led them astray, and will overwhelmingly proclaim their adherence to the economic faith of Lincoln and McKinley.

I have served you as President longer by far than any of my honored predecessors. I have reached an age when I need more and more, and perhaps deserve, a rest after long years of work in behalf of the industry. My own business, the interests

of my associates, the desires of my family, all make their imperative demand, and, therefore, in ample season for you and the other members of the Association to consult and fix upon your choice as my successor, I announce, for the reasons already stated, that I cannot be a candidate for reelection at the annual meeting, February 1.

Respectfully yours,

William Whitman.

Lawrence, Nov. 3, 1910. To the Editor of the Protectionist:

The newspapers report Mr. Charles S. Hamlin as saying that a suit of clothes that cost $8.00 now costs $14.00 owing to the present tariff.

As the only changes in the woolen schedule have been the reductions, I wrote Mr. Hamlin that I was a life long Republican and if he could show me the truth of his statement, I would vote the Democratic ticket. I have never received a reply. Can it be that after a long and honorable career Mr. Hamlin's contact with the Boston Democratic machine has turned him into a political demagogue?

Yours respectfully,

Daniel W. McCarthy.

friend of mine by a representative of a large clothing manufacturing concern. I have written that friend and asked him to obtain a statement from this gentleman which I will, with pleasure, forward to you as soon as received.

Very truly yours,

C. S. Hamlin.

Boston, Nov. 8, 1910.

Mr. Daniel W. McCarthy.

My dear Mr. McCarthy: I have just received a letter from New York confirming my statement as to the increased price of woolen suits of clothes. If you will be good enough to drop into my office the next time you are in town, I shall be glad to see you and go over the matter with you.

Very truly yours,

C. S. Hamlin.

Lawrence, Nov. 12, 1910.

Mr. Charles S. Hamlin,

Dear Sir: I have received your two notes of the 5th and 8th inst.

I do not see my way clear to go to Boston and call on you as suggested in your letter of the 8th inst., but would be pleased to receive the statement which you say confirms that part of your speech regarding the increased price of men's clothes owing to the present tariff law.

I am greatly interested in this matter and would be pleased to receive this confirmatory explanation which you said you would, with pleasure, forward to me.

Yours respectfully,

Daniel W. McCarthy.

Boston, Nov. 15, 1910.

Mr. Daniel W. McCarthy.

My dear Sir: I have your note of November 12th. I have looked over my speeches and I find that the reference you have in mind was contained in a speech delivered by me at Greenfield, Mass., and published in the Boston Evening Transcript of Sept. 22, 1910. The quotation as published in the Transcript is as follows: "He will have to pay fourteen dollars for a woolen suit which could have been bought for eight dollars only a few years ago, thanks in large measure to the protective taxes in the Dingley and Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act."

You will notice that I did not attribute the increased cost of woolens to the Payne-Aldrich Act alone, for, as you state, the Payne-Aldrich Act did not increase the duties on imported woolen goods. The framers, however, of this Act declined to reduce the unjust, extortionate taxes levied by the Dingley Act on imported woolen goods and I attributed the increased price of the suit of clothes in question in large measure to the taxes imposed by the Dingley

Act and retained by the PayneAldrich Act.

It is unnecessary for me to state that the increased price probably was caused in a measure by other considerations, especially by the increased amount of gold in the country, but I believe that, as I have said, in large measure this increase is due to the Dingley Act retained untouched as to woolen duties in the Payne-Aldrich Act. In fact, if you will go back and consider prices before the Dingley Act, I think you will probably find a greater difference. Permit me to add that in my opinion the woolen and worsted manufacturers were as prosperous just before the Dingley Act as they are today. The adversity which afflicted them between the years 1890 and 1895 being shared by practically all industries in the United States, being the result of the commercial panic over the whole world, perhaps more severely felt in the United States than in other countries for reasons which I have not time to enter into here.

The gentleman who gave my friend the information as to prices is Mr. W. H. Howze, a salesman now in the employ of Messrs. Fechheimer, Fischel & Co.

Very truly yours.

C. S. Hamlin.

Lawrence, Nov. 23, 1910. Mr. Charles S. Hamlin, Boston.

Dear Sir: In reply to your note of the 15th inst. would say that your office boy could have told you that the duty under the present tariff on men's clothes, compared to the duties under the Wilson bill, would not have raised the price of imported goods $3.00, instead of the $6.00 you claim.

You base your statement on what a friend told you, and he, in turn, bases it on what a salesman for some clothing manufacturer told him.

There is really no excuse for your being led to make such an incorrect statement. The official statistics are open to you, and I would advise you, in the future, to study them and have. some reliable authority for your

statements.

I delve in the government reports after ten hours per day spent in a mill. If you study these documents you will avoid making statements that you cannot back up.

You know Bill Nye said there were two things about a fighting rooster that he liked,-one was its crow, the other was the spur it carried around to back up its crow.

Bill could have said the same thing about the Republican party. The Boston Transcript may be the official reporter of your speeches, but it is hardly necessary to say that the rank and file of the Democratic are not careful readers of its columns, however worthy that journal may be.

Mr. Wood, of the American Woolen Co., and other manufacturers say their profit on the cloth in a suit of clothes is 20 to 38 cents.

Is that unjust and extortionate as you term it? One week's labor in the United States will buy a suit of clothes. It requires two weeks' labor in England!

You say the woolen and worsted manufacturers were as prosperous just before the Dingley Act as they are today. I wonder who told you that? I was paymaster for a wool scouring concern at that time and familiar with the condition of the wool market and the wool manufacturing of New England.

The late Moses T. Stevens, of

North Andover, was a candidate of the Democratic party for Congress. In a speech at the Lawrence Opera House he said: "I am the largest individual woolen manufacturer in the United States and will guarantee if a Democratic Congress is elected there will be no reduction in wages.

What was the result? He was elected, helped to pass the Wilson bill, and he was one of the first to reduce wages! Lawrence mills were shut down from 12 to 20 weeks at a

stretch.

The Democratic paper, The Lawrence Tribune, advised the operatives, in the summer season, to pick blueberries and add to their income.

The pastor of the largest church. in the city said that in his visits he met with such conditions of poverty and distress that he would not have been surprised if the head of some households committed suicide!

Those are the conditions brought about by your Wilson bill. Prosperous times indeed! Talk about Dr. Cook describing conditions at the North Pole! You are in Boston, Mr. Hamlin. I would advise you to call at the office of the Home Market Club, secure some of their literature and you will wake up.

Your speech about a $6 increase in the price of men's clothes owing to the present tariff, it seems to me would form a story, a proper heading for which would be, "How a Tariff Lie is Originated, Circulated and, -Suffocated."

Yours respectfully,

Daniel W. McCarthy.

Speaker Cannon touches the heart of the whole controversy when he says that those who are demanding the substitution of Free Trade for Protection are the reactionaries.-Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

President Taft's annual message to Congress is a very lengthy document, and not many people have probably read it in its entirety. He begins with a discussion of foreign affairs, and finds our relations with all countries generally satisfactory. The open door and the preservation of the integrity of China are the leading points of our diplomacy in the Far East. The President reviews the operations of the maximumminimum tariff law and believes that it has been a powerful factor in securing favorable treatment of our commerce with foreign nations. Attention is called to the reciprocity negotiations with Canada, but no prediction is made as to the outcome. The President advocates the ship subsidy scheme, and asks for a federal law for the better protection of aliens. A further extension of the Civil Service rules to the diplomatic and consular service is favored. Estimates for government expenses inake the total $630,494,013.12$52,964,887.36 less than appropriated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1911, and $16,883,153.44 less than the estimates submitted to Congress for the same year. The estimated receipts are $680,000,000. The President says no further reduction can be made without embarrassment. His views on the tariff will not be considered as very sound by most good protectionists; but he will recommend no tariff legislation at this session, and there is some comfort in that. Attention is called to the corporation excise tax, which the President says has been easily collected and generally promptly paid. Among other features of the mes

sage are a discussion of the Panama Canal project, which the President says will be completed by Jan. 1, 1915, and within the estimated cost oi $375,000,000. He advises that the canal tolls should be fixed to encourage the world's trade rather than to insure a full return on the investment. He would prevent by law interstate railroads from controlling ships engaged in trade through the canal.

In the matter of administering justice the President makes some important suggestions. The crying need, he says, is the cheapening of the cost of litigation, not only in the Federal, but in State courts. He asks Congress to empower the Supreme Court to improve judicial procedure through the medium of "the rules of the court," as has been done in England. The President thinks that no man should have as a matter of right a review of his case by the Supreme Court, which should devote itself to expounding the law, especially the fundamental law-the Constitution-thus furnishing precedents for inferior courts. In other words, no case not involving a constitutional question should go to the Supreme Court.

The President calls attention to the savings in the post-office department $11,500,000 being saved out of the $17,500,000 appropriated for the estimated deficiency. It is proposed to raise the rates on secondclass matter, and it is suggested that the advertising parts of the magazines be charged a different rate from the reading matter. One proposition is to classify the first, second and third-class postmasters, doing away with the necessity of senatorial consent for appointments. This