The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-11-16


 dles, and other leather goods. We do not produce enough to make our own boots and shoes. About 25 per cent of all leather made In this country Is made from imported hides and skins. We now export more than SS,00000O worth of shoes a year, but if leather be admitted free of dhty, not only will shoes be cheaper, but the export business much Increased.
 Pay Highest Wages on Earth.
 "In the boot and shoe business we pay the highest wages on earth, but we have the cheapest labor, when efficiency and product are considered. Neither we man. ufacturers nor our employees are paid to any considerable extent by the duty of 20 per cent on boots and shoes"
 Governor Douglas said that the inter- ests they represent Twill consent to a reasonable reduction of this duty willing ly in order to obtain free hides and Sheap leather"
 While the duty on hides bears heavily upon our industry in every part of the i country now that Germany, Canada and Mexico are discriminating against our shoes, and arc levying or threatening to levy much higher duties upon them, it will be even more difficult for us to hold our share of this industry. handicapped as we are. Unless the cost of mills can be reduced, shoes must soon sell at much higher prices"
 August Healy, representing the Hide and Leather association of New York city. said he appeared In behalf of an association composed of more than 10 firms with an aggregate capital of over s2O0, GOO engaged in tanning and deal- ing in hides and leather
 In an address, he re-echoed the senti ments expressed by Governor Douglas.
 The address of the President follows:
 President Makes Address.
 "Gentlemen--I thank you for having taken the trouble to come here; 1 am in- deed glad to see you, not only in your personal capacities, but as representa- tives of one of the great business in- dustries of the country
 Your petition and suggestions, l need hardly say shall have my most careful consideration. The great interests you represent are exceedingly important; their welfare Is of concern to the whole i country: it deserves and will surely re- ceive the painstaking attention of both the President and congress. It Is. of course, unnecessary to point out that no 1 change in the tariff can be made, keeping l in view only the interests or desires of one state or one locality; the law must first take tangible shape in the lower | House of congress, and must therefore roughly correspond to the sentiments of the citizens of the several states as ex- pressed through their representatives 1 therein.
 Where the interests and therefore the | sentiments, based on these interests, are divers as Is almost invariably the case | in reference to the details of all tariff matters, the law must normally, al- though not invariably, represent com promise and mutual concession; and no one outside of Congress can definitely foretell the exact shape such a compro- mise will ultimately take. It Is my duty to state that before receiving this com mittee, I had received letter from the governor -elect from Massachusetts, Gen. Curtis Childs, Jr. In this letter evidently first he has written in what may be called the official character with which he is now vested by the suffragists of his fellow citizens. he urges in the strongest terms an immediate revision of the tar if, and especially removing the duty from hides.
 Hands Package to Whitney.
 "I should like to discuss the whole situation with you freely and informally But unfortunately my experience with a committee from your state, Governor Douglas. which called on me in connec- ton with tariff matters about year ago. forbids my doing so. Such a free, full and necessarily informal and tenta- tive discussion Is obviously of benefit If only to those joining in 1t. who recognize as a matter of honorable obligation the duty of not attempting to give from mem ory what must necessarily be an imper- feet and garbled version of what takes place. When the President of the United States definitely and formally expresses himself for publication on a question of great national importance, what he says should not be left to the imperfection of memory often colored by interest, but should be put beyond the possibility of misunderstanding by careful preparation and committal to writing. To try to re- peat from memory what the President has said when year has elapsed Is to show | entire indifference to accuracy, as well as to proprety. Yet. this is precisely what MT Whitney did in the Massachusetts campaign that has Just closed. He pre- tended to repeat remarks made to a committee a year before the notes of the conversation having been taken at the tlme Not only did he misquote the words used but by suppressing almost all that I said and by giving what he purported | to give entirely apart from its context, he absolutely, and as I am constrained to believe, deliberately, misrepresented l what had occurred; and he knew well that 1t was impossible for the President