Life — February 23, 1911 — page 16: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

This Man Makes Fifteen “LIFE: The Persecution of Schedule K HE wool manufacturers are making earnest objec- tion to being the tariff goat. Lire gets letters irom them. They insist that it is Schedule K that has made us the prospered people that they say we are, and that the gobble-yuns will surely get us if we lay a finger on Henry M. Steel, a wool manufacturer of Bristol, Pennsylvania, begins a reply to one of Miss Tarbell’s American Magazine anti-tariff pieces with the words : There are times in the world’s history when the populace have demanded a victim, excited thereto by the tirades of demagogues and public speakers, or other influences, seeking popularity or personal advantage. History contains many such instances. Christ_was a victim. Mare Antony excited the populace against Brutus. Savona- rola, also, who was burned alive, is another instance, and the course of ages presents many examples of such vindictive popular fury. They do indeed. St. Stephen was a victim of prejudice, and the renowned Captain Cook and Socrates, and possibly Dr. Cook and Baron Munchausen; and Schedule K may be a victim, but won't if it can help it. For our part we don’t want Schedule K to perish with- out benefit of clergy. If it is possible to submit it to a jury of experts who shall say how much of it is profitable to the country, including the consumer, we are for enforcing the verdict of that jury. What we are against is the mainte- nance of Schedule K on condition that California lemons shall get a raise of so much a pound, and lumber so much, and coal so much, and cottons so much, and that plate glass, win- dow glass, verdigris, Arkansas pearls, copperas, walking sticks, Panama hats, Australian meat and zinc shall get out of the backers of Schedule K just as much as Schedule K gets out of their backers. Possibly Schedule K is perfect. We don’t know any- thing about it except what we have read, and the friends of This One Gets Fifteen Dollars a Week Dollars a Second Schedule K insist that nothing that we read about it is true. We don’t intend to qualify as an expert in woolens. There are sheep in Central Park. They tell us the stuff that grows on the outside of them is wool. We suspect that to be what our Pennsylvania woolen mill friends call a “ false and sen- sational statement,” but let it go. We are not experts and will not deny it. President Taft declared that Schedule K needed downward revision. We apologize for President Taft. He is only a lawyer. Miss Tarbell says that Schedule K needs downward revision. We apologize for Miss Tarbell. She is a magazine writer and doubtless knows no more about wool than that it is a handy thing to pull over the eyes of readers, We apologize for ourselves. We know nothing about wool and would hardly recognize Schedule K if we met it in the street. But, dear Woolenmiller friends, there must be somebody besides you and Dexter North who knows about wool, and can figure out how much of Schedule K is endurable and how much is fit matter for remonstrance and abatement. We want to see Schedule K considered by a jury of honest and disinterested experts. We are tired of seeing it passed by a jury of whom one wants protection for California lemons and another protection for steel, and so on. Nothing that we have said would have or should have the slightest weight with a jury of experts, but it may help a little to get such a jury. You have worked for your schedule Behind closed door, swapping favor for favor, and getting everything you wanted. We want to sce your schedule laid on the operat- ing table and all its superfluous growths, if there are any, re- moved. You don't, do you? No, at the last tariff clinic you resisted the surgeons and got off without a scratch. You would feel a great deal better now if you had been less trium- phantly reluctant then. B.S. M. a NS vy iy ao 25 mur EAR TON, es Comfortably Rich Just Plain Rich RICH MEN comicbooks.com