The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-06-02
HE WEST AWAKE
The Leather Manufacturers In
 Mass Meeting
TO SAVE THEIR INDUSTRY

Strong Statements to Congress Against the Duty on Hides-The President of . Cattle Company Shows That the
 Cattle Raisers Get No Benefit From the Duty-How Senators Can Be In-
 fiuenced.
 At the recent mass meeting in Chi- eago by the leather manufacturers to demand free hides, at which meeting there was represented more than 90 per cent of the entire output of leather goods in the great central west, very interesting letter by A. D. Browne, Asesident of the Hamilton-Browne Shoe Company of St. Louis. was pre- sented to the meeting, indorsed by unanimous vote and forwarded to Washington by telegraph
 This letter was addressed to Senator Deliver, urging him not to stand with Aldrich for duty on hides. and con tained the following straightforward statements:
 The Wsst and East United. tf hard in conjunction with the eastern manufacturers of boots and shoes for the abolition of the 15 per cent duty on hides, knowing, as we do, what the continuation of it means to the inde- pendent tanner if he cannot get relief from this burden before it is too late to save him.
 we Assume that your attitude is in- spired by feeling that the growers of cattle are benefited by the 15 per cent duty on hides. This is not the case. The writer of this is largely ir- terested both in the manufacture of shoes in Missouri and in the growing of cattle for beef purposes in Texas. The cattle company of which I am president sells annually from $60,0OO to $75,OOO worth of beeves and has done so for years I therefore speak not in any theoretical manner, but by the letter.
 Hides Merely By-preduct.
 "I know from actual experience that the animals that my cattle company breed and sell to the packers are val ned from the beef standpoint entirely and that the hide is merely a by product along with the horns, the bones, the hair and the hoofs. The writer as a manufacturer of shoes, one of the largest in the world, is there fore in a position to see the operation of this ubiquitous tariff on hides from both sides of the line of division, and say ito you in the light of the knowl- edge that I have acquired through actual experience that unless the pres ent 15 per cent duty on hides is abol- Ished 1t is but a short time until the independent tanner will be forced out of business or into clerkships with the packing-tanning interests as they are now constituted.
 AsDo not allow yourself to be per- suadeds that you are working in the Interest of the west when you lend your support to the proposition to place duty on hides. We of the west do not want this duty. It operates direct " against all of the best interests o1 the west and south and profits abso- lutely no one but the packers.
 ~T realize the full weight of the statements am making to you and hold myself responsible to you for the facts embodied in them. But do not give your vote for duty on hides upon the theory that you are protecting the west against the sast. This is not the ease.
 Urgent Demands Needed. Y One of the telegrams from the con vention to one of the senators read:
 "You must stand firm for free hides The country outside the trusts demand it.r
 Aggressive and persistent demands of this sort have proven to be the most effective way to influence senators The senators appear to think that the silence of the people in the face oi proposed additional plunder signifie. Indifference.