The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1909-06-24
SENATE WARNING
STIRRED By COT
TON TARIFF.
Adopt ResoIutAon to Wage Campaign
Of PublAcity @Unti1 the whole
Public shall Understand In
Justice Forced Upon Them"

4
| New York Times.
A committee of the wholesale dry
goods merchants, representing 1o4
wholesale houses, dealing in cotton
goods, met in the rooms Of the Mer-
chants Association on Friday to take
action on the advances proposed In the
cotton cloth duties In the present Sem
ate tariff bill. The houses represented
were domestic converters. exporters and
importers.
Charges were made that deliberate
misstatements had been put forward
on the floor of the Senate, the intent
OF which was to conceal the real effect
of the bill r. K. MacLea, of the r.
B. MacLea Company, and +. B. Ship
ley, of Shipley & Biauvelt, who had
been in Washington representing the
cotton goods firms, made speeches In
which they said that in spite of the
most convincing proof that the pro-
posed bill would greatly increase the
duties on cotton cloths in common use
and would enable the formation of q
cotton goods combination. Senator Aid
rich was determined to force the pro-
posed advances through.
The effect OF the advances, they
added, would accrue mostly to the BEN
eft of a small number of Rhode Island
and Massachusetts cotton mills.
Other speeches along similar lines
were made by Mr.. Wright, of Wright
& Graham; Mr.. Hawthorne. OF Mills g.
Glib; Mr.. Sherman of Sherman & Sons
Company; P. J. Timps, of A. l.. Reid
& Co., and Charles C. Copeland, of C.
c. Copeland & Co.
Resolutions Adopted.
The committee. after a full discus
sion of the matter in hand, unani-
mously adopted these resolutions.
a
ed the discussion in the Senate of the
United States relative to the proposed
| cotton goods schedule of the Senate
tariff bill as reported from the COM
mittee on Finance. and have observed
with astonishment that the proposed
bill greatly increased the already un-
necessarily high duties on cotton
Whereas, We have noted with cha
grin that the Senate Committee on
Finance has been guilty of many grave
errors of fact in explaining the sched-
ule. to the Senate; and
Whereas, We cannot bring ourselves
to believe that these misstatements
have resulted from ignorance, because
of the attention of the members Of
the Committee on Finance has been
repeatedly and ably called to these
misstatements of fact by other United
States Senators, upon the floor OF the
Senate, in spite of which and in face
| of indisputable facts they have repeat
eddy denied that the proposed sched-
ule would increase the duties now in
! force; and
Whereas, It is plain to us that the
Senate Committee on Finance. for pur-
poses of its own, is determined to
force this schedule through Congress
in defiance of the obvious wishes of
the public and the dry goods trade;
and
whereas. We believe the increased
duties On any cotton goods are unnec-
essary and unjust. and will result in
higher prices and trade combinations,
and work grave injury to the dry goods
trade and the whole consuming public;
therefore be II
Plan Campaign OF Publicity.
Resolved, That should this schedule
be enacted into law, we pledge our
selves to take every possible means,
through our commercial travellers
through the cooperation Of the 49, 900
retail dry goods merchants Of Amer
lea, by advertisement and magazine
articles, to continuously agitate this
matter, until the whole public shall
understand IN detail the iniquities and
injustice forced upon them in the ev-
ery-day purchases by this unreason-
ably high barrier to competition: and
be 1t further
| Resolved, That the confusion result
ing from the mass OF conflicting state
ments relative to the cotton goods
schedules before the Senate of the
United States emphasizes the necessity
of creating a permanent tariff commits
sion, with semi judicial power to com
pei testimony and ascertain the facts
/. to the end that 1t may after two year,