Evening journal., 1913-06-30
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Author Of the Wilson
Tariff Law in Strange
Company
By HOLLAND.

BY holland.
William Lyme Wilson, of West vir-
ginia, whose name viii pass into ira
dition as the framer of the Wilson
tariff bill, which became a law in
August 1894, was esteemed by Pres
ident Grover Cleveland as the most
loyable and in some respects the
most intellectual man with whom he
was brought into association after he
became President. 1t was often 1aid
of Mr. Wilson that he was one Of the
college presidents who had made
good when in public life.
It was, in fact, from his post as
president of the University of West
Virginia that he went to take his seat
in Congress, in 1882, and it was while
he was in that first service as a mem
Der of Congress that he came into in
innate personal and political reia-
tions with President Cleveland.
The presumption has always been
very strong that it was in great
measure due to Mr. Wilson that Pres
ident Cleveland formulated the tariff
principles which he set forth in the
now traditional message to Congress
in the last year of his first admins
traton
When Mr.. Cleveland went again TO
the presidency, Mr.. Wilson was still
a member of the lower house of Con.
gress, and as the Democratic party
was In a maiOrity,in the House when
President Cleveland entered upon his
second term, Mr.. Wilson was, in obe-
dience to the universal sentiment Of
his party, made chairman of the ways
and means committee, and as chair
man he drafted the Wilson tariff law.
subsequently, he became postmas-
ter-general. and after the retirement
of President Cleveland, in 1897, he
was named president of Washington
and Lee University
The Union League Club, Of New
York city, has always been recognized
as one Of the most powerful social
influences of the country in support
of the policy of protection. In that
club Mr. Wilson's tariff bill was Sc
verely criticized. both formally and in
private conversation of the members
He was about the last person, it was
thought. who would think Of accept
ing the Inequalities of the club or en-
tering its portals. although he had
most friendly personal relations with
some of the members.
Il was about a year after the VIII
son tariff bill became a law without
the signature of President Cleveland,
who objected seriously to what he
called the humiliation" of that bill
when il reached the federal Senate,
that a company of distinguished Re
publicans, four or five I'm all. mem
mers Of this club. went one evening
to enjoy q private dinner They had
scarcely entered the clubhouse when
they stopped short. not daring for a
moment to trust their eyes Yet their
eyes had not deceived them. There
stood William Lyme Wilson in the
height Of his prominence as the iram-
er Of the Wilson tariff law, about TO
become postmaster general, receiving
! the courteous greetings of distin-
guishd and able protectionists One.
! Of the distinguished Republicans i'm
mediately went 10 MT. Wilson and,
holding out both hands. said This
Is the right place for you. Mr. Chair
man. You stand in the citadel of
American protection. We shall ex-
pect TO hear in the course of a few
days that you have abandoned the
views that has distinguished you
in the past with respect to tho tariff
by making frank acknowledgment of
the error of your ways"
"Yes, I am here, said Mr. Wilson.
Il can scarcely realize that l am
within the portals of an institution
whose members have for thirty years
proclaimed the policy of protection.
He chatted for a few moments with
his protectionlst friends, skillfully
! evading or artfully returning their
banter and at last he said:
II am going to acknowledge myself
a disciple of one kind of protection
I am going to plead for projection
from you. so that it may not he known
generally that I have been enter
tanned in this place So much of pro
lection ] ask you, and to protection
of that kind ! am loyal"
He was fearful lest. If the fact be
came known that he had been vlsitinr
I'm the club. he might he subjected
TO ill-deserved criticism and that oil
a kind which he could not answer
The policy Of protection availed hin
in this case. Il was not until after
his death. in 1900 that his friend.
felt justified in saying that Wiliian
Lyme Wilson. the framer of the VII
son tariff law. had accepted the hos
pitality. purely social though it was
OF members Of the Union League
Club of Nav York city
Copyright, 1913, by f. J. Edwards
All Rights Reserved.)
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwards will tell o
The Only Surviving Member of q
Famous Committee"