I remember his words, "I can afford to fight the President and beat
him, but I can't afford to fight him and be beaten."
Governor Flower shared these views. There was little trouble in
getting our party to agree to the large reductions I proposed. The
Wilson-Gorman Tariff Bill was adopted. Meeting Senator Gorman later,
he explained that he had to give way on cotton ties to secure several
Southern Senators. Cotton ties had to be free. So tariff legislation
goes.
I was not sufficiently prominent in manufacturing to take part in
getting the tariff established immediately after the war, so it
happened that my part has always been to favor reduction of duties,
opposing extremes--the unreasonable protectionists who consider the
higher the duties the better and declaim against any reduction, and
the other extremists who denounce all duties and would adopt
unrestrained free trade.
We could now (1907) abolish all duties upon steel and iron without
injury, essential as these duties were at the beginning. Europe has
not much surplus production, so that should prices rise exorbitantly
here only a small amount could be drawn from there and this would
instantly raise prices in Europe, so that our home manufacturers could
not be seriously affected. Free trade would only tend to prevent
exorbitant prices here for a time when the demand was excessive.
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